Plantae Equinoctiales, torn. ii. p. 5. Cl. 5. Ord. 1. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Diosmeae. Gen. Char. Calyx monophyllous, campanulate, five-toothed.

Corolla five petals cohering near the base, funnel-shaped. Spec. 1. G. Cusparia. Three-leaved Bonplandia. De Candolle, Humboldt, 1. c. tab. 97. Mem. de l'Institut, 184. Part I. p. 82.

pl. 10. Officinal. Cusparia, Lond. Bonplandiae trifoliatae Cortex, Edin, Cortex Angustura, Dub. Cusparia bark, Bonplandia bark, or Angustura bark.

Syn. Angusture (F.), Angusturarinde (G.), Angustura (I.).

There is reason to believe that M. Saint Hilaire is correct in regarding the tree, which yields the Cusparia bark as a Galipea. The London College has adopted the specific name Cusparia.

This tree is a native of South America, growing abundantly in the woods five or six leagues from the eastern bank of the Carony, at the foot of the hills that surround the missions of Capassui, Upata, and Alta Graecia. It grows also west of Cumana, in the Gulf of Santa Fe; and, as Humboldt remarks, may become an article of export from New Andalusia. It is an elegant evergreen, rising to the height of from sixty to eighty feet, having a cylindrical trunk, covered with a grey-coloured bark, and branching towards the summit. The branches are alternate, the upper ones spreading nearly horizontally. The leaves, which are ranged alternately on the branches, are about two feet long, independent of the petiole, and composed of three elegant oblong ovate leaflets, pointed at each extremity, and attached at their bases to a single channelled petiole, from ten to twelve inches in length. The leaflets are glandular, and, when fresh, exhale an agreeable aromatic odour. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme, composed of alternate peduncles, bearing from three to six flowers each: the calyx is inferior, persistent, five-toothed, and tomentose : the corolla is funnel-shaped, and composed of five petals, so united below as to appear as one tube, with a five-cleft spreading tube.

The nectary consists of fine glandular bodies. The stamens, which are shorter than the petals, have white filaments supporting oblong yellow anthers; the pistil is formed of five oval hairy ovaries, from the centre of which a single style rises, supporting five fleshy green stigmata. The fruit consists of five oval bivalve capsules, each enclosing a single seed. According to Dr. Hancock the height of the tree seldom exceeds twenty feet; indeed, the appearance of the bark indicates a small tree. The first parcels of Cusparia bark were imported from Dominica in 1778, and the tree yielding it was supposed to be a native of Africa1; but im-portations from Cadiz and the Havannah, and the travels of Humboldt and Bonpland, have led to the knowledge of the real place of its growth. It is brought to this country packed in casks; but the original package, as Mr.Brande, senior,who first wrote on the subject, informs us, is curiously made of the large leaves of a species of palm, surrounded by a kind of network of sticks.

The bark is in pieces of different lengths, some nearly flat, and others in partial quills of all sizes intermixed.

1 Thomson's Chymistry, 4th edit. v. 142.

Qualities.-The odour of this bark is not strong, but peculiar; the taste is bitter, slightly aromatic and permanent, leaving a sense of heat and pungency in the throat. The pieces are covered with a whitish, wrinkled, thin epidermis : the inner surface is smooth, of a brownish-yellow colour, and the intermediate substance mottled-fawn colour, and of a compact texture. It breaks with a close, short, resinous fracture, is easily pulverized, and affords a powder which, when triturated with lime or calcined magnesia, gives a smell of ammonia. The active matter is taken up by cold and hot water in infusion, and is not injured even by coction, but the addition of alcohol precipitates part of the extractive. The alcoholic tincture reddens litmus paper, and becomes milky on the addition of water. The watery infusion precipitates the infusion of galls, and of yellow cinchona, but not gelatine.1 I found that it precipitates sulphate of iron, tartarized antimony, diacetate and acetate of lead, bichloride of mercury, and pure potassa, yellow; which confirms Vauquelin's analysis. Nitrate of silver also precipitates it yellow, but assumes a violet colour after some time. Sulphate and am-moniated sulphate of copper precipitate it green, owing to the presence of the igasauric acid.

Ammonia deepens the colour, but is not precipitated. Sulphuric acid gives the infusion a brown colour, and gradually a lemon-yellow precipitate is deposited; whilst nitric acid deepens the colour to a blood red, and after some time affords a lemon-yellow precipitate. The muriatic acid does not affect it. Sulphuric ether takes up one part from ten of the powder, and when evaporated on water, leaves a greenish yellow very acrid resin, and renders the water milky: the addition of nitro-muriatic acid changes this milky appearance to red, slowly producing a lemon-yellow coloured precipitate, and giving the resin on the side of the glass a brownish-pink colour. By distillation with water, the bark yields a small portion of a white essential oil. These experiments ascertain the substances which are incompatible in prescriptions with infusion or tincture of cusparia bark; and show that it contains resin, a peculiar variety of extractive, carbonate of ammonia, volatile oil, and igasauric acid, which I was inclined to think was in combination with cinchonia2: but Saladin has investigated the subject, and asserts that it is a new alkali, which he has termed

1 See Brande's Experiments and Observations on the Angustura Bark, a name which it received only because it came from Nueva Guayana, or Angustura.

1 Vauquelin. Annates de Chimie,lix. 130.

2A species of bark, in some respects resembling the Cusparia, has lately been introduced upon the Continent, possessing the most deleterious quality. Plamba has examined it, and named it Angustura ferruginea. It is readily distinguished from the true bark, by its greater thickness and weight, and the epidermis being of a brownish olive hue, and warty, and devoid of the lichen named Myriotrema. It impresses also the most nauseous and permanent bitter when chewed. By agitating the powder in very dilute muriatic acid, and then testing with ferro-cyanate of potassa, the infusion assumes a beautiful green, changing to blue, owing to the iron contained in the cuticle of this bark. The narcotic deleterious matter has been ascertained to be an alkali, which has been named Brucia. For particidars regarding its poisonous properties, vide Orfila's Traite des Poisons, torn. ii. p. 331, and The Lond. Med. Repository; and for the characters of Brucia, vide Ann. de Chim, et Phys. xii. 113.

Cusparin. It is readily procured by acting upon the infusion of Cusparia bark with absolute alcohol, and leaving it to spontaneous evaporation. The crystals procured are four-sided, melt at a low temperature, and lose 3.09 per cent. of weight. Water at 60° dissolves only 1/2 per cent., at 212° 1 per cent. They dissolve in acids and in alkalies, and are precipitated by infusion of galls.1

Medical properties and uses.-Cusparia bark is stimulant and tonic. It was introduced in the West Indies with very high pretensions; and, although it is not superior or even equal to cinchona bark in intermittent fevers, yet it is a remedy possessed of very considerable powers. It does not oppress the stomach, but gives to it a degree of warmth, expels flatus, keeps the bowels open, and increases the appetite for food. It is particularly efficacious in bilious diarrhoea and dysentery, after due evacuations; and also proves useful in dyspepsia, hysteria, leucorrhoea, and most of the diseases in which the use of a general tonic is indicated. Mr. Brande, senior, published several cases which came under his own observation, and some from the communications of others, in which its usefulness, as a remedy for intermittents, appears to be confirmed; but this is disputed, particularly by Alibert, who gave it a fair trial in the hospital of St. Louis. My own experience does not enable me to give an opinion on the subject.

Its employment is contra-indicated in directly inflammatory complaints, in hectic fever, and colliquative diarrhoea.

It may be exhibited in substance, in watery infusion, in tincture, and in the form of watery extract. The powdered bark is given in doses of from grs. v. to 3j., beyond which it is apt to induce nausea. It may be combined with rhubarb, neutral salts, magnesia, and testaceous medicines; or with powdered cinnamon, which covers its nauseous taste better than any other adjunct. Of the aqueous extract, grs. x. is a full dose. In large doses all the forms are apt to excite nausea.

Officinal preparations.-Infusum Cusparice, L. Infusum An-gusturce, D. Tinctura Bonplandiae trifoliatae, E. Tinctura Angusturae D.