POISONOUS URTICACEjE. 747

ti<led' na ^ C ’ coarsel y serrated and gashed, occasionally almost pinna-(£■ ' Receptacle on a very long stalk, quadrangular, wavy, or plaitedR native of New Spain, Mexico, Peru, Tobago , St. Vincent’s0 * *■) The root of this is not met with in commerce.

This ’ ^ Jr ^mentis, Lam.—A native of Jamaica, Brazil , and Trinidad.

' yields the contrayerva root usually met with in the shops,in tl Scription -—The contrayerva root (radix contrajerva ), usually foundobi 16 S ^ ,0 P S > is imported from the Brazils. It consists of an ovoid orftior ro °frtock, terminating, inferiorly, in one or several long, tapering,ar j Se 0r less curved, root-fibres. From the sides of the rootstock alsoTile n ^ lnerous slender fibres. Externally the colour is yellowish-brown.bi*,„ 0 , ur of the root is peculiar, but aromatic. The taste is warm,j jttsh, slightly acrid.

loot t' 6 • a ^ S0 i° un< i another kind of contrayerva root in the shops. Therece is smaller, cylindrical, blackish-brown, with fewer fibres. The^Pfacle and leaves are attached; the latter are reniform.

^position. —The root has not been analyzed. It contains, accord-r j’ 0 . ( * 9 e ’8 cr ( Handb. d. Pharm.) volatile oil, bitter extractive, and starch.

p inch may be added resin, free acid, and woody fibre.

°v ' 1Ysi ° Logi ca i . Effects. — Stimulant, tonic, and diaphoretic. Itsthe 9 U>U * s vei T analogous to that of serpentary root, between which andtl le £ lz ° me °f the sweet flag it deserves to be arranged. The root of/V, 0rs terda braziliensis often proves emetic (Decandolle, Essai sur les

r ^etesMed.)

i(| w t S v,!r 01 f olcte ’. or nearly so. It has been employed in fevers of ar e *- -P e ) and in other diseases requiring a mild, stimulant, and diaplio-

fi treatment.

1 x 1ST R A T10 N •—The dose of the root in powder is E)j. or 3 ss. Theb u (prepared by digesting from 3 iv. in ffvj. of boiling water) may( Co S lve n in doses of fSj. or f^ij. The pulvis contrajervce compositusis n °f powdered contrayerva root Jv. and prepared shells lb. iss.)

10 i°nger officinal.

Other Medicinal or Poisonous Urticaceee.

Anti,

toficaria is the celebrated Antsjar or Upas poison tree of Java, rendered no-th e principally in consequence of certain gross falsehoods stated concerning it, aboutServic^^pt^O, by a person of the name of Foersch, said to have been a surgeon in therp ceiv e ° t lu ttutch East India Company . Malefactors, says this person, when theyfor a bnl e,l r eilC ? of death , are offered the chance of life, if they will go to the Upas-treeflaence° X f°lP°' son » and although every precaution is taken to avoid the injurious in-searc e i 01 t le em anations of the tree, yet of 700 criminals who went to collect the poison

*nil es ^ tw ° °ut of twenty returned. Foersch further adds, that for fifteen or eighteentfa (ls i . ou,| d this tree no living animal of any kind has ever been discovered. (See thev °l" ii. ° n . °f Foerseh’s paper in Burnett’s Outlines of Botany, 652: also Penny Magaz.

fifi' Horsefield (Quart. Joum. vol. ii. p. 331) and M. Leschinaultk)r ^ Atus, d’Hist. Nat. t. xvi. p. 476) have shewn that the above statements aretre e 0 f j Illost . Part fabulous. F’rom their observations it appears that the true poisona v ery , av . a ,s the Antiaris toxicaria (fig. 155, is taken from Blume’s Rumphia.) (For4«t„ a ,l "'ale account of this tree, by M. I. J. Bennett, see Dr. Horsefield’s Plantslc « ruriores, p. 52).