152 EXAMINATION OP THE BARK OP MONESIA. 
The name under which it has been presented to us is Mo- 
nesia, and at the start, we should state that it has no connec- 
tion with the genus monetia, or manetia, of the family of Ru- 
biaceae. The unsatisfactory information transmitted to us, 
has induced us to suppose that the tree which furnishes it 
may be a Chrysophyllum of the family of Sapoteas, yet this 
opinion has met with several opponents, in the number of 
which, we believe, we may count MM. Guillemin, and Le- 
maire Lizancour. M. Guibourt having received from different 
persons some pieces of a bark known by the name of buran- 
he?n } has supposed that he recognised it as Monesia; he thinks, 
also, that the extract which has been sent him under the name 
of Extract of Mohica, by M. Martins, may, indeed, be pro- 
duced by the same bark; the same as that to which M. Isid. 
Bourdan has devoted an article in the Journal des Medicins, 
published in 1835. 
Other travellers have thought that Monesia might be the 
bark of the Rhizaphora gymnorrhiza, L., the Bugiera gym- 
norrhiza, Lam. , But other information induces us to believe 
that this opinion is not well founded. It has also been sug- 
gested, that the Cortex braziliensis of the Pharmacopoeia, 
(Jlcacia cochleocarpa, Martins,) may be the same; but the 
description of this bark presents no analogjr with that of Mo- 
nesia. There is, moreover, the bark of the Acacia virginalis, 
Cortex braziliensis of the Lisbon Pharmacopoeia^ to which 
our bark presents some resemblance, although, in fact, it is 
different. 
We think, then, that it will be premature to attribute Mo- 
nesia to any vegetable, as we are of opinion that new infor- 
mation is necessary, and this we will omit no opportunity of 
obtaining; but the doubt under which we now labor, imposes 
the necessity of retaining the name of Monesia, under which 
the' bark has been transmitted to us, and we do not participate 
in the fears of M. Guibourt, with respect to the inconveni- 
ences of a synonym, when the real name of the vegetable 
which affords it is discovered. 
