278 ON THE CASCARILLA BARK, EXG. 



Clutia Cascarilla, Linn. Species Plant, ed. 1. p. 1042. 



Croton Cascarilla, Benn. Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc, vol. iv. p. 30. 



This species, indigenous to Ehitheria, Long, and other large islands 

 of the Bahamas, and formerly equally abundant in that of New Pro- 

 vidence, became almost extirpated in the latter during the last century* 

 a few plants now only existing at the eastern extremity of the isle. The 

 same product appears to be also common to several districts in St. 

 Domingo, but I am not aw r are that it has ever been found in Jamaica, 

 as asserted by some writers. That this species originally yielded the 

 Cascarilla bark of commerce, until superseded by the Croton Eluteriai 

 Benn. [Clutia Eluteria, Linn.), there can be little doubt ; for though un- 

 known to the inhabitants of Nassau, several from Eleuteria had a faint 

 recollection of it constituting an article of export many years since. The 

 dried cortex was also denominated Ilatheria or Eleutheria bark, and em- 

 ployed by the people in the treatment of diseases, incidental to different 

 localities of the island. 



Dr. "Wood, of America, and the late Dr. Pereira were both of opinion 

 that the ordinary Cascarilla bark of the shops may have been procured 

 from this plant, and there are sufficient grounds for belief that their con- 

 jectures would have proved well-founded had they assigned the origin to 

 a less modern date. But I was assured by one of the wood-cutters of 

 Eleutheria, that even recently, the bark of this Croton when met with, 

 is collected, and incorporated with that of the C. Eleuteria, Benn., for 

 exportation. This statement, however, recpiires confirmation. 



Plunder was the first who described this Croton in his ' Species,' etc., 

 under the title of Ricinoides elozagni folio, and gave a figure of it in the 

 " Icones, etc." Catesby, in his History of Carolina, mentions it by that 

 of Ilatheria bark or La Chachrille, and observes that the shrub " grew 

 plentifully in most of the Bahama Islands, seldom above ten feet high, 

 and rarely so big as a man's leg, though it is probable that before these 

 islands were exhausted of so much of it, that it grew to a larger size ; 

 the leaves are long, narrow, and sharp-pointed, and of a very pale light- 

 green colour ; at the ends of the smaller branches grow spikes of small 

 hexapetalous white flowers, with yellow apices, which are succeeded by 

 tricapsular pale-green berries of the size of peas, each berry containing 

 three small black seeds, one in every capsule. The bark of this tree being 

 burnt, yields a fine perfume ; and infused in either wine or water, gives 

 a fine aromatic bitter." The result of my inquiries tends co substantiate 

 the accuracy of these statements, so far as they relate to the genera^ 

 history. The custom of smoking certain portions of this plant conjoined 

 with tobacco, adopted by the earlier European settlers, either to irnjjart 

 an agreeable flavour, or as a stimulant and prophylactic to avert the 

 attacks of disease, is evidently to be traced to the usages of the preceding 

 Carib population. The term ' Ilatheria,' is merely a vernacular corrup- 

 tion of Elutheria. Catesby's plant is the Clutia Cascarilla of the first 

 edition of Linnaeus's ' Species Plantarum,' who misstated the habitat of 



