Page:An Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine.djvu/22

 8 by the English ; while Vateria indira produces copal, and Dipterocarjms costatus, turbinatus, incomes, alatus, and probably other species, afford the balsam called Wood-oil. So many of the Guttiferce exude a gamboge-like substance, that we may safely conclude the officinal species, though unknown, to be of this family ; as also that the Officinal Rhubarb, though equally unknown, is yielded by a species of Rheum; and as the Umbelliferce give us Assafcetida, Galbanum, Opoponax, and Ammoniacum, we infer that they also afford us Sagapenum.

The Cedrelacece are remarkable for their bitterness and astringency, accompanied frequently by an aromatic principle; and thence are endowed with febrifuge pro- perties. So Soymida febrifuga, with others, is reckoned in India a good stomachic and febrifuge ; the Khayn is similarly employed on the banks of the Gambia ; Cedrela febrifuga in Java, and Stvietenia Mahogani in the New World. As we thence get Logwood and Brazil wood, so from the Malayan Peninsula we have Sappan wood, all from the Ccesalpinece. Of the Memisperrnacece, Cocculus palmatus affords the well-known Columba root ; but in India, C. cordifolius is no less extensively employed as a tonic and febrifuge ; so the Brazilians employ Cocculus platyphyllus, cinerascens, and ovali- folius, for the cure of intermittent fevers ; as do the Malays in Eastern countries, C. peltatus, crispus, and Fibraurea. The Gentianece not only yield bitter roots and herbs in Europe, as gentian and centaury, but in the Himalayas they afford us Gentiana Kurroa as a bitter root, and the Cheretta as a herb.

The Nima of these mountains is as bitter as the Quassia of South America, and both belong to the family of Sima- rubece. The Solanece are well known for their narcotic properties, as exhibited in several solanums, the henbane,