676 AEOIDE^. 



On the exploration of Madeira and Porto Santo in the loth century, 

 dragon's blood was one of the valued productions collected by the 

 voyagers, and is named as such by Alvise da ca da Mosto in 1454.^ It 

 is also mentioned by the German physician Hieronymus Munzer, who 

 visited Lisbon about 1494.- 



The tree yields the resin after incisions are made in its stem; but so 

 far as we know the exudation has never formed a regular and ordinary 

 ai-ticle of commerce with Europe. It has been found in the sepulchral 

 caves of the aboriginal inhabitants. 



The name Dragon's Blood has also been applied to an exudation 

 obtained from the West Indian Pterocarpus Draco L., and to that of 

 Croton Draco Schlecht. ; but the latter appears to be of the 

 nature of kino, and neither substance is met with in European 

 commerce. 



AROIDE^. 

 RHIZOMA CALAMI AROMATICI. 



Radix Calami aromatici, Radix Acori; Siveet Flag Root; F. Acore 

 odorant ou vrai, Roseau aromatique; G. Kalmus. 



Botanical Origin — Acorus Calamus L., an aromatic, flag-like plant, 

 growing on the margins of streams, swamps, and lakes, from the coasts 

 of the Black Sea, through Southern Siberia, Central Asia, and India, as 

 far as Amurland, Northern China, and Japan ; indigenous also to North 

 America. It is now established as a wild plant in the greater part of 

 Europe, reaching from Sicily as far north as Scotland, Scandinavia, and 

 Northern Russia ; and is cultivated to a small extent in Burma and 

 Ceylon. 



Regarding the introduction oi Acorus Calamus into Western Europe, 

 it is believed in Poland to have been introduced there in the 13th 

 century by the Tartars, yet it seems not to have attracted then any 

 attention. The well-informed botanist. Bock (Tragus), mentioning the 

 use of the preserved rhizome by wealthy persons, states ^ that he had 

 never seen the plant growing in Germany. Clusius^ relates that he 

 first received a living plant in 1574, sent from the lake Apollonia near 

 Brussa in Asia Minor. Camerarius,^ writing in 1588, speaks of it as 

 introduced some years previously, and then plentiful in Germany, 

 which seems to show a rapid propagation. Gerarde at the close of the 

 century looked upon Acorus as an Eastern plant, which he says is 

 grown in many English gardens, and might hence be fitly called the 

 " Sweet Garden Flag." Berlu,** in 1724, observes of the root that — 

 "it is brought in quantities from Germany :" hence we may infer that 

 it was not then collected in England, as we know it was at a later 

 period." 



^ Ramusio, Raccolta delle Navigationi et * Rariorum Stirphim Nistorio, Antv. 



Viar/fji, Vcnet. i. 97. 1576. 520. 



■■* Kunstmann, Abhandliivijen der Baieri- ^ Hort us medicusetphilosophicu^, VrAncof. 



scheii Akademie der Wissenschaften, vii. 1588. 5. 



(1855) 342. et seq. * Treasury of Drugs, ed. ii. 1724. 115. 



^ Tentsche Speiskammer, Strassburg, ^See alsoTrimenini/oMJTJ. q/'^otart'/, ix. 



1550. ciiii. (1871) 103. 



