MISCELLANEOUS. 
51 
3 inches high, pyramid-shaped, and consists of 3 or 
4 valves which open wide when the time comes foi 
the dispersal of the seeds ; the valves are lined 
with stinging hairs. The black seeds are roasted 
and eaten by school children. 
Chew-StlcK Tooth-Bpnsh, 
The chew-stick is in very common use 
among the peasantry as a tooth-brush, and a 
dentifrice prepared from it, in the shape of a 
powder, may be obtained from druggists. It 
is also used in the preparation of ginger beer 
and other cool drinks, to which it gives a plea- 
sant bitter. 
The following quotation from the classic, 
though unfortunately unfinished, book, “ The 
Flora of Jamaica ” by James Macfadyen, M.D., 
is of interest : — 
“ In powder it forms an excellent dentifrice ; 
its aromatic bitter producing a healthy state of 
the gums and the mucilage it contains, work- 
ing up by the brush into a kind of soap-like 
froth. A tincture also is prepared from it, 
diluted with water, as a wash or gargle, in 
cases of salivation or disease of the gums. 
Chew-stick is also a substitute for the tooth- 
brush itself. A piece of a branch, about as 
thick as the little finger, is softened by chew- 
ing, and then rubbed against the teeth. In 
this manner a tooth-brush, and, with it, a 
powder, are obtained, equal, if not superior, 
to any in use in Europe.” 
6hew~Stick. 
Gouania domingensis. Order Rhamnaceae. Na- 
tive of West Indies and tropical South America. 
