Chapter XL: Part 40

In the native states of Cochin and Travancore cardamoms are a monopoly of the respective governments. The rajah of the latter state requires that all the produce shall be sold to his officials, who forward it to the main depôt at Alapalli or Aleppi, a port in Travancore, where his commercial agent resides. The rajah is tenacious of his rights, and inserts a clause in the leases he grants to European coffee-planters, of whom a great many have settled in his territory, requiring that cardamoms shall not be grown.

The cardamoms at Aleppi are sold by auction, and bought chiefly by Moplah merchants for transport to different parts of India, and also, through third parties, to England. All the lower qualities are consumed in India, and the finer alone shipped to Europe.

In the forests belonging to the British Government cardamoms are mostly reckoned among the miscellaneous items of produce; but in Coorg, the cardamom forests are now let at a rental of £3,000 per annum under a lease which will expire in 1878.[2396]

Dr. Cleghorn, late Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency, observes in a letter to one of us, that the rapid extension of coffee culture along the slopes of the Malabar mountains has tended to lessen the production of cardamoms, and has encroached considerably upon the area of their indigenous growth. A recent writer[2397] has shown from his own experience that the cultivation of the cardamom is a branch of industry worth the attention of Europeans, and has given many valuable details for insuring successful results.

[2396] Report quoted at p. 645. note 1.

[2397] Elliot, _op. cit._, chap. 12.

=Description=—The fruit of the Malabar cardamom as found in commerce is an ovoid or oblong, three-sided, three-valved capsule, containing numerous seeds arranged in three cells. It is rounded at the base, and often retains a small stalk; towards the apex it is more or less contracted, and terminates in a short beak. The longitudinally-striated, inodorous, tasteless pericarp is of a pale greyish-yellow, or buff, or brown when fully ripe, of a thin papery consistence, splitting lengthwise into three valves. From the middle of the inner side of each valve a thin partition projects towards the axis, thereby producing three cells, each of which encloses 5 to 7 dark brown, aromatic seeds, arranged in two rows and attached in the central angle.

The seeds, which are about two lines long, are irregularly angular, transversely rugose, and have a depressed hilum and a deeply channelled raphe. Each seed is enclosed in a thin colourless aril.

Cardamoms vary in size, shape, colour and flavour: those which are shortly ovoid or nearly globular, and ⁴/₁₀ to ⁶/₁₀ of an inch in length, are termed in trade language _shorts_; while those of a more elongated form, pointed at each end, and ⁷/₁₀ to ⁹/₁₀ of an inch long, are called _short-longs_. They are further distinguished by the names of localities, as Malabar (or Mangalore), Aleppi, and Madras. The _Malabar Cardamoms_, which are the most esteemed, are of full colour, and occur of both forms, namely _shorts_ and _short-longs_; they are brought to Europe _viâ_ Bombay. Those terms _Aleppi_ are generally _shorts_, plump, beaked and of a peculiar greenish tint; they are imported from Calicut, and sometimes from Aleppi. The _Madras_ are chiefly of elongated form (_short-longs_) and of a more pallid hue; they are shipped at Madras and Pondicherry.

Cardamoms are esteemed in proportion to their plumpness and heaviness, and the sound and mature condition of the seeds they contain. Good samples afford about three-fourths of their weight of seeds.[2398]

The fruits of the second form (var. β) of _Elettaria Cardamomum_, known in trade as _Ceylon Cardamoms_, are from 1 to 2 inches in length, and ³/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in breadth, distinctly three-sided, often arched, and always of a dark greyish-brown. The seeds are larger and more numerous than those of the Malabar plant, and somewhat different in odour and taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The testa of the seed consists of three distinct layers, namely an exterior of thick-walled, spirally-striated cells, somewhat longitudinally extended, and exhibiting on transverse section, square, not very large, cavities; then a row of large cells with thin transverse walls; and finally, an internal layer of deep brown, radially-arranged cells, the walls of which have so thick a deposit that at the most only small cavities remain.

The granular, colourless, sac-shaped albumen encloses a horny endosperm, in which the embryo is inserted the projecting radicle being directed towards the hilum. The cells of the albumen have the form of elongated polyhedra, almost entirely filled with very small starch granules. Besides them, there occur in most of the cells, somewhat larger masses of albuminoid matter having a rhombohedric form, distinctly observable when thin slices of the seed are examined under almond oil in polarized light. These remarkable crystalloid bodies resemble those occurring in the seeds of cumin (p. 332).

=Chemical Composition=—The parenchyme of the albumen and embryo is loaded with fatty oil and essential oil, the former existing in the seed to the extent of about 10 per cent.

The percentage of essential oil is stated by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, to be equal to 5 in the Madras Cardamoms, and to 3·5 in the Ceylon. We found the latter to be dextrogyrate; the same gentlemen presented us (1876) with a crystallized deposit from the latter oil, which appears to be _identical with common camphor_. Its alcoholic solution deviates the plane of polarization to the right, apparently to the same amount as that of common camphor (see also oil of spike, p. 479).

Dumas and Péligot (1834) state to have obtained from the essential oil of cardamoms (inodorous?) crystals of terpin, C₁₀H₁₆ + 3 OH₂. The ash of cardamoms, in common with that of several other plants of the same order, is remarkably rich in manganese.[2399]

=Commerce=—There are no statistics to show the production of cardamoms in the south of India or even the quantity exported. The shipments in the year 1872-73 from Bombay, to which port the drug is largely sent from the Madras Presidency, amounted to 1,650 cwt., of which 1,055 cwt. were exported to the United Kingdom.[2400]

Cardamoms, the produce of Ceylon and therefore of the _large_ variety, were exported from that island in 1872 to the extent of 9,273 lb.—the whole quantity being shipped to the United Kingdom.[2401]

[2398] Thus 202 lb. shelled at various times during 10 years, afforded 154½ lb. of seeds. (Information from the laboratory accounts of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, Plough Court, Lombard Str.).

[2399] _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1872) 208.

[2400] _Statement of the Trade, etc. of Bombay for 1872-73._ ii. 58. 90.

[2401] _Ceylon Blue Book for 1872_, Colombo, 1873. 543.

=Uses=—Cardamoms are an agreeable aromatic, often administered in conjunction with other medicines. As an ingredient in curry powder, they have also some use as a condiment. But the consumption in England is small in comparison with what it is in Russia, Sweden, Norway and parts of Germany, where they are constantly employed as a spice for the flavouring of cakes. In these countries Ceylon cardamoms are also used, but exclusively for the manufacture of liqueurs. In India, cardamoms, besides being used in medicine, are employed as a condiment and for chewing with betel.

Other sorts of Cardamom.

The fruits of several other plants of the order _Zingiberaceæ_ have at various times been employed in pharmacy under the common name of _Cardamom_. We shall here notice only those which have some importance in European or Indian commerce.[2402]

_Round or Cluster Cardamom_—_Amomum Cardamomum_ L., the mother plant of this drug, is a native of Cambodia, Siam, Sumatra and Java.

During the intercourse with Siam, which was frequent in the early part of the 17th century, this drug, which is there in common use, occasionally found its way into Europe. Clusius received a specimen of it in 1605 as the true _Amomum_ of the ancients, and figured it as a great rarity.[2403] As _Amomum verum_ it had a place in the pharmacopœias of this period. Parkinson (1640), who figures it as _Amomum genuinum_, says that “of late days it hath been sent to Venice from the East Indies.” Dale (1693) and Pomet (1694) both regarded it as a rare drug; the latter says it is brought from Holland, and that it is the only thing that ought to be used when _Amomum_ is ordered. In 1751 it was so scarce that in making the _Theriaca Andromachi_ some other drug had always to be substituted for it.[2404]

Thus it had completely disappeared, when about the year 1853 commercial relations were re-opened with Siam; and among the commodities poured into the market were _Round Cardamoms_. They were not appreciated, and the importations becoming unprofitable, soon ceased.[2405] They are nevertheless an article of considerable traffic in Eastern Asia.

Round Cardamoms are produced in small compact bunches.[2406] Each fruit is globular, ⁵/₁₀ to ⁷/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, marked with longitudinal furrows, and sometimes distinctly three-lobed. The pericarp is thin, fragile, somewhat hairy, of a buff colour, enclosing a three-lobed mass of seeds, which are mostly shrivelled as if the fruit had been gathered unripe. The seeds, which have a general resemblance to those of the Malabar cardamom, have a strong camphoraceous, aromatic taste.

[2402] For additional information on the various sorts of Cardamom, consult Guibourt, _Hist. des Drog._ ii. (1869) 215-227; Pereira, _Elements of Mat. Med._ ii., part i. (1855) 243-263; Hanbury in _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 352. 416; _Science Papers_, 93-15.

[2403] _Exoticorum Libri_, 377. Yet it already occurs in the _Dispensatorium_ of Valerius Cordus.

[2404] Hill, _Hist. of the Mat. Med._, Lond. (1751) 472.

[2405] Thus 43 bags, imported direct from Bangkok, were offered for sale in London, 26 March, 1857, and bought in at 1_s._ 6_d._ per lb.

[2406] Fig. in Guibourt, _l. c._ 215.

There is a large export from Siam of cardamoms of this and the following sort. The shipments from Bangkok in 1871 amounted to 4,678 peculs (623,733 lbs.), and were all to Singapore and China.[2407] In 1875 we noticed the export from Bangkok of 267 peculs of “true” cardamoms, valued at 45,140 dollars, and 3,267 peculs of “bastard” cardamoms, value 92,865 dollars; the latter no doubt refer to the following kind:[2408]—

_Xanthioid Cardamom_; _Wild or Bastard Cardamom of Siam_—This is afforded by _Amomum xanthioides_ Wallich, a native of Tenasserim and Siam. During the past thirty years the seeds of this plant, deprived of their capsules, have often been imported into the London market, and they are now also common in the bazaars of India.[2409] They closely resemble the seeds of the Malabar cardamom, differing chiefly in flavour and in being rather more finely rugose. Occasionally they are imported still cohering in ovoid, three-lobed masses, as packed in the pericarp. Sometimes they are distinguished as _Bastard_ or _Wild_, but are more generally termed simply _Cardamom Seeds_. They are a considerable article of trade in Siam.

The fruits of this species grow in round clusters and are remarkable for having the pericarp thickly beset with weak fleshy spines,[2410] which gives them some resemblance to the fruits of a _Xanthium_, and has suggested the specific name.

_Bengal Cardamom_—This drug, which with the next two has been hitherto confounded under one name,[2411] is afforded by _Amomum subulatum_ Roxb.,[2412] a native of the Morung mountains, to the S.S.W. of Darjiling, in about 26°·30′ N. lat. The fruit is known by the name of _Winged Bengal Cardamom_, _Morung Elachi_ or _Buro Elachi_. They average about an inch in length, and are of ovoid or slightly obconic form, and obscurely 3-sided; the lower end is rounded and usually devoid of stalk. The upper part of the fruit is provided with 9 narrow jagged wings or ridges, which become apparent after maceration; and the summit terminates in a truncate bristly nipple,—never protracted into a long tube. The pericarp is coarsely striated, and of a deep brown. It easily splits into 3 valves, inclosing a 3-lobed mass of seeds, 60 to 80 in number, agglutinated by a viscid saccharine pulp, due to the aril with which each seed is surrounded. The seeds are of roundish form, rendered angular by mutual pressure, and about ⅛ of an inch long; they have a highly aromatic, camphoraceous taste.

[2407] _Commercial Report of H.M. Consul-General in Siam for 1871._

[2408] _Science Papers_, 102-103.

[2409] Moodeen Sheriff, _Supplement to Pharmacopœia of India_, Madras, 1869. 44. 270.

[2410] See figures in _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 418; also _Science Papers_, 1876, p. 101-103.

[2411] As by Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1135.

[2412] According to Dr. King, in Sir Joseph Hooker’s _Report on the Royal Gardens at Kew_, 1877. 27.

_Nepal Cardamom_—The description of the Bengal cardamom applies in many points to this drug, to which it has a singularly close resemblance. The fruit is of the same size and form, and is also crowned in its upper part with thin jagged ridges, and marked in a similar manner with longitudinal striæ; and lastly, the seeds have the same shape and flavour. But it differs, firstly, in bearing on its summit a tubular calyx, which is as long or longer than the fruit itself; and, secondly, in the fruit being often attached to a short stalk. The fruits are borne on an ovoid scape, 3 to 4 inches long, densely crowded with overlapping bracts, which are remarkably broad and truncate with a sharp central claw,—very distinct from the much narrower ovate bracts of _A. aromaticum_, as shown in Roxburgh’s unpublished drawing of that plant.

The plant, which is unquestionably a species of _Amomum_, has not yet been identified with any published description. We have to thank Colonel Richard C. Lawrence, British Resident at Katmandu, for sending us a fruit-scape in alcohol, some dried leaves, and also the drug itself,—the last agreeing perfectly with specimens obtained through other channels.

The Nepal cardamom, the first account of which is due to Hamilton,[2413] is cultivated on the frontiers of Nepal, near Darjiling. The plant is stated by Col. Lawrence to attain 3 to 6 feet in height, and to be grown on well-watered slopes of the hills, under the shelter of trees. The fruit is exported to other parts of India.

_Java Cardamom_—A well-marked fruit, produced by _Amomum maximum_ Roxb., a plant of Java. The fruits are arranged to the number of 30 to 40 on a short thick scape, and form a globose group, 4 inches in diameter. They are stalked, and of a conical or ovoid form, in the fresh state as much as 1½ inches long by 1 inch broad. Each fruit is provided with 9 to 10 prominent wings, ⅛ of an inch high, running from base to apex, and coarsely toothed except in their lowest part. The summit is crowned by a short, withered, calycinal tube.

Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical garden of Buitenzorg, in Java, who has kindly supplied us with fine specimens of _A. maximum_, as well as with an admirable coloured drawing, states that the plant is cultivated, and that its fruits are sold for the sake of their agreeable edible pulp. We do not know whether the dried fruits or the seeds are ever exported. Pereira confounded them with Bengal and Nepal cardamoms.

_Korarima Cardamom_—The Arab Physicians were acquainted with a sort of cardamom called _Heil_, which was later known in Europe, and is mentioned in the most ancient printed pharmacopœias as _Cardamomum majus_,[2414] a name occurring also in Valerius Cordus and Mattiolus. Like some other Eastern drugs, it gradually disappeared from European commerce, and its name came to be transferred to _Grains of Paradise_, which to the present day are known in the shops as _Semina Cardamomi majoris_.

[2413] _Account of the Kingdom of Nepal_, Edin. 1819. 74-75.

[2414] As the _Tesaurus Aromatariorum_, printed at Milan in 1496, in which it is called _Heil_ or _Gardamomum majus_.

The true _Cardamomum majus_ is a conical fruit,[2415] in size and shape not unlike a small fig reversed, containing roundish angular seeds, of an agreeable aromatic flavour, much resembling that of the Malabar cardamom, and quite devoid of the burning taste of grains of paradise. Each fruit is perforated, having been strung on a cord to dry; such strings of cardamoms are sometimes used by the Arabs as rosaries. The fruit in question is called in the Galla language _Korarima_, but it is also known as _Gurági_ spice, and by its Arabic names of _Heil_ and _Habhal-habashi_.[2416] According to Beke,[2417] it is conveyed to the market of Báso (10° N. lat.), in Southern Abyssinia, from Tumhé, a region lying in about 9° N. lat. and 35° E. long.; thence it is carried to Massowah, on the Red Sea, and shipped for India and Arabia. Von Heuglin[2418] speaks of it as brought from the Galla country. It is not improbable that it is the same fruit which Speke[2419] saw growing in 1862 at Uganda, in lat 0°, and which he says is strung like a necklace by the Wagonda people. Under the name of _Heel Habashee_, Korarima cardamoms were contributed in 1873 from Shoa to the Vienna exhibition; we have also been presented, in 1877, with an excellent specimen of them, recently imported, by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.

Pereira proposed for the plant the name of _Amomum Korarima_, but it has never been botanically described. It would appear from the above statements that it must be indigenous to the whole mountainous region of Eastern Africa, from the Victoria Nyanza lake (Uganda) to the countries of Tumhé, Gurague, and Shoa, south and south-eastward of Abyssinia.

GRANA PARADISI.

_Semina Cardamomi majoris_, _Piper Melegueta_; _Grains of Paradise_, _Guinea Grains_, _Melegueta Pepper_; F. _Grains de Paradis_, _Maniguette_; G. _Paradieskörner_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Amomum Melegueta_ Roscoe—an herbaceous, reed-like plant, 3 to 5 feet high, producing on a scape rising scarcely an inch above the ground, a delicate, wax-like, pale purple flower, which is succeeded by a smooth, scarlet, ovoid fruit, 3 to 4 inches in length, rising out of sheathing bracts.[2420]

[2415] Figured in Pereira, _Materia Medica_ ii. part i. (1855) 250, and already in Mattioli’s _Commentar. in Dioscorid._ lib. i. (1558) 27.

[2416] So named by Forskal in 1775 (_Materia Medica Kahirina_, 151. n. 41) who says “_frequens in re culinariâ et medicâ, loco piperis_.”

[2417] _Letters on the commerce of Abyssinia_, etc., addressed to the Foreign Office, 1852; 4. 16. 20.

[2418] _Reise nach Abessinien_, Jena, 1868. 223.

[2419] _Journal of the discovery of the source of the Nile_, 1863. 648.

[2420] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medical Plants_, part 30 (1878).

It varies considerably in the dimensions of all its parts, according to more or less favourable circumstances of soil and climate. In Demerara, where the plant grows luxuriously in cultivation, the fruit is as large as a fine pear, measuring with its tubular part as much as 5 inches in length by 2 inches in diameter; on the other hand, in some parts of West Africa it scarcely exceeds in size a large filbert. It has a thick fleshy pericarp, enclosing a colourless acid pulp of pleasant taste, in which are imbedded the numerous seeds.

_A. Melegueta_ is widely distributed in tropical West Africa, occurring along the coast region from Sierra Leone to Congo. The littoral region, termed, in allusion to its producing grains of paradise, the _Grain Coast_, _Pepper Coast_, or _Melegueta Coast_, lies between Liberia and Cape Palmas; or, more exactly, between Capes Mesurado (Montserrado) and St. Andrews. The Gold Coast, whence the seeds are now principally exported, is in the Gulf of Guinea, further eastward.

Of the distribution of the plant in the interior we have no exact information. Yet the name Melegueta refers to the ancient empire of Melle (Meli or Melly), formerly extending over the upper Niger region, about in 4° E. long., and then inhabited by the Mandingos, now by the Fulbe or Fullãn. Messena is their most considerable place. In that region _Amomum Melegueta_ may be indigenous, or the spice, being formerly exported from the coast by way of Melle, took its commercial name in allusion to the latter.

=History=—There is no evidence that the ancients were acquainted with the seeds called _Grains of Paradise_; nor can we find any reference to them earlier than an incidental mention under their African name, in the account[2421] of a curious festival held at Treviso in A.D. 1214: it was a sort of tournament, during which a sham fortress, held by twelve noble ladies and their attendants, was besieged and stormed by assailants armed with flowers, fruits, sweetmeats, perfumes, and spices, amongst which last figure—_Melegetæ_!

After this period there are many notices, showing the seeds to have been in general use. Nicolas Myrepsus,[2422] physician at the court of the Emperor John III. at Nicœa, in the 13th century, prescribed Μνεγέται; and his contemporary, Simon of Genoa,[2423] at Rome, names the same drug as _Melegete_ or _Melegette_. _Grana Paradisi_ are enumerated among spices sold at Lyons[2424] in 1245, and were used about the same time by the Welsh Physicians of Myddvai under the name _Grawn Paris_.[2425] They also occur as _Greyn Paradijs_ in a tariff of duties levied at Dordrecht in Holland[2426] in 1358. And again among the spices used by John, king of France, when in England, A.D. 1359-60, _Grainne de Paradis_ is repeatedly mentioned.[2427]

In the earliest times the drug was conveyed by the long land journey from the Mandingo country through the desert to the Mediterranean port, Monte di Barca (Mundibarca), on the coast of Tripoli. There the spice was shipped by the Italians, and being the produce of an unknown region and held in great esteem, it acquired the name of _Grains of Paradise_,[2428] or also, as already stated at page 650, that of _Semina Cardamomi Majoris_. That they came from Melli is expressly stated also by Leonhard Fuchs.[2429] Small quantities of the drug still reach Tripoli in the same way.

Towards the middle of the 14th century, there began to be direct commercial intercourse with tropical Western Africa. Margry[2430] relates that ships were sent thither from Dieppe in 1364, and took cargoes of ivory and _malaguette_ from near the mouth of the river Cestos, now Sestros. A century later the coast was visited by the Portuguese, who termed it _Terra de malaguet_. The celebrated Columbus also, who traded to the coast of Guinea, called it _Costa di Maniguetta_. Soon after this period the spice became a monopoly of the kings of Portugal.

[2421] Rolandini Patavini _Chronica_—Pertz, _Monumenta Germaniæ historica; scriptores_, xix. (1866) 45-46.—Yet _qâfala_, occurring in Edrisi, probably means grains of paradise.

[2422] _De Compositione Medicamentorum; de antidotis_, cap. xxii.

[2423] _Clavis Sanationis_, Venet. 1510. 19. 42.

[2424] _Bibliothek d. lit. Vereins_, Stuttgart, xvi. p. xxiii.

[2425] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) 283. 286.

[2426] Sartorius and Lappenberg, _Geschichte der Deutschen Hansa_, ii. 448.

[2427] Doüet d’Arcq, 219, 266—see p. 533, note 2.

[2428] G. di Barros, _Asia_, Venet. 1561. 33 (65).

[2429] _De componendorum miscendorumque medicamentorum ratione_, libr. iv. Lugduni, 1556. 50.

[2430] Quoted at p. 589, note 4.

English voyagers visited the Gold Coast in the 16th century, bringing thence in exchanging for European goods, gold, ivory, pepper, and _Grains of Paradise_.[2431] The pepper was doubtless that of _Piper Clusii_ (p. 589).

Grains of paradise, often called simply _grains_, were anciently used as a condiment like pepper. They were also employed with cinnamon and ginger in making the spiced wine called _hippocras_, in vogue during the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the Portuguese and Spanish idioms, the name _Melegueta_, spelt in various ways, as _Melegette_, _Melligetta_, _Mallaguetta_, _Manigete_, _Maniguette_, was subsequently also applied to other substitutes of pepper, and even to that spice itself.

In the hands of modern botanists, the plant affording grains of paradise has been the subject of a complication of errors which it is needless to discuss. Suffice it to say, that _Amomum Granum Paradisi_ as described by Linnæus cannot be identified;—that in 1817, Afzelius, a Swedish botanist, who resided some years at Sierra Leone, published a description of “_Amomum Granum Paradisi_? Linn.,”[2432] but that the specimen of it alleged to have been received from him, and now preserved in the herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith, belongs to another species. Under these circumstances, the name given to the grains of paradise plant by Roscoe, _A. Melegueta_, has been accepted as quite free from doubt.[2433]

=Description=—The seeds are about ⅒ of an inch in diameter, rather variable in form, being roundish, bluntly angular or somewhat pyramidal. They are hard, with a shining, reddish-brown, shagreen-like surface. The hilum is beak-shaped and of paler colour. The seeds when crushed are feebly aromatic, but have a most pungent and burning taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—In structure, grains of paradise agree in most respects with cardamom seeds. Yet in the former, the cells of the albumen have very thin, delicate walls which are much more elongated. Of the testa, only the innermost layer agrees with the corresponding part of cardamom; whilst the middle layer has the cell-walls so much thickened that only a few cavities, widely distant from one another, remain open. The outer layer of the testa consists of thick-walled cells, the cavities of which appear, on transverse section, radially extended. The albumen is loaded with starch granules of 2 to 5 mkm. diameter, the whole amount in each cell being agglutinated, so as to form a coherent mass.

=Chemical Composition=—Grains of paradise contain a small proportion of essential oil; 53 lb. yielded us only 2½ oz., equivalent to nearly 0·30 per cent.[2434] The oil is faintly yellowish, neutral, of an agreeable odour reminding one of the seeds, and of an aromatic, not acrid taste. It has a sp. gr. at 15·5° C., of 0·825. It is but sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol or in spirit of wine; but mixes clearly with bisulphide of carbon; it dissolves iodine without explosion. When saturated with dry hydrochloric gas, no solid compound is formed.

[2431] Hakluyt, _Principal Navigations_, ii. pt. 2.—First Voiage of the _Primerose and Lion_ to Guinea and Benin, A.D. 1553.

[2432] _Remedia Guineensia_, Upsaliæ, p. 71.

[2433] I have repeatedly raised _Amomum Melegueta_ from commercial Grains of Paradise, and have cultivated the plant for some years, obtaining not only flowers, but large well-ripened fruits containing fertile seeds.—D. H.

[2434] This oil was obtained and tried in medicine in the beginning of the 17th century.—Porta, _De Distillatione_, Romæ, 1608, lib. iv. c. 4.

The oil begins to boil at about 236° C., and the chief bulk of it distills at 257°-258°: the residual part is a thick brownish liquid. Examined in a column of 50 mm. long, the crude oil deviates 1·9° to the left. The portion passing over at 257°-258° deviates 1·2°, the residue 2° to the left. The optical behaviour is consequently in favour of the supposition that the oil is homogeneous. This is corroborated by the results of three elementary analyses which lead to the formula C₂₀H₃₂O.

In order to ascertain whether the seed contains a fatty oil, 10 grammes, powdered with quartz, were exhausted with boiling ether. This gave upon evaporation 0·583 grm. of a brown viscid residue, almost devoid of odour, but of intense pungency. As it was entirely soluble in glacial acetic acid or in spirit of wine, we may consider it a _resin_, and not to contain any fatty matter.

The seeds, dried at 100° C., afforded us 2·15 per cent. of ash, which, owing to the presence of manganese, had a green hue.

=Commerce=—Grains of paradise are chiefly shipped from the settlements on the Gold Coast, of which Cape Coast Castle and Accra are the more important. Official returns[2435] show that the exports in 1871 from this district were as follows:—to Great Britain 85,502 lb., the United States 35,630 lb., Germany 28,501 lb., France 27,125 lb., Holland 14,250 lb.—total, 191,011 lb. (1705 cwt.) In 1872 the total shipments amounted to the enormous quantity of 620,191 lb., valued at £10,303; in 1875 only 151,783 lb., valued at £912, were exported.

=Uses=—The seeds are used in cattle medicines, occasionally as a condiment, but chiefly, we believe, to give a fiery pungency to cordials.

ORCHIDACEÆ.

SALEP.

_Radix Salep_, _Radix Satyrii_; _Salep_; F. _Salep_; G. _Salepknollen_.

=Botanical Origin=—Most, if not all, species of _Orchis_ found in Europe and Northern Asia are provided with tubers which, when duly prepared, are capable of furnishing salep. Of those actually so used, the following are the more important, namely—_Orchis mascula_ L., _O. Morio_ L., _O. militaris_ L., _O. ustulata_ L., _O. pyramidalis_ L., _O. coriophora_ L., and _O. longicruris_ Link. These species which have the tubers _entire_ are natives of the greater part of Central and Southern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus and Asia Minor.[2436]

The following species with _palmate_ or _lobed_ tubers have a geographical area no less extensive, namely _O. maculata_ L., _O. saccifera_ Brongn., _O. conopsea_ L., and _O. latifolia_ L. The last named reaches North-Western India and Tibet; and _O. conopsea_ occurs in Amurland in the extreme east of Asia.

[2435] _Blue Book for the Colony of the Gold Coast in 1871._

[2436] Tchihatcheff enumerates 36 species of _Orchis_ as occurring in Asia Minor.—_Asie Mineure_, Bot. ii. 1860.

The salep of the Indian bazaars, known as _Sālib misrī_, for fine qualities of which the most extravagant prices are paid by wealthy orientals, is derived from certain species of _Eulophia_, as _E. campestris_ Lindl., _E. herbacea_ Lindl., and probably others.[2437]

=History=—Under the superstitious influence of the so-called _doctrine of signatures_,[2438] salep[2439] has had for ages a reputation in Eastern countries as a stimulant of the generative powers; and many Europeans who have lived in India, although not prepared to admit the extravagant virtues ascribed to it by Hindus and Mahommedans, yet regard it as a valuable nutrient in the sick-room.

The drug was known to Dioscorides and the Arabians, as well as to the herbalists and physicians of the middle ages, by whom it was mostly prescribed in the fresh state. Gerarde (1636) has given excellent figures of the various orchids whose tubers, says he, “_our age useth_.”

Geoffroy[2440] having recognized the salep imported from the Levant to be the tubers of an orchis, pointed out in 1740 how it might be prepared from the species indigenous to France.

=Collection=—The tubers are dug up after the plant has flowered, and the shrivelled ones having been thrown aside, those which are plump are washed, strung on threads and scalded. By this process their vitality is destroyed, and the drying is easily effected by exposure to the sun or to a gentle artificial heat. Though white and juicy when fresh, they become by drying hard and horny, and lose their bitterish taste and peculiar odour.

Salep is largely collected near Melassa (Milas) and Mughla (or Moola), south-east of Smyrna, and also brought there from Mersina, opposite the north-eastern cape (Andrea) of Cyprus. The drug found in English trade is mostly imported from Smyrna. That sold in Germany is partly obtained from plants growing wild in the Taunus mountains, Westerwald, Rhön, the Odenwald, and in Franconia. Salep is also collected in Greece, and used in that country and Turkey in the form of decoction, which is sweetened with honey and taken as an early morning drink.[2441] The salep of India is produced on the hills of Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Kabul and Bokhara;[2442] the Neilgherry Hills in the south, and even Ceylon are said likewise to afford it.

[2437] The Indian species of _Eulophia_ have been reviewed by Lindley in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._ Bot. iii. (1859) 23.

[2438] See Appendix, Porta.

[2439] _Salep_ is the Arabic for _fox_, and the drug is called in that language _Khus yatu’s salab_, i.e. _fox’s testicle_; or _Khus yatu’l kalb_, i.e. _dog’s testicle_. The word _Orchis_, and the old English names _Dogstones_, _Foxstones_, _Harestones_ and _Goatstones_ have all been given in allusion to the form of the tubers.

[2440] _Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences_ for 1740. 99.

[2441] Heldreich, _Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands_, Athen, 1862. 9.

[2442] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, i. (1868) 261; Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 236.

=Description=—Levant salep, such as is found in the English market, consists of tubers half an inch to an inch in length, of ovoid or oblong form, often pointed at the lower end, and rounded at the upper where is a depressed scar left by the stem; palmate tubers are unfrequent. They are generally shrunken and contorted, covered with a roughly granular skin, pale brown, translucent, very hard and horny, with but little odour and a slight not unpleasant taste. After maceration in water for several hours, they regain their original form and volume. German salep is more translucent and gummy-looking, and has the aspect of being more trimmed and prepared.

=Microscopic Structure=—The fresh tuber exhibits on transverse section a few outer rows of thin-walled cells rich in starch. These are followed by parenchyme of elongated colourless cells likewise containing starch, and isolated bundles of acicular crystals of oxalate of calcium. In this parenchyme, there are numerous larger cells filled with homogenous mucilage. Small vascular bundles are irregularly scattered throughout the tuber. In _Orchis mascula_ and _O. latifolia_ the starch grains are nearly globular, and about 25 mkm. in diameter. In dried salep the cell-walls are distorted and the starch grains agglomerated.

=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of salep is a sort of mucilage, the proportions of which according to Dragendorff (1865) amounts to 48 per cent.; but it is doubtless subject to great variation. Salep yields this mucilage to cold water, forming a solution which is turned blue by iodine, and mixes clearly with neutral acetate of lead like gum arabic. On addition of ammonia, an abundant precipitate is formed. Mucilage of salep precipitated by alcohol and then dried, is coloured violet or blue, if moistened with a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium. The dry mucilage is readily soluble in ammoniacal solution of oxide of copper; when boiled with nitric acid, oxalic, but not mucic acid is produced. In these two respects, the mucilage of salep agrees with cellulose, rather than with gum arabic. In the large cells in which it is contained, it does not exhibit any stratification, so that its formation does not appear due to a metamorphosis of the cell-wall itself. Mucilage of salep contains some nitrogen and inorganic matter, of which it is with difficulty deprived by repeated precipitation by alcohol.

It is to the mucilage just described that salep chiefly owes its power of forming with even 40 parts of water a thick jelly, which becomes still thicker on addition of magnesia or borax. The starch however assists in the formation of this jelly; yet its amount is very small, or even _nil_ in the tuber bearing the flowering stem, whereas the young lateral tuber abounds in it. The starch so deposited is evidently consumed in the subsequent period of vegetation, thus explaining the fact that tubers are found, the decoction of which is not rendered blue by iodine. Salep contains also sugar and albumin, and when fresh, a trace of volatile oil. Dried at 110° C., it yields 2 per cent. of ash, consisting chiefly of phosphates and chlorides of potassium and calcium (Dragendorff).

=Commerce=—The shipments of salep from Smyrna are about 5000 okkas (one okka equal to 283·2 lb. avdp. = 128·5 kilogrammes) annually.

=Uses=—Salep possesses no medicinal powers; but from its property of forming a jelly with a large proportion of water, it has come to be regarded as highly nutritious,—a popular notion in which we do not concur. A decoction flavoured with sugar and spice, or wine, is an agreeable drink for invalids, but is not much used in England.[2443]

[2443] As powdered salep is difficult to mix with water, many persons fail in preparing this decoction; but it may be easily managed by first stirring the salep with a little spirit of wine, then adding the water _suddenly_ and boiling the mixture. The proportions are powdered salep 1 drachm, spirit 1½ fluid drachms, water ½ a pint.

VANILLA.

_Vanilla_;[2444] F. _and_ G. _Vanille_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Vanilla planifolia_ Andrews—Indigenous to the hot regions (_tierra caliente_) of Eastern Mexico, diffused by cultivation through other tropical countries. The plant, which is rather fleshy and has large greenish inodorous flowers,[2445] grows in moist, shady forests, climbing the trees by means of its aërial roots.

=History=—The Spaniards found vanilla in use in Mexico as a condiment to chocolate, and by them it was brought to Europe; but it must have long remained very scarce, for Clusius, who received a specimen in 1602 from Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, described it as _Lobus oblongus aromaticus_, without being in the least aware of its native country or uses.[2446] In the _Thesaurus_ of Hernandez there is a figure and account of the plant under the name of _Araco aromatico_.[2447]

In the time of Pomet (1694) vanilla was imported by way of Spain, and was much used in France for flavouring chocolate and scenting tobacco. It had a place in the materia medica of the London Pharmacopœia of 1721, and was well known to the druggists of the first half of the 18th century, after which it seems to have gradually disappeared from the shops. Of late times it has been imported in great abundance, and is now plentifully used, not only by the chocolate manufacturer, but also by the cook and confectioner.

=Cultivation=—The culture of vanilla is very simple. Shoots about three feet long having been fastened to trees, and scarcely touching the ground, soon strike roots on to the bark, and form plants which commence to produce fruit in three years, and remain productive for thirty to forty.

The fertilization of the flower is naturally brought about by insect agency. This was practised as early as 1830 by Neumann in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and in 1837 by Morren,[2448] the director of the Botanical Garden of Liège, since which the production of the pods has been successfully carried on in all tropical countries[2449] without the aid of insects. Even in European forcing houses the plant produces fruits of full size, which for aroma bear comparison with those of Mexico.

In vanilla plantations the pods are not allowed to arrive at complete maturity, but are gathered when their green colour begins to change. According to the statements of De Vriese,[2450] they are dried by a rather circuitous process, namely by exposing them to heat alternately uncovered, and wrapped in woollen cloths, whereby they are artificially ripened, and acquire their ultimate aroma and dark hue. They are then tied together into small bundles.

[2444] Diminutive of the Spanish _vaina_, a pod or capsule.

[2445] Beautifully figured in Berg and Schmidt’s _Offizinelle Gewächse_, xxxiii. tab. _a_ and _b_ (1862).

[2446] _Exotica_ (1605) lib. iii. c. 18. 72.

[2447] _Rerum Medicarum Novæ Hispaniæ Thesaurus_, Romæ, 1651. p. 38.—The original drawing was one of a series of 1200, executed at great cost in Mexico by order of the King of Spain during the previous century.

[2448] _Ann. of Nat. Hist._ iii. (1839) 1.

[2449] In Réunion it was introduced in 1839 by Perrottet, the well-known botanist. See Delteil, _Etude sur la Vanille_, Paris, 1874. 54 pages, 2 plates.

[2450] _De Vanielje_, Leyden, 1856. 22, with figures.

In Réunion the drying of the pods is performed since 1857 by dipping them previously in boiling water.

=Description=—The fruit when fresh is of the thickness of the little finger, obscurely triquetrous, opening longitudinally by two unequal valves. It is fleshy, firm, smooth, and plump; when cut transversely it exudes an inodorous slimy juice, abounding in spiculæ of oxalate of calcium.[2451] It is one-celled, with a three-sided cavity, from each wall of which projects a two-branched placenta, each branch subdividing into two backward-curling lobes. There are thus in all 12 ridges, which traverse the fruit lengthwise, and bear the seeds. Fine hair-like papillæ line as a thick fringe the three angles of the cavity, and secrete the odorous matter, which after drying is diffused through the whole pod. The papillæ likewise contain drops of oil, which is freely absorbed by the paper in which a pod is wrapped. That the odorous matter is not resident in the fleshy exterior mass we have ascertained by slicing off this portion of a fresh fruit and drying it separately; the interior alone proved to be fragrant.

The vanilla of commerce occurs in the form of fleshy, flexible, stick-like pods, 3 to 8 inches long, and ³/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch wide, of a compressed cylindrical form, attenuated and hooked at the stalk end. The surface is finely furrowed lengthwise, shining, unctuous, and often beset with an efflorescence of minute colourless crystals. The pod splits lengthwise into two unequal valves, revealing a multitude of minute, shining, hard, black seeds of lenticular form, imbedded in a viscid aromatic juice.

The finest vanilla is the Mexican. _Bourbon Vanilla_, which is the more plentiful, is generally shorter and less intense in colour, and commands a lower price.

=Microscopic Structure=—The inner half of the pericarp contains about 20 vascular bundles, arranged in a diffuse ring. The epidermis is formed of a row of tabular thick-walled cells, containing a granular brown substance. The middle layer of the pericarp is composed of large thin-walled cells, the outer of which are axially extended, while those towards the centre have a cubic or spherical form. All contain drops of yellowish fat and brown granular masses, which do not decidedly exhibit the reaction of tannin. The tissue further encloses needles of oxalate of calcium and prisms of vanillin.

On the walls of the outer cells of the pericarp[2452] are deposited spiral fibres, which occur still more conspicuously in the aërial roots and in the parenchyme of the leaves of other orchids. The placentæ are coated with delicate, thin-walled cells.

[2451] This juice like that of the squill has an irritating effect on the skin, a fact of which the cultivators in Mauritius are well aware.

[2452] Vanilla grown in Europe is devoid of such cells. We can fully corroborate this statement (first made by Berg) from the examination of very aromatic pods produced in 1871 at Hillfield House, Reigate. We have even failed in finding those cells in any vanilla of recent importation (1878).

=Chemical Composition=—Vanilla owes the fragrance for which it is remarkable to _Vanillin_, which is found in a crystalline state in the interior or on the surface of the fruit, or dissolved in the viscid oily liquid surrounding the seeds. It was formerly regarded as cinnamic or benzoic acid, and then as cumarin, until Gobley (1858) demonstrated its peculiar nature.

The admirable researches of Tiemann and Haarmann performed in Hofmann’s laboratory at Berlin (1874-1876) have shown that vanillin is constituted according to the formula

{OCH₃
C₆H₃ {OH.
{CHO

It is the aldehyde. It is the aldehyde of methyl-protocatechuic acid, and like other aldehydes yields a crystallized compound with the bisulphites of alkalis. This is obtained by shaking an ethereal extract (_e_) of vanilla, with a saturated solution of bisulphite of sodium. The vanillin compound remaining in aqueous solution is mixed with sulphuric acid and ether; the latter on evaporation affords crystals of vanillin. They melt at 81°, and may be sublimed by cautiously heating them. Vanillin is but sparingly soluble in cold water, and requires about 11 parts of it at 100° C. for solution; it strikes a fine dark violet with perchloride of iron.

The said chemists have further demonstrated that vanillin may be formed artificially. In the sapwood of pines there occurs a substance called _Coniferin_, C₁₆H₂₂O₈ + 2 H₂O, first observed in 1861 by Hartig. By means of emulsin coniferin taking up H₂O, can be resolved into sugar and another crystallizable substance:—C₁₆H₂₂O₈ + H₂O = C₆H₁₂O₆ + C₁₀H₁₂O₃. The second substance thus derived may be collected by means of ether, which dissolves neither coniferin nor sugar. By oxidizing it, or coniferin itself, by bichromate of potassium and sulphuric acid, _Vanillin_ is obtained. The latter has been for sometime manufactured in that way by Tiemann, but now eugenol (see p. 285) is used for that purpose. Another source for vanillin is benzoin (p. 409).

The amount of vanillin was stated by Haarmann and Tiemann to be 1·69 per cent. in Mexican vanillin, from 1·9 to 2·48 in the Bourbon variety, and 2·75 in that from Java. The so-called _Vanillon_ affords only 0·4 to 0·7 per cent. of vanillin.

From the above-mentioned ethereal solution (e), after it has been deprived of vanillin, vanillate of sodium may be removed by a dilute solution of carbonate of sodium. On acidulating the aqueous solution crystals of _vanillic acid_,

{OCH₃
C₆H₃ {OH are precipitated.
{COOH

If the ether of the solution (_e_), after it has been treated with carbonate of sodium, is allowed to evaporate, a mixture of fatty substances and a resin are obtained. The latter has a peculiar odour, somewhat suggestive of castoreum; vanillic acid is almost inodorous.

Leutner (1872) also found in vanilla fatty and waxy matter 11·8, resin 4·0, gum and sugar 16·5 per cent.; and obtained by incineration of the drug 4·6 per cent. of ash.

=Production and Commerce=—The chief seats of vanilla-production in Mexico are the slopes of the Cordilleras, north-west of Vera Cruz, the centre of the culture being Jicaltepec, in the vicinity of Nautla.[2453] The finest specimens were contributed in 1878 to the Paris Exhibition from Agapito, Fonticilla, Misantla, Papantla, also from Teziutlan, province of Puebla. There are likewise “_Baynillales_,” plantations of vanilla, on the western declivity of the Cordilleras in the State of Oaxaca, and in lesser quantity in those of Tabasco, Chiapas, and Yucatan. The eastern parts of Mexico exported in 1864, by way of Vera Cruz and Tampico, about 20,000 kilo. of vanilla, chiefly to Bordeaux. Since then the production seems to have much declined, the importation into France having been only 6,896 kilo. in 1871, and 1,938 in 1872.[2454]

[2453] _Culture du vanillier au Mexique_, in the _Revue Coloniale_, ii. (1849) 383-390; also J. W. von Müller, _Reisen in ... Mexico_, ii. (Leipzig, 1864) 284-290.

[2454] _Documents Statistiques réunis par l’Administration des Douanes sur le Commerce de la France_, année 1872, p. 64.

The cultivation of vanilla in the small French colony of Réunion or Bourbon (40 miles long by 27 miles broad), introduced by Marchant in 1817 from Mauritius, has of late been very successful, notwithstanding many difficulties occasioned by the severe cyclones which sweep periodically over the island, and by microscopic fungi which greatly injured the plant. In 1849 the export of vanilla from Réunion was 3 kilogrammes, in 1877 it reached 30,973 kilogrammes. The neighbouring island of Mauritius also produces vanilla, of which it shipped in 1872 7,139 lbs., in 1877 the quantity was 20,481 lbs. There is likewise a very extensive cultivation of vanilla in Java.

Vanilla comes into the market chiefly by way of France, which country, according to the official statistics, imported in 1871, 29,914 kilo. (65,981 lbs.); in 1872, 26,587 (58,643 lbs.); in 1874 that quantity amounted to 34,906 kilo.

=Uses=—Vanilla has long ceased to be used in medicine, at least in this country, but is often sold by druggists for flavouring chocolate, ices, creams, and confectionery.

IRIDACEÆ.

RHIZOMA IRIDIS.

_Radix Iridis Florentinæ_; _Orris Root_; F. _Racine d’Iris_; G. _Veilchenwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—This drug is derived from three species of _Iris_, namely:—

1. _Iris germanica_ L., a perennial plant with beautiful large deep blue flowers, common about Florence and Lucca, ascending to the region of the chestnut. It is also found dispersed throughout Central and Southern Europe, and in Northern India and Morocco; and is one of the commonest plants of the gardens round London, where it is known as the _Blue Flag_.

2. _I. pallida_ Lam., a plant differing from the preceding by flowers of a delicate pale blue, growing wild in stony places in Istria. It is abundant about Florence and Lucca in the region of the olive, but is a doubtful native.

3. _I. florentina_ L., closely allied to _I. pallida_, yet bearing large white flowers, is indigenous to the coast region of Macedonia and the south-western shores of the Black Sea, Hersek, in the Gulf of Ismid, and about Adalia in Asia Minor. It also occurs in the neighbourhood of Florence and Lucca, but in our opinion only as a naturalized plant.[2455]

These three species, but especially _I. germanica_ and _I. pallida_, are cultivated for the production of orris root in the neighbourhood of Florence. They are planted on the edges of terraces and on waste, stony places contiguous to cultivated ground. _I. florentina_ is seldom found beyond the precincts of villas, and is far less common than the other two.

=History=—In ancient Greece and Rome, orris root was largely used in perfumery; and Macedonia, Elis, and Corinth were famous for their unguents of iris.[2456] Theophrastus and Dioscorides were well acquainted with orris root; the latter, as well as Pliny, remarks that the best comes from Illyricum, the next from Macedonia, and a sort still inferior from Libya; and that the root is used as a perfume and medicine. Visiani[2457] considers that _Iris germanica_ is the Illyrian iris of the ancients, which is highly probable, seeing that throughout Dalmatia (the ancient Illyricum) that species is plentiful, and _I. florentina_ and _I. pallida_ do not occur. At what period the two latter were introduced into Northern Italy we have no direct evidence, but it was probably in the early middle ages. The ancient arms of Florence, a white lily or iris on a red shield,[2458] seem to indicate that that city was famed for the growth of these plants. Petrus de Crescentiis[2459] of Bologna, who flourished in the 13th century, mentions the cultivation of the _white_ as well as of the purple iris, and states at what season the root should be collected for medicinal use.

But the true Illyrian drug was held to be the best; and Valerius Cordus[2460] laments that it was being displaced by the Florentine, though it might easily be obtained through the Venetians.

[2455] From observations made at Florence in the spring of 1872, I am led to regard the three species here named as quite distinct. The following comparative characters are perhaps worth recording:—

_I. germanica_—flower-stem scarcely 1½ times as tall as leaves; flowers more crowded than in _I. pallida_, varying in depth of colour but never pale blue.

_I. pallida_—bracts brown and scariose; flower-stem twice as high as leaves.

_I. florentina_—bracts green and fleshy; flower-stem short as in _I. germanica_; is a more tender plant than the other two, and blossoms a little later.—D. H.

[2456] For further information, consult Blümner, _Die gewerbliche Thätigkeit der Völker des klassischen Alterthums_, 1869. 57. 76. 83.

[2457] _Flora Dalmatica_, i. (1842) 116.

[2458] Dante, _Divina commedia_, cant. xvi.

[2459] _De omnibus agriculturæ partibus_, Basil. 1548. 219.

[2460] _Dispensatorium_, Norimb. 1529. 288.

Orris root mixed with anise was used in England as a perfume for linen as early as 1480 (p. 311), under which date it is mentioned in the _Wardrobe Accounts_ of Edward IV.

All the species of iris we have named were in cultivation in England in the time of Gerarde,—that is, the latter end of the 16th century. The starch of the rhizome was formerly reckoned medicinal, and directions for its preparation are to be found in the _Traicté de la Chymie_ of Le Febvre, i. (1660) 310.

=Production=—The above-mentioned species of iris are known to the Tuscan peasantry by the one name of _Giaggiolo_. The rhizomes are collected indiscriminately, the chief quantity being doubtless furnished by the two more plentiful species, _I. germanica_ and _I. pallida_. They are dug up in August, are then peeled, trimmed, and laid out in the sunshine to dry, the larger bits cut off being reserved for replanting. At the establishment of Count Strozzi, founded in 1806 at Pontasieve near Florence, which lies in the midst of the orris district, the rhizomes, collected from the peasants by itinerant dealers, are separated into different qualities, as _selected_ (_scelti_) and _sorts_ (_in sorte_), and are ultimately offered in trade either entire, or in small bits (_frantumi_), parings (_raspature_), powder (_polvere di giaggiolo o d’ ireos_), or manufactured into orris peas.

The growing of orris is only a small branch of industry, the crops being a sort of side-product, but it is nevertheless shared between the tenant and landowner as is usual on the Tuscan System of husbandry.[2461]

[2461] Groves, _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1872) 229.—We have also to thank him for information communicated personally.

In the mountainous neighbourhood of Verona, the rhizomes of _Giglio celeste_ or _Giglio selvatico_, _i.e._, Iris germanica, are collected and chiefly brought to the small places of Tregnano and Illasi, north-east of Verona. The peasants distinguish the selected long roots (_radice dritta_), the knotty roots (_radice groppo_) which are used for the issue-peas, and the fragments (_scarto_) employed in perfumery.

Some orris root is also exported from Botzen in southern Tyrol.

=Description.=—The rootstock is fleshy, jointed and branching, creeping horizontally near the surface of the ground. It is formed in old plants of the annual joints of five or six successive years, the oldest of which are evidently in a state of decay. These joints are mostly dichotomous, subcylindrical, a little compressed vertically, gradually becoming obconical, and obtaining a maximum size when about three years old. They are 3 to 4 inches long and sometimes more than 2 inches thick. Those only of the current year emit leaves from their extremities. The rhizome is externally yellowish-brown, internally white and juicy, with an earthy smell and acrid taste. By drying, it gradually acquires its pleasant violet odour, but it is said not to attain its maximum of fragrance until it has been kept for two years.

We have carefully compared with each other the fresh rhizomes of the three species under notice, but are not able to point out any definite character for distinguishing them apart.