172 



APOCYNACEyE. 



corymbose flowers, and yielding a most copious supply of white coagulable milk. 

 Dr. Lindley, in his " Flora Medioa," observes, " It is probable that this plant, 

 which is very abundant in Cuba, might prove a valuable source of caoutchouc, 

 as the milk gushes out of the smallest wound, and readily thickens. It is however 

 said, I know not upon what authority, to be so poisonous as to be used by the 

 West Indian natives to envenom their arrows. Jacquin mentions nothing of it, 

 and in Lunan's compilation the juice is merely said to be acrid." 



The genus Cerbera contains plants no less formidable in their nature than the 

 three-headed animal in allusion to which it was so named. The seeds of Cerbera 

 Ahovai are said to be a most deadly poison. C. Thevetia yields a milk of an acrid 

 and dangerous quality. A few plants have been removed from this genus, and 

 formed into a distinct genus {Tanghinia), of which one of the species, Tanghinia 

 venenifiua, (originally Cerbera Tanghin), has long been notorious as the ordeal-tree 

 of Madagascar, the kernels of which are so powerfully poisonous that a single seed 

 is sufficient to destroy twenty persons. The kernels of Tanghinia Manghas are also 

 emetic and poisonous, but its milky juice is said to be employed as a cathartic *. 



But the genus Strychnos is perhaps the most important in this remarkable 

 order. Strychnos nux vomica, a native of the East Indies, and which was intro- 

 duced into Britain about the year 1778, bears fruit about the size of a pretty 

 large apple covered with a smooth shell, which when ripe is of a beautiful 

 orange-colour, and filled with a gelatinous pulp, containing several orbicular 

 compressed seeds. These seeds are well known in the shops by the names of 

 Nux vomica, crow/igs, or poison-nuts. They contain a powerful and most dangerous 

 narcotic property, which has been ascertained to depend upon a peculiar 

 principle called by modern chemists, Strychnia. This principle is considered to 

 be present in a greater or less degree in all the other species of the genus. 

 Strychnia exerts the most extraordinary influence on the nervous system ; pro- 

 ducing, if given in large doses, the most frightful rigidity and convulsive action 

 of the muscles : but in the hands of the judicious practitioner, and given in 

 minute doses in well-selected cases of paralysis and other nervous affections, it 

 has proved a most valuable remedy. 



Some of the other species of Strychnos are plants of great importance. S. 

 Colubrina, a native of Malabar, is highly esteemed by the natives of India, the 

 root being considered an infallible remedy for the bite of venomous snakes, 

 particularly the cobra de capella. The ripe seeds of S. potatorum., which is found 

 in the woods of India, are in common use there for the purpose of clearing muddy 

 water. S. Ignatia (Saint Ignatius' Bean), a native of the Philippine Islands, 

 has the reputation of being a most effectual remedy for cholera. S. toxifera 

 is a native of Guyana, and has been ascertained by Mr. Schomburgk to furnish 

 the basis of the celebrated Woorari poison. Dr. Hancock is of opinion that the 

 bark of this plant is one of the most potent sedatives in nature, and if it 



* The two last-named plants have recently been figured in the Floral Cabinet. 



