620 



HISTOBY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



having seven or eight pair of jagged lobes, and 

 terminated by an odd one. They are hairy on 

 their under side, of a yellowish green colour, and 

 placed alternately on the branches. These are 

 surmounted by loose panicles of flowers, which 

 are of a greenish white colour, each panicle being 

 composed of several spikes of flowers, sitting 

 close to the foot-stalks. 



The shoots of this tree or shrub are cut down 

 every year close to the root, and after being dried 

 are reduced to powder by means of a mill. An 

 infusion of this yields a fawn colour bordering 

 on green. It is a substantive colour, but may 

 be altered and improved by the judicious appli- 

 cation of mordants. The principal use, how- 

 ever, of sumach in dyeing, is the production of 

 black, by means of the large quantity of gallic 

 acid which it afi^ords. 



The bark is used instead of that of the oak for 

 tanning leather, and it is said that the Turkey 

 leather is thus prepared. The seeds are used in 

 Aleppo to provoke an appetite before meals. 

 Both leaves and seeds are astringent and tonic. 



The different kinds of sumach known in com- 

 merce are the Sicily, Malaga, Trieste, and Ver- 

 ona ; the first of these being of the best quality. 

 Its import duty is Is. per cwt.; and its price 

 averages from 12s. to 15s. per cwt. The average 

 annual importation for the five preceding years 

 is 100,101 cwts. 



Henna or Egyptian Privet ( Lawsdnia iner- 

 mis). Tliis plant is a native of Egypt, and is 

 of easy culture and propagation. It was known 

 to the ancients under the name of Ciprus. It is 

 also indigenous to India, Palestine, and Persia. 

 It blossoms from May to August. The leaves 

 are the only parts used. These are gathered, and 

 after being hastily dried and bruised to a pasty 

 consistence, are made to yield, by boiling, the 

 rich colouring matter in which they abound. 

 Sir William Jones mentions that in the island 

 of Hensuin or Johanna, he met with this shrub, 

 not then in blossom. Having heard of the fame 

 of the plant, he, in imitation of the heroes of 

 oriental poesy, had his nails stained with a 

 preparation, and thus obtained sufficient evi- 

 dence of the durability of the colour ; his fingers 

 remaining discoloured until the substance of 

 the nails changed by growth. This plant is 

 much esteemed in the East and in Africa for 

 this strange purpose ; and the toilet of the 

 Asiatic or African beauty is deemed incomplete, 

 unless her charms are heightened by this potent 

 auxiliary, the dark tints of which, to European 

 eyes, impart no very becoming lustre. The use 

 of henna is not, however, wholly confined to 

 staining the nails and skin, as it is employed in 

 the East for dyeing ordinary stuffs. It pro- 

 duces a reddish brown substantive dye. There 

 is evidence that the ancient Egyptians made a 

 similar application of this colouring matter, as 



in the envelopes of their mummies the henna 

 dye is still observable. 



CHAP. XLVIII. 



MEDICINAL PLANTS — PERUVIAN BARK, QUASSIA, 

 GENTIAN, &C. 



From the earliest records of the healing art, it 

 appears that medicinal substances were obtained 

 from the vegetable kingdom. Indeed, almost all 

 medicines were for a long time exclusively pro- 

 cured from plants, or "simples," as they were 

 called, in contradistinction to those drugs which 

 were afterwards compounded from the mineral 

 or animal kingdoms. 



The medical virtues of plants reside in almost 

 aU their different parts, sometimes in the roofs, 

 at others in the stem and leaves ; sometimes they 

 are exclusively confined to the bark, or to the 

 flowers, seeds, or pericarps. These medicinal 

 substances, too, assume various forms, as gums, 

 resins, bitter extract, bland oils, or volatile aro- 

 matic essences. Several plants yielding many of 

 these substances we have already described, as 

 those yielding spices, essential oils, &c. In treat- 

 ing of the remainder of those plants most 

 esteemed in medicine, we shall group them 

 chiefly according to the effects which the sub- 

 stances they yield produce on the human body. 



Peruvian Bark (cinchona). Natural family, 

 contortice ; pentandria, monogynia, of Linnajus. 

 There are several species of this genus, of which 

 the following are supposed to yield the medicinal 

 bark used in this country : 



Cinchona conclaminea,with. ovo-lanceolate leaves 

 and hairy coroUa, which yields the pale bark or 

 cascarilla flna of UritEisinga. 



C. lancifolia, with lanceolate leaves, grows in 

 an elevated temperate climate. Known in Santa 

 Fe as the quina naranjada, rare. 



C. cordifoUa, with sub-cordate or oval leaves. 



C. oblongifolia, with oblong acuminated leaves, 

 common near Maraquita. 



Common or Officinal Bark (c. officinalis). This 

 tree attains a considerable height, sending off 

 large branches covered with rough brown bark. 

 The leaves vary from an ovate to an elliptical 

 shape ; the larger approaching more to the for- 

 mer, and the smaller to the latter figure. They 

 are all entire, nerved, smooth on the upper side, 

 on the under covered with dense hairs, and stand 

 in pairs upon rather short foot-stalks. The 

 flowers are produced in panicles, and stand upon 

 slender pedicles. The calyxes small, beU shaped, 

 and divided on the margin into five minute seg- 

 ments. The corolla is funnel-shaped, consisting 

 of a long cylindrical tube divided at the limbs 

 into five segments, which are ovate, oblong, cer- 



