54 A FEW CRITICAL, LITTLE KNOWN, 
6. Mentha Javanica, Bl. Chinese oil of peppermint has a great re- 
putation in the East; and certainly, in my judgment, it is quite equal, 
if not superior, in the strength and diffusiveness of its odour, and in 
flavour and pungency, to the best European samples I have ever seen. 
It is extensively employed in all manner of complaints by the native 
practitioners ; for instance, in colic and tympanitis a little is rubbed 
round the umbilicus, with, in most cases, marked advantage, and in 
some kinds of headache, friction with it on the forehead and temples 
affords speedy relief. A particular kind, sold in the Canton shops, 
contains such a great excess of stearoptine that, except in very high 
temperatures, it is absolutely solid, consisting exclusively of acicular 
erystals. The cultivated plant which was brought to me as the source 
of the oil, and which, on my expressing some doubt on the matter, I 
was assured here (at Whampoa) was undoubtedly the genuine herb, 
proves on examination to be Mentha Javanica, Bl., a plant which, as 
noted sin the * Flora Hongkongensis,’ I had some years ago found 
growing in ditches at Saiwan, certainly truly wild. I have no means 
of verifying the asserted origin of the Chinese oil, but apart from the 
question of the specific distinctness of this from M. arvensis, L., it 
would be interesting to know whether in Europe any attempt has been 
made, and with what success, to-extract peppermint-oil from the latter 
‘Species. Endlicher (Enchir. Bot. 309) does not include it in the list 
of his officinal and “usual” Mints, nor is it alluded to in Professor 
Lindley's ‘ Medical and Economical Botany ; and Dr. R. E. Griffith, 
at page 504 of his * Medical Botany,' published at Philadelphia in 
1847, says, “ the species peculiar to the United States ” (including 
therefore the very closely-allied M. Canadensis reduced to M. arvensis 
by Bentham), “are seldom employed, as both their odour and taste are 
not as aromatic and pleasant as the naturalized,” 
T. Ficus stipulata, 'Thbg., and F. pumila, Thbg. These two species 
appear to be very little known to European botanists, for Professor 
Miquel, when publishing his * Prodromus Monographie Fieuum, in 
1848 (Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 439), merely quotes Keempfer and 
Thunberg as authorities for F. pumila, which he had then apparently 
, never seen; and even as late as 1861, Mr. Bentham states, in the 
"Flora Hongkongensis,’ that the Hookerian herbarium contained no 
amphanthia of F, stipulata. This plant is by no means uncommon in 
Southern China, [1 
1 China, [1 collected it on the walls of Canton— B. SeeMaNN,] 
