WINTERANIA Aromatica, the tree which produces the Winter's bark. Formerly this tree was utterly unknown to the Europeans till the return of Captain John Winter, who, in the year 1577, sailed with Sir Francis Drake, as commander of a ship called the Elizabeth, destined for the South Seas; but immediately after they had gone through the Straights of Magellan, Captain Winter, on the 8th of October 1578, was obliged by stress of weather to part company, and to go back again into the Straights, from whence he returned into England in June 1579, and brought with him several pieces of this aromatic bark; which Clusius, in his Exot. p. 75. calls after him Cortex Winteranus, or Winter's bark.
Several authors have mentioned it since in their botanical works; but all they have said has been copied from Clusius, e. g. Dalechamp hist. p. 1818. Parkinson Theat. p. 1652. Bauhin Pin. 461. Jonston Dendr. p. 232.
No more was heard of this bark till the Dutch fleet under admiral Van Nort returned from the Straights of Magellan in the year 1600. The author of their voyage calls this tree "Lauro similis arbor licet procerior, cortice piperis modo acri et mordenti." De Bry. Ind. Occid. vol. 9. p. 18.
Afterwards all the navigators who passed through the Straights of Magellan took notice of the tree on account of the usefulness of its bark; but none furnished any description that could make it botanically known, before Mr George Handasyd came from the Straights
Streights of Magellan, 1691, and brought with him some dried specimens, which he gave to Sir Hans Sloane, and are now preserved in the British Museum, Hort. Sicc. 8. fo. 100. 130. 148. 332. fo. 46. From these specimens, and the account Mr Handasyd gave of this tree, Sir Hans Sloane drew up a history, and gave a figure in the Philosophical Transactions, 1693, no 204. p. 922. t. 1. "Periclymenum rectum, foliis laurinis, cortice acri aromatico."
Still the systematic botanists could not give it a place in their catalogues, being unacquainted with its flowers and fruit.
Pomet, in his Mat. Med. p. 130. imagined our Winter's bark to be the same with the canella cinnamomea, Brown Hist. Jam. p. 275, fo. 3. Catesby Carol. vol. 2. p. 50. which grows in the West Indies, between the tropics, and is called by the druggists canella alba. This error has been followed by most of the modern writers, and the two trees proposed under the same name, viz. Winterania Canella, Lin. Sp. Pl. 638.
At length Dr Fothergill procured figures to be taken from the specimens brought by Captain Wallis from the Streights of Magellan, and prevailed with Dr Solander to give such a history and description of the tree as might enable botanists to place it in its proper rank. These were communicated to the London Medical Society, and published in the fifth volume of their Observations and Inquiries.
From the observations made by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Solander during their stay in Terra del Fuego, it seems as if the trees in the Streights of Magellan, near the sea coast, are flinted, perhaps from the high winds, and have smaller leaves than those upon Terra del Fuego, where again the flowers were not so much expanded as in the Streights of Magellan. This last difference may be occasioned by the season, as the flowers on Terra del Fuego were seen in the month of January, and in the Streights of Magellan in the month of March.
The Winter's-bark tree, Winterania aromatica, is one of the largest forest-trees upon Terra del Fuego; it often rises to the height of 50 feet. Its outward bark is on the trunk grey and very little wrinkled, on the branches quite smooth and green.
The branches do not spread horizontally, but are bent upwards, and form an elegant head of an oval shape.
The leaves come out, without order, of an oval elliptic shape, quite entire, obtuse, flat, smooth, shining, of a thick leathery substance, evergreen, on the upper side of a lively deep green colour, and of a pale bluish colour underneath, without any nerves, and their veins scarcely visible; they are somewhat narrower near the footstalks, and there their margins are bent downwards.
In general, the leaves are from three to four inches long, and between one and two broad; they have very short footstalks, seldom half an inch long, which are smooth, concave on the upper side, and convex underneath. From the scars of the old footstalks the branches are often tuberculated.
The peduncles, or footstalks for the flowers, come out of the axille foliorum, near the extremity of the branches; they are flat, of a pale colour, twice or three times shorter than the leaves; now and then they
support only one flower, but are oftener near the top divided into three short branches, each with one flower.
The bracts are oblong, pointed, concave, entire, thick, whitish, and situated one at the basis of each peduncle.
Calix, or flower-cup, it has none; but in its place the flower is surrounded with a spathaceous gem, of a thick leathery substance, green, but reddish on the side which has faced the sun: before this gem bursts, it is of a round form, and its size is that of a small pea. It bursts commonly so, that one side is higher than the other, and the segments are pointed.
The corolla consists always of seven petals, which are oval, obtuse, concave, erect, white, have small veins, and are of an unequal size, the largest scarcely four lines long; they very soon fade, and drop off almost as soon as the gem bursts.
The filaments are from 15 to 30, and are placed on the flat end side of the receptacle; they are much shorter than the petals, and gradually decrease in length towards the sides.
The anthers are large, oval, longitudinally divided into two, or as if each was made up of two oblong anthers.
The germina are from three to six, placed above the receptacle, turbinated, or of the shape of an inverted fig, flat on the inside, and somewhat higher than the stamens; they have no styles, but terminate in a stigma, which is divided into two or three small lobes.
Dr Solander never saw the fruit in its perfect ripe state; but could conclude from the unripe ones which he saw in abundance, that each germen becomes a separate seed-vessel, of a thick fleshy substance, and unilocular; and in each the rudiments of three, four, or five seeds were plainly discernible. See Plate CCCXXIII. where no 1. represents the spathaceous gem, after it is burst open. 2. The same. 3. The same (a) with the corolla (b) remaining within it. 4. One of the petals spread out. 5. The stamens (a) and the pistilla (b) after the gem and the corolla are taken away. 6. The outside of an anther (a) with its filament (b). 7. The inside of the same. 8. The germina (a) situated on the centre of the receptacle, after the stamens have been removed; the lobed stigma (b). 9. The convex or outermost side of a germen (a) with its stigma (b). 10. The inside of the same. 11. A germen cut open longitudinally, so as to show the rudiments of the seeds. 12. A germen cut through transversely.
The weather is much more severe in the climate where these trees are natives, than in Britain; where, therefore, it is thought they would thrive very well.
The bark of the Winterania, or Winter's cinnamon, brought over by the Dolphin, in respect to figure, exactly resembles that which was delineated by Clusius. The pieces are about three or four inches square, of different degrees of thickness, from a quarter to three quarters of an inch. It is of a dark brown cinnamon colour; an aromatic smell, if rubbed; and of a pungent, hot, spicery taste, which is lasting on the palate, though imparted slowly. It has the name of Winter's Cinnamon, from a faint resemblance in colour and flavour to that grateful aromatic, though differing from it greatly in every other respect. This bark is only brought to us from the Streights of Magellan, and is the produce of the tree above described; much celebrated as an anti-
Winterania scorbutic by the first discoverers, but unknown in the practice of physic, no quantity, except as a curiosity, having been brought to Europe till the return of the ships sent out on the expeditions to the South Seas.
The bark which was substituted in the room of this is the canella alba of the shops, the bark of a very different tree, and brought from a different part of the world, disagreeing with the former in almost every particular. It is of a light ash or grey colour; in thickness it seldom exceeds two-eighths of an inch. The pieces are of different lengths and irregular shapes, and for the most part are taken from trees of small size: its taste is aromatic, and has more of the clove than the cinnamon. It yields an essential oil by distillation, and is brought to us chiefly from Jamaica, though it is found in some other of the West-India islands. There are a few plants of it in the stoves of some curious botanists in England, particularly in that belonging to John Blackburne, Esq; at Oxford, Lancashire.
Sir Hans Sloane gives a figure of it in his History of Jamaica; from which it evidently appears to be a different genus from the Winterania aromatica.
For want of the knowledge of these circumstances, and an opportunity of comparing the genuine Winter's bark with the canella alba, some of the most respectable writers on the materia medica have scarcely been able to avoid confusion in treating this subject; which it is hoped for the future will be avoided, and the distinction between them sufficiently established.
From several experiments made by Dr Morris, the cortex magellanica appears to be an alstringent of a particular kind, and therefore likely to be of use in several manufactures. Water is the proper dissolvent of this bark; though the saline, gummy, and resinous parts are so blended in it, as in sassafras and some other vegetables, that it parts with them readily in proof and rectified spirits of wine, though not in so great a quantity.
The infusion and decoction of this bark were of so grateful an aromatic bitter taste, that it seems likely to be a pleasant vehicle for some of the nauseous drugs. With this view, on substituting the powder of this bark for the cardamom seeds in making the infusion of fenna, as directed in the London Dispensatory, the nauseous smell and taste of that excellent purgative was so effectually covered, as to be scarcely distinguished by the nicest palate. Tincture of rhubarb also prepared with this bark instead of cardamoms seemed far less disagreeable.
It must not be concealed, that the canella alba from Jamaica, which is generally sold for the Winter's bark in the shops, was found to have the last mentioned property, though not in so high a degree.