Chapter XXXVI: Part 36

Tribute was levied in pepper,[2152] and donations were made of this spice, which was often used as a medium of exchange when money was scarce. During the siege of Rome by Alaric, king of the Goths, A.D. 408, the ransom demanded from the city included among other things 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, and 3000 pounds of _pepper_.[2153] After the conquest of Cæsarea in Palestine, A.D. 1101, by the Genoese, each of them received two pounds of pepper and 48 soldi for his part of the booty.[2154] Facts of this nature, of which a great number might be enumerated, sufficiently illustrate the part played by this spice in mediæval times.

The general prevalence during the middle ages of _pepper-rents_, which consisted in an obligation imposed upon a tenant to supply his lord with a certain quantity of pepper, generally a pound, at stated times, shows how acceptable was this favourite condiment, and how great the desire of the wealthier classes to secure a supply of it when the market was not always certain.[2155]

The earliest reference to a trade in pepper in England that we have met with, is in the Statutes of Ethelred, A.D. 978-1016,[2156] where it is enacted that the Easterlings coming with their ships to Billingsgate should pay at Christmas and Easter for the privilege of trading with London, a small tribute of cloth, five pairs of gloves, _ten pounds of pepper_,[2157] and two barrels of vinegar.

The merchants who trafficked in spices were called _Piperarii_,—in English _Pepperers_, in French _Poivriers_ or _Pebriers_. As a fraternity or guild, they are mentioned as existing in London in the Reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1154-1189). They were subsequently incorporated as the Grocers’ Company, and had the oversight and control of the trade in spices, drugs, dye-stuffs, and even metals.[2158]

The price of pepper during the middle ages was always exorbitantly high, for the rulers of Egypt extorted a large revenue from all those who were engaged in the trade in it and other spices.[2159] Thus in England between A.D. 1263 and 1399, it averaged 1_s._ per lb., equivalent to about 8_s._ of our present money. It was however about 2_s._ per lb. (= 16_s._) between 1350 and 1360.[2160] In 1370 we find pepper in France valued 7 sous 6 deniers per lb. (= fr. 21. c. 30):—in 1542 at a price equal to fr. 11 per lb.[2161]

The high cost of this important condiment contributed to incite the Portuguese to seek for a sea-passage to India. It was some time after the discovery of this passage (A.D. 1498) that the price of pepper first experienced a considerable fall; while about the same period the cultivation of the plant was extended to the western islands of the Malay Archipelago. The trade in pepper continued to be a monopoly of the Crown of Portugal as late as the 18th century.

[2152] For some examples of this, see _Histoire de la vie privée des Français_, par le Grand d’Aussy, nouvelle éd., ii. (1815) 182.

[2153] Zosimus, _Historia_ (Lips. 1784) lib. v. c. 41.

[2154] Belgrano, _Vita privata dei Genovesi_ 1875. 152.

[2155] Rogers, _Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 626. The term _peppercorn rent_, which has survived to our times, now only signifies a nominal payment.

[2156] _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, published by the Record Commission, i. (1840) 301.

[2157] A striking contrast to the announcement in a commercial paper, 27 _Feb._ 1874, that the stock of pepper in the public warehouses of London the previous week was 6035 tons!

[2158] Herbert, _Hist. of the twelve great Livery Companies of London_, Lond. 1834. 303, 310.

[2159] Reinaud, _Nouveau Journal asiatique_, 1829, Juillet, 22-51.

[2160] Rogers, _op. cit._ i. 641.

[2161] Leber, _Appréciation de la fortune privée au moyen-âge, éd._ 2, Paris, 1847. 95, 305.

The Venetians used every effort to retain the valued traffic in their own hands, but in vain; and it was a fact of general interest when on the 21st of January 1522 a Portuguese ship brought for the first time the spices of India direct to the city of Antwerp. Strange to say, they were received with great mistrust!

Pepper was heavily taxed in England. In 1623 the imposts levied on it amounted to 5_s._ per lb.; and even down to 1823 it was subject to a duty of 2_s._ 6_d._ per lb.

=Production=—In the south-west of India, the plant, or _Pepper Vine_ as it is called, grows on the sides of the narrow valleys where the soil is rich and moist, producing lofty trees by which a constant, favourable coolness is maintained. In such places the pepper-vine runs along the ground and propagates itself by striking out roots into the soil. The natives tie up the end of the vines lying on the ground to the nearest tree, on the bark of which the stems put out roots so far as they have been tied, the shoots above that hanging down. The plant is capable of growing to a height of 20 or 30 feet, but for the sake of convenience it is usually kept low, and is often trained on poles. In places where no vines occur naturally, the plant is propagated by planting slips near the roots of the trees on which it is to climb.

The pepper plants if grown on a rich soil begin to bear even in the first year, and continue to increase in productiveness till about the fifth, when they yield 8 to 10 lb. of berries per plant, which is about the average produce up to the age of 15 to 20 years; after this they begin to decline.

When one or two berries at the base of the spike begin to turn red, the whole spike is pinched off. Next day the berries are rubbed off with the hands and picked clean; then dried for three days on mats, or on smooth hard ground, or on bamboo baskets near a gentle fire.

In Malabar the pepper-vine flowers in May and June, and the fruits become fit for gathering at the commencement of the following year.[2162]

The largest quantities of pepper are produced in the island of Rhio, near Singapore, in Djohor (in the south-eastern coast of the Malayan Peninsula), and in Penang. The latter island affords on an average about one-half of the total crop.

=Description=—The small, round, berry-like fruits grow somewhat loosely to the number of 20 to 30, on a common pendulous fruit-stalk. They are at first green, then become red, and if allowed to ripen, yellow; but they are gathered before complete maturity, and by drying in that state turn blackish grey or brown. If left until quite ripe they lose some of their pungency, and gradually fall off.

The berries after drying are spherical, about ⅕ inch in diameter, wrinkled on the surface, indistinctly pointed below by the remains of the very short pedicel, and crowned still more indistinctly by the 3-or 4-lobed stigma. The thin pericarp tightly encloses a single seed, the embryo of which in consequence of premature gathering is undeveloped, and merely replaced by a cavity situated below the apex. The seed itself contains within the thin red-brown testa a shining albumen, grey and horny without, and mealy within. The pungent taste and peculiar smell of pepper are familiar to all.

[2162] For a full account of the cultivation of pepper, see Buchanan, _Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, ii. (1807) 455-520; iii. 158.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section of a grain of black pepper exhibits a soft yellowish epidermis, covering the outer pericarp. This is formed of a closely-packed yellow layer of large, mostly radially arranged, thick-walled cells, each containing in its small cavity a mass of dark brown resin. The middle layer of the pericarp consists of soft, tangentially-extended parenchyme, containing an abundance of extremely small starch granules and drops of oil. The shrinking of this loose middle layer is the chief cause of the deep wrinkles on the surface of the berry. The next inner layer of the pericarp exhibits towards its circumference tangentially-arranged, soft parenchyme, the cells of which possess either spiral striation or spiral fibres, but towards the interior loose parenchyme, free from starch, and containing very large oil-cells.

The testa is formed in the first place of a row of small yellow thick-walled cells. Next to them follows the true testa, as a dense, dark brown layer of lignified cells, the individual outlines of which are undistinguishable.

The albumen of the seeds consists of angular, radially-arranged, large-celled parenchyme. Most of its cells are colourless and loaded with starch; others contain a soft yellow amorphous mass. If thin slices are kept under glycerin for some time, these masses are slowly transformed into needle-shaped crystals of piperin.

=Chemical Composition=—Pepper contains resin and essential oil, to the former of which its sharp pungent taste is due. The essential oil has more of the smell than of the taste of pepper.[2163] The drug yields from 1·6 to 2·2 per cent. of this volatile oil, which agrees with oil of turpentine in composition as well as in specific gravity and boiling point. We find it, in a column 50 mm. long, to deviate the ray of polarized light 1°·2 to 3°·4 to the left.

The most interesting constituent of pepper, _Piperin_, which pepper yields to the extent of 2 to 8 per cent., agrees in composition with the formula C₁₇H₁₉NO₃, like morphine. Piperin has no action on litmus paper; it is not capable of combining directly with an acid, yet unites with hydrochloric acid in the presence of mercuric and other metallic chlorides, forming crystallizable compounds. It is insoluble in water; when perfectly pure, its crystals are devoid of colour, taste and smell. Its alcoholic solution is without action on polarized light. Piperin may be resolved, as found by Anderson in 1850, into _Piperic Acid_, C₁₂H₁₀O₄, and _Piperidine_, C₅H₁₁N. The latter is a liquid colourless alkaloid, boiling at 106° C., having the odour of pepper and ammonia, and directly yielding crystallizable salts.

Besides these constituents, pepper also contains some fatty oil in the mesocarp. Of inorganic matter, it yields upon incineration from 4·1 to 5·7 per cent.

=Commerce=—Singapore is the great emporium for pepper, of which 197,478 peculs (26⅓ million lb.) were imported there in 1877. The largest part of it finds its way to England. The import of pepper into the United Kingdom during 1872, was 27,576,710 lb. valued at £753,970. Of this quantity, the Straits Settlements supplied 25,000,000 lb., and British India 256,000 lb. Of the quantity of 25,917,070 lb., imported in 1876 into Great Britain, the home consumption was 9 million lb.

[2163] As noticed by Rheede in 1688: “ ... oleum ex pipere destillatum levem piperis odorem spirans, saporis parum acris.”—_Hort. Malab._ vii. 24.—The oil was however obtained long before by Valerius Cordus, Guintherus Andernacensis and Porta (see our article Cortex Cinnamomi, page 526).

The exports of pepper from the United Kingdom in 1872 amounted to 17,891,620 lb., the largest quantity being taken by Germany (5,201,574 lb.) Then follows Italy (2,288,647 lb.); and Russia, Holland and Spain, each of which took more than a million pounds.[2164]

The varieties of pepper quoted in price-currents are _Malabar_, _Aleppee and Cochin_, _Penang_, _Singapore_, _Siam_.

A large quantity is also shipped from Singapore to China, the imports of that country in 1877 of both black and white pepper, being 53,844 peculs (7,179,200 lb.)

=Uses=—Pepper is not of much importance as a medicine, and is rarely if ever prescribed, except indirectly as an ingredient of some preparation.

=Adulteration=—Whole pepper is not, we believe, liable in Europe to adulteration;[2165] but the case is widely different as regards the pulverized spice. Notwithstanding the enormous penalty of £100, to which the manufacturer, possessor, or seller of adulterated pepper is liable,[2166] and the low cost of the article, ground pepper has hitherto been frequently sophisticated by the addition of the starches of cereals and potatoes, of sago, mustard husks, linseed and capsicum. The admixture of these substances may for the most part be readily detected, after some practice, by the microscope.[2167]

White Pepper.

This form of the spice is prepared from black pepper by removing its dark outer layer of pericarp, and thereby depriving it of a portion of its pungency. It is mentioned by Dioscorides, yet was evidently very little known in Europe even during the middle ages. In the time of Platearius,[2168] white pepper was supposed to be derived from a plant different from Piper nigrum.

Buchanan,[2169] referring to Travancore, remarks that white pepper is made by allowing the berries to ripen; the bunches are then gathered, and having been kept for three days in the house, are washed and bruised in a basket with the hand till all the stalks and pulp are removed.

The finest white pepper is obtained from Tellicherry, on the Malabar Coast, but only in small quantity. The more important places for its preparation are the Straits Settlements, chiefly Rhio. The export of white pepper from Singapore in 1877 was 48,460 peculs. Most of the spice finds its way to China, where it is highly esteemed. In Europe, pepper in its natural state is with good reason preferred.

[2164] _Annual Statement of the Trade of the U.K. for 1872._ 59., 125.

[2165] According to Moodeen Sheriff (_Suppl. to Pharm. of India_, 134) the berries of _Embelia_ (Samara) _Ribes_, order _Myrsineæ_, are said to be sometimes used for adulterating black pepper in the Indian bazaars.

[2166] By the 59 George III. c. 53 § 22 (1819).

[2167] Consult, Hassall, _Food and its Adulterations_, Lond. 1855. 42; Evans, _Pharm. Journ._ i. (1860) 605.

[2168] _Glossæ in antidotarium Nicolai._, ccxlvi. verso.

[2169] In the work quoted, page 579, ii. 465, 533, and iii. 224.

The grains of white pepper are of rather larger size than those of black, and of a warm greyish tint. They are nearly spherical or a little flattened. At the base the skin of the fruit is thickened into a blunt prominence, whence about 12 light stripes run meridian-like towards the depressed summit. If the skin is scraped off, the dark brown testa is seen enclosing the hard translucent albumen. In anatomical structure, as well as in taste and smell, white pepper agrees with black, which in fact it represents in a rather more fully-grown state.

White pepper appears to afford on an average not more than 1·9 per cent. of essential oil, but to be richer in piperin, of which Cazeneuve and Caillol (1877) extracted as much as 9 per cent. The amount of ash yielded by white pepper is 1·1 per cent. on an average, that is to say, considerably less than by black pepper.

FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONGI.

_Piper longum_; _Long Pepper_; F. _Poivre long_; G. _Langer Pfeffer_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper officinarum_ C. DC. (_Chavica[2170] officinarum_ Miq.), a diœcious shrubby plant, with ovate-oblong acuminate leaves, attenuated at the base, and having pinnate nerves. It is a native of the Indian Archipelago, as Java, Sumatra, Celebes and Timor. Long pepper is the fruit spike, collected and dried shortly before it reaches maturity.

_Piper longum_ L.[2171] (_Chavica Roxburghii_ Miq.), a shrub indigenous to Malabar, Ceylon, Eastern Bengal, Timor and the Philippines, also yields long pepper, for the sake of which it is cultivated along the eastern and western coasts of India. It may be distinguished from the previous species by its 5-nerved leaves, cordate at the base.[2172]

=History=—A drug termed Πέπερι μακρὸν, _Piper longum_, was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and may have been the same as the _Long Pepper_ of modern times.

In the Latin verses bearing the name of Macer Floridus,[2173] which were probably written in the 10th century, mention is made of Black, White, and Long Pepper. The last named spice, or _Macropiper_, is named by Simon of Genoa,[2174] who was physician to Pope Nicolas IV. and chaplain to Boniface VIII. (A.D. 1288-1303), and travelled in the East for the study of plants. Piper longum is also met with in the list of drugs on which (A.D. 1305) duty was levied at Pisa.[2175] Nicolo Conti of Venice, who lived in India from 1419 to 1444, noticed Long Pepper.[2176] Saladinus[2177] in the middle of the 15th century enumerates long pepper among the drugs necessary to be kept by apothecaries and it has had a place in the pharmacopœias to the present time.

[2170] The genus _Chavica_ separated from _Piper_ by Miquel, has been re-united to it by Casimir de Candolle (_Prod._ xvi. s. 1). The latter genus is now composed of not fewer than 620 species!

[2171] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 18 (1877).

[2172] For good figures of the two plants, see Hayne’s _Arzney-Gewächse_, xiv. (1843) tab. 20. 21.

[2173] Choulant, _Macer Floridus de Viribus Herbarum_, Lipsiæ, 1832. 114.

[2174] _Clavis Sanationis_, Venet. 1510.

[2175] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa_, iii. (1857) 492.

[2176] Kunstmann, _Kenntniss Indiens im 15ᵗᵉⁿ Jahrhundert_, München, 1863. 40.

[2177] See Appendix.

=Production=—In Bengal the plants are cultivated by suckers, and require to be grown on a rich, high and dry soil; they should be set about five feet asunder. An English acre will yield in the first year about three maunds (1 maund = 80 lbs.) of the pepper, in the second twelve, and in the third eighteen; after which, as the plant becomes less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and sold as _Pipli-múl_, of which there is a large consumption in India as a medicine. The pepper is gathered in the month of January, when full grown, and exposed to the sun until perfectly dry. After the fruit has been collected, the stem and branches die down to the ground.[2178]

[2178] Roxburgh, _Flora Indica_, i. (1832) 155.

=Description=—Long pepper consists of a multitude of minute baccate fruits, closely packed around a common axis, the whole forming a spike of 1½ inch long and ¼ of an inch thick. The spike is supported on a stalk ½ an inch long; it is rounded above and below, and tapers slightly towards its upper end. The fruits are ovoid, ⅒ of an inch long, crowned with a nipple-like point (the remains of the stigma), and arranged spirally with a small peltate bract beneath each. A transverse section of a spike exhibits 8 to 10 separate fruits, disposed radially with their narrower end pointed towards the axis. Beneath the pericarp, the thin brown testa encloses a colourless albumen, of which the obtuser end is occupied by the small embryo.

The long pepper of the shops is greyish-white, and appears as if it had been rolled in some earthy powder. When washed, the spikes acquire their proper colour,—a deep reddish-brown. The drug has a burning aromatic taste, and an agreeable but not powerful odour.

The foregoing description applies to the long pepper of English commerce, which is now obtained chiefly from Java (see next page), where _P. officinarum_ is the common species. In fact the fruits of this latter, as presented to us by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden, Buitenzorg, near Batavia, offer no characters by which we can distinguish them from the article found in the London shops. Those of _P. Betle_ L. var. γ. _densum_ are extremely similar, but we do not know that they are collected for use.

=Microscopic Structure=—The structure of the individual fruits resembles that of black pepper, exhibiting however some characteristic differences. The epicarp has on the outside, tangentially-extended, thick-walled, narrow cells, containing gum; the middle layer consists of wider, thin-walled, obviously porous parenchyme containing starch and drops of oil. In the outer and middle layers of the fruit numerous large thick-walled cells are scattered, as in the external pericarp of _Piper nigrum_; in long pepper, however, they do not form a close circle. The inner pericarp is formed of a row of large, cubic or elongated, radially-arranged cells, filled with volatile oil. A row of smaller tangentially-extended cells separates these oil-cells from the compact brown-red testa, which consists of lignified cells like the inner layer of the testa of black pepper, but without the thick-walled cells peculiar to the latter. The albumen of long pepper is distinguished from that of black pepper by the absence of volatile oil.

=Chemical Constituents=—The constituents of long pepper appear to be the same as those of black pepper. We ascertained the presence of piperin; 8 pounds of the drug were not sufficient to afford us an appreciable quantity of the volatile oil. The resin and volatile oil reside exclusively in the pericarp. Long pepper, according to Blyth (1874), yields 8⅓ per cent. of ash.

=Commerce=—Long pepper is at present exported from Penang and Singapore, whither it is brought chiefly from Java, and to a much smaller extent from Rhio. The quantity exported from Singapore in 1871 amounted to 3,366 cwt., of which only 447 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom, the remainder being sent chiefly to British India.[2179] The export from Penang is from 2,000 to 3,000 peculs annually. There is also a considerable export of long pepper from Calcutta.

=Uses=—Long pepper is scarcely used as a medicine, black pepper having been substituted in the few preparations in which it was formerly ordered, but it is employed as a spice and in veterinary medicine.

The aromatic root of _Piper longum_, called in Sanskrit _Pippali-mula_[2180] (whence the modern name _pipli-múl_), is a favourite remedy of the Hindus and also known to the Persians and Arabs.

CUBEBÆ.

_Fructus vel Baccæ vel Piper Cubebæ_[2181]; _Cubebs_; F. _Cubèbes_; G. _Cubeben_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper Cubeba_ Linn. f. (_Cubeba officinalis_ Miq.), a climbing, woody, diœcious shrub, indigenous to Java, Southern Borneo and Sumatra.[2182]

=History=—Cubebs have been introduced into medicine by the Arabian physicians of the middle ages, who describe them as having the form, colour, and properties of pepper. Masudi[2183] in the 10th century stated them to be a production of Java. Edrisi,[2184] the geographer, in A.D. 1153 enumerated them among the imports of Aden.

Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus of Salerno was acquainted with this drug as early as the 11th century; and in the beginning of the 13th its virtues were noticed in the writings of the Abbess Hildegard in Germany, and even in those of Henrik Harpestreng in Denmark.[2185]

Cubebs are mentioned as a production of Java (“_grant isle de Javva_”) by Marco Polo; and by Odoric, an Italian friar, who visited the island about forty years later. In the 13th century the drug was an article of European trade, and would appear to have already been regularly imported into London.[2186] Duty was levied upon them as _Cubebas silvestres_ at Barcelona in 1271.[2187] They are mentioned about this period as sold in the fairs of Champagne in France, the price being 4 _sous_ per lb.[2188] They were also sold in England: in accounts under date 1284 they are enumerated with almonds, saffron, raisins, white pepper, grains [of paradise], mace, galangal, and gingerbread, and entered as costing 2_s._ per lb. In 1285—2_s._ 6_d._ to 3_s._ per lb.; while in 1307, 1 lb. purchased for the King’s Wardrobe cost 9_s._[2189]

[2179] _Blue Book of the Straits Settlements for 1871._

[2180] Already in the Rāmāyana.

[2181] _Cubeba_ from the Arabic _Kabábah_.

[2182] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 27 (1877).

[2183] _Les Prairies d’or_, i. 341.

[2184] _Géographie_, trad. par Jaubert, i. 51. 89.

[2185] Meyer, _Geschichte der Botanik_, iii. 537.

[2186] _Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis; Liber albus_, i. (1859, State papers) 230.

[2187] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la Marina, etc., de Barcelona_, i. (Madrid, 1779) 44.

[2188] Bourquelot, _Etudes sur les foires de la Champagne, Mémoires etc. de l’Institut_, v. (1865) 288.

[2189] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. 627-8, ii. 544.—To get some idea of the relative value of commodities then and now, multiply the ancient prices by 8.

From the journal of expenses of John, king of France, while in England during 1359-60, it is evident that cubebs were in frequent use as a spice. Among those who could command such luxuries, they were eaten in powder with meat, or they were candied whole. A patent of pontage granted in 1305 by Edward I., to aid in repairing and sustaining the Bridge of London, and authorizing toll on various articles, mentions among groceries and spices, cubebs as liable to impost.[2190] Cubebs occur in the German lists of medicines of Frankfort and Nördlingen, about 1450 and 1480;[2191] they are also mentioned in the _Confectbuch_ of Hans Folcz of Nuremberg, dating about 1480.[2192]

It cannot however be said that cubebs were a common spice, at all comparable with pepper or ginger, or even in such frequent use as grains of paradise or galangal. Garcia de Orta (1563) speaks of them as but seldom used in Europe; yet they are named by Saladinus as necessary to be kept in every _apotheca_.[2193] In a list of drugs to be sold in the apothecaries’ shops of the city of Ulm, A.D. 1596, cubebs are mentioned as _Fructus carpesiorum vel cubebarum_, the price for half an ounce being quoted as 8 _kreuzers_, the same as that of opium, best manna, and amber, while black and white pepper are priced at 2 _kreuzers_.[2194]

Although it was always well known that the cubebs were a product of Java and that island is stated to have exported in 1775 as much as 10,000 lb. of this spice,[2195] its mother plant was made known only in 1781 by the younger Linnæus.

The action of cubebs on the urino-genital organs was known to the old Arabian physicians. Yet modern writers on materia medica even at the commencement of the present century, mentioned the drug simply as an aromatic stimulant resembling pepper, but inferior to that spice and rarely employed,[2196]—in fact it had so far fallen into disuse that it was omitted from the London Pharmacopœia of 1809. According to Crawfurd, its importation into Europe, which had long been discontinued, recommenced in 1815, in consequence of its medicinal virtues having been brought to the knowledge of the English medical officers serving in Java, by their Hindu servants.[2197]

[2190] _Liber niger Scaccarii_, Lond. 1771, i. 478.—A translation may be found in the _Chronicles of London Bridge_, 1827, 155.

[2191] _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 201 (1872) 441 and 211 (1877) 101.

[2192] Choulant, _Macer Floridus_, etc., Lips. 1832, 188.

[2193] _Compendium aromatariorum_, Bonon., 1488.

[2194] Richard, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der Apotheken_, 1825. 124.

[2195] Miquel, _Commentarii phytographici_, i. (Lugd. Bat., 1839).

[2196] In Duncan’s _Edinburgh New Dispensatory_, ed. 2. 1804, _Piper Cubeba_ is very briefly described, but with no allusion to its possessing any special medicinal properties. In the 6th edition of the same work (1811) it was altogether omitted. See also Murray’s _System of Mat. Med. and Pharm._ i. (1810) 266.

[2197] _Dictionary of the Indian Islands_, 1856. 117.—Mr. Crawfurd himself communicated to the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_ of 1818 (xiv. 32) a paper making known the “wonderful success” with which cubebs had been used in gonorrhœa.

=Cultivation and Production=[2198]—Cubebs are cultivated in small special plantations and also in coffee plantations, in the district of Banjoemas in the south of Java. The fruits are bought by Chinese who carry them to Batavia. They are likewise produced in Eastern Java and about Bantam and Soebang in the north-west; and extensively in the Lampong country in Sumatra. There has of late been a large distribution of plants among the European coffee planters.

[2198] We are indebted for some particulars under this head to our friends Mr. Binnendyk, of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden near Batavia, and Dr. De Vry.

The cultivation of cubebs is easy. In the coffee estates certain trees are required for shade: against these _Piper Cubeba_ is planted, and climbing to a height of 18 to 20 feet, forms a large bush.

=Description=—The cubebs of commerce consist of the dry globose fruits, gathered when full-grown, but before they have arrived at maturity. The fruit is about ⅕ of an inch in diameter, when very young sessile, but subsequently elevated on a straight thin stalk, a little longer or even twice as long as itself. By this stalk the fruit is attached in considerable numbers (sometimes more than 50) to a common thickened stalk or rachis, about 1½ inch long.

Commercial cubebs are spherical, sometimes depressed at the base, very slightly pointed at the apex, strongly wrinkled by the shrinking of the fleshy pericarp; they are of a greyish-brown or blackish hue, frequently covered with an ashy-grey bloom. The stalk is the elongated base of the fruit, and remains permanently attached. The common axis or rachis, which is almost devoid of essential oil, is also frequently mixed with the drug.

The skin of the fruit covers a hard, smooth brown shell containing the seed, which latter when developed has a compressed spherical form, a smooth surface, and adheres to the pericarp only at the base; its apex either projects slightly or is pressed inwards. The albumen is solid, whitish, oily, and encloses a small embryo below the apex. In the cubebs of the shops, the seed is mostly undeveloped and shrunken, and the pericarp nearly empty.

Cubebs have a strong, aromatic, persistent taste, with some bitterness and acridity. Their smell is highly aromatic and by no means disagreeable.

=Microscopic Structure=—This exhibits some peculiarities. The skin of the fruit below the epidermis, is made up of small, cubic, thick-walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large as in black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small cubic thick-walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large as in black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small-celled undeveloped tissue containing drops of oil, granules of starch, and crystalline groups of cubebin, probably also fat. This middle layer is interrupted by very large oil-cells, which frequently enclose needle-shaped crystals of cubebin, united in concentric groups. The much narrower inner layer consists of about four rows of somewhat larger tangentially-extended soft cells, holding essential oil. Next to these comes the light yellow brittle shell, formed of a densely packed row of encrusted, radially-arranged, elongated thick-walled cells. Lastly, the embryo is covered with a thin brown membrane, and exhibits the structure and contents as that of _Piper nigrum_, excepting that in _P. Cubeba_ the cells are rounder, and the crystals consist of cubebin and not of piperin.

=Chemical Composition=—The most obvious constituent of cubebs is the volatile oil, the proportion of which yielded by the drug varies from 4 to 13 per cent. The causes of this great variation may be found in the constitution of the drug itself, as well as in the alterability of the oil, and the fact that its prevailing constituents begin not to boil below 264° C. It is, as shown in 1875 by Oglialoro, a mixture of an oil C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 158°-163°, which is present to a very small amount, and two oils of the formula C₁₃H₂₄, boiling at 262°-265° C. One of the latter deviates the plane of polarization strongly to the left, and yields the crystallized compound C₁₅H₂₄ 2 HCl, melting at 118° C. The other hydrocarbon is less lævogyrate and cannot be combined with HCl.

One part of oil of cubebs, diluted with about 20 parts of bisulphide of carbon, assumes at first a greenish, and afterwards a blue coloration, if one drop of a mixture of concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids (equal weight of each acid) is shaken with the solution.

The oil distilled from old cubebs on cooling at length deposits large, transparent, inodorous octohedra of _camphor of cubebs_, C₃₀H₄₈ + 2 OH₂, belonging to the rhombic system. They melt at 65° and may be sublimed at 148°. We have not succeeded in obtaining them by keeping the oil of fresh cubebs for two years in contact with water, to which a little alcohol and nitric acid was added.

Another constituent of cubebs is _Cubebin_, crystals of which may sometimes be seen in the pericarp even with a common lens. It was discovered by Soubeiran and Capitaine in 1839; it is an inodorous substance, crystallizing in small needles or scales, melting at 125°, having a bitter taste in alcoholic solution; it dissolves freely in boiling alcohol, but is mostly deposited upon cooling; it requires 30 parts of cold ether for solution, and is also abundantly soluble in chloroform. We found this solution to be slightly lævogyre; it turns red on addition of concentrated sulphuric acid. If the solution of cubebin in chloroform is shaken with dry pentoxide of phosphorus, it turns _blue_ and gradually becomes red by the influence of moisture. Cubebin is nearly insoluble in cold, but slightly soluble in hot water. Bernatzik (1866) obtained from cubebs 0·40 per cent. of cubebin, Schmidt (1870) 2·5 per cent. The crystals, which are deposited in an alcoholic or ethereal extract of cubebs, consist of cubebin in an impure state. Cubebin is devoid of any remarkable therapeutic action. Its composition, according to Weidel (1877) answers to the formula C₁₀H₁₀O₃; by melting it with caustic potash, cubebin is resolved as follows:—

C₁₀H₁₀O₃ · 5 O = CO₂ · C₂H₄O₂ · C₆H₃(OH)₂COOH.
Acetic Protocatechuic
Acid. Acid.

The resin extracted from cubebs consists of an indifferent portion, nearly 3 per cent., and of _Cubebic Acid_, amounting to about 1 per cent. of the drug. Both are amorphous, and so, according to Schmidt, are the salts of cubebic acid. Bernatzik however, found some of them, as that of barium, to be crystallizable. Schulze (1873) prepared cubebic acid from the crystallized sodium-salt, but was unable to get it other than amorphous. The resins, the indifferent as well as the acid, possess the therapeutic properties of the drug.

Schmidt further pointed out the presence in cubebs, of gum (8 per cent.), fatty oil, and malates of magnesium and calcium.

=Commerce=—Cubebs were imported into Singapore in 1872 to the extent of 3062 cwt., of which amount 2348 cwt. were entered as from Netherlands India. The drug was re-shipped during the same year to the amount of 2766 cwt., the quantity exported to the United Kingdom being 1180 cwt., to the United States of America 1244 cwt., and to British India 104 cwt.[2199] In the previous year, a larger quantity was shipped to India than to Great Britain.

=Uses=—Cubebs are much employed in the treatment of gonorrhœa. The drug is usually administered in powder; less frequently in the form of ethereal or alcoholic extract, or essential oil.

Bernatzik and Schmidt, whose chemical and therapeutical experiments have thrown much light on the subject, have shown that the efficacy of cubebs being dependent on the indifferent resin and cubebic acid, preparations which contain the utmost amount of these bodies and exclude other constituents of the drug, are to be preferred. They would reject the essential oil, as they find its administration devoid of therapeutic effects.

The preparations which consequently are to be recommended, are the berries deprived of their essential oil and constituents soluble in water, and then dried and powdered; an alcoholic extract prepared from the same, or the purified resins.

=Adulteration=—Cubebs are not much subject to adulteration, though it is by no means rare that the imported drug contains an undue proportion of the inert stalks (rachis)[2200] that require to be picked out before the berries are ground. Dealers judge of cubebs by the oiliness and strong characteristic smell of the berries when crushed. Those which have a large proportion of the pale, smooth, ripe berries, which look _dry_ when broken, are to be avoided.

We have occasionally found in the commercial drug a small, smooth two-celled fruit, of the size, shape, and colour of cubebs, but wanting the long pedicel. A slight examination suffices to recognize it as not being cubebs. We have also met with some cubebs of larger size than the ordinary sort, much shrivelled, with a stouter and flattened pedicel, one and a half times to twice as long as the berry. The drug has an agreeable odour different from that of common cubebs, and a very bitter taste. From a comparison with herbarium specimens, we judge that it may possibly be derived from _Piper crassipes_ Korthals (_Cubeba crassipes_ Miq.), a Sumatran species.

The fruits of _Piper Lowong_ Bl. (_Cubeba Lowong_ Miq.), a native of Java, and those of _P. ribesioides_ Wall. (_Cubeba Wallichii_ Miq.) are extremely cubeb-like.[2201] Those of _Piper caninum_ A. Dietr. (_Cubeba canina_ Miq.), a plant of wide distribution throughout the Malay Archipelago as far as Borneo, for a specimen of which we have to thank Mr. Binnendyk of Buitenzorg, are smaller than true cubebs, and have stalks only half the diameter of the berry.

[2199] _Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872._ 294. 338.—There are no statistics for showing the _total import_ of cubebs into the United Kingdom.

[2200] They yielded to Schmidt 1·7 per cent. of oil and 3 per cent. of resin.

[2201] Figured in Nees von Esenbeck, _Plantæ medicinales_, Düsseldorf, i. (1828), tab. 22. A different figure is given by Miquel, _Comment. phytogr._ (1839), tab. 3.

In the south of China the fruits of _Laurus Cubeba_ Lour. have been frequently mistaken by Europeans for cubebs. The tree which affords them is unknown to modern botanists; Meissner refers it doubtfully to the genus _Tetranthera_.[2202]

Ashantee Pepper, African Cubebs, or West African Black Pepper.

This spice is the fruit of _Piper Clusii_ Cas. DC. (_Cubeba Clusii_ Miq.), a species of wide distribution in tropical Africa, most abundantly occurring in the country of the Niamniam, about 4° to 5° N. lat., and 28° to 29° E. long. Its splendid red fruit bunches are spoken of with admiration by Schweinfurth,[2203] who states that _Piper Clusii_ is one of the characteristic and most conspicuous plants of those regions. The dried fruit is a round berry having a general resemblance to common cubebs but somewhat smaller, less rugose, attenuated into a slender pedicel once or twice as long as the berry and usually curved. The berries are crowded around a common stalk or rachis; they are of an ashy-grey tint, and have a hot taste and the odour of pepper. According to Stenhouse, they contain piperin and not cubebin.[2204]

The fruit of _Piper Clusii_ was known as early as 1364 to the merchants of Rouen and Dieppe, who imported it from the Grain Coast, now Liberia,[2205] under the name of pepper. The Portuguese likewise exported it from Benin as far back as 1485, as _Pimienta de rabo_, i.e. _tailed pepper_, and attempted in vain to sell it in Flanders.[2206] Clusius received from London a specimen of this drug, of which he has left a good figure in his _Exotica_.[2207] He says that its importation was forbidden by the King of Portugal for fear it should depreciate the pepper of India. The spice was also known to Gerarde and Parkinson; in our times it has been afresh brought to notice by the late Dr. Daniell.[2208] In tropical Western Africa it is used as a condiment, and might easily be collected in large quantities, provided it should prove a good substitute for pepper.[2209]

[2202] De Candolle, _Prod._ xv. sect. i. 199; Hanbury in _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1862) 205, with figure; also _Science Papers_, 247.

[2203] _Im Herzen Afrikas_, i. (1874) 507; ii. 399.

[2204] _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 363.

[2205] Margry, _Les navigations françaises et la révolution maritime du XIVᵉ au XVIᵉ siècle_, 1867. 26.

[2206] Giovanni di Barros, _l’Asia_, i. (Venet. 1561) 80.

[2207] Lib. i. c. 22, p. 184 (1605).

[2208] _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 198.

[2209] One cask of it was offered for sale in London as “_Cubebs_,” 11 Feb. 1858.

HERBA MATICO.

_Matico._

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper angustifolium_[2210] Ruiz et Pavon (_Artanthe elongata_ Miq.), a shrub growing in the moist woods of Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, New Granada and Venezuela, also cultivated in some localities. A slightly different, somewhat stouter form of the plant with leaves 7 to 8 inches long (var. α. _cordulatum_ Cas. DC.), occurs in the Brazilian provinces of Bahia, Minas Geraes and Ceará, as well as in Peru and the northern parts of South America.

[2210] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 18 (1877).

=History=—The styptic properties of this plant are said to have been discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico,[2211] who having applied some of the leaves to his wounds, observed that the bleeding was thereby arrested; hence the plant came to be called _Yerba_ or _Palo del Soldado_ (soldier’s herb or tree). The story is not very probable, but it is current in many parts of South America, and its allusion is not confined to the plant under notice.

The hæmostatic powers of matico, which are not noticed in the works of Ruiz and Pavon, were first recognized in Europe by Jeffreys,[2212] a physician of Liverpool, in 1839, but they had already attracted attention in North America as early as 1827.

=Description=—Matico, as it arrives in commerce, consists of a compressed, coherent, brittle mass of leaves and stems, of a light green hue and pleasant herby odour. More closely examined, it is seen to be made up of jointed stems bearing lanceolate, acuminate leaves, cordate and unequal at the base, and having very short stalks. The leaves are rather thick, with their whole upper surface traversed by a system of minute sunk veins, which divide it into squares and give it a tessellated appearance. On the under side, these squares form a corresponding series of depressions which are clothed with shaggy hairs. The leaves attain a length of about 6 inches by 1½ inches broad. The flower and fruit spikes which are often 4 to 5 inches long, are slender and cylindrical with the flowers or fruits densely packed. The leaves of matico have a bitterish aromatic taste; their tissue shows numerous cells, filled with essential oil.[2213]

=Chemical Composition=—The leaves yield on an average 27 per cent.[2214] of essential oil, which we find slightly[2215] dextrogyre; a large proportion of it distills at 180° to 200° C., the remainder becoming thickish. Both portions are lighter than water; but another specimen of the oil of matico which we had kept for some years, sinks in water. We have observed that in winter the oil deposits remarkable crystals of a camphor, more than half an inch in length, fusible at 103° C.; they belong to the hexagonal system, and have the odour and taste of the oil from which they separate.

Matico further affords, according to Marcotte (1864),[2216] a crystallizable acid, named _Artanthic Acid_, besides some tannin. The latter is made evident by the dark brown colour which the infusion assumes on addition of ferric chloride. The leaves likewise contain resin, but as shown by Stell in 1858, neither piperin, cubebin, nor any analogous principle such as the so-called _Maticin_ formerly supposed to exist in them.

[2211] Matico is the diminutive of _Mateo_, the Spanish for _Matthew_.

[2212] _Remarks on the efficacy of Matico as a styptic and astringent_, 3rd ed., Lond. 1845.

[2213] Microscopic examination of the leaves, Pocklington, _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1874) 301.

[2214] As Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, kindly informed me.—F. A. F..

[2215] Deviating only 0.7° in a column 50 mm. long.

[2216] Guibourt (et Planchon), _Hist. des Drogues_, ii. (1869) 278.—We are not acquainted with “artanthic acid.”

=Commerce=—The drug is imported in bales and serons by way of Panama. Among the exports of the Peruvian port of Arica in 1877, we noticed 195 quintales (19,773 lb) of Matico.

=Uses=—Matico leaves, previously softened in water, or in a state of powder, are sometimes employed to arrest the bleeding of a wound. The infusion is taken for the cure of internal hæmorrhage.

=Substitutes=—Several plants have at times been brought into the market under the name of _matico_. One of these is _Piper aduncum_ L.[2217] (_Artanthe adunca_ Miq.), of which a quantity was imported into London from Central America in 1863, and first recognized by Bentley (1864). In colour, odour, and shape of leaf it nearly agrees with ordinary matico; but differs in that the leaves are marked beneath by much more prominent ascending parallel nerves, the spaces between which are not rugose but comparatively smooth and nearly glabrous. In chemical characters, the leaves of _P. aduncum_ appear to accord with those of _P. angustifolium_.

_Piper aduncum_ is a plant of wide distribution throughout Tropical America. Under the name of _Nhandi_ or _Piper longum_ it was mentioned by Piso in 1648[2218] on account of the stimulant action of its leaves and roots,—a property which causes it to be still used in Brazil, where however no particular styptic virtues seem to be ascribed to it.[2219] The fruits are there employed in the place of cubebs. Sloane’s figure[2220] of “Piper longum, arbor folio latissimo” also shows _Piper aduncum_.

According to Triana, _Piper lanceæfolium_ HBK. (_Artanthe_ Miq.), and another species not recognized, yield matico in New Granada.[2221] _Waltheria glomerata_ Presl (_Sterculiaceæ_) is called _Palo del Soldado_ at Panama and its leaves are used as a vulnerary.[2222] In Riobamba and Quito, _Eupatorium glutinosum_ Lamarck, is also called Chusalonga or _Matico_.[2223]

[2217] For a good figure, see Jacquin, _Icones_ II. (1781-1793) tab. 210.

[2218] _De Medicinâ Brasiliensi_, lib. 4. c. 57.

[2219] Langgaard, _Diccionario de Medicina domestica e popular_, Rio de Janeiro, ii. (1865) 44.

[2220] _Voyage to Jamaica_ I. (1707) 135, and tab. 88.

[2221] Exposition de 1867—Catalogue de M. José Triana, p. 14.

[2222] Seemann, _Botany of the Herald_, 1852-57. 85.

[2223] Bentham, _Plantæ Hartwegianæ_, Lon. 1839. 198.

ARISTOLOCHIACEÆ.

RADIX SERPENTARIÆ.

_Radix Serpentariæ Virginianæ_; _Virginian Snake-root_, _Serpentary Root_; F. _Serpentaire de Virginie_; G. _Schlangenwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Aristolochia Serpentaria_ L., a perennial herb, commonly under a foot high, with simple or slightly branched, flexuose stems, producing small, solitary, dull purple flowers, close to the ground. It grows in shady woods in the United States, from Missouri and Indiana to Florida and Virginia,—abundantly in the Alleghanies and in the Cumberland Mountains, less frequently in New York, Michigan and the other Northern States. The plant varies exceedingly in the shape of its leaves.

=History=—The botanists of the 16th century, being fond of appellations alluding to the animal kingdom, gave the names of _Serpentaria_ or Colubrina, _i.e._ snake-root, to the rhizome of _Polygonum Bistorta_ L. In America it was not the appearance, but the application of the drug under notice to which it owes the name snake-root.

The earliest account of _Virginian_ snake-root is that of Thomas Johnson, an apothecary of London who published an edition of Gerarde’s Herbal in 1636. It is evident however that Johnson confounded a species of _Aristolochia_ from Crete with what he calls “that snake-weed that was brought from Virginia and grew with Mr. John Tradescant at South Lambeth, anno 1632.” It was very briefly noticed by Cornuti in his _Canadensium Plantarum Historia_ (1635), and in a much more intelligent manner by Parkinson in 1640. These authors, as well as Dale (1693) and Geoffroy (1741), extol the virtues of the root as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake, or of a rabid dog. Serpentary was introduced into the London Pharmacopœia in 1650.

=Description=—The snake-root of commerce includes the rhizome, which is knotty, contorted, scarcely 1 inch in length by ⅛ of an inch in thickness, bearing on its upper side the short bases of the stems of previous years, and throwing off from the under, numerous, slender, matted, branching roots, 2 to 4 inches long. The rhizome is often still attached to portions of the weak, herbaceous stem, which sometimes bears the fruit,—more rarely flowers and leaves. The drug has a dull brown hue, an aromatic odour resembling valerian but less unpleasant, and a bitterish aromatic taste, calling to mind camphor, valerian and turpentine.

=Microscopic Structure=—In the rhizome, the outer layer of the bark consists of a single row of cuboid cells; the middle cortical portion (_mesophlœum_) of about six layers of larger cells. In the liber, which is built up of numerous layers of smaller cells, those belonging to the medullary rays are nearly cuboid with distinctly porous walls, those of the liber bundles being smaller and arranged in a somewhat crescent-shaped manner. Groups of short, reticulated or punctuated vessels alternate in the woody rays with long, porous, ligneous cells; those close to the pith having thick walls. The largest cells of all are those composing the pith; the latter, seen in transverse section, occupies not the very centre of the rootstock, but is found nearer to its upper side. The rootlets exhibit a central fibro-vascular bundle, surrounded by a nucleus-sheath. In the mesophlœum both of the rootstock and the rootlets, there occur a few cells containing a yellow essential oil. The other cells are loaded with starch.

=Chemical Composition=—Essential oil exists in the drug to the extent of about ½ per cent.; and resin in nearly the same proportion. The outer cortical layer, as well as the zone of the nucleus-sheath, contains a little tannin, and a watery infusion of the drug is coloured greenish by perchloride of iron. Neutral acetate of lead precipitates some mucilage as well as the bitter principle, which latter may also be obtained by means of tannic acid. It is an amorphous, bitter substance, which deserves further investigation. By an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper the presence in serpentary of sugar is made evident.

=Commerce=—Virginian snake-root is imported from New York and Boston, in bales, casks or bags.

=Uses=—The drug is employed in the form of an infusion or tincture as a stimulating tonic and diaphoretic; it is more often prescribed in combination with cinchona bark than by itself. Its ancient reputation for the cure of snake-bites is now disregarded.

=Adulteration and Substitution=—Virginian snake-root is said to be sometimes adulterated with the root of _Spigelia marilandica_ L., which has neither its smell nor taste (see p. 433); or with that of _Cypripedium pubescens_ L., which it scarcely at all resembles. It is not uncommon to find here and there in the serpentary of commerce, a root of _Panax quinquefolium_ L. accidentally collected, but never added for the purpose of adulteration.

The root of _Aristolochia reticulata_ Nutt., a plant of Louisiana and Arkansas, has been brought into commerce in considerable quantity as _Texan_ or _Red River Snake-root_.[2224] We are indebted for an authentic specimen from the Cherokee country to Mr. Merrell, a large dealer in herbs at St. Louis, Missouri, who states that all the serpentary grown south-west of the Rocky Mountains is the produce of that species. The late Prof. Parrish of Philadelphia was kind enough to supply us with specimens of the same drug, as well as with reliable samples of true _Virginian_ or _Middle States Snake-root_.

The Texan snake-root is somewhat thicker and less matted than that derived from _A. Serpentaria_, but has the odour and taste of the latter; some say it is less aromatic. The plant, portions of which are often present, may be easily distinguished by its leaves being _coriaceous_, _sessile_ and _strongly reticulated_ on their under surface.

[2224] Wiegand in _American Journ. of Pharm._ x. (1845) 10; also _Proceedings of the Am. Pharm. Association_, xxi. (1873) 441.

CUPULIFERÆ.

CORTEX QUERCUS.

_Oak Bark_; F. _Ecorce de Chêne_; G. _Eichenrinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Quercus Robur_ L., a tree, native of almost the whole of Europe, from Portugal and the Greek Peninsula as far north as 58° N. lat. in Scotland, 62° in Norway, and 56° in the Ural Mountains.

There are two remarkable forms of this tree which are regarded by many botanists as distinct species, but which are classed by De Candolle[2225] as sub-species.

Sub-species I. _pedunculata_—with leaves sessile or shortly stalked, and acorns borne on a long peduncle, and acorns either sessile or growing on a short peduncle.

Sub-species II. _sessiliflora_—with leafstalks more or less elongated.

Both forms occur in Britain. The first is the common oak of the greater part of England and the lowlands of Scotland. The second is frequently scattered in woods in which the first variety prevails, but it rarely constitutes the mass of the oak woods in the south of England. In North Wales however, in the hilly parts of the north of England, and in Scotland, it is the commoner of the two forms (Bentham).

[2225] _Prodromus_, xvi. (1864) sect. 2. fasc. 1.

=History=—The astringent properties of all parts of the oak[2226] were well known to Dioscorides, who recommends a decoction of the inner bark in colic, dysentery and spitting of blood. Yet oak bark seems at no time to have been held in great esteem as a medicine, probably on account of its commonness; and it is now almost superseded by other astringents. For tanning leather it has always been largely employed.

[2226] Probably not _Q. Robur_ L.

=Description=—For medicinal use the bark of the younger stems or branches is collected in the early spring. It varies somewhat in appearance according to the age of the wood from which it has been taken: that usually supplied to English druggists is in channelled pieces of variable length and a tenth of an inch or less in thickness, smooth, of a shining silvery grey, variegated with brown, dotted over with little scars. The inner surface is light rusty-brown, longitudinally striated. The fracture is tough and fibrous. A transverse section shows a thin, greenish cork-layer, within which is the brown parenchyme, marked with numerous rows of translucent colourless spots. The smell of dry oak bark is very faint; but when the bark is moistened the odour of tan becomes evident. The taste is astringent and in old barks slightly bitter.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of young oak bark consists of small flat cork-cells; the middle layer of larger thick-walled cells slightly extended in a tangential direction, and containing brown grains and chlorophyll. This tissue passes gradually into the softer narrower parenchyme of the inner bark, which is irregularly traversed by narrow medullary rays. It exhibits moreover a ring, but slightly interrupted, of thick-walled cells (sclerenchyme) and isolated shining bundles of liber-fibres.