626 CONIFERS. 



or tabular cells having thick, brown, porous walls. These cells contain 

 a dark granular substance and masses of resin. The sarcocarp, which 

 in the ripe state consists of large, elliptic, thin-walled, loosely coherent 

 cells, contains chlorophyll, drops of essential oil, and a crystalline sub- 

 stance soluble in alcohol, — no doubt a stearoptene. Before maturity it 

 likewise contains starch granules and large oil-cells. This tissue is 

 traversed by very small vascular bundles containing annulated and 

 dotted vessels. 



Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of juni- 

 per berries is the volatile oil, obtainable to the extent of 0'4 to 1*2 

 per cent. The latter amount is obtained from Hungarian, 07 per cent, 

 from German fruits.^ It is a mixture of levogyre oils, the one of which 

 having the composition C^'T-I'*^ boils at 155° C; the prevailing portion of 

 the oil, boiling at about 200°, consists of hydrocarbons, which are 

 polymeric with terpene, C^"H^^ The crude oil as distilled by us 

 deviated •3°"5 to the left in a column of 50 mm. 



By passing nitrosyl chloride gas, NOCl, into it, Tilden (1877) 

 obtained from the portion boiling below 160° the crystallized compound 

 C'"H"= (NOCl), which is yielded by all the terpenes. 



Another important constituent of juniper berries is the glucose, of 

 which Trommsdorff (1822) obtained 83 per cent., while Donath (1873) 

 found 41 '9, and Ritthausen (1877) not more than 16 per cent, in the 

 ])erries deprived of water. Of albuminoid substances about 5 per cent, 

 are present, of inorganic matters 3 to 4 per cent. The fruit, moreover, 

 contains also according to Donath small amounts of formic, acetic, and 

 malic acids, besides resin. 



Collection and Commerce — Juniper berries are largely collected 

 in Savoy, and in the departments of the Doubs and Jura in France, 

 whence they find their way to the hands of the Geneva druggists. 

 They are also gathered in Austria, the South of France and Italy. 

 In Hamburg price-currents they are quoted as German and Italian. 

 The largest supplies are apparently furnished by Hungaria. 



Uses — The berries and the essential oil obtained from them are 

 reputed diuretic, yet are not often prescribed in English medicine. 



HERBA SABIN^E. 



Cacwniina vel Summitates Sahkioi; Savin or Savine; F. Sabine; 



G. Sevenkraut. 



Botanical Origin — Juniperus Sabina L., a woody evergreen 

 shrub, usually of small size and low-growing, spreading habit, but in 

 some localities erect and arborescent. 



It occurs in the Southern Alps of Austria (Tirol) and Switzerland 

 (Visp or Viege and Stalden in the Valais, also in Grisons and Vaud), and 

 in the adjacent mountains of France and Piedmont, ascending to eleva- 

 tions of 4,000 to 5,000 feet. It is also found in the Pyrenees, Central 

 Spain, Italy and the Crimea ; likewise in the Caucasus, where it reaches 

 12,000 feet above the sea level. Eastward it extends to the Elburs 

 range, south of the Caspian, and throughout Southern Siberia, where it 

 1 According to Messrs. )Schiminel & Co. (see p. 306, note 2. ) 



