Strychnos

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in botany, the typical genus of Strychneæ. Calyx, five-parted; corolla tubular, spreading; stamens five, inserted into the throat of the corolla; ovary two-celled; style one; fruit, a berry with a hard rind and a pulpy sarcocarp; seeds many. Natives of Asia, America, and Australia. S. Nux Vomica, the snake wood, strychnine tree, or nux vomica tree, is a moderate-sized evergreen, with dark gray bark and no spines; the leaves entire, strongly three to five nerved; the flowers small, greenish-white; the fruit round, like an orange in color, but smaller, with a brittle rind, a white, gelatinous pulp, and many seeds. It is found on hills and in forests in India and Burma. The seeds, which are about the size and shape of a 25-cent piece, constitute nux vomica and contain strychnine, and it is said, a brown dye. The wood is very bitter, especially the root, which has been given in intermittent fevers and as an antidote to the bites of venomous serpents. S. potatorum, a tree about 40 feet high, with only one seed, is the clearingnut tree of India; so called because the seeds render muddy water clear. They are used also in diseases of the eye. The fruit, which is like a black cherry, is eaten by the natives; the wood is used for carts, agricultural implements, and building. S. toxifera, the Guiana poison plant, is a climber, with a stem covered with long, spreading, red hairs, and five-nerved acuminate leaves. It furnishes the chief ingredient of the poison called woorali, or oorali. S. tieute, from Java, has elliptical, acuminate, three-nerved, glabrous leaves, with simple tendrils opposite to them. It yields another deadly poison. S. ligustrina is said by Blume to furnish the genuine Lignum colubrinum. It is given in Java in paralysis of the lower extremities and as an anthelmintic. S. pseudoquina, a Brazilian tree about 12 feet high, has a corky bark (said to be equal to cinchona as a febrifuge), and short-stalked, ovate, quintuple-nerved leaves; all parts of it are intensely bitter except the fruit, which is eaten by children. The fruit of S. colubrina, a large Indian climbing shrub, is esteemed by the Telegus as an antidote to the bite of the cobra. The fruit of S. innocua is eaten in Egypt.