not a blue tint, so that they are not to be considered as starch granules. The hairs of the pulp are formed of a single, thick-walled cell, straight or sometimes a little crooked.

Chemical Composition-The pulp examined by Biltz (1824) was found to afford nearly 3 per cent. of citric acid, 77 of malic acid, besides citrates, malates and mineral salts, 25 per cent. of gum, and 30 of uncrystallizable sugar.

Uses-Hips are employed solely on account of their pulp, which mixed with twice its weight of sugar, constitutes the Confectio Rosa canince of pharmacy.

SEMEN CYDONIÆ.

Quince Seeds, Quince Pips; F. Semences ou Pepins de Coings; G. Quittensamen.

Botanical Origin-Pirus Cydonia L. (Cydonia vulgaris Pers.), the quince tree, is supposed to be a true native of Western Asia, from the Caucasian provinces of Russia to the Hindu Kush range in Northern India. But it is now apparently wild also in many of the countries which surround the Mediterranean basin.

In a cultivated state, it flourishes throughout temperate Europe, but is far more productive in southern than in northern regions. Quinces ripen in the south of England, but not in Scotland, nor in St. Petersburg, or in Christiana.

History The quince was held in high esteem by the ancients, who considered it an emblem of happiness and fertility; and, as such, it was dedicated to Venus, whose temples it was used to decorate. Some antiquarians maintain that quinces were the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. The name Cydonia alludes to the town of Kydon, now Canea, in Creta; in the Talmud quinces are called Cretan apples.

Porcius Cato in his graphic description of the management of a Roman farmhouse, alludes to the storing of quinces both cultivated and wild; and there is much other evidence to prove that from an early period the quince was abundantly grown throughout Italy. Charlemagne, A.D. 812, enjoined its cultivation in central Europe.' At what period it was introduced into Britain is not evident, but we have observed that Baked Quinces are mentioned among the viands served at the famous installation feast of Nevill, archbishop of York in 1466.2

The use of mucilage of quince seeds has come to us through the Arabians; it is still met with in Turkestan.

Description-The quince is a handsome fruit of a golden yellow, in shape and size resembling a pear. It has a very agreeable and powerful smell, but an austere, astringent taste, so that it is not eatable in the raw state. In structure, it differs from an apple or a pear in having many seeds in each cell, instead of only two. The fruit is, like an apple, 5-celled, with each cell containing a 1 Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ historica, Legum, i. (1835) 187.

2 Leland, De rebus Britannicis Collectanea, vi. (1774) 5.

double row of closely-packed seeds, 8 to 14 in number, cohering by a soft mucilaginous membrane with which each is surrounded. By drying, they become hard, but remain agglutinated as in the cell. The seeds have an ovoid or obconic form, rather flattened and 3-sided by mutual pressure. From the hilum at the lower pointed end, the raphe passes as a straight ridge to the opposite extremity, which is slightly beaked and marked with a scar indicating the chalaza. The edge opposite the raphe is more or less arched according to the position of the individual seed in the cell. The testa encloses two thick, veined cotyledons, having a straight radicle directed towards the hilum.

Quince seeds have a mahogany-brown colour, and when unbroken a simply mucilaginous taste. But the kernels have the odour and taste of bitter almonds, and evolve hydrocyanic acid when comminuted and mixed with water.

Microscopic Structure-The epidermis of the seed consists of one row of cylindrical cells, the walls of which swell up in the presence of water and are dissolved, so as to yield an abundance of mucilage. This process can easily be observed, if thin sections of the seed are examined under glycerine, which acts on them but slowly.

Chemical Composition-The mucilage of the epidermis is present in such quantity, that the seed easily coagulates forty times its weight of water. By complete exhaustion, the seeds afford about 20 per cent. of dry mucilage, containing considerable quantities of calcium salts and albuminous matter, of which it is not easily deprived. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid. After a short treatment with strong sulphuric acid it is coloured blue by iodine. Tollens and Kirchner (1874) assign to it the formula CHŎ1, regarding it as a compound of gum, CHO1, and cellulose, CHO, less one molecule of water.

Quince mucilage has but little adhesive power, and is not thickened by borax. That portion of it which is really in a state of solution and which may be separated by filtration, is precipitable by metallic salts or by alcohol. The latter precipitate after it has been dried is no longer dissolved by water either cold or warm. Quince mucilage is, on the whole, to be regarded as a soluble modification of cellulose.

The seeds on distillation with water afford a little hydrocyanic acid, and, probably, bitter almond oil.

Commerce-Quince seeds reach England from Hamburg; and are frequently quoted in Hamburg price-currents as Russian; they are also brought from the south of France and from the Cape of Good Hope. They are largely imported into India from the Persian Gulf, and by land from Afghanistan.

Uses-A decoction of quince seeds is occasionally used as a demulcent external application in skin complaints. It is also sometimes added to eye-lotions. Quince seeds are in general use among the natives of India as a demulcent tonic and restorative. They have been found useful by Europeans in dysentery.

Balsamum Styracis; Liquid Storax; F. Styrax liquide;
G. Flüssiger Storax.

Botanical Origin-Liquidambar orientalis Miller (L. imberbe Aiton, a handsome, umbrageous tree resembling a plane, growing to the height of 30 to 40 feet or more, and forming forests in the extreme south-western part of Asia Minor. In this region the tree occurs in the district of Sighala near Melasso, about Budrum (the ancient Halicarnassus) and Moughla, also near Giova and Ullà in the Gulf of Giova, and lastly near Marmorizza and Isgengak opposite Rhodes. It also grows in the valley of the El-Asi (the ancient Orontes), as proved by a specimen in the Vienna herbarium, collected by Gödel, Austrian Consul at Alexandretta. In this locality it was seen by Kotschy in 1835, but mistaken for a plane. The same traveller informed one of us that he believed it to occur at Narkislik, a village near Alexandretta.

The tree is not known to grow in Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Kos, or indeed in any of the islands of the Mediterranean."

History-Two substances of different origin have been known from a remote period under the name of Styrax or Storax, namely the resin of Styrax officinalis L. (see further on), and that of Liquidambar orientalis Miller, the latter commonly distinguished as Liquid Storax.

5

According to Krinos of Athens, who has carefully investigated the history of the drug,* the earliest allusions to Liquid Storax occur in the writings of Aëtius and of Paulus Ægineta, who name both Storax and Liquid Storax (úрa vypòs). Of these Greek physicians, who lived respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, the second also mentions the resin of Zuyia, which is regarded by Krinos as synonymous with the latter substance.6

(πύρα

We find in fact the term Sigia frequently mentioned by Rhazes (10th

The feminine gender of Styrax has been in use for a long time. In Greek it denotes the tree, as also does sometimes the masculine gender, the neutral being reserved to the resin. In Latin the resin is masculini generis (Dr. Rice).

2 For a good figure of L. orientalis, see Hooker's Icones Plantarum (3rd series, 1867) pl. 1019, or Hanbury, Science Papers, 1876. 140; also Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, part 27 (1877).

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.

4 Περὶ Στύρακος, διατριβὴ φαρμακογραφική, ἐν ̓Αθῆναις, 1862. This pamphlet is also the subject of a paper of Prof. Planchon, Journ. de Pharm. 24 (1876) 172. 243.

5 Medica Artis Principes post Hippocratem et Galenum, Par. 1567.-Aëtii tetr. 4. serm. 4. c. 122; P. Ægineta, De re med. vii. 20.

6 The foliage of the Liquidamabar 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,-Zuyos or Zvyia. So Styrax officinalis L., from the resemblance of its leaves to those of Pirus Cydonia L., is known in Greece as 'Aypía Kvôwvna, i.e. wild quince.

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.1

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. 1113-1115.2

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,3 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): Bretschneider1 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.*

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 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, 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.

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. 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

1 Ibn Baytar, Sontheimer's transl. ii. 539. 2 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.

3 Vignolius, Liber Pontificalis, Romæ, i. (1724) 94.-The ancient Isauria was in Cilicia, the country of Styrax officinalis L.

4 On the knowledge possessed by the Chinese

of the Arabs, etc., Lond. 1871. 19.

5 Hist. of Japan, ed. Scheuchzer, i. 353. 6 Exoticorum Libri, 245.

7 Εγχειρίδιον Φαρμακολογίας, ὑπὸ Ν. Κωστή, 1855. 356.

8 Hanbury, Pharm. Journ. xvi. (1857) 417. 461, and iv. (1863) 436; Science Papers, 127-150.

9 Hanbury, l.c.

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 but now rare in European pharmacy, called Cortex Thymiamatis.

1

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 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.

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 naphtalian 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.