Chapter LI: Section VI (5)

Quinine is one of the most important of the vegetable alkaline bitters. It was first discovered by Vauquelin, in 1811, and its preparation on a large scale pointed out by Pelletier and Caventon in 1820. It is obtained by boiling the yellow bark (_Cinchona_) in water and sulphuric acid, and then treating it with lime and alcohol, when the quinine is precipitated in the form of a white powder. Upwards of 120,000 ounces are made annually in Paris.

Cinchona, or the Peruvian bark, was gathered to the amount of two million dollars in one year recently, and the demand is constantly increasing.

Peruvian bark is cut in the eastern Provinces of Bolivia, skirting the river Paraguay, and now conveyed an immense distance by mules over a mountainous region to El Puerto, the only port of Bolivia on the Pacific. It is thence brought by Cape Horn to the cities of the United States and Europe. Now that Government has been successful in opening the South American rivers, this important article of commerce will be furnished in market by the Paraguay and La Plata rivers, at a much reduced price.

A species of bark from Colombia, known as Malambo or Matias bark, has been frequently administered by Dr. Alexander Ure as a substitute for cinchona with good effect. It offers the useful combination of a tonic and aromatic. It is supposed to be the produce of a species of _Drimys_. It is stated that in New Granada, and other districts of Central America, where the tree is indigenous, incisions are made in the bark, and there exudes an aromatic oil which sinks in water.

Cinchona bark contains two alkaloids, cinchonia and quina, to which its active properties are due; the former is best obtained from gray bark, the latter from yellow bark. In combination with these there exists an acid called kinic acid.

The imports of cinchona bark to this country are from 225,000 to 556,000 lbs. annually, and about 120,000 lbs. are retained for home consumption. It comes over in chests and serons, or ox-hides, varying from 90 to 200 lbs. We imported from France, in 1850, 489 cwt. of Peruvian bark, of the value of £6,840; and in 1851, 1,128 cwt., of the value of £15,787; also the following quantities of sulphate of quinine, on which there is a duty of 6d. and 3-10ths per ounce.

oz. £
1848 3,856 5,898
1849 1,114 1,560
1850 8,976 12,566
1851 7,605 10,647

The following is the arrangement of these barks adopted by Pereira, who has gone very fully into the subject:--

A. True cinchonas, with a brown epidermis.

I. Pale barks 1. Crown or Loxa bark. _C. Condaminea_. 2. Gray or
silver or Huanuco bark. _C. micrantha_. 3. Ash or Jaen bark. _C.
ovata_. 4. Rusty or Huamalies bark. _C. pubescens_.

II. Yellow barks. 5. Royal, yellow or Calisaya bark. _C. sp ?_

III. Red barks. 6. Red bark. _C. sp ?_

B. True cinchonas, with a white epidermis.

I. Pale barks. 7. White Loxa bark.

II. Yellow barks. 8. Hard Carthagena bark. _C. cordifolia_. 9.
Fibrous ditto. Perhaps _C. cordifolia_. 10. Cuzco bark. _C. sp.?_
11. Orange bark of Santa Fe. _C. lancifolia_.

III. Red barks. 12. Bed bark of Santa Fe. _C. oblongifolia_.

The genus Exostemma yields various kinds of false cinchona bark, which do not contain the cinchona alkalies. The following are some of the kinds noticed by Pereira:--

1. St. Lucia or Piton bark. _Exostemma floribundum_.
2. Jamaica bark. _E. caribaeum_.
3. Pitaya bark. _E. sp?_
4. False Peruvian bark. _E. peruvianum_.
5. Brazilian bark. _E. souzianum_.

The mode adopted by the bark-peelers of obtaining cinchona varies somewhat in different districts. The Indians (says Mr. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South America") discover from the eminences where a cluster of trees grow in the woods, for they are easily discernable by the rose-colored tinge of their leaves, which appear at a distance like bunches of flowers amid the deep-green foliage of other trees. They then hunt for the spot, and having found it out, cut down all the trees, and take the bark from the branches, and after they have stripped off the bark, they carry it in bundles out of the wood, for the purpose of drying it. The peelers commence their operation about May, when the dry season sets in. Some writers state that the trees are barked without felling.

In a letter published in one of the Calcutta papers not long ago, from the pen, I believe, of Mr. Piddington, he strongly urged the introduction of the cinchona tree into British India:--

There is (he observes) one tree, the introduction and the copious
distribution of which within certain appropriate points of the
sub-Himalayan range, "would confer a greater blessing on the great
body of natives, than any effort the Government has made or can
make, and that is the cinchona bark tree.

Without any reference to the greater or less force of medical
theories as to the efficacy of cinchona bark, I now only take an
experienced and practical view, well knowing that the sufferings of
many millions of poor and rich natives, especially in the jungle
districts, are yearly very great, and the mortality quite enormous
from remittent and intermittent fevers, by far the greater part of
which would be immensely relieved, or wholly cured, by the free use
of cinchona bark.

If by abundance the price be once brought within the poor native's
reach, he will readily take to it, having no objection whatever on
account of caste to anything of the nature of the bark of a tree.

If the cinchona tree were once growing in abundance, quinine could
be easily prepared in India, from the facility of procuring, and
cheapness of spirits of wine used in the process of its elimination.

I take it that every hundred Sepahees sick of fevers remaining in
hospital off duty for thirty days, drawing an average pay of eight
rupees each, form a full monthly loss to Government of eight hundred
rupees; while a free use of quinine and bark would cure them in ten
days on the average, costing at present about forty rupees; thus by
the twenty days' services gained, Government would save nearly five
hundred rupees.

But the cinchona tree once glowing abundantly, quinine would of
course become infinitely cheaper.

Under a proper system of culture, quill bark only need be taken
without destroying the trees, and an earlier return be obtained.

There never yet has been a substitute found for cinchona bark and
its salts, as an antiperiodic and tonic.

It yet remains for some one to find an equally efficacious
substitute, and thus make a fortune. In the mean time the importance
of the cinchona is paramount.

The cinchona tree, like the pimento, deteriorates under cultivation,
and in moist, warm, rich valleys the bark becomes inert. The best
bark is from trees growing on mountain tops or steep declivities.

From the full accounts of Condamine, Mutis, and Humboldt, a soil and
climate like that of the north west sub-Himalayan range is admirably
adapted to the planting and prospering of cinchona trees.

In Lord W. Bentinck's time, before there were steamers in or to
India, seeing the immense benefit to be derived, I sent in a
proposition to procure young cinchona plants from Vera Cruz, begging
to be then permitted to proceed there on that account, and my
proposition was civilly and even favorably received; but these were
not the days to act on it.

Of about the twenty species of cinchona trees the following would of
course be the best to bring--the _Cinchona bineifolia_, the
_cinchona cordifolia_, the _cinchona oblongifolia_, the _cinchona
micrantha_, and the _cinchona condaminea_.

The Calumba plant (_Cocculus palmatus_, Decandolle, or _Minispermum palmatum_) furnishes the medicinal Colombo root, which is one of the most useful stomachics and tonics in cases of dyspepsia. It is scarcely ever cultivated, the spontaneous produce of thick forests on the shores of Oibo and Mozambique and many miles inland on the eastern shores of Africa, Madagascar and Bombay, proving sufficient. The supplies principally go to Ceylon. The roots are perennial, and consist of several fasciculated, fusiform, branched, fleshy, curved and descending tubers, from one to two inches thick, with a brown warty epidermis; internally deep yellow, odorless, very bitter.

The main roots are dug up by the natives in March (the hot season). The offsets are cut in slices and hung up on cords to dry in the shade. It is deemed fit to ship when, on exposure to the sun, it breaks short, and of a bad quality when it is soft and black.--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

It contains a bitter crystallizable principle called Calumbin.

The commercial parcels are often adulterated with the roots of _Costus indicus, C. speciosus_, and _C. Arabicus_ (Kusmus, Putckuk, &c.). It is imported into this country in bags and chests of from one to three cwt., and ranges in price from £1 to £2 the cwt. The imports in 1846 to London were 82 packages, and in 1850, 214 packages, but the stock held in London is always large, being nearly 2,500 packages.

Colocynth, furnished by _Cucumis colocynthis_ and _C. pseudocolocynthis_, is the dried medullary part of a wild species of gourd which is cultivated in Spain. It also grows wild in Japan, the sandy lands of Coromandel, Cape of Good Hope, Syria, Nubia, Egypt, Turkey, and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. It may be obtained in the jungles of India in cart loads. The fruit, which is about the size of an orange, with a thin but solid rind, is gathered in autumn, when ripe and yellow, and in most countries is peeled and dried either in the sun or by stoves. It comes over from Cadiz, Trieste, Mogadore, &c., in cases, casks, &c., and duty was paid on about 11,000 lbs. in 1839.

CUBEBS.--The dried unripe fruit of _P. Cubebi_, or _Cubeba qfficinalia_, a climbing plant of the pepper tribe, native of Prince of Wales' Island, Java, and the Indian islands furnishes the medicinal cubebs, which is used extensively in arresting discharges from mucous membranes. In appearance cubebs resemble black pepper, except that they are higher colored and are each furnished with a stalk two or three lines long. Dr. Blume says, that the cubebs of the shops are the fruit of _P. caninum_. This species of pepper, when fresh and good, contains nearly 10 per cent. of essential oil.

In 1842 the quantity entered for home consumption was 67,093 lbs. The average imports are about 40 to 50 tons annually. 3 cases were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, was £3 10s. to £4 10s. the cwt.

GAMBOGE.--This resinous juice, which is a most important article of commerce, is furnished by some of the plants of Gambogia, natives principally of South America. It is a powerful irritant, and is employed medicinally as a drastic and hydragogue cathartic. From its bright yellow color it is also used as a pigment.

Gamboge fetches in the London market from £5 to £11 per cwt.

Some of the species of _Stalagmites_ (Murray), natives of Ceylon and the East, yield a similar yellow viscid juice, hardly distinguishable from gamboge, and used for the same purpose by painters. They are a genus of fine ornamental trees, thriving well in soils partaking of a mixture of loam and peat.

According to Koenig, the juice is collected by breaking off the leaves or young branches. From the fracture the gamboge exudes in drops, and is therefore called _gum gutta_. It is received on leaves, coco-nut shells, earthen pots, or in bamboos; it gradually hardens by age, and is then wrapped up in leaves prior to sale.

The common gamboge of Ceylon is produced by a plant which Dr. Graham was led to view as a species of a new genus under the name of _Hebradendron Gambogoides_. A very different species, the _Garcinia Gambogia_, of Roxburgh, once supposed to produce gamboge, and indeed actually confounded by Linnæus with the true gamboge tree of Ceylon, he has proved not to produce gamboge at all.

This substance is also obtained from several other plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_ (Gaertner), _Hypericwm bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, natives of the East Indies, Siam and Ceylon, whence it is imported in small cakes and rolls or cylindrical twisted masses. Its composition is as follows: number 1 being an analysis by Professor Christison of a commercial specimen from Ceylon; number 2 of a fine sample of common ditto:--

1 2
Resin, or fatty acid 78.84 74.8
Coloring matter 4.03 3.5
Gum 12.59 16.5
Residue 4.54 5.2
----- -----
100. 100.

The average imports of gamboge into the port of London, during the past five or six years, have been from 400 to 500 chests of one to two cwt. each.

Gentian.--The yellow gentian root (_Gentiana lutea_) is the officinal species, and a native of the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.

The stems and roots of _G. amarella_ and _campestris_, British species, and _G. cruciata, purpurea, punctata_, &c., are similar in their effects, having tonic, stomachic, and febrifugal properties. So has _G. kurroo_ of the Himalayas. The root is generally taken up in autumn, when the plant is a year old. It is cut longitudinally into pieces of a foot or a foot and a half long. They are imported into this country in bales from Havre, Marseilles, &c., and a good deal comes from Germany. In 1839, 470 cwts. were entered for home consumption.

Chiretta is the herb and root of _Agathotes Chirayta_, Don; _Gentiana Chirayta_, Fleming; or _Ophelia chirayta_, a herbaceous plant, growing in the Himalaya mountains about Nepaul and the Morungs.

Ipecacuan.-- _Cephælis Ipecacuanhæ_, Richard, yields the ipecacuan of the shops. The plant is met with in the woods of several Brazilian provinces, as Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio Janeiro. It is found growing in moist shady situations, from 8 to 20 degs. south latitude. The roots, which are the officinal part, are contorted, knotty and annulated, and about the thickness of a goose quill.

Besides this brown or gray annulated ipecacuan, there are spurious kinds, such as the striated or black Peruvian, the produce of _Pyschotria elliptica_, and other species; and white or amylaceous ipecacuan, furnished by _Richardsonia scabra_, an herbaceous perennial, native of the provinces of Rio Janeiro and Minas Geraes. _Manettia glabra_ or _cordifolia_, also furnishes ipecacuan in Buenos Ayres. It is imported into this country from Rio in bales, barrels, bags, and serons, and the average annual imports in the eight years ending in 1841 were 10,000 lbs. In 1840, the shipments from Rio were as much as 20,000 lbs.

Castelnau states, that one expert hand can gather 15 lbs. of the ipecacuan root in a day, which will fetch in Rio one dollar per pound. He estimates that, from 1830 to 1837, not less than 800,000 lbs. of this drug were exported from the province of Matto Grosso to Rio.

Jalap.--This drug is obtained from the dried tubers or root-stock of _Ipomoea Jalapa_ or _Convolvulus Jalapa_, a perennial plant, native of America. Some suppose it takes its specific name from Xalapa, in Mexico, whence we chiefly import it. It grows in the woods near Chicanquiaco, at an altitude of 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. Large quantities might be gathered and exported in Jamaica. The root is of a roundish tuberous form, black externally, and of a deep, yellowish grey within, and varies in size from that of a walnut to that of a moderate sized turnip. It contains a resin in which its active properties reside. It is brought to this country in thin transverse slices, and the amount entered for home consumption is about 45,000 lbs. a year. It is imported in bales, from Vera Cruz direct, or indirectly by way of New York, and other places.

Two sorts of jalap root occur in commerce. The one which was first introduced into the market, and which is even at the present day most frequently met with, is obtained from the _Ipomoea Schiedeana_ of Zuccarini, a plant growing on the eastern declivity of the Mexican Andes, and discovered by Von Schiedes. The root, as met with in commerce, consists of pieces varying from the size of a nut to that of the fist, sometimes whole, sometimes cut into disks, and at other times divided into two or three portions. The external surface is of a more or less dark gray brown color, corrugated and rough. It is very hard, presents a shining resinous even surface when broken, and is difficult to reduce to powder. The powder is of a brownish color, has a faint peculiar odor and irritant taste.

The second quality, which was introduced into commerce is great quantities a few years ago, by the name of stalk jalap, is now more scarce, and obtained from the _Ipomoea orazabensis_ of Pelletan, a plant growing without cultivation in the neighbourhood of the Mexican town of Orizaba. The root, as met with in the trade, consists of pieces varying from one to three inches in length, and 1½ to two inches in diameter. They are of a higher color than the first-named root, and of decidedly fibrous structure. The chief constituents of both varieties is a peculiar resin, of which they contain about 10 per cent.

Scammony.--The root of _Convolvulus Scammonia_, another plant of the same family, affords, when cut, a gummy resinous exudation or milky juice, which soon concretes and forms scammony. The plant grows abundantly in Greece, the Grecian Islands, and various parts of the Levant. It is imported from Aleppo in drums, weighing from 75 to 125 lbs. each, and from Smyrna in compact cakes like wax packed in chests. In 1839, the quantity on which duty (2s. 6d. per lb.) was paid amounted to 8,581 lbs. The duty received for scammony, in 1842, was £607. A spurious kind is prepared from _Calystegia (Convolvulus) sepium_, a native of Australia, and several plants of the Asclepiadacæ order.

Dr. Russell ("Med. Obs. and Inqui.") thus describes the mode of procuring scammony:--

Having cleared away the earth from the upper part of the root, the
peasants cut off the top in an oblique direction, about two inches
below where the stalks spring from it. Under the most depending part
of the slope they affix a shell, or some other convenient
receptacle, into which the milky juice flows. It is then left about
twelve hours, which time is sufficient for the drawing off of the
whole juice; this, however, is in small quantities, each root
affording but a few drachms. This milky juice from the several roots
is put together, often into the leg of an old boot, for want of some
more proper vessel, when in a little time it grows hard, and is the
genuine scammony. Various substances are often added to scammony
while yet soft. Those with which it is most usually adulterated are
wheat flour, ashes, or fine sand and chalk.

Liquorice.--The plant which yields the liquorice root of commerce is _Glycirrhiza glabra_ or _Liquiritia officinalis_. It is a native of Italy and the southern parts of Europe, but has been occasionally cultivated with success in Britain, especially at Pontefract, in Yorkshire, and at Mitcham, in Surrey. The plant is a perennial, with pale blue flowers. It grows well in a deep, light, sandy loam, and is readily increased by slips from the roots with eyes. The root, which is the only valuable part, is long, slender, fibrous, of a yellow color, and when grown in England is fit for use at the end of three years. The sweet, subacid, mucilaginous juice is much esteemed as a pectoral. It owes its sweetness to a peculiar principle called glycrin or glycirrhiza, which appears also to be present in the root and leaves of other papilionaceous plants, as _G. echinata_ and _glandulifera, Trifoliwm alpinum_, and the wild liquorice of the West Indies, _Abrus precatorius_, a pretty climber.

The greatest portion of our supplies of the extract, which amount to 7,000 or 8,000 cwts. a year, are obtained from Spain and Sicily. The juice, obtained by crushing the roots in a mill, and subjecting them to the press, is slowly boiled, till it becomes of a proper consistency, when it is formed into rolls of a considerable thickness, which are usually covered with bay leaves. It is afterwards usually re-dissolved, purified, and, when formed into small quills, is known as refined liquorice.

In 1839, 1,166 tons of liquorice paste were exported from Naples, valued at £45 per ton. Mr. Poole, in his Statistics of Commerce, states that the consumption of liquorice root and paste in this country averages 500 tons per annum. 110 cwt. of the juice and 100 cwt. of the root are annually brought into Hull from the continent.

Matico--the Peruvian styptic, a powerful vegetable astringent, was first made known to the medical profession of England by Dr. Jeffreys, of Liverpool, in the _Lancet_, as far back as January 5th, 1839. A paper on its history and power was published in May, 1843, in the "Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association," vol. 10. It is stated to be the _Piper angustifolium_ of Ruiz and Parsons. Dr. Martin believes it to be a species of _Phlomis_. The leaves are covered with a fine hair.

The powdered leaves of the _Eupatorium glutinosum_, under the name of Matico, are used about Quito for stanching blood and healing wounds. A good article on the pharmaceutical and chemical character of matico, by Dr. J.F. Hodges, appeared in the "Proceedings of the Chemical Society of London," in 1845. It is stated, by Dr. Martin, that, like the gunjah, which the East Indians prepare, from the _Cannabis Indica_, the leaves and flowers of the matico have been long employed by the sensual Indians of the interior of Peru to prepare a drink which they administer to produce a state of aphrodisia. The leaves and flowering tops of the plant are the parts imported and introduced to notice as a styptic, which property seems to depend on their structure and not on their chemical composition.

Quassia.--The quassia wood of the pharmacopoeia was originally the product of _Quassia amara_, a tall shrub, never above fifteen feet high, native of Guiana, but also inhabiting Surinam and Colombia. It is a very ornamental plant, and has remarkable pinnate leaves with winged petioles. This wood is well known as one of the most intense bitters, and is considered an effectual remedy in any disorder where pure bitters are required. Surinam quassia is not, however, to be met with now. That sold in the shops is the tough, fibrous, bitter bark of the root of _Simaruba (Quassia) excelsa_ and _officinalis_, very large forest trees, growing in Cayenne, Jamaica, and other parts of the West India Islands, where they bear the local name of bitter-wood. Its infusion is used as a tonic. 23 tons of bitter-wood were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1851. Quassia acts as a narcotic poison on flies and other insects. Although prohibited by law, it is frequently employed by brewers as a substitute for hops. The duty of £8 17s. 6d. per cwt., levied on quassia, is intended to restrict its use for such a purpose.

Rhubarb.--This most important plant belongs to the genus Rheum. The officinal rhubarb is the root of an undetermined species. There are about thirteen different kinds which are said to yield rhubarb. Lindley enumerates fifteen. I however take Professor Balfour's classification:--

1. _Rheum palmatum_, native of Bucharia, which has perhaps the best
title to be considered the true rhubarb-plant, grows spontaneously
in the Mongolian empire on the confines of China.

2. _R. undulatum_, native of China, which yields much of the French
rhubarb.

3. _R. compactum_, native of Tartary, another species yielding
French rhubarb, and often cultivated in Britain for its acid
petioles.

4. _R. Emodi_ (Wallich). This species yields a kind of Himalayan
rhubarb. Its petioles are much used for their acid properties.

5. _R. Rhaponticum_, native of Asia. Used in France and Britain in
the same way as the third species. It is much cultivated in the
department of Morbihan.

6. _R. hybridum_ (Murr). Much cultivated in Germany for its root and
in Britain for its stalks.

7. _R. Webbianum_ (Royle). 8. _R. Spiceformi_ (Royle). 9. _R.
Moorcroftianum_ (Royle). Himalayan species or varieties.

10. _R. crassinervium_ (Fisch), a Russian species.

11. _R. leucorhizum_ (Pall), a Siberian and Altai species, said to
yield imperial or white rhubarb. It has striped flowers, while all
others are whitish green.

12. _R. Caspicum_ (Fisch), a Russian and Altai species.

13. _R. Ribes_, native of the Levant, but some say an Afghanistan or
Persian species.

All these grow in the cold parts of the world, as on the Altai mountains, in Siberia, Thibet, North of China, and on the Himalayan range. The rhubarb procured from one or more of these species is known in commerce under the names of Russian or Turkey, Chinese or East Indian, and English rhubarb.

The plants all thrive well in a rich loamy soil, or light sandy soil, and are increased by divisions of the roots or by seed.

The extent of country from which rhubarb of one kind or another is actually collected, according to Christison, stretches from Ludall, in 77½ east longitude, to the Chinese province of Shen-si, 29 degrees further east, and from the Sue-chan mountains, in north latitude 26 degrees, nearly to the frontiers of Siberia, 24 degrees northward. The best rhubarb is said to come from the very heart of Thibet, within 95 degrees east longitude and 35 degrees north latitude, 500 or 600 miles north of Assam.

The Chinese rhubarb is inferior to that of Russia and Turkey. The price varies in China from 38 dollars per picul upwards, and about 1,500 piculs are annually exported, on an average at 50 dollars per picul. In 1844, 2,077 piculs were shipped from Canton for Great Britain; and of 95,701 lbs. imported in 1841, 43,640 lbs. were brought from China, 8,349 lbs. from the Philippines, 7,290 lbs. from the East Indies, and 33,710 lbs. from the United States; only 1,462 lbs. were brought from Russia. The imports from the East Indies have decreased more than 70 per cent. in the last twelve years, as compared with the preceding. The wholesale prices are, for round rhubarb, 8d. to 3s. per lb.; flat, 6d. to 3s. 3d. per lb.; Dutch trimmed, 6s. to 7s. per lb.; Russian, 13s. to 13s. 6d. per lb.

In 1831, we imported 133,462 lbs. from the East India Company's possessions, and 6,901 lbs. from Russia. In 1843, only 71,298 lbs. came from the East. From China we received, in 1843, 172,882 lbs.

The quantities of rhubarb on which duty of 1s. per lb. was paid in the six years ending 1840, were as follows;--

East Indian. Foreign.
lbs. lbs.
1835 32,515 10,647
1836 36,836 7,752
1837 44,669 5,946
1838 37,026 7,402
1839 22,575 12,525
1840 16,745 22,203

The imports and consumption of rhubarb are thus stated in the _Pharmaceutical Journal_:--

Imports. Consumption.
lbs. lbs.
1826 102,624 32,936
1831 140,395 40,124
1836 122,142 44,468
1841 95,701 67,877
1846 427,694 --
1847 305,736 --
1848 116,005 --
1849 94,914 --

The rhubarb brought into Siberia grows wild in Chinese Tartary, especially in the province Gansun, on hills, heaths, and meadows, and is generally gathered in summer from plants of six years of age. "When the root is dug up, it is washed to free it from earthy particles; peeled, bored through the centre, strung on a thread, and dried in the sun. In autumn all the dried rhubarb collected in the province is brought in horsehair sacks, containing about 200 lbs., to Sinin (the residence of the dealers), loaded on camels, and sent over Mongolia to Kiachta, and the ports and capital of China.

Sarsaparilla.--The root of various species of _Smilax_ constitutes the sarsaparilla of the shops. It is an evergreen climbing undershrub, having whitish green flowers, and grows readily from suckers. It is a native of the temperate and tropical regions of Asia and America. The officinal part is the bark, which comes off from the rhizomes. They are mucilaginous, bitter, and slightly acid. Sarsaparilla is used in decoction and infusion as a tonic and alterative. The following are enumerated as sources whence sarsaparilla of various kinds is derived.

_Smilax China_ and _sagittæfolia_, yielding the Chinese root, are said to come from the province of Onansi in China.

_S. pseudo China, S. Sarsaparilla, S. rubens_, and _S. Watsoni,_ furnish the drug of North America.

The sarsaparilla distinguished in commerce as the Lisbon or Brazilian is the root of _S. papyracea_ of Poiret. It is an undershrub, the stem of which is compressed and angular below, and armed with prickles at the angles. The leaves are elliptic, acuminate, and marked with three longitudinal nerves. This species grows principally in the regions bordering the river Amazon, and on the banks of most of its tributary streams. It is generally brought from the provinces of Para and Maranham. It is in large cylindrical bundles, long and straight, and the flexible stem of the plant is bound round the bundles, so as to entirely cover them. Its fibres are very long, cylindrical, wrinkled longitudinally, and furnished with some lateral fibrils. Its color is of a fawn brown, or sometimes of a dark grey, approaching to black. The color internally is nearly white. Besides this species there are others indigenous, such as _S. officinalis_, which grows in the province of Mina; _S. syphilitica_, which grows in the northern regions, and three new species, _S. japicanga, S. Brasiliensis_, and _S_. _syringioides_. There is also met with in Brazil another plant, _Herreria sarsaparilla_, belonging to the same natural order, which abounds in the provinces of Rio, Bahia, and Mina, and the roots of which receive the name of wild sarsaparilla.

From Mexico, Honduras, and Angostura very good qualities are imported. _S. zeylanica, glabra_, and _perfoliata_ furnish sarsaparilla from Asia, and _S. excelsa_ and _aspera_ are used as substitutes for the officinal drug in Europe.

_Smilax officinalis_, found in woods near the Rio Magdalena in New Granada, furnishes the best in the market, which is commonly known as Jamaica Sarza. It differs from the other kinds in having a deep red cuticle of a close texture, and the color is more generally diffused through the ligneous part. It is shipped in bales, formed either of the spirally formed roots, as in the Jamaica and Lima varieties, or of unfolded parallel roots, as in the Brazilian varieties. The roots are usually several feet long, about the thickness of a quill, more or less wrinkled, and the whole quantity retained for home consumption, in 1840, was 143,000 lbs. In 1844, 184,748 lbs., and in 1845 111,775 lbs. were shipped from Honduras.

The prices in the London market, at the close of 1853, were --Brazil, 1s. 3d. per lb.; Honduras, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 8d. per lb.; Vera Cruz, 6d. to 11d. per lb.; Jamaica, 1s. 8d. to 3s. 4d. per lb. The duty received on sarsaparilla in 1842 was £1,536.

The average annual quantity of sarsaparilla obtained from Mexico and South America, exclusive of Brazil, and taken for home consumption, in the twelve years ending with 1843 was 37,826 lbs.

IMPORTS OF BRAZILIAN SARSAPARILLA.
lbs.
1827 28,155
1828 49,280
1829 52,772
1830 19,842
1831 31,972
1832 91,238
1833 13,077
1834 28,803
1835 22,387
1836 1,718
1837 12,842
1838 --
1839 9,484
1840 4,141
1841 1,399
1842 5,572

The total imports in 1849 were 118,934 lbs.

Sarsaparilla has been found growing in the Port Phillip district of Australia, and has been shipped thence in small quantities. It seems to be indigenous to the Bahamas, and is to be found on many of the out islands. Mr. Wm. Dalzell, of Abaco, collected some considerable quantity at a place called Marsh Harbor, which was found to be of a superior quality.

Some thousands of pounds of sarsaparilla were brought to Falmouth, Jamaica, last year, and bought by merchants for export. It came from the parish of St. Elizabeth, and there are whole forests covered with this weed, for such in reality it is. It is too the real black Jamaica sarsaparilla, that is so much valued in the European and American markets. It is also found in other parts of the island.

In 1798 3,674 lbs. of sarsaparilla were shipped from La Guayra; 2,394 lbs. in 1801 from Puerto Cabella, and 400 quintals from Costa Rica, in 1845, valued at eight dollars a quintal.

SENNA.--Several varieties of Cassia, natives of the East, are grown for the production of this drug. The dried leaves of C. _lanceolata_ or _orientalis_, grown in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, the true Mecca senna, are considered the best. In Egypt the leaves of _Cynanchum Arghel_ are used for adulterating senna, _Cassia obovata_ or _C. senna_, also a native of Egypt, cultivated in the East Indies, as well as in Spain, Italy, and Jamaica. It is a perennial herb, one or two feet high. In the East Indies there is a variety (_C. elongata_) common about Tinnivelly, Coimbatore, Bombay, and Agra, &c. Several of this species are common in the West India islands. The plants, which are for the most part evergreens, grow from two to fifteen feet high; they delight in a loamy soil, or mixture of loam or peat.

The seed is drilled in the ground, and the only attention required by the plant is loosening the ground and weeding two or three times when it is young.

The senna leaves imported from India are not generally so clean and free from rubbish as those from Alexandria. They are worth from 20s. to 27s. per cwt. in the Bombay market.

The prices are--Alexandria, l½d. to 6d. per lb.; East Indian, 2d. to 3d. per lb.; Tinnevelly, 7d. to 9½d. per lb.

Senna is collected in various parts of Africa by the Arabs, who make two crops annually; one, the most productive, after the rains in August and September, the other about the middle of March. It is brought to Boulack, the port of Cairo, by the caravans, &c., from Abyssinia, Nubia, and Sennaar, also by the way of Cossier, the Red Sea, and Suez. The different leaves are mixed, and adulterated with arghel leaves. The whole shipments from Boulack to Alexandria, whence it finds it way to Europe, is 14,000 to 15,500 quintals.

The quantities imported for home consumption were--

From the East Indies. Other places. Total.
lbs. lbs. lbs.
1838 72,576 69,538 142,114
1839 110,409 63,766 174,175

In 1840, 211,400 lbs. paid duty, which is now only 1d. per lb.

In 1848, we imported 800,000 lbs. from India; in 1849, the total imports were 541,143 lbs. The imports into the United Kingdom were, in 1847, 246 tons; 1848, 402 tons; 1849, 240 tons.

Alexandrian senna (_Cassia acutifolia_). This species is said by some to constitute the bulk of the senna consumed for medical purposes in Europe. It is much adulterated with the leaves of _Cynanchum Arghel, Tiphrosia apollinea_, and _Coriaria myrtifolia_.

_C. lanceolata_ and _C. ethiopica_ furnish other species of the same article, the greater part of the produce of which find its way to India, through the Red Sea, Surat, Bombay and Calcutta, the imports into Calcutta, in 1849, having been 79,212 lbs. _C. obovata_ furnishes the Aleppo and Italian drug.

At least eight varieties of senna leaf are known in commerce in Europe--1. the Senna palthe; 2. Senna of Sennaar or Alexandria; 3. of Tripoli; 4. of Aleppo; 5. of Moka; 6. of Senegambia; 7. the false or Arghel; 8. the Tinnevelly.

In Egypt the senna harvest takes place twice annually, in April and September; the stalks are cut off with the leaves, dried before the sun, and then packed with date leaves. At Boulka, the drug is sorted, mixed, and adulterated, and passed into commerce through Alexandria.

Alexandrian senna, according to Mr. Jacob Bell ("Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. 2, p. 63), contains a mixture of two or more species of true senna. It consists principally of _Cassia obovata_ and _C. obtusata_, and according to some authorities it occasionally contains _C. acutifolia_. This mixture is unimportant, but the _Cynanchum Arghel_, which generally constitutes a fifth of the weight on an average, possesses properties differing in some respects from true senna, and which render it particularly objectionable. The Tinnevelly senna, that most esteemed by the profession, is known by the size of the leaflets, which are much larger than those of any other variety; they are also less brittle, thinner and larger, and are generally found in a very perfect state, while the other varieties, especially the Alexandrian, are more or less broken. The leaves of the Cynanchum are similar in form to those of the lanceolate senna, but they are thicker and stiffer, the veins are scarcely visible, they are not oblique at the base, their surface is rugose, and the color grey or greenish drab; their taste is bitter and disagreeable, and they are often spotted with a yellow, intensely bitter gummo-resinous incrustation. Being less fragile than the leaflets of the true senna, they are more often found entire, and are very easily distinguishable from the varieties which constitute true Alexandrian senna.

In their botanical character they are essentially different, being distinct leaves, not leaflets, which is the case with true senna.

The SUMBUL root, which has recently been introduced into the French market, is the root of an umbelliferous plant, which is characterised by a strong odor of musk. The pilgrims, on their return from Mecca, generally import to Salonika, Constantinople, &c., among other articles of trade, various plants with a musk-like odor. The preparation of these vegetable substances is said to be effected by smearing them over with musk-balsam.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.]

[Footnote 2: Fractional parts are not necessary to include.]

[Footnote 3: Dr. Lindley is in error as to the discriminating duties--British cacao pays 9s., and foreign 18s.]

[Footnote 4: According to Breen's History of St. Lucia up to 1844.]

[Footnote 5: Caffeine (the principle of coffee) and theobromine (the principle of cacao) are the most highly nitrogenised products in nature, as the following analysis will show:--

_Caffeine_, according to Pfaff and Liebig, contains--

Carbon 49.77
Hydrogen 5.33
_Nitrogen_ 28.78
Oxygen 16.12

_Theobromine_, according to Woskreseusky, contains--

Carbon 47.21
Hydrogen 4.53
_Nitrogen_ 35.38
Oxygen 12.80

Of the two, cacao contains the larger quantity of nitrogen; and this chemical fact explains why cacao should be so much more nutritive than tea, though the principle of tea (theine) is nearly identical with the principle of cacoa--tea containing in 100 parts 29.009 of nitrogen. On this subject Liebig has made an observation which I cannot avoid noticing. He says, "We shall never certainly be able to discover how men were led to the use of the hot infusion of the leaves of a certain shrub (tea), or of a decoction of certain roasted seeds (coffee). Some cause there must be, which would explain how the practice has become a necessary of life to whole nations. But it is surely still more remarkable that the beneficial effects of both plants on the health must be ascribed to one and the same substance, the presence of which in two vegetables, belonging to different natural families, and the produce of different quarters of the globe, could hardly have presented itself to the boldest imagination. Yet recent researches have shown, in such a manner as to exclude all doubt, that caffeine, the peculiar principle of coffee, and theine, that of tea, are in all respects identical."--_(Anim. Chem.,_ pp. 178-9.) We really can see nothing in all this but the manifestation of that instinct which, implanted in us by the Almighty, led the untutored Indian (as we are pleased to call him) to breathe into the nostril of the buffalo or the wild horse, and by that single act to subdue his angry rage, or that impelled the first discoverer of combustion to extract fire from the attrition of two pieces of wood. The American Indian, living entirely on flesh, "discovered for himself in tobacco smoke a means of retarding the change of matter in the tissues of the body, and thereby of making hunger more endurable."--(P. 179.) But the wonder ceases, when we reflect that man was endued with certain properties by his Maker which must have been at some remote period, of which we can form no idea, active and manifest the moment he breathed the breath of life. To inquire how he lost this property is not our business at present, but it is only by supposing the _quondam_ existence of such a property, active and manifest, that can in any way explain a first knowledge of the therapeutic, or threptic, qualities of plants and shrubs. With regard to the identity of theine, caffeine, theobromine, &c., it would be as well that the reader should keep in mind that it is so chemically _only_, for in appearance, taste, weight, odor, &c., no substances can differ more. Does the palate exert some peculiar action on the ingesta, so as to give to each a distinct sapor? Or _vice versa_?]

[Footnote 6: In the West Indies, from my own experience, I have found this to be one of the worst descriptions of soil. _P.L.S._]

[Footnote 7: Correspondent of the Singapore _Free Press_, December, 1852.]

[Footnote 8: It is important, in considering what tea may be had from China, to consider the manner of its production. It is grown over an immense district, in small farms, or rather gardens, no farm producing more that 600 chests. "The tea merchant goes himself, or sends his agents to all the small towns, villages, and temples in the district, to purchase tea from the priests and small farmers; the large merchant, into whose hands the tea thus comes, _has to refire it and pack it for the foreign market."--(Fortune's Tea Districts.)_ This refiring is the only additional process of manufacture for our market. Mr. Fortune elsewhere, in his valuable work, giving an account of the cost of tea from the farmers, the conveyance to market, and the merchant's profit, states that " the small farmer and manipulator is not overpaid, but that the great profits are received by the middlemen." No doubt these men do their utmost to keep the farmers in complete ignorance of the state of the tea-market, that they may monopolise the advantages, but it is pretty certain that the news of a bold reduction of duty, and the promise of an immensely increased consumption, would reach even the Chinese farmers, and make them pick their trees more closely--a little of which amongst so many would make a vast difference in the total supply.]

[Footnote 9: See article Thea, by Dr. Royle, in "Penny Cyclopædia," vol xxiv., p. 286.]

[Footnote 10: Hooker's "Bot. Mag.," 1.3148. It is the Assam tea plant.]

[Footnote 11: Report on Tea Cultivation submitted to House of Commons. See Blue Book, 1839, p. 1-3.]

[Footnote 12: In a short time rain gauges will be established at Bheemtal, Huwalbaugh, Paoree, and Kaolagir, in order to measure the quantity of rain that falls annually, for the purpose of ascertaining how much the quantity and quality of the produce of tea is affected by the weather.]

[Footnote 13: In China this process, according to the statement of tea manufacturers, is carried on to a great extent.]

[Footnote 14: Dr. Jameson, in a late communication, remarks--"From the accounts I have received of that place (Darjeeling), I doubt not but that the plants there grown will yield tea of a superior description."]

[Footnote 15: The crops of this district, such as rice, mundooa, and other grains, are so plentiful and cheap as scarcely to pay the carriage to the nearest market town, much less to the plains. In Almorah a maund of rice or mundooa sells for something less than a rupee; barley for eight annas; and wheat for a rupee.]

[Footnote 16: There is frequently a discrepancy in the figures in the Parliamentary papers, which will account for a want of agreement in some of these returns.]

[Footnote 17: See the "Pharmaceutical Journal" for June, 1849, p. 15, et seq.]

[Footnote 18: Reports of Dr. Roxburgh, Mr. Touchet of Radanagore, and Mr. Cardin of Mirzapore, Cutna. Papers on East India Sugar, page 258.]

[Footnote 19: Many are of opinion, that although the juice of this cane is larger in quantity, yet that it contains less sugar. There is some sense in the reason they assign, which is, that in the Mauritius and elsewhere it has the full time of twelve or fourteen months allowed for its coming to maturity--whereas the agriculture of India, and especially in Bengal, only allows it eight or nine months, which, though ample to mature the smaller country canes, is not sufficient for the Otaheite.]

[Footnote 20: Roxburgh on the Culture of Sugar and Jaggary in the Rajahmundry Circar; Third Ap. to Report on East India Sugar, p. 2.]

[Footnote 21: L'Exploitation de Sucreries. Porter on the Sugar Cane, 53,321.]

[Footnote 22: That the above application would be beneficial, is rendered still more worthy of credit from the following experience:--In the Dhoon, the white ant is a most formidable enemy to the sugar planter, owing to the destruction it causes to the sets when first planted. Mr. G.H. Smith says, that there is a wood very common there, called by the natives _Butch_, through, which, they say, if the irrigating waters are passed in its progress to the beds, the white ants are driven away. (Trans. Agri-Hort. Soc. of India, v. 65.)]

[Footnote 23: Fitzmaurice on the Culture of the Sugar Cane.]

[Footnote 24: The kilogramme is equal to 2 lb, 3 oz. avoirdupois.]

[Footnote 25: A lecture on the nutritive value of different articles of food, by C. Daubeny, M.D., "Gardener's Chronicle" (London), January 20th, 1849, p. 37.]

[Footnote 26: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, 1849, p. 646.]

[Footnote 27: A lecture "On the Geographical Distribution of Corn Plants," by the Rev. E. Sidney--Proceedings of the Royal Institution (London), May 18th, 1849.]

[Footnote 28: Boussingault's Rural Economy, American edition, pp. 85 and 86.]

[Footnote 29: Zenas Coffin, one of the oldest whalemen in Nantucket, states that corn meal in tight rum puncheons when sent to the Went Indies will keep sweet, while in common flour barrels it will spoil. Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1847, p. 133.]

[Footnote 30: From remarks of Col. Skinner, and others, at a meeting of the American Institute, held in April 1846. Transactions of American Institute, 1846, p. 509 _et seq._]

[Footnote 31: Comptes Rendus des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences, February 5th, 1819.]

[Footnote 32: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., vol. i. p. 153.]

[Footnote 33: The Plant: a Biography; by M.H. Schleiden, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of Jena. English translation, p. 54.]

[Footnote 34: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1847, p. 190. In this communication, Mr. Bentz does not describe the process which he adopts, but enumerates some of its supposed advantages.]

[Footnote 35: Quoted by Boussingault, Rural Economy, Amer. edition, p. 410.]

[Footnote 36: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., Vol. i. p. 140.]

[Footnote 37: Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c., by R.D. Thomson, M.D., p. 156.]

[Footnote 38: Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology, translated by Prof. J.F.W. Johnston, p. 684.]

[Footnote 39: See Dr. R.D. Thomson's Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c.]

[Footnote 40: Mulder's Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology; English Translation, p. 816.]

[Footnote 41: I have had no opportunity of analysing samples of flour from the South-Western States, and therefore cannot extend this comparison to them.]

[Footnote 42: Transactions of "Agri.-Hort. Society, of Calcutta," vol. iv. p. 125.]

[Footnote 43: Dict. of Arts and Manufacture.]

[Footnote 44: Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. 3, p. 138.]

[Footnote 45: The glasses used were all of the sort described in Griffin's catalogue under the name of Clark's test-glasses. They were all, as nearly as possible, of the same size and shape.]

[Footnote 46: I have determined the amount of nitrogen contained in the meal made from the whole maize, the growth of the colony, as also from plantain meal; I have also ascertained its amount in cassava meal, prepared in the manner mentioned in the text, and in meal prepared from the cassava sliced, dried, and ground without expressing the juice. Assuming Liebig's formula of Proteine, namely, C-48 N-6 H-36 0-4 the results stand thus:--

Nitrogen. Proteine compounds.
Per cent. Per cent.
Maize meal (unhusked) 1.73 10.72
Plantain meal .88 5.45
Cassava meal (juice expressed) .36 2.23
Ditto from the sliced and dried roots .78 4.83
]

[Footnote 47: Les Moyens de prévenir la Maladie des Pommes de Terre. Expériences et Conclusions de A.N.C. Bollman, Conseiller d'état, Professeur, &c. 8vo, St. Petersburg, 1853.]

[Footnote 48: If cinnamon seeds after washing be exposed to the sun, even for twenty minutes, the shells will crack in two, and this prevents the seeds from growing.]

[Footnote 49: No export duties exist in the Straits Settlements.]

[Footnote 50: Since these remarks were written, the duty has been wholly abolished.]

[Footnote 51: Although this was the amount of produce for 1842, it must be remarked that that crop was a complete failure, and the average crop for some years past has been 46,666 pounds.]

[Footnote 52: Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.]

[Footnote 53: The vernacular name for stale or putrid urine.]

[Footnote 54: "Lit" was the name applied to the plant, from which the dye was to be prepared, and "pig" is the Scotch synonym for any kind of earthenware vessel---in which the maceration was generally carried on.]

[Footnote 55: Pitkins' Statistics of the United States.]

[Footnote 56: A great portion of the crop I grew had leaves measuring two feet nine inches in length and eighteen inches wide, being larger than I ever knew to have been grown in America. The average weight I obtained per acre, was 25 cwt.; whereas I see by the public returns, the average of what is grown here is only 17 1-7th cwt.]

INDEX.

_Albrus precatorius_, 643

Acacia bark, 493
_Catechu_, 495, 577
_dealbata_, 505

_Acer saccharinum_, 205

Acre, coffee trees to the, 69

Achira plant, 355

Achote, a name for arnotto, 447

_Acrocomia fusiformis_, 519

_Adeps Myristica_, 402

_Adme cyperus_, 626

_Adenanthera Pavonina_, 378

_Adansonia digitata_, 378

African arrowroot, 353
lard, 525
purple millet, 307

Africa, pepper grown in, 422
tobacco culture in, 615

Agar-Agar moss, 378, 379

Agi or Guinea pepper, 429

Agave Americana--a substitute for soap, 574

Agaiti oil, 520

Agricultural wealth of tropical regions, 2

Aipi, 376

Akyab, exports of rice from, 297

_Aleurites triloba_, 521, 538

Alexandrian senna, 648

Algaroba beans, 313
bark, 503

Algiers, tobacco culture in, 615

Alizaine, 478

Alkanet root, 442

Allspice, the common name for pimento, 430

Almond oil, 510, 533

Aloes, statistics of exports from the Cape, 632
varieties of, 628

_Alpinia Galanga_, 419
_Cardamomum_, 419
_racemosa_, 414

_Alstræmeria pallida_, 330

_Althea rosea_, 442

_Amaranthus gangiticus_, 434

American arrowroot, 352
flour, countries to which, shipped, 223

Americans consume most coffee, 40

Amboyna wood, 439

_Amomum_, species of, 419
_Zingiber_, 414

_Anacardium occidentale_, 495, 521

Analyses, various, of tobacco, 592-93

Analysis of the coffee plant, 49
ashes of the coffee tree, 43
of catechu, 579
of Havana tobacco, 591, 615
of other varieties, 615
of oil cake, 546
of soils, 617
of soils, not so requisite abroad, 7
of the sugar cane, by Dr. Evans, 154
of sugar soils in the East, 172

_Anethum graveolens_, 376
_Sowa_, seeds of, 434

Angola weed, 486

Aniseed, 437

Antigua arrowroot, statistics of, 353
cost of cultivating sugar, 189

Ants, remedy for, 181

_Anchusa tinctoria_, 442

Andropogon, species of, 572

_Anileria_, a manufactory for indigo, 460

Apricot oil, 511, 536

Apios, 355, 371

Aquilaria, species of, 439

Arghel leaves, 647

_Arachis hypogoea_, 513

_Arenga saccharifera_, the _gomutus saccharifera_ of Rumphius, 136, 314

Areometer, an instrument for testing oil, 532

_Arbor alba_, 566

Areca nuts, value of the exports from Ceylon, 579
palm, 577

_Argemone Mexicana_, 511, 521, 626

Arnotto, 447

Arpent, a French land measure, about one-seventh less than an acre, 251

Arracan, exports of rice from, 297

_Arracacha esculenta_, 355, 375

Arrack, 556
used to flavor tobacco, 621

Arroba, a Spanish weight of 25 lbs., the fourth part of a quintal.

Arrowroot, Benzon's analysis of, 348
culture and commerce of, 345
made from the Palmyra shoots, 376
starch of, 331, 334-35, 337

Arsenic for steeping grain, poisonous effects from, 233

_Artocarpus incisa_, 318, 330

_Arum colocasia_, 364
_esculentum_, 364
_Rumphii_, 365

Asafoetida, 633

_Asclepias curassavica_, 625
_gigantea_, 494
_tingens_, 442

Assamee, an Indian name for the ryot or cultivator, 467

Assam, introduction of tea culture, 94
tea sales, 98
Company, origin of, 98
manufacture of tea in, 126

Assaroo, rain sowing, 468

_Astoria theiformis_, used as tea at Santa Fe, 80

Attap leaf for thatching, 405, 559

Attar of roses, 570

Aucklandia, 438

_Auracaria Bidwillii_, 377

Australia, consumption of tea in, 87, 88
sugar cultivation recommended, 139

Austria production of beet-root sugar in, 197, 200

_Avicenna tomentosa_, 444

Avocado seed yields a dye stuff, 444

Awl tree, 443

Babool wood, 493

Bahu, a land measure in Java, equal to 71 acres.

Bajree, the Indian name for _Holcus Spicatus_, 306

Bales of Cuba tobacco, size of, 613

Balfour (Prof.) on the starch in potatoes, 330
on species of rhubarb, 647

Ball's account of the cultivation, &c., of tea, 103

Banana, starch in, 331
used as a shade for the cacao, 15

_Baptista tinctoria_, 453