196 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
sent, too much of the carbonic acid gas will be retained, and 
it will be necessary to change wine glasses, which are generally 
used, and certainly most convenient, for larger vessels. 
ART. XXXI.— MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES. 
No. XIII. 
Coptis Teeta. Under this name a plant has been described 
by Dr. Wallich, the root of which is medicinal in its pro- 
perties. The root constitutes a drug known among the 
Mishmees and Lamas in the mountainous regions bordering 
upon Upper Assam, by the name, Mishme Teeta^ by the 
Chinese it is called Honglane; among these three nations it 
is in great estimation, and in universal use as a powerful tonic 
and stomachic. It was first brought before the notice of the 
author by Captain Jenkins, agent to the Governor General 
on the North Eastern frontiers of Bengal, who transmitted 
to him a small supply of it; the plant, itself, was afterwards 
procured for him by Lieutenant Charlton, in a live state. 
" Quantities are sent down to Assam in neat little baskets, 
with open meshes, made of narrow ^slips of ratan, or some 
such material, and measuring three to four inches in length, 
by two and a half in breadth and one and a half in width. 
Each basket contains about an ounce of small pieces of the 
root, from one to three inches long; they are nearly cylindric, 
uneven, scabrous, more or less curved, of a grayish brown 
colour, varying in thickness from the size of a crow quill to 
double that diameter. The root is perfectly dry and brittle ; 
occasionally a few fibrillae are issuing from one end; the inside 
is hard, somewhat cellular, the outside of a dingy yellow 
colour. The taste is intensely and purely bitter, very lasting 
