GEOFFROYA INKRMIS. 
173 
of LiniiKus, another species of the same genus. This tree was first 
introduced into England by Messrs. Kennedy and Lee, who culti- 
vated it in their botanical gardens at Hammersmith, about the year 
1778. 
This is a lofty tree ; towards the top it sends off several branches, 
covered with a smooth grey bark ; internally the bark is black and 
furrowed ; the wood is hard, and admits of being highly polished; 
the leaves are pinnate, composed of four or five pairs of lancet- 
shaped, pointed, veined, smooth leaflets, standing in pairs upon 
short footstalks, with a terminal 'one ; the flowers are produced ia 
clusters on large branched spikes ; the calyx is bell-shaped, and 
divided into five short obtuse segments ; the corolla is of the 
papilionaceous kind, of a pale rose colour ; the vexilium is roundish, 
concave, and notched at the apex; the two alae are somewhat 
shorter than the vexilium, oblong, obtuse, and concave ; tlie carina 
is obtuse and divided ; the filaments are ten, nine of which are 
united at the base ; the anthers are simple and roundish ; the 
germen is ovate, supporting a curved tapering style and hooked 
stigma ; the fruit resembles a small plum, is pulpy, and marked on 
each side with a longitudinal furrow, containing a hard nut, or seed. 
Sensible Qualities, &c. The bark of the cabbage tree has 
a disagreeable, sweet, mucilaginous taste, and a slight but dis- 
agreeable odour. The pieces, as they are imported into this country, 
are externally of a grey colour ; internally blackish and furrowed ; 
when reduced to powder resembling that of jalap. Its soluble parts 
seem to be composed chiefly of extractive, resin, mucus, a peculiar 
narcotic principle, and saccharine matter. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Cabbage tree bark was 
first brought into notice as a vermifuge by Mr. Peter Duguid,* and 
its properties as an anthelmintic have been fully confirmed by sub- 
sequent writers; but we are chiefly indebted to Dr. Wright, of 
Jamaica, for the fullest information, both in respect to the botanical 
character and virtues of this tree. " This bark, like most other 
powerful anthelmintics, has a narcotic effect, and on this account 
it is always proper to begin with small doses, which may be 
gradually increased till nausea is excited, when the dose for that 
patient is ascertained." It is also powerfully cathartic, and in an 
over dose excites violent vomiting, fever, and delirium : when these 
eflFects follow an over dose, the stomach must be washed with 
* Essajs and Obseryations, Physical and literary, vol. ii. p. 264. 
VOL. II. 2 B 
