Chapter XXXIII: Part 33

The bark which bears _par excellence_ the name of _Cassia_ or _Cassia lignea_, and which is distinguished on the Continent as _Chinese Cinnamon_, is a production of the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Kweichau in Southern China. The French expedition of Lieut. Garnier for the exploration of the Mekong and of Cochin China (1866-68) found cassia growing in about N. lat. 19° in the forests of the valley of the Se Ngum, one of the affluents on the left bank of the Mekong near the frontiers of Annam. A part of this cassia is carried by land into China, while another part is conveyed to Bangkok.[1949] Although it is customary to refer it without hesitation to a tree named _Cinnamomum Cassia_, we find no warrant for such reference: no competent observer has visited and described the cassia-yielding districts of China proper, and brought therefrom the specimens requisite for ascertaining the botanical origin of the bark.[1950]

Cassia lignea is also produced in the Khasya mountains in Eastern Bengal, whence it is brought down to Calcutta for shipment.[1951] In this region there are three species of _Cinnamomum_, growing at 1000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level, and all have bark with the flavour of cinnamon, more or less pure: they are _C. obtusifolium_ Nees, _C. pauciflorum_ Nees, and _C. Tamala_ Fr. Nees et Eberm.

_Cinnamomum iners_ Reinw., a very variable species occurring in Continental India, Ceylon, Tavoy, Java, Sumatra and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, and possibly in the opinion of Thwaites a mere variety of _C. zeylanicum_, but according to Meissner well distinguished by its paler, thinner leaves, its nervation, and the character of its aroma, would appear to yield the cassia bark or wild cinnamon of Southern India.[1952]

_C. Tamala_ Fr. Nees et Eberm., which besides growing in Khasya is found in the contiguous regions of Silhet, Sikkim, Nepal, and Kumaon, and even reaches Australia, probably affords some cassia bark in Northern India.

Large quantities of a thick sort of cassia have at times been imported from Singapore and Batavia, much of which is produced in Sumatra. In the absence of any very reliable information as to its botanical sources, we may suggest as probable mother plants, _C. Cassia_ Bl. and _C. Burmanni_ Bl., var. α. _chinense_, both stated by Teijsmann and Binnendijk to be cultivated in Java.[1953] The latter species, growing also in the Philippines, most probably affords the cassia bark which is shipped from Manila.

[1949] Thorel, _Notes médicales du Voyage d’Exploration du Mékong et de Cochinchine_, Paris, 1870. 30.—Garnier, _Voyage en Indo-Chine_, ii. (Paris, 1873) 438.

[1950] The greatest market in China for cassia and cinnamon according to Dr. F. Porter Smith, is Taiwu in Ping-nan hien (Sin-chau fu), in Kwangsi province.—_Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist. of China_, 1871. 52.—The capital of Kwangsi is Kweilin fu, literally _Cassia-Forest_.

[1951] Hooker, _Himalayan Journals_, ed. 2. ii. (1855) 303.

[1952] A specimen of the stem-bark of _C. iners_ from Travancore, presented to us by Dr. Waring, has a delightful odour, but is quite devoid of the taste of cinnamon.

[1953] _Catalogues Plantarum quæ in Horto Botanico Bogoriensi coluntur_, Batavia, 1866. 92.

=History=—In the preceding article we have indicated (p. 520) the remote period at which cassia bark appears to have been known to the Chinese; and have stated the reasons that led us to believe the cinnamon of the ancients was that substance. It must, however, be observed that Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and others, as well as the remarkable inscription on the temple of Apollo at Miletus, represent cinnamon and cassia as distinct, but nearly allied substances. While, on the other hand, the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, in enumerating the products shipped from the various commercial ports of Eastern Africa[1954] in the first century, mentions _Cassia_ (κμσία or κασσία) of various kinds, but never employs the word _Cinnamon_ (κινναμώμον).

In the list of productions of India on which duty was levied at the Roman custom-house at Alexandria, _circa_ A.D. 176-180, _Cinnamomum_ is mentioned as well as _Cassia turiana_, _Xylocassia_ and _Xylocinnamomum_.[1955] Of the distinction here drawn between cinnamon and cassia we can give no explanation; but it is worthy of note that _twigs_ and _branches_ of a _Cinnamomum_ are sold in the Chinese drug shops, and may not improbably be the _xylocassia_ or _xylocinnamon_ of the ancients.[1956] The name _Cassia lignea_ would seem to have been originally bestowed on some such substance, rather than as at present on a mere bark. The spice was also undoubtedly called _Cassia syrinx_ and _Cassia fistularis_ (p. 221),—names which evidently refer to a bark which had the form of a tube. In fact there may well have been a diversity of qualities, some perhaps very costly. It is remarkable that such is still the case in China, and that the wealthy Chinese employ a thick variety of cassia, the price of which is as much as 18 dollars per catty, or about 56_s._ per lb.[1957]

Whether the _Aromata Cassiæ_, which were presented to the Church at Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, was the modern cassia bark, is rather doubtful. The largest donation, 200 lb., which was accompanied by pepper, saffron, storax, cloves, and balsam, would appear to have arrived from Egypt.[1958] Cassia seems to have been known in Western Europe as early as the 7th century, for it is mentioned with cinnamon by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville.[1959] Cassia is named in one of the Leech-books in use in England prior to the Norman conquest.[1960] The spice was then sold in London as _Canel_ in 1264, at 10_d._ per lb., sugar being at the same time 12_d._, cumin 2_d._, and ginger 18_d._[1961] In the _Boke of Nurture_,[1962] written in the 15th century by John Russell, chamberlain to Humphry, duke of Gloucester, cassia is spoken of as resembling cinnamon, but cheaper and commoner, exactly as at the present day.

[1954] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean_, ii. (1807) 130. 134. 149. 150. 157.—That the ancients should confound the different kinds of cassia is really no matter for surprise, when we moderns, whether botanists, pharmacologists, or spice-dealers, are unable to point out characters by which to distinguish the barks of this group, or even to give definite names to those found in our warehouses.

[1955] Vincent, _op. cit._ ii. 701-716.

[1956] See further on, Allied Products, _Cassia twigs_, page 533.

[1957] Very fine specimens of this costly bark have been kindly supplied to us by Dr. H. F. Hance, British Vice-Consul at Whampoa.

[1958] Vignolius, _Liber Pontificalis_, Romæ, i. (1724) 94. 95.

[1959] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, lxxxii. (1850) 622.—St. Isidore evidently quotes Galen, but his remarks imply that both spices were known at the period when he wrote.

[1960] Cockayne, _Leechdoms, etc., of Early England_, ii. (1865) 143.

[1961] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, ii. (1866) 543.

[1962] The book has been reprinted for the Early English Text Society, 1868.—Russell says:—“Looke that your stikkes of _synamome_ be thyn, bretille and fayre in colewr ... for _canelle_ is not so good in this crafte and cure.”—And in his directions “_how to make Ypocras_,” he prescribes _synamome_ in that “_for lordes_,” but “_canelle_” in that for “_commyn peple_.”

=Production=—We have no information whether the tree which affords the cassia bark of Southern China is cultivated, or whether it is exclusively found wild.

The Calcutta cassia bark collected in the Khasya mountains and brought to Calcutta is afforded by wild trees of small size. Dr. Hooker who visited the district with Dr. Thomson in 1850, observes that the trade in the bark is of recent introduction.[1963] The bark which varies much in thickness, has been scraped of its outer layer.

Cassia is extensively produced in Sumatra, as may be inferred from the fact that Padang in that island, exported of the bark in 1871, 6127 peculs (817,066 lb.), a large proportion of which was shipped to America.[1964] Regarding the collection of cassia on the Malabar coast, in Java and in the Philippines, no particular account has, so far as we know, been published. Spain imported from the Philippines by way of Cadiz in 1871, 93,000 lb. of cassia.[1965]

=Description=—_Chinese Cassia lignea_, otherwise called _Chinese Cinnamon_, which of all the varieties is that most esteemed, and approaching most nearly to Ceylon cinnamon, arrives in small bundles about a foot in length and a pound in weight, the pieces of bark being held together with bands of bamboo.

The bark has a general resemblance to cinnamon, but is in simple quills, not inserted one within the other. The quills moreover are less straight, even and regular, and are of a darker brown; and though some of the bark is extremely thin, other pieces are much stouter than fine cinnamon,—in fact, it is much less uniform. The outer coat has been removed with less care than that of Ceylon cinnamon, and pieces can easily be found with the corky layer untouched by the knife.

Cassia bark breaks with a short fracture. The thicker bark cut transversely shows a faint white line in the centre running parallel with the surface. Good cassia in taste resembles cinnamon, than which it is not less sweet and aromatic, though it is often described as less fine and delicate in flavour.

An unusual kind of cassia lignea is imported since 1870 from China and offered in the London market as _China Cinnamon_,[1966] though it is not the bark that bears this name in continental trade. The new drug is in _unscraped_ quills, which are mostly of about the thickness of ordinary Chinese cassia lignea; it has a very saccharine taste and pungent cinnamon flavour.

[1963] Hooker, _op. cit._

[1964] _Consular Reports_, August 1873. 953.

[1965] Consul Reade, _Report on the Trade, etc., of Cadiz for 1871_, where the spice is called “_cinnamon_.”

[1966] Flückiger in Wiggers and Husemann’s _Jahresbericht_ for 1872. 52.

The less esteemed kinds of cassia bark, which of late years have been poured into the market in vast quantity, are known in commerce as _Cassia lignea_, _Cassia vera_ or _Wild Cassia_, and are further distinguished by the names of the localities whence shipped, as Calcutta, Java, Timor, etc.

The barks thus met with vary exceedingly in colour, thickness and aroma, so that it is vain to attempt any general classification. Some have a pale cinnamon hue, but most are of a deep rich brown. They present all variations in thickness, from that of cardboard to more than a quarter of an inch thick. The flavour is more or less that of cinnamon, often with some unpleasant addition suggestive of insects of the genus _Cimex_. Many, besides being aromatic, are highly mucilaginous, the mucilage being freely imparted to cold water. Finally, we have met with some thick cassia bark of good appearance that was distinguished by astringency and the almost entire absence of aroma.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of such pieces of _Chinese Cassia lignea_ as still bear the suberous envelope, exhibits the following characters. The external surface is made up of several rows of the usual cork-cells, loaded with brown colouring matter. In pieces from which the cork-cells have been entirely scraped, the surface is formed of the mesophlœum, yet by far the largest part of the bark belongs to the liber or endophlœum. Isolated liber-fibres and thick-walled cells (stone-cells) are scattered even through the outer layers of a transverse section. In the middle zone they are numerous, but do not form a coherent sclerenchymatous ring as in cinnamon (p. 526). The innermost part of the liber shares the structural character of cinnamon with differences due to age, as for instance the greater development of the medullary rays. Oil-cells and gum-ducts are likewise distributed in the parenchyme of the former.

The “_China Cinnamon_” of 1870 (p. 530) comes still nearer to Ceylon cinnamon, except that it is coated. A transverse section of a quill, not thicker than one millimetre, exhibits the three layers described as characterizing that bark. The sclerenchymatous ring is covered by a parenchyme rich in oil-ducts, so that it is obvious that the flavour of this drug could not be improved by scraping. The corky layer is composed of the usual tabular cells. The liber of this drug in fact agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon.

In _Cassia Barks of considerable thickness_, the same arrangement of tissues is met with, but their strong development causes a certain dissimilarity. Thus the thick-walled cells are more and more separated one from another, so as to form only small groups. The same applies also to the liber-fibres, which in thick barks are surrounded by a parenchyme, loaded with considerable crystals of oxalate of calcium. The gum-ducts are not larger, but are more numerous in these barks, which swell considerably in cold water.

=Chemical Composition=—Cassia bark owes its aromatic properties to an essential oil, which, in a chemical point of view, agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon. The flavour of cassia oil is somewhat less agreeable, and as it exists in the less valuable sorts of cassia, decidedly different in aroma from that of cinnamon. We find the sp. gr. of a Chinese cassia oil to be 1·066, and its rotatory power in a column 50 mm. long, only 0°·1 to the right, differing consequently in this respect from that of cinnamon oil (p. 526).

Oil of cassia sometimes deposits a stearoptene, which when purified is a colourless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in shining brittle prisms.[1967] We have never met with it.

[1967] Rochleder and Schwarz (1850) in Gmelin’s _Chemistry_, xvii. 395.

If thin sections of cassia bark are moistened with a dilate solution of perchloride of iron, the contents of the parenchymatous part of the whole tissue assume a dingy brown colour; in the outer layers the starch granules even are coloured. _Tannic matter_ is consequently one of the chief constituents of the bark; the very cell-walls are also imbued with it. A decoction of the bark is turned blackish-green by a persalt of iron.

If cassia bark (or Ceylon cinnamon) is exhausted by _cold water_, the clear liquid becomes turbid on addition of iodine; the same occurs if a concentrated solution of iodide of potassium is added. An abundant precipitate is produced by addition of iodine dissolved in the potassium salt. The colour of iodine then disappears. There is consequently a substance present which unites with iodine; and in fact, if to a _decoction_ of cassia or cinnamon the said solution of iodine is added, it strikes a bright blue coloration, due to starch. But the colour quickly disappears, and becomes permanent only after much of the test has been added. We have not ascertained the nature of the substance that thus modifies the action of iodine: it can hardly be tannic matter, as we have found the reaction to be the same when we used bark that had been previously repeatedly treated with spirit of wine and then several times with boiling ether.

The mucilage contained in the gum-cells of the thinner quills of cassia is easily dissolved by cold water, and may be precipitated together with tannin by neutral acetate of lead, but not by alcohol. In the thicker barks it appears less soluble, merely swelling into a slimy jelly.

=Commerce=—Cassia lignea is exported from Canton in enormous and increasing quantities. The shipments which in 1864 amounted to 13,800 peculs, reached 40,600 in 1869,[1968] 61,220 in 1871, and 76,464 peculs (10,195,200 lb.) value £267,703, in 1872.[1969] In 1874 the exports were 54,268 peculs (1 pecul = 133⅓ lb.) and 58,313 peculs in 1878; from the other ports of China cassia is not shipped to any extent. England usually receives no more than about 1,000,000 lb. of cassia, of which only 40,000 lb. appear to be consumed in the country. Hamburg imports about 2,000,000 lb. annually immediately from China. Yet in 1878 the quantity imported into London was 26,744 peculs (3,500,000 lb.), that received at Hamburg 13,548 peculs.

Cassia lignea is exported in chests containing 2 peculs each.

_Oil of cassia_ was shipped from the south of China to the United Kingdom, to the extent in 1869 of 47,517 lb.; in 1870, of 28,389 lb.[1970] Hamburg is also a very important place for this oil; in the official statistics of that port for 1875 the imports from China are stated to have amounted to 30,000 lb., besides 10,000 lb. imported from Great Britain; in 1876 Hamburg imported 5,900 lb. from China and 17,000 lb. from England.

=Uses=—The same as those of cinnamon.

[1968] _Canton Trade Report_ for 1869.

[1969] _Commercial Reports from H. M. Consuls in China_, presented to Parliament 1873,—(Consul Robertson).

[1970] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom for 1870._ 290.—66,650 were exported in 1877 from Pakhoi.

Allied Products.

_Cassia Twigs_—The branches of the cassia trees, alluded to at page 529, would appear to be collected from the same trees which yield the cassia lignea. Garnier (_l.c._ at p. 528) says that the youngest branches are made into fagots, adding that they have the odour of bugs.

Cassia twigs are not as yet exported to Europe, but they constitute a very important article of the trade of the interior of China. In 1872 no less than 456,533 lb. of this _Wood of Cassia_ or _Cassia Twigs_ were shipped from Canton, for the most part to other Chinese ports.—The imports of Hankow, in 1874, of these twigs were 1925 peculs (259,667 lb.) valued at 5677 taels (1 tael about equal to 5_s._ 11_d._).[1971]

In the Paris Exhibition of 1878 we had the opportunity of examining some bundles of cassia twigs from western Kwangtung. The branches were as much as 2 feet in length and of the thickness of a finger. We found their bark to possess the usual flavour of cassia lignea.

_Cassia Buds, Flores Cassiæ_—These are the _immature fruits_ of the tree yielding Chinese cassia lignea, and have been used in Europe since the middle ages. In the journal of expenses (A.D. 1359-60) of John, king of France, when a prisoner at Somerton Castle in England, there are several entries for the spice under the name of _Flor de Canelle_; it was very expensive, costing from 8_s._ to 13_s._ per lb., or more than double the price of mace or cloves. On one occasion two pounds of it had to be obtained for the king’s use from Bruges.[1972] From the _Form of Cury_[1973] written in 1390, it appears that cassia buds (“_Flō de queynel_”) were used in preparing the spiced wine called _Hippocras_.

Cassia buds are shipped from Canton, but the exports have much declined. Rondot, writing in 1848,[1974] estimated them as averaging 400 peculs (53,333 lb.) a year. In 1866 there were shipped from Canton only 233 peculs (31,066 lb.); in 1867, 165 peculs (22,000 lb.)[1975] The quantity of cassia buds imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 was 29,321 lb.;[1976] the spice is sold chiefly by grocers. The great market for this drug is Hamburg, where in 1876, according to the official statistics, 1324 cwt. of cassia buds were imported.

In Southern India, the more mature fruits of one of the varieties of _Cinnamomum iners_ Reinw. are collected for use, but are very inferior to the Chinese cassia buds.

_Folia Malabathri_ or _Folia Indi_—is the name given to the dried, aromatic leaves of certain Indian species of _Cinnamomum_, formerly employed[1977] in European medicine, but now obsolete. Under the name _Taj-pat_, the leaves are still used in India; they are collected in Mysore from wild trees.

_Ishpingo_—This is the designation in Quito of the calyx of a tree of the laurel tribe, used in Ecuador and Peru in the place of cinnamon. Though but little known in Europe, it has a remarkable history.

[1971] _Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1872_, p. 34; for 1874, p. 7.

[1972] Doüet d’Arcq, _Comptes de l’Argenterie des Rois de France_, 1851. 206. 218. 222. 239. etc.

[1973] See p. 245, note 8.

[1974] _Commerce d’exportation de la Chine_, 45.

[1975] _Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1867_, Shanghai, 1868. 49.

[1976] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the U.K. for 1870._ 101.

[1977] For further information consult Heyd, _Levantehandel_, ii. (1879) 663.

The existence of a spice-yielding region in South America, having come to the ears of the Spanish conquerors, was regarded as a matter of interest. It would appear that cinnamon was enumerated in the earliest accounts among the precious products of the New World.[1978] Such high importance was attached to it that in Ecuador an expedition was fitted out. The direction of the enterprise was confided to Gonzalo Pizarro, who with 340 soldiers, and more than 4000 Indians, laden with supplies, quitted the city of Quito on Christmas Day, 1539. The expedition, which lasted two years, resulted in the most lamentable failure, only 130 Spaniards surviving the hardships of the journey. In the account of it given by Garcilasso de la Vega, the cinnamon tree is described as having large leaves like those of a laurel, with fruits resembling acorns growing in clusters.[1979] Fernandez de Oviedo[1980] has also given some particulars regarding the spice, together with a figure fairly representing its remarkable form; and the subject has been noticed by several other Spanish writers, including Monardes.[1981]

Notwithstanding the celebrity thus conferred on the spice, and the fact that the latter gives its name to a large tract of country,[1982] and is still the object of a considerable traffic, the tree itself is all but unknown to science. Meissner places it doubtfully under the genus Nectandra, with the specific name _cinnamomoides_, but confesses that its flowers and fruits are alike unknown.[1983]

The spice, for an ample specimen of which we have to thank Dr. Destruge, of Guayaquil, consists of the enlarged and matured woody calyx, 1½ to 2 inches in diameter, having the shape of a shallow funnel, the open part of which is a smooth cup (like the cup of an acorn), surrounded by a broad, irregular margin, usually recurved. The outer surface is rough and veiny, and the whole calyx is dark brown, and has a strong, sweet, aromatic taste, like cinnamon, for which in Ecuador it is the common substitute.

Dr. Destruge has also furnished us with a specimen of the _bark_, which is in very small uncoated quills, exactly simulating true cinnamon. We are not aware whether the bark is thus prepared in quantity.

[1978] Account of Petrus Martyr d’Angleria to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, in Michael Herr’s _Die neue Welt_, etc., Strassburg, 1534. fol. 175.

[1979] _Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon_, A.D. 1532-50, translated by Markham (Hakluyt Society) Lond. 1864. chap. 39-40; also _Expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro to the Land of Cinnamon_, by Garcilasso Inca de la Vega, forming part of the same volume.

[1980] _Historia de las Indias_, Madrid, i. (1851) 357. (lib. ix. c. 31).

[1981] _De la Canela de nuestras Indias._—_Historia de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales_, Sevilla, 1574. 98.

[1982] The village of San José de Canelos, which may be considered as the centre of the cinnamon region, was determined by Mr. Spruce to be in lat. 1° 20 S., long. 77° 45 W., and at an altitude above the sea of 1590 feet. The forest of canelos, he tells us, has no definite boundaries; but the term is popularly assigned to all the upper region of the Pastasa and its tributaries, from a height of 4000 to 7000 feet on the slopes of the Andes, down to the Amazonian plain, and the confluence of the Bombonasa and Pastasa.

[1983] De Candolle, _Prodromus_, xv. sect. i. 167.

CORTEX BIBIRU.

_Cortex Nectandræ_; _Greenheart Bark_, _Bibiru_ or _Bebeeru Bark_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Nectandra Rodiæi_ Schomburgk—The Bibiru or Greenheart is a large forest tree,[1984] growing on rocky soils in British Guiana, twenty to fifty miles inland. It is found in abundance on the hill sides which skirt the rivers Essequibo, Cuyuni, Demerara, Pomeroon and Berbice. The tree attains a height of 80 to 90 feet, with an undivided erect trunk, furnishing an excellent timber which is ranked in England as one of the eight first-class woods for shipbuilding, and is to be had in beams of from 60 to 70 feet long.

=History=—In 1769 Bancroft, in his _History of Guiana_, called attention to the excellent timber afforded by the _Greenheart_ or _Sipeira_. About the year 1835 it became known that Hugh Rodie, a navy surgeon who had settled in Demerara some twenty years previously, had discovered an alkaloid of considerable efficacy as a febrifuge, in the bark of this tree.[1985] In 1843 this alkaloid, to which Rodie had given the name _Bebeerine_, was examined by Dr. Douglas Maclagan; and the following year the tree was described by Schomburgk under the name of _Nectandra Rodiæi_.[1986]

=Description=—Greenheart bark occurs in long heavy flat pieces, not unfrequently 4 inches broad and ³/₁₀ of an inch thick, externally of a light greyish brown, with the inner surface of a more uniform cinnamon hue and with strong longitudinal striæ. It is hard and brittle; the fracture coarse-grained, slightly foliaceous, and only fibrous in the inner layer. The grey suberous coat is always thin, often forming small warts, and leaving when removed longitudinal depressions analogous to the _digital furrows_ of Flat Calisaya Bark (p. 353), but mostly longer. Greenheart bark has a strong bitter taste, but is not aromatic. Its watery infusion is of a very pale cinnamon brown.

=Microscopic Structure=—The general features of this bark are very uniform, almost the whole tissue having been changed into thick-walled cells. Even the cells of the corky layer show secondary deposits; the primary envelope has entirely disappeared, and no transition from the suberous coat to liber is obvious.

The prevalent forms of the tissue are the stone-cells and very short liber-fibres, intersected by small medullary rays and crossed transversely by parenchyme or small prosenchyme cells with walls a little less thickened, so as to appear in a transverse section as irregular squares or groups. The only cells of a peculiar character are the sharp-pointed fibres of the inner liber, which are curiously saw-shaped, being provided with numerous protuberances and sinuosities.

[1984] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_, part 26 (1877).

[1985] Halliday, _On the Bebeeru tree of British Guiana, and Sulphate of Bebeerine, the former a substitute for Cinchona, the latter for Sulphate of Quinine_.—_Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ._ vol. xl. 1835.

[1986] _Hooker’s Journ. of Bot._ 1844. 624.

The very small lumen of the thick-walled cells contains a dark brown mass which is coloured greenish-black by sulphate of iron; the same coloration takes place throughout the less dense tissue surrounding the groups of stone-cells, and may in each case be due to tannic matter.

=Chemical Composition=—Greenheart bark contains an alkaloid which has long been regarded as peculiar, under the name of _Bibirine_ or _Bebirine_. It was however shown by Walz in 1860 to be apparently identical with _Buxine_, a substance discovered as early as 1830 in the bark and leaves of the Common Box, _Buxus sempervirens_ L. In 1869 the observation of Walz was to some extent confirmed by one of us,[1987] who further demonstrated that _Pelosine_, an alkaloid occurring in the stems and roots of _Cissampelos Pareira_ L. and _Chondodendron tomentosum_ Ruiz et Pavon (p. 28), is undistinguishable from the alkaloids of greenheart and box.

The alkaloid of bibiru bark, which may be conveniently prepared from the crude sulphate used in medicine under the name of _Sulphate of Bibirine_, is a colourless amorphous substance, the composition of which is indicated by the formula C₁₈H₂₁NO₃. It is soluble in 5 parts of absolute alcohol, in 13 of ether, and in 1400 (1800, Walz) of boiling water, the solution in each case having a decidedly alkaline reaction on litmus. It dissolves readily in bisulphide of carbon, as well as in dilute acids. The salts hitherto known are uncrystallizable. The solution of a neutral acetate affords an abundant white precipitate on the addition of an alkaline phosphate, nitrate or iodide, of iodohydrargyrate or platino-cyanide of potassium, perchloride of mercury, or of nitric or iodic acid.

Maclagan, one of the earliest investigators of greenheart, has obtained in co-operation with Gamgee[1988] certain alkaloids from the _wood_ of the tree, to one of which these chemists have assigned the formula C₂₀H₂₃NO₄ and the name _Nectandria_. Two other alkaloids, the characters of which have not yet been fully investigated, are stated to have been obtained from the same source.

_Bibiric Acid_, which Maclagan obtained from the _seeds_, is described as a colourless, crystalline, deliquescent substance, fusing at 150° C. and volatile at 200° C., then forming needle-shaped groups.

=Commerce=—The supplies of greenheart bark are extremely uncertain, and the drug is scarcely to be found in the market. It has been imported in barrels containing 80 to 84 lb. each, or in bags holding ½ to ¾ cwt.

=Uses=—The bark has been recommended as a bitter tonic and febrifuge, but is hardly ever employed except in the form of what is called _Sulphate of Bibirine_, which, as we have said, is _crude Sulphate of Buxine_.[1989] It is a dark amorphous substance which, having while in a syrupy state been spread out on glazed plates, is obtained in thin translucent laminæ. We find it to yield scarcely one-third of its weight of the pure alkaloid.

[1987] Flückiger, _Neues Jahrbuch für Pharmacie_, xxxi. (1869) 257; _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1870) 192.

[1988] _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1870) 19.

[1989] Mr. W. H. Campbell, of Georgetown, Demerara, has assured me that neither the bark nor its alkaloid is held in esteem in the colony.—D. H.

RADIX SASSAFRAS.

_Sassafras Root_; F. _Bois de Sassafras_, _Lignum Sassafras_; G. _Sassafrasholz_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Sassafras officinalis_ Nees (_Laurus Sassafras_ L.), a tree growing in North America, from Canada, southward to Florida and Missouri. In the north it is only a shrub, or a small tree 20 to 30 feet high, but in the Middle and Southern United States, and especially in Virginia and Carolina, it attains a height of 40 to 100 feet. The leaves are of different forms, some being ovate and entire, and others two- or three-lobed, the former, it is said, appearing earlier than the latter.

=History=—Monardes relates that the French during their expedition to Florida (1562-1564) cured their sick with the wood and root of a tree called _Sassafras_, the use of which they had learnt from the Indians.[1990] Laudonnière, who was a member of that expedition, and diligently set forth the wonders of Florida, observes that, among forest trees, the most remarkable for its timber and especially for its fragrant bark, is that called by the savages _Pavame_ and by the French _Sassafras_.[1991]

The drug was known in Germany, at least since 1582, under the above names or also by that of _Lignum Floridum_ or _Fennel-wood_, _Xylomarathrum_.[1992]

The sassafras tree had been introduced into England in the time of Gerarde (_circa_ 1597), who speaks of a specimen growing at Bow. At that period the wood and bark of the root were used chiefly in the treatment of ague.

In 1610, a paper of instructions from the Government of England to that of the new colony of Virginia, mentions among commodities to be sent home, “_Small sassafras Rootes_” which are “to be drawen in the winter and dryed and none to be medled with in the somer;—and yet is worthe £50 and better per tonne.”[1993] The shipments were afterwards much overdone, for in 1622 complaint is made that other things than _tobacco_ and _sassafras_[1994] were neglected to be shipped.

Angelus Sala, an Italian chemist living in Germany about the year 1610-1630, in distilling sassafras noticed that the oil was heavier than water;[1995] it was quoted in 1683 in the tariff of the apothecary of the elector of Saxony, at Dresden.[1996] John Maud in 1738 obtained crystals of safrol as long as 4 inches;[1997] in 1844 they were examined by Saint-Evre.

=Description=—Sassafras is imported in large branching logs, which often include the lower portion of the stem, 6 to 12 inches in diameter.[1998]

[1990] _Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales_, (Sevilla, 1574) 51.

[1991] De Laet, _Novus Orbis_, 1633. 215.—René de Laudonnière, _Histoire notable de la Floride_. 1586.

[1992] _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1876) 1023.

[1993] _Colonial Papers_, vol. i. No. 23 (MS. in the Record Office, London).

[1994] _Colonial Papers_, vol. ii. No. 4.

[1995] _Opera medico-chymica_, Francofurti, 1682, p. 83.

[1996] Flückiger, _Documente_ (quoted at p. 404, note 7) 70.

[1997] _Phil. Trans. R. Soc. of London_, viii. (1809) 243.

[1998] The sassafras logs met with in English trade often include a considerable portion of trunk-wood, which, as well as the bark that covers it, is inert, and should be sawn off and rejected before the wood is rasped.

The roots proper, which diminish in size down to the thickness of a quill, are covered with a dull, rough, spongy bark. This bark has an inert, soft corky layer, beneath which is a firmer inner bark of brighter hue, rich in essential oil. The wood of the root is light and easily cut, in colour of a dull reddish-brown, and with a fragrant odour and spicy taste similar to that of the bark but less strong. It is usually sold in the shops rasped into shavings.

The _bark of the root_ (_Cortex sassafras_) is a separate article of commerce, but not much used in England. It consists of channelled, flattish, or curled, irregular fragments seldom exceeding 4 inches long by 3 inches broad and generally much smaller, and from ¹/₁₆ to ¼ of an inch in thickness. The inert outer layer has been carefully removed, leaving a scarred, exfoliating surface. The inner surface is finely striated and exhibits very minute shining crystals. The bark has a short, corky fracture, and in colour is a bright cinnamon brown of various shades. It has a strong and agreeable smell, with an astringent, aromatic, bitterish taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The wood of the root exhibits, in transverse section, concentric rings transversed by narrow medullary rays. Each ring contains a number of large vessels in its inner part, and more densely packed cells in its outer. The prevailing part of the wood consists of prosenchyme cells. Globular cells, loaded with yellow essential oil, are distributed among the woody prosenchyme. The latter as well as the medullary rays abounds in starch.

The _bark_ is rich in oil-cells and also contains cells filled with mucilage; it owes its spongy appearance and exfoliation to the formation of secondary cork bands (_rhytidoma_) within the mesophlœum and even in the liber. The cortical tissue abounds in red colouring matter, and further contains starch and, less abundantly, oxalate of calcium.

=Chemical Composition=—The wood of the root yields 1 to 2 per cent. of volatile oil,[1999] and the root-bark twice as much. The stem and leaves of the tree contain but a very small quantity. The oil, which as found in commerce is all manufactured in America, has the specific odour of sassafras, and is colourless, yellow, or reddish-brown, according, as the distillers assert, to the character of the root employed. As the colour of the oil does not affect its flavour and market value, no effort is made to keep separate the different varieties of root.

Oil of Sassafras has a sp. gr. of 1·087 to 1·094, increasing somewhat by age (Procter). When cooled, it deposits crystals of _Safrol_ or _Sassafras Camphor_. This body, which we obtained in the form of hard, four- or six-sided prisms with the odour of sassafras, often attaining more than 4 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter, belongs to the monosymmetric system, as shown by Arzruni.[2000] Safrol, C₁₀H₁₀O₂, liquefies at 8°·5 C. (47° F.), having at 12° C. a sp. gr. of 1·11; it boils at 232° C., and is devoid of rotatory power, nor is it soluble in alkalis. The researches of Grimaux and Ruotte (1869) show the oil to contain nine-tenths of its weight of _Safrol_ which they observed only in the liquid state.

[1999] According to information obtained by Procter, 11 bushels of chips (the charge of a still) yields from 1 to 5 lb. of oil, the amount varying with the quality of the root and the proportion of bark it may contain.—Procter, _Essay on Sassafras in the Proceedings of the American Pharm. Association_, 1866. 217.

[2000] Poggendorff’s _Annalen_, clviii. (1876) 249, with figures of the crystals.

Another constituent of sassafras oil has been termed by Grimaux and Ruotte _Safrene_; it boils at 155° to 157° C., has a sp. gr. of 0·834 and the formula C₁₀H₁₆. It has the same odour as safrol, but deviates the plane of polarization to the right.

It was further found by the same observers that the crude oil contains an extremely small quantity of a substance of the phenol class, which can be removed by caustic lye and separated by an acid.

We succeeded in obtaining this substance by using that portion of the crude oil from which the safrol had separated. The phenol remains in the mother-liquor after it has again been cooled and has afforded a new crystallization of safrol. The phenol thus obtained assumes a beautiful greenish blue hue on addition of an alcoholic solution of perchloride of iron.

The _Sassarubin_ and _Sassafrin_ of Hare (1837) are impure products of the decomposition of sassafras oil by means of sulphuric acid.

The _bark_ and also to some extent the _wood_, in both cases of the root, contain tannic acid which produces a blue colour with persalts of iron. By oxidation, we must suppose, it is converted into the red colouring matter deposited in the bark and, in smaller quantity, in the heartwood of old trees. The young wood is nearly white. The said red substance probably agrees with that to which Reinsch in 1845 and 1846 gave the name of _Sassafrid_, and is doubtless analogous to cinchona-red and ratanhia-red. Reinsch obtained it to the extent of 9·2 per cent.

=Production and Commerce=—Baltimore is the chief mart for sassafras root, bark and oil, which are brought thither from within a circuit of 300 miles. The roots are extracted from the ground by the help of levers, partly barked and partly sent untouched to the market, or are cut up into chips for distillation on the spot. Of the bark as much as 100,000 lb. were received in Baltimore in 1866. The quantity of oil annually produced previous to the war is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 lb. There are isolated small distillers in Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, who are allowed by the owners of a “_sassafras wilderness_” to remove from the ground the roots and stumps without charge. Sassafras root is not medicinal in the United States, the more aromatic root-bark being reasonably preferred.[2001]

=Uses=—Sassafras is reputed to be sudorific and stimulant, but in British practice it is only given in combination with sarsaparilla and guaiacum. Shavings of the wood are sold to make _Sassafras Tea_.

In America the essential oil is used to give a pleasant flavour to effervescing drinks, tobacco and toilet soaps.[2002]

=Substitutes=—The odour of sassafras is common to several plants of the order _Lauraceæ_. Thus the bark of _Mesphilodaphne Sassafras_ Meissn., a tree of Brazil, resembles in odour true sassafras. We have seen a very thick sassafras bark brought from India, the same we suppose as that which Mason[2003] describes as abundantly produced in Burma.

The bark of _Atherosperma moschatum_ Labillardière, an Australian tree, is occasionally exported from Australia under the name of Sassafras bark. It has the odour of the true drug, but differs from it by its grey colour.

[2001] Besides this, _the pith of sassafras_ is also there used as a popular remedy; it is entirely devoid of odour and taste, and is very slightly mucilaginous.

[2002] _American Journ. of Pharm._ 1871. 470.

[2003] _Burmah, its people and natural productions_, 1860. 497.

The large separate cotyledons of two lauraceous trees of the Rio Negro, doubtfully referred by Meissner to the genus _Nectandra_, furnish the so-called _Sassafras Nuts_ or _Puchury_ or _Pilchurim Beans_ of Brazil, occasionally to be met with in old drug warehouses.

On the Orinoko and in Guiana an oleo-resin, called _Sassafras Oil_ or _Laurel Oil_, is obtained by boring into the stem of _Oreodaphne opifera_ Nees, which sometimes contains a cavity holding a large quantity of this fluid.[2004] A similar oil (_Aceite de Sassafras_) is afforded on the Rio Negro by _Nectandra Cymbarum_ Nees.[2005]

[2004] _Brit. Guiana_ at the Paris Exhibition, 1878, Sect. C. p. 7.

[2005] Spruce in _Hooker’s Journ. of Bot._ vii. (1855) 278.

THYMELEÆ.

CORTEX MEZEREI.

_Mezereon Bark_; F. _Ecorce de Mézéréon_, _Bois gentil_; G. _Seidelbast-Rinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Daphne Mezereum_ L., an erect shrub, 1 to 3 feet high, the branches of which are crowded with purple flowers in the early spring, before the full expansion of the oblong, lanceolate, deciduous leaves. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. It is a native of the hilly parts of almost the whole of Europe, from Italy to the Arctic regions, and extends eastward to Siberia. In Britain it occurs here and there in a few of the southern and midland counties, and even reaches Yorkshire and Westmoreland, but there is reason to think it is not truly indigenous. Gerarde, who was well acquainted with it, did not regard it as a British plant.

=History=—The Arabian physicians used a plant called _Mázariyún_, the effects of which they compared to those of euphorbium; it was probably a species of _Daphne_. The word _mázariyún_ is, we are told by competent Arabic scholars, not of Arabic origin, but in all probability derived from the Greek idiom, in which however we are unable to trace its origin. _D. Mezereum_ was known to the early botanists of Europe, as _Daphnoides Chamælæa_, _Thymelæa_, _Chamædaphne_. Tragus described it and figured it in 1546 under the name of _Mezereum Germanicum_. The bark had a place in the German pharmacy of the 17th century under the name of cortex _Coccognidii_ s. _Mezerei_; the berries were the _Cocca gnidia_ s. _knidia_ of the old pharmacy.

=Description=—Mezereon has a very tough and fibrous bark easily removed in long strips which curl inwards as they dry; it is collected in winter and made up into rolls or bundles. The bark, which rarely exceeds ¹/₂₀ of an inch in thickness, has an internal greyish or reddish-brown corky coat which is easily separable from a green inner layer, white and satiny on the side next the wood. That of younger branches is marked with prominent leaf-scars. The bark is too tough to be broken, but easily tears into fibrous strips. When fresh, it has an unpleasant odour which is lost in drying; its taste is persistently burning and acrid. Applied in a moist state to the skin, it occasions, after some hours, redness and even vesication.

=Microscopic Structure=—The cambial zone is formed of about ten rows of delicate unequal cells. The libre consists chiefly of simple fibres alternating with parenchymatous bundles, and traversed by medullary rays. The fibres are very long,—frequently more than 3 mm., and from 5 to 10 mkm. in diameter, their walls being always but little thickened. In the outer part of the liber there occur bundles of thick-walled bast-tubes, while chlorophyll and starch granules appear generally throughout the middle cortical layer. The suberous coat is made up of about 30 dense rows of thin-walled tabular cells, which examined in a tangential section, have an hexagonal outline. Small quantities of tannic matter are deposited in the cambial and suberous zones.

=Chemical Composition=—The acrid principle of mezereon is a resinoid substance contained in the inner bark; it has not yet been examined. The fruits were found by Martius (1862) to contain more than 40 per cent. of a fatty, vesicating oil, which appears to be likewise present in the bark.

The name _Daphnin_ has been given to a crystallizable substance obtained by Vauquelin in 1808 from _Daphne alpina_, and afterwards found by C. G. Gmelin and Baer in the bark of _D. Mezereum_. Zwenger in 1860 ascertained it to be a glucoside of bitter taste, having the composition C₁₅H₁₆O₉ + 2 OH₂, the same as that of Æsculin, the fluorescing principle occurring in the bark of _Æsculus Hippocastanum_ and the root-bark of _Gelsemium nitidum_ Michaux (_G. sempervirens_ Aiton).—_Coccognin_, isolated in 1870 by Casselmann from the fruits of _D. Mezereum_, appears to be closely allied to if not identical with daphnin.

When daphnin is boiled with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, it furnishes _Daphnetin_, C₉H₆O₄ + OH₂, described by Zwenger as crystallizing in colourless prisms. By dry distillation of an alcoholic extract of mezereon bark, the same chemist obtained _Umbelliferone_ (p. 322).

=Uses=—Mezereon taken internally is supposed to be alterative and sudorific, and useful in venereal, rheumatic and scrofulous complaints; but in English medicine it is never now given except as an ingredient of the Compound Decoction of Sarsaparilla. An ethereal extract of the bark has been introduced (1867) as an ingredient of a powerful stimulating liniment. On the Continent, the bark itself, soaked in vinegar and water, is applied with a bandage as a vesicant.

=Substitutes=—Owing to the difficulty of procuring the bark of the root of _D. Mezereum_, the herbalists who supply the London druggists have been long in the habit of substituting that of _D. Laureola_ L., an evergreen species, not uncommon in woods and hedge-sides in several parts of England. The _British Pharmacopœia_ (1864 and 1867) permits _Cortex Mezerei_ to be obtained indiscriminately from either of these species, and does not follow the London College in insisting on the _bark of the root_ alone. That of the stem of _D. Laureola_ corresponds in structure with the bark of the true mezereon, but wants the prominent leaf-scars that mark the upper branches of the latter; it is reputed to be somewhat less acrid than mezereon bark. The mezereon bark of English trade is now mostly imported from Germany, and seems to be derived from _D. Mezereum_.

In France, use is made of the stem-bark of _D. Gnidium_ L., a shrub growing throughout the whole Mediterranean region as far as Morocco. The bark is dark grey or brown, marked with numerous whitish leaf-scars, which display a very regular spiral arrangement. The leaves themselves, some of which are occasionally met with in the drug, are sharply mucronate and very narrow. As to structural peculiarities, the bark of _D. Gnidium_ has the medullary rays more obvious and more loaded with tannic matters than those of _D. Mezereum_; but the middle cortical layer is less developed. The bark, which is called _Ecorce de Gaoru_, is employed as an epispastic.

ARTOCARPACEÆ.

CARICÆ.

_Fructus Caricæ_, _Fici_; _Figs_; F. _Figues_; G. _Feigen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ficus Carica_ L., a deciduous tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, with large rough leaves, forming a handsome mass of foliage.

The native country of the fig stretches from the steppes of the Eastern Aral, along the south and south-west coast of the Caspian Sea (Ghilan, Mazanderan, and the Caucasus), through Kurdistan, to Asia Minor and Syria. In these countries the fig-tree ascends into the mountain region, growing undoubtedly wild in the Taurus at an elevation of 4,800 feet.[2006]

The fig-tree is repeatedly mentioned in the Scriptures, where with the vine it often stands as the symbol of peace and plenty. The fig was not known in Greece, the Archipelago, and the neighbouring coasts of Asia Minor during the Homeric age, though both were very common in the time of Plato. The fig-tree was early introduced into Italy, whence it reached Spain and Gaul. In the opinion of palæontologists the fig-tree was originally indigenous to the last named Mediterranean regions.

Charlemagne, A.D. 812, ordered its cultivation in Central Europe. It was brought to England in the reign of Henry VIII. by Cardinal Pole, whose trees still exist in the garden of Lambeth Palace. But it had certainly been in cultivation at a much earlier period, for the historian Matthew Paris relates[2007] that the year 1257 was so inclement that apples and pears were scarce in England, and that _figs_, cherries, and plums totally failed to ripen.

At the present day the fig-tree is found cultivated in most of the temperate countries both of the Old and New World.[2008] It is met with in the plains of north-western India, and in the outer hills of the north-western Himalaya as high as 5,000 feet; also in the Dekkan, and in Beluchistan and Afghanistan.

[2006] Ritter, _Erdkunde von Asien_, vii. (1844) 2. 544.

[2007] _Eng. Hist._, Bohn’s ed., iii. (1854) 255.

[2008] Introduced into Mexico by Cortez about A.D. 1560.

=History=—Figs were a valued article of food among the ancient Hebrews[2009] and Greeks, as they are to the present day in the warmer countries bordering the Mediterranean.[2010] In the time of Pliny many varieties were in cultivation. The Latin word _Carica_ was first used to designate the dried fig of Caria, a strip of country in Asia Minor opposite Rhodes, an esteemed variety of the fruit corresponding to the Smyrna fig of modern times.

In a diploma granted by Chilperic II., king of the Franks, to the monastery of Corbie, A.D. 716, mention is made of “_Karigas_” in connection with dates, almonds and olives, by which we think dried figs (_Caricæ_) were intended.[2011] Dried figs were a regular article of trade during the middle ages, from the southern to the northern parts of Europe. In 1380 the citizens of Bruges, in regulating the duties which the “Lombards,” _i.e._ Italians, had to pay for their imports, quoted also figs from Cyprus and from Marbella, a place south-west of Malaga.[2012]

In England the average price between A.D. 1264 and 1398 was about 1¾_d._ per lb., raisins and currants being 2¾_d._[2013]

=Description=—A fig consists of a thick, fleshy, hollow receptacle of a pear-shaped form, on the inner face of which grow a multitude of minute fruits.[2014] This receptacle, which is provided with an orifice at the top, is at first green, tough and leathery, exuding when pricked a milky juice. The orifice is surrounded, and almost closed by a number of thick, fleshy scales, near which and within the fig, the male flowers are situated, but they are often wanting or are not fully developed. The female flowers stand further within the receptacle, in the body of which they are closely packed; they are stalked, have a 5-leafed perianth and a bipartite stigma. The ovary, which is generally one-celled, becomes when ripe a minute, dry, hard nut, popularly regarded as a seed.

[2009] See in particular 1 Sam. xxv. 18 and 1 Chron. xii. 40; where we read of large supplies of dried figs being provided for the use of fighting men. Also Num. xx. 5; Jer. xxiv. 2; 2 Reg. xx. 7.

[2010] On the Riviera of Genoa dried figs eaten with bread are a common winter food of the peasantry.

[2011] Pardessus, _Diplomata_, _Chartæ_, etc., ii. (1849) 309.

[2012] _Recesse und andere Akten der Hansetage_, ii. (Leipzig, 1872) 235.

[2013] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 632.

[2014] Albertus Magnus, in allusion to the peculiar growth of the fig, remarks that the tree “fructum autem profert sine flore.” Page 386 of the work quoted in the Appendix.

As the fig advances to maturity, the receptacle enlarges, becomes softer and more juicy, a saccharine fluid replacing the acrid milky sap. It also acquires a reddish hue, while its exterior becomes purple, brown, or yellow, though in some varieties it continues green. The fresh fig has an agreeable and extremely saccharine taste, but it wants the juiciness and refreshing acidity that characterize many other fruits.

If fig is not gathered its stalk loses its firmness, the fruit hangs pendulous from the branch, begins to shrivel and become more and more saccharine by loss of water, and ultimately, if the climate is favourable, it assumes the condition of a _dried fig_. On the large scale however, figs are not dried on the tree, but are gathered and exposed to the sun and air in light trays till they acquire the proper degree of dryness. They can only be preserved in those regions where the summer and autumn are very warm and dry.

Dried figs are termed by the dealers either _natural_ or _pulled_. The first are those which have not been compressed in the packing, and still retain their original shape.[2015] The second are those which after drying have been made supple by squeezing and kneading, and in that state packed with pressure into drums and boxes.

Smyrna figs, which are the most esteemed sort, are of the latter kind. They are of irregular, flattened form, tough, translucent, covered with a saccharine efflorescence; they have a pleasant fruity smell and luscious taste. Figs of inferior quality, as those called in the market _Greek Figs_, differ chiefly in being smaller and less pulpy.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of a dried fig is made up of small, thick-walled and densely packed cells, so as to form a kind of skin. The inner lax parenchyme consists of larger thin-walled cells, traversed by vascular bundles and large, slightly branched, laticiferous vessels. The latter contain a granular substance not soluble in water. In the parenchyme, stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium occur, but in no considerable number.

=Chemical Composition=—The chemical changes which take place in the fig during maturation are important, but no researches have yet been made for their elucidation. The chief chemical substance in the ripe fig is grape sugar, which constitutes from 60 to 70 per cent. of the dried fruit. Gum and fatty matter appear to be present only in very small quantity. We have observed that unripe figs are rich in starch.