60 ON THE FEVILLEA CORPIFOLIA. , 
less was its property of forming the blue compound, with a 
solution of iodine, destroyed. 
If in time the starch should be converted into sugar, I 
think its tendency to crystallize would be completely de- 
stroyed by the long boiling required. — Pharm. Journ. 
ART. XV.— MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE FEVILLEA 
CORDIFOLIA. 
By W. Hamilton, M. D. ; Plymouth. 
Among the other indigenous productions of our West 
Indian colonies, which the superior attractions of the cane 
have hitherto kept in unmerited obscurity, the Fevillea 
cordifolia, or Antidote Coccoon,* claims a prominent place 
from the value of its medicinal properties. 
This is a climbing plant, frequent in waste lands and on 
the skirts of woods, covering the trees and bushes like ivy, 
and producing small yellow flowers, which are succeeded 
by a hard three-celled pome, resembling a calabash, and 
inclosing about a dozen large round compressed seeds, 
which, on attaining maturity, drop out through a circular 
opening in the fruit. These seeds are known by the name 
of coccoons, and, from the quantity of oil which they con- 
tain, are employed by the negroes as a substitute for candles ; 
a number being stuck for this purpose on a long skewer, 
and the uppermost coccoon ignited. 
The whole plant abounds in a bitter principle, which 
might, no doubt, be advantageously substituted for some 
♦This production was briefly noticed in vol. xv., page 236 of this 
Journal. Our readers will now have an opportunity of being further 
acquainted with its history. — Ed. Jim. Journ. Phnrm. 
