Flora Medica

AYDENDRON.AYDENDRON.Flowers hermaphrodite, panicled. Calyx funnel-shaped,6-cleft ; segments of the limb unequal deciduous. Fertile stamens9, in 3 rows ; filaments thick, short, hairy;anthers 6-celled,the outer broader and very short, with pores below their apexand directed inwards, the interior smaller facing outwards, withtheir pores more at the side. Glands in pairs, sessile, compressed.Sterile stamens in a fourth row, compressed, subulate,obtuse, sessile, scale-like. Ovary tapered into a short style ;stigma truncated narrow. Fruit at first covered over by thecalyx ; eventually only surrounded itby at the base in the formof a cup, acorn-like. Panicles before expansion covered bydeciduous scale-like bracts.689. A. Cujumary Nees Laur. 247. Ocotea Cujumary Martiusin Buchn. report, a. 1830. xxxv. 178. Firms. Bull. 1831.Jan. p. 63. Woods of Brazil especiallyin the province of RioNegro.Leaves oblong, acuminate, shining on the upper side, finely downyon the under side. Panicles of fruit very stiff. Cups warted, truncated,with 2 furrows at the edge. Seeds aromatic. Their oilycotyledons are employed in powder mixed with wine or water, in casesof indigestion.690. A. Laurel Nees Laurin. 249. Ocotea Pichurim Humb.Bonpl. and Kunth. n. g. and sp. pi. ii. 166. Marshy groundsnear Cano de Berita by Calobozo in the province of Venezuela,where it is called " Laurel."Leaves oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, taper-pointed, with very finedown underneath. Racemes of fruit axillary, twice as short asthe leaves. Cups truncated, with a simple sharp margin. Fruit aboutthe size of an olive, seated in the cup. Seeds similar in quantity tothose of the last species. Humboldt inquires whether this may notbe the plant which produces the Pichurim or Puchury Beans, oncecelebrated for their febrifugal power; and it appears that both thespecies here mentioned possess similar properties. But FrederickNees v. Esenbeck asserts positively, from an inspection of a specimenof Ocotea Pichurim sent him by Kunth, that it isby no means theorigin of these Beans (Handb. ii. 436.), which he suspects are ratherthe produce of some Lauraceous plant of the genus Sassafras. Hisbrother refers them to Nectandra Puchury, which see. These Beans wereimported from Brazil into Stockholm in the middle of the last century,and were found a valuable tonic and astringent medicine ; duringthe continental war they were used as a bad substitute for nutmegs.They are now obsolete.335