210 
REMARKS ON THE ORDER COMBRETACE^. 
flowers ; they are mostly, if not all, natives of the tropical parts of India, Africa, 
and America. The medicinal properties are, for the most part, astringent. Bucida 
Buceras yields a bark that possesses a good portion of the tanning principle, for 
which purpose it is sometimes used. The expressed juice of Terminalia venix is 
used by the Chinese as a substitute for varnish ; its principle is caustic, and its 
exhalations are said to be dangerous, but whether it is or is not may be doubted. 
In Brazil one of the plants called mangroves {Conocarpus racemosus) yields bark 
which is in good use at Rio Janeiro for tanning. Terminalia Benzoin produces 
the medical resin of that name, viz.. Benzoin. Several species produce eatable 
nuts, the expressed oil of which has the unusual property of not becoming rancid. 
The genera are divided into two tribes, viz., Terminaliece^ Comhretece, and are thus 
arranged. 
Tribe I. Terminaliece includes those plants whose fiowers are destitute of 
petals (^Apetalous). 
Bucida. — Flowers furnished with both stamens and pistils, but destitute of 
petals. Calyx with a pitcher-shaped five-toothed limb. 
Terminalia. Flowers usually from abortion, some male, some female, and 
others hermaphrodite (Polygamous), Calyx bell-shaped, five-cleft. Apetalous. 
Agasithanses. Flowers males on one plant and females on another plant of 
the same species (Dieecious). Calyx five-parted. 
Pentaptera. As in Terminalia, except the fruit which is furnished with 
five or more projecting perpendicular wings. 
CoNocARPUs. Flowers same as Bucida, except in the number of stamens, 
which vary from five to ten, while the other is invariably provided with ten. 
Tribe 2. Comhretacece includes those Jlowers which have only from four to five 
petals. 
QuisQUALis. Flowers same as ^wc2c?a. Calyx five-cleft, tubular. 
Bucida. The species of this genus may be grown in a mixture of loam and 
peat in the stove ; there is nothing remarkable in any except the Buceras before 
spoken of, and in addition to what has been there said, we may notice the derivation 
of the genus, which is taken from j^ovg, an ox, referring to the ripened fruit which 
bears some resemblance to the horns of that animal. Naturally it grows in low wet 
places in Jamaica, where it is remarkable for its crooked slender branches, and the 
densely-tufted disposition of its leaves. The timber is reckoned good, and the bark 
is used as before noticed. 
Terminalia. Whether all the species at present referred to this genus 
properly belong to it is doubtful, on account of its being divisible by the fruit, 
and this in many being totally unknown. They are trees and shrubs, with 
alternate leaves usually crowded at the top of the branches, which is the most 
remarkable feature the plant has, and perhaps in no one is it seen more conspicuously 
than in the species Angustifolia, The genus is called Terminalia on account of the 
leaves growing in bunches at the ends of the branches. They require the heat of 
the stove, and may be grown in loam and peat. Cuttings will strike freely, if not 
deprived of their leaves, in sand, under a hand-glass, plunged in a moderate heat. 
Agathisanthes. Javanica is the only described species of this genus, and 
may be grown as recommended for Terminalia. In Java, it is found on the 
