364 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



too strong, will impair digestion instead of promoting it, and in many persons 

 it acts as a powerful stimulant, and if its use be persevered in, occasions dis- 

 ease. 



Chiococca. — Linn, 



Tube of the calyx ovate; limb 5-toothed, persistent. Corolla infundibuliform, 5-lobed. 

 Stamens 5, attached to the base of corolla, included, with linear anthers. Style single, with 

 the apex subclavate or sub-bilobate. Berry small, roundish, compressed, crowned with 

 the persistent calyx ; 2-celled, 2-seeded. Seeds pendulous, compressed, roundish. 



A small genus of shrubby, somewhat climbing plants, principally found in 

 tropical America, with opposite, ovate, or oblong-acute, smooth leaves, fur- 

 nished with stipules. The flowers are in opposite, axillary racemes. The 

 general medicinal properties are emetic, purgative, and diuretic. 



C. racemosa, Linn. — Leaves oval, acuminate. Stipules short, acuminate. Racemes 

 many-flowered ; corolla much longer than the calyx. Filaments hairy. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 246 ; Sloan, Jam. t. 188, f. 3; Richard, Elem. Mat. Med. 

 ii. 331 ; Torrey and Gray, Fl. ii. 31., 



Common Names. — Cahinca ; Cainca ; Snowberry. 



Description. — A sub-scandent shrub, somewhat resembling the Jasmine, with oppo- 

 site branches. Leaves oval, acuminate, or sometimes obtuse, on a short petiole ; they are 

 entire, very smooth, and furnished with two short, acuminate stipules, which are con- 

 nate at their edges. The flowers are in axillary racemes, generally shorter than the 

 leaves ; they are usually secund ; at first they are white and inodorous, and afterwards 

 yellow and fragrant. The fruit is a small, white, compressed berry. There are several 

 varieties, differing in the form of the leaves, and more or less scandent character of the 

 shrub. 



It is a native of the West Indies, South America, and also of the sea-coast 

 of Florida. The officinal portion is the root, which, as found in commerce, 

 is of a reddish-brown colour, and is in cylindrical pieces of various sizes and 

 lengths, somewhat bent and contorted, and wrinkled or striated longitudinally, 

 and also presenting small, irregular asperities. The root is composed of a 

 thin, brown epidermis, covering a thin, brittle, brownish cortex, with an in- 

 ternal ligneous portion, which forms the larger portion of it. The virtues of 

 the root are principally found in the cortical part. This has a disagreeable 

 taste, with some bitterness and astringency, and an unpleasant odour. It 

 has been analyzed by several chemists. Pelletier and Caventou found in it 

 a crystallizable substance, to which the bitterness is owing; a green, fatty 

 matter of a disagreeable smell; a yellow colouring matter, and a coloured, 

 viscid substance. The first of these appears to be the active principle, and 

 has received the name of Cahincic acid. 



Medical Properties. — Cahinca is a tonic, diuretic, purgative, and emetic, 

 according to the mode in which it is administered. When it is given in mo- 

 derate doses, it increases the force of the circulation, and stimulates the 

 bowels and kidneys, though in a gentle manner, and if the patient be kept 

 warm, it will also act as a diaphoretic. In large doses it operates powerfully 

 as an emetic and cathartic. It has long been in use in Brazil as a remedy 

 for the bites of poisonous snakes, though another species is much preferred. 

 Brown {Jamaica), speaks of it as resembling Seneka, and very useful in 

 rheumatism, and Ricord Madianna (Trait, de Mancell., 19), also states that 

 it is beneficial in that disease, as well as syphilis, &c. It was first brought 

 into notice by Mr. Langsdorff, the Russian Consul at Rio Janeiro, about the 



