176 LEGUMINOSiE. 



the transformation had proceeded so far that it was impossible to 

 perceive any defined cells, the whole substance being metamorphosed 

 into a more or less uniform mucilaginous mass. 



The tension under which this peculiar tissue is held in the interior 

 of the stem is very remarkable in Astragalus gunimifer which one 

 of us had the opportunity of observing on the Lebanon in 1860.^ 

 On cutting off a branch of the thickness of the finger, there immediately 

 exudes from the centre a stream of soft, solid tragacanth, pushing itself 

 out like a worm, to the length of f of an inch, sometimes in the course 

 of half an hour ; while much smaller streams (or none at all) are 

 emitted from the medullary rays of the thick bark. 



Production — The principal localities in Asia Minor in which 

 tragacanth is collected are the district. of Angora, the capital of the 

 ancient Galatia ; Isbarta, Buldur and Yalavatz,^ north of the gulf of 

 Adalia ; the range of the Ali Dagh between Tarsous and Kaisariyeh, and 

 the mountainous country eastward as far as the valley of the Euphrates. 

 The drug is also gathered in Armenia on the elevated range of the 

 Bingol Dagh south of Erzerum ; throughout Kurdistan from Mush 

 for 500 miles in a south-eastern direction as far as the province of 

 Luristan in Persia, a region including the high lands south of lake 

 Van, and west of lake Urumiah. It is likewise produced in Persia 

 farther east, over an area 300 miles long by 100 to 150 miles broad, 

 between Gilpaigon and Kashan, southward to the Mahomed Senna 

 range north-east of Shiraz, thus including the lofty Bakhtiyari moun- 

 tains. 



As to the way in which the gum is obtained, it appears from the 

 statements of Maltass, that in July and August the peasants clear away 

 the earth from around the stem of the shrub, and then make in the 

 bark several incisions, from which during the following 3 or 4 days the 

 gum exudes and dries in flakes. In some localities they also puncture 

 the bark with the point of a knife. Whilst engaged in these operations, 

 they pick from the shrubs whatever gum they find exuded naturally. 



Hamilton,^ who saw the shrub in 1836 on the hills about Buldur, 

 says " the gum is obtained by making an incision in the stem near the 

 root, and cutting through the pith, when the sap exudes in a day or two 

 and hardens." 



Formerly the peasants were content to collect the naturally exuded 

 gum, no pains being taken to make incisions, whereby alone white flaky 

 gum is obtained. We have in fact heard an old druggist state, that he 

 remembered the first appearance of this fine kind of tragacanth in the 

 London market. According to Professor Haussknecht, whose observations 

 relate chiefly to Kurdistan and Persia, the tragacanth collected in these 

 regions is mostly a spontaneous exudation. 



Tragacanth is brought to Smyrna, which is a principal market for it, 

 from the interior, in bags containing about 2 quintals each, by native 

 dealers who purchase it of the peasants. In this state it is a very 

 crude article, consisting of all the gatherings mixed together. To fit it 

 for the European markets, some of which have their special require- 

 ments, it has to be sorted into diflerent qualities, as Flaky or Leaf Guru, 



' Hanhury, Scievce Papers, 29. ^ Researches in Asia Minor, Pontiis and 



2 Pharm. Jovrn. xv. (1856) 18. Armenia, i. (1842) 492. 



