402 
Medicinal  Plants  of  the  Putaceos. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm* 
Sept.  1, 1873. 
medicinal  in  Brazil.  T.  febrifuga,  St.  Hil.,  a  tree  of  about  twenty 
feet,  has  a  very  bitter  and  astringent  bark,  and  is  used  as  a  substi- 
tute for  cinchona  in  intermittent  fevers.  In  the  province  of  Minas 
Geraes  it  is  known  as  Quina  or  Folhas  brancas.  The  leaves  of  T* 
jasminiflora,  St.  Hil.,  also  a  tree  about  twenty  feet  high,  growing  in 
the  same  country,  are  boiled  by  the  natives  for  the  sake  of  the  juice, 
which  they  value  as  a  medicine.  Peganum  Parmala,  L*,  is  a  power- 
fully disagreeable-smelling  herbaceous  plant,  common  in  Southern 
Europe,  Asia  Minor,  and  throughout  Scinde  and  the  Punjaub.  In 
Turkey  the  seeds  are  used  as  a  vermifuge,  and  in  the  Crimea  the 
Tartars  collect  them  for  the  same  purpose.  In  the  Pharmacopoeia 
of  India  it  is  stated  that  "  these  seeds  have  long  held  a  place  in 
Eastern  materia  medica  as  a  stimulant,  emmenagogue,  and  anthel- 
mintic. Mild  narcotic  properties  have  also  been  assigned  to  them, 
and,  according  to  Ksempfer,  delirium  characterized  by  cheerfulness 
follows  their  use  in  some  cases.  Further  investigations  as  to  the 
properties  of  these  seeds  are  desirable." 
The  European  dittany  (Dictamnus  albus,  L.),  a  plant  sometimes 
cultivated  in  gardens  for  the  sake  of  its  handsome  flowers  and  fra- 
grant leaves,  is  well  known  for  the  abundance  of  volatile  oil  or  resin- 
ous matter,  which  is  secreted  in  such  large  quantities  that  the  plant 
not  only  ignites  on  the  approach  of  a  lighted  candle,  but  the  air  sur- 
rounding the  plant  becomes  itself  inflammable  in  hot  weather.  The 
root  is  resinous,  bitter,  tonic  and  stimulating.  Monnieria  trifoliay 
L.,  a  shrubby  plant  of  Guiana  and  Brazil,  has  an  aromatic  and  acrid 
root,  much  prized  by  the  natives  as  a  diaphoretic,  diuretic  and  alexi- 
pharmic.  The  leaves  of  species  of  Adenandra,  a  South  African  genus 
of  plants,  having  the  habit  of  the  common  rue,  are  used  at  the  Cape 
for  the  same  purposes  as  those  of  Diosma,  while  in  Australia  the 
leaves  of  some  of  the  species  of  Correct  are  used  as  tea.  They  are 
handsome,  shrubby  plants,  and  are  in  cultivation  in  greenhouses  in 
this  country. 
The  genus  Zantkoxylum,  the  type  of  the  tribe  Zanthoxylece,  has  a 
wide  geographical  range,  and  a  variety  of  applications.  In  India, 
the  fruits  of  Z.  alatum,  Roxb.,  Z.  hastile,  Wall.,  and  Z.  Budrunga> 
DC,  are  all  articles  of  the  native  materia  medica.  They  are  aromatic 
and  pungent,  and  are  said  to  possess  stomachic  and  carminative  pro- 
perties. Z.  JRhetsa,  DC,  a  large  spreading  tree,  growing  on  the 
mountainous  parts  of  the  East  Indian  coast,  has  its  unripe  capsules 
