CORTEX CASCARILL.E. oG3 



pieces of a dull brown colour, somewhat rough and irreguLar, rai'cly 

 exceeding 4 inches in length by | an inch in diameter. The cliief bulk 

 of that at present imported is in very small thin quills and fragments, 

 often scarcely an inch in length, and evidently stripped from very 

 young wood. The younger bark has a thin suberous coat easily 

 detached, blotched or entirely covered with the silvery-white growth 

 of a minute lichen {Verrucaria alhissima Ach.), the pcrithccium of 

 which appears as small black dots. The older bark is more rugose, 

 irregularly tessellated by longitudinal cracks and less numerous 

 transverse fissures. Beneath the corky envelope the bark is grcyisli- 

 brown. 



The bark breaks readily with a short fracture, the broken surface 

 displaying a resinous appearance. It has a very fragrant odour, 

 especially agreeable when several pounds of it are reduced to coarse 

 powder and placed in a jar; it has a nauseous bitter taste. When 

 burned it emits an aromatic smell, and hence is a common ingredient 

 in fumigating pastilles. 



Microscopic Characters— The suberous coat is made up of 

 numerous rows of tabular cells, the outermost having their exterior 

 walls much thickened. The mesophkaum exhibits the usual tissue, 

 containing starch, chlorophyll, essential oil, crystals of oxalate ot 

 calcium, and a brown colouring matter. The latter assumes a darlc 

 bluish coloration on addition of a persalt of iron. In the inner portion 

 of that layer ramified laticiferous vessels are also present. lUe libcr 

 consists of parenchyme and of fibrous bundles, intersected by small 

 medullary rays. On the transverse section, the fibrous bundles sIlo^v a 

 M-edge-shaped outline; they are for the most part built up, not oi tiuc 

 Hber-fibrcs, but of cylindrical cells having their transverse wa Is 

 perforated sieve-like (wtsa cribyif ovinia). Ihe contents of the 

 parenchymatous part of the liber are the same as m the meso 

 phloeum; as to the oxalate of cakium, the variety of its crystals 

 remarkable.' 



. Chemical Composition-Cascarilla contains a ^^^f/^^,^!' Tj^t 

 H yields to the extent of M per cent. According to Volckel S^^^^^^^^^ 



is a mixture of at least two oils, the more volati e o ^^■l;;^^;^,^Xro^^ 

 free from oxygen. Gladstone (1872) assigns to ^1^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 cascarilla oil the composition of oil of turpentine. B> «^^^'" ° j^^ 

 oil optically we found it to have a weak rotatory powei^somesunf 

 deviated to the right, some to the left. The resm, m which cascaniia 

 IS rich, has not yet been examined more exact y. ^ jj^ 



^ The bitter principle was isolated in 184o .^>V/^f;^;^" deposit 

 CascarUlin, C^and E. Mylius (1873) have obtam-U J^n^^.J P^^^,^. 



m the officinal extract, in microscopic prisms 7^;;^^>^'^ -^.j^ of wine, 

 or hot alcohol, very sparingly in water, ch orofo m or^p j^j^^ 



It melts at 205° C, is not volatile, nor a glucoside. lt..co i 

 answers to the formula Ci^ff^O*. ^, , . ^ .^,^ r 



n r TvJoccnn tho chiet town oi 

 Commerce-The bark is shipped froni Nassau ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ 



New Providence (Bahamas), and is "dually . pacKt 

 quantity imported into the United Kingdom m lb70 w as i-, 



' For morP. n,.rt.;nnUr. see Pockliugton, Fharm. Jounu ui. (18/3) G 



