S M I L A C E ;E. 



655 



Fig. 307. 



Cordyline ternrinalis. 



cemosus and adscendens are said by Royle to be employed medicinally in 

 Northern India, and that those of the latter, which are conical and semi-trans- 

 parent are considered a good substitute for salep. 

 The flowers of Cordyline reflexa are said to be 

 emmenagogue, and C. lerminalis, or Ti plant of 

 the South Sea Islands, is a very important article 

 of diet. t By baking its large, woody roots, they 

 become sweet and nutritious ; when they are 

 bruised and mixed with water, fermentation ensues, 

 and an intoxicating beverage is produced, and on 

 distillation, an ardent spirit is afforded (Bot. Reg. i. 

 1749). C.ferrea is said to have astringent roots, 

 which have been found beneficial in dysentery. 



The various species of Ruscus were once cele- 

 brated as aperients and diuretics, on account of their 

 bitter, sub-acrid, mucilaginous roots, and more espe- 

 cially R. aculeatus, or Butcher's broom, the pro- 

 perties of which were known to Dioscorides and 

 Pliny; it is still employed in some parts of Europe 

 in diseases of the urinary organs and dropsy. R. hypophyllum was also at 

 one time much esteemed as an emmenagogue. The seeds of all of them are 

 hard and horny, and are said to be a pleasant substitute for coffee. The roots 

 of many species of PolygonatMm have been popularly employed both in 

 Europe and this country as demulcents and vulneraries. They are all muci- 

 laginous, and when cooked, bland and 

 nutritive. Schcepf says the bruised root 

 forms a good cataplasm in ophthalmia, and 

 Clayton is of opinion that the berries are 

 useful stimulants to the stomach in sick 

 headache. The turiones form one of the 

 best substitutes for Asparagus. Dra- 

 ccena draco, a native of the Canary 

 Islands and the East Indies, attains an 

 enormous size. An individual of it 

 growing at Orotava has long been 

 celebrated for its great bulk and age, 

 being 45 feet in circumference, and has 

 been known since 1402. Humboldt re- 

 marks that it is one of the oldest inhabi- 

 tants of our globe. This species affords 

 one of the varieties of Dragon's blood. 



The other tribes of this order do not 

 require notice, as they contain no species Dracaena draco, 



employed in medicine, or useful in the arts. 



Fig. 308. 



Group L. — Smilicales. 



Order 116.— SMIL ACEM.—Lindley. 



Flowers perfect, monoecious, dioecious or polygamous. Calyx and corolla very similar, 

 free, 6-parted. Stamens 6, inserted on the perianth near the base, seldom hypogynous. 

 Ovary 3-celled ; cells 1 — many-seeded ; style usually trifid ; stigmas 3 ; ovules orthotropal. 

 Fruit a roundish berry. Albumen between fleshy and cartilaginous ; embryo very small, 

 distant from the hilum. 



