SEMEN FOENI GRiECI. 173 



testa bursts by the swelling of the internal membrane or endopleura, 

 which like a thick gelatinous sac encloses the cotyledons and their very 

 large hooked radicle. 



Microscopic Structure — The most interesting structural pecu- 

 liarity of this seed arises from the fact that the mucilage with which it 

 abounds is not yielded by the cells of the epidermis, but by a loose 

 tissue closely surrounding the embryo.^ 



Chemical Composition — The cells of the testa contain tannin ; 

 the cotyledons a yellow colouring matter, but no sugar. The air-dried 

 seeds give off 10 per cent, of water at 100° C, and on subsequent 

 incineration leave 7 per cent, of ash, of which nearly a fourth is phos- 

 phoric acid. 



Ether extracts from the pulverized seeds 6 per cent, of a foetid, 

 fatty oil, having a bitter taste. Amylic alcohol removes in addition a 

 small quantity of resin. Alcohol added to a concentrated aqueous 

 extract, forms a precipitate of mucilage, amounting when dried to 28 

 per cent. Burnt with soda-lime, the seeds yielded to Jahns * 3"4 

 per cent, of nitrogen, equivalent to 22 per cent, of albumin. No 

 researches have been yet made to determine the nature of the odorous 

 principle. 



Production and Commerce — Fenugreek is cultivated in Morocco, 

 in the south of France near Montpellier, in a few places in Switzerland, 

 in Alsace, and in some other provinces of the German and Austrian 

 empires, as Thuringia and Moravia. It is produced on a far larger scale 

 in Egypt, where it is known by the Arabic name Hulba, and whence 

 it is exported to Europe and India. In 1873 it was stated that the 

 profits of the Eui'opean growers were much reduced by the seed being 

 largely exported from Mogador and Bombay. 



Under the Sanscrit name of Methi, which has passed, slightly modi- 

 fied, into several of the modem Indian languages, fenugreek is much 

 grown in the plains of India during the cool season. In the year 1872-73, 

 the quantity of seed exported from Sind to Bombay was 13,646 cwt., 

 valued at £4,405.' From the port of Bombay there were shipped in 

 the same year 9,655 cwt., of which only 100 cwt. are reported as for 

 the United Kingdom.* 



Uses — In Europe fenugreek as a medicine is obsolete, but the 

 powdered seeds are still often sold by chemists for veterinary pharmacy 

 and as an ingredient of curry powder. The chief consumption is, how- 

 ever, in the so-called Cattle Foods. 



The fresh plant in India is commonly eaten as a green vegetable, 

 while the seeds are extensively used by the natives in food and 

 medicine. 



^ Figured by Lanessan in his French ^ J^nnual Statement of the Trade and 



translation of the Pharmacographia, i. Navigation of Sind, for the year 1872-73, 



(1878) 345. printed at Karachi, 1873. p. 36. 



2 Experiments performed in my labora- * Annual Statement, etc., Bombay, 1873. 



tory in 1867.— F. A. F. 89. 



