662 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 22 ,1873. 
precipitated sulphate of lime, and add the washings 
to the filtrate, which now contains sulphovinate of 
lime. Add to the latter a solution of carbonate of 
soda, until it just ceases to give a precipitate. In¬ 
stead of carbonate of soda, I have also used oxalate 
of soda, which, although requiring considerably more 
water for solution, and consequently a longer time 
for the final evaporation, has this advantage, that it 
effectually removes the whole of the lime salts, thus 
making filtration during evaporation unnecessary. 
Filter the liquid through filtering paper free from 
iron, to remove the precipitated carbonate of lime ; 
wash the latter, and evaporate the filtrate until it mea¬ 
sures about 70 fl. oz. Filter again from a small quan¬ 
tity of separated sulphate and carbonate of lime, 
and evaporate until a pellicle forms. Then set it 
aside for a few days, and remove the crystals. It is 
very difficult to obtain more than one or perhaps 
two crops of well-defined crystals; the last mother- 
liquors deposit a number of hemispherical, knob-like 
crystalline masses, of a pasty consistence and ex¬ 
ceedingly difficult to drain. I now prefer to evapo¬ 
rate the liquid at once to a syrupy consistence, and 
then, under constant stirring, to evaporate to dry¬ 
ness. 
The product is a white granular salt, of a faint 
ethereal odour, and a cooling, somewhat aromatic 
taste; it is very deliquescent, soluble in 0'7 parts 
of water, at CG° F., also soluble in alcohol, with 
which it is capable of forming a crystalline 
compound. When pure, BaCl solution should throw 
down no precipitate, or at least produce only slight 
cloudiness .—American Journal of Pharmacy. 
THE MEDICINAL PLANTS OF NEW 
ZEALAND. 
BY JOHN R. JACKSON, A.L.S. 
Curator of the Museums , Kew. 
New Zealand is a colony especially interesting to 
Englishmen, not only on account of the variety of 
its resources, but also on account of the illustrious 
Englishmen who have visited the island and given 
us accounts of its geographical features, geological 
formation and natural history. New Zealand lias 
been particularly fortunate in having amongst its 
explorers names honoured in the roll of history as 
bold and intelligent adventurers, as also among the 
natural history collectors who have visited the 
colony some of the best that ever left these shores, 
and as much may be said of those who at the pre¬ 
sent time are the prime movers and supporters of 
science in the colony. 
The New Zealand Institute, which includes 
amongst its members such names as those of Dr. 
Hector, Dr. Haast and others equally well known, 
has done so much scientific work of a high order 
that it may justly be compared to our own Royal 
Society. It needs only to point to the ‘ Handbook 
of the New Zealand Flora,’ undertaken by Dr. 
Hooker at the instigation of the Colonial Govern¬ 
ment, to show with what a liberal hand and en¬ 
lightened mind that Government has encouraged 
science in the colony. Nor is the knowledge of the 
botany of New Zealand confined to a mere list of 
the plants inhabiting the country, for the properties 
and uses have also been inquired into and properly 
recorded. The medicinal plants are those in which the 
readers of this Journal have most interest, and to 
which I desire to draw attention. 
I 11 a carefully compiled essay on the botany of 
the North Island of New Zealand, we are told that 
“ it is highly doubtful whether the New Zealanders 
ever used any vegetable as an internal medicine 
before their intercourse with Europeans ; for severe 
burns, however, they applied outwardly the ashes 
and charcoal dust of burnt fern fronds (P ter is escu- 
lenta ) and the fine reddish dust of the large decay¬ 
ing fungus pukuvau ( Lycoperdon Fontanesii). The 
blanched leaves of the harakeke ( Phormium ), 
and the roots of the rengarenga or maikaika 
(Arthropodium cirrhatum) , were sometimes roasted 
and beaten to a pulp, and applied warm to unbroken 
tumours and abscesses. As a cataplasm for ulcers they 
used the leaves of the koholio or poroporo (( Solanum 
aviculare) ; and for wounds and old ulcerated sores, 
they used the large leaves of the pukapuka or ran- 
.giora (Brachyglottis repanda ), and also the pappus 
down of the large bulrush ( Typha anyusti- 
folia), but merely as a protection against dust.” 
The stems of this plant are extensively used in 
New Zealand for making walls and roofs of houses, 
and the yellow pollen is made into a kind of bread or 
cake. “ Layers of dry totara bark ( Podocarpus To- 
tara ), and the lower parts of stout green flax leaves 
(Phormium) served admirably as splints in cases of 
broken bones, the New Zealanders being far better 
surgeons than physicians. And the leaves of several 
particular plants were in request for their rude steam 
or vapour baths for rheumatic and other stubborn 
and chronic complaints, but it is highly questionable 
whether the benefit derived from such baths did not 
arise entirely from the warm vapour. They some¬ 
times rubbed the fresh juice of the ngaio (Myoponun 
Icetum ) over their skin to keep off the persecuting 
sandfly; and for several years they have used 
as purgative medicines the juice of the root of 
the New Zealand flax and the bark of the kowliai 
(. Sophora tetraptera ) ; as a tonic, the leaves of the 
kohekolie (Dysoxylum spectahilc ); as a demulcent 
in colds, etc., the bark of the liouhue (Hoheria po- 
pulnea)] as a diaphoretic, Mentha Cunninyhami ; and 
as slightly alterative a decoction of the bark and 
stems of tiie pikiarero ( Clematis hexasepala ) and the 
root of the tatarahake ( [Coprosma acerosa).” 
It is interesting to note that some of the plants 
here mentioned as being used by the New Zea¬ 
landers in their rough system of medicine, belong to 
orders throughout each of which a characteristic prin¬ 
ciple prevails, and some members of which are acknow¬ 
ledged articles of utility in this country ; thus, for 
example, as the demulcent properties of Hoheria 
populnea, a plant belonging to the well-known na¬ 
tural order Malvaceae. Some of the plants have, 
moreover, been tried by Europeans in the colony, and 
reported upon as being likely to prove valuable in re¬ 
gular practice. Amongst them may be mentioned the 
root of Phormium tenax as an anthelmintic and 
cathartic ; the leaves and bark of Dysoxylum specta- 
hile as a tonic, the roots of Rhipoyonum scandens 
as an alterative. This plant is a very near .ally to 
the commercial sarsaparilla, and its roots, it is said, 
“ have been beneficially used in New Zealand in¬ 
stead of that medicine, which is so commonly adul¬ 
terated.” The climbing wiry stems are, moreover, 
used both for cord and for basket work by the 
natives. Besides the above, the bark of Hoheria 
populnea has been successfully used as a demulcent; 
