is referred to the same synonyma of Sloane and Browne; yet it is remarkable, that neither of these authors notices the medicinal use! of its bark, although so long known as a medicine in great estima. tion in every part of Europe. According to Lewis, the Cascarilla bark is imported into Eu rope" from the Bahama islands, particularly from that which is called Elatheria, in curled pieces, or rolled up into short quills about an inch in width; covered on the outside with a rough whitish matter, and brownish on the inner side, exhibiting, when broken, a smooth close blackish brown surface. This bark, freed from the outer whitish coat, which is insipid and inodorous, has a light agreeable smell, and a moderately bitter taste, accompanied with a considerable aromatic warmth; it is very inflammable, and yields, whilst burning, a remarkably fragrant smell, somewhat resembling that of musk. Its virtues are partially extracted by water, and totally by rectified spirit. Distilled with water it yields a greenish essential oil, of a very pungent taste, and of a fragrant penetrating smell, more grateful than that of the Cascarilla itself, and obtained in the proportion of one dram from sixteen ounces of the bark. The agreeable odour which this bark produces during its burning, induced many to smoke it mixed with tobacco, before it became known as a medicine in Europe, which was not till towards the latter end of the last century; when it was recommended by Professor Stisser, who found it to be a powerful diuretic and carminative, and who used it with success in calculous, asthmatic, phthisical, scorbutic, and arthritic complaints. After this it was sold at Brunswick as a species of the Peruvian bark, and many physicians in Germany experienced its good effects in fevers of the intermittent, remittent, and putrid kind. But while the facts establishing this febrifuge power of the Cascarilla are supported by authors of great respecta. bility, they are yet so little regarded, that this medicine is now very rarely prescribed in fevers, either in this country, or on the neighbouring continent. In intermittents, however, there can be no doubt but this bark, or indeed any other medicine possessing tonic and aromatic qualities, may frequently effect a cure. German physicians have also given much credit to the Cascarilla as an astringeut, and recommended it in hemorrhages, and various alvine fluxes, in which several instances of its utility are re Dr. Cullen was in doubt whether to class this drug with the aromatics or with the tonics, but he determined upon the latter as the most proper; besides its being stomachic and corroborant, it is also reported to be diuretic: but proofs of its efficacy in particular diseases have not (as far as we know) been ascertained, nor even attempted by any adequate trials made in this country. We shall not therefore follow a late ingenious author, in depreciating this medicine, from a mere speculation on its sensitive qualities, but rather recommend it to the medical practitioner, as deserving a farther trial. It promises most advantage given in substance, the dose of which is from fifteen grains to a dram. These are the observations which are given by Dr. Woodville, under the genus Croton, concerning which we shall have to make some further observations in Chapter VII. when treating of another species, Croton sebifera, or tallow-tree; and to which therefore we refer the reader. In describing the genus Clutia, however, which occurs much farther on in his work, Dr. Woodville rejects the croton altogether in favour of this last genus. We have been desirous, says he, of introducing the annexed plate into early notice, in order to determine what was left doubtful in the former part of this work, where the croton cascarilla is figured, on the authority of Linnæus ; though at the same time we observed that it did not appear “suf. ficiently ascertained" whether or no it furnished the officinal casca. rilla. This point however we can now confidently decide in the negative. Among other circumstances, which tended to involve the parental source of cascarilla long in uncertainty, was the assertion of some authors, that it was a native of the Spanish Main, and was thence imported into Europe; thus founding a presumption, that the cascarilla and elatheria barks were different, and that the latter only was the produce of the Bahama Islands. But this assertion we have discovered to be contrary to fact; for, upon inquiry, we do not find that this drug was ever exported from Spanish America, but that the Bahamas have constantly supplied the European markets with cascarilla bark, a parcel of which was sent here from one of those islands, along with specimens of the tree producing it; of which a faithful representation may be seen, as also a specimen of the plant itself, in the herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks. But it will be necessary to observe here, that Dr. Wright, in his account of the medicinal plants growing in Jamaica, gives the name croton elutheria to a tree, the bark of which he says "is the same as the cascarilla or elutheria of the shops :" it seems therefore probable that different species of clutia may produce bark of the same, or of similar qualities to that of cascarilla, as we find several instances in which the same drug is produced by various species of plants. That the tree here called by Dr. Wright croton does not belong to this genus, but it is evidently a clutia, appears by the dioicous specimens of it sent by him to the President of the Royal Society; a part of which has the male flowers carefully preserved, so that the Jamaica and Bahama Cascarilla may be compared together. The Clutia Eluteria seems to have been first introduced into Britain by Mr. P. Miller; but it is not to be found in the King's garden at Kew, nor have we seen it cultivated any where near the metropolis. This small tree grows several feet in height, and sends of nume rous branches, especially towards the top the bark, which covers the branches is brown and smooth, but that of the trunk is exter. ually more white and rough: the leaves are entire, lanceolate, somewhat cordate, and elongated towards the apex, which is blunt, on the upper side of a bright green, on the under side paler, and placed alternately upon long footstalks. Both the male and female flowers stand in spikes, and are composed of a calyx divid ed into five ovate leafits, enclosing an equal number of small whitish petals, and within these the nectaria are placed. The female flower produces a roundish germen, supporting three bifid spreading styles, terminated by obtuse stigmata: the capsule is globular, rough, marked with six furrows, and divided into three cells, containing a solitary oval shining seed. Upon this decision of Woodville, Turton has since introduced the cascarilla as a clutia, or cluytia, as he writes it, into his recent edition of Linnæus, and the same authority has been bowed to by most botanists. Wildenow, however, has revived the claim of the croton to this species, and the London college, in their late Phar. macopoeia, have adopted this last arrangement. The question therefore remains unsettled, and the proper place of the plant doubtful. [Editor. Wildenow. Woodville. Wright. SECTION VIII. Angustura. Casparia Febrifuga.-BONPLAND. THE bark brought to us from Angustura has at length been discovered by M. M. Humboldt and Bonpland to belong to a tree not before known, and which they promise to describe under the above name in their superb work the Plantes Equinoxiales. It is hence given under the above name in the catalogue of the London College, and we have followed the authority. In Woodville's day the characters and properties of the plant were as well known as at present, and he thus describes them, and admits the general inacquaintance of his cotemporaries as to its proper source. Angustura bark is imported here in thin convex pieces, of about an inch and a half or less in breadth, and about six inches in length. It is not fibrous, but hard, compact, of a yellowish brown colour, and covered with a whitish uneven epidermis. Reduced to powder it has the yellow appearance of rhubarb. To the taste it manifests a bitterish and an aromatic quality, leaving a sensation of heat upon the tongue, which continues for some time. Its odour, when recent, is said to be ungrateful, but in its dried state this is not perceptible. An ounce of this bark affords, by means of alcohol, about two drams of a resinous bitter extract; and nearly three drams and a half of a gummy extract may be obtained from the like quantity, by water. Some have contended that this drug should be called Augustine, from St. Augustin in East Florida; but it seems more properly named Angustura, which is a place in South America, whence it was brought by the Spaniards to the island of Trinidad. From what tree it is obtained we find no certain account. It has We think it right to inform the reader, that the above description of Woodville is taken from his first edition. We have this moment had an opportunity of turning to his second, and find a correction which coincides with our own observations.-EDITOR. been supposed to be the bark of the magnolia glauca; but, with more probability, it has been since thought to be that of the brucea antidysenterica *; or brucea ferruginea of L'Heritier and Aiton †: for the description of the bark of this tree, given by Mr. Bruce, agrees very well with the cortex angustura; and as far as can be judged by the bark of a living plant of this species, now growing in the Royal Garden at Kew, this opinion is still further confirmed. During the last twelve years, in which the angustura bark has been known as a medicine in this country, it has been successfully used in the characters of a febrifuge, tonic, and astringent. In intermittents it has been found equally effectual as Peruvian bark, and generally more acceptable to the stomach; and in cases of diarrhea, dyspepsia, scrophula, and great debility, it has been found to be an useful remedy +. [Humboldt. Bruce. Miller. Woodville. Powell. SECTION IX. Canella. Canella alba.-WOODY. THE stem of this tree rises very straight, from ten to fifty feet in height, and branched only at the top; it is covered with a whitish bark, by which it is easily distinguished at a distance from other trees in the woods where it grows: the leaves are placed upon short footstalks, and stand alternately they are oblong, obtuse, entire, of a dark shining green hue, and thick like those of the laurel: the flowers are small, seldom opening, of a violet colour, and grow in clusters at the tops of the branches upon divided footstalks: the calyx is monophyllus, divided nearly to its base into three lobes, which are roundish, concave, incumbent, green, smooth, membra. nous, and persistent: the corolla is composed of five petals, which are much longer than the calyx, sessile, oblong, concave, erect, and two of them are somewhat narrower than the other three: the nectary is pitcher-shaped, of the length of the petals, and supports the antheræ instead of filaments, which are wanting: the antheræ * See Bruce's Travels, &c. vol. v. p. 69, and J. F. Miller, tab. 25. |