Chapter XVII: Part 17

=Description=—The petals adhere together loosely in the form of little cones, or are more or less crumpled and separate. When well preserved, they are crisp and dry, with a velvety surface of an intense purplish crimson, a delicious rosy odour, and a mildly astringent taste. The white basal portion of the petals should be nearly absent. For making the confection, the petals are required in a fresh state.

=Chemical Composition=—Red rose petals impart to ether, without losing their colour, a soft yellow substance, which is a mixture of a solid fat and _Quercitrin_. Filhol has shown (1864) that it is the latter body, and not tannic acid, of which the petals contain but a trace, that produces the dark greenish precipitate with ferric salts. The same chemist found in the petals 20 per cent. (?) of glucose which, together with colouring matter and gallic acid, is extracted by alcohol after exhaustion by ether. According to Rochleder (1867), the gallic acid in red roses is accompanied by querci-tannic acid.

[989] Pomet, _Hist. des Drogues_, 1694, part i. 174-177, speaks of the roses of Provins being “hautes en couleur, c’est à dire d’un rouge noir, velouté ... très astringentes.”

[990] Assier, _Légendes, curiosités et traditions de la Champagne et de la Brie_, Paris. 1860. 191.

[991] Stephanus (Carolus), _De re hortens libellus_, Paris, 1536. 29 (in Brit. Mus.).

[992] _Dispensatorium_, 1548. 39. 52.

[993] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for_ 1871-72, pt. ii. 43.

The colouring matter which is so striking a constituent of the petals, is according to Senier an acid, which appears to form crystallizable salts with potassium and sodium.[994] An infusion of the petals is pale red, but becomes immediately of a deep and brilliant crimson if we add to it an acid, such as sulphuric, hydrochloric, acetic, oxalic, or tartaric. An alkali changes the pale red, or the deep crimson in the case of the acidulated infusion, to bright green.

=Uses=—An infusion of red rose petals, acidulated with sulphuric acid and slightly sweetened, is a very common and agreeable vehicle for some other medicines. The confection made by beating up the petals with sugar, is also in use.

PETALA ROSÆ CENTIFOLIÆ.

_Flores Rosæ pallidæ v. incarnatæ_; _Provence Rose_, _Cabbage Rose_; F. _Pétales de Roses pâles_; G. _Centifolienrosen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa centifolia_ L.—This rose grows in a wild state and with single flowers in the eastern part of the Caucasus.[995] Cultivated and with flowers more or less double, it is found under an infinity of varieties in all the temperate regions of the globe. The particular variety which is grown in England for medicinal use, is known in English gardens as the _Cabbage Rose_, but other varieties are cultivated for similar purposes on the Continent.

_R. centifolia_ L. is very closely allied to _R. gallica_ L.; though Boissier maintains the two species, there are other botanists who regard them as but one. The rose cultivated at Puteaux near Paris for druggists’ use, and hence called _Rose de Puteaux_, is the _Rosa bifera_ of Redouté, placed by De Candolle though doubtfully under _R. damascena_.

=History=—We are unable to trace the history of the particular variety of rose under notice. That it is not of recent origin, seems evident from its occurrence chiefly in old gardens. The _Rosa pallida_ of the older English writers on drugs[996] was called _Damask Rose_, but that name is now applied at Mitcham to _Rosa gallica_ L., which has very deep-coloured flowers.

=Production=—The Cabbage Rose is cultivated in England to a very small extent, rose water, which is made from its flowers, being procurable of better quality and at a lower cost in other countries, especially in the south of France. At Mitcham, whence the London druggists have long been supplied, there are now (1873) only about 8 acres planted with this rose, but a supply is also derived from the market gardens of Putney, Hammersmith and Fulham.

[994] _Yearbook of Pharm._ 1877. 63; also Filhol in _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxviii. (1860) 21; Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1864) 522.

[995] Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 676.

[996] As Dale, _Pharmacologia_, 1693. 416.

=Description=—The Cabbage Rose is supplied to the druggists in the fresh state, full blown, and picked off close below the calyx. A complete description is scarcely required: we need only say that it is a large and very double rose, of a beautiful pink colour and of delicious odour. The calyx is covered with short setæ tipped with a fragrant, brown, viscid secretion. The petals are thin and delicate (not thick and leathery as in the Tea Roses), and turn brown on drying.

In making rose water, it is the custom in some laboratories to strip the petals from the calyx and to reject the latter; in others, the roses are distilled entire, and so far as we have observed, with equally good result.

=Chemical Composition=—In a chemical point of view, the petals of _R. centifolia_ agree with those of _R. gallica_, even as to the colouring matter. Enz in 1867 obtained from the former, malic and tartaric acid, tannin, fat, resin, and sugar.

In the distillation of large quantities of the flowers, a little essential oil is obtained. It is a butyraceous substance, of weak rose-like, but not very agreeable odour. It contains a large proportion of inodorous stearoptene. For further particulars see remarks under the head _Attar of Rose_.

=Uses=—Cabbage roses are now scarcely employed in pharmacy for any other purpose than making rose water. A syrup used to be prepared from them, which was esteemed a mild laxative.

OLEUM ROSÆ.

_Attar or Otto[997] of Rose_, _Rose Oil_; F. _Essence de Roses_; G. _Rosenöl_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa damascena_ Miller, var.—This is the rose cultivated in Turkey for the production of attar of rose; it is a tall shrub with semi-double, light-red (rarely white) flowers, of moderate size, produced several on a branch, though not in clusters. Living specimens sent by Baur[998] which flowered at Tübingen, were examined by H. von Mohl and named as above.[999]

_R. damascena_ is unknown in a wild state. Koch[1000] asserts that it was brought in remote times to Southern Italy, whence it spread northward. In the opinion of Baker[1001] Rosa damascena is to be referred to Rosa gallica (see p. 259 above); it must be granted that the Rose mentioned in footnote 2, as grown with one of us, approaches very much to Rosa gallica.

=History=—Much as roses were prized by the ancients, no preparation such as rose water or attar of rose was obtained from them. The liquid that bore the name of _Rose Oil_ (ῤόδινον ἔλαιον) is stated by Dioscorides[1002] to be a fatty oil in which roses have been steeped. In Europe a similar preparation was in use down to the last century, _Oleum rosarum_, _rosatum_ or _rosaceum_, signifying an infusion of roses in olive oil in the _London Pharmacopœia_ of 1721.

[997] _Attar_ or _Otto_ is from the word _itr_ signifying _perfume_ or _odour_; the oil is called in Turkish _Itr-yàghi_ i.e. _Perfume-oil_, and also _Ghyùl-yàghi_ i.e. _Rose oil_.

[998] A living plant followed by excellent herbarium specimens has been kindly given to me by Dr. Baur of Blaubeuren, the father of Dr. Baur of Constantinople—D. H.

[999] Wiggers u. Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1867. 350.

[1000] _Dendrologie_, i. (1869) 250.

[1001] _Journ. of Botany_, Jan. 1875. 8.

[1002] Lib. i. c. 53.

The first allusion to the distillation of roses we have met with, is in the writings of Joannes Actuarius,[1003] who was physician to the Greek emperors at Constantinople towards the close of the 13th century. Rose water was distilled at an early date in Persia; and Nisibin, a town north-west of Mosul, was famous for it in the 14th century.[1004]

Kämpfer speaks[1005] with admiration of the roses he saw at Shiraz (1683-4), and says that the water distilled from them is exported to other parts of Persia, as well as to all India; and he adds as a singular fact, that there separates from it a certain fat-like butter, called _Ættr gyl_, of the most exquisite odour, and more valuable even than gold. The commerce to India, though much declining, still exists; and in the year 1872-73, 20,100 gallons of rose water, valued at 35,178 rupees (£3,517), were imported into Bombay from the Persian Gulf.[1006] Rose oil itself is no longer exported from Persia, as it still used to be from Shiraz in the time of Niebuhr (1778).

Rose water was much used in Europe during the middle ages, both in cookery and at the table. In some parts of France, vassals were compelled to furnish to their lords so many bushels of roses, which were consumed in the distillation of rose water.[1007]

The fact that a butyraceous oil of delicious fragrance is separable from rose water, was noticed by Geronimo Rossi[1008] of Ravenna in 1582 (or in 1574?) and by Giovanni Battista Porta[1009] of Naples in 1589; the latter in his work on distillation says—“Omnium difficillime extractionis est rosarum oleum atque in minima quantitate sed suavissimi odoris.”[1010] The oil was also known to the apothecaries of Germany in the beginning of the 17th century, and is quoted in official drug-tariffs of that time.[1011] Angelus Sala, about 1620, in describing the distillation of the oil speaks of it as being of “ ... candicante pinguedine instar Spermatis Ceti.” In Pomet’s time (1694) it was sold in Paris, though, on account of its high price, only in very small quantity. The mention of it by Homberg[1012] in 1700, and in a memoir by Aublet[1013] (1775) respecting the distillation of roses in the Isle of France, shows that the French perfumers of the last century were not unacquainted with true rose oil, but that it was a rare and very costly article.

The history of the discovery of the essence in India, is the subject of an interesting and learned pamphlet by Langlès,[1014] published in 1804. He tells us on the authority of oriental writers, how on the occasion of the marriage of the Mogul emperor Jehan Ghir with Nur-jehan, A.D. 1612, a canal in the garden of the palace was filled with rose water, and that the princess observing a certain scum on the surface, caused it to be collected and found it of admirable fragrance, on which account it received the name of _Atar-jehanghiri_, i.e. _perfume of Jehan Ghir_. In later times, Polier[1015] has shown that rose oil is prepared in India by simple distillation of the flowers with water. But this Indian oil has never been imported into Europe as an article of trade.

[1003] “ ... stillatitii rosarum liquoris libra una.” _De Methodo Medendi_, lib. v. c. 4.

[1004] _Voyage d’Ibn Batoutah_, trad. par Defrémery, ii. (1854) 140.

[1005] _Amœnitates_, 1712. 373.

[1006] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay_ for 1872-73, part ii. 52.

[1007] Le Grand d’Aussy, _Hist. de la vie privée des François_, ii. (1815) 250.

[1008] Hieronymi Rubei Rav. _De Destillatione_, Ravennæ, 1582. 102.

[1009] _Magiæ Naturalis libri xx_, Neap. 1589. 188.

[1010] _De Distillatione_, Romæ (1608) 75.

[1011] Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharm._ Halle, 1876. 37. 38. 40.

[1012] _Observations sur les huiles des plantes—Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences_, 1700. 206.

[1013] _Hist. des Plantes de la Guiane françoise_, ii. Mémoires, p. 125.

[1014] _Recherches sur la découverie de l’Essence de Rose_, Paris, 1804.

[1015] _Asiatick Researches_, i. (1788) 332.

As already stated, the supplies at present come from European Turkey; but at what period the cultivation of the rose and manufacture of its oil were then introduced, is a question on which we are quite in the dark. There is no mention of attar in the account given by Savary[1016] in 1750 of the trade of Constantinople and Smyrna, but in the first years of the present century some rose oil was obtained in the Island of Chios as well as in Persia.[1017]

In English commerce, attar of rose was scarcely known until the commencement of the present century. It was first included in the British tariff in 1809, when the duty levied on it was 10_s._ per ounce. In 1813 the duty was raised to 11_s._ 10½_d._; in 1819 it was 6_s._, and in 1828, 2_s._ per ounce. In 1832 it was lowered to 1_s._ 4_d._ per lb., in 1842 to 1_s._ and in 1860 it was altogether removed.[1018]

On searching a file of the _London Price Current_, the first mention of “_Otto of Rose_” is in 1813, from which year it is regularly quoted. The price (in bond) from 1813 to 1815, varied from £3 to £5 5_s._ per ounce. The earliest notice of an importation is under date 1-8 July, 1813, when duty was paid on 232 ounces, shipped from Smyrna.

=Production=—The chief locality for attar of rose, and that by which European commerce is almost exclusively supplied, is a small tract of country on the southern side of the Balkan mountains, the “Tekne” of Kazanlik or Kisanlik, an undulated plain famous for its beauty, as picturesquely sketched by Kanitz[1019] and many other travellers. The principal seat of the trade is the town of Kizanlik, in the valley of the Tunja. The other important districts are those of Philippopli, Eski Zaghra, Yeni Zaghra, Tchirpan, Giopca, Karadsuh-Dagh, Kojun-Tepe, Pazandsik. North of the Balkans, there is only Travina to be mentioned as likewise producing attar. All these places with Kizanlik were estimated in 1859 to include 140 villages, having 2,500 stills.

The rose is cultivated by peasants in gardens and open fields, in which it is planted in rows as hedges, 3 to 4 feet high. The best localities are those occupying southern or south-eastern slopes. Plantations in high mountainous situations generally yield less, and the oil is of a quality that easily congeals. The flowers attain perfection in April and May, and are gathered before sunrise; those not wanted for immediate use are spread out in cellars, but are always used for distilling the same day. The apparatus is a copper still of the simplest description, connected with a straight tin tube, cooled by being passed through a tub fed by a stream of water. The largest establishment, “Fabrika,” at Kizanlik has 14 such stills. The charge for a still is 25 to 50 lb. of roses, from which the calyces are not removed. The first runnings are returned to the still; the second portion, which is received in glass flasks, is kept at a temperature not lower than 15° C. for a day or two, by which time most of the oil, bright and fluid, will have risen to the surface. From this, it is skimmed off by means of a small tin funnel having a fine orifice, and provided with a long handle. There are usually several stills together.

[1016] _Dict. de Commerce_, iv. 548.

[1017] Oliver, _Voyage dans l’Empire Othoman_, etc. ii. (Paris, An 9) 139, v. (1807) 367.

[1018] Information obligingly communicated by Mr. Seldon of the Statistical Office of the Custom-house.

[1019] _Donau-Bulgarien_, ii. (1877) 103-123.—A figure of a still is given, p. 123. A good map of the Tekne of Kizanlik and environs will be found in _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xi. (1876) Taf. 2.

The produce is extremely variable. According to Baur,[1020] whose interesting account of attar of rose is that of an eye-witness, it may be said to average 0·04 per cent. Another authority estimates the average yield as 0·037 per cent.

The harvest during the five years 1867-71 was reckoned to average somewhat below 400,000 _meticals_,[1021] or 4226 lb. avoirdupois; that of 1873, which was good, was estimated at 500,000 _meticals_, value about £70,000.[1022]

Roses are cultivated to a considerable extent about Grasse, Cannes and Nice in the south of France; and besides much rose water, which is largely exported to England, a little oil is produced. The latter, which commands a high price, fuses less easily than the Turkish.

There is a large cultivation of the rose for the purpose of making rose water and attar, at Ghazipur on the Ganges, Lahore, Amritsar and other places in India, but the produce is wholly consumed in the country. The species thus cultivated is stated by Brandis[1023] to be _R. damascena_. Medinet Fayum, south-west of Cairo, supplies the great demand of Egypt for rose vinegar and rose water.

Tunis has also some celebrity for similar products, which however do not reach Europe. A recent traveller[1024] states that the rose grown there, and from which attar is obtained, is _Rosa canina_ L., which is extremely fragrant; 30 lb. of the flowers afford about 1½ drachms, worth 15_s._ When at Genoa, in 1874, one of us (F.) had the opportunity of ascertaining that excellent oil of rose is occasionally imported there from Tunis.

The butyraceous oil which may be collected in distilling roses in England for rose water is of no value as a perfume.

=Description=—Oil of rose is a light yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0·87 to 0·89. By a reduction of temperature, it concretes owing to the separation of light, brilliant, platy crystals of a stearoptene, the proportion of which differs with the country in which the roses have been grown, the state of the weather during which the flowers were gathered, and other circumstances less well ascertained. The oil produced in the Balkans solidifies, according to Baur, at from 11 to 16° C. In some experiments made by one of us[1025] in 1859, the _fusing_ point of true Turkish attar was found to vary from 16 to 18°; that of a sample from India was 20° C.; of oil distilled in the south of France, 21 to 23°, of an oil produced in Paris, 29°; of oil obtained in distilling roses for rose water in London, 30 to 32° C.

[1020] _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1868) 286.

[1021] _Consular Reports presented to Parliament, May_, 1872.—The _metical_, _miskal_ or _midkal_ is equal to about 3 dwt. troy=4794 grammes.

[1022] _Consular Reports presented to Parliament_, Aug. 1873. 1090.

[1023] _Forest Flora of North-western and Central India_, 1874. 200.—D. Forbes Watson, Catal. of the Indian Department, Vienna exhibition, 1873. 98.

[1024] Von Maltzan, _Reise in den Regentschaften Tunis und Tripolis_, Leipzig, 1870.

[1025] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ xviii. (1859). 504-509. _Science Papers_, 172.

From these data, it appears that a cool northern climate is not conducive to the production of a highly odorous oil; and even in Bulgaria experience shows that the oil of the mountain districts holds a larger proportion of stearoptene than that of the lowlands.

Turkish oil of rose is stated by Baur to deviate a ray of polarized light 4° to the right, when examined in a column of 100 mm. The oil from English roses which we examined exhibited no rotation.

=Chemical Composition=—Rose oil is a mixture of a liquid constituent containing oxygen, to which it owes its perfume, and the solid hydrocarbon or stearoptene already mentioned, which is entirely destitute of odour. The proportion which these bodies bear to each other is extremely variable. From the Turkish oil, it may be obtained to the extent of 18 per cent., and from French and English to 35, 42, 60 or even 68 per cent.

Though the stearoptene can be entirely freed from the oxygenated oil, no method is known for the complete isolation of the latter. As obtained by Gladstone[1026], it had a sp. gr. of 0·881 and a boiling point of 216° C.

With regard to the stearoptene of rose oil, the analyses of Théodore de Saussure (1820) and Blanchet (1833) long since showed its composition to accord with the formula CₙH₂ₙ. The experiments of one of us[1027] confirm this striking fact, which assigns to the stearoptene in question a very exceptional place among the hydrocarbons of volatile oils, all of which are less rich in hydrogen.

Rose stearoptene separates when attar of roses is mixed with alcohol. We have isolated it also from oil obtained from Mitcham roses, by diluting the oil with a little chloroform and precipitating with glacial acetic acid or spirit of wine, the process being several times repeated. The stearoptene was lastly maintained for some days at 100° C.; thus obtained, it is inodorous, but when heated evolves an offensive smell like that of heated wax or fat. At 32·5° it melts; at 150° vapour is evolved; at 272° C. it begins to boil, soon after which it turns brown and then blackish. Stains of the stearoptene on paper do not disappear by the heat of the water-bath and the relapse of some days.

If cautiously melted by the warmth of the sun, the stearoptene forms on cooling microscopic crystals of very peculiar shape. Most of them have the form of truncated hexahedral pyramids, not however belonging to the rhombohedric system, as the angles are evidently not equal; many of them are oddly curved, thus §. Examined under the polarizing microscope, these crystals from their refractive power make a brilliant object.

Rose stearoptene is a very stable body, yet by boiling it for some days with fuming nitric acid, it is slowly dissolved, and converted into various acids of the homologous series of fatty acids, and into oxalic acid. Among the former, we detected butyric and valerianic. The chief product is however succinic acid, which we obtained in pure crystals, showing all the well-known reactions.

[1026] _Journ. of Chem. Soc._ x. (1872) 12.

[1027] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1869) 147.

The same products are obtained even much easier by treating paraffin with nitric acid; it yields however less of succinic acid. The general behaviour and appearance of paraffin is in fact nearly the same as that of rose stearoptene. But what is called _paraffin_, is a series of extremely similar hydrocarbons, answering to the general formula CₙH₍₂ₙ₊₂₎ (_n_ being equal to more than 16), the separation of which has not yet been thoroughly effected. The fusion point of the different kinds of paraffin generally ranges from 42 to 60° C., yet one sort from the bituminous shale of Autun, prepared and examined by Laurent,[1028] melts at 33° C., and in this respect agrees with our stearoptene. It is therefore possible that the latter actually belongs to the paraffin series.

We have not ascertained the correctness of Baur’s strange experiments (1872, _Jahresbericht der Pharm._ p. 460), by which he believes to have converted the liquid part of rose oil into the stearoptene by means of a current of hydrogen.

=Commerce=—Formerly attar of rose came into commerce by way of Austria; it is now shipped from Constantinople. From the interior, it is transported in flattened round tin bottles called _kunkumas_, holding from 1 to 10 lb., which are sewed up in white woollen cloth. These sometimes reach this country, but more commonly the attar is transferred at Constantinople to small white glass bottles, ornamented with gilding, imported from Germany.

=Uses=—Attar of rose is of no medicinal importance, but serves occasionally as a scent for ointments. Rose water is sometimes made with it, but is not so good as that distilled from the flowers. Attar is much used in perfumery, but still more in the scenting of snuff.

=Adulteration=—No drug is more subject than attar of rose to adulteration, which is principally effected by the addition of the volatile oil of an Indian grass, _Andropogon Schœnanthus_ L. This oil, which is called in Turkish _Idris yàghi_, and also _Entershah_, and is more or less known to Europeans as _Geranium Oil_, is imported into Turkey for this express purpose, and even submitted to a sort of purification before being used.[1029] It was formerly added to the attar only in Constantinople, but now the mixing takes place at the seat of the manufacture. It is said that in many places the roses are absolutely sprinkled with it before being placed in the still. As grass oil does not solidify by cold, its admixture with rose oil renders the latter less disposed to crystallize. Hence arises a preference among the dealers in Turkey for attar of the mountain districts, which, having a good proportion of stearoptene, will bear the larger dilution with grass oil without its tendency to crystallize becoming suspiciously small. Thus, in the circular of a commercial house in Constantinople, dated from Kizanlik, occur the phrases—“_Extra strong oil_,”—“_Good strong congealing oil_,”—“_Strong good freezing oil_;”—while the 3rd quality of attar is spoken of as a “_not congealing oil_.” The same circular states the belief of the writers, that in the season in which they wrote, “_not a single metical of unadulterated oil_” would be sent away.

The chief criteria, according to Baur, for the purity of rose oil are:—1. _Temperature at which crystallization takes place_: a good oil should congeal well in five minutes at a temperature of 12·5° C. 2. _Manner of crystallizing._—The crystals should be light, feathery, shining plates, filling the whole liquid. Spermaceti, which has been sometimes used to replace the stearoptene, is liable to settle down in a _solid cake_, and is easily recognizable. Furthermore, it melts at 50° C. and so do most varieties of paraffin. The microscopic crystals of the latter are somewhat similar to those of rose stearoptene, yet they may be distinguished by an attentive comparative examination.

[1028] _Ann. de Chim. et de Phys._ liv. (1833) 394.

[1029] For particulars, see Baur (p. 262, note 3).

FRUCTUS ROSÆ CANINÆ.

_Cynosbata_; _Fruit of the Dog-rose_, _Hips_; F. _Fruits de Cynorrhodon_; G. _Hagebutten_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa canina_ L., a bush often 10 to 12 feet high, found in hedges and thickets throughout Europe except Lapland and Finland, and reaching the Canary Islands, Northern Africa, Persia and Siberia; universally dispersed throughout the British Islands.[1030]

=History=—The fruits of the wild rose, including other species besides _R. canina_ L., have a scanty, orange, acid, edible pulp, on account of which they were collected in ancient times when garden fruits were few and scarce. Galen[1031] mentions them as gathered by country people in his day, as they still are in Europe. Gerarde in the 16th century remarks that the fruit when ripe—“maketh most pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like.“ Though the pulp of hips preserved with sugar which is here alluded to, is no longer brought to table, at least in this country,[1032] it retains a place in pharmacy as a useful ingredient of pill-masses and electuaries.

=Description=—The fruit of a rose consists of the bottle-shaped calyx, become dilated and succulent by growth, and sometimes crowned with 5 leafy segments, enclosing numerous dry carpels or achenes, containing each one exalbuminous seed. The fruit of _R. canina_ called a _hip_, is ovoid, about ¾ of an inch long, with a smooth, red, shining surface. It is of a dense, fleshy texture, becoming on maturity, especially after frost, soft and pulpy, the pulp within the shining skin being of an orange colour, and of an agreeable sweetish subacid taste. The large interior cavity contains numerous hard achenes, which, as well as the walls of the former, are covered with strong short hairs.

For medicinal use, the only part required is the soft orange pulp, which is separated by rubbing it through a hair sieve.

=Microscopic Structure=—The epidermis of the fruit is made up of tabular cells containing red granules, which are much more abundant in the pulp. The latter, as usual in many ripe fruits, consists of isolated cells no longer forming a coherent tissue. Besides these cells, there occur small fibro-vascular bundles. Some of the cells enclose tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium; most of them however are loaded with red granules, either globular or somewhat elongated. They assume a bluish hue on addition of perchloride of iron, and are turned blackish by iodine. The later colouration reminds one of that assumed by starch granules under similar circumstances; yet on addition of a very dilute solution of iodine, the granules always exhibit a _blackish_, not a blue tint, so that they are not to be considered as starch granules. The hairs of the pulp are formed of a single, thick-walled cell, straight or sometimes a little crooked.

[1030] Baker, _Journ. of Linn. Soc._ Bot. xi. (1869) 226.

[1031] _De Alimentorum facultatibus_, ii. c. 14. In the Amur country a much larger and better fruit is afforded by _R. acicularis_ Lindl. and _R. cinnamomea_ L.—Maximowicz, _Primitiæ Floræ Amurensis_, 1859. 100. 453.

[1032] In Switzerland and Alsace a very agreeable _confiture_ of hips is still in use.

=Chemical Composition=—The pulp examined by Biltz (1824) was found to afford nearly 3 per cent. of citric acid, 7·7 of malic acid, besides citrates, malates and mineral salts, 25 per cent. of gum, and 30 of uncrystallizable sugar.

=Uses=—Hips are employed solely on account of their pulp, which mixed with twice its weight of sugar, constitutes the _Confectio Rosæ caninæ_ of pharmacy.

SEMEN CYDONIÆ.

_Quince Seeds_, _Quince Pips_; F. _Semences ou Pepins de Coings_; G. _Quittensamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Pirus Cydonia_ L. (_Cydonia vulgaris_ Pers.), the quince tree, is supposed to be a true native of Western Asia, from the Caucasian provinces of Russia to the Hindu Kush range in Northern India. But it is now apparently wild also in many of the countries which surround the Mediterranean basin.

In a cultivated state, it flourishes throughout temperate Europe, but is far more productive in southern than in northern regions. Quinces ripen in the south of England, but not in Scotland, nor in St. Petersburg, or in Christiana.

=History=—The quince was held in high esteem by the ancients, who considered it an emblem of happiness and fertility; and, as such, it was dedicated to Venus, whose temples it was used to decorate. Some antiquarians maintain that quinces were the _Golden Apples_ of the Hesperides. The name Cydonia alludes to the town of Kydon, now Canea, in Creta; in the Talmud quinces are called Cretan apples.

Porcius Cato in his graphic description of the management of a Roman farmhouse, alludes to the storing of quinces both cultivated and wild; and there is much other evidence to prove that from an early period the quince was abundantly grown throughout Italy. Charlemagne, A.D. 812, enjoined its cultivation in central Europe.[1033] At what period it was introduced into Britain is not evident, but we have observed that _Baked Quinces_ are mentioned among the viands served at the famous installation feast of Nevill, archbishop of York in 1466.[1034]

The use of mucilage of quince seeds has come to us through the Arabians; it is still met with in Turkestan.

=Description=—The quince is a handsome fruit of a golden yellow, in shape and size resembling a pear. It has a very agreeable and powerful smell, but an austere, astringent taste, so that it is not eatable in the raw state. In structure, it differs from an apple or a pear in having many seeds in each cell, instead of only two.

[1033] Pertz, _Monumenta Germaniæ historica_, Legum, i. (1835) 187.

[1034] Leland, _De rebus Britannicis Collectanea_, vi. (1774) 5.

The fruit is, like an apple, 5-celled, with each cell containing a double row of closely-packed seeds, 8 to 14 in number, cohering by a soft mucilaginous membrane with which each is surrounded. By drying, they become hard, but remain agglutinated as in the cell. The seeds have an ovoid or obconic form, rather flattened and 3-sided by mutual pressure. From the hilum at the lower pointed end, the raphe passes as a straight ridge to the opposite extremity, which is slightly beaked and marked with a scar indicating the chalaza. The edge opposite the raphe is more or less arched according to the position of the individual seed in the cell. The testa encloses two thick, veined cotyledons, having a straight radicle directed towards the hilum.

Quince seeds have a mahogany-brown colour, and when unbroken a simply mucilaginous taste. But the kernels have the odour and taste of bitter almonds, and evolve hydrocyanic acid when comminuted and mixed with water.

=Microscopic Structure=—The epidermis of the seed consists of one row of cylindrical cells, the walls of which swell up in the presence of water and are dissolved, so as to yield an abundance of mucilage. This process can easily be observed, if thin sections of the seed are examined under glycerine, which acts on them but slowly.

=Chemical Composition=—The mucilage of the epidermis is present in such quantity, that the seed easily coagulates forty times its weight of water. By complete exhaustion, the seeds afford about 20 per cent. of dry mucilage, containing considerable quantities of calcium salts and albuminous matter, of which it is not easily deprived. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid. After a short treatment with strong sulphuric acid it is coloured blue by iodine. Tollens and Kirchner (1874) assign to it the formula C₁₈H₂₈O₁₄, regarding it as a compound of gum, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₀, and cellulose, C₆H₁₀O₅, less one molecule of water.

Quince mucilage has but little adhesive power, and is not thickened by borax. That portion of it which is really in a state of solution and which may be separated by filtration, is precipitable by metallic salts or by alcohol. The latter precipitate after it has been dried is no longer dissolved by water either cold or warm. Quince mucilage is, on the whole, to be regarded as a soluble modification of cellulose.

The seeds on distillation with water afford a little hydrocyanic acid, and, probably, bitter almond oil.

=Commerce=—Quince seeds reach England from Hamburg; and are frequently quoted in Hamburg price-currents as _Russian_; they are also brought from the south of France and from the Cape of Good Hope. They are largely imported into India from the Persian Gulf, and by land from Afghanistan.

=Uses=—A decoction of quince seeds is occasionally used as a demulcent external application in skin complaints. It is also sometimes added to eye-lotions. Quince seeds are in general use among the natives of India as a demulcent tonic and restorative. They have been found useful by Europeans in dysentery.

HAMAMELIDEÆ.

STYRAX LIQUIDUS.[1035]

_Balsamum Styracis_; _Liquid Storax_; F. _Styrax liquide_; G. _Flüssiger Storax_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller (_L. imberbe Aiton_), a handsome, umbrageous tree resembling a plane, growing to the height of 30 to 40 feet or more,[1036] and forming forests in the extreme south-western part of Asia Minor. In this region the tree occurs in the district of Sighala near Melasso, about Budrum (the ancient Halicarnassus) and Moughla, also near Giova and Ullà in the Gulf of Giova, and lastly near Marmorizza and Isgengak opposite Rhodes. It also grows in the valley of the El-Asi (the ancient Orontes), as proved by a specimen in the Vienna herbarium, collected by Gödel, Austrian Consul at Alexandretta. In this locality it was seen by Kotschy in 1835, but mistaken for a plane. The same traveller informed one of us that he believed it to occur at Narkislik, a village near Alexandretta.

The tree is not known to grow in Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Kos, or indeed in any of the islands of the Mediterranean.[1037]

=History=—Two substances of different origin have been known from a remote period under the name of _Styrax_ or _Storax_, namely the resin of _Styrax officinalis_ L. (see further on), and that of _Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller, the latter commonly distinguished as _Liquid Storax_.

According to Krinos of Athens, who has carefully investigated the history of the drug,[1038] the earliest allusions to Liquid Storax occur in the writings of Aëtius and of Paulus Ægineta,[1039] who name both _Storax_ and _Liquid Storax_ (πύρα ζυγρὸς). Of these Greek physicians, who lived respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, the second also mentions the resin of Ζυγία, which is regarded by Krinos as synonymous with the latter substance.[1040]

[1035] The feminine gender of Styrax has been in use for a long time. In Greek it denotes the tree, as also does sometimes the masculine gender, the _neutral_ being reserved to the resin. In Latin the resin is masculini generis (Dr. Rice).

[1036] For a good figure of _L. orientalis_, see Hooker’s _Icones Plantarum_ (3rd series, 1867) pl. 1019, or Hanbury, _Science Papers_, 1876. 140; also Bentley and Trimen, _Medicinal Plants_, part 27 (1877).

[1037] The fine old trees existing at the convent of Antiphoniti on the north coast of Cyprus, and at that of Neophiti near Papho, specimens of which were distributed by Kotschy as _Liquidambar imberbis_ Ait., agree in all points with the American _L. stryaciflua_ L., and not with the Asiatic plant. Kotschy has told me that they have _certainly been planted_, and that no other examples exist in the island.—D. H. The same opinion is adopted by Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 8319.

[1038] Περί Στύακοτ δίατριβὴ ϕαρμακογραϕικὴ ἐν Ἀθῆναιπ, 1862.—This pamphlet is also the subject of a paper of Prof. Planchon, _Journ. de Pharm._ 24 (1876) 172. 243.

[1039] _Medicæ Artis Principes post Hippocratem et Galenum_, Par. 1567.—Aëtii tetr. 4. serm. 4. c. 122; P. Ægineta, _De re med._ vii. 20.

[1040] The foliage of the Liquidambar much resembles that of the common maple (_Acer campestre_ L.); hence the two trees as well as the plane (_Platanus orientalis_ L.) are confounded under one name,—Ζυγὸς or Ζυγίᾳ. So _Styrax officinalis_ L., from the resemblance of its leaves to those of _Pirus Cydonia_ L., is known in Greece as Ζυγὸς κυδωνήα kydônêa, i.e. _wild quince_.

We find in fact the term _Sigia_ frequently mentioned by Rhazes (10th century) as signifying Liquid Storax. This and other Arabian physicians were also familiar with the same substance under the name of _Miha_ (_may’a_), and also knew how and whence it was obtained.[1041]

A curious account of the collecting of Liquid Storax from the tree _Zygia_, and from another tree called _Stourika_, is given in the travels through Asia Minor to Palestine of the Russian abbot of Tver in A.D. 1113-1115.[1042]

The wide exportation and ancient use of Liquid Storax are very remarkable: even in the first century, as appears by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Storax, by which term there can be but little doubt _Liquid Storax_ was intended, was exported by the Red Sea to India. Whether the _Storax_ and _Storax Isaurica_ offered to the Church of Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, by the emperor Constantine,[1043] was Liquid Storax or the more precious resin of _Styrax officinalis_ L., is a point we cannot determine. That the Chinese used the drug was a fact known to Garcia de Orta (1535-63): Bretschneider[1044] has shown from Chinese sources that, together with olibanum and myrrh, it was imported by the Arabs into China during the Ming dynasty, A.D. 1368-1628. This trade is still carried on: the drug is conveyed by way of the Red Sea to Bombay, and thence shipped to China. Official returns show that the quantity thus exported from Bombay in the year 1856-57 was 13,328 lb. In the time of Kämpfer (1690-92), Liquid Storax was one of the most profitable articles of shipment to Japan.[1045]

Liquid Storax is known in the East, at least in the price-currents and trade statistics of Europeans, by the strange-sounding name of _Rose Malloes_ (_Rosa Mallas_, _Rosum Alloes_, _Rosmal_), a designation for it in use in the time of Garcia de Orta. Clusius[1046] considered it to be Arabic, which, however, the scholars whom we have consulted do not allow. Others identify it with _Rasamala_, the Malay name for _Altingia excelsa_. (See further on.)

The botanical origin of Liquid Storax was long a perplexing question to pharmacologists. It was correctly determined by Krinos, but his information on the subject published in a Greek newspaper in 1841, and repeated by Kosté in 1855,[1047] attracted no attention in Western Europe. The question was also investigated by one of the authors of the present work, whose observations, together with a figure of _Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller, were published in 1857.[1048]

[1041] _Ibn Baytar_, Sontheimer’s transl. ii. 539.

[1042] Noroff, _Pèlerinage en Terre Sainte de l’Igoumène russe Daniel_, St. Pétersb. 164.4°.—The passage has been kindly abstracted for us by Prof. Heyd of Stuttgart.

[1043] Vignolius, _Liber Pontificalis_, Romæ, i. (1724) 94.—The ancient Isauria was in Cilicia, the country of _Styrax officinalis_ L.

[1044] _On the knowledge possessed by the Chinese of the Arabs_, etc., Lond. 1871. 19.

[1045] _Hist. of Japan_, ed. Scheuchzer, i. 353.

[1046] _Exoticorum Libri_, 245.

[1047] Ἐγχειρίδιον Φαρμακολογίας, ύπὸ Ν. Κωστῆ, 1855. 356.

[1048] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ xvi. (1857) 417. 461, and iv. (1863) 436; _Science Papers_, 127-150.

=Method of Extraction=—The extraction of Liquid Storax is carried on in the forests of the south-west of Asia Minor, chiefly by a tribe of wandering Turcomans called _Yuruks_. The process has been described on the authority of Maltass and McCraith of Smyrna, and of Campbell, British Consul at Rhodes.[1049] The outer bark is said to be first removed from the trunk of the tree and rejected; the inner is then scraped off with a peculiar iron knife or scraper, and thrown into pits until a sufficient quantity has been collected. It is then boiled with water in a large copper, by which process the resin is separated, so that it can be skimmed off. This seems to be performed with sea water; some chloride of sodium can therefore be extracted from the drug. The boiled bark is put into hair bags and squeezed under a rude lever, hot water being added to assist in the separation of the resin, or as it is termed _yagh_, i.e. _oil_. Maltass states that the bark is pressed in the first instance _per se_, and afterwards treated with hot water. In either case the products obtained are the opaque, grey, semi-fluid resin known as _Liquid Storax_, and the fragrant cakes of foliaceous, brown bark, once common[1050] but now rare in European pharmacy, called _Cortex Thymiamatis_.

We are indebted to M. Felix Sahut of Montpellier for a specimen of the bark of _Liquidambar orientalis_, cut from the trunk of a fine tree on his property at the neighbouring village of Lattes. The bark which is covered with a very thick corky layer and soaked in its own fragrant resin, shows no tendency to exfoliate. The investigations of Unger[1051] in Cyprus are consequently to us inexplicable; he asserts that the bark scales off, like that of the plane, by continued exfoliation, which is not the case with that of M. Sahut’s tree.

[1049] Hanbury, _l.c._

[1050] It is no doubt the “_Cortex Olibani_” met with in the tariff of 1571, in Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie_, 26.

[1051] Unger u. Kotschy, _Die Insel Cypern_. Wien, 1865. 410.

=Description=—Liquid Storax is a soft viscid resin, usually of the consistence of honey, heavier than water, opaque and greyish brown. It always contains water, which by long standing rises to the surface. In one sample that had been kept more than 20 years, the resin at the bottom of the bottle formed a transparent layer of a pale golden brown. When liquid storax is heated, it becomes by the loss of water dark brown and transparent, the solid impurities settling to the bottom. Spread out in a very thin layer, it partially dries, but does not wholly lose its stickiness. When free from water (which reddens litmus) it dissolves in alcohol, spirit of wine, chloroform, ether, glacial acetic acid, bisulphide of carbon, and most of the essential oils, but not in the most volatile part of petroleum (“petroleum ether”). It has a pleasant balsamic smell, especially after it has been long kept; when recent, it is contaminated with an odour of bitumen or naphthalene that is far from agreeable. Its taste is sharply pungent, burning and aromatic.

When the opaque resin is subjected to microscopic examination, small brownish granules are observed in a viscid, colourless, transparent liquid, besides which large drops of a mobile watery liquid may be distinguished. In polarized light, numerous minute crystalline fragments with a few larger tabular crystals are obvious. But when thin layers of the resin are left on the object glass in a warm place, feathery or spicular crystals (styracin) shoot out on the edge of the clear liquid, while in the large, sharply-defined drops above mentioned, rectangular tables and short prisms (cinnamic acid) make their appearance. On applying more warmth after the water is evaporated, all the substances unite into a transparent, dark brown, thick liquid, which exhibits no crystalline structure on cooling, or only after a very long time. Among the fragments of the bark occurring in the crude resin, liber-fibres are frequently observable.

=Chemical Composition=—The most abundant constituent of Styrax is probably the _Storesin_, C₃₆H₅₅(OH)₃, discovered in 1877 by W. von Miller, or rather cinnamic ethers of it and of an isomeric substance. Storesin is an amorphous substance melting at 168° C., readily soluble in petroleum ether. Several other compound ethers have also been observed in the drug, as for instance _cinnamic ether of phenylpropyl_, _cinnamic ether of ethyl_, cinnamic ether of benzyl, and especially cinnamate of cinnamyl, C₉H₇O₂·C₉H₉, the so-called _Styracin_. This substance, discovered by Bonastre in 1827, can be removed by ether, benzol or alcohol, after the separation from the resin of the cinnamic acid; it is insoluble in water, and volatile only in super-heated steam. It crystallizes in tufts of long rectangular prisms, which melt at 38° C., but it frequently does not solidify in a crystalline form, or only after a long time, or remains as an oily liquid. In its pure state it is inodorous and tasteless. By concentrated solution of potash, it is resolved into a cinnamate, and cinnamic alcohol (_Styrone_) C₉H₁₀O, which latter is not present in Liquid Storax. The _cinnamic acid_ may be extracted to a small extent by boiling water, more completely by means of a boiling solution of carbonate of sodium, as it is present in the drug partly in the free state. Its compound ethers may be decomposed by caustic lye. The yield of cinnamic acid accordingly varies from 6 to 12 per cent.—or even, according to Löwe, as much as 23 per cent. of crystallized cinnamic acid can be obtained. The acid dissolves abundantly in ether, alcohol, or hot water, slightly in cold water; it is inodorous, but has an acrid taste. It fuses at 133° C., and boils at 290° C.; at a dull red heat it is resolved into carbonic acid and styrol, which latter is therefore related to it in the same manner as benzol (benzene) to benzoic acid. Liquid styrax is in fact the best source of cinnamic acid.

Another constituent of styrax is a fragrant substance, perhaps _ethylvanillin_, occurring in but small quantity.

Laubenheimer (1872) has shown that probably _Benzylic Alcohol_, C₇H₈O, boiling at 206° C., likewise occurs in Liquid Storax; it has not been found by Miller. The latter chemist also showed that water removes from the drug a little _benzoïc acid_; he observed moreover a substance similar to _caoutchouc_ among the constituents of liquid styrax.

There is further to be mentioned as having been met with in Liquid Storax a hydrocarbon, C₈H₈, first prepared by Simon in 1839, which exists in the resin as a liquid, and also in a polymeric form as a solid. The former called _Styrol_, _Cinnamene_, or _Cinnamol_, has a sp. gr. of 0·924, and a boiling point of 146° C. It is a colourless, mobile liquid which may be obtained by distilling with water liquid storax, the odour and burning taste of which it possesses. When heated for a considerable time to 100°, or for a shorter period to 200° C., it is converted without change of composition into the colourless, transparent solid _Metastyrol_, which, unlike styrol, is not soluble in alcohol or ether. It has a sp. gr. of 1·054, and may be cut with a knife. By prolonged heating, it can be converted into its original liquid form.

Styrol is to be regarded as phenylated ethylene; it can be artificially obtained by shaking powdered cinnamic acid with saturated hydrobromic acid, when crystalline hydrobromated cinnamic acid, C₆H₅·CH₂·CHBr·COOH, is formed. One part of the latter, 10 parts of water, and a little more carbonate of sodium than the quantity required for saturation are mixed. The bromhydrocinnamate of sodium partly splits up immediately, even at 0°, according to the following equation

C₆H₅·CH₂·CHBr·COONa = CO₂ + NaBr + C₆H₅·CH·CH₂.
Bromhydrocinnamate Styrol.
of sodium.

24 parts of bromhydrocinnamic acid, recrystallized from boiling bisulphide of carbon, yield about 7 parts of styrol; no other method affords as much as this.

Styrol has been discovered in Styrax, but is not regularly, and at all events to a minute amount only, found in the drug of the present day. We have no explanation for the strange fact that it was apparently more abundantly met with in former times.

Lastly there has been found in Liquid Storax, by J. H. van t’Hoff (1876), about 0·4 per cent. of an _essential oil_, probably C₁₀H₁₆O; Miller also pointed out a compound ether of probably the same (alcoholic) substance as occurring in styrax.

By the action of oxidizing agents, as nitric or chromic acids, or peroxide of lead, the cinnamyl compounds are easily reduced, carbonic acid and water being evolved; and at the same time benzoic acid, bitter almond oil, and hydrocyanic acid are produced. These compounds are in fact abundantly evolved when 6 parts of Liquid Storax are gently warmed with 1 p. of caustic soda, and then mixed with 3 p. of permanganate of potassium dissolved in 20 p. of water.

We have examined several samples of Liquid Storax of average quality, and found by exposure of small quantities to the heat of the steam bath, that it lost from 10 to 20 per cent. of water. The remainder treated with alcohol yielded a residue amounting to 13 to 18 per cent., consisting chiefly of fragments of bark and inorganic impurities. The percentage of the drug soluble in alcohol, to which is due its therapeutic value, thus amounts to 56 to 72. This part, as may be inferred from the foregoing statements, consists chiefly of storesin, the various compound ethers above mentioned, of cinnamic acid and of styracin, no doubt in greatly varying proportions.

=Commerce=—The annual production of Liquid Storax was estimated by Campbell in 1855 as about 490 cwt. for the districts of Giova and Ullá, and 300 cwt. for those of Marmorizza and Isgengak. The drug is exported in barrels to Constantinople, Smyrna, Syra and Alexandria. Some is also packed with a certain proportion of water in goatskins, and sent either by boats or overland to Smyrna, where it is transferred to barrels and shipped mostly to Trieste.

The chief consumption of Liquid Storax would appear to be in India and China. In the fiscal year 1866-67, Bombay imported 319 cwt. from the Red Sea. Liquid Storax is seldom seen in the London drug-sales.

=Uses=—Liquid Storax, which the _British Pharmacopœia_ directs to be purified by solution in spirit of wine, is an ingredient in a few old-fashioned preparations but is hardly ever prescribed on its own account. It is stated to be expectorant and stimulant, and useful in chronic bronchial affections. It has been recommended by Pastau, Berlin (1865), as an external application for the cure of scabies, for which purpose it is mixed with linseed oil and now largely used.

=Adulteration=—The drug is occasionally mixed with sand, ashes, and other substances; these would be detected by solution in spirit of wine, as well as by the microscope.

Allied Substances.

_Styrax Calamita_ (_Storax en pain_ Guibourt)—The substance that now bears this name is by no means the _Styrax Calamita_ of ancient times, but is an artificial compound made by mixing the residual Liquidambar bark called _Cortex Thymiamatis_ (p. 273), coarsely powdered, with Liquid Storax in the proportions of 3 to 2. It is at first a clammy mass, acquiring after a few weeks an appearance of mouldiness, due to minute silky crystals of styracin. It is usually imported in wooden drums, and has a very sweet smell. When the bark is scarce, common sawdust is substituted for it, while qualities still inferior are made up with the help of olibanum, honey, and earthy substances. This drug is manufactured at Trieste, Venice and Marseilles.

Several other odoriferous compounds, of which Liquid Storax appears to be the chief ingredient, are made in the East and may still be found in old drug warehouses.[1052]

_Resin of Styrax officinalis_ L.; =_True Storax_=—This was a solid resin somewhat resembling benzoin, of fragrant, balsamic odour, held in great estimation from the time of Dioscorides and Pliny down to the close of the last century. It was perhaps the “storace odorifero” exported in the 12th century from Pantellaria[1053] and Sicily. The drug was obtained from the stem of _Styrax officinalis_ L. (_Styraceæ_), a native of Greece, Asia Minor and Syria, now found also in Italy and Southern France. This plant when permitted to grow freely for several years, forms a small tree, in which state alone it appears to be capable of affording a fragrant resin. But in most localities it has been reduced by ruthless lopping to a mere bush, the young stems of which yield not a trace of exudation. True storax has thus utterly disappeared.

Professor Krinos of Athens has informed us (1871) that about Adalia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, a sort of solid storax obtained from _S. officinalis_ is still used as incense in the churches and mosques. The specimen of it which he has been good enough to send us, is not however resin, but _sawdust_; it is of a pale cinnamon-brown, and pleasant balsamic odour. By keeping, it emits an abundance of minute acicular crystals (styracin?). The substance is interesting in connection with the statement of Dioscorides, that the resin of _Styrax_ is adulterated with the _sawdust of the tree itself_, and the fact that the region where this sawdust is still in use is one of the localities for the drug (Pisidia) which he mentions.

[1052] The _Storax noir_ of Guibourt is one of these.