oreodaphne

[Pref. oreo-, and Gr. daphně a laurel.] 1. Bot .: A genus of Lauraceae, chiefly from tropical America. It consists of large trees with alternate leaves and panicles or racemes of umbel-like heads of flowers, with nine stamens. Oreodaphne opifera is a large tree found in the forests between the Orinoco and the Parana. When incision is made in the bark, there gushes out a volatile oil, which is a discutient. The fruit, when distilled, yields a yellow wine-colored and scented volatile oil, used in Brazil in contractions of the joints, pains in the limbs, . O. fætens furnishes the til of the Canaries, a kind of wood with a bad odor; 0. exalt at a, the Sweet Wood of Jamaica; and O. cupular is , the cinnamon of the Isle of France. 2. Palæobot.: Oreodaphne heerii is found in the Older Pliocene of Italy.