PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
Morocco, and state that this characteristic plant of the desert region in 
North Africa rarely approaches the sea shore. The fruit is used in 
Morocco for the purpose of protecting woolen clothing from moths; 
but according to the testimony of these observers the purgative qualities 
of colocynth do not seem to be known to the native doctors. 
Volkens (6642) enumerates citrullus colocynthis (L,.) Schrader, 
among the plants growing in the Egypto-Arabian deserts, pointing to 
its exceedingly rapid development, especially the fruit, which attains a 
diameter of ten centimeters. After the vine has withered away the 
fruits may be seen lying in the sand of the desert, ten to fifteen in 
number, about each plant. Volkens saw the plant in bloom in May 
as well as in December, and reports that when the plant is torn from 
the ground it withers in a short time, owing, he thinks, to the delicacy 
of the microscopical structure of the leaves. 
A brief account of the growth of colocynth in Palestine by E. S. 
Wallace has more recently appeared in the United States consular re- 
ports (1895), from which we abstract the following points of interest: 
he fruit grows abundantly between the mountains of Palestine and 
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, from the city of Gaza north- 
ward to Mount Carmel. The plant thrives without any attention what- 
ever on the part of the husbandman, since the climate and soil are 
all-sufficient for its perfect growth—the natural requirements being 
merely a sandy soil, warm climate, and little moisture. The fruit which 
is known in commerce as the Turkish colocynth is collected by the na- 
tive peasants (fellaheen) in July and August, before it is quite ripe, 
and is sold to Jaffa dealers, who peel it and dry the pulp in the sun. 
It is then molded into irregular small balls, packed in boxes and ex- 
ported, mostly via England. The average annual shipments are stated 
in the consular reports to be ten thousand pounds, but these must 
have fallen off considerably during recent years. The reason for 
this, as we learn from another source, lies undoubtedly in the ex- 
port tax. The report suggests that probably colocynth may be 
profitably cultivated in certain parts of the United States. 
In this connection we may point to Prof. L. E. Sayre’s paper (Am. 
Journ. Pharm., 1894, p. 273) on American colocynth, and the culti- 
vation of colocynth in Montreal as reported in 1895 by Prof. T. D. 
Reed (Montreal Pharm. Journ., 1896, p. 334). 
The drug is imported from Spain, Triest, Smyrna, Mogador, and 
elsewhere (501). 
CONIUM 
Conium maculatum is native to Asia Minor and the islands of the 
Mediterranean. It has been naturalized in North and South America 
and throughout England and other similar locations. It was known to 
the Greeks, who are said to have used it to execute criminals. It was 
long known under the name Cicuta, but to avoid confusion with Cicuta 
virosa, Linnzeus (385) in 1737 restored its classical name, Conium mac- 
ulatum, or poison hemlock, the word hemlock being Saxon, meaning 
leek of the border, or shore. Storck (617), of Vienna, in 1760, 
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