12, On Coptis. 
By I. H. Burx1i11. 
This paper contains notes made on Coptis in an attem 
to trace the drug as found in India to its several sources : the 
work is not yet complete, though considerably advanced. 
The genus Coptis is quite a small one. e hits list. of 
names within it amounting to thirteen only, and of these, two 
certainly must be reduce 
e following are all the names :— 
C. anemonaefolia, Sieb. et Zucc. in Abh. Math. Phys. KI. 
Muench., iv, pt. 2 (1843), p. 130.—Japan 
C. ae oe ee Salisb. in Trans. Linn. Soc., viii ii (1807), p. 306— 
Alas 
C. rachael Sieb. et Zuce., loc. cit.—Jap 
C. chinensis, Franchet in Journ. de Bot. (1897), p . 231.—China. 
C. japonica, Makino in Bot. Mag. Tokyo (1899), f 198.—Japan. 
C. laciniata, Gray in oe Gazette, xii (1887), p. 297.—Western 
Oregon and Californi 
0. a Torr ak: Gray, Flora N. Amer., i (1838), 
Pp 8.—Western N. America and, according to Franchet, 
se tsk. 
C. orientalis, Maxim. in Bull. Acad. Petersb., xii (1868), p. 60.— 
Japan 
C. ospriocarpa, Briihl in Ann. Bot. Gard. Calc., v (1896), p. 89.— 
Sikkim Himalaya. 
C. quinquefolia, Miq. in Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat., ili, p. 7.— 
Japan. 
C. pee — in Linnea, xii (1838), Litt. 227.—Hills to N.-E. 
f Ass 
C. trijolia, "Salish, in Trans. Linn. Soc., viii (1807), p. 305.— 
Norway, Russia, N. Asia and N. Ameri 
C. venosa, Howell, ‘Flora N..W. Amer. (1897), p. 21. 
The genus, it will be noticed, is found on either side of the 
northern Pacific, and one species is almost cireumpolar. The 
swamps, or among rocks, or under trees : and they are all very 
much alike. Coptis siekoae has been known to European botan- 
ists from early days, its medicinal value having attracted atten- 
found to use it, and the first books on medicine that the New 
World produced contained mention of its virtues: Bigelow 
(Medical Botany, iii, 1817, p. 60) says that it used to be sold in 
