580 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Hist. i. 131), and Piso (Bras. 72), that it is astringent and useful in diseases 

 of the bowels. A decoction of the leaves of Musanga cecrojrioides is said to 

 be a powerful em menagogue (Tucker, JSxpedit.); the seeds are edible. Phy- 

 tocrene gigantea, a large tree of Birmah, is stated by Wallich to discharge a 

 large quantity of a pure and wholesome fluid when an incision is made in 

 the trunk. The fruit of Pourouma bicolor is sub-acid and mucilaginous, 

 and, according to Martius, worthy of cultivation. Castilloa elastica affords 

 caoutchouc, and the beautiful wood known as Snake-wood, is the product of 

 Piratinera guianensis. 



One of the most virulent plants yet discovered is the Antiaris toxicariaov 

 Upas tree of Java, and although the accounts of its fatal influence have been 

 much exaggerated, it has been fully established that it is extremely poisonous. 

 Mr. Leschenault states that a man he persuaded to ascend one of the trees, 

 suffered severely, not only with an eruption and swelling of the body, but 

 also from vertigo, nausea and vomiting; other persons experience no inconveni- 

 ence from the exhalations. It is stated by Lindley, that the fatal effects of 

 the juice when administered internally, are owing to the presence of Strych- 

 nia, but MM. Pelletier and Caventou (Ann. Chim. xxvi. 44) were unable to 

 detect this alkaloid in it. Cloth manufactured from the tough fibres of its 

 bark, will excite the most excessive itching and irritation in those that wear 

 shirts made of it. Blume is of opinion that this poison acts principally on 

 the vascular system, but from experiments made with it in Europe, it evidently 

 operates powerfully on the cerebro-spinal apparatus. Notwithstanding its 

 virulence, it has been employed medicinally, but even in very minute doses 

 is apt to produce the most excessive vomiting and purging. 



' From another species of Antiaris,, sacks are made in Western India, by 

 detaching the bark in an unbroken piece from a section of a branch or trunk, 

 by beating the latter with clubs until the fibre is loosened, and then stripping 

 it off entire. 



Group XXXIX. — Amentales. 



Order 96.— ALTINGIACE.E.— Lindley. 



Flowers monoecious, in rounded aments or heads. Females on longer peduncles than 

 the males, which are surrounded by a deciduous, 4-leaved involucre. Male : anthers nu- 

 merous, oblong, nearly sessile, destitute of calyx, but having a few minute scales. Fe- 

 male :. ovaries 2-celled, collected into a globe, each surrounded by a few scales. Styles 

 two, long. Ovules indefinite, attached to the dissepiment ; amphitropal. Fruit a kind 

 of strobile, formed of the indurated capsules and scales. Capsules 2-celled, 2-beaked, 

 opening between the beaks, several-seeded (or 1-seeded by abortion). Seeds compressed, 

 membranous, winged, peltate, with a little fleshy albumen. Embryo inverted. Radicle 

 short, superior. 



This small order contains but one genus, Liquidambar, the species of 

 which are tall trees yielding a balsam, and having alternate, simple or lobed 

 leaves, with glandular serratures at the edge, and furnished with deciduous 

 stipules. They are natives of the warmer parts of Asia, the Levant, and 

 North America, in the latter of which one species is found as high north as 

 42° latitude. It was at one time supposed that these trees furnished the Sty- 

 rax of commerce, but this idea is now shown to be erroneous ; they, however, 

 afford a liquid balsam, of a somewhat analogous character, and which appears 

 to have been much more in use formerly than at present. This balsam, 



