Chapter XXX: Part 30

_Lavandula Spica_ is distilled in the south of France, the flowering wild plant in its entire state being used. The essential oil, which is termed in French _Essence d’Aspic_, is known to English druggists as _Oleum Lavandulæ spicæ_, _Oleum Spicæ_, or _Oil of Spike_. It resembles true oil of lavender, but compared with that distilled in England it has a much less delicate fragrance. This however may depend upon the frequent adulteration, for we find that flowers of the two plants (_L. vera_ and _L. Spica_) grown side by side in an English garden, are hardly distinguishable in fragrance. Porta already even, in speaking of the oil of lavender flowers, stated:[1753] “e _spica fragrantior_ excipitur, ut illud quod ex Gallia provenit....”—Lallemand (1859) isolated from oil of spike a camphor which he believes to be identical with common camphor.

Oil of Spike is used in porcelain painting and in veterinary medicine.

2. _Lavandula Stœchas_ L.—This plant was well known to the ancients; Dioscorides remarks that it gives a name to the Stœchades, the modern isles of Hières near Toulon, where the plant still abounds. It has a wider range than the two species of _Lavandula_ already described, for it is found in the Canaries and in Portugal, and eastward throughout the Mediterranean region to Constantinople and Asia Minor. It may at once be known from the other lavenders by its flower-spike being on a _short_ stalk, and terminating in 2 or 3 conspicuous purple bracts.

The flowers, called _Flores Stœchados_ or _Stœchas arabica_,[1754] were formerly kept in the shops, and had a place in the London Pharmacopœia down to 1746. We are not aware that they are, or ever were distilled for essential oil, though they are stated to be the source of _True Oil of Spike_.[1755]

HERBA MENTHÆ VIRIDIS.

_Spearmint._

=Botanical Origin=—_Mentha viridis_ L. is a fragrant perennial plant, chiefly known in Europe, Asia and North America, as the Common Mint of gardens, and only found apparently wild in countries where it has long been cultivated. It occurs occasionally in Britain under such circumstances.[1756]

[1752] On the high land between Nice and Turbia, I have observed the two species growing together, and that _L. vera_ is in flower two or three weeks earlier than _L. Spica_.—D. H.

[1753] _De distillatione_, Romæ, 1608. 87.

[1754] The incorrectness of the term _Arabica_ is noticed by Pomet. How it came to be applied we know not.

[1755] Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1368.—Nor do we know if _L. lanata_ Boiss., a very fragrant species closely allied to _L. Spica_ DC., and a native of Spain, is distilled in that country.

[1756] Bentham, _Handbook of the British Flora_, 1858. 413.—Parkinson (1640) remarks of _Speare Mint_ that it is “onely found planted in gardens with us.”

_Mentha viridis_ is regarded by Bentham as not improbably a variety of _M. silvestris_ L., perpetuated through its ready propagation by suckers. J. G. Baker remarks, that while these two plants are sufficiently distinct as found in England, yet continental forms occur which bridge over their differences.[1757]

=History=—Mint is mentioned in all early mediæval lists of plants, and was certainly cultivated in the convent gardens of the 9th century. Turner, who has been called “the father of English botany,” states in his _Herball_[1758] that the garden mint of his time was also called “_Spere Mynte_.” We find spearmint also described by Gerarde who terms it _Mentha Romana_ vel _Sarracenica_, or _Common Garden Mint_, but his statement that the leaves are _white_, _soft_, and _hairy_ does not well apply to the plant as now found in cultivation.

=Description=—Spearmint has a perennial rootstock which throws out long runners. Its stem 2 to 3 feet high is erect, when luxuriant branched below with short erecto-patent branches, firm, quadrangular, naked or slightly hairy beneath the nodes, often brightly tinged with purple. Leaves sessile or the lower slightly stalked, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, rounded or even cordate at the base, dark green and glabrous above, paler and prominently veined with green or purple beneath, rather thickly glandular, but either quite naked or hairy only on the midrib and principal veins, the point narrowed out and acute, the teeth sharp but neither very close nor deep, the lowest leaves measuring about 1 inch across by 3 or 4 inches long. Inflorescence a panicled arrangement of spikes, of which the main one is 3 or 4 inches long by ⅜ inch wide, the lowest whorls sometimes ½ an inch from each other and the lowest bracts leafy. Bracteoles linear-subulate, equalling or exceeding the expanded flowers, smooth or slightly ciliated. Pedicels about ¾ line long, purplish glandular, but never hairy. Calyx also often purplish, the tube campanulato-cylindrical, ⅜ line long, the teeth lanceolate-subulate, equalling the tube, the flower part of which is naked, but the teeth and often the upper part clothed more or less densely with erecto-patent hairs. Corolla reddish-purple, about twice as long as the calyx, naked both within and without. Not smooth.

The plant varies slightly in the shape of its leaves, elongation of spike and hairiness of calyx. The entire plant emits a most fragrant odour when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste.

=Production=—Spearmint is grown in kitchen gardens, and more largely in market gardens. A few acres are under cultivation with it at Mitcham, chiefly for the sake of the herb, which is sold mostly in a dried state.

The cultivation of spearmint is carried on in the United States in precisely the same manner as that of peppermint, but on a much smaller scale. Mr. H. G. Hotchkiss of Lyons, Wayne County, State of New York, has informed us that his manufacture of the essential oil amounted in 1870 to 1162 lb. The plant he employs appears from the specimen with which he has favoured us, to be identical with the spearmint of English gardens, and is not the Curled Mint (_Mentha crispa_) of Germany.

[1757] Seemann’s _Journal of Botany_, Aug. 1865. p. 239. We borrow Mr. Baker’s careful description of _Mentha viridis_.

[1758] Part 2. (1568) 54.

=Chemical Composition=—Spearmint yields an essential oil (_Oleum Menthæ viridis_) in which reside the medicinal virtues of the plant. Kane,[1759] who examined it, gives its sp. gr. as 0·914, and its boiling point as 160° C. The oil yielded him a considerable amount of stearoptene. Gladstone[1760] found spearmint oil to contain a hydrocarbon almost identical with oil of turpentine in odour and other physical properties, mixed with an oxidized oil to which is due the peculiar smell of the plant. The latter oil boils at 225° C.; its sp. gr. is 0·951, and it was found to be isomeric with carvol, C₁₀H₁₄O. According to our experiments the oil, distilled from Curled Mint grown in Germany, deviates the plane of polarization 37°·4 to the left when examined in a column of 100 millimetres. We prepared from it the crystallized compound (C₁₀H₁₄0)₂SH₂, and isolated from it the liquid C₁₀H₁₄O, which differs from carvol (see Fructus Carui, page 306) by its levogyrate power.[1761]

=Uses=—Spearmint is used in the form of essential oil and distilled water, precisely in the same manner as peppermint In the United States the oil is also employed by confectioners and the manufacturers of perfumed soap.

=Substitutes=—Oil of spearmint is now rarely distilled in England, its high cost[1762] causing it to be nearly unsaleable. The cheaper foreign oil is offered in price-currents as of two kinds, namely _American_ and _German_. Of the first we have already spoken: the second, termed in German _Krauseminzöl_, is the produce of _Mentha aquatica_ L. var. γ _crispa_ Bentham, a plant cultivated in Northern Germany. Its oil seems to agree with the oil of spearmint.

HERBA MENTHÆ PIPERITÆ.

_Peppermint_; F. _Menthe poivrée_; G. _Pfefferminze_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Mentha piperita_ Hudson (non Linn.), an erect usually glabrous perennial, much resembling the Common Spearmint of the gardens, but differing from it in having the leaves all stalked, the flowers larger, the upper whorls of flowers somewhat crowded together, and the lower separate. In the opinion of Bentham it is possibly a mere variety of _M. hirsuta_ L., with which it can be connected by numerous intermediate forms.

Peppermint rapidly propagates itself by runners, and is now found in wet places in several parts of England, as well as on the Continent. It is cultivated on the large scale in England, France, Germany, and North America.

=History=—_Mentha piperita_ was first observed in Hertfordshire by Dr. Eales, and communicated to Ray, who in the second edition of his _Synopsis Stirpium Britannicarum_, 1696, noticed it under the name of _Mentha spicis brevioribus et habitioribus, foliis Menthæ fuscæ, sapore fervido piperis_; and in his _Historia Plantarum_[1763] as “_Mentha palustris_ ... _Peper-Mint_.”[1764] Dale, who found the plant in the adjoining county of Essex, states[1765] that it is esteemed a specific in renal and vesical calculus; and Ray, in the third edition of his _Synopsis_, declares it superior to all other mints as a remedy for weakness of the stomach and for diarrhœa. Peppermint was admitted to the London Pharmacopœia in 1721, under the designation of _Mentha piperitis sapore_.

[1759] _Philosophical Magazine_, xiii. (1838) 444.

[1760] _Journ. of Chemical Society_, ii. (1854) 11.

[1761] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 75.

[1762] Price from 1824 to 1839, 40_s._ to 48_s._ per lb.

[1763] Tomus iii. (1704) 284.

[1764] I have examined the original specimen still preserved among Ray’s plants in the British Museum and find it to agree perfectly with the plant now in cultivation.—D. H.

[1765] _Pharmacologiæ Supplementum_, Lond. 1705. 117.

The cultivation of peppermint at Mitcham in Surrey dates from about 1750,[1766] at which period only a few acres of ground were there devoted to medicinal plants. At the end of the last century, above 100 acres were cropped with peppermint. But so late as 1805 there were no stills at Mitcham, and the herb had to be carried to London for the extraction of the oil. Of late years the cultivation has diminished in extent, by reason of the increased value of land and the competition of foreign oil of peppermint.

On the Continent Mentha Piperitis was grown as early as 1771 at Utrecht; Gaubius[1767] appears to have been the first to notice “_Camphora Europæa Menthæ Piperitidis_,” i.e. Menthol (see page 483).

In Germany peppermint became practically known in the latter half of the last century, especially through the recommendation of Knigge.[1768]

=Description=—The rootstock of peppermint is perennial, throwing out runners. The stem is erect, 3 to 4 feet high, when luxuriant somewhat branched below with erecto-patent branches, firm, quadrangular, slightly hairy, often tinged with purple. Leaves all stalked, the stalks of the lower ½ to ¾ of an inch long, naked or nearly so, the leaf lanceolate, narrowed or rather rounded towards the base, the point narrowed out and acute, the lowest 2 to 3 inches long by about ¾ of an inch broad, naked and dull green above, paler and glandular all over, but only slightly hairy upon the veins beneath; the teeth sharp, fine, and erecto-patent. Inflorescence in a loose lanceolate or acutely conical spike, 2 to 3 inches long by about ¾ of an inch broad at the base, the lowest whorls separate, and usually the lowest bracts leaf-like. Bracteoles lanceolate-acuminate, about equalling the expanded flowers, slightly ciliated. Pedicels 1 to 1½ lines long, purplish, glandular but not hairy. Calyx often purplish, the tube about 1 line long and the teeth ½ a line, the tube campanulate-cylindrical, purplish, not hairy, but dotted over with prominent glands; the teeth lanceolate subulate, furnished with short erecto-patent hairs. Corolla reddish-purple about twice as long as the calyx, naked both within and without. Nut smooth[1769] (_rugose_, according to our observation). The odour and taste are strongly aromatic.

In var. 2. _vulgaris_ of Sole, _M. piperita_ β. Smith, the plant is more hairy, with the spikes broader and shorter, or even bluntly capitate. colourless, pale yellow, or greenish liquid, of sp. gr. varying from 0·84 to 0·92. We learn from information kindly supplied by Messrs. Schimmel and Co., Leipzig, that the best peppermint grown in Germany, carefully dried, affords from 1 to 1·25 per cent. of oil. It has a strong and agreeable odour, with a powerful aromatic taste, followed by a sensation of cold when air is drawn into the mouth. We find that the Mitcham oil examined by polarized light in a column 50 mm. long, deviates from 14°·2 to 10°·7 to the left, American oil 4°·3.

=Chemical Composition=—The constituent for the sake of which peppermint is cultivated is the essential oil, _Oleum Menthæ piperitæ_, a coloureless, pale yellow or greenish liquid, of sp. gr. varying from 0·84 to 0·92. We learn from information kindly supplied by Messrs. Schimmel and Co., Leipzig, that the best peppermint grown in Germany, carefully dried from 1 to 1·25 per cent of oil. It has a strong and agreeable odour, with a powerful aromatic taste, followed by a sensation of cold when air is drawn into the mouth. We find that the Mitcham oil examined by polarized light in a column 50 mm. long, deviates from 14·2° to 10·7° to the left, American oil 4·2°.

[1766] Lysons, _Environs of London_, i. (1800) 254.

[1767] _Adversariorum varii argumenti liber unus_, Leidae, 1771. 99.

[1768] _De Menthâ Piperitide Commentatio_, Erlangæ, 1780.

[1769] This description is borrowed from Mr. Baker’s paper on the English Mints, referred to at page 480, note 1.

When oil of peppermint is cooled to -4° C., it sometimes deposits colourless hexagonal crystals of _Peppermint Camphor_, C₁₀H₁₉OH, called also _Menthol_. We have never observed it, nor are we aware that menthol has been noticed in America, but it is largely afforded by eastern mints, and found in commerce under the name of _Chinese_ or _Japanese Oil of Peppermint_,[1770] either liquid, and easily depositing the camphor, or also forming a crystalline mass impregnated with the liquid oil.

Pure menthol has the exquisite odour and taste of peppermint; it forms hexagonal crystals, melting at 42° C., and boiling at 212° C. By distilling menthol with P₂O₅ it yields menthene, C₁₀H₁₈, a levogyrate liquid, boiling at 163°, the peculiar odour of which reminds of peppermint.[1771] The Chinese crystallized oil of peppermint has sometimes a bitterish after-taste and an odour similar to that of spearmint, but by recrystallization it assumes the pure flavour.

The liquid part of the oil of peppermint has not yet been thoroughly investigated; it appears to consist chiefly of the compound C₁₀H₁₈O. Upon the liquid portions depend the remarkable colorations which the oil of peppermint is capable of assuming. If 50 to 70 drops of the crude oil are shaken with one drop of nitric acid, sp. gr. about 1·2, the mixture changes from faintly yellowish to brownish, and, after an hour or two, exhibits a bluish, violet or greenish colour; in reflected light, it appears reddish and not transparent. The colour thus produced lasts a fortnight. We have thus examined the various samples of peppermint oil at our command, and may state that the finest among them assume the most beautiful coloration and fluorescence, which, however, shows very appreciable differences. An inferior oil of American origin was not coloured; and a very old sample of an originally excellent English oil was likewise not coloured by the test. Menthol is not altered when similarly treated.[1772] The nitric acid test is not capable of revealing adulterations of peppermint oil, for the coloration takes place with an oil to which a considerable quantity of oil of turpentine has been added.

[1770] The Chinese oil is distilled at Canton, and was exported from Canton in 1872 to the extent of 800 lbs.; it was valued at about 30s. per lb.—See also Flückiger in _Pharm. Journ._ Oct. 14, 1871. 321. As to Japan we are informed that there are large plantations of peppermint; the oil “Hakano Abura” is exported from Hiogo and Osaka, but frequently adulterated. Mr. Holmes informed me (1879) that he found the mother plant coming nearest to _Mentha canadensis_.—F. A. F..

[1771] On Japanese Peppermint Camphor see Beckett and Alder Wright, _Yearbook of Pharm._ 1875. 605.

[1772] _Pharm. Journ._ Feb. 25, 1871. 682.

Remarkable colorations of a different hue are also displayed by the various kinds of oil of peppermint if other chemical agents are mixed with it. Thus green or brownish tints are produced by means of _anhydrous_ chloral; the oil becomes bluish or greenish or rose-coloured if shaken with a concentrated solution of bisulphite of sodium. It is worthy of note that oils of different origin, which cannot be distinguished by means of nitric acid, exhibit totally different colorations if mixed with either of the liquids just named, or with vapour of bromine. This behaviour may be of some use in the examination of commercial sorts of peppermint oil.

As to bisulphite of sodium, it yields a solid compound with certain kinds of peppermint oil, which we have not yet examined.

=Production and Commerce=—In several parts of Europe, as well as in the United States, peppermint is cultivated on the large scale as a medicinal plant.

In England the culture is carried on in the neighbourhood of Mitcham in Surrey, near Wisebeach in Cambridgeshire, Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, and Hitchin in Hertfordshire.

At Mitcham in 1850 there were about 500 acres under cultivation; in 1864 only about 219 acres.[1773] At Market Deeping there were in 1871 about 150 acres cropped with peppermint. The usual produce in oil may be reckoned at 8 to 12 lb. per acre. The fields of peppermint at Mitcham are level, with a rich, friable soil, well manured and naturally retentive of moisture. The ground is kept free from weeds, and in other respects is carefully tilled. The crop is cut in August, and the herb is usually allowed to dry on the ground before it is consigned to the stills. These are of large size, holding 1000 to 2000 gallons, and heated by coal; each still is furnished with a condensing worm of the usual character, which passes out into a small iron cage secured by a padlock, in which stands the oil separator. The distillation is conducted at the lowest possible temperature. The water that comes over with the oil is not distilled with another lot of herb, but is for the most part allowed to run away, a very little only being reserved as a perquisite of the workmen. The produce is very variable, and no facilities exist for estimating it with accuracy.[1774] It is however stated that a ton of dried peppermint yields from 2½ to 3½ pounds of oil, which equals 0·11 to 0·15 per cent. But we have been assured by a grower at Mitcham that the yield is as much as 6 pounds from a ton, or 0·26 per cent.

At Mitcham and its neighbourhood two varieties of peppermint are at present recognized, the one being known as _White Mint_, the other as _Black Mint_, but the differences between the two are very slight. The Black Mint has _purple_ stems; the White Mint, _green_ stems, and as we have observed, leaves rather more coarsely serrated than those of the Black. The Black Mint is more prolific in essential oil than the White, and hence more generally cultivated; but the oil of the latter is superior in delicacy of odour and commands a higher price. White Mint is said to be principally grown for drying in bundles, or as it is termed “_bunching_.”

[1773] _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 297. 340; also Warren in _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1865) 257. To these papers and to personal inquiries we are indebted for most of the particulars relating to peppermint culture at Mitcham.

[1774] Only the larger growers have stills. These they let to smaller cultivators who pay so much for distilling a charge, _i.e._ whatever the still can be made to contain, without reference to weight. Hence the dried herb is preferred to the fresh, as a larger quantity can be distilled at one time.

Peppermint is grown on a vastly larger scale in America, the localities where the cultivation is carried on being Southern Michigan, Western New York, and Ohio. In Michigan where the plant was introduced in 1855, there were in 1858 about 2100 acres devoted to its growth, all with the exception of about 100 acres being in the county of St. Joseph, where there are about 100 distilleries. The average produce of this district was estimated in 1858 at 15,000 lb.; but the yield fluctuates enormously, and in the exceptionally fine season of 1855 it was reckoned at 30,000 lb. We must suppose that it is sometimes much larger, for we have been informed by Mr. H. G. Hotchkiss, of Lyons, Wayne County, State of New York, one of the most well-known dealers, in a letter under date Oct. 10, 1871, that the quantity sent out by him in the previous year reached the enormous amount of 57,365 lb. It is further stated by the official statistics of Hamburg for the year 1876 that this port received 25,840 lb. of peppermint oil from the United States and 14,890 lb. from Great Britain.

From the statistics quoted by Stearns[1775] it would appear that the produce of oil per acre is somewhat higher in America than in England, but from various causes information on this head cannot be very reliable.

Peppermint is cultivated at Sens in the department of the Yonne in France[1776] and in Germany in the environs of Leipzig, where the little town of Cölleda produces annually as much as 40,000 cwts. of the herb.

The annual crop of the world is supposed to yield 90,000 lb. of peppermint oil.[1777]

Peppermint oil varies greatly in commercial value, that of Mitcham commanding twice or three times as high a price as the finest American. Even the oil of Mitcham is by no means uniform in quality, certain plots of ground affording a product of superior fragrance. A damp situation or badly drained ground is well known to be unfavourable to the quantity and quality of oil.

The presence of weeds among the peppermint is an important cause of deterioration to the oil, and at Mitcham some growers give a gratuity to their labourers to induce them to be careful in throwing out other plants when cutting the herb for distillation. One grower of peppermint known to us was compelled to abandon the cultivation, owing to the enormous increase of _Mentha arvensis_ L. which could not be separated, and which when distilled with the peppermint ruined the flavour of the latter. In America great detriment is occasioned by the growth of _Erigeron canadensis_ L. Newly cleared ground planted with peppermint is liable to the intrusion of another plant of the order Compositæ, _Erechtites hieracifolia_ Raf., which is also highly injurious to the quality of the oil.[1778]

=Uses=—A watery or spirituous solution of oil of peppermint is a grateful stimulant, and is a frequent adjunct to other medicines. Oil of peppermint is extensively consumed for flavouring and cordials.

[1775] To whose paper _On the Peppermint Plantations of Michigan_ in the _Proceedings of the Americ. Pharm. Assoc._ for 1858, we owe the few particulars for which we can here afford space.—To be farther consulted, same _Proceedings_, 1876. 828.

[1776] _Journ. de Pharm._ viii. (1868) 130.—Abstract from Roze, _La Menthe poivrée, sa culture en France, ses produits, falsifications de l’essence et moyens de les reconnaître_, Paris, 1868. 43 pages.

[1777] Todd, _Proceedings Am. Ph. Ass._ 1876, 828.

[1778] Maisch, _American Journ. of Pharm._ March 1870. 120.

HERBA PULEGII.

_Pennyroyal_[1779]; F. _Menthe pouliot_, _Pouliot vulgaire_; G. _Polei_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Mentha Pulegium_ L., a small perennial aromatic plant, common throughout the south of Europe and extending northward to Sweden, Denmark, England and Ireland, eastward to Asia Minor and Persia, and southward to Abyssinia, Algeria, Madeira and Teneriffe. It has been introduced into North[1780] and South America. For medicinal use it is cultivated on a small scale.

=History=—Pennyroyal was in high repute among the ancients. Both Dioscorides and Pliny describe its numerous virtues. In Northern Europe it was also much esteemed, as may be inferred from the frequent reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh works on medicine.

Gerarde considered the plant to be “so exceedingly well known to all our English nation” that it needed no description. In his time (_circa_ 1590), it used to be collected on the commons round London, whence it was brought in plenty to the London markets. At the present day pennyroyal has fallen into neglect, and is not named in the British Pharmacopœia of 1867.

=Description=—The plant has a low, decumbent, branching stem, which in flowering rises to a height of about 6 inches. Its leaves, scarcely an inch in length and often much less, are petiolate, ovate, blunt, crenate at the margin, dotted with oil-glands above and below. The flowers are arranged in a series of dense, globose whorls, extending for a considerable distance up the stem. The whole plant is more or less hairy. It has a strong fragrant odour, less agreeable to most persons than that of peppermint or spearmint. Its taste, well perceived in the distilled water, is highly aromatic.

=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of pennyroyal is the essential oil, known in pharmacy as _Oleum Pulegii_, to which is due the odour of the plant. It has been examined by Kane,[1781] according to whom it has a sp. gr. of 0·927. Its boiling was found to fluctuate between 183° and 188° C. The formula assigned to it by this chemist is C₁₀H₁₆O. We ascertained that it contains no carvol (see page 481.)

=Production=—Pennyroyal is cultivated at Mitcham and is mostly sold dried; occasionally the herb is distilled for essential oil. The oil found in commerce is however chiefly French or German, and far less costly than that produced in England.

=Uses=—The distilled water of pennyroyal is carminative and antispasmodic, and is used in the same manner as peppermint water.

[1779] _Pennyroyal_, in old herbals _Puloil royal_ is derived from _Puleium regium_, an old Latin name given from the supposed efficacy of the plant in destroying fleas (Prior).

[1780] The native Pennyroyal is however a different plant, namely _Hedeoma pulegioides_ Pers., figured in part 21 (1877) of Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_.

[1781] _Phil. Mag._ xiii. (1838) 442.

HERBA THYMI VULGARIS.

_Garden Thyme_; F. _Thym vulgaire_; G. _Thymiankraut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Thymus vulgaris_ L., a small, erect, woody shrub reaching 8 to 10 inches in height, gregarious on sterile uncultivated ground in Portugal, Spain, Southern France and Italy, and in the mountainous parts of Greece. On Mont Ventoux near Avignon, it reaches an elevation above the sea of 3700 ft. (Martins). It is commonly cultivated in English kitchens as a sweet herb,[1782] and succeeds as an annual even in Iceland.

=History=—We are not aware that thyme had any reputation in the antiquity, nor do we know at what period it was first introduced in northern countries. Garden thyme was commonly cultivated in England in the 16th century, and was well figured and described by Gerarde. It is even said to have been formerly grown on a large scale for medicinal use in the neighbourhood of Deal and Sandwich in Kent.[1783] _Camphor of Thyme_ was noticed by Neumann, apothecary to the Court at Berlin in 1725;[1784] it was called _Thymol_, and carefully examined in 1853 by Lallemand, and recommended instead of phenol (carbolic acid) in 1868 by Bouilhon, apothecary, and Paquet, M. D. of Lille.

=Description=—The plant produces thin, woody, branching stems, bearing sessile, linear-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate leaves. These are about ¼ of an inch long, revolute at the margin, more or less hoary, especially on the under side, and dotted with shining oil-glands. The small purple flowers are borne on round terminal heads, with sometimes a few lower whorls. The entire wild plant has a greyish tint by reason of a short white pubescence, yet as seen in gardens the plant is more luxuriant, greener and far less tomentose. It is extremely fragrant when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste.

=Production of Essential Oil=—Though cultivated in gardens for culinary use, common thyme is not grown in England on a large scale. Its essential oil (_Oleum Thymi_), for which alone it is of interest to the druggist, is distilled in the south of France. In the neighbourhood of Nîmes, where we have observed the process, the entire plant is used, and the distillation is carried on at two periods of the year, namely in May and June when the plant is in flower, and again late in the autumn. The oil has a deep, reddish-brown colour, but becomes colourless though rather less fragrant by re-distillation. The two sorts of oil, termed respectively _Huile rouge de Thym_ and _Huile blanche de Thym_, are found in commerce. The yield is about 1 per cent.

Oil of thyme is frequently termed in English shops _Oil of Origanum_, which it in no respect resembles, and which was never, so far as we know, found in commerce.[1785]

[1782] In many of the references to thyme, _Wild Thyme_ (_Thymus Serpyllum_ L.) is to be understood, and not the present species.

[1783] Booth in _Treasury of Botany_, ii. (1866) 1149.

[1784] _Phil. Trans._ No. 389.

[1785] For a note on _True Oil of Origanum_, see Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 324, also _Science Papers_, 1876, p. 46.

=Chemical Composition=—The only constituent of the herb that has attracted any attention is the above-named essential oil. This liquid by fractional distillation is resolved into two portions: the first, more volatile and boiling below 180° C., is a mixture of two hydrocarbons, _Cymene_, C₁₀H₁₄ (see page 333), and _Thymene_, C₁₀H₁₆, the latter boiling at 165° C.

The second, named _Thymol_, C₁₀H₁₄O, which may also be extracted from the crude oil by means of caustic lye, has been described in our article _Fructus Ajowan_, at page 303. Commercial oil of thyme is said to be sometimes fraudulently deprived of thymol by that treatment.

=Uses=—Oil of thyme is an efficient external stimulant, and is sometimes employed as a liniment. Its chief consumption is in veterinary medicine. Thymol has been proposed as a disinfectant in the place of carbolic acid, in cases in which the odour of the latter is objectionable. The herb is not used in modern English medicine, but is often employed on the Continent.

HERBA ROSMARINI.

_Herba Anthos_; _Rosemary_; F. _Romarin_; G. _Rosmarin_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosmarinus officinalis_ L., an evergreen shrub, attaining a height of 4 feet or more, abundant on dry rocky hills of the Mediterranean region, from the Spanish peninsula[1786] to Greece and Asia Minor. It generally prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, but occurs even in the Sahara, where it is collected and conveyed by caravans to Central Africa.[1787] It does not succeed well in Germany.

=History=—Rosemary[1788] is mentioned by Pliny, who ascribes to it numerous virtues. It was also familiar to the Arab physicians of Spain, one of whom, Ibn Baytar (13th cent.), states it to be an object of trade among the vendors of aromatics.[1789] In the middle ages rosemary was doubtless much esteemed, as may be inferred from the fact that it was one of the plants which Charlemagne ordered to be grown on the imperial farms.

It was probably in cultivation in Britain prior to the Norman Conquest, as it is recommended for use in an Anglo-Saxon herbal of the 11th century.[1790] In the “Physicians of Myddvai” a curious chapter[1791] is devoted to the virtues of Rosemary, called “Ysbwynwydd, and Rosa Marina in Latin.” The essential oil was distilled by Raymundus Lullus[1792] about A.D. 1330. John Philip de Lignamine,[1793] a writer of the 15th century, describes Rosemary as the usual condiment of salted meats.

[1786] From Galicia in Spain, stems of Rosmarinus having 2½ inches in diameter were to be seen at the Paris Exhibition, 1878.

[1787] Duveyrier, _Les Touaregs du Nord_, 1864. 187.

[1788] From _ros_ and _marinus_,—literally _marine dew_. Various opinions have been held as to the allusion conveyed by the name.

[1789] Sontheimer’s translation, i. 73.

[1790] _Herbarium Apuleii_—_Leechdoms etc. of Early England_, i. (1864) 185.

[1791] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) p. 261. 292. 440.

[1792] Manget, _Bibliotheca chemica curiosa_, Genevæ, i. (1702) 829.

[1793] _Conservatorium Sanitatis_ (or also, according to Haller, _Biblioth. botanica_, i. 237, _De conservatione sanitatis_, Bononiæ, 1475) cap. 81.

=Description=—Rosemary has sessile, linear, entire, opposite leaves about an inch in length, revolute at the margin; they are of coriaceous texture, green and glabrous above, densely tomentose and white beneath. Examined under a lens, the tomentum both of the leaves and young shoots is seen to consist of white stellate hairs; in that of the shoots which is less dense, minute oil-glands are discernible. These glands are of two kinds, large and small, and probably do not yield one and the same oil. The flowers have a campanulate 2-lipped calyx, and a pale blue and white corolla, the upper lip of which is emarginate and erect, the lower 3-lobed with the central lobe concave and pendulous. The whole plant has a very agreeable smell and a strong aromatic taste. It flowers in the early spring.

=Production of Essential Oil=—Rosemary is cultivated on a very small scale in English herb-gardens, and though a little oil has been occasionally distilled from it, English oil of rosemary is an article practically unknown in commerce. That with which the market is supplied is produced in the south of France and on the contiguous coasts of Italy. The plant, which is plentifully found wild, is gathered in summer (not while in flower) and distilled, the operator being sometimes an itinerant herbalist who carries his copper alembic from place to place, erecting it where herbs are plentiful, and where a stream of water enables him to cool a condenser of primitive construction.

Oil of rosemary is also produced on a somewhat large scale in the island of Lesina, south of Spalato in Dalmatia, whence it is exported by way of Trieste, even to France and Italy, to the extent of 300 to 350 quintals annually.[1794]

Some of the French manufacturers of essences offer oil of rosemary at a superior price as drawn _from the flowers_, by which we presume is meant the _flowering tops_, for the separation of the actual flowers would be impracticable on a large scale. The great bulk of the oil found in commerce is however that distilled from the entire plant.

=Chemical Composition=—The peculiar odour of rosemary depends on the essential oil, which is the only constituent of the plant that has afforded matter for chemical research.

Lallemand (1859) by fractional distillation, resolved oil of rosemary into two liquids,—the one a mobile hydrocarbon boiling at 165° C. and turning the plane of polarization to the left; the other, boiling between 200° and 210° C., deposits when exposed to a low temperature a large quantity of camphor. Gladstone (1864) found the oil to consist almost wholly of a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆. This, according to our experiments, constitutes about ⁴/₅ of the oil; it deviates the plane of polarization to the left, whereas a fraction boiling at 200° to 210° C. deviates to the right. By warming the latter with nitric acid, we observed the odour of common camphor, and may therefore infer that a compound, C₁₀H₁₈O, is present in the oil under examination.

From Montgolfier’s investigations (1876) it would appear that the stearoptene or camphor above alluded to is a mixture of a dextrogyrate and a lævogyrate substance.

[1794] Unger, _Der Rosmarin und seine Verwendung in Dalmatien—Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie_, lvi. (1867) 587; abstracted, with a few additions, in _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1879) 618.

=Uses=—The flowering tops and dried leaves are kept by the herbalists, but are not used in regular medicine. The volatile oil is employed as an external stimulant in liniments, and also as a perfume. Rosemary is popularly supposed to promote the growth of the hair.

PLANTAGINEÆ.

SEMEN ISPAGHULÆ.

_Ispaghúl Seeds_, _Spogel Seeds_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Plantago decumbens_ Forsk. (_P. Ispaghula_ Roxb.),[1795] a plant of variable aspect, from an inch to a foot in height, erect or decumbent, with linear lanceolate leaves which may be nearly glabrous, or covered with shaggy hairs. The flower-spikes differ according to the luxuriance of the plant, being in some specimens cylindrical and 1½ inches long, in others reduced to a globular head. The plant has a wide range, occurring in the Canary Islands, Egypt, Arabia, Beluchistan, Afghanistan, and North-western India. Stewart[1796] says it is common in the Peshawar valley and Trans-Indus generally up to 2000 feet; also on the plains and lower hills of the Punjab, but that he has never seen it cultivated in the latter region. It is said to be cultivated at Multan and Lahore, also in Bengal and Mysore.

=History=—The seeds which are found in all the bazaars of India and are held in great esteem, are generally designated by the Persian word _Ispaghúl_; but they also bear the Arabic name _Bazre-qatúná_, under which we find them mentioned by the Persian physician Alhervi[1797] in the 10th century, and about the same period or a little later by Avicenna.[1798] Several other Oriental writers are quoted by Ibn Baytar[1799] as referring to a drug of the same name, which may possibly have included the seeds of other species, as _Plantago Psyllium_ L. and _P. Cynops_, having similar properties, and known to have been used from an early period.

J. H. Linck, whom we mentioned in our article on Oleum Cajuputi (p. 278), described in 1719 the seed under notice, yet without knowing its name; it further attracted the notice of Europeans towards the close of the last century,[1800] and has been often prescribed as a demulcent in dysentery and diarrhœa. It was admitted to the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.

[1795] After the examination of numerous specimens, we adopt the course taken by Dr. Aitchison (_Catalogue of the Plants of the Punjab and Sindh_, Lond. 1869) of uniting _P. Ispaghula_ to _P. decumbens_. The union of species in this group may probably be carried still further.—For a fig. see Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 21 (1877).

[1796] _Punjab Plants_, Lahore 1869. 174—also MS. note attached to specimens in Herb. Kew.

[1797] _Liber Fundamentorum Pharmacologiæ_, ed. Seligmann, Vindobonæ, 1830. 40.

[1798] Lib. ii. tract. 2. c. 541. (Valgrisi edition, 1564. i. 357.)

[1799] Sontheimer’s transl. i. (1840) 132.

[1800] Fleming, _Catal. of Indian Med. Plants and Drugs_, Calcutta, 1810. 31.

=Description=—The seeds, like those of other species of _Plantago_, are of boat-shaped form, the albumen being deeply furrowed on one side and vaulted on the other. They are a little over ⅒ of an inch in length and nearly half as broad, and so light that 100 weigh scarcely three grains. Their colour is a light pinkish grey with an elongated brown spot on the vaulted back, due to the embryo, which at this point is in close contact with the translucent testa. From this brown spot the thick radicle runs to the top of the seed. The hollow side of the seed is also brown and partially covered with a thin white membrane.

The seeds are highly mucilaginous in the mouth, but have neither taste nor odour. Those of the allied _P. Psyllium_ have nearly the same form, but are shining and of a dark brown hue.

=Microscopic Structure=—This can be best investigated by immersing the seed in benzol, as in this medium the mucilage is insoluble. When thus examined, the whole surface is seen to consist of polyhedral cells, separated by a very thin brown layer from the albumen, which on the back of the seed is only 70 mkm. thick. The albumen is made up of thick-walled cells, loaded with granules of matter which acquire an orange hue on addition of iodine. The two cotyledons adhere in a direction perpendicular to the bottom of the furrow; their tissue is composed of thin-walled smaller cells, containing also albuminous granules and drops of fatty oil.

If the seed is immersed in water, the cells composing the epidermis instantly swell and elongate, and soon burst, leaving only fragments of their walls. When examined under glycerin, the change is more gradual, and the outer walls of the cells yielding the mucilage display a series of thin layers, which slowly swell and disappear by the action of water. The mucilage is consequently not contained within the cells, but is formed of the secondary deposits on their walls, as in linseed and quince pips.

=Chemical Composition=—Mucilage is so abundantly yielded by these seeds, that one part of them with 20 parts of water forms a thick tasteless jelly. On addition of a larger quantity of water and filtering, but little mucilage passes, the greater part of it adhering to the seeds. The mucilage separated by straining with pressure does not redden litmus, is not affected by iodine, nor precipitated by borax, alcohol or ferric chloride. The fat oil and albuminous matter of the seed have not been examined.

=Uses=—A decoction of the seeds (1 p. to 70 p. of water) is employed in India as a cooling, demulcent drink. The seeds powdered and mixed with sugar, or made gelatinous with water, are sometimes given in chronic diarrhœa.

POLYGONACEÆ.

RADIX RHEI.

_Rhubarb_; F. _Rhubarbe_; G. _Rhabarber_.

=Botanical Origin=—No competent observer, as far as we know, has ever ascertained as an eye-witness the species of Rheum which affords the commercial rhubarb. Rheum officinale, from which it seems, at least partly, derived is the only species yielding a rootstock which agrees with the drug.

_Rheum officinale_ Baillon is a perennial noble plant resembling the Common Garden Rhubarb, but of larger size. It differs from the latter in several particulars: the leaves spring from a distinct crown rising some inches above the surface of the ground; they have a subcylindrical petiole, which as well as the veins of the under side of the lamina is covered with a pubescence of short erect hairs. The lamina, the outline of which is orbicular, cordate at the base, is shortly 5-to 7-lobed, with the lobes coarsely and irregularly dentate; it attains 4 to 4½ feet in length and rather more in breadth. The first leaves in spring display before expanding the peculiar metallic red hue of copper.

The plant was discovered in South-eastern Tibet, where it is said to be often cultivated for the sake of its medicinal root; but it is supposed to grow in various parts of Western and North-western China, whence the supplies of rhubarb are derived. It was obtained by the French missionaries about the year 1867 for Dabry, French Consul at Hankow, who transmitted specimens to Dr. Soubeiran of Paris. From one of these which flowered at Montmorency in 1871, a botanical description was drawn up by Baillon.[1801]

To what extent the rhubarb of commerce is derived from this plant is not known. But that the latter may be a true source of the drug is supported by the fact, that there is at least no important discrepancy between it and the accounts and figures, scanty and imperfect though they are, given by Chinese authors and the old Jesuit missionaries; and still more by the agreement in structure which exists between its root and the Asiatic rhubarb of commerce.

We have engaged in 1873 Mr. Rufus Usher at Bodicott (see below, p. 500) to cultivate Rheum officinale, which is there admirably succeeding; but it must be granted that as yet the root, notwithstanding the most careful preparation in drying it, is far from displaying the rich yellow of the commercial drug. It is most obviously marked on the other hand with the characteristic ring of stellate markings, which we have constantly observed in many roots of Rheum officinale cultivated by us at Clapham Common near London, as well as at Strassburg or, by other observers, at Paris.

_Rheum palmatum_ L., a species known as long as 1750, has always been supposed to yield also rhubarb, and this has again been asserted by the Russian Colonel Przewalski, who observed in 1872 and 1873 that plant in the Alpine parts of Tangut round the Lake Kuku-nor, in the Chinese province of Kansu, in 36°-38° North Lat.—Rheum palmatum has been frequently cultivated in Russian Asia and in many parts of Europe since the last century, but without producing a root agreeing with Chinese rhubarb. Now, Przewalski states that from this species the drug under notice is largely collected along the river Tetung-gol (or Datung-ho), a tributary of the upper Hoang-ho, northward of the Kuku-nor. Specimens of that root were largely brought to St. Petersburg by Przewalski, but Dragendorff expressly points out in his _Jahresbericht_ for 1877 (p. 78) that it is _dissimilar_ to true rhubarb.

[1801] _Adansonia_, x. 246; _Association Française pour l’avancement de la Science_, Comptes Rendus de la 1ʳᵉ Session, 1872. 514-529. pl. x.—The figure which is reproduced in Lanessan’s French translation of the _Pharmacographia_, ii. (Paris, 1878) 210, gives a good idea of the highly ornamental character of Rheum officinale.

=History=[1802]—The Chinese appear to have been acquainted with the properties of rhubarb from a period long anterior to the Christian era, for the drug is treated of in the herbal called _Pen-king_, which is attributed to the Emperor Shen-nung, the father of Chinese agriculture and medicine, who reigned about 2700 B.C. The drug is named there _Huang-liang_, yellow, excellent, and _Ta-huang_, the great yellow.[1803] The latter name also occurs in the great Geography of China, where it is stated that rhubarb was a tribute of the province Si-ning-fu, eastward of Lake Kuku-nor,[1804] from about the 7th to the 10th centuries of our era.

As regards Western Asia and Europe, we find a root called ῤᾶ or ῤῆον, mentioned by Dioscorides as brought from beyond the Bosphorus. The same drug is alluded to in the fourth century by Ammianus Marcellinus,[1805] who states that it takes its name from the river Rha (the modern Volga), on whose banks it grows. Pliny describes a root termed _Rhacoma_, which when pounded yielded a colour like that of wine but inclining to saffron, and was brought from beyond Pontus.

The drug thus described is usually regarded as rhubarb, or at least as the root of some species of _Rheum_, but whether produced in the regions of the Euxine (Pontus), or merely received thence from remoter countries, is a question that cannot be solved.

It is however certain that the name _Radix pontica_ or _Rha ponticum_, used by Scribonius Largus[1806] and Celsus,[1807] was applied in allusion to the region whence the drug was received. Lassen has shown that trading caravans from Shensi in Northern China arrived at Bokhara as early as the year 114 B.C. Goods thus transported might reach Europe either by way of the Black Sea, or by conveyance down the Indus to the ancient port of Barbarike. Vincent suggests[1808] that the _rha_ imported by the first route would naturally be termed _rha-ponticum_, while that brought by the second might be called _rha-barbarum_.

We are not prepared to accept this plausible hypothesis. It receives no support from the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (_circa_ A.D. 64), whose list of the exports of Barbarike[1809] does not include rhubarb; nor is rhubarb named among the articles on which duty was levied at the Roman custom-house of Alexandria (A.D. 176-180).[1810]

The terms _Rheum barbarum_ vel _barbaricum_ or _Reu barbarum_ occur in the writings of Alexander Trallianus[1811] about the middle of the 6th century, and in those of Benedictus Crispus,[1812] archbishop of Milan, and Isidore[1813] of Seville, who both flourished in the 7th century. Among the Arabian writers on medicine, the younger Mesue, in the early part of the 11th century, mentions the rhubarb of China as superior to the _Barbaric_ or Turkish.[1814] Constantinus Africanus[1815] about the same period speaks of Indian and Pontic _Rheum_, the former of which he declares to be preferable. In 1154 the celebrated Arabian geographer Edrisi[1816] mentions rhubarb as a product of China, growing in the mountains of Buthink—probably the environs of north-eastern Tibet near Lake Tengri Nor (or Bathang in Western Szechuen?).

[1802] For further particulars see Flückiger, _Pharm. J._ vi. (1876) 861; also _Proc. Americ. Pharm. Assoc._ 1876. 130, with fig. showing Rheum officinale grown in a poor soil.

[1803] Bretschneider, _Chinese Botanical Works_, Foochow, 1870. 2.

[1804] Flückiger, _l.c._

[1805] _Scriptores Historiæ Romanæ latini veteres_, ii. (1743) 511 (Amm. Marc. xxii. c. 8.)

[1806] _De Compositione Medicamentorum_, c. 167.

[1807] _De Medicinâ_. lib. v. c. 23.

[1808] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807) 389.

[1809] _Ibid._, _op. cit._ ii. 390.

[1810] _Ibid._, _op. cit._ ii. 686.

[1811] Lib. viii. c. 3 (Haller’s edition).

[1812] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, lxxxix. 374.

[1813] Migne. _op. cit._, lxxxii. 628. The explanation given by Isidore is this:—“_Reubarbarum_, sive _Reuponticum_: illud quod trans Danubium in solo barbarico; istud quod circa Pontum colligitur, nominatum est. _Reu_ autem _radix_ dicitur. _Reubarbarum_ ergo, quasi _radix barbara_. _Reuponticum_ quasi _radix pontica_.” But Isidore was fond of such derivations.

[1814] _Ravedsceni_, _Raved barbarum_, and _Raved Turchicum_ are the terms used in the Latin translations we have consulted.

[1815] _De omnibus medico cognitu necessariis_, Basil. 1539. 354.

[1816] Translation of Jaubert, i. (Paris, 1836) 494.

Rhubarb in the 12th century was probably imported from India, as we may infer from the tariff of duties levied at the port of Acon in Syria, in which document[1817] it is enumerated along with many Indian drugs. A similar list of A.D. 1271, relating to Barcelona, mentions _Ruibarbo_.[1818] In a statute of the city of Pisa called the _Breve Fundacariorum_, dating 1305, rhubarb (_ribarbari_) is classified with commodities of the Levant and India.[1819]

The first and almost the only European who has visited the rhubarb-yielding countries of China is the famous Venetian traveller, Marco Polo,[1820] who speaking of the province of Tangut says—“ ... et par toutes les montagnes de ces provinces se treuve le _reobarbe_ en grant habondance. Et illec l’achatent les marchans et le portent par le monde.”

A sketch of the history of rhubarb would be incomplete without some reference to the various routes by which the drug has been conveyed to Europe from the western provinces of the Chinese Empire, and which have given rise to the familiar designations of _Russian_, _Turkey_ and _China Rhubarb_.[1821]

[1817] _Assises de Jérusalem_ contained in the _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades_, _Lois_, ii. (1843) 176.

[1818] Capmany, _Memorias de ... Barcelona_, i. (1779) 44.

[1819] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa dal xii al xiv secolo_, iii. (Firenze, 1857) 106. 115.

[1820] Pauthier, _Le Livre de Marco Polo ... rédigé en français sous sa dictée en 1298 par Rusticien de Pise_, i. (1865) 165. ii. 490.

[1821] For further particulars, see my paper mentioned at page 493, note 1.—F. A. F.

The _first_ route is that over the barren steppes of Central Asia by Yarkand, Kashgar, Turkestan, and the Caspian to Russia; the _second_ by the Indus or the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and Alexandria, or by Persia to Syria and Asia Minor; and the _third_ by way of Canton, the only port of the Chinese Empire which, previous to the year 1842, held direct communication with Europe.

In 1653 China first permitted Russia to trade on her actual frontiers. The traffic in Chinese goods was thereupon diverted from the line of the Caspian and Black Sea further north, taking its way from Tangut across the steppes of the high Gobi, and through Siberia by Tobolsk to Moscow. Thus it is mentioned in 1719 that Urga on the north edge of the Gobi desert was the principal depôt for rhubarb. From the earliest times, Bucharian merchants appear to have been agents on this traffic, the producers of the drug never concerning themselves about its export.

Consequent on the rectification of frontier in 1728, a line of custom-houses was established by treaty between Russia and China, whereby the commerce, previously unrestricted, was limited to the government caravans which passed the frontier only at Kiachta and at Zuruchaitu, south of Nerchinsk. The latter place always remained unimportant, while Kiachta and the opposite Chinese town of Maimatchin became the staple depôts of rhubarb.

The root was subjected to special control as early as 1687-1697 by the Russian Government, who finally monopolized the trade about 1704. Caravans fitted out by the Crown alone brought the drug to Moscow, until 1762, when the caravan-trade was for a while thrown open. It was not until this period that the export of rhubarb became considerable, although the stringent regulations, established in 1736, were still maintained. The surveillance of rhubarb was exercised at Kiachta in a special court or office called the _Brake_,[1822] under instructions from the Russian Minister of War, by an apothecary appointed for six years, the object being to remove from the rhubarb brought for inspection all inferior or spurious pieces, and to improve the selected drug by trimming, paring and boring. It was then carefully dried, and packed in chests, which were sown up in linen, and rendered impervious to wet by being pitched and then covered with hide. The drug was dispatched, but only in quantities of 1000 _puds_ (40,000 lb.), once a year by way of Lake Baikal and Irkutsk to Moscow, whence it was transmitted to St. Petersburg, to be there delivered to the Crown apothecaries and in part to be sold to druggists.

We are indebted for these accounts chiefly to Calau,[1823] an apothecary appointed to supervise the examination of rhubarb, and who resided a long time at Kiachta. An exact account of the remarkable policy of the Russian Government in relation to that drug was also given by Von Schröders[1824] in 1864.