part 20

(1877).

[1102] _Pimienta_, the Spanish for _pepper_, is derived from _pigmentum_, a general name in mediæval Latin for _spicery_.—_Malaguetta_ (see article Grana Paradisi) is also a name which has been transferred by the Spaniards and Portuguese to the drug under notice.

[1103] Lib. i. c. 17.

[1104] _Theatrum Botanicum_ (1640) 1567.

[1105] _Description of the Pimienta or Jamaica Pepper-tree._—_Phil. Trans._ xvii. No. 191.

The consumption of Pimento has been enormous. In the year 1804-5, the quantity shipped from the British West Indies was 2,257,000 lb., producing on import duty a net revenue of £38,063.[1106]

=Production and Commerce=—The spice found in commerce is furnished wholly by the island of Jamaica. A plantation, there called a _Pimento walk_, is a piece of natural woodland stocked with the trees, which require but little attention. The flowers appear in June, July, and August, and are quickly succeeded by the berries, which are gathered when of full size but still unripe. This is performed by breaking off the small twigs bearing the bunches. These are then spread out, and exposed to the sun and air for some days, after which the stalks are removed, and the berries are fit for being packed.

By an official document[1107] it appears that, in the year 1871, the amount of land in Jamaica cropped with pimento was 7,178 acres. In that year the island exported of the spice 6,857,838 lb., value £28,574. Of this quantity Great Britain took 4,287,551 lb., and the United States 2,266,950 lb. In 1875 the export was 57,500 cwts., valued at £40,250, of which 10,894 cwts. only went to the United States.

[1106] _Parliamentary Return_, March 1805, quoted in Young’s _West India Commonplace Book_, 1807. 79.

[1107] _Blue Book_ for Jamaica, printed 1872.

=Description=—Allspice is a small, dry globular berry, rather variable in size, measuring ³/₁₀ to less than ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter. It is crowned by a short style, seated in a depression, and surrounded by 4 short thick sepals; generally however the latter have been rubbed off, a scar-like raised ring marking their former position. The berry has a woody shell or pericarp, easily cut, of a dark ferruginous brown, and rugose by reason of minute tubercles filled with essential oil. It is two-celled, each cell containing a single, reniform, exalbuminous seed, having a large spirally curved embryo. The seed is aromatic, but less so than the pericarp.

Allspice has an agreeable, pungent, spicy flavour, much resembling that of cloves.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of the pericarp, immediately beneath the epidermis, contains numerous large cells filled with essential oil. The parenchyme further exhibits thick-walled cells loaded with resin, and smaller cells enclosing crystals of oxalate of calcium. The whole tissue is traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. The seeds are also provided with a small number of oil-cells, and contain starch granules.

=Chemical Composition=—The composition of pimento resembles in many points that of cloves. The berries yield to the extent of 3 to 4½ per cent. a volatile oil, sp. gr. 1·037 (Gladstone), having the characteristic taste and odour of the spice, and known in the shops as _Oleum Pimentæ_. We have found it to deviate the ray of polarized light 2° to the left, when examined in a column of 50 mm.

Oeser (1864), whose experiments have been confirmed by Gladstone (1872), has shown that oil of pimento has substantially the same composition as oil of cloves; salicylic acid has not been found. Pimento is rich in tannin, striking with a persalt of iron an inky black. Its decoction is coloured deep blue by iodine, showing the presence of starch. Dragendorff (1871) pointed out the existence in allspice of an extremely small quantity of an alkaloid, having somewhat the odour of coniine.

=Uses=—Employed as an aromatic clove; a distilled water (_Aqua Pimentæ_) is frequently prescribed. The chief use of pimento is as a culinary spice.

=Substitute=—The Mexican spice called _Pimienta de Tabasco_ (_Piment Tabago_ Guibourt) is somewhat larger and less aromatic than Jamaica allspice. Analogous products are afforded by _Pimenta acris_ Wight[1108] (_Myrcia acris_ DC, _Amomis acris_ Berg), the _Bay-berry_ tree, and _P. Pimento_ Griseb. The oil of bay-berry consists of eugenol and a hydrocarbon, possibly identical with the “light oil of cloves” (p. 284), but present in a larger amount. _Bay rum_, much used in the United States by the perfumers, is an alcoholic tincture flavoured with oil of bay-berry.

GRANATEÆ.

CORTEX GRANATI FRUCTUS.

_Cortex Granati_; _Pomegranate Peel_; F. _Ecorce de Grenades_; G. _Granatschalen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Punica Granatum_ L., a shrub or low tree, with small deciduous foliage and handsome scarlet flowers. It is indigenous to North-western India, and the counties south and south-west of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and Palestine, and grows wild in the hills of Western Sindh in elevations of 4000 feet, in Balutchistan to 6000 feet, also in the east flank of Soliman range. The trunk is short, rarely over 20 feet high. The tree has long been cultivated, and is now found throughout the warm parts of Europe, and in the subtropical regions of both hemispheres.

=History=—The pomegranate has been highly prized by mankind from the remotest antiquity, as is shown by the references to it in the Scriptures,[1109] and by the numerous representations of the fruit in the sculptures of Persepolis and Assyria,[1110] and on the ancient monuments of Egypt.[1111] It was probably introduced into the south of Italy by Greek colonists, and is named as a common fruit-tree by Porcius Cato[1112] in the 3rd century B.C. The peel of the fruit was recognized as medicinal by the ancients, and among the Romans was in common use for tanning leather,[1113] as it still is in Tunis.

[1108] Figured in Bentley and Trimen,