

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 



BULLETIN 



OF 



MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



No. 10.] 



[1907 



LVIII.-THE GUMS AMMONIAC OP MOBOCCO AND 



THE CYRENAICA. 



{Ferula communis, L., var. brevifolia, Maris ; Ferula 



rnarmarica, Aschers. and Taub.) 



Otto Stapf. 



The origin of the Gum Ammoniac of Morocco has, in spite oi 

 repeated attempts to clear it up, remained doubtful. On Lindley"* 

 authority it is very generally accepted as the resin of Ferula 

 tingitana ; but Battandier * suggested already in 1889 that it was 

 the produce of a form of Ferula communis which he called 

 u fi gummi/era," and later Simmondsf came to a similar 

 conclusion. Further, in 1892, Sir Joseph HookerJ pointed to 

 Ferula Linkii as the probable source of the gum. He was led to 

 this assumption by some specimens, then in cultivation at Kew, ot 

 a Ferula which had been received from Morocco as representing 

 the mother plant of the gum ammoniac ; but as those specimens 

 had not then flowered, an exact determination was not 

 possible. They did so, however, before the year was over, 

 and a drawing was made, whicn has been ^P r f nc ^..^ u \ ® 

 recently in the Botanical Magazine, tab. 81o7. witn ^ iw 

 identification as a form of Ferula communis, the > quest jen as to 

 the botany of the Morocco gum ammoniac is settled ami it is now 

 possible to give a fairly complete account of the history ot tne 

 drug. The early history of this gum, however ^as b een so 

 obscure up to the present time that it will be necessary ^ to nieaJ 

 hrst with its most recent phase. Having done that e shall be in 



a better position to interpret the very ^^^^Tthfonceso 

 authors, and the relationship of the Morocco drug to the once 

 highly reputed Ammoniakon of Dioscondes. 



* Battandier in Battandier and Trabut, Flore de rAlgerie, vol. L p. 367 

 t Simmonds in Amer. Journ. of Pharm. 1Jj»1, P- <°- 



simmonds in Amer. Journ. or -ru 

 Hooker fil. in Bot. Mag. tab. 72«7 



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