144 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Fig. 80. 



ing ; the pul py mass is 

 then worked well with 

 the hands and dried. 

 When of good quality- 

 it is dry, easily bro- 

 ken, of an unpleasant 

 smell, and of a red- 

 dish colour. It is used 

 in dyeing, but its tints 

 are very fugitive, and 

 are destroyed by acids 

 and alkalies. It is 

 also added to several 

 preparations of cho- 

 colate and is constant- 

 ly employed to colour 

 cheese, and in Java it 

 forms the basis of a 

 drink. 



It was at one time 

 used in medicine as a 

 stomachic and mild 

 purgative, and is still 

 in some estimation in 

 South America as a 

 cordial, astringent and 

 febrifugal remedy in 

 dysentery. Bomare 

 observes, but without 

 citing any authority 

 for the assertion, that 

 it is an antidote to the 

 poison of the manioc. 

 It has been analyzed 

 by John (Ann. de 

 Chim. lxxxviii. 99) 

 and by Bousingault 

 (Ibid, xxviii. 440). In corroboration of these statements, there is the 

 authority of Dr. Macfadyen, who says that the seeds are a gentle purgative, 

 and have been used with advantage in dysentery, and also that it is thought 

 to be an antidote to the poison cassava. (Flor. Jam. 42.) 



1. Flower. 2. Petal. 



B. orellana. 

 3. Pistil. 4. Section of seed. 



5. Fruit. 



Order lft.— PASSIFLORACEiE.— LindUij. 



Sepals mostly 5, sometimes irregular, eombined into a tube of variable length, the 

 sides and throat being lined with filamentous or annular processes. Petals 5 arising 

 from the throat of the calyx, sometimes wanting, or irregular. Stamens 5, monadel- 

 phous, rarely indefinite, and adhering to the stalk of the ovary ; anthers extrorse, linear, 

 2-celled, with a longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary on a long pedicel, superior 1-celled ; 

 styles 3, arising from the same point, clavate ; stigmas dilated; ovules indefinite, ana- 

 tropal, parietal. Fruit stalked, 1-cclled, with 3 parietal polyspermous placentae, some- 

 times 3-valved. Seeds attached in several rows to the placentae, with a brittle sculptured 

 testa, surrounded by a pulpy aril ; embryo straight, in the midst of a fleshy thin albu- 

 men ; cotyledons foliaceous, flat. 



