538 LOGANIACEiE. 



Fruit a 2-celled capsule, with placentas finally becoming loose ; or a 

 nuculanium with 1- or 2-seeded nucules ; or baccate, with seeds im- 

 mersed in a pulp. Seeds usually peltate, sometimes winged ; albumen 

 fleshy or cartilaginous ; embryo small ; radicle turned towards the 

 hUum, or parallel with it. — Shrubs, herbs, or trees, with opposite 

 entire leaves, and usually with stipules, which adhere to the foot- 

 stalks, or form interpetiolary sheaths. They inhabit chiefly tropical 

 and warm climates, in Asia, Africa, and America. The order is 

 divided into three sub-orders : — 1. Loganiese, aestivation of corolla 

 convolute, fruit a bilocular capsule or nuculanium, seeds peltate, 

 sometimes winged. 2. Strychnese, aestivation of corolla valvate, fruit 

 a 2-3-celled berry or capsule, seeds peltate, embryo rather large. 3. 

 Spigelieae, aestivation of corolla valvate, fruit a didymous capsule, 

 seeds apterous, embryo small, cotyledons inconspicuous. There are 

 about 32 known genera, and nearly 190 species. Examples — Logania, 

 Potalia, Strychnos, Spigelia. 



The plants of this order are highly poisonous. They act energeti- 

 cally on the spinal marrow, causing tetanic spasms, or they produce 

 narcotic symptoms by acting on the brain. Many are very bitter and 

 a few are tonic. Strychnos Nux-Vcmica, the Poison-nut or Koochla, 

 a tree which abounds on the Malabar and Ooromandel coasts, sup- 

 plies the substance called Nux-Vomica. It yields fruit of the size 

 and appearance of an orange, with a coriaceous reddish integument, 

 enclosing a mucilaginous pulp. The seeds, which are embedded in 

 the pulp, are the ofEicinal part of the plant. They are circular and 

 flat, umbilioated on one surface, and are thickly covered with brown 

 sUky hairs. All parts of the plant, especially the seeds and bark, 

 are intensely bitter. The seeds contain two alkaloids. Strychnia and 

 Brucia, to which they owe their poisonous properties. These alkaloids 

 occur in combination with Igasuric or Strychnic acid. Nux-Vomica 

 and Strychnia, in poisonous doses, cause death by producing tetanic 

 spasms in the muscles of respiration. The bark of the Nux-Vomica 

 tree is the false Angostura bark, and the wood is often called Snake- 

 wood. Strychnia exists in other species of Strychnos, as S. Ignatia 

 (Ignatia ama/ra), St. Ignatius's Bean, 8. colubrina, S. lagustrina (Snake- 

 wood), and S. TieuU, the source of a Java poison called Upas Tieutd 

 It is also said to exist in the Woorali or Ourari poison of Guiana, 

 which some consider to be the produce of S. toxifera or guianensis. 

 The effects of this last-mentioned poison, however, do not seem to 

 agree with those of Strychnia. Strychnia stimulates the spinal cord 

 without affecting the function of the brain. It causes convulsive 

 twitches of the muscles of the arms and legs, and hence it has been 

 recommended in cases of chronic palsy, unconnected with any signs of 

 local irritation or determination of blood to the head. Its administrar 

 tion requires great caution, as f of a grain have been known to produce 



