Order II
DILLENIACEE.
Fine plants, almost exclusively confined to tropical countries. Dillénia speciósa, a native of India, is a most noble tree with large yellow flowers, owers, rivalling those of a Magnólia. Hibbértia volúbilis is a green-house plant well known for the beauty of its blossoms, and their powerfully fetid smell. The medical properties of this order are scarcely known; a decoction of their leaves or bark is astringent, and used for gargles; and the acid juice of the fruit of some of the species of Dillénia is used in India, mixed with water, as a pleasant beverage in fevers. The foliage of many of the species is extremely scabrous, whence the dried leaves are used for the same purposes as fish-skin and sand-paper in Europe; those of Trachytélla áspera are even employed in China for polishing works of metal. 1201 Curatélla W. 1212 Tetrácera L. 1206 Trachytélla Dec. 1214 Dillénia W.