CHAP. 16. (8.)—MACIR.
Macir,[1] too, is a vegetable substance that is brought from
India, being a red bark that grows upon a large root, and bears
the name of the tree that produces it; what the nature of this
tree is, I have not been able to ascertain. A decoction of this
bark, mixed with honey, is greatly employed in medicine, as a
specific for dysentery.
1. What he means under this head is not known. Fée speaks of a tree
which the Brahmins call macre, and which the Portuguese called arvore
de las camaras, arvore sancto, arvore de sancto Thome, but of which they
have given no further particulars. Acosta, Clusius, and Bauhin have also
professed to give accounts of it, but they do not lead to its identification.
De Jussieu thinks that either the Soulamea, the Rex amaroris of Rumphius,
or else the Polycardia of Commerson is meant. It seems by no means impossible that mace, the covering of the nutmeg, is the substance alluded to,
an opinion that is supported by Gerard and Desfontaines.