part 18

(1877).

=History=—The styptic properties of this plant are said to have been discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico,[2211] who having applied some of the leaves to his wounds, observed that the bleeding was thereby arrested; hence the plant came to be called _Yerba_ or _Palo del Soldado_ (soldier’s herb or tree). The story is not very probable, but it is current in many parts of South America, and its allusion is not confined to the plant under notice.

The hæmostatic powers of matico, which are not noticed in the works of Ruiz and Pavon, were first recognized in Europe by Jeffreys,[2212] a physician of Liverpool, in 1839, but they had already attracted attention in North America as early as 1827.

=Description=—Matico, as it arrives in commerce, consists of a compressed, coherent, brittle mass of leaves and stems, of a light green hue and pleasant herby odour. More closely examined, it is seen to be made up of jointed stems bearing lanceolate, acuminate leaves, cordate and unequal at the base, and having very short stalks. The leaves are rather thick, with their whole upper surface traversed by a system of minute sunk veins, which divide it into squares and give it a tessellated appearance. On the under side, these squares form a corresponding series of depressions which are clothed with shaggy hairs. The leaves attain a length of about 6 inches by 1½ inches broad. The flower and fruit spikes which are often 4 to 5 inches long, are slender and cylindrical with the flowers or fruits densely packed. The leaves of matico have a bitterish aromatic taste; their tissue shows numerous cells, filled with essential oil.[2213]

=Chemical Composition=—The leaves yield on an average 27 per cent.[2214] of essential oil, which we find slightly[2215] dextrogyre; a large proportion of it distills at 180° to 200° C., the remainder becoming thickish. Both portions are lighter than water; but another specimen of the oil of matico which we had kept for some years, sinks in water. We have observed that in winter the oil deposits remarkable crystals of a camphor, more than half an inch in length, fusible at 103° C.; they belong to the hexagonal system, and have the odour and taste of the oil from which they separate.

Matico further affords, according to Marcotte (1864),[2216] a crystallizable acid, named _Artanthic Acid_, besides some tannin. The latter is made evident by the dark brown colour which the infusion assumes on addition of ferric chloride. The leaves likewise contain resin, but as shown by Stell in 1858, neither piperin, cubebin, nor any analogous principle such as the so-called _Maticin_ formerly supposed to exist in them.

[2211] Matico is the diminutive of _Mateo_, the Spanish for _Matthew_.

[2212] _Remarks on the efficacy of Matico as a styptic and astringent_, 3rd ed., Lond. 1845.

[2213] Microscopic examination of the leaves, Pocklington, _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1874) 301.

[2214] As Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, kindly informed me.—F. A. F..

[2215] Deviating only 0.7° in a column 50 mm. long.

[2216] Guibourt (et Planchon), _Hist. des Drogues_, ii. (1869) 278.—We are not acquainted with “artanthic acid.”

=Commerce=—The drug is imported in bales and serons by way of Panama. Among the exports of the Peruvian port of Arica in 1877, we noticed 195 quintales (19,773 lb) of Matico.

=Uses=—Matico leaves, previously softened in water, or in a state of powder, are sometimes employed to arrest the bleeding of a wound. The infusion is taken for the cure of internal hæmorrhage.

=Substitutes=—Several plants have at times been brought into the market under the name of _matico_. One of these is _Piper aduncum_ L.[2217] (_Artanthe adunca_ Miq.), of which a quantity was imported into London from Central America in 1863, and first recognized by Bentley (1864). In colour, odour, and shape of leaf it nearly agrees with ordinary matico; but differs in that the leaves are marked beneath by much more prominent ascending parallel nerves, the spaces between which are not rugose but comparatively smooth and nearly glabrous. In chemical characters, the leaves of _P. aduncum_ appear to accord with those of _P. angustifolium_.

_Piper aduncum_ is a plant of wide distribution throughout Tropical America. Under the name of _Nhandi_ or _Piper longum_ it was mentioned by Piso in 1648[2218] on account of the stimulant action of its leaves and roots,—a property which causes it to be still used in Brazil, where however no particular styptic virtues seem to be ascribed to it.[2219] The fruits are there employed in the place of cubebs. Sloane’s figure[2220] of “Piper longum, arbor folio latissimo” also shows _Piper aduncum_.

According to Triana, _Piper lanceæfolium_ HBK. (_Artanthe_ Miq.), and another species not recognized, yield matico in New Granada.[2221] _Waltheria glomerata_ Presl (_Sterculiaceæ_) is called _Palo del Soldado_ at Panama and its leaves are used as a vulnerary.[2222] In Riobamba and Quito, _Eupatorium glutinosum_ Lamarck, is also called Chusalonga or _Matico_.[2223]

[2217] For a good figure, see Jacquin, _Icones_ II. (1781-1793) tab. 210.

[2218] _De Medicinâ Brasiliensi_, lib. 4. c. 57.

[2219] Langgaard, _Diccionario de Medicina domestica e popular_, Rio de Janeiro, ii. (1865) 44.

[2220] _Voyage to Jamaica_ I. (1707) 135, and tab. 88.

[2221] Exposition de 1867—Catalogue de M. José Triana, p. 14.

[2222] Seemann, _Botany of the Herald_, 1852-57. 85.

[2223] Bentham, _Plantæ Hartwegianæ_, Lon. 1839. 198.

ARISTOLOCHIACEÆ.

RADIX SERPENTARIÆ.

_Radix Serpentariæ Virginianæ_; _Virginian Snake-root_, _Serpentary Root_; F. _Serpentaire de Virginie_; G. _Schlangenwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Aristolochia Serpentaria_ L., a perennial herb, commonly under a foot high, with simple or slightly branched, flexuose stems, producing small, solitary, dull purple flowers, close to the ground. It grows in shady woods in the United States, from Missouri and Indiana to Florida and Virginia,—abundantly in the Alleghanies and in the Cumberland Mountains, less frequently in New York, Michigan and the other Northern States. The plant varies exceedingly in the shape of its leaves.

=History=—The botanists of the 16th century, being fond of appellations alluding to the animal kingdom, gave the names of _Serpentaria_ or Colubrina, _i.e._ snake-root, to the rhizome of _Polygonum Bistorta_ L. In America it was not the appearance, but the application of the drug under notice to which it owes the name snake-root.

The earliest account of _Virginian_ snake-root is that of Thomas Johnson, an apothecary of London who published an edition of Gerarde’s Herbal in 1636. It is evident however that Johnson confounded a species of _Aristolochia_ from Crete with what he calls “that snake-weed that was brought from Virginia and grew with Mr. John Tradescant at South Lambeth, anno 1632.” It was very briefly noticed by Cornuti in his _Canadensium Plantarum Historia_ (1635), and in a much more intelligent manner by Parkinson in 1640. These authors, as well as Dale (1693) and Geoffroy (1741), extol the virtues of the root as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake, or of a rabid dog. Serpentary was introduced into the London Pharmacopœia in 1650.

=Description=—The snake-root of commerce includes the rhizome, which is knotty, contorted, scarcely 1 inch in length by ⅛ of an inch in thickness, bearing on its upper side the short bases of the stems of previous years, and throwing off from the under, numerous, slender, matted, branching roots, 2 to 4 inches long. The rhizome is often still attached to portions of the weak, herbaceous stem, which sometimes bears the fruit,—more rarely flowers and leaves. The drug has a dull brown hue, an aromatic odour resembling valerian but less unpleasant, and a bitterish aromatic taste, calling to mind camphor, valerian and turpentine.

=Microscopic Structure=—In the rhizome, the outer layer of the bark consists of a single row of cuboid cells; the middle cortical portion (_mesophlœum_) of about six layers of larger cells. In the liber, which is built up of numerous layers of smaller cells, those belonging to the medullary rays are nearly cuboid with distinctly porous walls, those of the liber bundles being smaller and arranged in a somewhat crescent-shaped manner. Groups of short, reticulated or punctuated vessels alternate in the woody rays with long, porous, ligneous cells; those close to the pith having thick walls. The largest cells of all are those composing the pith; the latter, seen in transverse section, occupies not the very centre of the rootstock, but is found nearer to its upper side. The rootlets exhibit a central fibro-vascular bundle, surrounded by a nucleus-sheath. In the mesophlœum both of the rootstock and the rootlets, there occur a few cells containing a yellow essential oil. The other cells are loaded with starch.

=Chemical Composition=—Essential oil exists in the drug to the extent of about ½ per cent.; and resin in nearly the same proportion. The outer cortical layer, as well as the zone of the nucleus-sheath, contains a little tannin, and a watery infusion of the drug is coloured greenish by perchloride of iron. Neutral acetate of lead precipitates some mucilage as well as the bitter principle, which latter may also be obtained by means of tannic acid. It is an amorphous, bitter substance, which deserves further investigation. By an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper the presence in serpentary of sugar is made evident.

=Commerce=—Virginian snake-root is imported from New York and Boston, in bales, casks or bags.

=Uses=—The drug is employed in the form of an infusion or tincture as a stimulating tonic and diaphoretic; it is more often prescribed in combination with cinchona bark than by itself. Its ancient reputation for the cure of snake-bites is now disregarded.

=Adulteration and Substitution=—Virginian snake-root is said to be sometimes adulterated with the root of _Spigelia marilandica_ L., which has neither its smell nor taste (see p. 433); or with that of _Cypripedium pubescens_ L., which it scarcely at all resembles. It is not uncommon to find here and there in the serpentary of commerce, a root of _Panax quinquefolium_ L. accidentally collected, but never added for the purpose of adulteration.

The root of _Aristolochia reticulata_ Nutt., a plant of Louisiana and Arkansas, has been brought into commerce in considerable quantity as _Texan_ or _Red River Snake-root_.[2224] We are indebted for an authentic specimen from the Cherokee country to Mr. Merrell, a large dealer in herbs at St. Louis, Missouri, who states that all the serpentary grown south-west of the Rocky Mountains is the produce of that species. The late Prof. Parrish of Philadelphia was kind enough to supply us with specimens of the same drug, as well as with reliable samples of true _Virginian_ or _Middle States Snake-root_.

The Texan snake-root is somewhat thicker and less matted than that derived from _A. Serpentaria_, but has the odour and taste of the latter; some say it is less aromatic. The plant, portions of which are often present, may be easily distinguished by its leaves being _coriaceous_, _sessile_ and _strongly reticulated_ on their under surface.

[2224] Wiegand in _American Journ. of Pharm._ x. (1845) 10; also _Proceedings of the Am. Pharm. Association_, xxi. (1873) 441.

CUPULIFERÆ.

CORTEX QUERCUS.

_Oak Bark_; F. _Ecorce de Chêne_; G. _Eichenrinde_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Quercus Robur_ L., a tree, native of almost the whole of Europe, from Portugal and the Greek Peninsula as far north as 58° N. lat. in Scotland, 62° in Norway, and 56° in the Ural Mountains.

There are two remarkable forms of this tree which are regarded by many botanists as distinct species, but which are classed by De Candolle[2225] as sub-species.

Sub-species I. _pedunculata_—with leaves sessile or shortly stalked, and acorns borne on a long peduncle, and acorns either sessile or growing on a short peduncle.

Sub-species II. _sessiliflora_—with leafstalks more or less elongated.

Both forms occur in Britain. The first is the common oak of the greater part of England and the lowlands of Scotland. The second is frequently scattered in woods in which the first variety prevails, but it rarely constitutes the mass of the oak woods in the south of England. In North Wales however, in the hilly parts of the north of England, and in Scotland, it is the commoner of the two forms (Bentham).

[2225] _Prodromus_, xvi. (1864) sect. 2. fasc. 1.

=History=—The astringent properties of all parts of the oak[2226] were well known to Dioscorides, who recommends a decoction of the inner bark in colic, dysentery and spitting of blood. Yet oak bark seems at no time to have been held in great esteem as a medicine, probably on account of its commonness; and it is now almost superseded by other astringents. For tanning leather it has always been largely employed.

[2226] Probably not _Q. Robur_ L.

=Description=—For medicinal use the bark of the younger stems or branches is collected in the early spring. It varies somewhat in appearance according to the age of the wood from which it has been taken: that usually supplied to English druggists is in channelled pieces of variable length and a tenth of an inch or less in thickness, smooth, of a shining silvery grey, variegated with brown, dotted over with little scars. The inner surface is light rusty-brown, longitudinally striated. The fracture is tough and fibrous. A transverse section shows a thin, greenish cork-layer, within which is the brown parenchyme, marked with numerous rows of translucent colourless spots. The smell of dry oak bark is very faint; but when the bark is moistened the odour of tan becomes evident. The taste is astringent and in old barks slightly bitter.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of young oak bark consists of small flat cork-cells; the middle layer of larger thick-walled cells slightly extended in a tangential direction, and containing brown grains and chlorophyll. This tissue passes gradually into the softer narrower parenchyme of the inner bark, which is irregularly traversed by narrow medullary rays. It exhibits moreover a ring, but slightly interrupted, of thick-walled cells (sclerenchyme) and isolated shining bundles of liber-fibres.

Groups of crystals of calcium oxalate are frequent in the middle and inner bark, but the chief constituents of the cells are brown granules of colouring matter and tannin. As the thickness of the bark increases the liber is pushed more to the outside, the middle cortical layer being partly thrown off by secondary cork-formation (rhytidoma, see pp. 354 and 538). Hence the younger barks, which alone are medicinal, are widely different from the older in structure and appearance.

=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting constituent is a peculiar kind of tannin. Stenhouse pointed out in 1843 that the tannic acid of oak bark is not identical with that of nutgalls; and such many years afterwards was proved to be the case.

The first-named substance, now called _Querci-tannic Acid_, yields by destructive distillation pyrocatechin, and according to Johanson (1875) very little pyrogallol. By boiling it with dilute sulphuric acid querci-tannic acid is split up into a red derivative and sugar. A solution of gelatine is precipitated by querci-tannic acid as well as by gallo-tannic acid; yet the compound formed with the latter is very liable to putrefaction, whereas the tannin of oak bark, which is accompanied by a large amount of extractive matter, furnishes a stable compound, and is capable of forming good leather.

As querci-tannic acid has not yet been isolated in a pure state, the exact estimation of the strength of the tanning principle in oak bark has not been accomplished, although it is important from an economic as well as from a scientific point of view. The method of Neubauer (1873) depends upon the amount of permanganate of potassium decomposable by the extract of a given weight of oak bark. Neubauer found in the bark of young stems, as grown for tanning purposes, from 7 to 10 per cent. of querci-tannic acid, soluble in cold water.

Braconnot (1849) extracted from the seeds of the oaks under notice a crystallized sugar, which was shown in 1851 by Dessaignes to be a peculiar substance, which he termed _Quercite_. Prunier proved (1877-1878) that it agrees with the formula C₆H₇(OH)₅ + 4 OH₂, and is closely allied to kinic acid, C₆H₇(OH)₄COOH (see page 363). Quercite gives off water at 100°, melts at 225° C., and again losing water yields a crystallized anhydride. In the oak bark extremely small quantities of quercite appear also to be present, as pointed out by Johanson.

A colourless, crystallizable, bitter substance, soluble in water, but not in absolute alcohol or ether, was extracted from oak bark in 1843 by Gerber, and named _Quercin_. It requires further examination: Eckert (1864) could not detect its existence in young oak bark.

=Uses=—Occasionally employed as an astringent, chiefly for external application.

GALLÆ HALEPENSES.

_Gallæ Turcicæ_; _Galls_, _Nutgalls_, _Oak Galls_, _Aleppo_ or _Turkey Galls_; F. _Noix de Galle_, _Galle d’Alep_; G. _Levantische oder Aleppische Gallen_, _Galläpfel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Quercus lusitanica_ Webb, var. _infectoria_ (_Q. infectoria_ Oliv.),[2227] a shrub or rarely a tree, found in Greece, Asia Minor, Cyprus and Syria. It is probable that other varieties of this oak, as well as allied species, contribute to furnish the Aleppo galls of commerce.

=History=—Oak galls are named by Theophrastus, and were well known to other ancient writers. Alexander Trallianus prescribed them as a remedy in diarrhœa.[2228]

The earliest accurate descriptions and figures of the oak and the insect producing the galls are due to Olivier.[2229] Pliny[2230] mentions the interesting fact that paper saturated with an infusion of galls may be used as a test for discovering sulphate of iron, when added as an adulteration to the more costly verdigris: this, according to Kopp, is the earliest instance of the scientific application of a chemical reaction.[2231] For tanning and dyeing, galls have been used from the earliest times, during the middle ages however they were not precisely an article of great importance, being then, no doubt, for a large part replaced by sumach.

Nutgalls have long been an object of commerce between Western Asia and China. Barbosa in his _Description of the East Indies_[2232] written in 1514 calls them _Magican_,[2233] and says they are brought from the Levant to Cambay by way of Mekka, and that they are worth a great deal in China and Java. From the statements of Porter Smith[2234] we learn that they are still prized by the Chinese.

[2227] De Candolle, _Prodromus_, xvi. sect. 2. fasc. i. 17.

[2228] Puschmann’s edition, quoted in the Appendix, i. 237.

[2229] _Voyage dans l’Empire Othoman_, ii. (1801), pl. 14-15.

[2230] Lib. 34. c. 26.

[2231] _Geschichte der Chemie_, ii. (1844) 51.

[2232] Published by the Hakluyt Society, Lond. 1866. 191.

[2233] Nearly the same name is still used in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalim and Canarese languages.

[2234] _Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist. of China_, 1871. 100.

=Formation=—Many plants are punctured by insects for the sake of depositing their eggs, which operation gives rise to those excrescences which bear the general name of _gall_.[2235]

Oaks are specially liable to be visited for this purpose by insects of the order _Hymenoptera_ and the genus _Cynips_, one species of which, _Cynips Gallæ tinctoriæ_ Olivier (_Diplolepis Gallæ tinctoriæ_ Latreille), occasions the galls under notice.

The female of this little creature is furnished with a delicate borer or ovipositor, which she is able to protrude from the extremity of the abdomen; by means of it she pierces the tender shoot of the oak, and deposits therein one or more eggs. This minute operation occasions an abnormal affluence to the spot of the juices of the plant, the result of which is the growth of an excrescence often of great magnitude, in the centre of which (but not as it appears until the gall has become full-grown) the larva is hatched and undergoes its transformations.

When the larva has assumed its final development and become a winged insect, which requires a period of five to six months, the latter bores itself a cylindrical passage from the centre of the gall to its surface, and escapes.

In the best kind of gall found in commerce, this stage has not yet arrived, the gall having been gathered while the insect is still in the larval state. In splitting a number of galls, it is not difficult to find specimens in all stages, from those containing the scarcely distinguishable remains of the minute larva, to those which show the perfect insect to have perished when in the very act of escaping from its prison.

=Description=—Aleppo galls[2236] are spherical, and have a diameter of ⁴/₁₀ to ⁸/₁₀ of an inch. They have a smooth and rather shining surface, marked in the upper half of the gall by small pointed knobs and ridges, arranged very irregularly and wide apart; the lower half is more frequently smooth. The aperture by which the insect escapes is always near the middle. When not perforated, the galls are of a dark olive green, and comparatively heavy; but after the fly has bored its way out, they become of a yellowish-brown hue, and lighter in weight. Hence the distinction in commerce of _Blue_ or _Green Galls_, and _White Galls_.

[2235] French writers, as Moquin-Tandon, distinguish the thick-walled galls of _Cynips_ from the thin, capsular galls formed by _Aphis_, terming the former _galles_ and the latter _coques_ (shells).

[2236] There are many other varieties of oak gall, for descriptions of some of which, see Guibourt, _Hist. des Drogues_, ii. (1869) 292; and for information on the various gall-insects of the family _Cynipsidæ_ and the excrescences they produce, consult a paper by Abl in Wittstein’s _Vierteljahresschrift für prakt_. _Pharm._ vi. (1857) 343-361.

Aleppo galls are hard and brittle, splitting under the hammer; they have an acidulous, very astringent taste followed by a slight sweetness, but have no marked odour. Their fractured surface is sometimes close-grained, with a waxy or resinous lustre; sometimes (especially towards the kernel-like centre) loosely granular, or sometimes again it exhibits a crystalline-looking radiated structure or is full of clefts. The colour of the interior varies from pale brown to a deep greenish yellow. The central cavity, sometimes nearly ¼ of an inch in diameter, which served as a dwelling for the insect, is lined with a thin hard shell. If the insect has perished while still very young, the central cavity and the aperture contain a mass of loose starchy cellular tissue, or its pulverulent remains: if the insect has not been developed at all, the centre of the gall is entirely composed of this tissue.

=Microscopic Structure=—The cellular tissue of the gall is formed in the middle layer of large spherical cells with rather thick porous walls, becoming considerably smaller towards the circumference. The outermost rows are built up of cells having but a very small lumen and comparatively thick walls, so that they form a sort of rind. Here and there throughout the entire tissue, there occur isolated bundles of vessels which pass through the stalk into the gall. Towards the kernel, the parenchyme gradually passes into radially-extended, wider, thin-walled cells, the walls of which are marked with spiral striæ. The hard shell of the chamber[2237] is composed of larger, radially-extended, thick-walled cells, with beautifully stratified porous walls. On the inner side of this shell there are found, after the escape of the insect, the remains of the starchy tissue already mentioned, which originally filled the chamber and had been consumed by the insect as nourishment.

[2237] _Couche protectrice_ of Lacaze-Duthiers—_Recherches pour servir à l’histoire des galles_.—_Ann. des Sciences Nat._, Bot. xix. (1853) 273-354.

The parenchyme-cells outside the shell contain chlorophyll and tannin; the latter is in transparent, colourless, sharp-edged masses, insoluble in benzol, but dissolving slowly in water, quickly in alcohol. Thin slices soaked in glycerin appear after some time covered with beautiful crystals of gallic acid. The thick-walled cells (stone-cells) and the neighbouring striated cells, are rich in octahedra of calcium oxalate. The tissue of the gall situated within the shell of thick-walled cells contains starch in large, compressed, mostly spherical granules; also isolated masses of brown resin. Besides these, there appears to be in this part of the tissue an albuminoid compound.

=Chemical Composition=—The rough taste of galls is due to their chief constituent, _Tannic_ or _Gallo-tannic Acid_, C₁₄H₁₀O₉, or

C₆H₂(OH)₂COOH} }O C₆H₂(OH)₂CO}

the type of a numerous family of substances to which vegetables owe their astringent properties. Tannic matter was long supposed to be of one kind, namely that found in the oak gall, but the researches of later years have proved the tannin of different plants to possess distinctive characters: hence the term _gallo-tannic_ acid to distinguish that of galls, from which it is principally derived. It was however shown by Stenhouse as far back as the year 1843, again in 1861, as well as by still more recent unpublished experiments, that the tannic acid found in Sicilian sumach, the leaves of _Rhus Coriaria_ L., is identical with that of oak galls. Löwe in 1873 came to the same conclusion. The best oak galls yield of this acid, from 60 to 70 per cent.

_Gallic Acid_ is also contained in galls ready-formed to the extent of about 3 per cent. Free sugar, resin, protein-substances, have also been found. Neither gum nor dextrin is present.

=Commerce=—The introduction into dyeing of new chemical substances, and the increased employment of sumach and myrobalans, have caused the trade in nutgalls to decline considerably during the last few years. The province of Aleppo which used to export annually 10,000 to 12,000 quintals, exported in 1871 only 3000 quintals.[2238] A staple market for the galls which are collected in the mountains of Kurdistan is Diarbekir, whence they are sent to Trebizond for shipment. Galls are also shipped in some quantity at Bussorah, Bagdad, Bushire, and Smyrna.

There were imported into the United Kingdom from ports of Turkey and Persia during 1872, 6349 cwt. of galls, valued at £18,581.

=Uses=—Oak galls in their crude state are seldom used in medicine unless it be externally; but the tannic and gallic acids extracted from them are often administered.

Other kinds of Gall.

_Chinese or Japanese Galls_—The only kind of galls, besides those of the oak, which are of commercial importance. They are described at page 167.

_Pistacia Galls_—The genus _Pistacia_, which belongs to the same order as _Rhus_, is very liable to the attacks of _Aphis_, which produce upon its leaves and branches excrescences of exactly the same nature as Chinese galls. In the south of Europe, horn-like follicles, often several inches long,[2239] are frequently met with on the branches of _Pistacia Terebinthus_ (page 165). These _Gallæ vel Folliculi Pistacinæ_, in Italian _Carobbe di Giudea_, were formerly used in medicine and in dyeing.[2240] They were noticed in 1555 by Belon, but already well known as early as the time of Theophrastus.

Another much smaller gall of different shape is formed (by the same insect?) on the ribs of the leaves of _Pistacia Terebinthus_; _P. Lentiscus_ (page 161) affords also a similar small excrescence.

Again, another growth of the same character constitutes the small and very astringent galls known in the Indian bazaars by the names of _Bazghanj_ and _Gule-pistah_, the latter signifying _flower of pistachio_; they have been termed in Europe _Bokhara Galls_. They were imported by sea into Bombay in the year 1872-73, to the extent of 184 cwt., chiefly from Sind;[2241] and are also carried into North-western India by way of Peshawar and by the Bolan Pass. Occasionally a package finds its way into a London drug sale.

_Tamarisk Galls_—These are roundish knotty excrescences of the size of a pea up to ½ an inch in diameter, found in North-western India on the branches of _Tamarix orientalis_ L., a large, quick-growing tree, common on saline soils. The galls are used in India in the place of oak galls, and are mentioned as “non-officinal” in the _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1867. We are not aware that they have been the subject of any particular chemical research; their microscopic structure has been investigated by Vogl.[2242]

[2238] Consul Skene—_Reports of H. M. Consuls_, No. 1. 1872. 270.

[2239] For a figure, see _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1844) 387. For the structure see Marchand, in the paper quoted at page 166, note 4, plate iii.

[2240] Analysis by Martius may be found in Liebig’s _Ann. d. Pharm._ xxi. (1837) 179.

[2241] From the returns quoted at page 333, note 3.

[2242] _Zeitschrift des Oesterreichischen Apothekervereines_, 1877. 14.

SANTALACEÆ.

LIGNUM SANTALI.

_Lignum Santalinum album vel citrinum_; _Sandal-wood_; F. _Bois de Santal citrin_; G. _Weisses oder Gelbes Sandelholz_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Santalum album_[2243] L., a small tree, 20 to 30 feet high, with a trunk 18 to 35 inches in girth, a native of the mountainous parts of the Indian peninsula, but especially of Mysore and parts of Coimbatore and North Canara, in the Madras Presidency; it grows in dry and open places, often in hedge-rows, not in forests. The same tree is also found in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, notably of Sumba (otherwise called Chandane or Sandal-wood Island), and Timur.

In later times, sandal-wood has been extensively collected in the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, where its existence was first pointed out about the year 1778, from _Santalum Freycinetianum_ Gaud. and _S. pyrularium_ A. Gray;[2244] in the Viti or Fiji Islands from _S. Yasi_ Seem.; in New Caledonia from _S. austro-caledonicum_, Vieill;[2245] and in Western Australia from _Fusanus spicatus_ Br. (_Santalum spicatum_ DC., _S. cygnorum_ Miq.).[2246] The mother plants of _Japanese_ and _West Indian_ sandal-wood are not known to us.

In India the sandal-wood tree is protected by Government, and is the source of a profitable commerce. In other countries it has been left to itself, and has usually been extirpated, at least from all accessible places, within a few years of its discovery.

=History=—Sandal-wood, the Sanskrit name for which, _Chandana_, has passed into many of the languages of India, is mentioned in the _Nirukta_ or writings of Yaska, the oldest Vedic commentary extant, written not later than the 5th century B.C. The wood is also referred to in the ancient Sanskrit epic poems, the _Rāmāyana_ and _Mahabharata_, parts of which may be of nearly as early date.

The author of the _Periplus of the Erythrean Sea_, written about the middle of the 1st century, enumerates sandal-wood (Ξύλα σαγαλίνα) among the Indian commodities imported into Omana in the Persian Gulf.[2247]

The Τζανδάνα mentioned towards the middle of the 6th century by Cosmas Indicopleustes,[2248] as brought to Taprobane (Ceylon) from China and other emporia, was probably the wood under consideration. In Ceylon its essential oil was used as early as the 9th century in embalming the corpses of the princes.

[2243] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_,