102 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



practice in urethritis, leucorrhoea, dysuria, and all inflam- 

 matory conditions of the urinary passages. In the Colonial 

 and Indian Exhibition, 1886, a spirit was retailed at the re- 

 freshment bars which was distilled from the roots of the 

 Kava plant. It was sold under the name of Kava 

 Schnapps or Yangona. 



Plantago ovata. — This plant is perhaps better known 

 under the name of P. Ispaghula, by which it was described 

 by Roxburgh. It is an annual belonging to the order 

 Plantaginacefe, and found wild in North-Western India, and 

 also cultivated for the sake of its seeds, which are oval and 

 boat-shaped, of a greyish-pink colour, and extremely muci- 

 laginous; by placing them in water they will yield a thick 

 mucilage, which is highly valued in India for its demulcent 

 properties, under the name of Spogel or Ispaghul seeds. 

 They were first introduced to notice in this country in 1870, 

 and have since been used in coughs, colds, diarrhoea, etc., 

 as well as for feeding poultry. 



Podophyllum peltatum. — A perennial belonging to the 

 natural order Berberidacese, and found growing in moist 

 shady situations all over the eastern side of the North 

 American continent from Hudson's Bay to New Orleans 

 and Florida. The properties of the root or rhizome have 

 long been known to the North American Indians, and it 

 has been used as a purgative in American Pharmacy since 

 1820, but it was not till 1864 that it was admitted to the 

 British Pharmacopoeia. The active principle of the root, 

 under the name of Podophyllin, is now manufactured on a 

 very large scale both in America and England. 



Rhaphidopliora vitiensis. — This plant, which belongs to 

 the natural order Aroides, is supposed to furnish the 

 principal component part of the celebrated medicine Tonga. 

 This medicine was introduced to notice in 1879 as a new 

 drug from Fiji, having a high therapeutic value as a remedy 

 for neuralgia. The history of its introduction is singular, 



