258 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



awl-shaped. {Don's Mill., i. p. 79). China. Flowers yellow. April till 

 June. 1790. Height 10 ft. 



Description. A large shrub or low tree, with a thick branchy stem, attaining 

 the height of 20. ft. or upwards in its native countiy, but seldom appearing of 

 half that height, even in conservatories, in England. The leaves ai-e large, 

 somewhat like those of the common laurel but smaller, lanceolate, thinly dis- 

 tributed on the lower parts of the shoots, but closer together near their points. 

 The wood is hard, and finely scented, but fragile; and the bark is smooth, 

 and russet-coloured. The fruit is composed of from 9 to 12 capsules (carpels) 

 united at their base, and spread out at their extremities in the form of a star. 

 Every carpel contains one oval seed, lance-shaped, and of a russet colour, 

 which encloses a whitish kernel, somewhat oily, and agi-eeable to the taste, 

 which is similar to that of the anise seed, but is more pungent. The shoots 

 grow at about the same rate as those of the preceding species, and the plant 

 attains its ultimate size of 10 ft. or 12 ft. in twenty or thirty years. 



Geography and History. It is found wild in China and Japan, where it is 

 cultivated in gardens as a sacred tree, and also for its carminative and stomachic 

 quahties. It was first described by Clusius, and afterwards seen in Japan by 

 Ksempfer, who has given us a great many interesting particulars respecting it. 

 It was introduced into England in 1790, and soon after into the garden of 

 Courset, near Boulogne-sur-Mer ; and it is now occasionally met with in the 

 green-houses of the principal botanic gardens of the middle and north of 

 Europe, and in the open ground of those in Italy. 



Proj^erties and Uses. The whole plant is stomachic and carminative, and 

 it is used in the East both medicinally and in cookmg. The Chinese chew 

 it after dinner to promote digestion, and as a sweetener of the breath : the 

 same practice prevails in Japan. In some parts of the East Indies the leaves 

 are mixed with tea and sherbet, and the capsules are imported from China 

 into Europe, under the name of Chinese anise, for the purpose of flavouring 

 dishes, and making the liquor called anisette de Bordeaux. The Chinese? 

 make an infusion of the seeds with the roots of ninsin (5ium Ninsi L.), and 

 drink it, when they are fatigued, to recruit their strength and refresh their spirits. 

 They also mix it both with coffee and tea, to improve the flavour. The cap- 

 sules and seeds are infused in water, and fermented, so as to produce a vinous 

 liquor, very much esteemed, and which the Dutch import under the name 

 of anise ai'rack. Ksempfer states that a branch of this plant, though not 

 poisonous in itself, if put into a decoction of the poisonous fish called by the 

 Dutch opblaser (a species of Tetrodon), increases the violence of the poison 

 and makes it occasion death almost instantaneously. {Kcempf. Amcen., fasc. v. 

 p. 883.) The wood, which is called anise wood, is employed in cabinet-work : 

 it is very hard and durable, but is rather brittle while being worked. In China, 

 the watchmen powder the bark, and with it fill long narrow wooden tubes, 

 which are graduated on the outside at regular distances. The powder 

 is then lighted at the farther extremity of the tube, and, as it burns regularly 

 and slowly, it is always the same time in burning a given distance ; and the 

 watchman, when he sees by the graduated scale that the flame has reached a 

 certain point, rings a bell, thus forming of it a kind of pyrotechnic clock. 

 The Japanese and Chinese consider the tree as sacred : they burn the bai'k as 

 incense on their altars, and with the branches decorate the tombs of their 

 friends. (Thouin, Diet. Agric. ; Roy., Cours d''Agnc.) 



Soil and Situation as in the preceding species, of which this, as Thunberg 

 conjectures, is, in aU probabihty, only a variety. It is, perhaps, rather more 

 tender, and, therefore, should be placed in the warmest situation that can be 

 found, but where it will, at the same time, not be too much exposed to the 

 direct influence of the sun during the hottest months. 



The Pro2Jagation and Culture are the same as of the preceding species. 

 Plants are to be met with, in the principal London nurseries, at from 2*. 6d. to 

 5s. each; and at Bollwyller, where the price is 3 francs; in New York, y. 



