Chapter XLIV: Part 44

_S. glabra_ Roxb. and _S. lanceæfolia_ Roxb., natives of India and Southern China, have tubers which, according to Roxburgh, cannot be distinguished from the China root of medicine, though the plants are perfectly distinct in appearance from _S. China_. Dr. Hance,[2653] of Whampoa, received a living specimen of China root, which proved to be that of _S. glabra_. The three above-named species all grow in the island of Hongkong.

[2650] See Christophson, in Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1874. 155.

[2651] _Elements of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1168.

[2652] “_Sankira_,” p. 783 in the first work quoted in the Appendix; another fig. will be found in Nees von Esenbeck’s _Plantæ medicinales_, Düsseldorf, 1828.

[2653] Trimen’s _Journ. of Bot._ i. (1872) 102.—_S. glabra_ and _S. lanceæfolia_ have been figured by Seemann in his _Botany of the Herald_, 1852-57, tabb. 99-100. _S. China_ is well represented in the Kew Herbarium, where we have examined specimens from Nagasaki, Hakodadi, and Yokohama; from Loochoo, Corea, Formosa, Ningpo; and Indian ones from Khasia, Assam, and Nepal.

=History=—The use of this drug as a remedy for syphilis was made known to the Portuguese at Goa by Chinese traders about A.D. 1535. Garcia de Orta, who makes this statement, further narrates that so great was the reputation of the new drug, that the small quantities first brought to Malacca were sold at the rate of 10 crowns per _ganta_, a weight of 24 ounces.

Possibly the drug found its way to Europe even before that year, for we find a careful description of it in the posthumous works[2654] of Valerius Cordus and Walther Ryff[2655] states in 1548 that the root was brought a few years ago to Venice.

The reported good effects of China root on the Emperor Charles V. who was suffering from gout, acquired for the drug a great celebrity in Europe, and several works[2656] were written in praise of its virtues. But though its powers were soon found to have been greatly overrated, it still retained some reputation as a sudorific and alterative, and was much used at the end of the 17th century in the same way as sarsaparilla. It still retains a place in some modern pharmacopœias.

[2654] Edit. by Conrad Gesner, fol. 212 of the work quoted in the Appendix.

[2655] ... _Bericht der Natur ... der Wurtzel China_, Würzburg, 1548. 4°.

[2656] The earliest of which is by Andreas Vesalius, _Epistola rationem, modumque pro pinandi radicis_ Chymae (sic!) _decocti, quo nuper invictissimus Carolus V. imperator usus est_, Venet., 1546.

=Description=—The plant produces stout fibrous roots, here and there thickened into large tubers, which when dried become the drug China root. These tubers, as found in the market, are of irregularly cylindrical form, usually a little flattened, sometimes producing short knobby branches. They are from about 4 to 6 or more inches in length, and 1 to 2 inches in thickness, covered with a rusty-coloured, rather shining bark, which in some specimens is smooth and in others more or less wrinkled. They have no distinct traces of rudimentary leaves, which however are perceptible on those of some allied species. Some still retain portions of the cord-like woody runners on which they grew; the bases of a few roots can also be observed. The tubers mostly show marks of having been trimmed with a knife.

China root is inodorous and almost insipid. A transverse section exhibits the interior as a dense granular substance of a pale fawn colour.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outermost cortical layer is made up of brown, thick-walled cells, tangentially-extended. They enclose numerous tufts of needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, and reddish-brown masses of resin. The bark is at once succeeded by the inner parenchyme which contrasts strongly with it, consisting of large, thin-walled, porous cells which are completely gorged with starch, but here and there contain colouring matter and bundles of crystals. The starch granules are large (up to 50 mkm.), spherical, often flattened and angular from mutual pressure. Like those of colchicum, they exhibit a radiate hilum: very frequently they have burst and run together, probably in consequence of the tubers having been scalded. The vascular bundles scattered through the parenchyme, contain usually two large scalariform or reticulated vessels, a string of delicate thin-walled parenchyme, and elegant wood-cells with distinct incrusting layers and linear pores.

=Chemical Composition=—The drug is not known to contain any substance to which its supposed medicinal virtues can be referred. We have endeavoured to obtain from it _Parillin_, the crystalline principle of sarsaparilla, but without success.

=Commerce=—China root is imported into Europe from the South of China—usually from Canton. The quantity shipped from that port in 1872, was only 384 peculs (51,200 lb.); while the same year there was shipped from Hankow, the great trading city of the Yangtsze, no less than 10,258 peculs (1,367,733 lb.), all to Chinese ports. For the year 1874, these figures were: Hankow 9393 peculs, valued at 53,194 taels (one tael about 5_s._ 10_d._), Kewkiang 3627 peculs, Ningpo 2905 peculs,[2657] and for 1877 Hankow 12,075 peculs, Kewkiang 3942 peculs.

=Uses=—Notwithstanding the high opinion formerly entertained of the virtues of China root, it has in England fallen into complete disuse. In China and India it is still held in great esteem for the relief of rheumatic and syphilitic complaints, and as an aphrodisiac and demulcent. Polak asserts that the tubers of _Smilax_ are consumed as food by Turcomans and Mongols.[2658]

=Substitutes=—Several American species of _Smilax_ furnish a nearly allied drug, which at various times has been brought into commerce as _Radix Chinæ occidentalis_. It was already known to the authors of the 16th century; we met with it in 1872, and before, in the London market, as an importation from Puntas Arenas, the port of Costa Rica on the Pacific coast.

Of the exact species it is difficult to speak with certainty: but _S. Pseudo-China_ L. and _S. tamnoides_ L. growing in the United States from New Jersey southwards; _S. Balbisiana_ Knth., a plant common in all the West Indian Islands; and _S. Japicanga_ Griseb., _S. syringoides_ Griseb. and _S. Brasiliensis_ Spreng., are reputed to afford large tuberous rhizomes which in their several localities replace the China root of Asia, and are employed in a similar manner.[2659]

[2657] _Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1872_, pp. 34, 154, and the same for 1874.

[2658] See p. 324, note 2.—We quote this statement with reserve, knowing that both Chinese and Europeans sometimes confound China root with the singular fungoid production termed _Pachyma Cocos_. The first is called in Chinese _Tu-fuh-ling_,—the second _Fuh-ling_ or _Pe-fuh-ling_.—See Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1862) 421; and _Science Papers_, 202. 267.—F. Porter Smith, _Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist. of China_, 1871. 198; Dragendorff, _Volksmedicin Turkestans_ in Buchner’s _Repertorium_, xxii. (1873) 135.

[2659] De Candolle’s monograph, quoted at p. 705, note 4, may be consulted on the above species.

GRAMINEÆ.

SACCHARUM.

_Sugar_, _Cane-Sugar_, _Sucrose_; F. _Sucre_, _Sucre de canne_; G. _Zucker_, _Rohrzucker_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Saccharum officinarum_ L., the Sugar Cane. The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cultivated, as the _Country Cane_, the original form of the species; the _Ribbon Cane_, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem; the _Bourbon_ or _Tahiti Cane_, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very productive variety. _Saccharum violaceum_ Tussac, the _Batavian Cane_, is also considered to be a variety; but the large _S. chinense_ Roxb. introduced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta, may be a distinct species; it has a long, slender, erect panicle, while that of _S. officinarum_ is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers.

The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and China up to 30-31° N. lat, the mountainous regions excepted.

From the elaborate investigations of Ritter,[2660] it appears that _Saccharum officinarum_ was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo-Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is now found any where in a wild state.

=History=[2661]—The sugar cane was doubtless known in India from time immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefly in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar.[2662]

Herodotus, Theophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers had some knowledge of raw sugar, which they speak of as the _Honey of Canes_ or _Honey made by human hands_, not that of bees; but it was not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name of _Saccharon_.

Thus Dioscorides[2663] about A.D. 77 mentions the concreted honey called Σάκχαρον found upon canes (ὲπὶ τῶν καλάμων) in India and Arabia Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. Pliny evidently knew the same thing under the name _Saccharum_; and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, A.D. 54-68, states that honey from canes, called σάκχαρι, is exported from Barygaza, in the Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the _Promontorium Aromatum_, that is to say to the coast opposite Aden. Whether at that period sugar was produced in Western India, or was brought thither from the Ganges, is a point still doubtful.

[2660] _Erdkunde von Asien_, ix. West-Asien, Berlin, 1840. pp. 230-291.

[2661] The learned investigations of Heyd, _Levantehandel_, ii. (1879) 665-667, afford exhaustive information about the medicinal history of sugar.

[2662] The production which the English translators of the Bible have rendered _Sweet Cane_, and which is alluded to by the prophets Isaiah (ch. xliii. 24) and Jeremiah (ch. vi. 20) as a commodity imported from a distant country, has been the subject of much discussion. Some have supposed it to be the sugar cane; others, an aromatic grass (_Andropogon_). In our opinion, there is more reason to conclude that it was _Cassia Bark_.

[2663] Lib. ii. c. 104.

Bengal is probably the country of the earliest manufacture of sugar; hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and European nations are derived from the Sanskrit _Sharkarā_, signifying a substance in the shape of small grains or stones. It is strange that this word contains no allusion to the _taste_ of the substance.

_Candy_, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the Arabic _Kand_ or _Kandat_, a name of the same signification. An old Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is _Gura_, whence is derived the word _Gula_, meaning _raw sugar_, a term for sugar universally employed in the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their own names for the sugar cane, although not for sugar. This fact again speaks in favour of Ritter’s opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under the name of _Shi-mi_, i.e. _Stone-honey_, is frequently mentioned in the ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia; and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, A.D. 627-650, sent an envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn the method of manufacturing sugar.[2664] The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge that the Indians between A.D. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient written character.

An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasan,[2665] informs us that about A.D. 850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri[2666] found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan, the ancient Susiana. About the same time (A.D. 950), Moses of Chorene, an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c., still exist near Ahwas.

Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cultivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediterranean settlements, as Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of Cordova[2667] shows that as early as A.D. 961 the cultivation was well understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where sugar mills still exist.[2668]

William II., King of Sicily, presented in A.D. 1176 to the convent of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In 1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described by a traveller[2669] as “worth seeing.”

During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alexandria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find[2670] that in A.D. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned in _wool_, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England. Sugar was then very dear: thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price in England was about 1_s._ per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, 1_s._ 7_d._[2671] In France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable, though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called _cafetin_,[2672] a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not uncommon at that time.[2673]

[2664] Bretschneider, _Chinese Botanical Works_, 1870. 46.

[2665] Ritter, _l.c._ 286.

[2666] P. 57 of the book quoted in the Appendix.

[2667] _Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année_ 961, par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 25. 41. 91.

[2668] There are several in the neighbourhood of Malaga.

[2669] Riedesel, _Travels through Sicily_, Lond. 1773. 67.

[2670] Marin, _Commercio de’ Veneziani_, v. 306.

[2671] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 633. 641.

[2672] _Ordonnances des rois de France_, ii. (1729) 535.

[2673] Several other varieties of sugar occurring in the mediæval literature are explained in the _Documente_ (quoted at page 404, footnote 7) p. 32.

The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo;[2674] and in 1510 by Barbosa and other European travellers; and the trading nations of Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira goes back as far as A.D. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494,[2675] the Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique in 1650,[2676] Mauritius towards 1750, Natal[2677] and New South Wales, about 1852,[2678] while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propagated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 reached 2 millions of _kantars_, or about 89,200 tons.[2679]

The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin[2680] proved in 1747 that sugar occurs in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized state from the juice of beet root. The enormous practical importance of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard at Kunern in Silesia.

This new branch of industry[2681] was greatly promoted by the prohibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from almost the whole Continent; and it is now carried forward on such a scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet root sugar are annually produced in Europe, the entire production of cane-sugar being estimated at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.[2682]

Among the British colonies, Mauritius,[2683] British Guiana,[2684] Trinidad,[2685] Barbados,[2686] and Jamaica,[2687] produce at present the largest quantity of sugar.

[2674] Yule, _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 79. 171. 180. &c.

[2675] _Letters of Christ._ _Columbus_ (Hakluyt Society) 1870. 81-84.

[2676] De Candolle, _Géogr. botanique_, 836.

[2677] The value of the sugar exported from Natal in 1871 reached the astonishing amount of £180,496 and £135,201 in 1876.

[2678] Yet owing to the gold discoveries, the propagation of the cane in Australia was little thought of until about 1866 or 1867, when small lots of sugar were made.

[2679] Consul Rogers, _Report on the Trade of Cairo for 1872_, presented to Parliament.

[2680] _Expériences chymiques faites dans le dessein de tirer un véritable sucre de diverses plantes qui croissent dans nos contrées_, par Mr. Marggraf, traduit du latin—_Hist. de l’Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres_, année 1747 (Berlin 1749) 79-90.

[2681] And also that of _milk sugar_, which was then much used on the Continent to _adulterate_ cane-sugar.

[2682] _Produce Markets Review_, March 28, 1868.

[2683] 2,255,249 quintals (one quintal = 108 lb. avdp.) in 1876.

[2684] 120,030 hhds (one hogshead = 1,792 lb.) in 1876.

[2685] 114,968,384 lb. in 1876.

[2686] 38,013 hhds. in 1876.

[2687] 29,074 hhds. in 1876.

=Production=—No crystals are found in the parenchyme of the cane, the sugar existing as an aqueous solution, chiefly within the cells of the centre of the stem. The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monocotyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towards the exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis, which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it.[2688] In the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number; the parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and a little soluble albuminous matter. This last is met with in larger quantity in the cambial portion of the vascular bundles. Pectic principles are combined with the walls of the medullary cells, which however do not swell much in water (Wiesner).

From these glances at the microscopical structure of the cane, the process to be followed for obtaining the largest possible quantity of sugar becomes evident. This would consist in simply macerating thin slices of the cane in water, which would at once penetrate the parenchyme loaded with sugar, without much attacking the fibro-vascular bundles containing more of albuminous than of saccharine matter. By this method, the epidermal layer of the cane would not become saturated with sugar, nor would it impede its extraction,—results which necessarily follow when the cane is crushed and pressed.[2689]

The process hitherto generally practised in the colonies,—that of extracting the juice of the cane by crushing and pressing,—has been elaborately described and criticised by Dr. Icery of Mauritius.[2690] In that island, the cane, six varieties of which are cultivated, is when mature composed of _Cellulose_, 8 to 12 per cent.; _Sugar_, 18 to 21; _Water_, including albuminous matter and salts, 67 to 73. Of the entire quantity of juice in the cane, from 70 to 84 per cent. is extracted for evaporation, and yields in a crystalline state about three-fifths of the sugar which the cane originally contained. This juice, called in French _vesou_, has on an average the following composition:—

Albuminous matters 0·03
Granular matter (starch?) 0·10
Mucilage containing nitrogen 0·22
Salts, mostly of organic acids[2691] 0·29
Sugar 18·36
Water 81·00
------
100·00

[2688] Stems of American sugar cane, dried at 100° C., yielded 4 per cent of ash, nearly half of which was silica.—Popp, in Wiggers’ _Jahresbericht_, 1870. 35.

[2689] The plan of obtaining a syrup by macerating the sliced fresh cane, has been tried in Guadaloupe, but abandoned owing to some practical difficulties in exhausting the cane and in carrying on the evaporation of the liquors with sufficient rapidity. Experiments for extracting a pure syrup by means of cold water from the _sliced and dried_ cane, seem to promise good results.—See a paper by Dr. H. S. Mitchell in _Journ. of Soc. of Arts_, Oct. 23, 1868.

[2690] _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, v. (1865) 350-410.—See also, for Cuba, Alvaro Reynoso _Ensayo sobre el cultivo de la caña de Azúcar_, Madrid, 1865. 359.—For British Guiana, _Catal. of Contributions from Brit. Guiana to Paris Exhib._ 1867. pp. xxxviii.-xli.

[2691] _Aconitic Acid_ (p. 11) has been met with by Behr (1877) in West Indian molasses.

There is also present in the juice a very small amount of a slightly aromatic substance (essential oil?) to which the _crude_ cane sugar owes a peculiar odour which is not observed in sugar from other sources. The first two classes of the above enumerated substances render the juice turbid, and greatly promote its fermentation, but they easily separate by boiling, and the juice may then be kept a short time without undergoing change. In many colonies the yield is said to be far inferior to what it should be; yet the juice is obtained in a state allowing of easier purification, when its extraction is not carried to the furthest limit.

In beet root as well as in the sugar cane, cane-sugar only was said to be present; Icery however has proved that in the cane some uncrystallizable (inverted) sugar is always present. Its quantity varies much, according to the places where the cane grows, and its age. The tops of quick-growing young canes yielded a _vesou_ containing 2·4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar; 3·6 of cane sugar; and 94 of water. Moist and shady situations greatly promote the formation of the former kind of sugar, which also prevails in the tops, chiefly when immature. Hence that observer concludes that at first the uncrystallizable variety of sugar is formed, and subsequently transformed into cane-sugar by the force of vegetation, and especially by the influence of light. Perfectly ripened canes contain only ¹/₇₅ to ¹/₅₀ of all their sugar in the uncrystallizable state.

=Description and Chemical Composition=—Cane-sugar is the type of a numerous class of well-defined organic compounds, of frequent occurrence throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms, or artificially obtained by decomposing certain other substances; in the latter case, however, glucose or some other sugar than cane-sugar is obtained. cane-sugar, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, or C₁₂H₁₄(OH)₈O₃, melts, without change of composition, at 160° C., several other kinds of sugar giving off water, with which they form crystallized compounds at the ordinary temperature.

Cane-sugar forms hard crystals of the oblique rhombic system, having a sp. gr. of 1·59. Two parts are dissolved at 15° C. by one part of water,[2692] and by much less at an elevated temperature; a slight depression of the thermometer is observable in the former case. One part of sugar dissolved in one of water, forms a liquid of sp. gr. 1·23; two of sugar in one of water, a liquid of sp. gr. 1·33. Sugar requires 65 parts of spirit of wine (sp. gr. 0·84) or 80 parts of anhydrous alcohol for solution; ether does not act upon it.

[2692] It is commonly stated that _three_ parts can be dissolved in one of cold water; but this is not the fact.

A ray of polarized light is deviated by an aqueous solution of cane sugar to the _right_, but by some other kinds of sugar to the _left_, as first shown by Biot. These optical powers are highly important, both in the practical estimation of solutions of sugar, and in scientific studies connected with sugar or saccharogenous substances. The optical as well as chemical properties of sugar are altered by many circumstances, as the action of dilute acids or alkalis, or by the influence of minute fungi. Yeast occasions sugar to undergo alcoholic fermentation. Other ferments set up an action by which butyric, lactic or propionic acid are produced.

Cane-sugar is of a purer and sweeter taste than most other sugars. Though it does not alter litmus paper, yet with alkalis it forms compounds some of which are crystallizable. From an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper, cane-sugar throws down no protoxide, unless after boiling.

If sugar is kept a short time in a state of fusion at 160° C., it is converted into one molecule of _Grape Sugar_ and one of _Levulosan_; the former can be either isolated by crystallization or destroyed by fermentation, the latter being incapable of crystallizing or of undergoing fermentation.

Cane-sugar which has been melted at 160° C. is deliquescent and readily soluble in anhydrous alcohol, and its rotatory power is diminished or entirely destroyed. It is no longer crystallizable, and its fusing point has become reduced to about 93° C. Yet before undergoing these evident alterations, it assumes an amorphous condition if allowed to melt with a third of its weight of water, becoming always a little coloured by pyrogenous products. In the course of time, however, this amorphous sugar loses its transparency and reassumes the crystalline form. Like sulphur and arsenious acid, it is capable of existing either in a crystallized or an amorphous state.

If sugar is heated to about 190° C. water is evolved, and we obtain the dark brown products commonly called _Caramel_ or _Burnt Sugar_. They are of a peculiar sharp flavour, of a bitter taste, incapable of fermenting and deliquescent. One of the constituents of caramel, _Caramelane_, C₁₂H₁₈O₉, has been obtained by Gélis (1862) perfectly colourless. When the heat is augmented, the sugar at last suffers a decomposition resembling that which produces tar (see p. 621), its pyrogenous products being the same or very analogous to those of the dry distillation of wood.

=Varieties of Cane-sugar=—The experiments of Marggraf referred to at p. 717, note 9, showed that cane-sugar is by no means confined to the sugar cane; and it is in fact extracted on an extensive scale from several other plants, of which the following deserve mention:—

_Beet Root_—The manufacture of cane-sugar from the fleshy root of a cultivated variety of _Beta maritima_ L., is now largely carried on in Continental Europe and in America, and with admirable results.

Of fresh beet root, 100 parts contain on an average 80 per cent. of water, 11 to 13 of cane-sugar, and about 7 per cent. of pectic and albuminous matters, cellulose and salts. Of the total amount of juice which the root contains, eight-ninths are extracted; and by the best process now in practice, 8 to 9 parts of sugar from every 100 parts of fresh root. The yield of crystalline sugar is still on the increase, owing to continual improvements in the mechanical and chemical parts of the process.

_Palm_—Several species are of great utility for the production of the sugar called by Europeans _Jaggery_.[2693] This substance is obtained by the natives of India in the following manner:—The young growing spadix, or flowering shoot, of the palm is cut off near its apex; and an earthen vessel is tied on to the stump to receive the juice that flows out. This vessel is emptied daily; while to promote a continuous flow of sap, a thin slice is cut from the wounded end. The juice thus collected, if at once boiled down, yields the crude brown sugar known as _jaggery_. If allowed to ferment, it becomes the inebriating drink called _Toddy_ or palm wine; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled from toddy is _Arrack_.

[2693] A word of Sanskrit origin, corrupted from the Canarese _sharkari_.

Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, _Phœnix silvestris_ Roxb., which is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more important. The coco-nut palm, _Cocos nucifera_ L.; the magnificent Palmyra palm, _Borassua flabelliformis_ L.; and the Bastard Sago, _Caryota urens_ L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian Archipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of _Arenga saccharifera_ Mart., which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from _Nipa fruticans_ Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy.

De Vry[2694] has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous solution of sugar: that as no mineral constituents are removed from the soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil unsuitable for any cereal.

_Maple_—In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with that of the cane are obtained in the woods of the Northern United States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species chiefly employed are _Acer saccharinum_ Wangenh., the Common Sugar Maple, and its variety (var. _nigrum_) the Black Sugar Maple. _A. Pennsylvanicum_ L., _A. Negundo_ L. (_Negundo aceroides_ Moench.) and _A. dasycarpum_ Ehrh. are also used; the sap of the last is said to be the least saccharine.

As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent. of sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N. lat. We are not aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring to its manufacture in that State:—

1850 1860 1870
2,326,525 lb. 2,768,965 lb. 1,545,917 lb.[2695]

_Sorghum_—Another plant of the same order as _Saccharum_ is _Sorghum saccharatum_ Pers. (_Holcus saccharatus_ L.) a native of Northern China,[2696] which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant both in Europe and North America; yet without any great success, as the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty. As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystallizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manufacture of paper and of alcohol.

[2694] _Journ. de Pharm._ i. (1865) 270.

[2695] Consul Kortright, in _Consular Reports_ presented to Parliament, July 1872, p. 988.

[2696] Introduced into Europe in 1850, by M. de Montigny, French Consul at Shanghai.—Sicard, _Monographie de la Canne à sucre de la Chine, dite_ Sorgho à sucre, Marseille, 1856; Joulie, _Journ. de Pharm._ i. (1865) 188.

=Commerce=—The value of the sugar imported into the United Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures:—

1868 1870 1872
_Unrefined_ £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898
_Refined_ £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703

The quantity of _Unrefined Sugar_ imported in 1872 was 13,776,696 cwt., of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands, 1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt. by Mauritius.

Of _Refined Sugar_ the imports from France and Belgium into the United Kingdom were—

1874 1875 1876
133,800 102,300 92,044 tons.

=Uses=—Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups, electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents.

Muscovado or Raw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrystallizable syrup, known in England as _Molasses_, _Golden Syrup_, and _Treacle_,[2697] and in foreign pharmacy as _Syrupus Hollandicus vel communis_, which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air, is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a disagreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent. of oxalate, tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar.[2698] The treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent. of salts.

[2697] How the word _Treacle_ came to be transferred from its application to an opiate medicine to become a name for _molasses_, we know not. In the description of sugar-making given by Salmon in his _English Physician or Druggist’s Shop opened_, Lond. 1663, treacle is never mentioned, but only “_melussas_.”

[2698] Landolt, Zeitschr. _für analyt. Chem._ vii. (1868) 1-29.

HORDEUM DECORTICATUM.

_Hordeum perlatum_, _Fructus vel Semen Hordei_; _Pearl Barley_; F. _Orge mondé ou perlé_; G. _Gerollte Gerste_, _Gerstegraupen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Hordeum distichum_ L.,—the Common or Long-eared Barley is probably indigenous to western temperate Asia, but has been cultivated for ages throughout the northern hemisphere. In Sweden its cultivation extends as far as 68° 38’ N. lat.; on the Norwegian coast up to the Altenfjord in 70° N. lat.; even in Lapland, it succeeds as high as 900 to 1350 feet above the level of the sea. In several of the southern Swiss Alpine valleys, barley ripens at 5000 feet, and in the Himalaya at 11,000 feet. In the Equatorial Andes, where it is extensively grown, it thrives up to at least 11,000 feet above the sea. No other cereal can be cultivated under so great a variety of climate.

According to Bretschneider,[2699] barley is included among the five cereals which it is related in Chinese history were sowed by the Emperor Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C.; but it is not one of the five sorts of grain which are used at the ceremony of ploughing and sowing as now annually performed by the emperors of China.

Theophrastus was acquainted with several sorts of barley (Κριθή), and among them, with the six-rowed kind or _hexastichon_, which is the species that is represented on the coins struck at Metapontum[2700] in Lucania, between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C.

[2699] _On Chinese Botanical Works_, etc., Foochow, 1870. 7. 8.

[2700] Metapontum lay in the plain between the rivers Bradano and Basento in the gulf of Taranto.

Strabo and Dioscorides in the 1st century allude to drinks made from barley, which according to Tacitus were even then familiar to the German tribes, as they are known to have been still earlier to the Greeks and Egyptians.

Barley is mentioned in the Bible as a plant of cultivation in Egypt and Syria, and must have been, among the ancient Hebrews, an important article of food, judging from the quantity allowed by Solomon to the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre (B.C. 1015). The tribute of barley paid to King Jotham by the Ammonites (B.C. 741) is also exactly recorded. The ancients were frequently in the practice of removing the hard integuments of barley by roasting it, and using the torrefied grain as food.

=Manufacture=—For use in medicine and as food for the sick, barley is not employed in its crude state, but only when deprived more or less completely of its husk. The process by which this is effected is carried on in mills constructed for the purpose, and consists essentially in passing the grain between horizontal millstones, placed so far apart as to rub off its integuments without crushing it. Barley partially deprived of its husk is known as _Scotch_, _hulled_ or _Pot Barley_. When by longer and closer grinding the whole of the integuments have been removed, and the grain has become completely rounded, it is termed _Pearl Barley_. In the _British Pharmacopœia_ it is this sort alone which is ordered to be used.

=Description=—Pearl Barley is in subspherical or somewhat ovoid grains about 2 lines in diameter, of white farinaceous aspect, often partly yellowish from remains of the adhering husk, which is present on the surface, as well as in the deep longitudinal furrow with which each grain is indented. It has the farinaceous taste and odour which are common to most of the cereal grains.

=Microscopic Structure=—The albumen which constitutes the main portion of the grain is composed of large thin-walled parenchyme, the cells of which on transverse section are seen to radiate from the furrow, and to be lengthened in that direction rather than longitudinally. In the vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of the albumen is narrower. Its predominating large cells show a polygonal or oval outline, whilst the outer layer is built up of two, three or four rows of thick-walled, coherent, nearly cubic gluten-cells. This layer, about 70 mkm. thick, is coated with an extremely thin brown tegument, to which succeeds a layer about 30 mkm. thick, of densely packed, tabular, greyish or yellowish cells of very small size; this proper coat of the fruit in the furrow is of rather spongy appearance.

In some varieties of barley the fruit is constituted of the above tissues alone and the shell, but in most the paleæ are likewise present. They consist chiefly of long fibrous, thick-walled cells, two or four rows deep, constituting a very hard layer. On tranverse section, this layer forms a coherent envelope about 35 mkm. thick; its cells when examined in longitudinal section show but a small lumen of peculiar undulated outline from secondary deposits.

The gluten-cells varying considerably in the different cereal grains, afford characters enough to distinguish them with certainty. In wheat, for instance, the gluten-cells are in a single row, in rice they form a double or single row, but its cells are transversely lengthened.

The inner tissue of the albumen in barley is filled up with large irregularly lenticular, and with extremely small globular starch granules, the first being 20 to 35 mkm., the latter 1, 2 to 3 mkm. in diameter, with no considerable number of intermediate size. The concentric layers constituting the large granules may be made conspicuous by moistening with chromic acid.

The layer alluded to as being composed of _gluten-cells_ is loaded with extremely small granules of albuminous matters (gluten), which on addition of iodine are coloured intensely yellow. These granules, which, considering barley as an article of food, are of prominent value, are not confined to the gluten-cells, but the neighbouring starch-cells also contain a small amount of them: and in the narrow zone of denser tissue projecting from the furrow into the albumen, protein principles are equally deposited, as shown by the yellow coloration which iodine produces.

The gluten-cells, the _membrane embroynnaire_ of Mège-Mouriès, contain also, according to the researches on bread[2701] made by this chemist (1856), _Cerealin_, an albuminous principle soluble in water, which causes the transformation of starch into dextrin, sugar, and lactic acid. In the husks (_épiderme_, _épicarpe_ and _endocarpe_) of wheat, Mège-Mouriès found some volatile oil and a yellow extractive matter, to which, together with the cerealin, is due the acidity of bread made with the flour containing the bran.

=Chemical Composition=—Barley has been submitted to careful analyses by many chemists, more especially by Lermer.[2702] The grains contain usually 13 to 15 per cent. of water; after drying, they yield to ether 3 per cent. of fat oil, with insignificant proportions of tannic and bitter principles, residing chiefly in the husks. Lermer further found in the whole grains, 63 per cent. of starch, 7 of cellulose, 6·6 of dextrin, 2·5 of nitrogen, a small amount of lactic acid, and 2·4 of ash.

[2701] He actually examined _wheat_, not barley; we assume the chemical constitution of the two grains to be similar.

[2702] Wittstein, _Vierteljahresschr. für prakt. Pharm._ xii. (1863) 4-23.

The analysis of Poggiale (1856) gave nearly the same composition, namely, water 15, oil 2·4, starch 60, cellulose 8·8, albuminous principles 10·7, ash 2·6.

The protein, or albuminous matter consists of different principles, chiefly insoluble in cold water. The soluble portion is partly coagulated on boiling, partly retained in solution: 2·5 per cent. of nitrogen, as above, would answer to about 16 per cent. of albuminous matters. Their soluble part seems to be deposited in the starch-cells, next to the gluten-cells, which latter contain the insoluble portion.

The ash, according to Lermer, contains 29 per cent. of silicic acid, 32·6 of phosphoric acid, 22·7 of potash, and only 3·7 of lime. In the opinion of Salm-Horstmar, fluorine and lithia are indispensable constituents of barley.

The fixed oil of barley, as proved in 1863 by Hanamann, is a compound of glycerin with either a mixture of palmitic and lauric acids, or less probably with a peculiar fatty acid. Beckmann’s _Hordeinic Acid_ obtained in 1855 by distilling barley with sulphuric acid, is probably lauric acid. Lintner (1868) has shown barley to contain also a little _Cholesterin_ (p. 420).

Lastly, Kühnemann (1875) extracted from barley a crystallized dextrogyrate sugar, and (1876) an amorphous lævogyrate mucilaginous substance _Sinistrin_ (see p. 692); according to that chemist, dextrin is altogether wanting in barley.

Barley when malted loses 7 per cent.; it then contains 10 to 12 per cent. of sugar, produced at the expense of the starch; before malting, no sugar is to be found.

=Uses=—Barley as a medicine is unimportant. A decoction is sometimes prescribed as a demulcent or as a diluent of active remedies. An aqueous extract of malt has been employed.

OLEUM ANDROPOGONIS.

_Oleum Graminis Indici_; _Indian Grass Oil_.

=Botanical Origin=—Among the numerous species of _Andropogon_[2703] which have foliage abounding in essential oil, the following furnish the fragrant _Grass Oils_ of commerce:—

1. _Andropogon Nardus_ L.,[2704]—a noble-looking plant, rising when in flower to a height of 6 or more feet, extensively cultivated in Ceylon and Singapore for the production of _Citronella Oil_.

2. _A. citratus_ D.C.,[2705] Lemon Grass,—a large coarse glaucous grass, known only in a cultivated state, and very rarely producing flowers. It is grown in Ceylon and Singapore for the sake of its essential oil, which is called _Lemon Grass Oil_, _Oil of Verbena_ or _Indian Melissa Oil_; it is also commonly met with in gardens throughout India and is not unfrequent in English hothouses. In Java it is called _Sireh_.

3. _A. Schœnanthus_ L.,[2706] a grass of Northern and Central India, having leaves rounded or slightly cordate at the base, yielding by distillation the oil known as _Rúsa Oil_, _Oil of Ginger Grass_ or _of Geranium_.

[2703] Major-General Munro has at our request investigated the botanical characters of the fragrant species of _Andropogon_, and examined a numerous suite of specimens in our possession. The synonyms in foot-notes are given upon his authority.

[2704] _A. Martini_ Thwaites, _Enum. Plantarum Zeylaniæ_ nec aliorum.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 28 (1878).

[2705] _A. citratum_ A.P. De Candolle, _Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Monspeliensis_, 1813; _A. Schœnanthus_ Wallich, _Plant. Asiat. rariores_, iii. (1832) tab. 280; Roxburgh, _Flora Indica_, i. (1820) 278, quoad observationes, sed non quoad diagnosis.

[2706] Ventenat, _Jardin de Cels_, 1803. tab. 89; _A. Martini_ Roxb. _Flor. Ind._ i. (1820) 280; _A. pachnodes_ Trinius, _Species Graminum_, iii. (1836) tab. 327; _A. Calamus aromaticus_ Royle, _Illustrations of Bot. of Himalayan Mountains_, 1839. tab. 97.

=History=—The aromatic properties of certain species of _Andropogon_ were well known to Rheede, Rumphius, and other early writers on Indian natural history; and an oil distilled from the _Sireh_ grass in Amboyna was known as a curiosity as early as 1717.[2707]

But it is only in very recent times that the volatile oils of these plants have become objects of commerce with Europe. Lemon grass oil is mentioned by Roxburgh in 1820 as being distilled in the Moluccas; and it was first imported into London about the year 1832. Citronella oil is of much more recent introduction. Ginger grass oil, called in Hindustani _Rúsa ka tel_, is stated by Waring[2708] to have been first brought to notice by Dr. N. Maxwell in 1825.

=Production=—Citronella and Lemon grass are cultivated about Galle and at Singapore, the same estate often producing both. The grasses are distilled separately, the essential oils being regarded as entirely distinct, and having different market values. In Ceylon they are cut for distillation at any time of year, but mostly in December and January.

On the Perseverance Estate at Gaylang, Singapore, belonging to Mr. John Fisher, an area of 950 acres is cultivated with aromatic grasses and other plants, for the production of essential oils. The manufacture was tried on a small scale in 1865, and has been so successful that an aggregate of 200 lb. of various essential oils is now produced _daily_. These oils are stated to be Citronella, Lemon Grass, Patchouly, Nutmeg, Mace, Pepper, and Oman (p. 302): and mint is now being cultivated.[2709]

Ginger grass oil is distilled in the collectorate of Khandesh in the Bombay Presidency. That produced in the district of Namár in the valley of the Nerbudda, is sometimes called _Grass Oil of Namar_. We have no particulars of the distillation, which however must be carried on extensively.

=Description=—The Indian grass oils are lighter than water, devoid of rotatory power when examined by polarized light, and do not alter litmus paper. They are all extremely fragrant, having an odour like a mixture of lemon and rose. Lemon grass, which in colour is a deep golden brown, has an odour resembling that of the sweet-scented verbena of the gardens, _Lippia citriodora_ H.B.K. Ginger grass oil, the colour of which varies from pale greenish yellow to yellowish-brown, has the odour of _Pelargonium Radula_ Aiton. The colour of citronella oil is a light greenish yellow. The manufacture of Winter of Ceylon, and of Fisher of Singapore, have a reputation for excellence, and are generally indicated by name in drug sale catalogues.

=Chemical Composition=—Stenhouse[2710] examined in 1844 oil of ginger grass given to him by Christison as _Oil of Namur_ (or _Nimar_). The sample was of deep yellow, and apparently old, for when mixed with water and subjected to distillation, it left nearly one half its bulk of a fluid resin, the oil which passed over being colourless. After rectification from chloride of calcium, it was shown to consist of a hydrocarbon mixed with a small proportion of an oxygenated oil. The latter having been decomposed by sodium, and the oil again rectified, a second analysis was made which proved it isomeric with oil of turpentine.

[2707] _Ephemerides Naturæ Curiosorum_, cent. v.-vi. (1717), appendix 157.

[2708] _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868. 465.

[2709] _Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872_, Singapore, 1873. 465.

[2710] _Mem. of Chem. Soc._ ii. (1845) 122.

A genuine grass oil from Khandesh, derived as we suppose from the same species, which was examined by one of us (F.), yielded nothing crystalline when saturated with dry hydrochloric acid; but when the liquid was afterwards treated with fuming nitric acid, crystals of the compound, C₁₀H₁₆, HCl, sublimed into the upper part of the vessel. We have observed that the oils both of lemon grass and citronella yield solid compounds, if shaken with a saturated solution of bisulphite of sodium.

Citronella oil was found by Gladstone (1872) to be composed chiefly of an oxidized oil, which he called _Citronellol_, and which he separated by fractional distillation into two portions, the one boiling at 202-205° C., the other 199-202° C. The composition of each portion is indicated by the formula C₁₀H₁₆O.

Wright’s researches (1874) tend rather to show the prevailing part of citronella oil to consist of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O, boiling near 210°, which he calls _Citronellol_. It unites with bromine, and the resulting compound, upon heating, breaks up according to the following equation:—

C₁₀H₁₈OBr₂ = OH₂ · 2 HBr · C₁₀H₁₄.
Cymene.

=Commerce=—The growing trade in grass oil is exemplified in a striking manner by the following statistics. The export of _Citronella Oil_ from Ceylon in 1864 was 622,000 ounces, valued at £8230. In the _Ceylon Blue Book_, the exports for 1872 are returned thus:—

To the United Kingdom 1,163,074 ounces}
British India 5,713 ” } 1,595,257
United States of North America 426,470 ” } ounces.[2711]

In 1875 the oil shipped from Ceylon to the United Kingdom was valued at 42,871 rupees, that sent to other foreign countries at 45,871 rupees, to British possessions 660 rupees (one rupee equal to about 2_s._).

_Oil of Lemon Grass_, which is a more costly article and less extensively produced, was exported from Ceylon during the same year to the extent of 13,515 ounces, more than half of which quantity was shipped to the United States. There are no analogous statistics for these two oils from Singapore, where, as stated at p. 726, they are now largely manufactured.

By the official _Report on the External Commerce of Bombay_, published in 1867, we find that during the year ending 31 March, 1867, _Grass Oil_ [i.e. _Ginger Grass_ or _Rúsa Oil_] was exported thence to the amount of 41,643 lb. This oil is shipped to England and to the ports of the Red Sea.

=Uses=—Grass oils are much esteemed in India as an external application in rheumatism. Rúsa oil is said to stimulate the growth of the hair. Internally, grass oil is sometimes administered as a carminative in colic; and an infusion of the leaves of lemon grass is prescribed as a diaphoretic and stimulant. In Europe and America the oils are used almost exclusively by the soapmakers and perfumers.[2712]

[2711] In addition to which, there were “_842 dozens and 33 packages_” of the same oil shipped to the United States. One ounce equal to 31·1 grammes.

[2712] The foliage of the large odoriferous species of _Andropogon_ is used in India for thatching. It is eaten voraciously by cattle, whose flesh and milk become flavoured with its strong aroma.

But the most remarkable use made of any grass oil is that for adulterating _Attar of Rose_ in European Turkey. The oil thus employed is that of _Andropogon Schœnanthus_ L. (see p. 725); and it is a curious fact that its Hindustani name is closely similar in sound to the word _rose_. Thus under the designation _Rusa_, _Rowsah_, _Rosa_, _Rosé_, _Roshé_,[2713] it is exported in large quantities from Bombay to the ports of Arabia, probably chiefly to Jidda, whence it is carried to Turkey by the Mahommedan pilgrims. In Arabia and Turkey, it appears under the name _Idris yàghi_, while in the attar-producing districts of the Balkan it is known, at least to Europeans, as _Geranium Oil_ or _Palmarosa Oil_. Before being mixed with attar, the oil is subjected to a certain preparation, which is accomplished by shaking it with water acidulated with lemon juice, and then exposing it to the sun and air. By this process, described by Baur,[2714] the oil loses a penetrating after-smell, and acquires a pale straw-colour. The optical and chemical differences between grass oil thus refined and attar of rose are slight and do not indicate a small admixture of the former. If grass oil is added largely to attar, it will prevent its congealing.

=Adulteration=—The grass oil prepared by the natives of India is not unfrequently contaminated with fatty oil.

Other Products of the genus Andropogon.

=Herba Schœnanthi vel Squinanthi=, _Juncus odoratus_, _Fœnum Camelorum_.

The drug bearing these names has had a place in pharmacy from the days of Dioscorides down to the middle of the last century, and is still met with in the East. The plant which affords it, formerly confounded with other species, is now known to be _Andropogon laniger_ Desf., a grass of wide distribution, growing in hot dry regions in Northern Africa (Algeria), Arabia, and North-western India, reaching Thibet, where it is found up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. Mr. Tolbort has sent us specimens under the name of _Kháví_, gathered by himself in 1869 between Multán and Kot Sultán, and quite agreeing with the drug of pharmacy. The grass has an aromatic pungent taste, which is retained in very old specimens. We are not aware that it is distilled for essential oil.

=Cuscus or Vetti-ver=[2715]—This is the long fibrous root of _Andropogon muricatus_ Retz, a large grass found abundantly in rich moist ground in Southern India and Bengal. Inscriptions on copper-plates lately discovered in the district of Etawah, south-east of Agra, and dating from A.D. 1103 and 1174, record grants of villages to Brahmins by the kings of Kanauj, and enumerate the imposts that were to be levied. These include taxes on mines, salt pits and the trade in precious metals, also on mahwah (_Bassia_) and mango trees, and on _Cuscus Grass_.[2716]

[2713] 50 cases, containing about 2250 lb., imported from Bombay, were offered as “_Rose Oil_” at public sale, by a London drug-broker, 31 July, 1873.

[2714] See p. 267.

[2715] _Cuscus_, otherwise written _Khus-khus_, a name adopted by the English in India, is probably from the Persian _Khas_. _Vetti-ver_ is the Malyalim name of the plant.

[2716] _Proc. of Asiat. Soc. of Bengal_, Aug. 1873. 161.