August i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



163 



the butter adulterated with the abovemeutioned matters, 

 above 30 degrees. If one part cocoa-butter be shaken with 

 three parts aether at an ordinary temperature, the pure 

 cocoa-butter will give a perfectly clear solution, \yhile the 

 presence of tallow and wax is betrayed by the liquid re- 

 maining turbid, while a white sediment is precipitated. 

 The presence of parafine is marked by a soapy feeling and 

 a diminution of specific gravity. 



The addition of stearic acid is as easily to be detected ; 

 in the first place the specific gravity increases, while by 

 boiling with diluted soda-lye sodic stearate is formed, 

 which on treatment with sulphuric acid deposits stearic 

 from the fluid. 



Oocoa-butter is a by-product in all extensive chocolate 

 works. It is used chiefly for making soap, perfumery aud 

 cosmetics, and also for outward medical applications. Its 

 not turning rancid is especially of great value for this 

 latter purpose. — Indian Mercury. 



MADAR (CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA). 



A number of communications have been received from 

 different parts of India regarding this shrub, called forth 

 by Major Johnston"s letter published in the last proceed- 

 ings in which he mentions that the plant is supposed to 

 be an antidote to cobra poison ; many correspondents appear 

 to think that the numerous properties of this plant have 

 not xoreviously attracted attention. Yet over 30 years ago 

 the very superior fibre it yields, one of the strongest of 

 the many Indian fibres, attracted the attention of this 

 Society; and its other qualities have been noted. Major 

 Johnston has been asked which of the two species of 

 C'alotropis (U. Gigantea and C. Procera) is thought to have 

 special virtue in case of snake bite, his reply will be noted 

 in due course. Meanwhile the following notes kindly furn- 

 ished by different members may be of interest, being 

 original: — The two species are readily distinguishable by the 

 flower, that of the O. Gigantea being rose or lilac colored 

 and of the O. Procera white. " There are two varieties 

 of the Akhaun (Calotropis Gigantea) growing in this dis- 

 trict (Jessore). One of them, the white-flowered variety, 

 called by the natives Seth Akhaun, and the other, the lilac- 

 flowered variety, called by the natives Nela Akhaun, the 

 former of which is used by the natives here in cases of 

 snake bites generally and cobra bites especially — their recipe 

 is as follows : — Take a 2 anna piece weight (gth of a tola) 

 of the peel or outer covering of the root of the Seth 

 Akhaun, and half that weight of common ginger. The 

 patient is to chew both the above ingredients together 

 in his mouth, and if they taste sweet it indicates that the 

 virus has entered into the system. In that case he is to 

 chew successive doses of the above medicines until they 

 taste bitter to him, when it shows that the poison has 

 been contracted and that he is free from danger. Of 

 course the patient must swallow the juices of the medicines 

 along with the saliva rejecting the refuse from his mouth. 

 The natives here place implicit faith on this medicine, 

 considering it an infallible cure; but I have little doubt 

 that it has little or no efficacy, like all other reputed 

 antidotes for snake bites for when it apparently proves 

 successful it simply arises either from the snake not having 

 injected its poison into the wound, or from the poison- 

 bag being at the time exhausted of its supply ; and that 

 such cases sometimes occur will be found from the results 

 of Dr., now Sir Joseph, Fayrer's experiments as noted in 

 his well-known work on the subject. The above plant 

 has many valuable therapeutic properties which are too 

 numerous to detail here: they will be found mentioned 

 in Colonel Drury's useful plants." I may add that it is 

 one of the strongest fibre-yielding plants, but owing to 

 its not thriving under cultivation, it is not able to be 

 utilized to any appreciable extent." 



"The medicinal properties of this plant have been pretty 

 fully described by Dr. Kanilal Dey in his indigenous drugs 

 of Iudia, by Dr. Udoy Ohand Dutt in his Materia Medica 

 of the Hindoos, by Dr. Waring in his bazaar medicines 

 and by other writers. The various parts of this plant not 

 only form important elements in several standard Hindoo 

 medicines,|but they are also very largely used by the people of 

 this country as domestic medicines. There are two varieties of 

 the Madar plant, — the red flowering and the white flowering. 

 Both the varieties are useful in leprosy, carbuncle, enlarged 



spleen, &c. The white variety is said to be a good appetiser, 

 digestive and a curative of cough and asthma. The red 

 variety is said ta be good in colds aud in inflamatory diseases, 

 looseuess of bowels, lepra, worms, skin-diseases, dropsy, and 

 in enlarged abdominal viscera. The Jlowers are used as a 

 tonic appetiser, and digestive. The bark of the root is 

 used in cough, asthma, dysentry, diarrhoea, skin-diseases and 

 inflamatory diseases. It is said to be a good substitute for 

 Epicacuauha. In 12 to 15 grain doses it is used as an 

 emetic and in 2 to 5 grains it is used as a Diaphoretic. 

 The leaves mixed with rock salt and roasted within a closed 

 vessel are widely administered in enlarged spleen. The 

 milky juice is used as a purgative and also as a sedative 

 in toothache and caries. In Sphilis and mercurial disease 

 the milky juice of the plant and also the inspissated 

 juice of the leaves are held in great esteem and are widely 

 used with unvarying success." 



" Kindly enquire of Major Johnston, of Metapolliam, if 

 it is the juice of the white or the purple flowering Madar 

 which is the specific for cobra snake bite. We have both 

 descriptions in this district: the natives prefer using the 

 leaves of the white for rheumatic pains and the juice of 

 the white in leprosy." — From Proceedings of Agri-lloitictdt- 

 ur d Society of India. 



EXHALATION OF OZONE BY FLOWERING 

 PLANTS. 

 The question, " Are plants in bedrooms unhealthy or 

 not ? " has been frequently put, and as frequently answered 

 in directly contradictory terms. The question, so far as 

 the production of carbonic acid is concerned, is of littlo 

 moment, for the quantitj of that gas given off during a 

 night by any conceivable number of plants likely to be 

 placed in a bedroom is so small as to be practically harm- 

 less. It is the organic matter which accompanies the ex- 

 pired breath of the sleepers that really renders the air 

 of a bedroom foul, and it would seem from some researches 

 made by Dr. J. M. Anders that flowering plants at least 

 help to purify the atmosphere wherever they may be placed. 

 Schreiber and other investigators have, for instance, as 

 serted that the emanations from Pine forests actually 

 convert the oxygen of tin- air into ozone, and Naquet 

 goes further with the dictum that " ozone exists iu woods 

 and fields, and wherever there is active vegetation." How- 

 ever ozone may be produced, there seems no difference 

 of opiniou as to its value in our atmosphere, for the majority 

 of chemists are agreed that it is the " great purifier," and 

 no one can attribute any deleterious influence to it. Ozone 

 is rarely found in dwelling-rooms, as it is decomposed in 

 the process of oxidising the organic matter present, ami it 

 is only when a number of flowering plants are introduced 

 that ozone in any appreciable quantity can be detected. 

 Dr. Anders lias, during the last three or four years, de- 

 voted much of his leisure time to an investigation of the 

 question whether flowering plants exhale ozone, and iu 

 1882 he commenced a series of experiments in the Horti- 

 cultural Hall of Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, which have 

 enabled him to answer definitely aud decidedly in the 

 affirmative. In an interesting review of the subject, which 

 he has contributed to some recent numbers of the Amer- 

 ican Naturalist, he leaves to the expert chemist the de- 

 termination of the real nature and properties of ozone, 

 and proceeds to explain how he has discovered that it is 

 exhaled from flowering plants. It was thought at one time 

 that the green parts of plants evolved ozone under the 

 influence of the sun ; but lately it has been accepted, 

 principally on the evidence of Oloez and Bellucci, that the 

 change in the iodised test-paper, supposed to be due to 

 ozone, is really caused by the action of moisture, oxygen 

 and light. The first experiments of Dr. Anders were made 

 in the main hall of the buildings at Fairmount Park, which 

 is 220 feet long, 100 feet wide, with curvilinear roofs. 65 

 feet high in the centre. This house corresponds to what 

 is known as the Palm-house at Kew, and is filled with 

 similar plants, the average temperature being 70 ° Fahr. 

 Alongside is the Fern-house, the forcing-house, the tem- 

 perate-house, the propagating-house, and the economic- 

 house, each about 100 feet by 30 feet by 20 feet. Many 

 of the first. tests were negative, amongst other reasons be- 

 cause the houses were daily visited by considerable num- 

 bers, and the ozone, assuming any to have been present, 



