348 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Desc ription. — A small 

 Fig. 164. tree with a rough, dark- 



brown bark, much fissured. 

 The branches are oppo- 

 site, spreading, with a red- 

 dish bark. Leaves oppo- 

 site, petiolate, ovate, entire, 

 acuminated, somewhat 

 glaucous beneath. Flowers 

 terminal, appearing when 

 the leaves are just deve- 

 loped, with a large four- 

 leaved involucre, of a white 

 or pinkish colour ; the apex 

 of e^ch is notched, callous, 

 and of a purplish colour. 

 The flowers are aggregated 

 in the centre of the involu- 

 cre, small, and of a green- 

 ish-yellow colour. The ca- 

 lyx is campanulate, with 

 four obtuse teeth. The co- 

 rolla has four oblong, ob- 

 tuse petals. The stamens 

 are also four, erect, with 

 oblong anthers. Style short, 

 erect, bearing an obtuse 

 stigma. Fruit ovate, crim- 

 son or scarlet drupes, each 

 containing a two-celled and 

 two-seeded nut. 



It is found in most 

 parts of the United 

 c.florida. States, especially in 



swampy and moist 

 woods ; it flowers from February to June, according to climate, but always 

 about the time for planting Indian corn, as was well known to the aborigines. 

 The wood is hard, heavy, and compact, susceptible of a high polish. The 

 sap is white and the heart chocolate colour. It is used for a variety of pur- 

 poses, where strength and hardness are required, and might be applied to most of 

 the purposes for which the Box is employed. The young branches, deprived 

 of the bark, and the ends chewed or pounded, so as to separate the fibres, are 

 often used for cleaning the teeth, instead of a brush. 



The officinal portion is the bark, especially of the root ; this, as found in the 

 shops, is in pieces of various sizes, mope or less rolled, sometimes with a fawn- 

 coloured epidermis, and sometimes deprived of it ; of a reddish-gray colour, 

 very bitter, and affording, when pulverized, a grayish powder, tinged with 

 red. The odour is slight, and the taste astringent and slightly aromatic. A 

 chemical investigation was made of this bark some years since by Dr. Walker 

 (Inaug. Diss.), but it was very imperfect ; it has since been examined by Mr. 

 J. Cockburn, who found it to contain Tannin, Gallic acid, Resin, a Bitter ex- 

 tractive, a Crystalline substance, &c. (Am. Jour. Phar. i. 1114.) In the 

 interval between these examinations, it was announced that a peculiar prin- 

 ciple, to which the name of cornine was given, had been obtained from the 

 bark, but the process was not published, nor has it been detected by subse- 

 quent experimenters. It was exhibited by Dr. S. G. Morton, in some cases 

 of intermittent fever, with much success ; he describes it as a grayish-white 



