Flora Medica

MYRTACE^E.3-celled, 3-valved; valves thin, hard, and elastic, opening from theapex. Seeds numerous, angularly wedge-shaped. This is the speciesthat yields Cajuputi, an irritating or stimulating, green, aromatic camphorateessential oil used in toothach and rheumatic affections and as aninternal remedy in hysteria and epilepsy, flatulent colic, and cholera.151. M. Leucadendron Linn. mant. 105. by some said toyield cajuputi oil, is asserted by Roxburgh to possess little orno fragrance in its leaves, and not be ever employed, as far ashe could discover, in the distillation of that drug.PUNICA.Calyx turbinate 5-7-cleft : aestivation valvate. Petals 5-7.Stamens numerous ;filaments distinct. Style filiform. Stigma capitate.Fruit large, globose, crowned by the somewhat tubularlimb of the calyx, baccate, indehiscent, covered with the tube ofthe calyx, divided horizontallyinto 2 parts by a very irregularconfused dissepiment: the lower division 3-celled, the upper5-9-celled ;dissepiments membranaceous : placentaein thelower division at the bottom ;in the upper stretching from theside of the fruit to the middle. Seeds numerous, nestling in apellucid pulp. Embryo oblong radicle : short, acute ;cotyledonsfoliaceous, spirally convolute. Small trees or shrubs withspinescent branchlets. Leaves deciduous, opposite, rarely verticillateor alternate, often axillary and fascicled, oblong, quiteentire, not dotted. Flowers 2-3, nearly sessile on somewhatterminal branchlets, usually scarlet. W. and A.152. P. Granatum Linn. sp. pi. 676. Bot. 1.mag. 1832. DC.prodr. iii. 3. Fleming in As. Research, xi. 175. Woodv. t. 58.S. and C. i. t. 57. Bengal, Persia, China, Barbary. Thereare whole woods of Pomegranate trees in the Persian province ofMazenderan. Burnes Travels, ii. 126. (Pomegranate.)Arborescent. Leaves oblong, inclining to lanceolate. Flowers large,red, with a pale succulent calyx. Petals much crumpled, membranous.Fruit a round leathery pericarp, crowned by the prominent hardenedtube of the calyx, and containing several irregular cells filled with seedscovered with a bright red, succulent, acid coat. A decoction of the barkof the root a powerful anthelmintic. The flowers are tonic and astringent,as is the bark of the fruit which is used in leucorrhoea, chronic dysentery,&c. The acid juice of the seeds found useful in bilious fevers.MYRTUS.Calyx- tube somewhat globose : limb 5 or very rarely 4-partite.Petals 5 or very rarely 4*. Stamens distinct. Berry2-3-celled, somewhat globose, crowned with the segmentsof the calyx. Seeds (ripe)in each cell several, or veryrarely solitary, reniform : testa bony. Embryo curved : cotyledonssemicylindrical, very short : radicle twice the length