Flora Medica

THYMELACE^.end of each flowering branch, usually in bunches of 3 together, withtheir peduncles cohering. Calyx yellow, funnel-shaped, A an inch long,with a contraction near the base and another in the middle, its borderdilated, and slightly and irregularly toothed. Stamens 8, much longerthan the calyx. Ovary ovate, placed obliquely, the style appearing toissue from one side ; style capillary, curved, and longer than thestamens. Fruit a small oval, acute, red, 1-seeded berry. Bark acrid ;in the dose of 6 or 8 grains it produces heat in the stomach and bringson vomiting, especially when fresh. It sometimes acts also as acathartic. The bark is a vesicatory in a very slow degree; the fruit isnarcotic, producing effects like those of Stramonium. Sigelow.HERNANDIACE^E.Nat.syst. ed.2. p. 195.HERNANDIA.Flowers monoecious. $ .Calyx petaloid, 6-parted, with thesegments in 2 rows. Glands (sterile stamens) 6, stipitate,placed around 3 stamens united at the base. Filaments short,erect ; anthers opening laterally. ?. Calyx double ; exteriorinferior, short, urceolate ;interior petaloid, contracted above theovary, more than 8-parted, deciduous. Sterile filaments 4,gland-shaped, arising from the bottom of the segments of thecalyx. Style included ;stigma broad, funnel-shaped. Ovarywith a single pendulous ovule. Fruit (according to Gaertner)drupaceous, clothed with the inflated calyx, 8-furrowed, fungousinternally, with a 1-seeded kernel. Embryo without albumen,inverted, with large lobed cotyledons.671.1H. sonora Linn. hort. cliff. 4-85. t. 23. Jacq. amer. 245.(Pluk. aim. t. 208. f.West Indies.1.) Various partsof both East andA tall erect tree. Leaves cordate, peltate, smooth. Flowers yellowish,panicled.Fruit a dry, ovate, obtuse drupe, with 8 furrows andan umbilicus. Calyx very large, inflated, roundish, depressed, succulent,coriaceous, shining, coloured, with a small roundish entire mouth.The bark, seed, and young leaves are all slightly purgative. Humphsays that the fibrous roots chewed and applied to wounds caused bythe Macassar poison, form an effectual cure. The juice of the leavesis a powerful depilatory;it destroys hair, wherever it is applied,without pain.326