WINTERA, in botany: A genus of plants of the class of polycarpia, and order of pentagynia; and in the natural system arranged under the 12th order, Holocaraceae. The calyx is three-lobed; there are six or twelve petals; there is no style; the fruit is a berry, which is club-shaped as well as the germen. There are two species; the aromatica and granadensis.
Wintera 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 axilla 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.
There is no calyx; 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, to whom the world is indebted for the description, never saw the fruit in its perfectly ripe state; but could conclude from the unripe fruit 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 DXL. 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; here, therefore, it is thought they would thrive very well.
The bark of the wintera, 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 spicy 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 Straits of Magellan, and is the produce of the tree above described; much celebrated as an antiscorbutic 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. See CANELLA.
From several experiments made by Dr Morris, the cortex magellanica appears to be an affirment of a particular kind, and therefore likely to be of use in several manufactures. Water is the proper solvent of this bark; though the saline, gummy, and resinous parts are so blended in it, as in saffron 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 senna, 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.