January 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
469 
the pleasure of assisting at the discussions he had 
the advantage of reading thora. Ho kuew no scient- 
ific work in that great city wliit !l seemed more adapted 
to the end it had in view, or which more successfully 
attained that end, than the discussions and operations 
of the Pharmaceutical Society at its scientific meetings. 
He could not but admire the enthusiasm with which 
the work was carried on, and the ability with which 
its, success was achieved. 
Mr. Holmos said he had listened with the greater 
interest to the valuable account of the history of 
ipecacuanha which Professor Dyer had given, and his 
later remarks had thrown a flood of light on a point 
of great difficulty which he had experienced. AVhcu 
a fresh product came to this couutry the merchants 
who imported it were very reticent as to the exact 
locality whence it came, and very often tried to mis- 
lead one if possible — that was the case with this 
ipecacuanha. He was told that it came from India, 
but that nothing could he learnt about it. However, 
on seeking the drug broker, he was told that the 
packet which came over was about 10 lb., that it 
appeared to be a trial sample, but that instead of 
coming from India it came from Singapore. He had 
no doubt now that it came from that flourishing 
plantation which Professor Dyer had spoken of. As 
far as one could see from what had been said about 
the habit of the plant it might be grown equally well 
in Burmah. The broker who had the sample recog- 
nised the diffoieuce between it and Brazilian ipecacu- 
anha by presence of the minute fibres, these being 
always removed from the Brazilian samples, and to 
commercial men minute differences of that kind often 
give a practical clue to the source of the drug. "With 
respect to the ipecacuanha grown at Kow and that 
grown at Ediuburgh ho should bo glad to learn if 
any record had been kept of the botanical characteristics 
of the varieties cultivated at cither of thoso places. 
He believed the ipecacuanha was a dimorphic plant, 
and possibly either a long-styled or short-styled variety 
might have succeeded where the other did not. Again, 
tin: exact temperature and the conditions under which 
it flourished at Singapore would be no doubt published 
aud made use of. He had to thank Mr. Ransom 
for the i'< adiness and promptitude with which he 
uuderto >k the examination. 
Mr. MacEwan said lie knew there was iu the Library 
upstairs a paper" contributed by the late Professor 
Biliour to the botanical Society, Edinburgh, with re- 
gard to the ipecacuanha in the Edinburgh Gardens.* 
The Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. 
Kansom for this valuable piper. Ipecacuanha was a 
very important drug, and although it was not necessary 
to seperate the alkaloid as often as in the case of 
many other drugs, it was well to know the quantity 
present if one required to separate it. The paper 
would be especially vuluablo to those in India who 
were now cultivating it, and when it was found that 
the Indian was equal to the Brazilian article it would 
no doubt give ati impetus to the industry. He would 
include in the vol.- of thanks the Dame of Professor 
Dyer, who had given such an excellent history of 
thu cultivation. 
The vote of thanks having been cirricd unanimously 
was briefly acknowledged by Mr. Ransom. 
STIlOPnASTHUS. 
Mr. Christy then drew attention to a quantity of 
strophantus which had arrive I from a new port, and 
thought it might be interesting to the meeting to know 
what hail been done in this drug during the last year. 
The fir>t year the quantity of seed which cime from 
Africa was 1810 lb. with 450 lb. of pods, estimated to 
yield about 153 lb. of seeds, so that iu the wholo year 
there came to the United Kingdom 1498 lb. of 
strophantus seed, and to the Cnited States lie bail 
(raced about '20<< lb. Considering thu very small doso 
that W is required, jl would bo seen with what great 
pleasure medical men had been able to receive this drug, 
and work with it. It bad been crtbstly tb > kouihl 
Variety. At lir.-t it was thought the variety sent 
over was the hispidus, mid having received the llrst 
•See Pharmaceutical Journal, [3J, vol, ii., p. 948* 
shipments, he was able to say that it was a variety 
which had been called hispidus, viz., the brown seed. 
Within the last f • tnight he had received from the 
Niger the first shipment of pods and seed, which 
he sent specimens to Mr. Holmes, and these turned 
out to be a brown seed with a brown velvety appearance 
like hispidus, but not the same variety as received 
originally. Having been accustomed to tasto the differ- 
ent seeds as they arrived, he could state that this 
hispidus variety was much more powerful than any of 
the kombo seeds, at any rate, much more intensely 
bitter ; though whether it would obtain a greater 
percentage of the active principle had yet to be 
dotermined. He was informed that in the valley of 
the Niger large quantities of this were growing, so 
that further supplies might be expected. It would 
be also interesting to know that for some reason 
which at present he was unible to fathom, the 
French had decided that hispidus should be the stand- 
ard variety, notwithstanding the many satisfactory 
experiments made both in this country and in Germany 
with the kombe. He had received from Sumatra a 
seed pod said to be a variety of strophantus, and it 
was very singular that the plume was reversed, exactly 
the same as in the case of the seed sent from Natal, 
but quite a different shaped pod. The seeds of kombo 
which he had sent out to try and get cultivated were 
doing remarkably well on theAVest Coast of Africa, 
Java, Ceylon, and iu Southern Iudia, so that in the 
course of a few years they would not be dependent 
on the interior of Africa. Another collector of his, 
a native, had sent a plant which had a pod exactly 
like one of those sent to him of the komb6 variety, 
stating that it was also one of the arrow poison plants. 
He sent one to Mr. Holmes, but the pod was iu very 
bad order, and he thought the leaf was hardly like 
strophantus. It would be very interesting to be 
able to get from medical meu the results of ex- 
periments with the tinctures made from these different 
seeds. 
Mr. Holmes said the seed of the specimen Mr. 
Christy had just referred to looked very much like 
that of Strophanthus hispidus, but the leaves were 
quite different in character, and probably belonging 
to some other species, although evidently nearly allied 
to S. dichotomies. The pod however was somewhat 
smaller than the strophanthus received before. The 
mounted -specimens of strophanthus leaves on the 
table had been received from Mr. R. Lindsay, of 
Eilinburg, to whom he had sent the seed of the differnt 
commercial varieties in January last. The specimens 
had been grown from the seed sent. Curiously enough 
he had obtained two different plauts from what had 
been regarded iu commerce as one kind of seed. It 
appeared therefore that collectors in Africa were not 
particular as to the species from which they collected, 
so long as they were strophanthus pods at all. Mr. 
Christy was mistaken in supposing him to say that 
the leaves of his plant were not those of strophanthus ; 
they were evidently strophanthus leaves, but not those 
of hispidus or S. komtw. The exact species could 
only be determined by the examination of flowers trad 
plants in good condition. Sumo roots Mr. Christy 
kindly sent to him a short time ago had a very 
peculiar uudulatiug appearance, and a few days after 
from another source ho, the Curator, had received 
some roots of «S*. hispidus which were exactly the same 
as those of Mr. Christy's plants, although the very 
different leaves of the second specimen were evidently 
thoso of S. hispidus. Whether tho roots contained the 
same active prinoiple as the pods, and in a larger or 
loss quantity, would be a matter for experiment. 
A portion of the root had been handed to a chemist 
who was competent to determine this point. 
Mr. Collier said the strophantus wns an entirely 
new drug, and of course every "no wished to try it, 
which ucc Minted for the demand for it. He ha I tho 
opportunity of observing it in use, and he might say 
lhat ut first a considerable quantity wns nsed at 
Guy'n Hosp'tal, but its use hid new fallen nlT very 
much. He did not think it was likely to replace 
to digitalis. They used remedies of this kind very 
| largely, perhaps four pints of tincture of digitalis 
