NOTICES OF BOOKS, 53 



arranged under Natural Orders wMch follow the usual sequence. 

 Each article commences with a section headed, *' Botanical Origin," 

 where we find the name of the plant or plants yielding the drug, 

 a very brief description, and an accurate indication of the native 

 localities. A few selected synomyms are often added, and sometimes 

 references to figures. The book does not profess to be a treatise on 

 medicinal plants, and this part of the subject is necessarily reduced to 

 its smallest limits, but when it is remembered how much Mr. Han- 

 bury might have told us on such points, it is impossible to help wishing 

 it had been somewhat more extended. However, the determinations 

 of drug-yielding species here given, as they are the most recent, may 

 be unhesitatingly accepted as the most trustworthy existing, and it 

 will be useful to point out some of them. The Japanese Illicium 

 religiosum is combined with the Chinese /. anisatum (as has been 

 already done by Miquel and Baillon). The source of Calumba Eoot 

 is given as /a^eor7m« ^(?Z??'.«^a,Miers(= J". J/«'em«,01iv.), under which 

 IS included J. Calumha, Miers ; a foot-note by Mr. H anbury telling us 

 that a careful examination of a large number of specimens has con- 

 vinced him that the characters alleged to separate the plants in 

 question are unimportant. Cissamjjelos Fareira, L., appears to have 

 never been an object of export to Europe, though it has long been 

 stated to be the source of the drug called Pareira brava. Mr. Hanbury 

 has recently (Pharm. Journ., 1873, p. 82) with his usual perspicacity 

 cleared up the confusion surrounding this medicine ; the real Pareira 

 brava is yielded by Chondrodendron tomentosum, R. & P., a climbing 

 Brazilian shrub, but the source of the drug which has for some years 

 passed for it in the shops, and which is nearly inert medicinally, has 

 not been certainly determined. Savanilla Rhatany was formerly 

 determined by Mr. Hanbury to be the root of Krameria Ixira, var. 

 granatensisy Triana ; this he is now satisfied is K. tomentosa^ St. Hilaire. 

 The Lignum Yitae wood of the Bahamas is afforded hjGuaiacum sanc- 

 tum, L. There is no account given of the bitter tonic, Simaruba, the bark 

 of the root of a Jamaica tree, Simaruba amara. Dr. Birdwood's 

 valuable researches on the Olibanum-producing species of BoswelUa 

 are recognised, but his B. Frereana is considered to yield a 

 different product, the oriental Elemi of the older writers. The source 

 of the resin at present known in pharmacy as Elemi, is unknown ; it 

 is yielded by a tree growing in the Phillippines, and from the drawings 

 of Camelli preserved in the British Museum appears to the authors 

 to be a species of Canarium. Tragacanth is yielded by many species 

 of Astragalus, a list of eight from which it is chiefly produced is given. 

 Myroxylon Toluijera, H. B. K. and M. Pareirce are the sources 

 respectively of the Balsams of Tolu and Peru ; Baillon has recently 

 combined these under one species, but the authors cannot follow him 

 in this, and give contrasted characters of the two trees. The best 

 African Gum Arabic is, according to Schweinfurth, exuded exclusively 

 by Acacia Verek, Guill. & Perr., though other species afford inferior 

 sorts. The astringent substance called Gambler, or Pale Catechu, is 

 stated to be manufactured from Uncaria acida, Roxb., as well as U. 

 Gamhier, Roxb.; further study may not improbably show these two 

 species to be identical. It is remarkable that the origin of several of 

 the Gum-resins known to be produced by TJmbellifers remains still in 



