Flora Medica

CINCHONACEJE.plants or shrubs, with slender twining stems, and axillary 1 -manyfloweredpeduncles.862. M. cordifolia Mart. spec. mat. med. bras. i. 19. t. 7. DC.prodr. iv. 363. Bot. mag. t. 3202. M. glabra Cham, andSchlecht. Linncea 1829. p. 159. DC. prodr. iv. 363. BuenosAyres banks of the Arroyo de la China, a stream that enters;the Uruguay entre Rios. Hedges in the province of the Minesin Brazil, near Villa Rica and elsewhere.Whole plant glabrous. Stem sufFruticose, much branched, veryslender, round, twining bark ; grey and exfoliating, on the young shootsgreen, glabrous, shining. Leaves (2 inches long, 1 inch broad, butgradually smaller, and the uppermost about 4 lines long, 2 lines broad,while the low and largest on a vigorous cultivated specimen, are 4 incheslong, and nearly 2 broad,) opposite, petioled, cordate, acuminate,glabrous on both sid'es, shining, pale, with prominent veins and obscureminute reticulations, below dark, and the veins slightly channelledabove. Stipules small, subulate, and at length often reflexed in theirupper half, bases broad and connate within the petioles, so as to forma small cup, which is occasionally toothed, round the branch. Peduncleselongated, solitary, glabrous, filiform, shining and single-flowered,at the extremities of the branches, which are subsequently elongated,rendering the peduncle axillary. Calyx green, glabrous, 4-parted, withminute, divided intervening teeth ; segments acute, at length reflected,1-nerved. Corolla (fully1 inch long, 3^ lines across the revolutelimb,) very handsome, shining on the outer surface, and glabrous everywhere, except a little above its base on the inside, where for somedistance it is densely clothed with inverted, white hairs ;tube clavatefunnel-shaped,with 4 flat sides, nectariferous, and only colourless atthe base, every other part of the corolla vermilion orange-coloured,deepest on the inner side of the limb, green in the young buds, throatdilated and naked; limb 4-parted, segments deltoid, revolute. Stamens4, alternating with the segments of the corolla filaments colour-;less, adhering to the tube throughout its whole length, the free portionslightly connivent, and rather shorter than the segments of the limb ;anthers versatile, oblong, purple, inserted by their back, bursting alongthe front of the cells, which are distant in the middle, connivent at theextremities ;pollen green. Ovary inferior, green, compressed, bilocular,crowned by a white depressed disk, which rises above the insertionof the corolla." Style rather longer than the stamens, exserted,colourless, filiform. Stigma green, blunt, of 2, erect, parallel lobes.Ovules numerous, erect, on erect, free, columnar receptacles, one risingwith each loculament from near the base of the dissepiment. Capsuleovate, compressed, channelled on both sides, crowned by the persisting,indurated calyx, bivalvular, bilocular, opening by a division of thedissepiment valves boat-shaped, nerved, and each ;splitting into 2 teethat the apex. Seeds brown, round, flattened, and surrounded by amembranous wing.Hooker. The bark of the root is esteemed inBrazil a most valuable remedy in dropsy and dysentery. It is given inpowder in doses of. ^ to H drachm. It acts as an emetic.432