- 96 - 



without difficulty butyl thio- carbamate (m. p. 134 to 135 ). Liicker 

 concludes from his experiments that spoonwort spirit belongs to those 

 preparations which it should be the duty of every chemist to prepare 

 himself. 



Star-Anise Oil. Like in the case of cassia oil also with this 

 staple article, reliable reports by mail now come very rarely to Europe, 

 and it is greatly to be regretted that there is little prospect of ever 

 obtaining authoritative statistics of the production. In the export lists 

 of China firms, star-anise oil is always mentioned jointly with cassia 

 oil, so that the figures of the quantities have no informatory value 

 whatever either for the one article or for the other. Thanks to the 

 excellent watch kept over the arrivals at Hong Kong on the part of 

 the export firms, on account of our well-known method of examin- 

 ation, inferior oil is now rarely shipped, and although it was now 

 and then necessary to object to individual parcels, it was almost without 

 exception a question of lots which had been thrown about for years 

 by speculators, had drifted about in London and Hamburg, and of 

 which the normal condition had suffered from partial oxidation. We 

 can only caution consumers strongly against the purchase of such 

 usually cheap parcels. The prices have maintained themselves with 

 slight fluctuations at about 5/- cif. Hamburg, although it was occasionally 

 possible to buy a little cheaper. The neglected condition of the market 

 mentioned in our last Report, has for this reason continued. 



As De Indische Mercuitr 1 ) informs us, Illicium verum, the mother- 

 plant of star -anise, suffers in the course of its development from 

 numerous injurious influences. In its early age the principal enemy 

 of the plant is the locust, which is represented in China by numerous 

 varieties of Orthoptera. If the tree grows up, it falls a victim to the 

 game; a species of caterpillar not described more in detail also 

 damages the plant considerably. But the tree suffers most from the 

 irrational manner in which it is treated by the inhabitants of that 

 country. When the fruit is gathered, so many branches are broken 

 and pulled down that it takes years before the tree has recovered. 

 For this reason it is estimated in Cochin China that there is a good 

 harvest only once in every three years. The average yield of fruit 

 from a tree between 10 and 20 years old, amounts to about 30 to 

 35 kilos, and from a tree above 20 years old from 40 to 45 kilos. 

 40 kilos fruit yield about 0,7 kilo oil. Up to the present day the 

 distilling plant in China is still of a very primitive character. 2 ) 



Oil of Sweet Marjoram. See under Terpinene, in the Notes 

 on recent research work. 



1 ) De Indische Mercuur 29 (1906), 715. 



2 ) Comp. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, p. 356. 



