244 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



cordate vexillum ; two lanceolate alae, and a double carina. The stamens are alternately 

 longer, united at base, with roundish, yellow anthers. The ovary is oblong pubescent, 

 with a curved, filiform style and simple stigma. The fruit is a compressed, orbicular pod, 

 with a leaf-like edge, covered at the side with white bristles, and containing a single 

 reniform seed. 



This tree is a native of Africa, and was first noticed by the celebrated Park, 

 who found it on the Gambia, and sent specimens to Europe. It was, however, 

 first described by Lamarck in the Encyclopedic Methodique. The fullest 

 account of it has been given by Messrs. Gray and Dochard [Travels in 

 Western Africa) ; they state, that it is known to the inhabitants by the name 

 of Kari, that it loses its leaves in November, and flowers in the succeeding 

 month, and also that it is the tree from which the African kino is obtained. 



The history of this astringent gum-resin is deserving of notice. In 1757 

 Dr. Fothergill first described an astringent gum which he supposed to be de- 

 rived from the vicinity of the Gambia, in 1774 it was recognised in the Edin- 

 burgh Pharmacopoeia as kino, and in 1787 by that of London, but in a few 

 years, several substances under this name, but from various countries, and 

 differing from each other in external appearance, and in astringency, appeared 

 in commerce, and at last superseded the original article so completely, that 

 it is now seldom met with. The origin of most of these is unknown, but it has 

 been ascertained that the Botany Bay kind is the product of the Eucalyptus 

 resinifera ; the Jamaica of the Coccoloba uvifera ; the East Indian of the 

 Nauclea gambir, of the Buteafrondosa, but principally of a tree which Pereira 

 supposes may be the Pterocarpus marsupium. This is confirmed by Royle, 

 who shows incontestably that most of the kino from the Malabar coast is de- 

 rived from this source. He describes the plant as follows : 



2. Marsupium, Roxburgh. — Leaves pinnate, leaflets 5 — 7, alternate, elliptic, emarginate. 

 Legume with the under three-fourths orbicular, the upper side straight. 



Roxburgh, Corom. PI. ii. t. 116; Fl. Ind. iii. p. 234; De Candolle, Prod. 

 \\. 418 ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 256. 



Description. — A lofty tree, with the outer layer of bark brown, and the inner red, 



fibrous and astrin- 

 gent; leaves pinnate; 

 Fig. 126. leaflets alternate 5 — 7, 



elliptic, emarginate, 

 of a dark-green co- 

 lour, and shining 

 above ; panicles ter- 

 minal, petals yellow- 

 ish-white, long claw- 

 ed, waved or crested 

 on the margins ; sta- 

 mens ten, united at 

 base, but divided into 

 two parcels above ; 

 ovary 2-celled. Le- 

 gume on a long pe- 

 tiole, the lower edge 

 curved, the upper 

 straight ; the whole 

 surrounded with a 

 waved membranous 

 wing, which is rugose 

 and woody in the 

 centre ; generally one 

 P. marsupium. but sometimes 2-cell- 



ed. Seed single, reni- 

 form. 



