OPIUM AND CATECHU GROUP. 267 



Terra Japonica. The tree grows in India, Ceylon, etc;, 

 and attains at times a height of fifty or sixty feet and a 

 diameter of over two feet, but usually it is much smaller. 

 The resinous substance is contained in the old heart-wood, 

 which is finely cut and boiled in kettles. The product is 

 boiled down to a doughy mass, then rolled in Monocoty- 

 ledonous leaves to harden. Catechu has a brown or black- 

 ish color, and is lustrous on the fresh surface. The od6r is' 

 weak, the taste bitter and astringent. The hot water 

 solution of Catechu is reddish-brown, not clear, and slightly 

 acid. The important constituent is Catechin ; it contains 

 besides about fifteen per cent, of water, and two to four per 

 cent, of ash. Catechin is a very astringent medicine, and 

 an important black dye. It is also used in tanning poor 

 and heavy leathers. 



•237. The inspissated juice of Nauclea gambir is the 

 Gambler, also called by tanners Terra Japonica. The 

 plant belongs to the Madder family (BubiacecB) ; it is a 

 climbing shrub, with oblong or oval-lanceolate leaves, two 

 or three inches in length. The flowers are greenish, and 

 form axillary, globular heads. It is indigenous in India 

 and the neighboring islands. It is also extensively culti- 

 vated, when it is pruned to a shrub six or eight feet high. 

 When three years old, twigs and leaves are collected from 

 it; this is continued twice a year till the plant is about 

 thirty years old. The twigq and leaves are boiled in water 

 in kettles five or six hours. When of the consistency of 

 syrup, it is poured out to harden in wooden troughs or 

 bamboo-stems. It is then cut into cakes, and dried in the 

 sun. When fresh, Gambier is whitish, but it becomes darker 

 in a few weeks, and finally assumes a reddish-brown color. 

 It is lustreless, easily reduced mechanically, and has scarcely 



