Flora Medica

EXCJECARIA.from 2 to 4, or even 6, rather remote, 1-flowered scales, the remainingpart imbricated with numerous, small, neuter scales. Sepals 3, cordate,pointed. Ovary 3-lobed. Styles 3, recurved ; stigmas simple. Capsuletricoccous. Trunk abounding in a most dangerous virulent acridmilk. Wood-cutters upon whom this juice has flown after a stroke oftheir axe reported to Roxburgh that it produced inflammation andulceration. Rumph. states that the Dutch sailors who were sent ashorein Amboyna to cut timber, sometimes became furiously mad from thepain produced by the juice that fell on their eyes, and that some of themaltogether lost their sight. Agallochum or Aloeswood is not producedby this tree, but by Aquilaria Agallochum.COMMIA.Flowers dioecious. $ . Amentaceous. Bracts staminiferous.Stamens several, united into a column. $ . Racemiferous-Calyx 3-parted. Styles 3. Capsule 3-lobed.392. C. cochinchinensis Lour. cochincJi. 742. Cochinchina.A small tree with resinous juice. Leaves alternate, entire, smooth.Male flowers amentaceous; catkins consisting of imbricated 1-floweredscales, axillary, short. Female racemes somewhat terminal, small,numerous. This tree yields a white tenacious gum of an emetic, purgative,deobstruent nature. If prudently administered it is useful inobstinate dropsy and obstructions. Lour,EUPHORBIA.Flowers collected in monoecious heads, surrounded by aninvolucrum, consisting of 1 leaf with 5 divisions, which haveexternally 5 glands alternating with them. $ Naked, monandrous,articulated with their pedicel, surrounding the female,.which is in the centre. ? Naked, . solitary. Ovarium stalked.Stigmas 3, forked. Fruit hanging out of the involucrum, consistingof 3 cells, bursting at the back with elasticity, and eachcontaining 1 suspended seed.1. SUCCULENT LEAFLESS, OR NEARLY LEAFLESS, SPECIES.393. E. Tirucalli Linn. sp. pi. 649. Roxb. fl.ind. ii. 470.Rheede ii. t. 44. Rumph. vii. t. 29 A native of various partsof India.Branches erect, naked, round, succulent, polished, abounding inmilky juice. Leaves small, linear, fleshy, sessile, at the ends of thetwigs. Flowers crowded, subsessile, terminal and axillary. Lobes ofthe involucre 5, roundish, smooth, peltate tube ; woolly on the inside.Capsule villous. Milk introduced into the eye produces severe inflammationand even blindness. According to Sonnerat the milkmixed with flour is taken in India in doses of a drachm a day as aremedy for syphilis, and successfully in cases that are not inveterate.191