90 List of the Plants of Chile, 



center are seen some black bands, the undulating veins o£ whicli 

 produce a beautiful effect. The leaves, the flowers and the bark 

 are aromatic. It is employed as a remedy for headache proceeding 

 from cold. From the inside of the bark are made some very effi- 

 cacious sternutatory powders. A decoction of its leaves employed 

 as a warm lotion or in drink is reputed to be antisiphylitic. Admin- 

 istered in the form of baths it strengthens the nerves and is thus 

 employed in paralytic affections. Fumigations from this plant are 

 used in convulsions and spasmodic diseases. 



Laurus Peumo. Miers. The peumo does not belong to the genus 

 Peumus of Persoon, as we shall see. Molina has confounded in his 

 Peumus, trees which are entirely different, the holda ^ud peumo : 

 the first is the P.fragrans, Pers., but the P. rubra, alba and mam- 

 mosa, Molina, are only varieties of the species of which we speak. 

 This tree, frequent in the plains and on the hills, and of an elegant 

 foliage, reaches the h.eight of from sixteen to twenty yards, and two 

 in thickness. The wood is very durable in water : its bark is much 

 used in tanning and gives to the skins an orange tint. The people 

 of the country are very fond of its fruit and consume large quantities 

 of it. Its taste, ungrateful and terebinthinous at first, becomes agree- 

 able by infusion in warm water. Anti-hydropic virtues are attribu- 

 ted to it. The nut yields an oil which should be extracted, as it 

 would be advantageously used. Another species of Lawns is that 

 which is called lingue, line or litchi. Molina has called it i. caus- 

 tica. Sprengel places it in the genus Persea, Gaertin; Miers names 

 it L. Linguy. We are of the opinion of the last, and we are per- 

 suaded that the L. caiistica differs from our species. This tree 

 grows in the woods on the mountains ; its trunk is usually from twen- 

 ty four to thirty yards high, and two in in circumference. The wood 

 is solid and spotted. It is employed in house-building and for axle- 

 trees, basins, troughs, and even for the masts of small vessels. It is 

 worked with facility and rots in water. Its bark is excellent for 

 currying and tinges red, leather and drumsticks or ramrods (baque- 

 tas ?) The fruit, of the size of a vetch, and of a blackish color, is 

 grateful to birds, but the flesh of those that eat it acquires a bitter 

 taste. It is injurious to small cattle and horses. Some persons are 

 fond of its infusion. It is strange that no one has attempted to intro- 

 duce into the gardens of Cliile, the sacred tree of poets, the laurel of 

 Kurope. {L. nobilis. L.) Beside its merit as a sightly tree, it would 

 serve to awaken the Muses of the Andes, to whom it would yield its 

 branches to weave civic crowns ! 



