part 30

(1878).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ORCHIDACEÆ.

SALEP.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2438] See Appendix, Porta.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VANILLA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{OCH₃ C₆H₃ {OH. {CHO

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

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

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

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

{OCH₃ C₆H₃ {OH are precipitated. {COOH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IRIDACEÆ.

RHIZOMA IRIDIS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2460] _Dispensatorium_, Norimb. 1529. 288.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2464] _Consular Reports_, 1876. 1416.

CROCUS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2467] _Canticles_, ch. iv. 14.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2494] Dumesnil, _l. c._

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

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

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

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

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

PALMÆ.

SEMEN ARECÆ.

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

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

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

[2499] _Science Papers_, 368.

[2500] Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_,