CUBEB3 AND GAMBOGE. 



639 



loads. The fruit, which is about the size of an orange, with a thin 

 but solid rind, is gathered in autumn, when ripe and yellow, and in 

 most countries is peeled and drijd either in the sun or by stoves. 

 It comes over from Cadiz, Trieste, Mogadore, &c., in cases, casks, 

 &c., and duty was paid on about 11,000 lbs. m 1839. 



CuBEBs. — The dried unripe fruit of P, Cubebi^ or Cubeba 

 officinalis^ a climbing plant of the pepper tribe, native of Prince 

 of AV ales' Island, Java, and the Indian islands furnishes the 

 medicinal cubebs, which is used extensively in arresting dis- 

 charges from mucous membranes. In appearance cubebs re- 

 semble black pepper, except that they are higher colored and are 

 each furnished vv ith a stalk two or three lines long. Dr. Blume 

 says, that the ciibebs of the shops are the fruit of P. caninum. 

 This species of pepper, when fresh and good, contains nearly 10 

 per cent, of essential oil. 



In 1812 the quantity entered for home consumption was 

 67,093 lbs. The average imports are about 40 to 50 tons annually. 

 3 cases were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price in the 

 Liverpool market, in January 1853, was £3 lOs. to £4 10s. the 

 cwt. 



Gamboge. — This resinous juice, which is a most important 

 article of commerce, is furnished by some of the plants of 

 Gambogia, natives principally of South America. It is a power- 

 ul irritant, and is employed medicinally as a drastic and hydra- 

 gogue cathartic. From its bright yellow color it is also used 

 as a pigment. 



Gamboge fetches in the London market from £5 to £11 per cwt. 



Some of the species of Stalagmites (Murray), natives of 

 Ceylon and the East, yield a similar yellow viscid juice, hardly 

 distinguishable from gamboge, and used for the same purpose 

 by paiuters. They are a genus of fiue ornamental trees, thriving 

 well in soils partaking of a mixture of loam and peat. 



According to Koenig, the juice is collected by breaking off 

 the leaves or young branches. From the fracture the gamboge 

 exudes in drops, and is therefore called gum gutta. It is re- 

 ceived on leaves, coco-nut shells, earthen pots, or in bamboos ; it 

 gradually hardens by age, and is then wrapped up in leaves prior 

 to sale. 



The common gamboge of Ceylon is produced by a plant which 

 Dr. Graham was led to view as a species of a new genus under 

 the name of TIebradendron Gambogoides. A very different 

 species, the Garcinia Gambogia, of Roxburgh, once supposed to 

 produce gamboge, and indeed actually confounded by LinnaBus 

 with the true gamboge tree of Ceylon, he has proved not to 

 produce gamboge at all. 



This substance is also obtained from several other plants, as 

 the Mangostana Gambogia (Gaertner), Hypericum bacciferum and 

 Oayanense, natives of the East Indies, Siam and Ceylon, whence 

 it is imported in small cakes and rolls or cylindrical twisted 



