Flora Medica

ANACARD1UM.DC. prodr.ii. 62. Roxb. /. ind. ii. 312. W. and A. \. 168.(JRheede iii. t. 54. Humph, i. t. 69.) Cassuvium pomiferumLam. Acajuba occidentalis Gcertn. t. 40. f. 2.)A commontree in the East and West Indies, in sandy soil.Trunk short and very crooked. Young shoots smooth. Leaves alternate,rather short-stalked, obovate, with a rounded or emarginate apex ;smooth on both sides and of a hard texture, from 4 to 8 inches long.Panicles terminal, bearing small barren and fertile hermaphroditeflowers intermixed, Bracts gibbous, lanceolate. Calyx inferior, 5-cleftnearly to the base ;divisions oblong, acute, and nearly smooth. Petals5, linear-lanceolate, revolute, of a pale yellow colour, with longitudinalpink stripes. Filaments generally 9, united at the base into a ringround the ovary, 1 of them, particularly in the sterile flowers, more thandouble the length of the others. Anthers apparently all fertile, that ofthe major filament large. Ovary in the males minute, with a very shortstyle, in the females obliquely obcordate, 1 -celled, with 1 reniform seedattached to the side of its cell. Style long, becoming convolute. Fruita kidney-shaped ash-brown nut standing upon a pear-shaped crimsonfleshy receptacle. In the coats of the nut is an abundance of a causticthick oil, which blisters when applied to the skin and has been used asa caustic for warts, corns, obstinate ulcers, ringworms, &c. The fleshypeduncle is an agreeable fruit. The vapour of the oil when roastingwill often produce violent swelling and inflammation. A gum resemblinggum Arabic and called Cashew gumis exuded from the bark. Pereira.This gum, which in its properties almost entirely agrees with gumarabic, but is rather more astringent,is used in Brazil in the samemanner as that substance. The bookbinders in the principal townssometimes wash books with a solution of it, which is said to keepoff the moths and ants. The fresh acid juice of the flower-stalks isused in Lemonade ;wine and vinegar too are made of itby fermentation.The sympathetic effect which the nut, borne about the person,has upon chronical inflammations in the eyes, especially such as are ofa scrophulous nature, is remarkable. Martius.SEMECARPUS.Flowers polygamous-dioecious. Calyx 5-cleft. Petals 5, insertedunder the margin of the disk, sessile, very spreading aestivation:imbricative. Stamens 5, inserted under the margin of the disk,equal, distinct. Disk cup-shaped. Ovary free, sessile, 1 -celled.Styles 3. Stigmas clavate, retuse. Fruit somewhat cordate,sessile on the enlarged receptacle; pericarp hard and thick,containing between the inner and outer lamina cells full of acorrosive resinous juice. Seed suspended. Cotyledons thick,fleshy, plano-convex. Radicle superior, minute, concealedwithin the apex of the cotyledons.587. S. Anacardium Linn./, suppl. 182. Roxb. corom.i.t. 12.JL ind. ii. 83. DC. ii.prodr. 62. W. and A. i. 168. Anacardiumlatifolium Lam. enc, i. 1 39. illustr. t. 208. A. officinarumGcertn. Mountainous parts of the East Indies.(Marking nut.)283