2 Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 904. Cl. 17. Ord. 4. Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. ord. Leguminosae. G. 1318. Calyx five-toothed. Legume falcated, leafy, varicose, surrounded with a wing, not gaping. Seeds solitary. Sp.6. P. Santalinus. Red Saunders tree, Med. Bot. 3d edit.

430. t.156. Willdenow, Spec. Plant, iii. 906. Sp. nova, P. Erinaceus. Encycl. Method. Lam. Illust. Gen. tab. 602.

fig. 4.

1. Pterocarpus Santalinus.

Officinal. Pterocarpus, Lond. Pterocarpi Santalini lignum, Edin. Santalum rubrum, lignum, Dub. Red Saunders wood.

Syn. Santale rouge (F.), Rothes Sandalholz (67.), Root Zandelhout (Dutch), Sandalo Roso (I.), Sandolo rubio (S.), Ract Chandan (H.), Segapoo Shan-danum (Tarn.), Sundul Ashmer (Arab.), Sundul Soork (Pers.), Ruct Han-doon (Cyng.), Ruckta Chunduna (Beng.), Racta Chandana (San.), Hoam pe mo (Chin.).

This tree is a native of the mountains of India, particularly the rocky parts in the Onore district3, and of Ceylon. It is a lofty tree, with alternate branches, and a bark resembling that of the common alder. The leaves are petiolate and ternate, each simple leaf being ovate, blunt, entire, retuse, veined, smooth on the upper surface, and hoary beneath; the flowers are in axillary spikes, without bractes: the calyx is brown : the corolla papilionaceous, consisting of an erect, obcordate vexillum, turned back at the edges, denticulate, curled, and waved, and of a yellow colour, with red veins; yellow, spreading, denticulate wings, waved at the edges; and an oblong keel a little inflated and curled at the tip: the filaments are yellow, and support globular, white anthers: the germen is oblong, compressed, hirsute, with a curved style, and an obtuse stigma: the pod is pedicelled, compressed, smooth, keeled along the lower edge, and contains one round compressed seed.

1 Martyn, in his edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, enumerates sixty varieties of the plum. The French prunes are the same as those which were formerly brought from Damascus.

2 From a wing, and fruit.

3 when transplanted to low situations and a richer soil, the tree degenerates, and is, in all respects, less esteemed.-Forbes's Oriental Mem. 4to, vol. i. p. 808.

This tree, which yields the true officinal red saunders, was first detected by Kcenig in India. The wood is brought home in billets, which are very heavy, and sink in water.

Qualities.-Red saunders wood has an aromatic odour, and is nearly insipid. It is extremely hard, of a fine grain, and a bright garnet-red colour, which deepens on exposure to the air. It yields its colouring matter, which appears to be of a resinous nature, to ether and alcohol, but not to water.1 The alcoholic tincture is red, but becomes yellow when largely diluted with water. Volatile oil of lavender also extracts its colouring matter; yet it is scarcely affected by oil of turpentine, which acquires a pale yellow tinge only, even when assisted by heat. Neumann first noticed this fact2; and it has been suggested that the camphor contained in the oil of lavender may give it the above property; but camphoreted oil of turpentine has no more effect than the simple oil. I find that by shaking oil of turpentine, which has been digested over red saunders, with a little alcohol, the slight tinge of colour it received is instantly taken up by the spirit, and the oil settles as a colourless substratum.

Red saunders has no medicinal properties, and is used only as a colouring matter.

2. Pterocarpus erinaceus.

Officinal. Kino, Lond, Dub.

Syn Gomme de Kino (F.), Kinoharz (G.), Chino (I.), Toomble hoan (Tam.).

1 Yet Willdenow, who received the description of the tree and its wood from Koenig, says, "attritu humido pulchre rubrum tingens." The yielding no colouring matter to water affords an easy mode of distinguishing red saunders from Brazil wood, which was first pointed out by Dr. Lewis.- Thomson's Chym. v. 208,

2 Neumann's Chym. 337.

Although the Edinburgh College has inserted kino as the inspissated juice of the Eucalyptus resinifera, in the list of materia medica of its Pharmacopoeia, and the Dublin College has considered it as the product of the Butea frondosa, yet we believe that the plant which yields the best kino is an African tree; and from a specimen sent home by Mungo Park, which is in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, it is a pterocarpus, and that species which is described under the specific name Erinaceae in the Encyclopedic Methodique. It is a native of Senegal; and is distinguished from the other species of the genus by long yellow spines on the fruit. The leaves are pinnated; composed of obtuse oval leaflets, larger at the base, petiolate, entire, thin, and smooth above; pubescent, and of a reddish hue below, where they are marked with fine, parallel, alternate, oblique ribs or nerves, a little arched. The flowers are on peduncles. The calyx is bell-shaped, truncated, slightly toothed, and pubescent. The fruit is a compressed, orbicular, pubescent pod, bulging on both sides in the middle, where it is covered with white hairs and long, numerous, yellow skins. It contains one seed only. This tree yields the real African kino, now seldom or never found in the market.

Kino, such as is brought from Botany Bay, is the production of the Eucalyptus resinifera, the brown gum tree of that country.1 It belongs to the natural order Myrtaceae; but it differs in several of its qualities from the kino described by Dr. Fothergill, who introduced this remedy into practice.2 We are informed, that little of it has been brought to this cotintry since 1802. Another sort is said to come from Jamaica; and it is stated by Dr. Duncan, junior, to be the extract of the Cocoloba uvifera, or sea-side grape3; while Dr. Murray says, "he has been informed that it is the extract of the wood of mahogany."4 The Dublin College indicated the Butea frondosa on the authority of Dr. Roxburgh: but the red juice which this plant yields has been examined by Dr. Duncan, and found to differ very considerably from kino, although it may be used as a substitute for it. The kino now chiefly found in the shops comes from India, and is the extract of the Nauclea Gambir, a plant belonging to the natural order Cinchonaceae. The branches and twigs are bruised and boiled in water. The decoction is then evaporated until it acquires the consistence of an extract, which is kino.