108 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



evil, and I believe, diminishing the inflammation and irritability of the blad- 

 der itself." He recommends it to be given in decoction, to which some tinc- 

 ture of hyoscyamus may be added. 



It is given in powder, in doses of from half a drachm to a drachm, but . 

 the infusion or decoction is a far more eligible mode of administration. An 

 extract and a tincture have also been prepared from it. 



The leaves of the C. mauritiana are used in India as being very cooling, 

 and the root, in diseases of the bowels, in combination with aromatics ; and 

 those of the C. lomentosa are employed in Venezuela as a poultice to matu- 

 rate abscesses. The Brazilians use the roots of the C. glaberrima as a reme- 

 dy for snake-bites, and Royle states that in India, an intoxicating liquor is 

 distilled from the roots of the C. obtecta ; that of C. glabra is extremely 

 acrid. (Rozb.) 



Besides these, other plants of the order are medicinal, thus, Pereiria me- 

 dica (Lindl.), a climbing shrub found in Ceylon, furnishes a large bitter 

 root, which is considered by the Cingalese to be an excellent stomachic ; it 

 is used in infusion (Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. iii. 809). The root of Clypea bur- 

 manni is employed in Malabar in fevers, bowel diseases, and haemorrhoids. 

 As before stated, one kind of Pareira bravais the product of Abuta rufescens ; 

 this is similar in its effects to the genuine. 



Order 5.— MYRISTICACE^.— Lindley. 



Leaves alternate, exstipulate, not dotted, entire, petiolate, coriaceous. Flowers in axil- 

 lary or terminal racemes or panicles ; very small, often each with one short, cucullate 

 bract. Calyx coriaceous, usually tomentose outside ; trifid or rarely quadrifid, with a 

 valvatc aestivation. Unisexual ; male flowers with the filaments separate or united in a 

 cylinder. Anthers 3-12 or more, extrorse, with a longitudinal dehiscence ; connate or 

 distinct. Female ; calyx deciduous ; carpels solitary or many, with a single erect ana- 

 . tropal ovule ; style very short ; stigma somewhat lobed. Fruit baccate. Albumen ru- 

 minate, between fatty and fleshy. Embryo small, cotyledons diverging. Radicle infe- 

 rior. 



A small order of tropical trees often furnishing a red juice ; most common 

 to Asia. The bark abounds in an acrid, viscid juice, and the rind of the 

 fruit is caustic. The fruit of most of the species of Myristica are aromatic, 

 and yield a fatty oil on expression, which is also the case with that of 

 Virola. The red juice of some of them is used as a substitute for dragon's 

 blood, and that afforded by the mace of Pyrrhosa tingens is used in Amboy- 

 na in union with lime, to stain the teeth. (Blume.) 



Much difference of opinion exists respecting the station this order should 

 occupy ; in general it is placed near the Lauracese, on account of its apeta- 

 lous flowers, but it differs from them in many important particulars. From 

 its alliance with the Anonacese through Hyalostemma and Bocagea, in its 

 trimerous flowers, ruminate albumen, and arillate seed, it may be placed near 

 that order with more propriety. I have, however, followed Lindley in ar- 

 ranging it in the same group as the Menispermacece, on account of its uni- 

 sexual flowers, more especially as it agrees with the Monimiacece in its di- 

 verging cotyledons, and is connected with Menispermacese through Anorao- 

 spermum, which has a ruminated albumen. 



Myristica. — Linn. 

 Flowers dioecious. Calyx urceolate, three-toothed. Male, stamens united into a co- 

 lumnar tube ; anthers 6-10, cohering. Female, ovary simple, style none, stigma two-lobed. 

 Pericarp fleshy, two-valved, 1 -seeded. Seed enclosed in a coriaceous, many-cleft arillus. 



This genus, of about eight species, was established by Linnaeus on the im- 



