58 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



broadly oval or obovate-oval, rather obtuse at the apex, entire, 

 thick, smooth, strongly veined on both surfaces, shining above, 

 paler and scattered with minute dots beneath. 



The flowers are small, numerous, stalked, arranged in threes 

 (the central one on a short pedicel, the two lateral on longer, 

 widely spreading ones) at the extremities of the divaricate 

 branches of large trichotomous axillary or terminal cymes longer 

 than the leaves, the w^hole often forming one large corymbose 

 inflorescence : branches slender, compressed, punctate with glands. 

 In the w^oods of Antigua, Jamaica and Barbadoes the fragrance of 

 the leaves of this tree fills the air. The fruit is an ovoid-globular 

 berry, about the size of a pea, smooth, crowned with the persistent 

 calyx-lobes, blackish when ripe, with scanty pulp, 2-celled, of 

 aromatic smell and taste, seed solitary in each cell. 



The sp. gr. of the oil of " West Indian Bay leaves " is stated by 

 Dodcre and Olcott* to ran^e between 0-895 and 1-020, and an 

 average sample of a complete distillation to have a sp. gr. of 

 0-965 at 60° F. Oil distilled in the Xew York factory of Messrs. 

 Schimmel & Co. from imported leaves was found to have a sp. gr. 

 of 0-9828 at 15° C. ; the yield being 3-5 per cent. Investigations 

 in this respect were made by Professor Markoe,f who, operating 

 on about 7,000 lbs of leaves, imported principally from the Island 

 of St. Thomas, obtained the following results : — " The apparatus 

 used in distilling the oil w^as a 200-gallon copper still, heated by 

 steam, so arranged that either wet or dry steam could be used at 

 pleasure. From 200 to 3001bs. of leaves were used at each running 

 of the still, and to work off this quantity required from eight to 

 twelve hours, during which time from 80 to 100 gallons of distil- 

 late would be obtained. The oil comes over in two portions. First 

 a portion lighter than water, that comes over very rapidly, and then 

 the heavy oil, that comes over very slowly and does not easily 

 separate from the water, with which it forms a milky emulsion. 

 The following notes were made of one of the runs with 2001bs. of 

 leaves. The distillate w^as collected in quantities of 2 J gallons of 

 the oil carefully separated from each portion. The sp. gr. of each 

 portion was then taken : — 



* Druggist's Circular, July, 1888, p. 156. 

 t Pharm. Journ. [3], viii. p. 1005. 



