ON THE CASCARILLA BARK, ETC. 281 



inhabitants have designated the shrub by the name of Port de Paix Sage. 

 The beverage termed "The du Port de Paix is made by infusing the 

 fresh leaves in boiling water, which, previous to use, required to be well 

 strained, otherwise irritation of the throat would be induced. The agree- 

 able aromatic taste of this infusion had doubtless suggested its employ- 

 ment as a stimulant and stomachic in functional derangements of the 

 stomach and bowels, and the nervous lassitude or debility, that so 

 frequently ensues as the sequel of endemic febrile affections. 



V. The Rosemart-leaved Cascarilla. 

 (Croton lineare, Jacq.) 



Ricino amnis odorifera fruticosa major rosmarini folio, fructu tricocco 

 albido, Shane, Hist, Jamaica, 1. p. 133, t. 86, f. 1. 



Croton fruticulosum ; foliis longis, angustis, subtus incanis, margine 

 reflexis, Browne, Hist, Jamaica, p. 347. 



Clutia Cascarilla, Linn. Amoznitat, Acad. vol. v. p. 411. 



Croton lineare, Jacquin, Stirp. American, p. 256, t. 162,/*. 4 ; Pict. p. 

 124, t. 263, / 80. 



Croton Cascarilla, Woodville, Med. Botany, ed. 1, vol. iii. p. 116, t. 41 



Croton lineare, Benn. Joum. Proc. Linn. Soc, vol. iv. p. 30. 



This species is indigenous to most of the Bahama and West India 

 islands, where it is known by the title of Spanish or wild Rosemary 

 bush, from the leaves and other portions of the shrub resembling those 

 of the common Rosemary {Rosmarinus officinalis, Linn.) ; although every 

 sweet-scented plant of the genus was formerly so designated in Jamaica, 

 irrespective of this supposed similarity. It is also indigenous to the 

 southern provinces of North America, whence specimens collected by 

 Michaux were transmitted to the British Museum, under the erroneous 

 title of Croton Cascarilla. Among the Creole population it enjoyed a 

 wide repute for its efficiency in the cure of various maladies. In the 

 Bahamas it is met with under the form of a low scrubby bush, seldom 

 exceeding 3-4 feet in height, growing in waste, arid places, or by the 

 roadsides. The stems, sometimes white, or of a peculiar greyish-brown 

 colour, occasionally marked by white rugous stains on the epidermis, are 

 always more or less shrubby and branched, seldom assuming an arbo- 

 rescent character, although stated to attain an altitude of seven or eight 

 feet in Jamaica. The branchlets are white, or of a pale or orange-yellow 

 hue, partially covered with stellate hairs. The leaves %-% inch broad, 

 and from 1-2 J inches long, are nearly sessile, linear, blunt, niore or less 

 reflected at the margins, deeply channelled green and smooth above, 

 beneath white or pale-yellow, very densely pubescent, being clothed by 

 numerous intricate stellate hairs. The inflorescence is axillary and 

 terminal. Odoriferous, subsessile white flowers, occasionally tinged by 

 yellow-green at their apices, are sparingly attached to simple spikes, the 

 male and female being set on distinct spikes. The fruit, the ordinary 

 trilobular capsule of the genus, containing three small, deep-brown, 

 vol. iii. c c 



