part 27

(1877).

[1037] The fine old trees existing at the convent of Antiphoniti on the north coast of Cyprus, and at that of Neophiti near Papho, specimens of which were distributed by Kotschy as _Liquidambar imberbis_ Ait., agree in all points with the American _L. stryaciflua_ L., and not with the Asiatic plant. Kotschy has told me that they have _certainly been planted_, and that no other examples exist in the island.—D. H. The same opinion is adopted by Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 8319.

[1038] Περί Στύακοτ δίατριβὴ ϕαρμακογραϕικὴ ἐν Ἀθῆναιπ, 1862.—This pamphlet is also the subject of a paper of Prof. Planchon, _Journ. de Pharm._ 24 (1876) 172. 243.

[1039] _Medicæ Artis Principes post Hippocratem et Galenum_, Par. 1567.—Aëtii tetr. 4. serm. 4. c. 122; P. Ægineta, _De re med._ vii. 20.

[1040] The foliage of the Liquidambar much resembles that of the common maple (_Acer campestre_ L.); hence the two trees as well as the plane (_Platanus orientalis_ L.) are confounded under one name,—Ζυγὸς or Ζυγίᾳ. So _Styrax officinalis_ L., from the resemblance of its leaves to those of _Pirus Cydonia_ L., is known in Greece as Ζυγὸς κυδωνήα kydônêa, i.e. _wild quince_.

We find in fact the term _Sigia_ frequently mentioned by Rhazes (10th century) as signifying Liquid Storax. This and other Arabian physicians were also familiar with the same substance under the name of _Miha_ (_may’a_), and also knew how and whence it was obtained.[1041]

A curious account of the collecting of Liquid Storax from the tree _Zygia_, and from another tree called _Stourika_, is given in the travels through Asia Minor to Palestine of the Russian abbot of Tver in A.D. 1113-1115.[1042]

The wide exportation and ancient use of Liquid Storax are very remarkable: even in the first century, as appears by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Storax, by which term there can be but little doubt _Liquid Storax_ was intended, was exported by the Red Sea to India. Whether the _Storax_ and _Storax Isaurica_ offered to the Church of Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, by the emperor Constantine,[1043] was Liquid Storax or the more precious resin of _Styrax officinalis_ L., is a point we cannot determine. That the Chinese used the drug was a fact known to Garcia de Orta (1535-63): Bretschneider[1044] has shown from Chinese sources that, together with olibanum and myrrh, it was imported by the Arabs into China during the Ming dynasty, A.D. 1368-1628. This trade is still carried on: the drug is conveyed by way of the Red Sea to Bombay, and thence shipped to China. Official returns show that the quantity thus exported from Bombay in the year 1856-57 was 13,328 lb. In the time of Kämpfer (1690-92), Liquid Storax was one of the most profitable articles of shipment to Japan.[1045]

Liquid Storax is known in the East, at least in the price-currents and trade statistics of Europeans, by the strange-sounding name of _Rose Malloes_ (_Rosa Mallas_, _Rosum Alloes_, _Rosmal_), a designation for it in use in the time of Garcia de Orta. Clusius[1046] considered it to be Arabic, which, however, the scholars whom we have consulted do not allow. Others identify it with _Rasamala_, the Malay name for _Altingia excelsa_. (See further on.)

The botanical origin of Liquid Storax was long a perplexing question to pharmacologists. It was correctly determined by Krinos, but his information on the subject published in a Greek newspaper in 1841, and repeated by Kosté in 1855,[1047] attracted no attention in Western Europe. The question was also investigated by one of the authors of the present work, whose observations, together with a figure of _Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller, were published in 1857.[1048]

[1041] _Ibn Baytar_, Sontheimer’s transl. ii. 539.

[1042] Noroff, _Pèlerinage en Terre Sainte de l’Igoumène russe Daniel_, St. Pétersb. 164.4°.—The passage has been kindly abstracted for us by Prof. Heyd of Stuttgart.

[1043] Vignolius, _Liber Pontificalis_, Romæ, i. (1724) 94.—The ancient Isauria was in Cilicia, the country of _Styrax officinalis_ L.

[1044] _On the knowledge possessed by the Chinese of the Arabs_, etc., Lond. 1871. 19.

[1045] _Hist. of Japan_, ed. Scheuchzer, i. 353.

[1046] _Exoticorum Libri_, 245.

[1047] Ἐγχειρίδιον Φαρμακολογίας, ύπὸ Ν. Κωστῆ, 1855. 356.

[1048] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ xvi. (1857) 417. 461, and iv. (1863) 436; _Science Papers_, 127-150.

=Method of Extraction=—The extraction of Liquid Storax is carried on in the forests of the south-west of Asia Minor, chiefly by a tribe of wandering Turcomans called _Yuruks_. The process has been described on the authority of Maltass and McCraith of Smyrna, and of Campbell, British Consul at Rhodes.[1049] The outer bark is said to be first removed from the trunk of the tree and rejected; the inner is then scraped off with a peculiar iron knife or scraper, and thrown into pits until a sufficient quantity has been collected. It is then boiled with water in a large copper, by which process the resin is separated, so that it can be skimmed off. This seems to be performed with sea water; some chloride of sodium can therefore be extracted from the drug. The boiled bark is put into hair bags and squeezed under a rude lever, hot water being added to assist in the separation of the resin, or as it is termed _yagh_, i.e. _oil_. Maltass states that the bark is pressed in the first instance _per se_, and afterwards treated with hot water. In either case the products obtained are the opaque, grey, semi-fluid resin known as _Liquid Storax_, and the fragrant cakes of foliaceous, brown bark, once common[1050] but now rare in European pharmacy, called _Cortex Thymiamatis_.

We are indebted to M. Felix Sahut of Montpellier for a specimen of the bark of _Liquidambar orientalis_, cut from the trunk of a fine tree on his property at the neighbouring village of Lattes. The bark which is covered with a very thick corky layer and soaked in its own fragrant resin, shows no tendency to exfoliate. The investigations of Unger[1051] in Cyprus are consequently to us inexplicable; he asserts that the bark scales off, like that of the plane, by continued exfoliation, which is not the case with that of M. Sahut’s tree.

[1049] Hanbury, _l.c._

[1050] It is no doubt the “_Cortex Olibani_” met with in the tariff of 1571, in Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie_, 26.

[1051] Unger u. Kotschy, _Die Insel Cypern_. Wien, 1865. 410.

=Description=—Liquid Storax is a soft viscid resin, usually of the consistence of honey, heavier than water, opaque and greyish brown. It always contains water, which by long standing rises to the surface. In one sample that had been kept more than 20 years, the resin at the bottom of the bottle formed a transparent layer of a pale golden brown. When liquid storax is heated, it becomes by the loss of water dark brown and transparent, the solid impurities settling to the bottom. Spread out in a very thin layer, it partially dries, but does not wholly lose its stickiness. When free from water (which reddens litmus) it dissolves in alcohol, spirit of wine, chloroform, ether, glacial acetic acid, bisulphide of carbon, and most of the essential oils, but not in the most volatile part of petroleum (“petroleum ether”). It has a pleasant balsamic smell, especially after it has been long kept; when recent, it is contaminated with an odour of bitumen or naphthalene that is far from agreeable. Its taste is sharply pungent, burning and aromatic.

When the opaque resin is subjected to microscopic examination, small brownish granules are observed in a viscid, colourless, transparent liquid, besides which large drops of a mobile watery liquid may be distinguished. In polarized light, numerous minute crystalline fragments with a few larger tabular crystals are obvious. But when thin layers of the resin are left on the object glass in a warm place, feathery or spicular crystals (styracin) shoot out on the edge of the clear liquid, while in the large, sharply-defined drops above mentioned, rectangular tables and short prisms (cinnamic acid) make their appearance. On applying more warmth after the water is evaporated, all the substances unite into a transparent, dark brown, thick liquid, which exhibits no crystalline structure on cooling, or only after a very long time. Among the fragments of the bark occurring in the crude resin, liber-fibres are frequently observable.

=Chemical Composition=—The most abundant constituent of Styrax is probably the _Storesin_, C₃₆H₅₅(OH)₃, discovered in 1877 by W. von Miller, or rather cinnamic ethers of it and of an isomeric substance. Storesin is an amorphous substance melting at 168° C., readily soluble in petroleum ether. Several other compound ethers have also been observed in the drug, as for instance _cinnamic ether of phenylpropyl_, _cinnamic ether of ethyl_, cinnamic ether of benzyl, and especially cinnamate of cinnamyl, C₉H₇O₂·C₉H₉, the so-called _Styracin_. This substance, discovered by Bonastre in 1827, can be removed by ether, benzol or alcohol, after the separation from the resin of the cinnamic acid; it is insoluble in water, and volatile only in super-heated steam. It crystallizes in tufts of long rectangular prisms, which melt at 38° C., but it frequently does not solidify in a crystalline form, or only after a long time, or remains as an oily liquid. In its pure state it is inodorous and tasteless. By concentrated solution of potash, it is resolved into a cinnamate, and cinnamic alcohol (_Styrone_) C₉H₁₀O, which latter is not present in Liquid Storax. The _cinnamic acid_ may be extracted to a small extent by boiling water, more completely by means of a boiling solution of carbonate of sodium, as it is present in the drug partly in the free state. Its compound ethers may be decomposed by caustic lye. The yield of cinnamic acid accordingly varies from 6 to 12 per cent.—or even, according to Löwe, as much as 23 per cent. of crystallized cinnamic acid can be obtained. The acid dissolves abundantly in ether, alcohol, or hot water, slightly in cold water; it is inodorous, but has an acrid taste. It fuses at 133° C., and boils at 290° C.; at a dull red heat it is resolved into carbonic acid and styrol, which latter is therefore related to it in the same manner as benzol (benzene) to benzoic acid. Liquid styrax is in fact the best source of cinnamic acid.

Another constituent of styrax is a fragrant substance, perhaps _ethylvanillin_, occurring in but small quantity.

Laubenheimer (1872) has shown that probably _Benzylic Alcohol_, C₇H₈O, boiling at 206° C., likewise occurs in Liquid Storax; it has not been found by Miller. The latter chemist also showed that water removes from the drug a little _benzoïc acid_; he observed moreover a substance similar to _caoutchouc_ among the constituents of liquid styrax.

There is further to be mentioned as having been met with in Liquid Storax a hydrocarbon, C₈H₈, first prepared by Simon in 1839, which exists in the resin as a liquid, and also in a polymeric form as a solid. The former called _Styrol_, _Cinnamene_, or _Cinnamol_, has a sp. gr. of 0·924, and a boiling point of 146° C. It is a colourless, mobile liquid which may be obtained by distilling with water liquid storax, the odour and burning taste of which it possesses. When heated for a considerable time to 100°, or for a shorter period to 200° C., it is converted without change of composition into the colourless, transparent solid _Metastyrol_, which, unlike styrol, is not soluble in alcohol or ether. It has a sp. gr. of 1·054, and may be cut with a knife. By prolonged heating, it can be converted into its original liquid form.

Styrol is to be regarded as phenylated ethylene; it can be artificially obtained by shaking powdered cinnamic acid with saturated hydrobromic acid, when crystalline hydrobromated cinnamic acid, C₆H₅·CH₂·CHBr·COOH, is formed. One part of the latter, 10 parts of water, and a little more carbonate of sodium than the quantity required for saturation are mixed. The bromhydrocinnamate of sodium partly splits up immediately, even at 0°, according to the following equation

C₆H₅·CH₂·CHBr·COONa = CO₂ + NaBr + C₆H₅·CH·CH₂. Bromhydrocinnamate Styrol. of sodium.

24 parts of bromhydrocinnamic acid, recrystallized from boiling bisulphide of carbon, yield about 7 parts of styrol; no other method affords as much as this.

Styrol has been discovered in Styrax, but is not regularly, and at all events to a minute amount only, found in the drug of the present day. We have no explanation for the strange fact that it was apparently more abundantly met with in former times.

Lastly there has been found in Liquid Storax, by J. H. van t’Hoff (1876), about 0·4 per cent. of an _essential oil_, probably C₁₀H₁₆O; Miller also pointed out a compound ether of probably the same (alcoholic) substance as occurring in styrax.

By the action of oxidizing agents, as nitric or chromic acids, or peroxide of lead, the cinnamyl compounds are easily reduced, carbonic acid and water being evolved; and at the same time benzoic acid, bitter almond oil, and hydrocyanic acid are produced. These compounds are in fact abundantly evolved when 6 parts of Liquid Storax are gently warmed with 1 p. of caustic soda, and then mixed with 3 p. of permanganate of potassium dissolved in 20 p. of water.

We have examined several samples of Liquid Storax of average quality, and found by exposure of small quantities to the heat of the steam bath, that it lost from 10 to 20 per cent. of water. The remainder treated with alcohol yielded a residue amounting to 13 to 18 per cent., consisting chiefly of fragments of bark and inorganic impurities. The percentage of the drug soluble in alcohol, to which is due its therapeutic value, thus amounts to 56 to 72. This part, as may be inferred from the foregoing statements, consists chiefly of storesin, the various compound ethers above mentioned, of cinnamic acid and of styracin, no doubt in greatly varying proportions.

=Commerce=—The annual production of Liquid Storax was estimated by Campbell in 1855 as about 490 cwt. for the districts of Giova and Ullá, and 300 cwt. for those of Marmorizza and Isgengak. The drug is exported in barrels to Constantinople, Smyrna, Syra and Alexandria. Some is also packed with a certain proportion of water in goatskins, and sent either by boats or overland to Smyrna, where it is transferred to barrels and shipped mostly to Trieste.

The chief consumption of Liquid Storax would appear to be in India and China. In the fiscal year 1866-67, Bombay imported 319 cwt. from the Red Sea. Liquid Storax is seldom seen in the London drug-sales.

=Uses=—Liquid Storax, which the _British Pharmacopœia_ directs to be purified by solution in spirit of wine, is an ingredient in a few old-fashioned preparations but is hardly ever prescribed on its own account. It is stated to be expectorant and stimulant, and useful in chronic bronchial affections. It has been recommended by Pastau, Berlin (1865), as an external application for the cure of scabies, for which purpose it is mixed with linseed oil and now largely used.

=Adulteration=—The drug is occasionally mixed with sand, ashes, and other substances; these would be detected by solution in spirit of wine, as well as by the microscope.

Allied Substances.

_Styrax Calamita_ (_Storax en pain_ Guibourt)—The substance that now bears this name is by no means the _Styrax Calamita_ of ancient times, but is an artificial compound made by mixing the residual Liquidambar bark called _Cortex Thymiamatis_ (p. 273), coarsely powdered, with Liquid Storax in the proportions of 3 to 2. It is at first a clammy mass, acquiring after a few weeks an appearance of mouldiness, due to minute silky crystals of styracin. It is usually imported in wooden drums, and has a very sweet smell. When the bark is scarce, common sawdust is substituted for it, while qualities still inferior are made up with the help of olibanum, honey, and earthy substances. This drug is manufactured at Trieste, Venice and Marseilles.

Several other odoriferous compounds, of which Liquid Storax appears to be the chief ingredient, are made in the East and may still be found in old drug warehouses.[1052]

_Resin of Styrax officinalis_ L.; =_True Storax_=—This was a solid resin somewhat resembling benzoin, of fragrant, balsamic odour, held in great estimation from the time of Dioscorides and Pliny down to the close of the last century. It was perhaps the “storace odorifero” exported in the 12th century from Pantellaria[1053] and Sicily. The drug was obtained from the stem of _Styrax officinalis_ L. (_Styraceæ_), a native of Greece, Asia Minor and Syria, now found also in Italy and Southern France. This plant when permitted to grow freely for several years, forms a small tree, in which state alone it appears to be capable of affording a fragrant resin. But in most localities it has been reduced by ruthless lopping to a mere bush, the young stems of which yield not a trace of exudation. True storax has thus utterly disappeared.

Professor Krinos of Athens has informed us (1871) that about Adalia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, a sort of solid storax obtained from _S. officinalis_ is still used as incense in the churches and mosques. The specimen of it which he has been good enough to send us, is not however resin, but _sawdust_; it is of a pale cinnamon-brown, and pleasant balsamic odour. By keeping, it emits an abundance of minute acicular crystals (styracin?). The substance is interesting in connection with the statement of Dioscorides, that the resin of _Styrax_ is adulterated with the _sawdust of the tree itself_, and the fact that the region where this sawdust is still in use is one of the localities for the drug (Pisidia) which he mentions.

[1052] The _Storax noir_ of Guibourt is one of these.

[1053] Quoted before, p. 163, note 3; in the same book “_cotone storace e corallo_“ occur as articles of export from Sicily.

_Resin of Liquidambar styraciflua_ L.—a large and beautiful tree, native of North America from Connecticut and Illinois southward to Mexico and Guatemala. In the United States, where it is called _Sweet Gum_, the tree yields from natural fissures or by incision, small quantities of a balsamic resin, which is occasionally used for chewing. We have before us an excellent sample of it collected for Messrs. Wallace Brothers of Statesville, N. Carolina.[1054]

In Central America this exudation is far more freely produced; an authentic specimen from Guatemala in our possession is a pale yellow, opaque resin of honey-like consistence, becoming transparent, amber-coloured and brittle by exposure to the air. It has a rather terebinthinous, balsamic odour. In the mouth it softens like benzoin or mastich, and has but little taste. Another specimen also from Guatemala, a thick, fluid oleo-resin, of a golden brown hue, was contributed to the Paris Exhibition in 1878.

The resin of _L. styraciflua_ L. has been ascertained by Procter[1055] to contain cinnamic, but not benzoic acid. Harrison[1056] found it to contain styracin and essential oil (styrol?).

_Resin of Liquidambar formosana_ Hance—This tree, which we suppose may be the _Styrax liquida folio minore_, which Ray names[1057] as occurring in a collection of plants from Amoy, is a native of Formosa and Southern China, where it affords a dry terebinthinous resin, of agreeable fragrance when heated. Of this resin, which is used by the Chinese, a specimen collected in Formosa by Mr. Swinhoe has been presented to us by Dr. Hooker. A tree figured under the name of _Fung-heang_ in the _Pun-tsao_[1058] is, we presume, this species.

_Resin of Altingia excelsa_ Noronha (_Liquidambar Altingiana_ Bl.) =_Rasamala_= of the Javanese and Malays—The _Rasamala_ is a magnificent tree of the Indian Archipelago, Burma and Assam. In Java it yields by incisions in the trunk an odorous resin, yet only very slowly and in very small quantity; this resin is not, or at least not regularly, collected. In Burma, on the other hand, the tree affords a fragrant balsam, of which according to Waring[1059] there are two varieties, the one pellucid and of a light yellowish colour, obtained by simple incision; the other thick, dark, opaque, and of terebinthinous odour, procured by boring the stem and applying fire around the trunk.

MYRTACEÆ.

OLEUM CAJUPUTI.

_Oil of Cajuput_, _Kayu-puti Oil_; F. _Essence de Cajuput_; G. _Cajeputöl_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Melaleuca Leucadendron_ L., a tree often attaining a considerable size, with a thick spongy bark peeling off in layers, and slender, often pendulous branches. It is widely spread, and abundant in the Indian Archipelago and Malayan peninsula, and is also found in Northern Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales.

[1054] Obligingly presented to me by our friend, Dr. Squibb, Brooklyn (1879).—F. A. F.

[1055] _Proceedings of the Am. Pharm. Asso._ 1865. 160.

[1056] _Am. Journ. of Pharm._ 1874. 161.—In the same periodical (1876, 335) 300 lbs. are stated to have been collected at Dyersburg, Tenn.

[1057] _Hist. Plant._ iii. (1704), appendix p. 233.

[1058] Chap. 34. sec. 5. § 1. _Aromatic Trees._ For a modern fig., see Hooker’s _Icones Plant._ 3rd series, i. tab. 1020.

[1059] _Pharm. of India_, 1868. 88.

The tree, according to Bentham,[1060] varies exceedingly in the size, shape, and texture of the leaves, in the young shoots being silky, and the spikes silky-villous or woolly, or the whole quite glabrous, in the short and dense, or long and interrupted spikes, in the size of the flower, and in the greenish yellow, whitish, pink, or purple stamens, so that it is difficult to believe all can be forms of a single species. Yet upon examination, none of these variations are sufficiently constant or so combined, as to allow of the definition of distinct races.

The variety growing in Bouro, where the oil of cajuput has been distilled ever since the time of Rumphius, and known as _M. minor_ Smith, is described by Lesson, who visited the island in 1823, as a tree resembling an aged olive, with flowers in little globose white heads, and a trunk the stout bark of which is composed of numerous satiny layers.

=History=—Rumphius, who passed nearly fifty years in the Dutch possessions in the East Indies and died at Amboyna in 1702, is the first to give an account of the oil under notice, and of the tree from which it is obtained.[1061] From what he says, it appears that the aromatic properties of the tree are well known to the Malays and Javanese, who were in the habit of steeping its leaves in oil which they then impregnated with the smoke of benzoin and other aromatics, so obtaining an odorous liquid for anointing their heads. They likewise used cushions stuffed with the leaves, and also laid the latter in chests to keep away insects.

The fragrance of the foliage having thus attracted the attention of the Dutch, probably suggested submitting the leaves to distillation. Rumphius narrates how the oil was obtained in very small quantities, and was regarded as a powerful sudorific.

In Europe it appears to have been first noticed by J. M. Lochner,[1062] of Nürnberg, physician to the German Emperor. About the same time (1717), a ship’s surgeon, returning from the east, sold a provision of the oil to the distinguished apothecary Johann Heinrich Link at Leipzig, who published a notice on it and sold it.[1063] It began then to be quoted in the tariffs of other German apothecaries,[1064] although it was still reputed a very rare article in 1726.[1065] Somewhat larger quantities appear to have been soon imported by Amsterdam druggists.[1066] In Germany the oil took the name of _Oleum Wittnebianum_, from the recommendations bestowed on it by M. von Wittneben, of Wolfenbüttel, who was much engaged in natural sciences and long resident in Batavia.[1067] In France and England, it was however scarcely known till the commencement of the present century, though it had a place in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1788. In the _London Price Current_, we do not find it quoted earlier than 1813, when the price given is 3_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ per ounce, with a duty of 2_s._ 4½_d._ per ounce.

[1060] _Flora Australiensis_, iii. (1866) 142.

[1061] _Herb. Amboinense_, ii. (1741) cap. 26.

[1062] _Acad. Nat. Curios. Ephemerid. Cent._ v. vi. (Nürnberget, 1717) 157.

[1063] _Sammlung von Natur und Medicin ... Geschichten_, Leipzig, 1719. 257.

[1064] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1876) 1023.

[1065] Vater, _Catalog. varior. exoticor. rarissimor...._ Wittenbergæ, 1726.

[1066] Schendus van der Beck, _De Indiæ rarioribus, Act. Nat. Cur._ i., appendix (1725) 123.

[1067] Goetz, _Olei Caieput historia—Commercium Litterarium_, 1731. 3; Martini, _De Oleo Wittnebiano dissertatio_, 1751.

=Manufacture=—In the island of Bouro, in the Molucca Sea, the leaves of the _Kayu-puti_ or Aij-puti, _i.e._ _White-wood_ trees, are submitted to distillation with water, the operation being conducted in the most primitive manner, as already witnessed, about the year 1792, by Labillardière in his celebrated voyage with Lapérouse. Bickmore,[1068] an American traveller who passed three months in the island in 1865, states that it produces about 8,000 bottles of the oil annually, and that this is almost its only export. The Trade Returns of the Straight Settlements published at Singapore, show that the largest quantity is shipped from Celebes, the great island lying west of Bouro.

[1068] _Travels in the East Indian Archipelago_, Lond. 1868. 282.

=Description=—Oil of Cajuput is a transparent mobile fluid, of a light bluish-green hue, a fragrant camphoraceous odour, and bitterish aromatic taste. It has a sp. gr. of 0·926, and remains liquid even at (8°·6 F.)-13° C. It deviates the ray of polarized light to the left. On diluting it with bisulphide of carbon it becomes turbid.

=Chemical Composition=—The researches of Schmidl (1860) and of Gladstone (1872) have shown that cajuput oil consists chiefly of _Hydrate of Cajuputene_ or _Cajuputol_, C₁₀H₁₆, H₂O, which may be obtained from the crude oil by fractional distillation at 174° C. If it is repeatedly distilled from anhydrous phosphoric acid, _Cajuputene_, C₁₀H₁₆, passes over at 160-165° C.; it has an agreeable odour of hyacinths. After the cajuputene, _Isocajuputene_ distils at 177°, and _Paracajuputene_ at 310-316°, both agreeing in composition with cajuputene.

Like most essential oils having the formula C₁₀H₁₆, crude cajuput oil is capable of forming the crystallized compound C₁₀H₁₆, 3OH₂. This we have abundantly obtained by mixing 4 parts of the oil with 1 of alcohol 0·830 sp. gr., and one part of nitric acid 1·20 sp. gr.; the mixture should be allowed to stand in shallow dishes. By adding 1 vol. of absolute alcohol to 3 vol. of cajuput oil, and saturating it with anhydrous hydrochloric gas, crystals of the compound C₁₀H₁₆(HCl)₂ may be obtained. By vapour of bromine the oil acquires a beautiful green colour.

If 1 part of iodine be gradually dissolved in cajuput oil, the temperature being maintained at 50° C., fine green crystals of (C₁₀H₁₆HI)₂OH₂ are formed. They may be recrystallized from very little glacial acetic acid, but will not keep for more than a few weeks.

The green tint of the oil is due to copper, a minute proportion of which metal is usually present in all that is imported. It may be made evident by agitating the oil with water acidulated by a little hydrochloric acid. The compounds of copper with inorganic acids being comparatively of a fainter colour than the cupric salts of organic acids, the aqueous solution of chloride of copper now formed displays no longer the fine green tint. To the solution, after it has been put into a platinum capsule, a little zinc should be added, when the copper will be immediately deposited on the platinum. The liquid may be then poured off and the copper dissolved and tested. When the oil is rectified, it is obtained colourless, but it readily becomes green if in contact for a short time with metallic copper. The presence of the metal in the oil may also be shown at once by a scrap of paper which has been impregnated with fresh tincture of guaiacum wood and dried. If it is then moistened with water containing 1 per cent. of sulphocyanate of potassium, the paper turns intensely blue by the contact with the oil provided the latter contains copper.

Guibourt[1069] has however proved by experiment that the volatile oil obtained by the distillation of the leaves of several species of _Melaleuca_, _Metrosideros_ and _Eucalyptus_, has naturally a fine green hue. It is not improbable that this hue is transient, and that the contamination with copper is intentional in order to obtain a permanent green.

=Commerce=—The oil is imported from Singapore and Batavia, packed in glass beer or wine bottles. From official statements[1070] it appears that the imports into Singapore during 1871 were as under:—

From Java 445 gallons ” Manilla 200 ” ” Celebes 3,895 ” ” other places 350 ” ----- Total 4,890 ” -----

Of this large quantity, the greater portion was re-shipped to Bombay, Calcutta, and Cochin China.

=Uses=—Cajuput oil is occasionally administered internally as a stimulant, antispasmodic and diaphoretic: externally as a rubefacient it is in frequent use.

=Substitutes=—The oil of _Eucalyptus oleosa_ F. Muell. has, we find, the odour of cajuput; and according to Gladstone it agrees, as well as the oils of _Melaleuca ericifolia_ Sm. and _M. linariifolia_ Sm., almost entirely with cajuput oil, except in optical properties. The same is probably the case with the oil of _Eucalyptus globulus_ Labill, which Cloez (1870) states to be dextrogyre. These oils are shipped to some extent from Australia to Europe, probably as adulterants of other essential oils.

CARYOPHYLLI.

_Cloves_; F. _Girofles_, _Clous de Girofles_; G. _Gewürznelken_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Eugenia caryophyllata_ Thunberg (_Caryophyllus aromaticus_ L.), a beautiful evergreen tree, 30 to 40 feet high, resembling a gigantic myrtle, bearing numerous flowers grouped in small terminal tricotomous cymes. The flower has an inferior ovary about ½ an inch long, cylindrical, of a crimson colour, dividing at the top into 4 sepals; and 4 round concave petals larger than the calyx, imbricated in the bud like a globe, but at length spreading and soon dropping off.

The clove-tree is said to be strictly indigenous only in the five small islands constituting the proper Moluccas, namely Tarnati, Tidor, Mortir, Makiyan and Bachian.[1071] These form a chain on the west side of the large island of Jilolo, where, strange to say, the tree appears not to exist in a wild state (Crawfurd). According to Rumphius, it was introduced into Amboyna before the arrival of the Portuguese, and is still cultivated there and in the neighbouring islands of Haruku, Saparua and Nusalaut, also in Sumatra and Penang. It is likewise now found in Malacca, the Mascarene Islands, the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba on the eastern coast of Africa, and the West Indies.

[1069] _Hist. des Drog._ iii. (1869) 278.

[1070] _Blue Book of the Colony of the Straits Settlements_ for 1871, Singapore, 1872.

[1071] Though these are the original Moluccas or Clove Islands, the name has been extended to all islands east of Celebes and west of New Guinea.

The tree which is grown for the spice appears to be a cultivated variety, of lower stature and more aromatic than the wild form.

=History=[1072]—The Greek name Καρυόϕυλλον is supposed to refer to the ball-like _petals_ of the bud, which, as above described, might be compared to a small nut (κάρυον). But the name is very variably written, as γαροῦμϕουλ, καρϕούϕουλ, γαρόϕαλα,[1073] whence it becomes probable that it is not really Greek, but an Asiatic word hellenized.

Cloves have been long known to the Chinese. Mr. Mayers, late Chinese Secretary to the British Legation at Pekin, has communicated to us the interesting fact that they are mentioned by several Chinese writers as in use under the Han dynasty, B.C. 266 to A.D. 220, during which period it was customary for the officers of the court to hold the spice in the mouth before addressing the sovereign, in order that their breath might have an agreeable odour.[1074]

The Sanskrit name is “_Lavanga_,” whence the vernacular Hindustani “_Laung_.”

The first European author to mention _Caryophyllon_ is Pliny, who describes it, after _pepper_, as a grain resembling that spice but longer and more brittle, produced in India, and imported for the sake of its odour. It is doubtful whether this description really refers to cloves.

By the 4th century, cloves must have become well known in Europe, if credence can be placed in a remarkable record preserved by Vignoli,[1075] which states that the emperor Constantine presented to St. Silvester, bishop of Rome, A.D. 314-335, numerous vessels of gold and silver, incense and spices, among which last were 150 pounds of _Cloves_—a vast quantity for the period.

Kosmas Indicopleustes,[1076] in his _Topographia Christiana_ written about A.D. 547, states in the account of Taprobane (Ceylon) that silk, aloes [-wood], cloves (Καρυόϕυλλον) and sandal-wood, besides other productions, are imported thither from China, and other emporia, and transmitted to distant regions. Alexander Trallianus,[1077] who was a friend of Kosmos and a pupil of his father, prescribed in several receipts 5 or 8 cloves, καρυοϕυλλου κόκκους, from which fact it may be inferred that at his time (at Rome?) cloves were a very rare article. A century later, Paulus Ægineta[1078] distinctly described cloves as _Caryophyllon_—_ex India, veluti flores cujusdam arboris.. odorati, acres_ ... and much used for a condiment and in medicine.

[1072] For the history of the oil see our article Cortex Cinnamon, chemical composition.

[1073] Langkavel, _Botanik der späteren Griechen_, Berlin, 1866. 19.

[1074] At this period, the clove was called _Ki shêh hiang_, i.e. _fowl’s tongue spice_. The modern name _Ting hiang_, i.e. _nail-scent_ or-_spice_, was in use in the 5th or 6th century of our era.

[1075] _Liber Pontificalis, seu de Gestis Romanorum Pontificum_, Romæ, i. (1724) 94.

[1076] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, series Græca, lxxxviii. (1860) 446.

[1077] Puschman’s edition (quoted in the appendix) i. 435. 580. Alexander dedicated his work to his teacher, the father of Cosmas.

[1078] _De re medica_, lib. vii. c. 3.

In the beginning of the 8th century, the same spice is noticed by Benedictus Crispus,[1079] archbishop of Milan, who calls it _Cariophylus ater_; and in A.D. 716, it is enumerated with other commodities in the diploma granted by Chilperic II. to the monastery of Corbie in Normandy.[1080]

We find cloves among the wares on which duty was levied at Acon (the modern Acre) in Palestine at the end of the 12th century, at which period that city was a great emporium of Mediterranean trade.[1081] They are likewise enumerated in the tariff of Marseilles of A.D. 1228,[1082] in that of Barcelona of 1252[1083] and of Paris, 1296.[1084]

These facts show that the spice was a regular object of commerce at this period. But it was very costly: the Household Book of the Countess of Leicester, A.D. 1265,[1085] gives its price as 10_s._ to 12_s._ per lb., exactly the same as that of saffron. Several other examples of the high cost of the spice might be adduced.

Of the place of growth of cloves, the first distinct notice seems to be that of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdádbah,[1086] A.D. 869-885, who names the spice, with cocoa-nuts, sugar, and sandal-wood as produced in Java. Doubtless he was misinformed, for the clove-tree had not come so far west at that period. Marco Polo[1087] made the same mistake four centuries later: finding the spice in Java, he supposed it the growth of the island.

Nicolo Conti,[1088] a Venetian merchant who lived from A.D. 1424 to 1448 in the Indian Archipelago, learned that cloves are brought to Java from the island of Banda, fifteen days’ sail further east. With the arrival of the Portuguese at the commencement of the 16th century, more accurate accounts of the Spice Islands began to reach Europe; and Pigafetta,[1089] the companion of Magellan, gave a very good description of the clove-tree as he observed it in 1521.

The Portuguese had the principal share in the clove trade for nearly a century. In 1605 they were expelled by the Dutch, who took exclusive possession of the Moluccas and adopted extraordinary measures for keeping the traffic in their own hands. Yet notwithstanding this, large supplies of cloves reached England direct. In 1609 a ship of the East India Company called the _Consent_ arrived with 112,000 lb., the duty on which amounted to £1400 and the impost to as much more. The spice ungarbled was sold at 5_s._ 6_d._ and 5_s._ 9_d._ per lb.—of course, in bond.[1090]

[1079] _Poematium Medicum_—Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, lxxxix. (1850) 374.

[1080] Pardessus, _Diplomata, Chartæ_, etc., ii. (1849) 309.

[1081] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Lois_, (1843) 173.

[1082] _Méry et Guindon, Hist. des Actes ... de la municipalité de Marseille_, 1841. 373.

[1083] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la marina etc. de Barcelona_, iii. 170.

[1084] Douet d’Arcq, _Revue archéologique_, ix. (1852) 213.

[1085] _Manners and Household Expenses in England_ (Roxburgh Club), 1841. lii.

[1086] _Le Livre des routes et des provinces_, traduit par C. Barbier de Meynard, _Journ. Asiat._ sér. 6. tome v. (1865) 227.

[1087] Yule, _Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 217.—It should however be borne in mind that the name Java was applied in a general sense by the Arab geographers to the islands of the Archipelago.

[1088] Kunstmann, _Die Kenntniss Indiens im XVᵗᵉⁿ Jahrhundert_, München, 1863. 46.

[1089] Ramusio, _Delle navigationi et viaggi_, Venetia, 1554, fol. 404b.

[1090] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial series, East Indies_, 1862. 181.

To effect their purpose, the Dutch endeavoured to extirpate the clove-tree from its native islands, and even instituted periodical expeditions for the purpose of destroying any young trees that might have accidentally sprung up. This policy, the object of which was to confine the growth of the spice to a group of small islands of which Amboyna is the largest, has but very recently been abandoned: though the cultivation of the spice was free in all other localities, the _clove parks_ of the Amboyna islands remained the property of the Dutch Government. The original Moluccas or Clove Islands now produce no cloves at all.

The enterprise of Poivre, the French governor of Mauritius and Bourbon, so far eluded the vigilance of the Dutch, that both clove and nutmeg-trees were introduced into those islands in the year 1770.[1091] The clove-tree was carried thence to Cayenne in 1793, and to Zanzibar about the end of the century.

Crawfurd,[1092] in an excellent article of which we have made free use, aptly remarks that it is difficult to understand how the clove first came to the notice of foreign nations, considering the well ascertained fact that it has never been used as a condiment or in any other way by the inhabitants of the islands of which it is a native. We may observe however that there were some singular superstitions among the islanders with regard to the so-called _Royal Clove_ (p. 287), a tree of which on the island of Makiyan was long supposed to be unique.

=Collection=—The flower-buds of the clove-tree when young are nearly white, but afterwards become green and lastly bright red, when they must at once be gathered. This in Zanzibar is done by hand; each clove is picked singly, a moveable stage the height of the tree being used to enable the labourers to reach the upper branches. The buds are then simply dried in the sun, by which they acquire the familiar dark brown tint of the commercial article. The gathering takes place twice a year; in the Moluccas where the harvest occurs in June and December, the cloves are partly gathered by hand, and partly beaten off the tree by bamboos on to cloths spread beneath. The annual yield of a good tree is about 4½ pounds, but sometimes reaches double that quantity.

=Description=—Cloves are about ⁶/₁₀ of an inch in length, and consist of a long cylindrical calyx dividing above into 4 pointed spreading sepals which surround 4 petals, closely imbricated as a globular bud about ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter.

The petals which are of lighter colour than the rest of the drug and somewhat translucent from numerous oil-cells, spring from the base of a 4-sided epigynous disc, the angles of which are directed towards the lobes of the calyx. The stamens which are very numerous, are inserted at the base of the petals and are arched over the style. The latter which is short and subulate, rises from a depression in the centre of the disc. Immediately below it and united with the upper portion of the calyx is the ovary, which is 2-celled and contains many ovules. The lower end of the calyx (_hypanthium_) has a compressed form; it is solid but has its internal tissue far more porous than the walls. The whole calyx is of a deep rich brown, has a dull wrinkled surface, a dense fleshy texture, and abounds in essential oil which exudes on simple pressure with the nail. Cloves have an agreeable spicy odour, and a strong biting aromatic taste.

[1091] Tessier, _Sur l’importation du Giroflier des Moluques aux Isles de France, de Bourbon et de Sechelles, et de ces isles à Cayenne_.—_Observations sur la physique_, Paris, Juillet, 1779.

[1092] _Dictionary of the Indian Islands_, 1856, article _Clove_.

The varieties of cloves occurring in commerce do not exhibit any structural differences. Inferior kinds are distinguished by being less plump, less bright in tint, and less rich in essential oil. In London price-currents, cloves are enumerated in the order of value thus: Penang, Bencoolen, Amboyna, Zanzibar.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of the lower part of a clove shows a dark rhomboid zone, the tissue on either side of which is of a lighter hue. The outer layer beneath the epidermis exhibits a large number of oil-cells, frequently as much as 300 mkm. in diameter. About 200 oil-cells may be counted in one transverse section, so that the large amount of essential oil in the drug is well shown by its microscopic characters. The above-mentioned zone is chiefly made up of about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, another stronger bundle traversing the centre of the clove. The fibro-vascular bundles, as well as the tissue bordering the oil-cells, assume a greenish black hue by alcoholic perchloride of iron. Oil-cells are also largely distributed in the leaves, petals and even the stamens of Eugenia.

=Chemical Composition=—Few plants possess any organ so rich in essential oil as the drug under consideration. The oil known in pharmacy as _Oleum Caryophylli_, which is the important constituent of cloves, is obtainable to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent. But to extract the whole, the distillation must be long continued, the water being returned to the same material.

The oil is a colourless or yellowish liquid with a powerful odour and taste of cloves, sp. gr. 1·046 to 1·058. It is a mixture of a hydrocarbon, and an oxygenated oil called _Eugenol_, in variable proportions. The former which is termed _light oil of cloves_ and comes over in the first period of the distillation, has the composition C₁₅H₂₄, a sp. gr. of 0·918 and boils at 251° C. It deviates the plane of polarization slightly to the left, and is not coloured on addition of ferric chloride; it is of a rather terebinthinaceous odour.

Eugenol, sometimes called _Eugenic Acid_, has a sp. gr. of 1·087 at 0° C., and possesses the full taste and smell of cloves. Its boiling point is 247°·5 C. With alkalis, especially ammonia and baryta, it yields crystallizable salts. Eugenol may therefore be prepared by submitting the crude oil of cloves to distillation with caustic soda; the “light oil” distils then, the eugenol, being now combined with sodium, remains in the still. It will be obtained on addition of an acid and again distilling. Eugenol is devoid of rotatory power, whence the crude oil of cloves, of which eugenol is by far the prevailing constituent, is optically almost inactive. The constitution of eugenol is given by the

{OCH₃ formula C₆H₃ {OH . {CH·CH·CH₃

It belongs to the phenol class, and has also been met with in the fruits of Pimenta officinalis (see next article), in the Bay leaves, in Canella bark (see page 75), in the leaves and flower buds of Cinnamomum zeilanicum and in Brazilian clove-bark (_Dicypellium caryophyllatum_ Nees).

Eugenol can be converted into _Vanillin_ (see Fructus Vanillæ).

The water distilled from cloves is stated to contain, in addition to the essential oil, another body, _Eugenin_, which sometimes separates after a while in the form of tasteless, crystalline laminæ, having the same composition as eugenol.[1093] We have never met with it.

According to Scheuch (1863), oil of cloves also (sometimes) contains a little _Salicylic acid_,

{OH C₆H₄ { , {COOH

which may be removed by shaking the oil with a solution of carbonate of ammonium.

_Caryophyllin_, C₂₀H₃₂O, is a neutral, tasteless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in needle-shaped prisms. We have obtained it in small quantity, by treating with boiling ether cloves, which we had previously deprived of most of their essential oil by small quantities of alcohol. E. Mylius (1873) obtained from it by nitric acid, crystals of _Caryophyllinic Acid_, C₂₀H₃₂O₆.

_Carmufellic Acid_ obtained in colourless crystals, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₆, in 1851 by Muspratt and Danson after digesting an aqueous extract of cloves with nitric acid, is a product of this treatment and not a natural constituent of cloves.

Cloves contain a considerable proportion of gum; also a tannic acid not yet particularly examined.

=Production and Commerce=—Of late years the principal locality for the production of cloves has been the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba on the east coast of Africa, which until very recently were capable of producing a maximum crop of 10½ millions of pounds in a single season. On the 15th April 1872, Zanzibar was visited by a hurricane of extraordinary violence, by which about five-sixths of the clove-trees in the island were destroyed; and although the plantations are being renewed, many years must elapse before the crop can resume its former importance. Pemba, which is distant from Zanzibar 25 miles, and produced about half as much of the spice as that island, did not appreciably suffer from the storm.

The crop on these islands fluctuates, a good year alternating with a bad one. This is partly shown in the imports of Bombay, the great mart of Zanzibar produce, which have been as follows:—

1869-70 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73 45,642 cwt. 21,968 cwt. 43,891 cwt. 25,185 cwt.

The quantity of cloves shipped from Bombay to the United Kingdom is comparatively small, being in 1871-72, 3279 cwt.; in 1872-73, 3271 cwt.

The imports of cloves to the United Kingdom are from one million to four million pounds annually.

Cloves are also largely shipped direct from Zanzibar to the United States and Hamburg. A small amount is taken in native vessels to the Red Sea ports; these are packed in raw hides. Those for the European and American markets are shipped in mat bags made of split cocoa-nut leaf.

[1093] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 201.

The clove trade of the Moluccas has been for many years in the hands of the Dutch Government, which, by its restrictive policy, assumed practically the position of growers, disposing of their produce through the Netherlands Trading Company at auctions held in Holland twice a year. This system having been abolished in 1872, has proved disastrous to the trade it was designed to protect, and to such a degree that the produce of cloves in the Moluccas is but a tenth of what it was in the early days of their intercourse with Europe. The crop of the four islands, Amboyna, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, the only Moluccas in which the tree is cultivated, was reckoned in 1854 as 510,912 lb.

The export of cloves from Java in 1871 was 1397 peculs[1094] (186,226 lb.). The French island of Réunion which from 1825 to 1849 used to produce annually as much as 800,000 kilogrammes (1,764,571 lb.), now yields almost none, owing chiefly to the frequent hurricanes.

=Uses=—As a remedy, cloves are unimportant, though in the form of infusion or distilled water they are useful in combination with other medicines. The essential oil which sometimes relieves toothache is a frequent ingredient of pill-masses. The chief consumption of cloves is as a culinary spice.

=Substitutes=—1. _Clove Stalks_—_Festucœlvel Stipites Caryophylli_, in French _Griffes de Girofle_, in German _Nelkenstiele_, were an article of import into Europe during the middle ages, when they were chiefly known by their low Latin name of _fusti_, or the Italian _bastaroni_. Thus under the statutes of Pisa,[1095] A.D. 1305, duty was levied not only on cloves (_garofali_), but also on _Folia et fusti garofalorum_. Pegolotti[1096] a little later names both as being articles of trade at Constantinople. Clove _Leaves_ are enumerated[1097] as an import into Palestine in the 12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the drugs sold at Frankfort[1098] about the year 1450; we are not aware that they are used in modern times.

As to Clove Stalks, they are still a considerable object of trade, especially from Zanzibar, where they are called by the natives _Vikunia_. They taste tolerably aromatic, and yield 4 to 6·4 per cent. of volatile levogyre oil; they are used for adulterating the _Ground Cloves_ sold by grocers. Such an admixture may be detected by the microscope, especially if the powder after treatment with potash be examined in glycerin. If clove stalks have been ground, thick-walled or stone-cells will be found in the powder; such cells do not occur in cloves. Powdered allspice is also an adulterant of powdered cloves; it also contains stone-cells, but in addition numerous starch granules which are entirely wanting in cloves.

2. _Mother Cloves, Anthophylli_—are the _fruits_ of the clove-tree, and are ovate-oblong berries about an inch in length and much less rich in essential oil than cloves. Though occasionally seen in the London drug sales in some quantity, they are not an article of regular import.[1099] As they contain very large starch granules, their presence as an adulteration of ground cloves would be revealed by the microscope.

[1094] _Consular Reports_, Aug. 1873. 952.

[1095] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa dal xii. al xiv. secolo_, iii. (1857) 106.

[1096] See p. 235, note 2.

[1097] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Lois_, ii. (1843) 173.

[1098] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 11. 38.

[1099] We find in the fortnightly price current of a London drug-broker under date Nov. 27, 1873, the announcement of the sale of 1,050 bags of Mother Cloves at 2_d._ to 3_d._ per lb., besides 4,200 packages of Clove Stalks at 3_d._ to 4_d._ per lb.

3. _=Royal Cloves=_—Under this name or _Caryophyllum regium_, a curious monstrosity of the clove was formerly held in the highest reputation, on account of its rarity and the strange stories told respecting it.[1100] Specimens in our possession show it to be a very small clove, distinguished by an abnormal number of sepals and large bracts at the base of the calyx-tube, the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly developed.

FRUCTUS PIMENTÆ.

_Semen Amomi_; _Pimento_, _Allspice_, _Jamaica Pepper_; F. _Poivre de la Jamaïque_, _Piment des Anglais_, _Toute-épice_; G. _Nelkenpfeffer_, _Nelkenköpfe_, _Neugewürz_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Pimenta officinalis_ Lindley[1101] (_Myrtus Pimenta_ L., _Eugenia Pimenta_ DC.), a beautiful evergreen tree, growing to about 30 feet in height, with a trunk 2 feet in circumference, common throughout the West India Islands. In Jamaica, it prefers limestone hills near the sea, and is especially plentiful on the north side of the island.

=History=—The high value placed on the spices of India sufficiently explains the interest with which aromatic and pungent plants were regarded by the early explorers of the New World; while the eager desire to obtain these lucrative commodities is shown by the names _Pepper_, _Cinnamon_, _Balsam_, _Melegueta_, _Amomum_, bestowed on productions totally distinct from those originally so designated.

Among the spices thus brought to the notice of Europe were the little dry berries of certain trees of the myrtle tribe, which had some resemblance in shape and flavour to peppercorns, and hence were named _Pimienta_,[1102] corrupted to _Pimenta_ or _Pimento_. It was doubtless a drug of this kind, if not our veritable allspice, that was given to Clusius in 1601 by Garret, a druggist of London, and described and figured by the former in his _Liber Exoticorum_.[1103] A few years later it began to be imported into England, being, as Parkinson[1104] says, “obtruded for _Amomum_” (_Round Cardamom_), so that “some more audacious than wise ... put it in their compositions instead of the right.” Francesco Redi mentioned the fruits as _Pimienta de Chapa_; Chiapas, now the south-eastern department of Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Redi states that the spice was also called _Pimienta de Tavasco_ from the adjoining department of Tabasco. According to Sloane[1105] (1691) it was commonly sold by druggists for _Carpobalsamum_. Ray (1693) distinguished the spice as a production of Jamaica under the name of _Sweet-scented Jamaica Pepper_ or _Allspice_, and states it to be abundantly imported into England, and in frequent use as a condiment, though not employed in medicine. The spice had a place in the London Pharmacopœia as early as 1721.

[1100] Rumphius in his letter from Amboina, Sept. 20, 1696, to Dr. Schröck, in _Ephemerides Acad. Cæs. Leopold. Decur._ iii. Frankfurt and Leipzig. 1700. p. 308, with figure.—Also Rumphius, _Herb. Amb._ ii. (1742) 11. tab. 2.—See also Hasskarl, _Neuer Schlüssel zu Rumph’s Herb. Amb._, Halle, 1866; Berg, _Linnæa_, 1854. 137; Valmont de Bomare, _Dict. d’Hist. Nat._ iii. (1775) 70.

[1101] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,