Bot. Also strychnus, pl. strychni. [mod.L. (Linnæus, 1737) use of L. strychnos (Pliny), a. Gr. στρύχνος, a kind of nightshade.] A genus of plants (N.O. Loganaceæ), including the nux vomica (S. Nux-vomica), the St. Ignatius’ bean (S. Ignatia), and other species. Also, a plant or a species of this genus.
[1601. Holland, Pliny, XXVII. viii. II. 280. Some … call this hearbe by another name, Strumus, and others give it the Greeke name Strychnos.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Strychnus or Strychnis, an Herb which makes those mad that eat of it.]
1836. J. M. Gully, Magendie’s Formul. (ed. 2), 1. In the year 1809 I presented to the senior class of the French Institute an account of a series of experiments which had led to the discovery that a whole vegetable family, the bitter strychni, possessed the property of stimulating the spinal marrow to an extraordinary developement of its functions.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 152/1. The genus Strychnos, consisting of about twelve species.
