DRAGON'S BLOOD TREE OF THE WEST INDIES :— II. 



In the Bulletin for July there is a note on tlie Dragon's Blood of the West Indies, which was written 

 at the suggestion of the authorities at Kew with a view to direct attention to this native drug. Specimens 

 will be thankfully received by the Director of Public (hardens and Plantations, Gordon Town P O. 



The following articles on the same subject appeared in the Pliariiutceiitical Journal, the first on the 

 10th July taken from the (iardcneyH Chronicle, the second on the 5th August written by Prof. Fliickiger, 

 one of the authors of the I'harmacor/rap/iia. 



The Gardkner's Chronicle on Dragon's Blood. 



In the year 1569, Monardes published his Ifidoria Medicinal, etc., and of this the famous Belgian 

 botanist Clusius published a Latin version, with notes, in 1574. The original editions are not before us 

 as we write, but it is desirable to note the dates at which they were published. In the French edition of 

 Monardes, the Histoire des Simples Medicamens apportes de I'AnH'ritjHe (1019), lib. v. cap. xxiv, we find it 

 stated, as it probably is in the first edition to whicli we have referred, that the Bishop of Carthage had 

 recently brought home the fruit of the tree, whence exudes the tear (larme) which is commonly called 

 Dragon's Blood. 



Now, this fruit, our author goes on to say is every way admirable, for as soon as the rind is removed, 

 quite suddenly a little Dragon appears, elaborated with such natural artifice that it appears as if sculp- 

 tured in marble by some sk lied work mm. It has a rather long neck, the throat open, the backbone be- 

 set with spines, the tail long, and the feet well armed with nails. " Carthage," in Peru, is said to be the 

 source whence the dragon's blood is derived, and its properties are described as highly astringent, and the 

 drug is used in those cases where a medicament of that nature is required. Clusius, in a note, proceeds to 

 describe what we now know as Dracwna l)ra o, of which a plant was raised from seed at Brussels. He 

 describes the fruit, but he is careful to add that there was no dragon in it. 



Gerard, in his Herbal (1597.) p. 13:39, under the head of />raco arljor, the Dragon Tree, imblushing 

 copyist that he is, gives the same figures, and a good description of the JJraccena Draco. The external 

 appearance of the fruit is well described and then it is further stated that there " is to be 

 seene as Monardus and divers, others report the forme of a dragon havuig a long necke or gaping throat ; 

 the ridge or backe armed with sharpe prickles like the porjjentine ; it hath also a long taile, and fower 

 feet, very easie to be discerned ; the figure of it we have set foorth unto you according to the greatnes 

 thereof, because our words and meanmg may be the better understood." Gerard then, as Clusius had done 

 before him, assigned the fruit with the dragon in it to what we now know as Drarcena Draco, although, 

 as we have seen, Clusius is careful to say that he could not find any dragon in it. The Dracaena also of- 

 fers a difficulty inasmuch as it is a native of Teneriffe and Madeira. But Gerard is equal to the emer- 

 gency, for he goes on to say of his Dragon Tree that " This tree groweth in an Hand which the Portin- 

 gales call Madera, and in one of the Canarie Islands called Insula Por us Sancti, and as it seemeth 

 it was first brought out of Affrike, a'thoiigh some are of acontrarie opinion and say, that it was first brought 

 from Carthagena in Nova Orbe by the bishop of the same province." 



In any case the sixteenth century botanists attributed the "dragon's blood" to the vegetable kingdom, 

 but their far-oflE predecessors were less metaphorical in their notions. Pliny, for instance, in his i\'atural 

 History, book xxxiii., cap. 40, says dragon's blood (which was used as a " vehicle" or as a pigment by 

 artists) is a thick matter issuing from the dragon when crushed beneath the weight of the dying elephant. 

 Elsewhere Pliny (book xxxv., cap. 32) speaks of India sending to Rome the slime of her rivers, and "the 

 corrupt blood of her dragons," and this fact serves him as an illustration of a tendency which is apparent 

 now as then. " Everything, in fact, was superior at a time when the resources of art was so much fewer 

 than they now are. Yes, so it is, and the reason is . . . that it is the material, and not the efforts 

 of genius, that is now the object of reseai'ch." (Bohn's edition vol. vi., p. 246.) 



The question to be solved is, what was the fruit mentioned by Monardes, and which contained so strik- 

 ing a verisimilitude to a dragon ? A conventional dragon it must have been like the effigy at Temple Bar, 

 perhaps, for no one quite knows what a di'agon was ! What is known nowadays as dragon's blood is a resi- 

 nous exudation used for varnish, and derived in some cases from a palm. Calamus Draco, in others from 

 a Dracaena. Now the Palm has a scrambling stem thickly beset with spines and its fruits are covered 

 with hai-d scales turned down, and dragon-like as dragons are supposed to go, but the Calamus comes 

 from Sumatra and Borneo, and not from Carthagena. In spite of its name it is rather difficult to see 

 any resemblance to a dragon in a Dracaena. Perhaps the bayonet-like leaves may have suggested the 

 idea. 



Dragon's Blood. By Professor FLiicKioER, in the Pharmaceutical Journal. 



In an article in the Pharmaceutical Jom nal of July 15th, p. 47, Monardes is quoted as the first author 

 who mentioned American dragon's blood. In his ' Primera y segunda y tercera partes de la Historia 

 medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occiden tales que sirven en Medicina, ' Sevilla, 1574, 

 page 78, the figure " El dragon" shows three pods of a tree from which the drug was collected in the time 

 of Monardes, in the country of Carthagena. One of the pods is open, and exhibits the outlines of an 

 animal of the f ibulous kind of a dragon, just as described in the said paper in the words of Gerard's 

 'Herbal.' 



The question to be solved is, says the author of the paper inserted in the Pharmaceutical Journal 

 (from Oardener's Chronicle), what-waa the fruit mentioned by Monardes, which contained so striking a 

 y^ruiimilitude to a dragon ? 



