78 ORCHIDS. 
cent of a peculiar mucilage, more nearly allied to celluloid 
than to gum. It will convert forty parts of water into a thick 
jelly. Small amounts of sugar and albumen are also present. 
Salep is hardly known to Americans. Druggists keep it to 
supply the wants of Europeans, who use it in a decoction 
flavored with spice, wine, and sugar.” 
Chambers’s Encyclopedia teaches as follows :— 
“Salep, the tubers of many species of Orchidacez, dried, 
are used as an article of food. Of the two tubers usually found 
at the roots of these plants, only one is gathered for salep, — 
the younger and more solid of the two. The tubers are gathered 
when the stalk is about to fall. They vary from the size of a 
cherry-stone to that of an olive. They are cleaned, dipped for a 
few minutes in boiling water, and dried as quickly as possible, 
by which process they are rendered hard and horny. The greater 
part of the salep of commerce is brought from the East, and 
much of it from Persia. It is supposed to be obtained from 
species of Eulophia; but most of the European species of 
orchids are used for it. 
“Before coffee became so common in Britain, salep was an 
article of considerable importance, and large quantities were 
imported from Turkey, Persia, and India. In France it is still 
in considerable request. For use it is ground into a fine powder, 
and mixed with boiling water, sugar and milk being added 
according to taste. As a diet-drink it was considered very nutri- 
tious and wholesome, and, thirty years ago, it was sold, ready 
prepared, to the working classes of London, early in the morn- 
ing, from numerous street stalls. Its principal constituents are 
bassorine, starch, and phosphate of lime.” 
