654 
SUBSTITUTION OF MANGOSTEEN FOR BAEL. 
now found in the market is derived from cultivated plants. The late Dr. Royle 
states that he sent plants obtained from the Royal Horticultural Society and 
from Dr. Balfour of Edinburgh to the Himalayas, where he hoped they would 
soon be established.* lu 1862 I forwarded to Mr. N. Wilson, Curator of the 
Botanic Garden, at Bath, Jamaica, a jalap-plant of which he wrote to me in 
October 1863, that it was growing luxuriantly at an elevation of 2000 feet, and 
that he had no doubt the plant could be cultivated on the mountains of Jamaica 
as an article of commerce. 
The culture of Exogonium Purqa Benth. is also being attempted in the south 
rf France by Professor Dr. J. E. Planchon of Montpellier and by M. Gustave 
Thuret of Antibes, but the summer climate of those localities is so much drier 
than that of the region in which the jalap plant is indigenous, that success is 
doubtful. Tubers have also been sent to Madeira. 
There is one other point in connexion with this subject upon which we seem 
to require information, and that is the age at which the jalap tubers can be col¬ 
lected to most advantage. It is well known that the jalap of commerce consists 
of tubers of all sizes between those weighing a few grains up to such as weigh 
several ounces ;—and that the larger and those which are internally most com¬ 
pact, dry and resinous are preferred. 
The adoption of a better method of drying the tubers than that at present 
pursued will also deserve attention. It is probable that this object will be ac¬ 
complished by slicing the tubers while fresh, and drying them with the gentle 
heat of a stove. 
NOTE ON THE SUBSTITUTION OF MANGOSTEEN {GARCINIA 
MANGOSTaNA) for BAEL {MGLE MARMELOS). 
BT PROFESSOR BENTLEY, F.L.S., M.R.C.S. ENG. 
The scarcity of Bael, indeed the impossibility lately of obtaining it in 
any quantity in this country, has led to its adulteration with other fruits, 
and, in some cases, even the entire substitution of these for the genuine drug. 
The most remarkable of these substitutions, and one which, as far as I know, 
has been hitherto unnoticed, has lately occurred in the offering at a drug sale 
of the dried broken rind of the fruit of Garcinia Mangostana for Bael. 
The Mangosteen thus oflered consists of irregular fragments of rind (peri¬ 
carp) without any adhering pulp. The pieces are convex, three, four, or 
more lines thick, and covered externally by a smooth, deep reddish-brown 
easily separable epicarp. The inner surface is of a pale reddish-brown or 
reddish-yello\\ colour, smooth, marked with projecting vertical lines, and 
entirely free from adhering pulp and seeds. The texture is compact, and 
the colour throughout of a uniform deep reddish-brown. The pieces break 
with difficulty, and present a close fracture. They have no perceptible odour, 
and but a very slightly astringent taste. Some of the pieces are marked 
externally by the closely adhering radiating stigmas. These project from the 
surface, are of a dark colour, and wedge-shaped. 
* Manual of Mat. Med. and Therap. ed. 1853, p. 563. 
In Birdwood’s Catalogue of the Economic Products of the Presidency of Bomhay , Bom- 
bay, 1862, it is stated at p. 67, that Exogonium Purga Beutli. is “ cultivated on account of 
Cfovernment at Hewra.” I am however assured that there is some error in this statement and 
that the plant does not now exist in the Hewra garden. 
