LAURACE^. 



217 



death. It is used in tlic kitchen to fiiivor dessert sauces, and as a spice and 

 an aromatic addition to cordials, and was at one time a favorite perfume. 



The Hindu physicians pulverize it, and use it for a poultice for nervous 

 headache, applying it ahove the eyiit^. 



The odor or flavor, as well as the medicinal propertie.>^, depend upon the 

 essential oil, of which the nuts yield about six per cent. Tiie mace also yields 

 an oil in somewhat larger (juantities, which is very similar to that of the nut. 



The mace also contains a fixed oil, which is obtained by crushing and 

 pressure ; used in pomades, soaps, and aromatic plasters. 



Propiigiition. — It is raised from seed, and in its third year is ingrafted with 

 branches from pistillate trees ; and in the orchards a few staminate trees are 

 planted to fertilize the others. 



Ori>ek XLVII. LAURACE-aJ. 



Flowers perfect or declinous, regular, small, white or yellow, fra- 

 grant; perianth simple; calyx with united sepals, 6-Iobefl, herbaceous 

 or petaloid, fleNhy, usually inferior, rotate or urn-shaped; stamens, at 

 the base or throat of calyx about 9 in number, 3 inner ones extrorse ; 

 filaments free or rarely monadelphous ; anthers opening by uplifted 

 valves ; ovary free, 1-celled ; style simple, stout, short ; stigma obtuse, 

 discoid, 2-3-lobed. Fruit, a berry, globose or ellipsoid. Leaves 

 alternate, near each other, sometimes nearly opposite or whorled, ex- 

 stipulate. Aromatic trees or shrubs. 



Xo. of principal genera, about 34 ; species, 900 ; mostly tropical. 



CINNAMOMUM. B. Flowers perfect or polygamous, receptacle funnel- 

 form ; perianth in 6 parts, with 12 stamens, 9 fertile and 3 sterile. 

 Fruit, a berry, attached to the base of the re- 

 ceptacle ; pericarp thin. Flowers in panicles, 

 axillary or terminal, simple or in 3- to many- 

 flowered cymes. Tree. 



1 . C. camphora, Nees. (Camphor Tree.) Stem 30 

 to 80 feet high, 1 to 2 feet in diameter ; branches 

 spreading horizontally, forming a symmetrical head ; 

 bark green, and on the young branches shining. Leaf- 

 buds conical, glabrous, protected by stiff .scales ; leaves 

 numerous, alternate, 3 to 6 inches long, on s^lender 

 petioles, slender at each end, acuminate, entire, smooth, 

 bright green, shining above and glaucous underneath, 

 thick, stiff, and evergreen. Flowers small, on slender, 

 spreading pedicels, forming small, spreading cymes. 

 2 to 3 in a long-stalked, axillary panicle, shorter than 

 the leaves ; perianth canipanulato, smooth outside. 

 very hairy within, greenish-white ; ovary free, 1-cellod. 

 1-ovuled ; style i«leiidor, as long as the stamens ; stigma 

 small ; seed egg-shaped, as large as a medium-sized 



pea, purplish, surrounded at the base by the enlarged tube of the persistent 

 perianth ; seed siditary. Flowers in July. This tree sometimes attains a 

 very large diameter ; it is reported that one in Japan has reached a circum- 



ClNNAMOMUM CAMPHORA 



(C.iinphor-tree). 



