714 



GE AMINES. 



have endeavoured to obtain from it Parillin, the crystalline principle 

 of sarsaparilJa, but without success. 



Commerce — China root is imported into Europe from the South of 

 China — usually from Canton. The quantity shipped from that port in 

 1872, was only 384 peculs (51,200 lb.) ; while the same year there was 

 shipped from Hankow, the great trading city of the Yangtsze, no less 

 than 10,258 peculs (1,367,7331b.), all to Chinese ports. For the year 

 1874, these figures w^ere: Hankow 9393 peculs, valued at 53,194 taels 

 (one tael about 5s. lOd.), Kewkiang 3G27 peculs, Ningpo 2905 peculs/ 

 and for 1877 Hankow 12,075 peculs, Kewkiang 3942 peculs. 



Uses — Notwithstanding the high opinion formerly entertained of 

 the virtues of China root, it has in England fallen into complete disuse. 

 In China and India it is still held in great esteem for the relief of 

 rheumatic and syphilitic complaints, and as an aphrodisiac and demul- 

 cent. Polak asserts that the tubers of Smilax are consumed as food 

 by Turcomans and Mongols.^ 



Substitutes — Several American species of Smilax furnish a nearly 



allied drug, which at various times has been brought into commerce as 



Radix Chinee occidentalis. It was already known to the authors of 



the IGth century; we met with it in 1872, and before, in the London 



market, as an importation from Puntas Arenas, the port of Costa Rica 

 on the Pacific coast. 



Of the exact species it is difficult to speak with certainty: bufc 

 S. Pseudo-China L. and >S'. tamnoides L. growing in the United States 

 from New Jersey southwards ; S. Balhisiana Knth., a plant common 

 in all the West Indian Islands ; and 8. Japicanga Griseb., 8, syringoides 

 Griseb. and S, Brasiliensis Spreng., are reputed to afford large tuberous 

 rhizomes which in their several localities replace the China root of Asia, 

 and are employed in a similar manner.^ 



GRAMINE^. 



SACCHARUM. 



Sugar, Cane Sugar, Sucrose; F. Sucre, Sucre de canne; G. Zitckev, 



Rolirzucher. 



Botanical OviginSacckarum officinarum L., the Sugar Cane. 

 The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally 

 juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cul- 

 tivated, as the Country Cane, the original form of the species ; the Ri^- 

 bon Cane, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem; the Bourbon 

 or Tahiti Cane, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very pro- 



^^Seturns of Trade at the Treahj Ports in " 



Unnafor 1872, pp. M, 154, antl'the same 

 for 1874. 



2 See p. t524, note 2.— We quote this state- 

 ment with re.serve, knowing that both 

 l^ii^nese and Kuropeans sometimes ooufouml 

 China root with the singular fungoia pro- 

 duction termed Pachyma Cocas. The first 

 IS called in Chinese Tu-fuh-Unrj,- the 



sec 



1)U 



ioud Fnh'Uny or Pe-/ifh-Ung.~-See Han- 

 ry, Phinn. Journ, iii. (1SG2) 421; and 

 ^cknre. Paijers,1^% 267.— F. Porter Smith, 

 Mat. Med. and Nat. I/isL of China, 1871. 

 108; fJragendorff, Voa-smedkin Tai^e^lcim 

 in Buchner's I leper tori urn, xxii. (1873) 1^^' 

 ^ De CandoUe's monograph, quoted at p. 

 705, note 4, may be conaulted on the above 

 specie?. 



