PHARMACOPCIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
CARDAMOMUM 
Cardamom (Elettaria repens) has been used in India from a re- 
mote period, being mentioned in the writings of Susruta (522). It ap- 
pears in the list of India spices liable to duty in Alexandria, A. D. 176- 
180. The Portuguese navigator Barbosa (39) first definitely describes 
its origin as a product of the Malabar Coast. Since its introduction 
from the Orient cardamom has been used, as it has been in its home 
from all time, as a flavor and a stomachic. Several forms of the carda- 
mom are found in the bazaars of Turkey and Arabia, where it is 
brought by means of caravans. It is largely cultivated at the present 
time as an article of commerce. This writer found (1907) large carda- 
mom seeds strung on strings and sold by number in bazaars in Asia 
Minor. 
CARUM 
Although the home of caraway (Carum carvi) appears to have 
been in the northern and midland parts of Europe and Asia, it was 
known to the Arabians, and at an early date was introduced into Eng- 
land. In German domestic medicine of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
‘turies the word cumich occurs, which is still the popular name for 
caraway in Southern Germany. At the close of the fourteenth century 
caraway was much used in England, where it was largely employed in 
cooking. It was not used in India either in cooking or in medicine, 
nor does it appear in the record of the early days among Indian spices. 
It has a domestic reach that dominates its every use. 
CARYOPHYLLUS 
Indigenous to the Molucca Islands proper, cloves (Eugenia aro- 
matica) have been an article of Indian commerce since an early date. 
Known to the Chinese writers of the Han dynasty, B. C. 266 to A. D. 
220, cloves became known in Europe about the fourth century, after 
which they became increasingly an article of commerce, although, for 
a long time, very expensive. The original home of the clove, the 
Moluccas or Clove Islands, now produce no cloves at all. The aro- 
matic nature of cloves made of them a great favorite, and they were 
therefore used to perfume the breath and to flavor food, as well as 
being employed in domestic medicines, such as stomachic cordials. The 
well-known Blackberry Cordial of Kentucky is largely spiced with 
cloves and cinnamon, its blackberry part being the juice of the ripe 
berries, its alcoholic part being whisky. The domestic use of this 
pleasant carminative cordial gave it a place in the Pharmacopeia. 
CASSIA FISTULA 
Galen (254a) mentions a cheap cassia called “fistula,” seemingly 
referring, not to this drug, but to a coarse cinnamon, rolled up as a 
tube. The fruit now known as Cassia fistula was noticed by Joannes 
Actuarius (4), of Constantinople, during the thirteenth century, who 
minutely describes it. The drug is also mentioned by writers of the 
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