present plant might have been referred to the Peruvian genus, with
propriety. So much does Pursh incline to this opinion, that he remarks,
“ if Pinckneya is not united with Cinchona, there will be some
of the latter genus found belonging to Pinckneya.” Unwilling to make
innovations in the nomenclature of botany, which is already sufficiently
confused by synonymy, the Pinckneya is suffered to remain
where it was placed by Michaux, its reputed discoverer, although
my own opinion on the subject, leans to the propriety of uniting it
with the Peruvian barks, the more especially as, together with its
generic affinities, it presents a similarity of medicinal virtues. The
only difference in the fruit pointed out by Michaux, is the opening
of the capsule in a line transverse with the axis of its partition, and
not parallel to it as in Cinchona. Indeed, the fruit in its maturity is,
as Mr. Nuttall has stated, distinctly bipartile in the line of the dissepiment
as in Cinchona, and not contrariwise to the valves, but a continuation
of their margin, proceeding inwardly to the axis of the capsule.
Yet it must be confessed, there is a habit in Pinckneya foreign
to that of the generality of the species of Cinchona, and perhaps the
peculiarity of its (economy, apparent in the bracteiform enlargement
of one of the divisions of the calix, together with the form of the
calix, which differs from that of Cinchona independently of the fruit,
may be considered veritable points of descrepancy from that genus.
It is remarked by some European botanists, that in the peculiarity
just mentioned, this tree agrees with the first and second species of
Musssenda, where the bracteiform enlargement of the calix occurs;
while in their opinion it agrees with Cinchona in habit. Hence they
think it is a genus intermediate between Cinchona and Musssenda.
The name Georgia bark, imposed on this tree, is derived from
the circumstance of its medicinal employment by the Georgians, and
it is said successfully, in intermittent fever. It is the inner bark which
is possessed of bitter and febrifuge virtues, and is used in decoction.
A more particular account of the medicinal virtues of this native
bark, which promises to be the best indigenous substitute for the
Peruvian medicine, will be given in the third volume of my “ Vegetable
Materia Medica of the United States,” which will be published
in a short time.
The drawing was made from fine specimens, obtained from the
garden of Messrs. Landretli, near this city, where it flowered in
great perfection this summer. It is there a bushy shrub, about eight
feet high, and grows luxuriantly, though in an open border.
The table represents a flowering specimen, culled in July, of its
natural size.