The properties and preparation of the Rio Negro sarsaparilla, and of the angustura bark, practically examined / by John Hancock.

  • Hancock, John, -approximately 1840.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The properties and preparation of the Rio Negro sarsaparilla, and of the angustura bark, practically examined / by John Hancock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    If, besides, these are to be taken for stamens, then the plant is heptandroiis, not petandrous. In the description given in the Planted Mquinoctiahs there is, moreover, no mention of sterile stamens. Seventhly. The seeds are represented as being solitary; where: as, though one of them is generally abortive, there are inva- riably two, or, at least in the case of abortion, the rudiments of a second* In the Orayuri, I have observed no spur upoA the atithers as denoted by Humboldt. The pistil in Bonplandia is said to have 5 stigmata, in- stead of a simply capitate one* There are other minor discrepancies in the flower ; but the most remarkable appearance in Orayuri, Q.xi& which is not touch- ed upon in the description of Bonplandia, is the uncommonly strong and horny arillus in which the seeds are enclosed. This appendage is so elastic that it is difficult to preserve the seeds, the capsule always bursting in the dried specimens. This species of perisperm or seed-envelope, where it obtains, so far from being disregarded, was considered by Linnajus as one of the essential characters of a genus. Witness DiCTAMNUS, Diosma, CoFFEA, &c., but in none is it so notable as in Orayuri. Though concurring, on the whole, with the lucid arrange- ment, by MM. Auguste de St. Hilaire and De CandoUe, of the genus Galipea, I cannot agree to the specific name bestowed by those eminent botanists on the Angustura Bark Tree,—the term Cmparia, being, as I have before observed, founded in error: it may, doubtless, still refer to another species, whether of Guiana, Cumana, or Brazil. I shall, therefore, agreeably to the suggestion of my friend, Mr. J. P. Yosy, one of the Society's Secretaries, propose the name of Galipea officinalis; with the following specific description: Galipea officinalis, foliis 3 foliolatis, racemis pedunculatis axillaribus et terminalibus, calyce 5 dentato, staminibus 2, nectariis 5 (aliis staminibus sterilibus ?) D