602 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



a decoction with a solution of salt, in gout, diseases of the liver, and as a 

 vermifuge; the flowers are laxative, (Ainslie, ii. 41.) In Cicca disticha, 

 the leaves are diaphoretic, the seeds cathartic, the frutf subacid, cooling and 

 edible, and the root a violent purgative. 



Tribe 7. Bvxem. — Ovules in pairs. Stamens inserted beneath the sessile rudiment of 

 the ovary. 



The leaves of Buccus sempervirens, or Common Box, are bitter and nau- 

 seous, sudorific and purgative. The wood was, at one time, much used 

 as a substitute for Guaiacum, and a "fetid oil obtained from it, enjoyed con- 

 siderable reputation in a variety of diseases. The wood, as is well known, 

 is much prized by wood-engravers for their blocks. The root of Fluggcea 

 lencopyrus is esteemed astringent, but its fruit is edible, (Ainslie, ii. 245.) 



Class II.— Gymnogens or Gymnospermous Plants. 



Stems increasing by concentric layers, and with a structure as in the Exogens, except 

 that the vessels of their wood have large apparent perforations or disks. Embryo with 

 two opposite or several whorled cotyledons. Ovules naked, or not enclosed in an ovary ; 

 the carpel being absent or replaced by a flat scale. 



Order 102.— CYCADACE^.— Lindley. 



Flowers dioecious, with no trace of calyx or corolla. Sterile : collected in terminal cones, 

 consisting of scales, having their lower side covered with 1-celled anthers, which have a 

 longitudinal dehiscence. Pollen hyaline, angular, in masses. Fertile : consisting of 

 naked ovules, beneath peltate scales, or at the base of flat ones, or on the margins of con- 

 tracted leaves. Seeds hard or spongy-coated nuts, with 1 or more embryos suspended by 

 a long" funiculus in a central cavity of large fleshy or mealy albumen ; cotyledons un- 

 equal, more or less connate ; radicle superior. 



Trees or shrubs somewhat resembling the Palms in aspect. The stems 

 are simple and cylindrical, and marked with lozenge-shaped scars, from the 

 broad, woody leaf-stalks. Internally consisting of a mass of pith, traversed 

 by bundles of woody fibre, and rings of ligneous matter, variously disposed. 

 The leaves are pinnate, hard and woody, perennial, usually circinnate when 

 young; leaflets with delicate simple veins, and are placed obliquely on their 

 petiole, from which they finally disarticulate. 



They are natives of the tropical and temperate regions of Asia and Ame- 

 rica, but not found in equinoctial Africa, though occurring at the Cape of 

 Good Hope and Madagascar. At a former period they must have existed in 

 Europe and North America, as is attested by the abundance of their fossil 

 remains in the coal measures of these countries. They all abound in a nau- 

 seous, mucilaginous juice, and many of them also in much fecula, which forms 

 articles of food to the inhabitants of their native countries. 



A kind of Sago, known as Japan Sago, is procured from the cellular sub- 

 stance filling the interior of the stem of Cycas circinalis. This species 

 grows in the Moluccas, Japan, &c. The pith is said to be very nourishing, 

 and is held in great esteem in Japan, and it is contrary to the laws of that 

 country to export any of the plants. The fruits are covered by a sweetish, 

 but very astringent pulp, the nuts are bitter and emetic in their natural state ; 

 but are edible when cooked. The stem exudes a whitish, transparent gum, 

 resembling tragacanth. Captain D'Urville states that the terminal shoot is poi- 



