consist of a simple cylindrical thin-walled cell, the surface of which is beset with numerous extremely small protuberances. The large, bright yellow, odorous flowers, which become brown in drying, are mostly solitary in the axils of the leaves; they have a persistent campanulate calyx divided into two lips minutely toothed, and a long subulate style, curved round on itself. The legume is oblong compressed, 1 to 2 inches long by about an inch wide, fringed with hairs along the edge. It contains 10 to 12 olive-coloured albuminous seeds, the funicle of which is expanded into a large fleshy strophiole. They have a bitterish taste, and are devoid of starch. The portion of the plant used in pharmacy is the younger herbaceous branches, which are required both fresh and dried. In the former state they emit when bruised a peculiar odour which is lost in drying. They have a nauseous bitter taste. Chemical Composition-Stenhouse' discovered in broom tops two interesting principles, Scoparin, CHO, an indifferent or somewhat acid body, and the alkaloid Sparteine, CHN, the first soluble in water or spirit and crystallizing in yellowish tufts, the second a colourless oily liquid heavier than water and sparingly soluble in it, boiling at 288° C. To obtain scoparin, a watery decoction of the plant is concentrated so as to form a jelly after standing for a day or two. This is then washed with a small quantity of cold water, dissolved in hot water and again allowed to repose. By repeating this treatment with the addition of a little hydrochloric acid, the chlorophyll may at length be separated and the scoparin obtained as a gelatinous mass, which dries as an amorphous, brittle, pale yellow, neutral substance, devoid of taste and smell. Its solution in hot alcohol deposits it partly in crystals and partly as jelly, which after drying are alike in composition. Hlasiwetz showed (1866) that scoparin when melted with potash is resolved, like kino or quercetin, into Phloroglucin, CHO3, and Protocatechuic Acid, 2 C'H O The acid mother-liquors from which scoparin has been obtained when concentrated and distilled with soda, yield besides ammonia a very bitter oily liquid, Sparteine. To obtain it pure, it requires to be repeatedly rectified, dried by chloride of calcium, and distilled in a current of dry carbonic acid. It is colourless, but becomes brown by exposure to light; it has at first an odour of aniline, but this is altered by rectification. Sparteine has a decidedly alkaline reaction and readily neutralizes acids, forming crystallizable salts which are extremely bitter. Conine, nicotine, and sparteine are the only volatile alkaloids devoid of oxygen hitherto known to exist in the vegetable kingdom. Mills extracted sparteine simply by acidulated water which he concentrated and then distilled with soda. The distillate was then saturated with hydrochloric acid, evaporated to dryness, and submitted to distillation with potash. The oily sparteine thus obtained was dried by prolonged heating with sodium in a current of hydrogen, and finally rectified per se. Mills succeeded in replacing one or two equivalents of the hydrogen of sparteine by one or two of CH (ethyl). From 150 lb. 1 Phil. Trans. 1851. 422-431. 2 Journ. of Chem. Soc. xv. (1862) 1.; Gmelin's Chem. xvi. (1864) 282. of the (dried?) plant, he obtained 22 cubic centimetres (fzvj.) of sparteine, which we may estimate as equivalent to about per mille. Stenhouse ascertained that the amount of sparteine and scoparin depends much on external conditions, broom grown in the shade yielding less than that produced in open sunny places. He states that shepherds are well aware of the shrub possessing narcotic properties, from having observed their sheep to become stupified and excited when occasionally compelled to eat it. The experiments of Reinsch (1846) tend to show that broom contains a bitter crystallizible principle in addition to the foregoing. The seeds of the allied Cytisus Laburnum L. afford two highly poisonous alkaloids, Cytisine and Laburnine, discovered by A. Husemann and Marmé in 1865. Uses A decoction of broom tops, made from the dried herb, is used as a diuretic and purgative. The juice of the fresh plant, preserved by the addition of alcohol, is also administered and is regarded as a very efficient preparation. SEMEN FENI GRÆCI. Semen Fenugræci; Fenugreek; F. Semences de Fenugrec; G. Bockshornsamen. Botanical Origin-Trigonella Fonum græcum L., an erect, subglabrous, annual plant, 1 to 2 feet high, with solitary, subsessile, whitish flowers; indigenous to the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, in which it has been long cultivated, and whence it appears to have spread to India. History-In the old Egyptian preparation Kyphi, an ingredient "Sebes or Sebtu" is mentioned, which is thought by Ebers to mean fenugreek. This plant was well known to the Roman writers on husbandry, as Porcius Cato (B.C. 234-149) who calls it Fonum Græcum and directs it to be sown as fodder for oxen. It is the Tλis of Dioscorides and other Greek writers. Its mucilaginous seeds, "siliquæ" of the Roman peasants, were valued as an aliment and condiment for man, and as such are still largely consumed in the East. They were likewise supposed to possess many medicinal virtues, and had a place in the pharmacopoeias of the last century. The cultivation of fenugreek in Central Europe was encouraged by Charlemagne (A.D. 812), and the plant was grown in English gardens in the 16th century. Description-The fenugreek plant has a sickle-shaped pod, 3 to 4 inches long, containing 10 to 20 hard, brownish-yellow seeds, having the smell and taste which is characteristic of peas and beans, with addition of a cumarin- or melilot-flavour. The seeds are about of an inch long, with a rhomboid outline, often shrivelled and distorted; they are somewhat compressed, with the hilum on the sharper edge, and a deep furrow running from it and almost dividing the seed into two unequal lobes. When the seed is macerated in warm water, its structure becomes easily visible. The testa bursts by the swelling of the internal membrane or endopleura, which like a thick gelatinous sac encloses the cotyledons and their very large hooked radicle. Microscopic Structure-The most interesting structural peculiarity of this seed arises from the fact that the mucilage with which it abounds is not yielded by the cells of the epidermis, but by a loose tissue closely surrounding the embryo.1 Chemical Composition-The cells of the testa contain tannin; the cotyledons a yellow colouring matter, but no sugar. The air-dried seeds give off 10 per cent. of water at 100° C., and on subsequent incineration leave 7 per cent. of ash, of which nearly a fourth is phosphoric acid. Ether extracts from the pulverized seeds 6 per cent. of a fœtid, fatty oil, having a bitter taste. Amylic alcohol removes in addition a small quantity of resin. Alcohol added to a concentrated aqueous extract, forms a precipitate of mucilage, amounting when dried to 28 per cent. Burnt with soda-lime, the seeds yielded to Jahns2 34 per cent. of nitrogen, equivalent to 22 per cent. of albumin. No. researches have been yet made to determine the nature of the odorous principle. Production and Commerce-Fenugreek is cultivated in Morocco, in the south of France near Montpellier, in a few places in Switzerland, in Alsace, and in some other provinces of the German and Austrian empires, as Thuringia and Moravia. It is produced on a far larger scale in Egypt, where it is known by the Arabic name Hulba, and whence it is exported to Europe and India. In 1873 it was stated that the profits of the European growers were much reduced by the seed being largely exported from Mogador and Bombay. Under the Sanscrit name of Methi, which has passed, slightly modified, into several of the modern Indian languages, fenugreek is much grown in the plains of India during the cool season. In the year 1872-73, the quantity of seed exported from Sind to Bombay was 13,646 cwt., valued at £4,405.3 From the port of Bombay there were shipped in the same year 9,655 cwt., of which only 100 cwt. are reported as for the United Kingdom.* Uses In Europe fenugreek as a medicine is obsolete, but the powdered seeds are still often sold by chemists for veterinary pharmacy and as an ingredient of curry powder. The chief consumption is, however, in the so-called Cattle Foods. The fresh plant in India is commonly eaten as a green vegetable, while the seeds are extensively used by the natives in food and medicine. 1 Figured by Lanessan in his French translation of the Pharmacographia, i. (1878) 345. 2 Experiments performed in my laboratory in 1867.-F. A. F. 3 Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Sind, for the year 1872-73, printed at Karachi, 1873. p. 36. 89. Annual Statement, etc., Bombay, 1873. TRAGACANTHA. Gummi Tragacantha; Tragacanth, Gum Tragacanth; F. Gomme Adragante; G. Traganth. Botanical Origin.—Tragacanth is the gummy exudation from the stem of several pieces of Astragalus, belonging to the sub-genus Tragacantha. The plants of this group are low perennial shrubs, remarkable for their leaves having a strong, persistent, spiny petiole. As the leaves and shoots are very numerous and regular, many of the species have the singular aspect of thorny hemispherical cushions, lying close on the ground; while others, which are those furnishing the gum, grow erect with a naked woody stem, and somewhat resemble furze bushes. A few species occur in South-western Europe, others are found in Greece and Turkey; but the largest number are inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, Kurdistan and Persia. The tragacanth of commerce is produced in the last-named countries, and chiefly, though not exclusively, by the following species1:— 1. Astragalus adscendens Boiss. et Hausskr., a shrub attaining 4 feet in height, native, of the mountains of South-western Persia at an altitude of 9,000 to 10,000 feet. According to Haussknecht, it affords an abundance of gum. 2. A. leioclados Boiss. 3. A. brachycalyx Fisch., a shrub of 3 feet high, growing on the mountains of Persian Kurdistan, likewise affords tragacanth. 4. A. gummifer Labill., a small shrub of wide distribution occurring on the Lebanon and Mount Hermon in Syria, the Beryt Dagh in Cataonia, the Arjish Dagh (Mount Argæus) near Kaisariyeh in Central Asia Minor, and in Armenia and Northern Kurdistan. 5. A. microcephalus Willd., like the preceding a widely distributed species, extending from the south-west of Asia Minor to the north-east coast, and to Turkish and Russian Armenia. A specimen of this plant with incisions in the stem, was sent some years ago to the Pharmaceutical Society by Mr. Maltass of Smyrna. We received a large example of the same species, the stem of which is marked by old incisions, from the Rev. W. A. Farnsworth of Kaisariyeh, who states that tragacanth is collected from it on Mount Argæus. 6. A. pycnocladus Boiss. et Haussk., nearly related to A. microcephalus; it was discovered on the high mountains of Avroman and Shahu in Persia by Professor Haussknecht, who states that it exudes tragacanth in abundance. 7. A. stromatodes Bunge, growing at an elevation of 5,000 feet on the Akker Dagh range, near Marash in Northern Syria. 8. A. kurdicus Boiss., a shrub 3 to 4 feet high, native of the mountains of Cilicia and Cappadocia, extending thence to Kurdistan. 1 As described in Boissier's Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872). We have to thank Professor Haussknecht of Weimar for revising our list of species, and for some valuable information as to the localities in which the drug is produced. Haussknecht has informed us that from this and the last-named species, the so-called Aintab Tragacanth is chiefly obtained. Probably the drug is also to some extent collected from 9. A. verus Olivier, in North-western Persia and Asia Minor. Lastly as to Greece, tragacanth is also afforded by 10. A. Parnassi Boiss., var. cyllenea, a small shrub found in abundance on the northern mountains of the Morea, which is stated by Heldreich' to be the almost exclusive source of the tragacanth collected about Vostizza and Patras. History-Tragacanth has been known from a very early period. Theophrastus in the 3rd century B.C. mentioned Crete, the Peloponnesus and Media as its native countries. Dioscorides, who as a native of South-eastern Asia Minor was probably familiar with the plant, describes it correctly as a low spiny bush. The drug is mentioned by the Greek physicians Oribasius, Aëtius, and Paulus Ægineta (4th to 7th cent.), and by many of the Arabian writers on medicine. The abbreviated form of its name "Dragantum" already occurs in the book "Artis veterinariæ, seu mulomedicina" of Vegetius Renatus, who lived about A.D. 400. During the middle ages the gum was imported into Europe through the trading cities of Italy, as shown in the statutes of Pisa, A.D. 1305, where it is mentioned as liable to impost. 2 Pierre Belon, the celebrated French naturalist and traveller, saw and described, about 1550, the collecting of tragacanth in the northern part of Asia Minor; and Tournefort in 1700 observed on Mount Ida in Candia the singular manner in which the gum is exuded from the living plant.3 Secretion-It has been shown by H. von Mohl1 and by Wigand that tragacanth is produced by metamorphosis of the cell membrane, and that it is not simply the dried juice of the plant. The stem of a gum-bearing Astragalus cut transversely, exhibits concentric annual layers which are extremely tough and fibrous, easily tearing lengthwise into thin filaments. These inclose a central column, radiating from which are numerous medullary rays, both of very singular structure, for instead of presenting a thin-walled parenchyme, they appear to the naked eye as a hard translucent gum-like mass, becoming gelatinous in water. Examined microscopically, this gummy substance is seen to consist not of dried mucilage, but of the very cells of the pith and medullary rays, in process of transformation into tragacanth. The transformed cells, if their transformation has not advanced too far, exhibit the angular form and close packing of parenchyme-cells, but their walls are much incrassated and evidently consist of numerous very thin strata. That these cells are but ordinary parenchyme-cells in an altered state, is proved by the pith and medullary rays of the smaller branches which present no such unusual structure. Mohl was able to trace this change from the period in which the original cell-membrane could be still easily distinguished from its incrusting layers, to that in which 1 Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, Athen, Voyage into the Levant, Lond. (1718) 43. 1862. 71. 4 Botanische Zeitung, 1857. 33; Pharm. Journ. xviii. (1859) 370. 2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti della città di Pissa dal xii. al xiv. secolo, iii. (1857) 106. 114. 3 Pringsheim's Jahrbücher f. wissenchaftl. Botanik, iii. (1861) 117. |