2 1 T9?r- 
MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES. 
rather is an advantageous addition to this article, as the decoc- 
tion prepared from the mixture, although having the flavour 
and aroma of the coffee, does not cause that excitement of the 
brain and nervous system, so often produced by the foreign 
berry. 
The mode of preparing this for use is thus given by Mr. 
Icard, (Journ. de Chim. Med. Jan. 1835.) An equal quan- 
tity of coffee and of okra seeds perfectly dry, are to be mea- 
sured out; the coffee is to be introduced into a roaster and 
when about half burned, the okra seeds added to it, and the 
process continued till the latter are heard to crackle. By this 
plan the okra seeds become completely imbued with the aro- 
ma of the coffee. Care must be taken that they are not too 
long subjected to the action of the heat; when they have as- 
sumed a bright chestnut colour, they should be removed. The 
mixture is then to be ground, and used in the same propor- 
tions as pure coffee. 
Simaruba. The first account of the Simaruba, is, that 
some of the bark was sent to Europe in 1713 by the Count 
of Porchartrain, as an article used by the natives with sig- 
nal success in the cure of diseases of the bowels. In 1741, 
but little additional information, it would appear, had been 
acquired respecting it, as Geoffroy {Mat. Med.) in speaking 
of it, says: "est cortex radicis arboris ignotse in Guiana nascen- 
tis, et ab incolis Simaruba nuncupate." Jussieu, however, 
used it with benefit in 1718, in an a epidemic dysentery then 
prevalent in Paris. 
In 1753, Linkeus, who at that time had not seen speci- 
mens of the tree, ascribed it to a species of Pistacia, or the 
Terebinthus major betulas cortice fructu triangularis 
Sloan, {Jam. 289, t. 99.) In 1756, Browne, {Civil and Nat. 
Hist. Jam. 345,) describes a terebinthus, or turpentine tree, the 
roots of which he was of opinion furnished the Simaruba bark. 
In 1763 LiNNasus had changed his opinion as regarded the 
origin of this bark, and stated that it was furnished by the 
Bur sera gummifera, referring however to the Pistacia of 
