46 BAROSMA CRENULATA 



hilly valleys in the western parts of Cape Colony, S. Africa, 

 including the neighbourhood of Cape Town itself and the moun- 

 tains of Stellenbosch and Worcester. It is a pretty plant, the 

 flowers appearing in spring and lasting a long while. Introduced 

 into England by Masson nearly a century ago, it was cultivated as 

 an ornamental plant for many years, but does not appear to have 

 perfected seed here. Being also difficult to propagate by cuttings, 

 it has now died out in most if not in all of our botanic gardens. 



Harv. & Sender, Fl. Cap., i, p. 393; Berg in Bot. Zeit., 1853, 

 910; Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 212; Pappe, Fl. Cap. Med. Prodi-., 



ed. 3, p. 7. 



Official Part and Name. BUCHU FOLIA. The dried leaves of 

 Barosma betulina, Bart. ; Barosma crenulata, Hook. ; and Barosma 

 serratifolia, Willd. (B. P.). The dried leaves (Barosma vel Buchu 

 Folia) of the above species of Barosma (I. P.). BUCHU. The 

 leaves of Barosma crenata, and of other species of Barosma 

 (U. S. P.). 



General Characters and Composition. Buchu leaves are im- 

 ported from the Cape of Good Hope. Commercial Buchu consists 

 of the leaves of one of the above-mentioned species of Barosma, 

 frequently more or less mixed with the flowers, fruits, and stalks 

 of the same plants. The leaves of all the species are smooth, 

 coriaceous, more or less serrate or crenate at their margins, and 

 marked on the edges, and especially on their under surface, with 

 glands filled with essential oil. They have a dull yellowish- green 

 colour, somewhat paler on their under surface ; their odour is 

 strong, penetrating, and peculiar, and their taste aromatic, some- 

 what bitterish, and mint-like. 



The leaves of Barosma crenulata, the species now under 

 notice, vary in shape and size in different samples, and have been 

 already fully described ; from their shape this kind of Buchu is 

 sometimes distinguished as ovate-oblong Buchu. 



Buchu leaves owe their properties, in a great degree at least, to 

 a powerfully scented volatile oil, which, on exposure to cold, 



