PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
results of its use be reported in contrast with the dried bark deemed 
by some to be inert. A summary of more than forty reports from prac- 
ticing physicians, together with remarks concerning the preparation 
of gossypium employed, was read before the Twenty-fourth Annual 
Meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association, 1876. The pa- 
per, in full, titled, “Fluid Extract of Gossypium Herbaceum,” was 
published in the Eclectic Medical Journal, December, 1876, pp. 
537-547. This treatise, together with the increasing demand from 
physicians throughout America for pharmaceutical preparations of gos- 
sypium root bark, led to its introduction to the Pharmacopeia of the 
United States. The credit for the discovery of its uses, as before 
stated, must be given to the Negroes of the South. 
GRANATUM (POMEGRANATE) 
Punica granatum has been in cultivation from the earliest histor- 
ical times. It is now found in all warm countries of the world, and 
frequently as an ornamental plant in this country and abroad, where 
it requires protection during the winter season, as it will not endure 
the cold. It is recorded, e. g., that in 1838 the pomegranate trees in 
the neighborhood of London were killed by the frost. The form gen- 
erally grown as ornament is the double variety, and consequently 
barren. The fruit of the pomegranate has been esteemed a delicacy 
from the most ancient time, and we often see it offered for sale at our 
fruit stands. In the West Indies, where the plant would thrive nat- 
urally, it is not extensively cultivated, and the writer of this botanical 
history (C. G. Lloyd), who has visited all these islands, does not re- 
member to have seen it or its fruit there. Like all cultivated plants, 
it is liable to variation, and several of its forms have been considered 
distinct species and named by several authors; however, they are all 
now considered forms of one species. 
The pomegranate shrub, according to De Candolle (122), is orig- 
inally a native of Persia and adjacent countries, but has been cultivated 
and naturalized in the Mediterranean countries at such an early date 
that it has even been considered indigenous to these countries. 
Pomegranate was included among the vegetables that were held 
sacred by the Assyrians (86) and the Egyptians (688) ; the latter 
nation made it a custom to place in the graves of the dead fruits of the 
field and garden, among them pomegranates, specimens of which are 
preserved to the present day (239). The pomegranate had undoubt- 
edly an occult significance with the ancient nations. It was frequently 
used as a mystical emblem in adorning the capitals of Assyrian (86, 
374) and Egyptian (688) columns, and the Bible (1st Book of Kings 
vii, 18, 20) tells us that in the building of Solomon’s temple the capitals 
of the columns were decorated with a “network of pomegranates.” 
Also (Exodus XXvili, 33, 34) the hem of the high priest’s robe was 
adorned with imitations of pomegranates in blue, purple, and scarlet, 
alternating with bells of gold. The pomegranate was one of the three 
fruits brought to Moses by the men that he sent to spy out the land 
of promise (302). Many other passages scattered throughout the 
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