spreading corolla and thirty stamens, and hence cannot be 

 1. varum. 



In his " Notes on Botanical questions connected with the 

 export trade of China," printed at Pekin in 1880, Dr. 

 Bretschneider calls attention to a Report by Mr. Piry on 

 the trade of Pakhoi for 1878-9, which contains interesting 

 particulars regarding the Star Anise. Of this he says it 

 is brought to that port for exportation from the province 

 of Kuangsi via Kin-chow, and that it is produced in two 

 districts, Lung-chow on the borders of Annam, and Po-se 

 in the West (or Canton) river close to Yunnan. 



The Star Anise was, according to Hanbury (Pharmaco- 

 graphia, ed. 2, p. 22), first brought to Europe by the 

 voyager Candish about the year 1588, and was first de- 

 scribed by Clusius (Rarior. Plant. Hist. p. 202) in 1601 

 from fruits procured from London. It seems afterwards 

 to have been imported via Russia (and hence called 

 Cardamomum siberiense, or Annis de Siberie), and was used 

 by the Dutch in the seventeenth century to flavour beve- 

 rages. From China it is exported into Eastern Turkestan 

 under the name of Chinese fennel, and in China itself it is 

 called Pa kio nui hiang, or eight-horned Fennel ; the fact 

 being that though commonly compared with aniseed, the 

 taste is really more like that of fennel ; so that the name 

 given it by Redi (Experimenta, p. 172) in 1675 was 

 Famiculum sinense. In China the Star Anise is employed 

 as a condiment and as a spice, and it is still used to flavour 

 spirits in Germany, France (where it is the flavouring 

 material of Anisette de Bordeaux) and Italy. In England, 

 according to Hanbury, it is used only as a substitute for 

 oil of anise. 



The propriety of giving the new name of verum to this 

 interesting plant may be challenged on the ground that 

 the Linnaaan one of anisatum should be retained for it, 

 and another be adopted for the Japanese plant so long 

 supposed to be the origin of the Star Anise. The objec- 

 tions to this course are twofold : the first is, that Linnaaus 

 (Sp. Plant. Ed. '3, p. 664) clearly describes this as his 1. 

 anisatum, the Skimmi of Kaampfer, and cites Kaampfer's 

 Amcenitates for the same. He, however, adds, " Planta 

 a me non visa, fide Kaempferi recepta, forte Anisurn stella- 

 tum officinarum, quod adjectum Tetraodonti ocellari ejus 



