Description. -- The Ignatius Amara is a branching tree with long, taper, smooth, scrambling branches. The leaves are veiny, smooth, and a span long. The flowers are long, nodding, and white, and smell like jasmine. The fruit is small and pear-shaped, and the seeds number about twenty, are angular, and are imbedded in a soft pulp.
    History. -- The tree is indigenous to the Philippine Islands, and the seeds thereof are the St. Ignatius' Bean of the drug-shops. The bean yields its properties best to alcohol, but will also yield them to water. It contains about one-third more strychnia than nux-vomica, but is seldom used for the production of strychnia on account of its extreme scarcity.
    Properties and Uses. -- Very similar to nux-vomica seeds, but more energetic. It is used in nervous debility, amenorrhoea, chlorosis, epilepsy, worms, etc., with partial good effect, but is a dangerous article however well prepared, and should be used only by the advice of a professional gentleman, upon whose truth and ability you may place the utmost confidence. It should not be employed in domestic practice.
    Dose. -- Of the powdered seed, one grain; of the alcoholic extract, one-eighth of a grain.