788 ORD. XLIX. Tripetaloidee. CALAMUS ROTANG. 
The best kind of this gummy resinous substance breaks smooth, is 
of a dark red colour, and when powdered changes to crimson; it 
readily melts, and catches flame. It is not acted upon by watery 
liquors, but it totally dissolves in pure spirit, and soluble likewise 
in expressed oils. It has no smell, but to the taste discovers some 
degree of warmth and pungency. 
The Cinnabris and Sanguis Draconis appear to have signified 
the same thing with the Ancient Greeks,* who were well ac- 
quainted with the astringent power of this medicine ; and in this 
character it has since been much employed in hemorrhages and 
alvine fluxes, At present however it is rarely used internally, 
being superseded by more certain and effectual remedies of this 
numerous class; and it enters no officinal composition but that of 
emplastrum thuris of the London Pharmacopeeia. 
* Kinafags, aie deanoyros. 
