312 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



peculiar crimped edges of the leaves, and their aromatic odour 

 when bruised or broken across. All parts of the plant, but 

 especially the rhizome, have a strong, aromatic and slightly acid 

 taste. 



The English and German dried root, as it appears in the shops, 

 under the name of radix acori veri or radix calami aromatici, is 

 in flattened pieces of four or five or more inches long, and about as 

 broad as the thumb ; jointed, somewhat curved, of a spongy or 

 corky texture internally; of yellowish-brown or fawn-colour 

 externally, more or less shrunken and wrinkled, and buff colour or 

 of slightly roseate hue internally. The fracture is short, the upper 

 surfaces of the pieces marked transversely with the scars and 

 fibrous vestiges of the leaves which were attached to them ; the 

 lower surfaces have numerous little elevated pale-coloured circular 

 dots with a dark centre ; these latter indicating the points from 

 whence the roots proceeded. The rhizome deteriorates by keeping. 

 In Germany the rhizome is usually peeled before drying it ; it 

 then appears as greyish white, spongy pieces, and is easily 

 pulverisable, but the system of peeling it is unnecessary and very 

 wasteful, as the receptacles containing the volatile oil are more 

 abundant in the external portions of the rhizome. Such 

 decorticated rhizomes are therefore less powerful in odour and of 

 less value to the consumer than the ordinary unpeeled ones. 



The pulverised root has been in use in England as a toilet 

 powder, on account of the fragrance of its essential oil combined 

 with its farinaceous substance. For this reason it also enters into 

 the composition of sachet powders. 



The rhizome is used in India in the preparation of an aromatic 

 vinegar. The Bengalee name of the root is Bach, and in Hindee it 

 is called Bach ghor or gor Bach. In Tamil it is Vashamhco and in 

 Arabic, Vaj. On the Malabar coast it is known as Vacka, and 

 under that name it was described and figured by Van Eheede as an 

 Indian plant in 1692 in his " Hortus Malabaricus," xi., t. 48, 99. 

 It has a stronger and more agreeable odour than that grown in 

 Europe or the United States. 



Dr. Dymock, in his " Notes on Indian drugs " thus describes 

 the Indian root as it appears on the Bombay Market : — " The root 

 stock occurs in somewhat tortuous, sub-cylindrical or flattened 

 pieces, a few inches long and from J to 1 inch in greatest diameter. 



