Chapter XLI: Part 41

Dried orris root as found in the shops occurs in pieces of 2 to 4 inches long, and often as much as 1¼ inches wide. A full-sized piece is seen to consist of an elongated, irregularly subconical portion emitting at its broader end one or two (rarely three) branches which, having been cut short in the process of trimming, have the form of short, broad cones, attached by their apices to the parent rootstock. The rootstock is flattened, somewhat arched, often contorted, shrunken and furrowed. The lower side is marked with small circular scars, indicating the point of insertion of rootlets. The brown outer bark has been usually entirely removed by peeling and paring; and the dried rhizome is of a dull, opaque white, ponderous, firm and compact. It has an agreeable and delicate odour of violets, and a bitterish, rather aromatic taste, with subsequent acridity.

A sort of orris root which has been dried without the removal of the outer peel, is found under the name of _Irisa_ in the Indian bazaars, and now and then in the London market. It is, we suppose, the produce of _Iris germanica_ L. (_I. nepalensis_ Wall.), which, according to Hooker, is cultivated in Kashmir. Orris root of rather low quality is now often imported from Morocco; it is obtained, we believe, exclusively from _I. germanica_.

=Microscopic Structure=—On transverse section, the white bark about 2 mm. broad, is seen to be separated by a fine brown line from the faintly yellowish woody tissue. The latter is traversed by numerous vascular bundles, in diffuse and irregular rings, and exhibits here and there small shining crystals of oxalate of calcium. It is made up uniformly of large thick-walled spherical porous cells, loaded with starch granules, which are oval, rather large and very numerous; prisms of calcium oxalate are also visible. The latter were noticed already by one of the earliest microscopic observers, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, about the year 1716. The spiral vessels are small and run in very various directions. The foregoing description is applicable to any one of the three species we have named.

=Chemical Composition=—When orris root is distilled with water, a crystalline substance, called _Orris Camphor_, is found floating on the aqueous distillate. This substance, which we first obtained from the laboratory of Messrs. Herrings & Co. of London, is yielded, as we learn from Mr. Umney, to the extent of 0·12 per cent.—that is to say, 3 cwt. 3 qrs. 23 lb. of rhizome afforded of it 8½ ounces.[2462] Messrs. Schimmel & Co. of Leipzig also presented us with the same substance, of which they obtain usually 0·60 to 0·80 per cent. Orris camphor has the exquisite and persistent fragrance of the drug; we have proved[2463] that this presumed stearoptene or camphor of orris root consists of _myristic acid_, C₁₄H₂₈O₂ (see page 508), impregnated with the minute quantity of essential oil occurring in the drug. The oil itself would appear not to pre-exist in the living root, but to be formed on drying it.

By exhausting orris root with spirit of wine, a soft brownish resin is obtained, together with a little tannic matter. The resin has a slightly acrid taste; the tannin strikes a green colour with persalts of iron.

=Commerce=—Orris root is shipped from Leghorn, Trieste and Mogador,—from the last named port to the extent in 1876 of 834 cwt.[2464] There are no data to show the total imports into Great Britain. France imported in the year 1870 about 50 tons of orris root.

=Uses=—Frequently employed as an ingredient in tooth-powders, and in France for making issue-peas; but the chief application is as a perfume.

[2462] The produce of some previous operations, in which 23 cwt. of orris was distilled, afforded but little over one-tenth per cent.

[2463] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 130.

[2464] _Consular Reports_, 1876. 1416.

CROCUS.

_Croci stigmata_; _Saffron_[2465]; F. and G. _Saffran_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Crocus sativus_ L., a small plant with a fleshy bulb-like corm and grassy leaves, much resembling the common Spring Crocus of the gardens, but blossoming in the autumn. It has an elegant purple flower, with a large orange-red stigma, the three pendulous divisions of which are protruded beyond the perianth.

[2465] The word _Saffron_ is derived from the Arabic _Asfar_, yellow.

The Saffron Crocus is supposed to be indigenous to Greece, Asia Minor, and perhaps Persia, but it has been so long under cultivation in the East that its primitive home is somewhat doubtful.[2466]

=History=—Saffron, either as a medicine, condiment, perfume, or dye, has been highly prized by mankind from a remote period, and has played an important part in the history of commerce.

Under the Hebrew name _Carcôm_, which is supposed to be the root of the word _Crocus_, the plant is alluded to by Solomon;[2467] and as Κρόκος, by Homer, Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Theocritus. Virgil and Columella mention the saffron of Mount Tmolus; the latter also names that of Corycus in Cilicia, and of Sicily, both which localities are alluded to as celebrated for the drug by Dioscorides and Pliny.

Saffron was an article of traffic on the Red Sea in the first century; and the author of the Periplus remarks that Κρόκος is exported from Egypt to Southern Arabia, and from Barygaza in the gulf of Cambay.[2468] It was well known under the name _kunkuma_ to the earlier Hindu writers.

It was cultivated at Derbend and Ispahan in Persia, and in Transoxania in the 10th century,[2469] whence it is not improbable the plant was carried to China, for according to the Chinese it came thither from the country of the Mahomedans. Chinese writers have recorded that under the Yuen dynasty (.D. 1280-1368), it became the custom to mix _Sa-fa-lang_ (Saffron) with food.[2470]

There is evidence to show that saffron was a cultivated production of Spain[2471] as early as A.D. 961; yet it is not so mentioned, but only as an eastern drug, by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century. As to France, Italy, and Germany, it is commonly said that the saffron crocus was introduced into these countries by the Crusaders. Porchaires, a French nobleman, is stated to have brought some bulbs to Avignon towards the end of the 14th century, and to have commenced the cultivation in the Comtat Venaissin, where it existed down to recent times. About the same time, the growing of saffron is said to have been introduced by the same person into the district of Gâtinais, south of Paris.[2472] At that period, saffron was one of the productions of Cyprus,[2473] with which island France was then, through the princes of Lusignan, particularly related.

[2466] Chappellier has pointed out that _Crocus sativus_ L. is unknown in a wild state, and that it hardly ever produces seed even though artificially fertilized; and has argued from these facts that it is probably a hybrid.—_Bulletin de la Soc. bot. de France_, xx. (1853) 191.

[2467] _Canticles_, ch. iv. 14.

[2468] Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_, iii. (1857) 52.

[2469] Istachri, _Buch der Länder_, übersetzt von Mordtmann, 87. 93. 124. 126; Edrisi, _Géographie_, trad. par Jaubert, 168. 192.

[2470] Bretschneider, _Chinese Botanical Works_, Foochow, 1870. 15.

[2471] _Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année_ 961, Leyde, 1873. 33. 109.

[2472] Conrad et Waldmann, _Traité du Safran du Gâtinais_, Paris, 1846. (23 pages;—no authority quoted).

[2473] De Mas Latrie, _Hist. de l’ile de Chypre_, iii. 498.

During the middle ages, the saffron cultivated at San Gemignano in Tuscany was an important article of exportation to Genoa.[2474] That of Aquila in the Abruzzi was also famous, and used to be distinguished in price-lists till the beginning of the present century; the culture of saffron is still going on there to a small extent.[2475] The growing of saffron in Sicily, which was noticed even by Columella, is carried on to the present day, but the quantity produced is insufficient even for home consumption.[2476] In Germany and Switzerland, where a more rigorous climate must have increased the difficulties of cultivation, the production of saffron was an object of industry in many localities.[2477]

The saffron crocus is said to have been introduced into England during the reign of Edward III. (A.D. 1327-1377).[2478] Two centuries later English saffron was even exported to the Continent, for in a priced list of the spices sold by the apothecaries of the north of France, A.D. 1565-70, mention is made of three sorts of saffron, of which “_Safren d’Engleterre_” is the most valuable.[2479] It was evidently produced in considerable quantities, for in 1682 we find in the tariff of the “Apotheke” of Celle, Hanover, crocus austriacus optimus, and _Crocus communis anglicus_.[2480]

In the beginning of the last century (1723-28), the cultivation of saffron was carried on in what is described by a contemporary writer[2481] as—“all that large tract of ground that lies between Saffron Walden and Cambridge, in a circle of about 10 miles diameter.” The same writer remarks that saffron was formerly grown in several other counties of England. The cultivation of the crocus about Saffron Walden, which was in full activity when Norden[2482] wrote in 1594, had ceased in 1768, and about Cambridge at nearly the same time.[2483] Yet the culture must have lingered in a few localities, for in the early part of the present century a little English saffron was still brought every year from Cambridgeshire to London, and sold as a choice drug to those who were willing to pay a high price for it.

Saffron was employed in ancient times to a far greater extent than at the present day. It entered into all sorts of medicines, both internal and external; and it was in common use as a colouring and flavouring ingredient of various dishes for the table,. The drug, from its inevitable costliness, has been liable to sophistication from the earliest times. Both Dioscorides and Pliny refer to the frauds practised on it, the latter remarking—“_adulteratur nihil æquè_.”

During the middle ages the severest enactments were not only made, but were actually carried into effect, against those who were guilty of sophisticating saffron, or even of possessing the article in an adulterated state. Thus at Pisa, in A.D. 1305, the _fundacarii_, or keepers of the public warehouses, were required by oath and heavy penalties to denounce the owners of any falsified saffron consigned to their custody.[2484] The Pepperers of London about the same period were also held responsible to check dishonest tampering with saffron.[2485]

[2474] Bourquelot, _Foires de la Champagne_, Mém. de l’Acad. des inscript. et belles-lettres de l’Institut, v. (1865) 286.

[2475] Groves, _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1875) 215.

[2476] Inzenga, in _Annali d’ Agricoltura Siciliana_, i. (1851) 51.

[2477] Tragus, _De Stirpium_, etc. 1552, p. 763; Ochs, _Geschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Basel_, iii. (1819) 189.

[2478] Morant, _Hist. and Antiq. of Essex_, ii. (1768) 545.

[2479] The other sorts are “_Safren Calulome_” and “_Safren Noort_.”—_Archives générales du Pas de Calais_, quoted by Dorvault, _Revue pharmaceutique de 1858_. p. 58.

[2480] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1876) 1023.

[2481] Douglass, _Phil. Trans._ Nov. 1728. 566.

[2482] _Description of Essex_, Camden Society, 1840. 8.

[2483] Morant, _op. cit._; Lysons, _Magna Britannia_, vol. ii. pt. i. (1808) 36. Lysons records that at Fulbourn, a village near Cambridge, there had been no _tithe of saffron_ since 1774.

[2484] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa dal xii. al xiv. secolo_, iii. (1857) 101.

[2485] Riley, _Memorials of London and London Life in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries_, 1868. 120.

In France, an edict of Henry II., of 18th March, 1550, recites the advantages derived from the cultivation of saffron in many parts of the kingdom, and enacts the confiscation and burning of the drug when falsified, and corporal punishment of offenders.[2486]

The authorities in Germany were far more severe. A _Safranschau_ (Saffron inspection) was established at Nuremberg in 1441, in which year 13 lb. of saffron was publicly burnt at the Schönen Brunnen in that city. In 1444, Jobst Findeker was burnt together with his adulterated saffron! And in 1456, Hans Kölbele, Lienhart Frey, and a woman, implicated in falsifying saffron, were buried alive. The _Safranschau_ was still in vigour as late as 1591: but new regulations for the inspection of saffron were passed in 1613.[2487] There was also in the same city a _Gewürzschau_, or Spice-inspection, from 1441 to 1797. Similar inspections were established in most German towns during the middle ages.

=Description=—The flower of the saffron crocus has a style 3 to 4 inches long, which in its lower portion is colourless, and included within the tube of the perianth. In its upper part it becomes yellow, and divides into three tubular, filiform, orange-red stigmas, each about an inch in length. The stigmas expand towards their ends, and the tube of which they consist is toothed at the edge and slit on its inner side. The stigma is the only part officinal, and alone is rich in colouring matter.

Commercial saffron (_Hay Saffron_ of the druggists) is a loose mass of thread-like stigmas, which when unbroken are united in threes at the upper extremity of the yellow style. It is unctuous to the touch, tough and flexible; of a deep orange-red, peculiar aromatic smell, and bitter and rather pungent taste. It is hygroscopic and not easily pulverized; it loses by drying at 100° C. about 12 per cent. of moisture, which it quickly reabsorbs.[2488]

[2486] De la Mare, _Traité de la Police_, Paris, iii. (1719) 428.

[2487] J. F. Roth, _Geschichte des Nürnbergischen Handels_, 1800-1802, iv. 221.

[2488] Eight lots of saffron weighing _in toto_ 61 lb., dried at various times during the course of nine years, lost 7 lb. 2¼ oz., _i.e._ 11·7 per cent.—(Laboratory records of Messrs. Allen & Hanburys, Plough Court, Lombard Street.)

The colouring power of saffron is very remarkable: we have found that a single grain rubbed to fine powder with a little sugar will impart a distinct tint of yellow to 700,000 grains (10 gallons) of water.

=Microscopic Structure=—The tissue of the stigma consists of very thin, sinuous, closely-felted, thread-shaped cells, and small spiral vessels. The yellow colouring matter penetrates the whole, and is partly deposited in granules. The microscope likewise exhibits oil-drops, and small lumps, probably of a solid fat. Large isolated pollen grains are also present.

=Chemical Composition=—The splendid colouring matter of saffron has long been known as _Polychroit_; but in 1851 Quadrat, who instituted some fresh researches on the drug, gave it the name of _Crocin_, which was also adopted in 1858 by Rochleder. Weiss in 1867[2489] has shown that it is a glucoside, for which he retains the name of _Polychroit_, while the new colouring matter which results from its decomposition he terms _Crocin_. It agrees with the _Crocetin_ of Rochleder.

Polychroit was prepared by Weiss in the following manner: saffron was treated with ether, by which fat, wax, and essential oil were removed; and it was then exhausted with water. From the aqueous solution, gummy matters and some inorganic salts were precipitated by strong alcohol. After the separation of these substances, polychroit was precipitated by addition of ether. Thus obtained, it is an orange-red, viscid, deliquescent substance, which, dried over sulphuric acid, becomes brittle and of a fine ruby colour. It has a sweetish taste, but is devoid of odour, readily soluble in spirit of wine or water, and sparingly in absolute alcohol. By dilute acids, it is decomposed into _Crocin_, sugar, and an aromatic volatile oil having the smell of saffron. Weiss gives the following formula for this decomposition:—

C₄₈H₆₀O₁₈ + H₂O = 2(C₁₆H₁₈O₆) · C₁₀H₁₄O · C₆H₁₂O₆.
polychroit crocin essential oil sugar

_Crocin_ is a red powder, insoluble in ether, easily soluble in alcohol, and precipitable from this solution on addition of ether. It is only slightly soluble in water, but freely in an alkaline solution, from which an acid precipitates it in purple-red flecks. Strong sulphuric and nitric acids occasion the same colours as with polychroit; the former producing deep blue, changing to violet and brown, and the latter green, yellow, and finally brown. It is remarkable that hydrocarbons of the benzol class do not dissolve the colouring matter of saffron.

The oil obtained by decomposing crocin is heavier than water; it boils at about 209° C., and is easily altered,—even by water. It is probably identical with the volatile oil obtainable to the extent of one per cent. from the drug itself, and to which its odour is due.

Saffron contains sugar (glucose?), besides that obtained by the decomposition of polychroit. The drug leaves after incineration 5 to 6 per cent. of ash.

=Production and Commerce=—In France the cultivation is carried on by small peasant proprietors; the flowers are collected at the end of September or in the beginning of October. The stigmas are quickly taken out, and immediately dried on sieves over a gentle fire, to which they are exposed for only half an hour. According to Dumesnil[2490] 7,000 to 8,000 flowers are required for yielding 500 grammes (17½ oz.) of fresh saffron, which by drying is reduced to 100 grammes.

Notwithstanding the high price of saffron, its cultivation is by no means always profitable, from the many difficulties by which it is attended. Besides occasional injury from weather, the bulbs are often damaged by parasitic fungi as stated by Duhamel in 1728[2491] and again by Montagne in 1848.[2492]

[2489] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1868. 35.

[2490] _Bulletin de la Société impériale d’acclimatation_, Avril, 1869.

[2491] _Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences_, 1728. p. 100.

[2492] _Etude micrographique de la maladie du Safran, connue sous le nom de tacon._

The most considerable quantity of saffron is now produced in Spain, namely in Lower Arragon, in Novelda near Alicante, in the province Albacete (Northern Murcia), in La Mancha, near Huelva, and also near Palma in the island of Mallorca. It is brought into commerce as _Alicante_ and _Valencia Saffron_. The quantity of saffron exported from Spain in 1864 was valued at £190,062; in 1865, £135,316; in 1866, £47,083. The drug was chiefly exported to France.[2493]

French saffron, which enjoys a better reputation for purity than the Spanish, is cultivated in the arrondissement of Pithiviers-en-Gâtinais, in the department of the Loiret, which district annually furnishes a quantity valued at 1,500,000 (£60,000) to 1,800,000 francs.[2494] The exports of France in 1875 were 97,021 kilogrammes, 84,337 of which being imported from Spain.

In Austria, Maissau, north-east of Krems on the Danube, still produces excellent saffron, though only to a very small extent; the district was formerly celebrated for the drug. Saffron is produced in considerable quantity in Ghayn, an elevated mountain region separating Western Afghanistan from Persia.[2495] A very little of inferior quality is collected at Pampur in Kashmír, under heavy imposts of the Maharaja.[2496] Saffron is also cultivated in some districts of China. Finally, the cultivation has been introduced into the United States, and a little saffron is collected by the German inhabitants of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[2497] But in almost all countries the cultivation of saffron is on the decline, and in very many districts has altogether ceased.

The imports of saffron into the United Kingdom amounted in 1870 to 43,950 lb., valued at £95,690. The article is largely exported to India, but there are no general statistics to show the amount. Bombay imported in the year 1872-73, 21,994 lb., value £35,115.[2498] It is a curious fact that now Spanish saffron finds regularly its way to India.

=Uses=—Saffron is of no value for any medicinal effects, and retains a place in the pharmacopœia solely on the ground of its utility as a colouring agent. A peculiar preference for it as a condiment exists in various countries, but especially in Austria, Germany and some districts of Switzerland. This predilection prevails even in England—at least in Cornwall, where the use of saffron for colouring cakes is still common. Saffron is largely used by the natives of India in religious rites, in medicine and for the colouring and flavouring of food.

As a dye-stuff saffron is no longer employed, at least in this country, its use having been superseded by less costly substances.

=Adulteration=—Saffron is often adulterated, but the frauds practised on it are not difficult of detection. Sometimes the falsification consists in the addition of florets of _Calendula_ dyed with logwood, or of safflower, or the _stamens_ of the saffron crocus, any of which may be detected if a small pinch of the drug be dropped on the surface of warm water, when the peculiar form of the saffron stigma will at once become evident.

[2493] _Statistical Tables relating to Foreign Countries_ (Blue Book) 1870. 286. 289.

[2494] Dumesnil, _l. c._

[2495] Bellew, _From the Indus to the Tigris_, Lond. 1874. 304.

[2496] Hügel, _Kaschmir_, ii. (1840) 274.—Powell, _Punjab Products_, i. (1868) 449.—_Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1875) 279.

[2497] _Proc. of the American Pharm. Assoc._ 1866. 254.

[2498] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for 1872-73._ pt. ii. 30.

Another adulteration of late much practised, and not always easy to detect by the eye, consists in coating genuine saffron with carbonate of lime, previously tinged orange-red. If a few shreds of such saffron be placed on the surface of water in a wineglass and gently stirred, the water will _immediately_ become turbid, and the carbonate of lime will detach itself as a white powder and subside. Saffron thus adulterated will _freely effervesce_ when dilute hydrochloric acid is dropped upon it. We have examined Alicante Saffron, the weight of which had been increased more than 20 per cent. by this fraudulent admixture. The earthy matter employed in sophisticating saffron is said to be sometimes emery powder, rendered adherent by honey. We have found that adulterated with carbonate of lime to leave from 12 to 28 per cent. of ash.[2499]

PALMÆ.

SEMEN ARECÆ.

_Nuces Arecæ vel Betel_; _Areca Nuts_, _Betel Nuts_; F. _Semence ou Noix d’Arec_; G. _Arekanüsse_, _Betelnüsse_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Areca Catechu_ L., a most elegant palm,[2500] with a straight smooth trunk, 40 to 50 feet high and about 20 inches in circumference. The inflorescence is arranged on a branching spadix, with the male flowers on its upper portion and the female near its base. The tree is cultivated in the Malayan Archipelago, the warmer parts of the Indian Peninsula, Ceylon, Indo-China and the Phillippines. It is probably indigenous to the first-named region.

=History=—The Areca palm is mentioned in the Sanskrit writings as _Guvāca_. It is called in Chinese _Pin-lang_, a name apparently derived from _Pinang_, a designation for the tree in the Malay Islands, whence the Chinese anciently derived their supply of the seeds. The oldest Chinese work to mention the _pin-lang_ is the _San-fu-huang-tu_, a description of Chang-an, the capital of the Emperor Wu-ti, B.C. 140-86. It is there stated that after the conquest of Yunnan, B.C. 111, some remarkable trees and plants of the south were taken to the capital, and among them more than 100 _pin-lang_, which were planted in the imperial gardens. Bretschneider,[2501] to whose researches we are indebted for this information, cites several other Chinese works, from the first century downwards, showing that areca nuts were brought from the then unsubdued provinces of Southern China, the Malayan Archipelago and India. The custom of presenting areca nut to a guest is alluded to in a work of the 4th century.

[2499] _Science Papers_, 368.

[2500] Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part 21 (1877).

[2501] _On the study of Chinese botanical works_, Foochow, 1870. 27.

The Arabian writers, as for instance Ibn Batuta, were well acquainted with the areca nut, which they called _Fófal_, and with the Indian custom of masticating it with lime.

Areca nut, though held in great estimation among Asiatics as a masticatory, and supposed to strengthen the gums, sweeten the breath and improve digestion, has not until recently been regarded as possessing any particular medicinal powers beyond those of a mild astringent.[2502] It has often been administered as a vermifuge to dogs, and in India and China is given with the same intent to the human subject. Some successful trials recently made of it for the expulsion of tapeworm have led to it being included in the _Additions to the British Pharmacopœia of 1867_, published in 1874.

=Description=—The areca palm produces a smooth ovoid fruit, of the size of a small hen’s egg, slightly pointed at its upper end, and crowned with the remains of the stigmas. Its exterior consists of a thick pericarp, at first fleshy, but, when quite mature, composed of fine stringy fibres running lengthwise, with much coarser ones below them. This fibrous coat is consolidated into a thin crustaceous shell or endocarp, which surrounds the solitary seed. The latter has the shape of a very short rounded cone, scarcely an inch in height; it is depressed at the centre of the base, and has frequently a tuft of fibres on one side of the depression, indicating its connexion with the pericarp. The testa, which seems to be partially adherent to the endocarp, is obscurely defined, and inseparable from the nucleus. Its surface is conspicuously marked with a network of veins, running chiefly from the hilum. When a seed is split open, it is seen that these veins extend downwards into the white albumen, reaching almost to its centre, thus giving the seed a strong resemblance both in structure and appearance to a nutmeg. The embryo, which is small and conical, is seated at the base of the seed. Areca nuts are dense and ponderous, and very difficult to break or cut. They have when freshly broken a weak cheesy odour, and taste slightly astringent.

=Microscopic Structure=—The white horny albumen is made up of large thick-walled cells, loaded with an albuminoid matter, which on addition of iodine assumes a brown hue. The cell-walls display large pores, the structure of which, after boiling in caustic ley, becomes clearly evident in polarized light. The brown tissue which runs into the albumen is of loose texture, and resembles the corresponding structure in a nutmeg. The thin walls of its cells are marked with fine spiral striations, and in this tissue, as well as on the brown surface of the seed, delicate spiral vessels are scattered. All the brown cells assume a rich red if moistened with caustic ley, and a dingy green with ferric chloride.

=Chemical Composition=—We have exhausted the powder of the seeds, previously dried at 100° C., with ether; and thereby obtained a _colourless_ solution, which after evaporation left an oily liquid, concreting on cooling. This fatty matter, representing 14 per cent. of the seed, was thoroughly crystalline and melted at 39° C. By saponification we obtained from it a crystalline fatty acid fusing at 41° C., which may consequently be a mixture of lauric and myristic acids. Some of the fatty matter was boiled with water: the water on evaporation afforded an extremely small trace of tannin but no crystals, which had catechin been present should have been left.

[2502] J. J. Berlu, _The Treasury of Drugs Unlocked_, London, 1724, no doubt had before him the areca nuts in speaking of “_Nuces indicæ_ (see also p. 503, note 2), like a nutmeg in shape, in chewing turns red; it is said they will make one drunk ... but I could never find it.”

The powdered seeds which had been treated with ether were then exhausted by cold spirit of wine (·832), which afforded 14·77 per cent. (reckoned on the original seeds) of a red amorphous _tannic matter_, which after drying, proved to be but little soluble in water, whether cold or boiling. Submitting to destructive distillation, it afforded _Pyrocatechin_. Its aqueous solution is not altered by ferrous sulphate, unless an alkali is added, when it assumes a violet hue, with separation of a copious dark purplish precipitate. On addition of a ferric salt in minute quantity to the aqueous solution of the tannic matter, a fine green tint is produced, quickly turning brown by a further addition of the test, and violet by an alkali. An abundant dark precipitate is also formed.

The seeds having been exhausted by both ether and spirit of wine, were treated with water, which removed from them chiefly mucilage precipitable by alcohol. The alcohol thus used afforded on filtration traces of an acid, the examination of which was not pursued. After exhaustion with ether, spirit of wine and water, a dark brown solution is got by digesting the residue in ammonia: from this solution, an acid throws down an abundant brown precipitate, not soluble even in boiling alcohol. We have not been able to obtain crystals from an aqueous decoction of the seeds, nor by exhausting them directly with boiling spirit of wine. We have come therefore to the conclusion that _Catechin_ (p. 243) is not a constituent of areca nuts, and that any extract, if ever made from them, must be essentially different to the _Catechu of Acacia_ or of _Nauclea_, and rather to be considered a kind of tannic matter of the nature of _Ratanhia-red_ or _Cinchona-red_.

By incinerating the powdered seeds, 2·26 per cent. were obtained of a brown ash, which, besides peroxide of iron, contained phosphate of magnesium.

=Commerce=—Areca nuts are sold in India both in the husk (pericarp) and without it, and the two sorts are enumerated in the Customs Returns under distinct heads. Their widespread consumption in the East gives rise to an enormous trade, of which some notion may be formed by a consideration of the few statistics bearing upon it which are accessible.

Thus, Ceylon exported of areca nuts in the year 1871, 66,543 cwt., value £62,593; in 1872, 71,715 cwt.,—the latter quantity entirely to India; in 1875 of the total export of 94,567 cwt. 86,446 were shipped to India.[2503]

The Madras Presidency largely trades in the same commodity. In the year 1872-1873 there were shipped thence to Bombay 43,958 cwt., besides about two millions of the entire fruit.[2504] An extensive traffic in areca nuts is carried on at Singapore and especially in Sumatra.

=Uses=—Powdered areca nut may be given for the expulsion of tapeworm in the dose of 4 to 6 drachms, taken in milk. The remedy should be administered to the patient after a fast of about twelve hours; some recommend the previous exhibition of a purgative. It is said to be efficacious against _lumbricus_ as well as _tænia_.

The charcoal afforded by burning areca nuts in a close vessel is sold as a tooth powder; but except greater density, it possesses no advantage over the charcoal from ordinary wood.

[2503] Ceylon Blue Books.

[2504] From the returns quoted at p. 571, note 5.

As a masticatory areca nut is chewed with a little lime and a leaf of the Betel Pepper, _Piper Betle_ L. The nut for this purpose is used in a young and tender state, or is prepared by boiling in water; it is sometimes combined with aromatics, as camphor or cardamom.

SANGUIS DRACONIS.

_Resina Draconis_; _Dragons Blood_; F. _Sang-dragon_; G. _Drachenblut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Calamus Draco_[2505] Willd. (_Dæmonorhops Draco_ Mart.)—This is one of the Rotang or Rattan Palms, remarkable for their very long flexible stems, which climb among the branches of trees by means of spines on the leafstalk. The species under notice, called in Malay _Rotang Jernang_, grows in swampy forests of the Residency of Palembang and in the territory of Jambi, in Eastern Sumatra, and in Southern Borneo, which regions furnish the dragon’s blood of commerce. It is said to occur also in Penang and in various islands of the Sunda chain.

=History=—The substance which is mentioned by Dioscorides under the name of Κιννάβαρι, as a costly pigment and medicine brought from Africa, and which is also described by Pliny who distinguished it from minium, was certainly the resin called _Dragon’s Blood_. It was not however that of the Rotang Palm, _Calamus Draco_, or even of any tree of the Indian Archipelago, but was on the contrary a production of the island of Socotra (see p. 675).

Dragon’s blood is, we believe, not named by any of the earlier voyagers to the India islands. Ibn Batuta, who visited both Java and Sumatra between A.D. 1325 and 1349, and notices their producing benzoin (see p. 404), cloves, camphor, and aloes-wood, is silent about dragon’s blood. Barbosa, whose intelligent narrative (A.D. 1514) of the East Indies[2506] is full of reference to the trade and productions of the different localities he visited, states that aloes and _dragon’s blood_ are produced in Socotra, but makes no mention of the latter commodity as found at Malacca, Java, Sumatra, or Borneo.

The fact we wish to prove is corroborated by the accounts of early commercial intercourse between the Chinese and Arabs recently published by Bretschneider.[2507] From the 10th to the 15th century there was carried on between these nations a trade, the objects of which were not only the productions of the Arabian Gulf and countries further north, but also those of the Indian Archipelago. One of the islands with which the Arabs and Persians carried on a great commerce was Sumatra, whence they obtained the precious camphor so much valued by the Chinese, but not, so far as it appears, the resin dragon’s blood. As to the productions brought from Arabia they are enumerated as Ostriches, Olibanum, Liquid Storax, Myrrh, and _Dragon’s Blood_, besides a few other articles not yet determined. It is worthy of remark that the Chinese are still the principal consumers of dragon’s blood, though like the rest of mankind they have to content themselves with the plentiful drug of Sumatra and Borneo, instead of the more ancient sort produced in Socotra.

[2505] Beautifully figured by Blume, _Rumphia_, ii. (1836) tab. 131-132.

[2506] _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar_ (Hakluyt Society), 1866. 30. 191-197.

[2507] _Knowledge possessed by the Chinese of the Arabs, etc._, 1871.

The first clear account of the production of the resin in India is that given by Rumphius, who in his _Herbarium Amboinense_[2508] describes the process by which it is collected at Palembang.

=Production=—The fruit of _Calamus Draco_, which is produced in panicles in great profusion, is globose and of the size of a large cherry, clothed with smoothed downward-overlapping scales. These scales are sub-quadrangular, thick and shell-like, marked with a longitudinal furrow; the largest, which are found towards the middle of the fruit, are 2 lines long by 3 broad. At maturity the fruit is covered with an exudation of red resin, which encrusts it so abundantly that the form of the scales can hardly be seen.

The resin, which is naturally friable, is collected by gathering the fruits, and shaking or beating them in a sack, by which process it is soon separated. It is then sifted to remove from it scales and other portions of the fruit. By exposure to the heat of the sun or in a covered vessel to that of boiling water, the resin is so far softened that it can be moulded into sticks or balls, which are forthwith wrapped in a piece of palm leaf. It is thus that the best dragon’s blood, or _jernang_, is obtained. An inferior quality is got by boiling the pounded fruits in water, and making the resin into a mass, frequently with the addition of other substances by way of adulteration. The foregoing is the account of the manufacture of the drug given by Blume.[2509]

[2508] Pars. v. (1747) 114-115. tab. 58.

[2509] _Rumphia_, iii. (1847) 9. tab. 131. 132.

=Description=—Dragon’s Blood is found in commerce chiefly in two forms, known respectively as _Reed_ and _Lump_.

1. _Reed Dragon’s Blood_ (Dragon’s Blood in sticks, _Sanguis draconis in baculis_). Some of fine quality purchased in London in 1842 is in sticks 13 to 14 inches in length, and ¾ to 1 inch in diameter, neatly wrapped in palm leaf, secured by 8 or 9 transverse bands of some flexible grass. The average weight of each stick, including the enveloping leaf, is five ounces. The resin has evidently been wrapt up while soft, as the sticks are furrowed longitudinally by pressure of the surrounding leaf. The smooth surface is of an intense blackish-brown; when seen in thin splinters the resin appears transparent, and of a pure and brilliant crimson. The fractured surface looks resinous and rough, is a little porous, and contains numerous particles of the scales of the fruit. Rubbed on paper it leaves a red mark of not very splendid tint. Heated with alcohol it left 20 per cent. of pulverulent residue consisting chiefly of vegetable matter. Sticks of smaller size are more common.

2. _Lump Dragon’s Blood_ (_Sanguis draconis in massis_) is imported in large rectangular blocks or irregular masses. From the fine _Reed Dragon’s Blood_, just described, it differs in containing a larger proportion of remains of the fruit, including numerous entire scales. Hence it has a coarser fracture, and the fractured surface is less intense in tint. Its taste is slightly acrid. Exhausted with alcohol it leaves a residue amounting in the specimen we tested to 27 per cent.

Dragon’s blood is abundantly soluble in the usual solvents of resins, namely, the alcohols (even in dilute spirit of wine), benzol, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, and the oxygenated essential oils, as that of cloves. The residue left after the evaporation of these liquids is amorphous and of the original fine red colour. The drug is likewise dissolved by glacial acetic acid as well as by caustic soda; the latter solution on addition of an excess of acid yields a dingy brown, jelly-like precipitate, which on drying turns dark red like the original drug. In ether dragon’s blood is sparingly soluble, and still less so in oil of turpentine; but in the most volatile portions of petroleum, the so-called petroleum ether we find it to be entirely insoluble. It has a slightly sweetish and somewhat acrid taste; melts at about 120° C., evolving the aromatic but irritating fumes of benzoic acid; boiled with water the resin becomes soft and partially liquid.

=Chemical Composition=—Dragon’s blood is a peculiar resin, which according to Johnston[2510] answers to the formula C₂₀H₂₀O₄. By heating it and condensing the vapour an aqueous acid liquid is obtained, together with a heavy oily portion of a pungent burning taste and crystals of benzoic acid. The composition of these products has not yet been thoroughly ascertained, but the presence of acetone, _Toluol_, C₆H₅(CH₃), _Dracyl_ of Glénard and Boudault (1844), and _Styrol_, C₈H₈ (_Draconyl_), has been pointed out,[2511] the latter perhaps due to the existence in the drug of metastyrol (p. 274), as suggested by Kovalewsky.[2512] Both these hydrocarbons are _lighter_ than water; yet we find that the above oily portion yielded by dry distillation sinks in water, a circumstance possibly occasioned by the presence of benzoic alcohol, C₆H₅(CH₂OH).

As benzoic acid is freely soluble in petroleum ether it ought to be removed from the drug by that solvent: on making the experiment we got traces of an amorphous red matter, a little of an oily liquid, but nothing crystalline. Cinnamic acid, on the other hand, is always present, according to Hirschsohn (1877). As to the watery liquid, it assumes a blue colour on addition of perchloride of iron, whence it would appear to contain phenol or pyrogallol rather than pyrocatechin (p. 196).

By boiling dragon’s blood with nitric acid, benzoic, nitro-benzoic, and oxalic acids are chiefly obtained, and only very little picric acid. _Hlasiwetz_ and _Barth_ melted the drug with caustic potash, and found among the products thus formed phloroglucin (p. 243), para-oxybenzoic, protocatechuic, and oxalic acids, as well as several acids of the fatty series. Benzoin yields similar products.

=Commerce=—Dragon’s blood is shipped from Singapore and Batavia. Large quantities are annually exported from Banjarmasin in Borneo to these places and to China.[2513]

=Uses=—In medicine, only as the colouring agent of plasters and tooth powders; in the arts, for varnish.

=Adulteration=—Dragon’s blood varies exceedingly in quality,[2514] of which the principal criterion regarded by the dealers is _colour_. Some of the inferior sorts make only a dull brick-red mark when rubbed on paper, and have an earthy-looking fracture. The sticks moreover do not take the impression of the enveloping leaf as when they are more purely resinous. A sample of inferior Reed Dragon’s Blood afforded us 40 per cent. of matter, insoluble in spirit of wine.

[2510] _Phil. Trans._ 1839. 134; 1840. 384.

[2511] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. (1866) 387.

[2512] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. 388; also _Annalen der Chemie_, cxx. (1861) 68.

[2513] Low, _Sarawak, its inhabitants and productions_, 1848. 43.

[2514] The present price, £3 to £11 per cwt., sufficiently indicates this.

Other sorts of Dragon’s Blood.

_Dragon’s Blood of Socotra_—We have already stated (p. 672) that the _Cinnabar_ mentioned by Dioscorides was brought from Africa. That the term really designated dragon’s blood seems evident from the fact that the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea,[2515] written _circa_ A.D. 54-68, names it (Κιννάβαρι) as a production of the island of Dioscorida, the ancient name of Socotra.

The Arabians, as Abu Hanifa and Ibn Baytar,[2516] describe dragon’s blood as brought from Socotra, giving to the drug the very name by which it is known to the Arabs at the present day, namely, _Dam-ul-akh-wain_. Barbosa (1514) as well as Giovanni di Barros[2517] mention it as a production of the island; and in our own times it has been noticed by Wellstead,[2518] Vaughan,[2519] and A. von Kremer.[2520] It is now but little collected. Vaughan states, as well as Von Wrede, that the tree is found in Hadramaut and on the east coast of Africa. The latter statement is also made in letters (1877, 1878), with which we were favoured by Captain Hunter of Aden and Hildebrandt of Berlin (see pages 140 and 141), by the latter of whom we were presented with a photographic sketch of the tree growing in the Somali country, at elevations of from 2500 to 5500 feet, and called there Moli. It is _Dracæna schizantha_ Baker,[2521] a tree attaining 8 metres in height. The resin has an acidulous taste, and is, according to Hildebrandt, not exported, but occasionally eaten by the Somalis. The tree from which dragon’s blood is collected in Socotra is, according to Capt. Hunter, _Dracæna Ombet_ Kotschy.

The _Drop Dragon’s Blood_, of which small parcels imported from Bombay or Zanzibar occasionally appear in the London market, is however this drug. It is in small tears and fragments, seldom exceeding an inch in length, has a clean glassy fracture, and in thin pieces is transparent and of a splendid ruby colour. From Sumatran dragon’s blood it may be distinguished by not containing the little shell-like scales constantly present in that drug, and by not evolving when heated on the point of a knife the irritating fumes of benzoic acid.

_Dragon’s Blood of the Canary Islands_—This substance is afforded by _Dracæna Draco_ L., a liliaceous tree[2522] resembling a _Yucca_, of which the famous specimen at Orotava in Teneriffe has often been described on account of its gigantic dimensions and venerable age.[2523]

[2515] _Voyage of Nearchus and Periplus of the Erythrean Sea_, translated by Vincent, Oxford, 1809. 90.

[2516] Sontheimer’s ed. i. 104. 426. ii. 117.

[2517] _L’Asia_, sec. deca. Venet. 1561. p. 10. a.

[2518] _Travels in Arabia_, Lond. 1838. ii. 449.

[2519] _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 385.

[2520] _Aegypten_, Leipzig, 1863.

[2521] On Hildebrandt’s East African Plants, _Journ. of Bot._ xv. (1877) 71.

[2522] Histological observations on the structure of the stem, accompanied by excellent figures, will be found in a memoir by Rauwenhoff (_Bijdrage tot de kennis van Dracæna Draco_, pp. 55. tabb. 5) in the _Verhand. d. Kon. Acad. v. Wetensch., afd. Natuurk_. x. 1863.

[2523] It was destroyed in 1867 by a hurricane.

On the exploration of Madeira and Porto Santo in the 15th century, dragon’s blood was one of the valued productions collected by the voyagers, and is named as such by Alvise da ca da Mosto in 1454.[2524] It is also mentioned by the German physician Hieronymus Münzer, who visited Lisbon about 1494.[2525]

The tree yields the resin after incisions are made in its stem; but so far as we know the exudation has never formed a regular and ordinary article of commerce with Europe. It has been found in the sepulchral caves of the aboriginal inhabitants.

The name _Dragon’s Blood_ has also been applied to an exudation obtained from the West Indian _Pterocarpus Draco_ L., and to that of _Croton Draco_ Schlecht.; but the latter appears to be of the nature of kino, and neither substance is met with in European commerce.

AROIDEÆ.

RHIZOMA CALAMI AROMATICI.

_Radix Calami aromatici_, _Radix Acori_; _Sweet Flag Root_; F. _Acore odorant ou vrai_, _Roseau aromatique_; G. _Kalmus_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Acorus Calamus_ L., an aromatic, flag-like plant, growing on the margins of streams, swamps, and lakes, from the coasts of the Black Sea, through Southern Siberia, Central Asia, and India, as far as Amurland, Northern China, and Japan; indigenous also to North America. It is now established as a wild plant in the greater part of Europe, reaching from Sicily as far north as Scotland, Scandinavia, and Northern Russia; and is cultivated to a small extent in Burma and Ceylon.

Regarding the introduction of _Acorus Calamus_ into Western Europe, it is believed in Poland to have been introduced there in the 13th century by the Tartars, yet it seems not to have attracted then any attention. The well-informed botanist, Bock (Tragus), mentioning the use of the preserved rhizome by wealthy persons, states[2526] that he had never seen the plant growing in Germany. Clusius[2527] relates that he first received a living plant in 1574, sent from the lake Apollonia near Brussa in Asia Minor. Camerarius,[2528] writing in 1588, speaks of it as introduced some years previously, and then plentiful in Germany, which seems to show a rapid propagation. Gerarde at the close of the century looked upon _Acorus_ as an Eastern plant, which he says is grown in many English gardens, and might hence be fitly called the “_Sweet Garden Flag_.” Berlu,[2529] in 1724, observes of the root that—“_it is brought in quantities from Germany_:” hence we may infer that it was not then collected in England, as we know it was at a later period.[2530]

[2524] Ramusio, _Raccolta delle Navigationi et Viaggi_, Venet. i. 97.

[2525] Kunstmann, _Abhandlungen der Baierischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, vii. (1855) 342. et seq.

[2526] _Teutsche Speiskammer_, Strassburg, 1550. ciiii.

[2527] _Rariorum Stirpium Historia_, Antv. 1576. 520.

[2528] _Hortus medicus et philosophicus_, Francof. 1588. 5.

[2529] _Treasury of Drugs_, ed. ii. 1724. 115.

[2530] See also Trimen in _Journ. of Botany_, ix. (1871) 163.

=History=—Sweet Flag root has been from the earliest times a favourite medicine of the natives of India, in which country it is sold in every bazaar. Ainslie[2531] asserts that it is reckoned so valuable in the bowel complaints of children that there is a penalty incurred by any druggist who will not open his door in the middle of the night to sell it, if demanded!

The descriptions of _Acoron_, a plant of Colchis, Galatia, Pontus, and Crete, given by Dioscorides and Pliny, certainly refer to this drug. We think that the Κάλαμος ἀρωματικός of Dioscorides, which he states to grow in India, is the same, though Royle regards it as an _Andropogon_. The Κάλαμος of Theophrastus and the _Calamus_ of the English Bible[2532] are considered by some authors to refer to the Sweet Flag.

Celsus in the first century mentioned _Calamus Alexandrinus_, the drug being probably then brought from India by way of the Red Sea. We know by the testimony of Amatus Lusitanus[2533] that in the 16th century it used to be so imported into Venice. Rheede,[2534] moreover, described and figured _Acorus Calamus_ as an Indian plant under the name _Vacha_, which it still bears on the Malabar Coast. But in the pharmaceutical tariff of the German town of Halberstadt of the year 1697, “_Calamus aromaticus verus, Indianischer Calmus_” and “_Calamus aromaticus nostras_,” _common Calmus_, are quoted at exactly the same price,[2535] and Murray[2536] states expressly that in his time (1790) Asiatic calamus was still met with in the pharmacies of Continental Europe, but that it had mostly been replaced by the home-grown drug. At the present time the _Calamus aromaticus_ of commerce is European; in all essential characters it agrees with that of India, a package of which is now and then offered in the London drug sales.

=Collection=—The London market is supplied from Germany, whither the drug is brought, we believe, from Southern Russia. It is no longer collected in England,—at least in quantity, though it used to be gathered some years ago in Norfolk.

=Description=—The rootstock of sweet flag occurs in somewhat tortuous, subcylindrical or flattened pieces, a few inches long, and from ½ to 1 inch in greatest diameter. Each piece is obscurely marked on the upper surface with the scars, often hairy, of leaves, and on the under with a zigzag line of little, elevated, dot-like rings,—the scars of roots. The rootstock is usually rough and shrunken, varying in colour from dark brown to orange-brown, breaking easily with a short corky fracture, and exhibiting a pale brown spongy interior. The odour is aromatic and agreeable; the taste, bitterish and pungent.

The fresh rootstock is brownish-red or greenish, white or reddish within, and of a spongy texture. Its transverse section is tolerably uniform; a fine line (medullary sheath) separates the outer tissue from the lighter central part, the diameter of which is twice or three times the width of the former.

[2531] _Mat. Med. of Hindoostan_, Madras, 1813. 54.

[2532] Exod. xxx. 23; Cant. iv. 14; Ezek. xxvii. 19.—See also page 715, footnote 2.

[2533] _In Diosc. de Mat. Med. Enarrationes_, Argent. 1554. 33.

[2534] _Hortus Malabar_, xi (1692) tab. 48. 49.

[2535] Flückiger, _Documente_ (quoted page 562), 78.

[2536] _Apparatus Medicaminum_, v. 40.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outermost layer is made up of extended epiblema-cells or of a brown corky tissue, the latter occurring in the parts free from leaf-scars. The prevailing tissue, both of the outer and the central part, consists of uniform nearly globular cells, traversed by numerous vascular bundles, especially at the boundary line (medullary sheath). Besides them, the rootstock like that of many fresh-water plants, exhibits a large number of intercellular holes. These air-holes, or more correctly water-holes, are somewhat longitudinally extended, so as to form a kind of network, imparting a spongy consistence[2537] to the fresh rootstock. At certain places, where the series of cells cross one another, especially in the outer part, there are single cells filled with essential oil,[2538] which may be made very conspicuous by adding to sections dilute potash or perchloride of iron. The other cells are loaded with small starch granules; a little mucilage and tannic matter is met with in the exterior coat.

=Chemical Composition=—The dried rhizome yielded us 1·3 per cent. of a yellowish neutral essential oil of agreeable odour, which in a column of 50 mm. long, deviates 13·8° to the right. By working on a large scale, Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, obtain 2·4 to 2·6 per cent.

According to Kurbatow (1873), this oil contains a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 159° C., and forming a crystalline compound with HCl, and another hydrocarbon boiling at 255-258° C., affording no crystallizable hydrochloric compound. By submitting the oil to fractional distillation, we noticed, above 250°, a blue portion, which may be decolorized by sodium. The crude oil acquires a dark brownish colour on addition of perchloride of iron, but is not at all soluble in concentrated potash solution.

The bitter principle _Acorin_ was extracted by Faust in 1867, as a semi-fluid, brownish glucoside, containing nitrogen, soluble both in ether and in alcohol, but neither in benzol nor in water. In order to obtain this substance, we precipitated the decoction of 10 lb. of the drug by means of tannic acid, and followed the method commonly practised in the preparation of bitter principles. By finally exhausting the residue with chloroform, we succeeded in obtaining a very bitter, perfectly crystalline body, but in so minute a quantity, that we were unable to investigate its nature.

=Uses=—Sweet Flag is an aromatic stimulant and tonic, now rarely used in regular medicine. It is sold by the herbalist for flavouring beer, and for masticating to clear the voice. It is said to be also used by snuff manufacturers.

=Adulteration=—The rhizome of the Yellow Flag, _Iris Pseudacorus_ L., is occasionally mixed with that of the Sweet Flag, from which it may be distinguished by its want of aroma, astringent taste, dark colour, and dissimilar structure.

[2537] This was possibly alluded to by Albertus Magnus (A.D. 1193-1280), who says:—(Calamus aromaticus)—nascitur in India et Ethiopia sub cancro, et habet interius ex parte concava “pellem subtilem, _sicut telæ sunt aranearum_.”—_De Vegetabilibus_, Jessen’s ed. 1867. 376. We suppose the drug under notice was intended.

[2538] Hence the practice of _peeling_ the rhizome which prevails in some parts of the Continent ought to be abandoned.

LILIACEÆ.

ALOË.

_Aloes_; F. _Aloès ou Suc d’Aloès_; G. _Aloë_.

=Botanical Origin=—Several species of _Aloë_[2539] furnish a bitter juice which when inspissated forms this drug. These plants are natives of arid, sunny places in Southern and Eastern Africa, whence a few species have been introduced into Northern Africa, Spain,[2540] and the East and West Indies.

The aloes are succulent plants of liliaceous habit with persistent fleshy leaves, usually prickly at the margin, and erect spikes of yellow or red flowers. Many are stemless; others produce stems some feet in height, which are woody and branching. In the remote districts of Namaqua Land and Damara Land in Western South Africa, and in the Transkei Territory and Northern Natal to the eastern, aloes have been discovered which attain 30 to 60 feet in height, with stems as much as 12 feet in circumference.[2541] The following species may be named with more or less of certainty as yielding the drug.[2542]