164 
DRiMYS WINTERI. 
those on the plain ground and sheltered were straight and 
tall, rising to thirty or forty feet, and as thick as a middle- 
sized man. The bark is smooth and somewhat resembling 
the horse chesnut. In the neighborhood of Port Famine it 
is abundant. It flowers in March, which is the commence- 
ment of the fall. The bark attracted the attention of navi- 
gators from its warm, spicy, aromatic properties, and in the 
treatment of scorbutic diseases, which broke out in vessels 
going into the Straits of Magellan, was a valuable auxiliary. 
It is rarely brought into the market as a drug, but is some- 
times confounded with the Canella alba from which it differs 
in colour, as it is pale-yello wish or dull-reddish gray, with 
elliptical dull-brown spots externally, and brown internally., 
It has an aromatic odour and a warm bitterish taste. 
It contains resin, volatile oil and tannin, which last serves 
to distinguish between it and Canella, as the chemical evi- 
dences are present in one case and not in the other. 
The medical properties of it are those of an aromatic 
and tonic. From its sensible qualities it was confounded 
with Canella alba. The medical uses are the same. 
Some confusion is apparent among the authors who have 
treated of the tree with respect to its name ; hence the dif* 
ierent appellations by which it has been described. The 
generic term Winterana was bestowed by Linnaeus in com- 
memoration of its discoverer ; in so doings however, he 
mistook it for the Canella alba, and gave the account of the 
fructification of that plant. Browne, however, had stamped 
that genus with the name of Canella. Forster, having ob- 
tained the parts of fructification, gave to the plant the name 
of Drimys Winteri from its hot and pungent flavour. Mur- 
ray, in his Linn. Syst* f z eg. } gave the generic name Wintera? 
which he preferred to the original Linnaean one, and finally 
De Candolle has adopted the name of Forster in imitation 
of Lamarck. 
By Lamarck a species has been made which he calls D. 
punctata, but which by De Candolle is regarded as a variety. 
