CAMBOGIA 



307 



clusters, on short, one-flowered pedicels. Female flowers sessile. Fruit a 

 berry, about the size of a large cherry, reddish-brown, containing a sweet 

 pulp. 



HABITAT. Anam, Camboja, Siam, and Cochin-China. % 

 DESCRIPTION or DRUG. Lumps, or cylindrical sticks (pipes), 25 to 50 

 mm. (i to 2 in.) in diameter, and 100 to 200 mm. (4 to 8 in.) in length, 

 striated lengthwise by impressions from the bamboo in which it is 



^r 



FIG. 177. Garcinia hanburii Branch. 



collected. Externally, grayish-brown. It has a smooth, conchoidal 

 fracture of a waxy luster and orange-red in color. The powder is 

 bright yellow and sometimes adheres to the drug, giving it a yellow 

 appearance. Taste at first mild, afterward very acrid; odor irritating, 

 sternutatory. The cake or lump gamboge is sold in masses weighing 

 two or three pounds. It is less uniform, less brittle, and is sometimes 

 called "coarse gamboge." Adulterated specimens are easily recog- 

 nized by their general inferior appearance, by the grayish or bronze 



