Important: Safety Warning
This page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Order Liii
CELASTRINEE.
This order differs from the succeeding, in having the stamens alternate with the petals; the sepals imbricated in æstivation; and the ovarium wholly superior. It consists entirely of shrubs or small trees, with simple, rarely compound, alternate or opposite leaves, and inconspicuous flowers of a greenish or white color. Several are favorite ornaments of our shrubberies, as the Staphyléa, the Celastrus, and the Euonymus; the latter of which is valued on account of its beautiful-colored fruit. The fruit of Euonymus europæ us is a brisk purgative, as is also the inner bark, and in strong doses powerfully emetic. The famous Paraguay tea is the foliage of a species of I'lex. The bark of Prínos verticillátus possesses such active, astringent, bitter, tonic, and febrifugal qualities, that it is used in North America, with success, as a substitute for Cinchona. A decoction of the twigs of Maýtenus boária is used to bathe the swellings produced by the poisonous shade of the tree Lithi.
Tribe 1. STAPHYLEACEEE. 684 Staphyléa W.
Tribe 2. EUONYMEE. 31 Maýtenus Mol. 516 Elæodéndrum W. 509 Euonymus W. 507 Celastrus W.
Tribe 3. AQUIFOLIACEE. 682 Cassine W. 301 Hartógia W. 300 Curtísia W. 605 Bumálda Th. 314 Myginda W. 315 I'lex W.