Flora Medica

CORDIACE^E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 272.CORDIA.Calyx tubular, 4-5-toothed. Corolla funnel-shaped, or campanulate,with a flat 5- or 7-cleft, limb, and a hairy or nakedthroat. Stamens 5, short, inserted in the throat of the corolla.Style protruding, bifid, with 4 stigmas. Ovary 3-4-celled.Drupe containing 1 stone, with 13 cells, 2 of which are usuallyabortive.982. C. latifolia Roxb. fl.ind. i. 588. Hindostan.Branches numerous, spreading, and drooping ; young shoots angularand smooth ;the general height of trees 10 or 12 years old about20 feet. Leaves alternate, petioled, round, cordate, and ovate, oftenslightly repand, 3-nerved, of a hard texture, smooth above, scabrousand pale underneath, from 3 to 7, or even 8 inches long, and ratherless in breadth. Petioles nearly round, and smooth. Panicles short,terminal and lateral, roundish,' the branches alternate, diverging, andonce or more frequently dichotomous. Flowers numerous, small,white. Bracts minute, villous. Calyx villous, campanalate, leathery ;mouth unequally toothed. Corolla short, campanulate; segments 5,linear-oblong. Filaments as long as the segments of the corolla, andinserted immediately under their fissures. Anthers incumbent. Ovaryovate, 4-celled, with 1 ovule in each attached to the upper end of theaxis. Style short. Stigma 4-cleft; segments long, rugose and recurved.Drupe oblate- spheroidal, about 1 inch or li inch in diameter,smooth, when ripe straw-coloured, covered with a whitish bloom.Pulp' in large quantity, soft, clear, and very clammy. Nut nearlycircular, laterally-compressed, rugose on the outside, with a cavity ateach end, the lower one deeper than the other, exceedingly hard,4-celled, though rarely with all the cells fertile. Seed solitary, ovateoblong.Integument single, white, soft and oily. Plumule very small.Radicle conical, superior. Roxb. Under the name Sebesten Plums,Sebcstam, or Sepistans, two sorts of Indian fruit have been employedas pectoral medicines, for which their mucilaginous qualities, combinedwith some astringency, have recommended them. They are believedto have been the Persea of Dioscorides. According to Mr. Colebrookethis is a larger and more mucilaginous sort than that described byEuropean writers on Materia Medica, which is the produce of thefollowing species.By an unfortunate error Linnaeus has applied the name of Sebestento an American species of this genus, not known in medicine.983. C. Myxa Linn. sp. pi. 273. Willd. i. 1072. Roxb.ind. i. 590 Sebestena officinalis Gartn. fruct. i. 363.ft.481 i i