Chapter XXXIV: Part 34

=Production and Commerce=—Dried figs were imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 to the amount of 141,847 cwt., of which 91,721 cwt. were shipped from Asiatic Turkey, the remainder being from Portugal, Spain, the Austrian territories and other countries. In 1876 the imports were 163,763 cwt., valued at £318,717.

Kalamata, in the Gulf of Messenia, Greece, and Cosenza in the Italian province of Calabria citeriore, are also particularly known as supplying figs to some parts of continental Europe. In 1876 the exports of Kalamata to Trieste were 9½ millions of kilogrammes.

=Uses=—Dried figs are thought to be slightly laxative, and as such are occasionally recommended in habitual constipation. They enter into the composition of _Confectio Sennæ_.

[2015] The word _Eleme_ applied in the London shops to dried figs of superior quality (“Eleme Figs”) is probably a corruption of the Turkish _ellémé_, signifying _hand-picked_.

MORACEÆ.

FRUCTUS MORI.

_Baccæ Mori_, _Mora_; _Mulberries_; F. _Mûres_; G. _Maulbeeren_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Morus nigra_ L., a handsome bushy tree, about 30 feet in height, growing wild in Northern Asia Minor, Armenia, and the southern Caucasian regions as far as Persia. In Italy, it was employed for feeding the silkworm until about the year 1434, when _M. alba_ L. was introduced from the Levant,[2016] and has ever since been commonly preferred. Yet in Greece, in many of the Greek islands, Calabria and Corsica, the species planted for the silkworm is still _M. nigra_.

The mulberry tree is now cultivated throughout Europe, yet, excepting in the regions named, by no means abundantly. It ripens its fruit in England, as well as in Southern Sweden and Gottland, and in Christiania (Schübeler).

=History=—The mulberry tree is mentioned in the Old Testament,[2017] and by most of the early Greek and Roman writers. Among the large number of useful plants ordered by Charlemagne (A.D. 812) to be cultivated on the imperial farms, the mulberry tree (_Morarius_) did not escape notice.[2018] We meet with it also in a plan sketched A.D. 820, for the gardens of the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland.[2019] The cultivation of the mulberry in Spain is implied by a reference to the preparation of _Syrup of Mulberries_ in the Calendar of Cordova,[2020] which dates from the year 961.

A curious reference to mulberries, proving them to have been far more esteemed in ancient times than at present, occurs in the statutes of the abbey of Corbie of Normandy, in which we find a _Brevis de Melle_, showing how much _honey_ the tenants of the monastic lands were required to pay annually, followed by a statement of the quantity of _Mulberries_ which each farm was expected to supply.[2021]

=Description=—The tree bears unisexual catkins; the female, of an ovoid form, consists of numerous flowers with green four-lobed perianths and two linear stigmas. The lobes of the perianth overlapping each other become fleshy, and by their lateral aggregation form the spurious berry, which is shortly stalked, oblong, an inch in length, and, when ripe, of an intense purple. By detaching a single fruit, the lobes of the former perianth may be still discerned. Each fruit encloses a hard lenticular nucule, covering a pendulous seed with curved embryo and fleshy albumen.

Mulberries are extremely juicy and have a refreshing, subacid, saccharine taste; but they are devoid of the fine aroma that distinguishes many fruits of the order _Rosaceæ_.

=Chemical Composition=—In an analysis made by H. van Hees (1857) 100 parts of mulberries yielded the following constituents:—

Glucose and uncrystallizable sugar 9·19
Free acid (supposed to be _malic_) 1·86
Albuminous matter 0·39
Pectic matter, fat, salts, and gum 2·03
Ash 0·57
Insoluble matters (the seeds, pectose, cellulose, &c.) 1·25
Water 84·71

[2016] A. De Candolle, _Géogr. botanique_, ii. (1855) 856.

[2017] 2 Sam. v. 23, 24.

[2018] Pertz, _Monumenta Germaniæ historica_, Leges, iii. (1835) 181.—Consult also Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen_, 1877.

[2019] F. Keller, _Bauriss des Klosters S. Gallen_, facsimile, Zürich, 1844.

[2020] _Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année_ 961, publié par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 67.

[2021] Guérard, _Polyptique de l’Abbé Irminon_, Paris, ii. 335.

With regard to the results of researches on other edible fruits, made about the same time in the laboratory of Fresenius, it would appear that the mulberry is one of the most saccharine, being only surpassed by the cherry (10·79 of sugar) and grape (10·6 to 19·0).[2022] It is richer in sugar than the following, namely:—

Raspberries, yielding 4 per cent. of sugar and 1·48 of (malic) acid.
Strawberries ” 5·7 ” ” 1·31 ” ”
Whortleberries ” 5·8 ” ” 1·34 ” ”
Currants ” 6·1 ” ” 2·04 ” ”

The amount of free acid in the mulberry is not small, nor is it excessive. The small proportion of insoluble matters is worthy of notice in comparison, for instance with the whortleberry, which contains no less than 13 per cent. The colouring matter of the mulberry has not been examined. The acid is probably not simply malic, but in part tartaric.

=Uses=—The sole use in medicine of mulberries is for the preparation of a syrup employed to flavour or colour any other medicines. In Greece, the fruit is submitted to fermentation, thereby furnishing an inebriating beverage.

CANNABINEÆ.

HERBA CANNABIS.

_Cannabis Indica_; _Indian Hemp_; F. _Chanvre Indien_; G. _Hanfkraut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Cannabis sativa_ L., Common Hemp, an annual diœcious plant, native of Western and Central Asia, cultivated in temperate as well as in tropical countries.

It grows wild luxuriantly on the banks of the lower Ural and Volga near the Caspian Sea, extending thence to Persia, the Altai range, and Northern and Western China. It is found in Kashmir and on the Himalaya, growing 10 to 12 feet high, and thriving vigorously at an elevation of 6000 to 10,000 feet. It likewise occurs in Tropical Africa, on the eastern and western coasts as well as in the central tracts watered by the Congo and Zambesi, but whether truly indigenous is doubtful. It has been naturalized in Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro, the seeds having been brought thither by the negroes from Western Africa. The cultivation of hemp is carried on in many parts of continental Europe, but especially in Central and Southern Russia.

The hemp plant grown in India exhibits certain differences as contrasted with that cultivated in Europe, which were noticed by Rumphius in the 17th century, and which (about A.D. 1790), induced Lamarck to claim for the former plant the rank of a distinct species, under the name of _Cannabis indica_. But the variations observed in the two plants are of so little botanical importance and are so inconstant, that the maintenance of _C. indica_ as distinct from _C. sativa_ has been abandoned by general consent.

[2022] The fig excepted, which is much more saccharine than any.

In a medicinal point of view, there is a wide dissimilarity between hemp grown in India and that produced in Europe, the former being vastly more potent. Yet even in India there is much variation, for, according to Jameson, the plant grown at altitudes of 6000 to 8000 feet affords the resin known as _Charas_, which cannot be obtained from that cultivated on the plains.[2023]

=History=—Hemp has been propagated on account of its textile fibre and oily seeds from a remote period.

The ancient Chinese herbal called _Rh-ya_, written about the 5th century B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one producing seeds, the other flowers only.[2024] In Susruta, Charaka and other early works on Hindu medicine, hemp (_B’hanga_) is mentioned as a remedy. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia both wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made garments from it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also describes how the Scythians expose themselves as in a bath to the vapour of the seeds thrown on hot coals.[2025]

The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted with the medicinal powers of hemp, unless indeed the care-destroying Νηπενθές should, as Royle has supposed, be referred to this plant. According to Stanislas Julien,[2026] anæsthetic powers were ascribed by the Chinese to preparations of hemp as early as the commencement of the 3rd century.

The employment of hemp both medical and dietetic appears to have spread slowly through India and Persia to the Arabians, amongst whom the plant was used in the early middle ages. The famous heretical sect of Mahomedans, whose murderous deeds struck terror into the hearts of the Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centuries, derived their name of _Hashishin_, or, as it is commonly written, _assassins_, from _hashísh_ the Arabic for _hemp_,[2027] which in certain of their rites they used as an intoxicant.[2028] In 1286 of our era, the Sultan of Egypt, Bibars al Bondokdary, prohibited the sale of hashish, the monopoly of which had been leased before.[2029]

The use of hemp (_bhang_) in India was particularly noticed by Garcia de Orta[2030] (1563), and the plant was subsequently figured by Rheede, who described the drug as largely used on the Malabar coast. It would seem about this time to have been imported into Europe, at least occasionally, for Berlu in his _Treasury of Drugs_, 1690, describes it as coming from Bantam in the East Indies, and “_of an infatuating quality and pernicious use_.“

[2023] _Journ. of the Agric. and Hortic. Soc. of India_, viii. 167.

[2024] Bretschneider, _On Chinese Botanical Works_, 1870. 5. 10. Part of the _Rh-ya_ was written in the 12th cent. B.C.

[2025] Rawlinson’s translation, iii. (1859) book 4, chap. 74-5.

[2026] _Comptes Rendus_, xxviii. (1849) 195.

[2027] Hence the words _assassin_ and _assassinate_. Weil, however, is of opinion that the word _assassin_ is more probably derived from _sikkin_, a dagger.—_Geschichte der Chalifen_, iv. (1860) 101.

[2028] The miscreant who assassinated Justice Norman at Calcutta, 20 Sept. 1871, is said to have acted under the influence of _hashísh_. Bellew (_Indus to the Tigris_, 1874. 218) states that the Afghan chief who murdered Dr. Forbes in 1842, had for some days previously been more or less intoxicated with _Charas_ or _Bhang_.

[2029] _Quatremère_, _Memoires sur l’Egypte_ ii. (1811) 504, according to Makrisi.

[2030] _Colloquios dos simples e drogas e cousas medicinaes da India_, ed. 2, Lisboa, 1872, 27.

It was Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt that was the means of again calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts of De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the Indian drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and is chiefly due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O’Shaughnessy in 1838-39.[2031] Although the astonishing effects produced in India by the administration of preparations of hemp are seldom witnessed in the cooler climate of Britain, the powers of the drug are sufficiently manifest to give it an established place in the pharmacopœia.

=Production=—Though hemp is grown in many parts of India, yet as a drug it is chiefly produced in a limited area in the districts of Bogra and Rājshāhi, north of Calcutta, where the plant is cultivated for the purpose in a systematic manner. The retail sale, like that of opium and spirits, is restricted by a license, which in 1871-2 produced to the Government of Bengal about £120,000, while upon opium (chiefly consumed in Assam) the amount raised was £310,000.[2032] Bhang is one of the principal commodities imported into India from Turkestan.

=Description=—The leaves of hemp have long stalks with small stipules at their bases, and are composed of 5 to 7 lanceolate-acuminate leaflets, sharply serrate at the margin. The loose panicles of male flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, are produced on separate plants, from the axils of the leaves. The fruits, called _Hemp-seeds_, are small grey nuts or achenes, each containing a single oily seed. In common with other plants of the order, hemp abounds in silica which gives a roughness to its leaves and stems. In European medicine, the only hemp employed is that grown in India, which occurs in two principal forms, namely:—

1. _=Bhang=_, _Siddhī_ or _Sabzī_ (Hindustani); _Hashish_ or _Qinnaq_ (Arabic). This consists of the dried leaves and small stalks, which are of a dark green colour, coarsely broken, and mixed with here and there a few fruits. It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely any taste. In India, it is smoked either with or without tobacco, but more commonly it is made up with flour and various additions into a sweetmeat or _majun_,[2033] of a green colour. Another form of taking it is that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves in cold water.

2. _=Ganja=_ (Hindustani); _Qinnab_ (Arabic); _Guaza_[2034] of the London drug-brokers. These are the flowering or fruiting shoots of the female plant, and consist in some samples of straight, stiff, woody stems some inches long, surrounded by the upward branching flower-stalks; in others of more succulent and much shorter shoots, 2 to 3 inches long, and of less regular form. In either case, the shoots have a compressed and glutinous appearance, are very brittle, and of a brownish-green hue. In odour and in the absence of taste _ganja_ resembles _bhang_. It is said that after the leaves which constitute _bhang_ have been gathered, little shoots sprout from the stem, and that these picked off and dried form what is called _ganja_.[2035]

[2031] For a notice of them, see O’Shaughnessy, _On the preparation of the Indian Hemp or Gunjah_, Calcutta, 1839; also _Bengal Dispensatory_, Calcutta, 1842. 579-604. An immense number of references to writers who have touched on the medicinal properties of hemp, will be found in the elaborate essay entitled _Studien über den Hanf_, by Dr. G. Martius (Erlangen, 1855).

[2032] Blue Book quoted at p. 52, note 1.

[2033] Magi-oun is the Persian name for electuaries, of which more than 70 are found, for instance, in the _Pharmacopœia Persica_ (see Appendix, Angelus), p. 291 to 321.

[2034] This name is not used in India, but seems to be a corruption of _ganja_.

[2035] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, i. (1868) 293.

=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting constituents of hemp, from a medical point of view, are the _resin_ and _volatile oil_.

The former was first obtained in a state of comparative purity by T. and H. Smith in 1846.[2036] It is a brown amorphous solid, burning with a bright white flame and leaving no ash. It has a very potent action when taken internally, two-thirds of a grain acting as a powerful narcotic, and one grain producing complete intoxication. From the experiments of Messrs. Smith, it seems to us impossible to doubt that to this resin the energetic effects of cannabis are mainly due.

When water is repeatedly distilled from considerable quantities of hemp, fresh lots of the latter being used for each operation, a volatile oil lighter than water is obtained, together with ammonia. This oil, according to the observations of Personne (1857), is amber-coloured, and has an oppressive hemp-like smell. It sometimes deposits an abundance of small crystals. With due precautions it may be separated into two bodies, the one of which, named by Personne _Cannabene_,[2037] is liquid and colourless, with the formula C₁₈H₂₀; the other, which is called _Hydride of Cannabene_, is a solid, separating from alcohol in platy crystals to which Personne assigns the formula C₁₈H₂₂. He asserts that cannabene has indubitably a physiological action, and even claims it as the sole active principle of hemp. Its vapour he states to produce when breathed a singular sensation of shuddering, a desire of locomotion, followed by prostration and sometimes by syncope.[2038] Bohlig in 1840 observed similar effects from the oil, which he obtained from the fresh herb, just after flowering, to the extent of 0·3 per cent.

It remains to be proved whether an _alkaloid_ is present in hemp, as suggested by Preobraschensky.[2039]

The other constituents of hemp are those commonly occurring in other plants. The leaves yield nearly 20 per cent. of ash.

As to the resin of Indian hemp, Bolas and Francis in treating it with nitric acid, converted it into _Oxycannabin_, C₂₀H₂₀N₂O₇. This interesting substance may, they say, be obtained in large prisms from a solution in methylic alcohol. It melts at 176° C. and then evaporates without decomposition; it is neutral.[2040] One of us (F.) has endeavoured to obtain it from the purified resin of charas, but without success.

[2036] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1847) 171.

[2037] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxix. (1857) 48; Canstatt’s _Jahresbericht_ for 1857, i. 28.

[2038] Personne, though he admits the activity of the resin prepared by Smith’s process, contends that it is a mixed body, and that further purification deprives it of all volatile matter and renders it inert. This is not astonishing when one finds that the “purification” was effected by treatment with caustic lime or soda-lime, and exposure to a temperature of 300° C. (572° F.)! That the resin of the Edinburgh chemists does not owe its activity to volatile matter, is proved by their own experiment of exposing a small quantity in a very thin layer to 82° C. for 8 hours: the medicinal action of the resin so treated was found to be unimpaired.

[2039] Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 98.

[2040] _Chemical News_, xxiv. (1871) 77.

=Uses=—Hemp is employed as a soporific, anodyne, antispasmodic, and as a nervous stimulant. It is used in the form of alcoholic extract, administered either in a solid or liquid form. In the East it is consumed to an enormous extent by Hindus and Mahomedans, who either smoke it with tobacco, or swallow it in combination with other substances.[2041]

Charas.

No account of hemp as a drug would be complete without some notice of this substance, which is regarded as of great importance by Asiatic nations.

_Charas_ or _Churrus_ is the resin which exudes in minute drops from the yellow glands, with which the plant is provided in increasing number according to the elevated temperature (and altitude?) of the country where it grows. The varieties of hemp richest in resin, at least in the Laos country in the Malayan Peninsula, scarcely attain the height of 3 feet, and show densely curled leaves.[2042] Charas is collected in several ways:—one is by rubbing the tops of the plants in the hands when the seeds are ripe, and scraping from the fingers the adhering resin. Another is thus performed:—men clothed in leather garments walk about among growing hemp, in doing which the resin of the plant attaches itself to the leather, whence it is from time to time scraped off. A third method consists in collecting, with many precautions to avoid its poisonous effects, the dust which is caused when heaps of dry _bhang_ are stirred about.[2043]

By whichever of these processes obtained, charas is of necessity a foul and crude drug, the use of which is properly excluded from civilized medicine. As before remarked (p. 547) it is not obtainable from hemp grown indiscriminately in any situation even in India, but is only to be got from plants produced at a certain elevation on the hills.

The best charas, which is that brought from Yarkand, is a brown, earthy-looking substance, forming compact yet friable, irregular masses of considerable size. Examined under a strong pocket lens, it appears to be made up of minute, transparent grains of brown resin, agglutinated with short hairs of the plant. It has a hemp-like odour, with but little taste even in alcoholic solution. A second and a third quality of Yarkand charas represent the substance in a less pure state. Charas viewed under the microscope exhibits a crystalline structure, due to inorganic matter. It yields from ¼ to ⅓ of its weight of an amorphous resin, which is readily dissolved by bisulphide of carbon or spirit of wine. The resin does not redden litmus, nor is it soluble in caustic potash. It has a dark brown colour, which we have not succeeded in removing by animal charcoal. The residual part of charas yields to water a little chloride of sodium, and consists in large proportion of carbonate of calcium and peroxide of iron. These results have been obtained in examining samples from Yarkand.[2044] Other specimens which we have also examined, have the aspect of a compact dark resin.

Charas is exported from Yarkand[2045] and Kashgar, the first of which places exported during 1867, 1830 _maunds_ (146,400 lb.) to Lê, whence the commodity is carried to the Punjab and Kashmir. Smaller quantities are annually imported from Kandahar and Samarkand;[2046] some charas appears also (1876) to be exported from Mandshuria to China. The drug is mostly consumed by smoking with tobacco; it is not found in European commerce.

[2041] For further information, consult Cooke’s _Seven Sisters of Sleep_, Lond., chap. xv.-xvii; also _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1872. 600.

[2042] Garnier, _Voyage d’Exploration en Indo-Chine_, ii. (1873) 410.

[2043] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, 1868. 293.

[2044] Obtained by Colonel H. Strachey, and now in the Kew Museum. It is by no means evident by what process they were collected.

[2045] Forsyth, _Correspondence on Mission to Yarkand_, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, Feb. 28, 1871; also Henderson and Hume, _Lahore to Yarkand_, Lond. 1873. 334.

[2046] Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 216.

STROBILI HUMULI.

_Humulus vel Lupulus_; _Hops_; F. _Houblon_; G. _Hopfen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Humulus Lupulus_ L.,—a diœcious perennial plant, producing long annual twining stems which climb freely over trees and bushes. It is found wild, especially in thickets on the banks of rivers, throughout all Europe, from Spain, Sicily and Greece to Scandinavia; and extends also to the Caucasus, the South Caspian region, and through Central and Southern Siberia to the Altai mountains. It has been introduced into North America, Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), and Australia.

=History=—Hops have been used from a remote period in the brewing of beer, of which they are now regarded as an indispensable ingredient. Hop gardens, under the name _humularia_ or _humuleta_, are mentioned as existing in France and Germany in the 8th and 9th centuries; and Bohemian and Bavarian hops have been known as an esteemed kind since the 11th century. A grant alleged to have been made by William the Conqueror in 1069, of hops and hop-lands in the county of Salop,[2047] would indicate, were it free from doubt, a very early cultivation of the hop in England.

As to the use made of hops in these early times, it would appear that they were regarded in somewhat of a medicinal aspect. In the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,[2048] an English manuscript written about A.D. 1050, it is said of the hop (_hymele_) that its good qualities are such that men put it in their usual drinks; and St. Hildegard,[2049] a century later, states that the hop (_hoppho_) is added to beverages, partly for its wholesome bitterness, and partly because it makes them keep.

Hops for brewing were among the produce which the tenants of the abbey of St. Germain in Paris[2050] had to furnish to the monastery in the beginning of the 9th century; yet in the middle of the 14th century, beer without such addition was still brewed in Paris.

[2047] Blount, _Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors_, edited by Hazlitt, 1874. 165.

[2048] _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_, edited by Cockayne, i. (1864) 173; ii. (1865) ix.

[2049] _Opera Omnia_, accurante J. P. Migne, Paris, 1855. 1153.

[2050] Guérard, _Polyptique de l’abbé Irminon_, i. (1844) 714. 896.

The brewsters, bakers and millers of London were the subject of a mandate of Edward I. in A.D. 1298; but there is no reason for inferring that the manufacture of malt liquor at this period involved the use of hops. It is plain indeed that somewhat later, hops were _not_ generally used, for in the 4th year of Henry VI. (1425-26), an information was laid against a person for putting into beer “an unwholesome weed called _an hopp_;”[2051] and in the same reign, Parliament was petitioned against “that wicked weed called _hops_.”

But it is evident that hops were soon found to possess good qualities, and that though their use was denounced, it was not suppressed. Thus in the regulations for the household of Henry VIII. (1530-31), there is an injunction that the brewer is “not to put any hops or brimstone into the ale”;[2052] while in the very same year (1530), hundreds of pounds of Flemish hops were purchased for the use of the noble family of L’Estranges of Hunstanton.[2053]

In 1552 the cultivation of hops in England was distinctly sanctioned by the 5th and 6th of Edward VI. c. 5, which directs that land formerly in tillage should again be so cultivated, excepting it should have been set with _hops_ or saffron. Notwithstanding these facts, hops were for a long period hardly regarded an essential in brewing, as may be gathered from the remark of Gerarde (_ob._ A.D. 1607), who speaks of them as used “to season” beer or ale, explaining that notwithstanding their manifold virtues, they “rather make it a physical drinke to keepe the body in health, than an ordinary drinke for the quenching of our thirst.” In reality, other herbs were for a long period employed to impart to malt liquor a bitter or aromatic taste, as Ground Ivy (_Nepeta Glechoma_ Benth.); anciently called Ale-hoof or Gill; Alecost (_Balsamita vulgaris_ L.); Sweet Gale (_Myrica Gale_ L.); and Sage (_Salvia officinalis_ L.). Even Long Pepper and Bay Berries were used for the same purpose,[2054] but in addition to hops.

Though English hops were esteemed superior to foreign, and were extensively grown as early as 1603, as shown by an act of James I.,[2055] Flemish hops continued to be imported in considerable quantities down to 1693.

[2051] The authority for this statement is an isolated memorandum in a MS. volume (No. 980) by Thomas Gybbons, preserved in the Harleian collection in the British Museum.

[2052] _Archæologia_, iii. (1786) 157.

[2053] _Ibid._ xxv. (1834) 505.

[2054] Holinshed, _Chronicles_, vol. i. book 2. cap. 6.

[2055] 1 James I. (anno 1603) cap. 18.

=Structure=—The inflorescence of the male plant constitutes a large panicle; that of the female is less conspicuous, consisting of stalked catkins which by their growth develope large leafy imbricating bracts, ultimately forming an ovoid cone or strobile, which is the officinal part. This catkin consists of a short central zigzag stalk, bearing overlapping rudimentary leaflets, each represented by a pair of stipules. Between them are 4 female florets, each supported by a bract. After flowering, the stipules as well as the bracts are much enlarged, and then form the persistent, yellowish-green, pendulous strobile. At maturity, each bract infolds at its base a small lenticular closed fruit or nut, ⅒ of an inch in diameter. The nut is surrounded by a membranous, one-leafed perigone, and contains within its fragile, brown shell an exalbuminous seed. These fruits, as well as the axis and the base of all the leaf-like organs, are beset with numerous shining, translucent glands, to which the aromatic smell and taste of hops are due.

=Description=—Hops as found in commerce consist entirely of the fully developed strobiles or cones, more or less compressed. They have a greenish yellow colour, an agreeable and peculiar aroma, and a bitter aromatic burning taste. When rubbed in the hand they feel clammy, and emit a more powerful odour. By keeping, hops lose their greenish colour and become brown, at the same time acquiring an unpleasant odour, by reason of the formation of a little valerianic acid. Exposure to the vapour of sulphurous acid retards or prevents this alteration. For medicinal use, hops smelling of sulphurous acid should be avoided, though in reality the acid speedily becomes innocuous. Liebig has refuted the objections raised by brewers to the sulphuring of hops.

=Chemical Composition=—Besides the constituents of the glands which are described in the next article, hops contain according to Etti’s elaborate investigations (1876, 1878) _humulotannic acid_ and _phlobaphene_. The former is a whitish amorphous mass, soluble in alcohol, hot water or acetic ether, not in ether. By heating the humulotannic acid at 130° C., or by boiling its aqueous or alcoholic solutions, it gives off water, and is transformed into phlobaphene, a dark red amorphous substance,

(C₂₅H₂₄O₁₃)₂ = OH₂ · C₅₀H₄₆O₂₅.
humulotannic phlobaphene.
acid.

The latter substance, on boiling it with dilute mineral acids, again loses water and furnishes glucose.

From raw phlobaphene ether removes the _bitter principles_ of hops, a colourless crystallizable and a brown amorphous resin, besides chlorophyll and essential oil.

By distilling hops with water, 0·9 per cent. of _essential oil_ are obtained. Personne (1854) stated it to contain _Valerol_,[2056] C₆H₁₀O, which passes into valerianic acid; the latter in fact occurs in the glands, yet according to Méhu[2057] only to the extent of 0·1 to 0·17 per cent. When distilled from the fresh strobiles the oil has a greenish colour, but a reddish-brown when old hops have been employed. We find it to be devoid of rotatory power, neutral to litmus paper, and not striking any remarkable coloration with concentrated sulphuric acid.

Griessmayer (1874) has shown that hops contain _Trimethylamine_, and in small proportion a liquid volatile alkaloid not yet analysed, which he terms _Lupuline_. The latter is stated to have the odour of conine, and to assume a violet hue when treated with chromate of potassium and sulphuric acid.

Lastly, Etti also found arabic (pectic) acid, phosphates, nitrates, malates, citrates, and also sulphates, chiefly of potassium, to occur in hops. The amount of ash afforded by hops dried at 100° C. would appear to be on an average about 6-7 per cent.

=Production and Commerce=—England was estimated as having in 1873, 63,276 acres under hops. The chief district for the cultivation is the county of Kent, where in that year 39,040 acres were devoted to this plant. Hops are grown to a much smaller extent in Sussex, and in still diminished quantity in Herefordshire, Hampshire, Worcestershire and Surrey. The other counties of England and the principality of Wales produce but a trifling amount, and Scotland none at all.

In continental Europe, hops are most largely produced in Bavaria and Württemberg, Belgium and France, but in each on a smaller scale than in England. France in 1872 is stated to have 9223 acres under hops.[2058]

[2056] A substance with which we are not acquainted.

[2057] _Thèse_, Montpellier, 1867.

[2058] _Agricultural Returns of Great Britain_, &c., 1873, presented to Parliament, 48. 49. 70. 71.

Notwithstanding the extensive production of hops in England, there is a large importation from other countries. The importation in 1872 was 135,965 cwt., valued at £679,276: of this quantity, Belgium supplied 66,630 cwt., Germany 36,612 cwt., Holland 16,675 cwt., the United States 10,414 cwt., France 5,328 cwt. During the same period hops were exported from the United Kingdom to the extent of 31,215 cwt.[2059]

=Uses=—Hops are administered medicinally as a tonic and sedative, chiefly in the form of tincture, infusion or extract.

GLANDULÆ HUMULI.

_Lupulina_; _Lupulin_, _Lupulinic Grains_; F. _Lupuline_; G. _Hopfendrüsen_, _Hopfenstaub_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Humulus Lupulus_ L. (see preceding article). The minute, shining, translucent glands of the strobile constitute when detached therefrom the substance called _Lupulin_.

=History=—The glands of hop were separated and chemically examined by L. A. Planche, a pharmacien of Paris, whose observations were first briefly described by Loiseleur-Deslongchamps in 1819.[2060] In the following year, Dr. A. W. Ives of New York[2061] published an account of his experiments upon hops and their glands, to which latter he applied the name of _Lupulin_. Payen and Chevallier, Planche and others, made further experiments on the same subject, endorsing the recommendation of Ives that lupulin (or, as they preferred to call it, _Lupuline_) might be advantageously used in medicine in place of hops.

[2059] _Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom_ for 1872. 49. 93.

[2060] _Manuel des Plantes usuelles et indigènes_, 1819. ii. 503.

[2061] Silliman’s _Journ. of Science_, ii. (1820) 302.

=Production=—Lupulin is obtained by stripping off the bracts of hops, and shaking and rubbing them; and then separating the powder by a sieve. The powder thus detached ought to be washed by decantation, so as to remove from it the sand or earth with which it is always contaminated; finally it should be dried, and stored in well-closed bottles. From the dried strobiles, 8 to 12 per cent. of lupulin may be obtained.

=Description=—Lupulin seen in quantity appears as a yellowish-brown granular powder, having an agreeable odour of hops and a bitter aromatic taste. It is gradually wetted by water, instantly by alcohol or ether, but not by potash or sulphuric acid. By trituration in a mortar the cells are ruptured so that it may be worked into a plastic mass. Thrown into the air and then ignited, it burns with a brilliant flame like lycopodium.

=Microscopic Structure=—The lupulinic gland or grain, like the generality of analogous organs, is formed by an intumescence of the cuticle of the nuculæ and bracts of hop (see p. 552). Each grain is originally attached by a very short stalk, which is no longer perceptible in the drug. The gland, exhausted by ether and macerated in water, is a globular or ovoid thin-walled sac, measuring from 140 to 240 mkm. It consists of two distinct, nearly hemispherical parts; that originally provided with the stalk is built up of tabular polyhedric cells, whilst the upper hemisphere shows a continuous delicate membrane. This part therefore easily collapses, and thus exhibits a variety of form, the greater also as the grains turn pole or equator to the observer.[2062]

The hop gland is filled with a thick, dark brown or yellowish liquid, which in the drug is contracted into one mass occupying the centre of the gland. It may be expelled in minute drops when the wall is made to burst by warming the grain in glycerin. The colouring matter, to which the wall owes its fine yellow colour, adheres more obstinately to the thinner hemisphere, and is more easily extracted from the thicker part by means of ether.

=Chemical Composition=—The odour of lupulinic grains resides in the essential oil, described in the previous article. The bitter principle formerly called _Lupulin_ or _Lupulite_ was first isolated by Lermer (1863) who called it the _bitter acid of hops_ (_Hopfenbittersäure_). It crystallizes in large brittle rhombic prisms, and possesses in a high degree the peculiar bitter taste of beer, in which however it can be present only in very small proportion, it being nearly insoluble in water, though easily dissolved by many other liquids. The composition of this acid, C₃₂H₅₀O₇, appears to approximate it to absinthiin; it is contained in the glands in but small proportion. Still smaller is the amount of another crystallizable constituent, regarded by Lermer as an alkaloid.

The main contents of the hop gland consist of wax (_Myricylic palmitate_, according to Lermer), and resins, one of which is crystalline and unites with bases.

A good specimen of German lupulin, dried over sulphuric acid, yielded us 7·3 per cent. of ash. The same drug exhausted by boiling ether, afforded 76·8 per cent. of an extremely aromatic extract, which on exposure to the steam-bath for a week, lost 3·03 per cent., this loss corresponding to the volatile oil and acids. The residual part was soluble in glacial acetic acid and could therefore contain but very little fatty matter.

=Uses=—The drug has the properties of hops, but with less of astringency. It is not often prescribed.

=Adulteration=—Lupulin is apt to contain sand, and on incineration often leaves a large amount of ash. Other extraneous matters which are not unfrequent may be easily recognized by means of a lens. As the essential oil in lupulin is soon resinified, the latter should be preferred fresh, and should be kept excluded from the air.

[2062] For a full account of the formation of the glands, see Trécul, _Annales des Sciences Nat._, Bot., i. (1854) 299. An abstract may be found in Méhu’s _Etude du Houblon et du Lupulin_, Montpellier, 1867.

ULMACEÆ.

CORTEX ULMI.

_Elm Bark_; F. _Ecorce d’Orme_; G. _Ulmenrinde_, _Rüsterrinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ulmus campestris_ Smith, the Common Elm, a stately tree, widely diffused over Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, southward to Northern Africa and Asia Minor, and eastward as far as Amurland, Northern China, and Japan. It is probably not truly indigenous to Great Britain; but the Wych Elm, _U. montana_ With., is certainly wild in the northern and western counties;[2063] the latter is, according to Schübeler, the only species indigenous to Norway.

History—The classical writers, and especially Dioscorides, were familiar with the astringent properties of the bark of πτελέα, by which name _Ulmus campestris_ is understood. Imaginary virtues are ascribed by Pliny to the bark and leaves of _Ulmus_. Elm bark is frequently prescribed in the English Leech-books of the 11th century, at which period a great many plants of Southern Europe had already been introduced into Britain.[2064] Its use is also noticed in Turner’s _Herbal_ (1568) and in Parkinson’s _Theater of Plants_ (1640), the author of the latter remarking that “all the parts of the Elme are of much use in Physicke.”

In the Scandinavian antiquity the fibrous bark of _Ulmus montana_ used to be made up into ropes.[2065]

=Description=—Elm bark for use in medicine should be removed from the tree in early spring, deprived of its rough corky outer coat, and then dried. Thus prepared, it is found in the shops in the form of broad flattish pieces, of a rusty yellowish colour, and striated surface especially on the inner side. It is tough and fibrous, nearly inodorous, and has a woody, slightly astringent taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The liber, which is the only officinal part, consists of thick-walled, tangentially-extended parenchyme, in which there are some large cells filled with mucilage, while the rest contain a red-brown colouring matter. The mucilage forms a stratified deposit within the cell. Large bast-bundles, arranged in irregular rows, alternate with the parenchyme, and are intersected by narrow, reddish, medullary rays consisting of 2 or 3 rows of cells. The bast-bundles contain numerous long tubes about 30 mkm. thick, with narrow cavities; and besides these, somewhat larger tubes with porous transverse walls (cribriform vessels). Each cubic cell of the neighbouring bast-parenchyme encloses a large crystal, seldom well defined, of oxalate of calcium.

[2063] On the word _elm_, Dr. Prior remarks that it is nearly identical in all the Germanic and Scandinavian dialects, yet does not find its root in any of them, but is an adaptation of the Latin _Ulmus_.—_Popular Names of British Plants_, ed. 2. 1870. 71.

[2064] _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_, edited by Rev. O. Cockayne, ii. (1865) pp. 53. 67. 79. 99. 127 and p. xii.—In the Anglo-Saxon recipes, both _Elm_ and _Wych Elm_ are named in the Welsh “_Meddygon Myddfai_” (see Appendix). Elmwydd or Ilwyf and “Ulmus romanus,” Ilwyf Rhufain, are met with.

[2065] Schübeler, _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_, 1873-75, p. 216.

=Chemistry=—The chief soluble constituent of elm hark is mucilage with a small proportion of tannic acid, the latter, according to Johanson (1875), probably agreeing with that of oak bark and bark of willows. The concentrated infusion of elm bark yields a brown precipitate with perchloride of iron; the dilute assumes a green coloration with that test. Starch is wanting, or only occurs in the middle cortical layer, which is usually rejected.

Elms in summer-time frequently exude a gum which, by contact with the air, is converted into a brown insoluble mass, called _Ulmin_. This name has been extended to various decomposition-products of organic bodies, the nature and affinities of which are but little known.[2066]

=Uses=—Elm bark is prescribed in decoction as a weak mucilaginous astringent, but is almost obsolete.

CORTEX ULMI FULVÆ.

_Slippery Elm Bark._

=Botanical Origin=—_Ulmus fulva_ Michaux, the Red or Slippery Elm, a small or middle-sized tree,[2067] seldom more than 30 to 40 feet high, growing on the banks of streams in the central and northern United States from Western New England to Wisconsin and Kentucky, and found also in Canada.

=History=—The Indians of North America attributed medicinal virtues to the bark of the Slippery Elm, which they used as a healing application to wounds, and in decoction as a wash for skin diseases. It is the “Salve Bark” or “Cortex unguentarius” of Schöpf.[2068] Bigelow, writing in 1824, remarks that the mucilaginous qualities of the inner bark are well known.

=Description=—The Slippery Elm Bark used in medicine consists of the liber only. It forms large flat pieces, often 2 to 3 feet long by several inches broad, and usually ¹/₂₀ to ²/₂₀ of an inch thick, of an extremely tough and fibrous texture. It has a light reddish-brown colour, an odour resembling that of fenugreek (which is common to the leaves also), and a simply mucilaginous taste.

In collecting the bark the tree is destroyed, and no effort is made to replace it, the wood being nearly valueless. Thus the supply is diminishing year by year, and the collectors who formerly obtained large quantities of the bark in New York and other eastern states have now to go westward for supplies.[2069]

[2066] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. (1866) 458.

[2067] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 34 (1878).

[2068] _Mat. Med. Americ._, Erlangæ, 1787. 32.

[2069] _Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association for 1873_, xxi. 435.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section shows a series of undulating layers of large yellowish bundles of soft liber-fibres, alternating with small brown parenchymatous bands. The whole tissue is traversed by numerous narrow medullary rays, and interrupted by large intercellular mucilage-ducts. In order to examine the latter, longitudinal sections ought to be moistened with benzol, aqueous liquids causing great alteration. In a longitudinal section, the mucilage-ducts are seen to be 70 to 100 mkm. long, and to contain colourless masses of mucilage, distinctly showing a series of layers. Crystals of calcium oxalate, as well as small starch grains, are very plentiful throughout the surrounding parenchyme.

=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting constituent of the bark is mucilage, which is imparted to either cold or hot water, but does not form a true solution. The bark moistened with 20 parts of water swells considerably, and becomes enveloped by a thick neutral mucilage, which is not altered either by iodine or perchloride of iron. This mucilage when diluted, even with a triple volume of water, will yield only a few drops when thrown on a paper filter. The liquid which drains out is precipitable by neutral acetate of lead. By addition of absolute alcohol, the concentrated mucilage is not rendered turbid, but forms a colourless transparent fluid deposit.

=Adulteration=—Farinaceous substances admixed to the powdered drug may be detected by means of the microscope.

=Uses=—Slippery Elm Bark is a demulcent like althæa or linseed. The powder is much used in America for making poultices; it is said to preserve lard from rancidity, if the latter is melted with it and kept in contact for a short time.

EUPHORBIACEÆ.

EUPHORBIUM.

_Euphorbium_, _Gum Euphorbium_; F. _Gomme-résine d’Euphorbe_; G. _Euphorbium_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Euphorbia resinifera_ Berg, a leafless, glaucous, perennial plant resembling a cactus, and attaining 6 or more feet in height. Its stems are ascending, fleshy and quadrangular, each side measuring about an inch. The angles of the stem are furnished at intervals with pairs of divergent, horizontal, straight spines about ¼ of an inch long, and confluent at the base into ovate, subtriangular discs. These spines represent stipules: above each pair of them is a depression, indicating a leaf-bud. The inflorescence is arranged at the summits of the branches, on stalks each bearing three flowers, the two outer of which are supported on pedicels. The fruit is tricoccous, ³/₁₀ of an inch wide, with each carpel slightly compressed and keeled.[2070]

The plant is a native of Morocco, growing on the lower slopes of the Atlas in the southern province of Suse. Dr. Hooker and his fellow-travellers met with it in 1870 at Netifa and Imsfuia,[2071] south-east of the city of Morocco, which appears to be its westward limit.

=History=—Euphorbium was known to the ancients. Dioscorides[2072] and Pliny[2073] both describe its collection on Mount Atlas in Africa, and notice its extreme acridity. According to the latter writer, the drug received its name in honour of Euphorbus, physician to Juba II., king of Mauritania. This monarch, who after a long reign died about A.D. 18, was distinguished for his literary attainments, and was the author of several books[2074] which included treatises on opium and euphorbium. The latter work was apparently extant in the time of Pliny.

[2070] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 24 (1877).

[2071] Or Mesfioua, according to Ball, who also quotes the province Demenet.—_Journ. of the Linnean Soc._ Bot. xvi. (1878) 662.

[2072] Lib. iii. c. 86.

[2073] Lib. v. c. 1; lib. xxv. c. 38.

[2074] Smith, _Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography_, ii. (1846) 636.

Euphorbium is mentioned by numerous other early writers on medicine, as Rufus Ephesius, who probably flourished during the reign of Trajan, by Galen in the 2nd century, and by Vindicianus and Oribasius in the 4th. Aëtius and Paulus Ægineta, who lived respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, were likewise acquainted with it; and it was also known to the Arabian school of medicine. In describing the route from Aghmat to Fez, El-Bekri[2075] of Granada, in 1068, mentioned the numerous plants “El-forbioun” growing in the country of the Beni Ouareth, a tribe of the Sanhadja; the author noticed the spiny herbaceous stems of the shrub abounding in the purgative milky juice.

Höst[2076] (1760-1768) stated that the plant, which he also correctly compared with Opuntia, is growing near Agader, south of Mogador.

The plant yielding euphorbium was further described at the beginning of the present century by an English merchant named Jackson, who had resided many years in Morocco. From the figures he published,[2077] the species was doubtfully identified with _Euphorbia canariensis_ L., a large cactus-like shrub, with quadrangular or hexagonal stems, abounding on scorched and arid rocks in the Canary Islands.

In the year 1749 it was pointed out in the (_Admiralty_) _Manual of Scientific Enquiry_, that the stems of which fragrants are found in commercial euphorbium, do not agree with those of _E. canariensis_. Berg carried the comparison further, and finally from the fragments in question drew up a botanical description, which with an excellent figure he published[2078] as _Euphorbia resinifera_. The correctness of his observations has been fully justified by specimens[2079] which were transmitted to the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1870, and now form flourishing plants.

[2075] _Description de l’Afrique septentrionale_, traduite par M. de Slane, _Journal asiatique_, xiii. (Paris, 1859) 413.

[2076] _Nachrichten von Marokos und Fes_, Kopenhagen, 1781. 308.

[2077] _Account of the Empire of Morocco and the district of Suse_, Lond. 1809. 81. pl. 7.—The plate represents an entire plant, and also what purports to be a portion of a branch of the natural size. The latter is really the figure of a different species,—apparently that which has been recently named by Cosson _Euphorbia Beaumierana_.

[2078] Berg und Schmidt, _Offizinelle Gewächse_, iv. (1863) xxxiv. d.

[2079] They were procured by Mr. William Grace, and forwarded to England by Mr. C. F. Carstensen, British Vice-Consul at Mogador.

The drug has a place in all the early printed pharmacopœias.

=Collection=—Euphorbium is obtained by making incisions in the green fleshy branches of the plant. These incisions occasion an abundant exudation of milky juice which hardens by exposure to the air, encrusting the stems down which it flows; it is finally collected in the latter part of the summer. So great is the acridity of the exudation, that the collector is obliged to tie a cloth over his mouth and nostrils, to prevent the entrance of the irritating dust. The drug is said to be collected in districts lying east and south-east of the city of Morocco.

=Description=—The drug consists of irregular pieces, seldom more than an inch across and mostly smaller, of a dull yellow or brown waxy-looking substance, among which portions of the angular spiny stem of the plant may be met with. Many of the pieces encrust a tuft of spines or a flower-stalk or are hollow. The substance is brittle and translucent; splinters examined under the microscope exhibit no particular structure, even by the aid of polarized light; nor are starch granules visible.[2080] The odour is slightly aromatic, especially if heat is applied; but 10 lb. of the drug which we subjected to distillation afforded no essential oil. Euphorbium has a persistent and extremely acrid taste; its dust excites violent sneezing, and if inhaled, as when the drug is powdered, occasions alarming symptoms.

=Chemical Composition=—Analysis of euphorbium performed by one of us[2081] showed the composition of the drug to be as follows:—

Amorphous resin, C₁₀H₁₆O₂ 38
Euphorbon, C₁₃H₂₂O 22
Mucilage 18
Malates, chiefly of calcium and sodium 12
Mineral compounds 10
------
100

The amorphous resin is readily soluble in cold spirit of wine containing about 70 per cent. of alcohol. The solution has no acid reaction, but an extremely burning acrid taste: in fact it is to the amorphous indifferent resin that euphorbium owes its intense acridity. By evaporating the resin with alcoholic potash and neutralizing the residue with a dilute aqueous acid, a brown amorphous substance, the _Euphorbic Acid_ of Buchheim,[2082] is precipitated. It is devoid of the acridity of the resin from which it originated, but has a bitterish taste.

From the drug deprived of the amorphous resin as above stated, ether (ether or petroleum) takes up the _Euphorbon_, which may be obtained in colourless, although not very distinct crystals, which are at first not free from acrid taste. But by repeated crystallizations and finally boiling in a weak solution of permanganate of potassium, they may be so far purified as to be entirely tasteless. Euphorbon is insoluble in water; it requires about 60 parts of alcohol, sp. gr. 0·830, for solution at the ordinary temperature. In boiling alcohol euphorbon dissolves abundantly, also in ether, benzol, amylic alcohol, chloroform, acetone, or glacial acetic acid.

Euphorbon melts at 116° C. (113° to 114°, Hesse) without emitting any odour. By dry distillation a brownish oily liquid is obtained, which claims further examination. If euphorbon dissolved in alcohol is allowed to form a thin film in a porcelain capsule, and is then moistened with a little concentrated sulphuric acid, a fine violet hue is produced in contact with strong nitric acid slowly added by means of a glass rod. The same reaction is displayed by _Lactucerin_ (see Lactucarium), to which in its general characters euphorbon is closely allied.

[2080] By careful investigation a very few are found at last.

[2081] Flückiger in Wittstein’s _Vierteljahresschrift für prakt. Pharmacie_, xvii. (1868) 82-102.—The drug analysed consisted of selected fragrants, free from extraneous substances.

[2082] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_, 1873. 559.

Hesse (1878) assigns to euphorbon the formula C₁₅H₂₄O, and points out that its solutions in chloroform or ether are dextrogyrate.

As to the mucilage of euphorbium, it may be obtained from that portion of the drug which has been exhausted by cold alcohol and by ether. Neutral acetate of lead, as well as silicate or borate of sodium, precipitate this mucilage, which therefore does not agree with gum arabic.

If an aqueous extract of euphorbium is mixed with spirit of wine, and the liquid evaporated, the residual matter assumes a somewhat crystalline appearance, and exhibits the reactions of _Malic Acid_. Subjected to dry distillation, white scales and acicular crystals of _Maleic_ and _Fumaric Acids_, produced by the decomposition of the malic acid, are sublimed into the neck of the retort. A sublimate of the same kind may sometimes be obtained directly by heating fragments of euphorbium. Among the mineral constituents of the drug, chloride of sodium and calcium are noticeable; scarcely any salt of potassium is present.

=Commerce=—The drug is shipped from Mogador. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 is given in the _Annual Statement of Trade_ as 12 cwt.

_Uses_—Euphorbium was formerly employed as an emetic and purgative, but as an internal remedy it is completely obsolete. We have been told that it is now in some demand as an ingredient of a paint for the preservation of ships’ bottoms.

CORTEX CASCARILLÆ.

_Cortex Eleutheriæ_; _Cascarilla Bark_, _Sweet Wood Bark_, _Eleuthera[2083] Bark_; F. _Ecorce de Cascarille_; G. _Cascarill-Rinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Croton Eluteria_ Bennett,[2084] a shrub or small tree, exclusively native of the Bahama Islands.