280 ON THE CASCARILLA BARK, ETC, 



markets with tlie article of commerce, although, he considers it now to 

 be chieiiy yielded by the C. Eluteria of Swartz, the production from 

 which, however, as I have previously remarked, was not the case. 



Of this Croton, a few plants only were discovered growing at the 

 eastern extremity of the island of New Providence, among the interstices, 

 of lime-stone rocks skirting the beach, it apparently delighting in dry 

 localities, exposed to the influence of the regular sea breezes. With a 

 solitary exception, all partook of the habit of bushy shrubs, from 4-6 

 feet in height, much branched, with a peculiar pale or greyish-green 

 stem. The epidermis was destitute of lichens, and the white rugous 

 patches, so frequently met with in other species. The branchlets were 

 of a pale or orange-yellow, clothed with pubescence similar to that on 

 the leaves. The inflorescence consisted of numerous simple spikes, in- 

 variably terminal, with male and female subsessile flowers on each spike, 

 the small white petals of which were sometimes tinged by a faint yellow 

 hue. They generally appeared in March and April, and when fully 

 evolved emitted a very fragrant perfume. The fruit, a tricoccous cap- 

 sule, deeply furrowed, about the dimensions of a pea, with a pale yellow 

 more or less rugous, pubescent pericarp, clothed by minute stellate hairy 

 scales, is divided into the ordinary number of cells, each containing a 

 small brown shining seed of variable proportions (1-2^ lines long), ex- 

 ternally convex and flattened on each side, so as to form an angular 

 ridge. ■ They attain maturity in May and June. The leaves are petioiate, 

 glandular at base, narrow-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, flat or slightly 

 waved at the margins, tapering towards both extremities, smooth, 

 yellowish or rusty green on their upper surface, pale yellow beneath, 

 and densely tomentose, being covered with numerous intricate stellate 

 hairs. 



The cortical layers in the younger shrubs are of a pale, or greyish- 

 green colour, but in those of an arborescent size become changed to a 

 dull red. The dried bark is deficient in the warm aromatic flavour of 

 the C. Eluteria, Benn., but appears to be endowed with more bitter ex- 

 tractive matter. The absence of the whitish epidermoid stains, and 

 parasitical cryptogams, the peculiar nodulate character of the stems and 

 greyish-coloured inner bark, will serve to distinguish it from that of C- 

 Eluteria, Benn. 



According to local traditions the Carib populations highly valued the 

 entire plant, and also that of the Crotom lineare, Jacq., both of which 

 exhaled a grateful spicy odour, qualities that invariably command the 

 regard and esteem of most barbarous tribes. These products they 

 rendered subservient to a variety of useful purposes, of which the pro- 

 cess of fumigating, comprised one of their favourite modes of appliance- 

 European colonists subsequently obtained the knowledge of their 

 medicinal virtues from these sources. They macerated the fresh cortex 

 in wine or spirits, and thus prepared a palatable and pleasant tonic for 

 the relief of dyspepsia, and loss of appetite. In St. Domingo the negro 



