Medico Botanical Notices. 
115 
ART. XXVII — MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES— No. VI. 
African Guaiacum. Under the name of Guaiacum Afrum, 
Linn^us described a tree belonging to the natural order 
of Leguminoseae, found in some parts of Africa and possess- 
ing most of the properties of the G. officinale. The wood 
is hard, veined and brown, and is much used among the na- 
tives of the country as an antisyphilitic. This plant has 
been placed in a variety of different genera by botanists. 
Thus Medicus terms it, Theodora speciosa, and Jacquin has 
figured it under the name of Schotia speciosa, (Icon. rar. 1. t. 
75.) in which he is followed by Andrews, (Bot. Repos. 348.) 
Winter's Barh Mr. Webster, a surgeon in the British 
navy, in his valuable " Narrative of a Voyage to the Southern 
Atlantic Ocean,'* gives some very interesting medico-botani- 
cal information, which we take this opportunity of laying be- 
fore our readers. He states that at Staten Island, near Cape 
Horn, the Winterana aromatica (Drymis xointeri) is common. 
He describes it as an evergreen, having the appearance of 
a laurel, sometimes attaining a very considerable magnitude, 
even that of twenty feet in circumference. The general 
height however is only eight to ten feet, and the stem small. 
It is of very quick and rapid growth, the wood soft. Its 
leaves are very similar to those of the laurel, and the flowers 
which are small and white are furnished with long peduncles. 
The corolla is of eight petals ; the stamens numerous, crowded, 
the germs one, two or three, swelling, globose ; the berries 
are green, one ceiled, oblong, containing a glistening powder 
and three or four black seeds. The bark is hot, pungent, 
slightly bitter and astringent ; its flavour is durable and some- 
what unpleasant. Water scarcely extracts its virtues; a mild 
tincture has very much the flavour of porter. The sealers of- 
ten use the dried bark as a substitute for cannella. 
New Rhubarb. Mr. Webster says that a small plant was 
tvery common throughout the same island, the leaves of 
