May 10, 1S73.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
883 
sharp, short, recurved spines (apparently metamor¬ 
phosed stipules) especially on the lower part of the 
branches. Leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets 5-9, 
ovate, entire or crenate, glabrous ; racliis broadened 
between the leaflets. Cymes terminal, of from 8-20 
flowers. Calyx persistent; segments very small. 
Petals lanceolate, glabrous. Filaments longer than 
the petals, five rather shorter than the other five, all 
glabrous, with a hairy scale at the base. Styles com¬ 
pletely united, hairy. Fruit surrounded by the per¬ 
sistent calyx, of from 2-5 pyrenes. A specimen in 
the Hookerian Herbarium, from Madura, “Herb.Hort. 
Rot. Cal. no. 1794,” with the leaves trifoliolate, ap¬ 
pears distinct, but is too imperfect for determination. 
Eastern Peninsula, South China, Java, Philippines. 
Tribe II. —Picramne^e. 
Ovary entire; 2-5-celled. 
8. Balanites, Delile. 
Spiny small trees or shrubs. Leaves bifoliolate, 
coriaceous ; leaflets entire. Flowers green, in small 
axillary cymes. Calyx-segments 5, imbricate, deci¬ 
duous. Petals 5, imbricate. Disc thick, conical. 
Stamens 10 ; filaments naked, not appendiculate. 
Ovary globose, 5-locular; ovules solitary in each 
loculus, pendulous. Fruit a large, fleshy, oily, 1- 
seeded drupe. Seed pendulous, exalbuminous. 
Two species, one a native of Tropical Asia, the 
other of Tropical and Northern Africa and Syria. 
1. B. Roxburghii , Planch, in Ann Sci. Nat. Ser. 
iv. t. ii. p. 258. Ximenia cegyptiaca , Roxb. FI. Ind. 
ii. 257 ; Wight, Ic. 274. A small tree, 20 feet high, 
with glabrous or puberulous branches, ending in 
very strong, sharp, ascending spines. Leaves of two 
elliptical or obovate, puberulous, entire, coriaceous 
leaflets. Cymes 4-10-flowered. Sepals and petals 
ovate, velvety, pubescent. Filaments filiform-subu¬ 
late. Fruit large, woody, angular, more than an 
inch long, 1-celled, 1-seeded. 
Bombay, Deccan, Sikkim, Eastern Peninsula. 
Closely allied, if not identical with, B. cegyptiaca of 
North Africa. The flowers are very fragrant. We 
learn from Col. Drury that the nut is covered with a 
soft, pulpy substance like soap, bitter to the taste, 
and with an offensive, greasy smell. The nut itself 
is very hard, and is used in fireworks. For this pur¬ 
pose a hole is drilled in it, the kernel extracted, and 
the shell filled with powder ; when fired, it bursts 
with a loud report. In Africa, the wood, which is 
very hard and of a yellow colour, is used for making 
furniture, also for firewood. An oil is extracted from 
the seeds. The unripe drupes are bitter and vio¬ 
lently purgative, but when ripe are eaten without 
any unpleasant consequences. The ryots use the 
bark medicinally for their cattle. This is one of the 
few trees which flourish on black soil. Royle, in his 
i Himalayan Botany,’ remarks that it is interesting to 
find this plant in the country about Delhi, and in the 
Dowab as far as Allahabad, especially on the banks 
of the Jumna, as it serves, with other plants, to show 
an analogy in the Flora of this part of India with 
.that of Egypt. This was first discovered by Dr. Rox¬ 
burgh as belonging to the Indian Flora, when he 
suggested that it should be formed into a new genus 
lather than be referred to Ximenia , and described it 
as common on the driest and most barren parts of 
the Circars. It is found only in similar situations in 
the north of India, and is one of those plants which 
show the great uniformity of vegetation over a great 
extent of the plains of India, where he has no doubt 
it is indigenous. M. Delile supposes that the fruit 
of this shrub is the “ Persea” of the ancients, the 
“ lebakli” of Arabian authors. 
A NEW VARIETY OF OPIUM.* 
BY P. CARLES. 
The author reports that he was requested to 
determine the value of a specimen of a new variety 
of opium which has been met with in commerce for 
some time, and which was said to be obtained from 
Persia. This opium occurs in the form of conical 
cakes weighing about a pound avoirdupois, partially 
covered by the remains of poppy leaves. It is free 
from seeds of Rumex ; its odour differs from that of 
Smyrna opium, being rather comparable to that of 
green coffee, and when it is heated an odour of 
chocolate is exhaled. It is soft like ordinary fresh 
opium, the softness being due to 5‘6 per cent, of 
moisture. When well dried it is easily powdered, 
but it is slightly deliquescent. The paste is of a 
fawn colour, and does not darken upon exposure to 
the air ; and when examined by the naked eye or 
with the aid of a glass appears fine and very homo¬ 
geneous. It mixes freely with cold water, without 
requiring to be much worked up in the liquid, which 
it only slightly colours. 
Whilst Smyrna opium usually yields 49 per cent, 
of aqueous extract, this variety yields 52 per cent. 
In this operation it always presents a remarkable 
peculiarity : when two-thirds of the water has been 
evaporated in a water-bath, successive crystalline 
crusts are formed in such a manner that if the liquor 
be left to cool, a nearly solid mass results, in con¬ 
sequence of the interlacing of the crystals. By 
treating such a product with water M. Carles separated 
1T0 per cent, of pure narcotine. 
An analysis of the crude opium, according to the 
method of Fordos, gave as the mean of two operations 
—morphine, 8‘40 per cent., narcotine, 3’60 per cent., 
that is to say, a smaller proportion of morphine than 
that indicated in the Codex as the yield of Smyrna 
opium. 
The facility with which this opium dissolves in 
water, its deliquescence in air, etc., led M. Carles to 
suspect its adulteration with honey or glucose. This 
was rather difficult to decide, as Magnes-Laliens has 
stated that such a body is present in normal opium, 
or at least in that from Smyrna. Experiment showed 
that both varieties evidently reduced the cupric solu¬ 
tion, but it was a question whether this reduction was 
due exclusively to glucose. Fermentation alone would 
appear to the author capable of accounting for it, con¬ 
sidering the multiplicity of products that are con¬ 
tained in opium, a certain number of which belong 
to the glucose family, and reduce the blue liquor. 
Parallel experiments were made with the cupric 
solution and with fermentation. Smyrna opium 
gave off few bubbles of carbonic acid, and the so-called 
Persian several cubic centimetres ; but there was no 
concordance between these results and those furnished 
by the Fehling test, which tends to corroborate the 
author’s suspicion. In any case, M. Carles considers 
this variety of opium to differ notably from that 
which was described by Guibourt under the name of 
Persian opium. 
* ‘ Bull, de Trav. de la Soc. de Pharm. de Bordeaux,’ 
March, 1873. 
