722 GRAMINE^, 



horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manu- 

 facture of paper and of alcohol. 



Commerce — The value of the sugar imported into the United 

 Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures : — 



1868 1870 1872 



Unrefined . . £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898 



Rtjimil . . . £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703 



The quantity of Unrefined Sugar imported in 1872 was 13,776,696 

 cwt, of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West 

 India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands, 

 1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt. 

 by Mauritius. 



Of Refined Sugar the imports from France and Belgium into the 

 United Kingdom w^ere — 



1874 1875 1876 



133,800 102,300 92,044 tons. 



Uses — Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups, 

 electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of 

 covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a 

 preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents. 



Muscovado or Eaw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrys- 

 tallizable syrup, known in England as Molasses, Golden Syrup, and 

 Treacle,^ and in foreign pharmacy as Syrupus Hollandicus vel communiSy 

 which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of 

 heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air, 

 is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial 

 sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a dis- 

 agreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent, of oxalate, 

 tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar.^ The 

 treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent, of salts. 



HORDEUM DECORTICATUM. 



Hordeum i^erlatuniy Fructus vel Semen Hordei; Pearl Barley ; F. Orge 



monde ou perle ; G. GeroUte Gerste, Gerstegraupen. 



Botanical Origin~H or deum distichum L., — the Common or Long- 

 eared Barley is probably indigenous to western temperate Asia, but has 

 been cultivated for ages throughout the northern hemisphere. In 

 Sweden its cultivation extends as far as 68° 38' N. lat.; on the Nor- 

 wegian coast up to the Altenfjord in 70° N. lat. ; even in Lapland, it 

 succeeds as high as 900 to 1350 feet above the level of the sea. In 

 several of the southern Swiss Alpine valleys, barley ripens at 5000 feet, 

 and in the Himalaya at 11,000 feet. In the Equatorial Andes, where it 

 IS extensively grown, it thrives up to at least 11,000 feet above the sea. 

 iNo other cereal can be cultivated under so great a variety of climate. 



r 



1 How the word Treacle came to be trana- Physician or Druqqisfs Shop opened^ Lend. 



lerrea trom its application to an opiate 1663, treacle is never mentioned, but only 



w!tn w ^^.^T"^? a,^^me for molasses, ^^ melussas.'' 



makinr^vPT. i^„*^^^^««"pti<f. of sugar- « Laudolt, Ztltsdirjiiv analyt. Ckem. vu. 



maKing given by Salmon in his m^jHsh (1868) 1-29. 



