Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Jan.,  1881.  J 
Notes  on  Patchouli. 
25 
duced  into  the  botanic  garden  at  Calcutta,  and  during  ten  years 
showed  no  disposition  to  blossom.  Other  specimens  flowered  in  the 
stoves  at  Kew  and  Orleans;  others  received  from  Louis  Van  Houtte 
of  Ghent,  and  grown  in  the  moist  stove  here,  have  not  attempted  to 
flower,  although  they  otherwise  throve  exceedingly  and  agreed  in  the 
structure  of  leaf  and  stalk  with  the  figure  of  the  Kew  plant.  The 
only  variety  known  to  flower  (if  really  it  be  a  variety  of  the  same 
plant)  grows  on  one  of  the  islands  near  Sourabaya,  south-east  of 
Sumatra;  the  leaf  is  odorous,  though  not  so  broadly  ovate  and  with 
shorter  pedicels,  and  it  is  grown  simply  for  the  flowers,  which  are  sold 
ni  large  quantities  for  medicinal  purpose  in  the  various  markets  of 
Java,  and  fetch  a  high  price. 
The  difficulty  of  obtaining  accurate  botanical  details  of  these  plants 
is  great,  but  there  are  no  doubt  many  varieties,  and  all  labiate  plants, 
especially  the  mints,  are  apt  to  take  a  character  and  habit  not  true  to 
the  original  plant,  when  transplanted  to  a  climate  or  soil  other  than  is 
natural  to  them;  and  under  such  conditions  the  development  of 
odorous  properties  is  as  much  changed  as  is  the  development  of  medi- 
oinal  properties  in  many  drug-yielding  plants.  To  instance  the  for- 
mer I  may  mention  the  lavender  and  the  peppermint,  and  regarding 
the  latter,  Dr.  Hooker  observes,  in  the  introductory  essay  to  his 
^^Fiora  Indica,''  that  the  most  conspicuous  Indian  examples  are  pre- 
sented by  the  opium  poppy,  mudar  [Calotropis)  and  the  Cannabis  sativa 
or  common  hemp  of  England,  which  yields  ^' bhang''  and  ''chirris"  in 
varying  quantities  and  of  diflerent  quality  very  much  in  proportion  to 
the  humidity  of  the  soil  and  climate  it  grows  in.  The  digitalis  grown 
in  the  Himalaya  is  said  to  have  proved  almost  inert,  and  so  with  other 
plants  which  have  been  cultivated  for  medicinal  and  economic  pur- 
poses. The  wood  of  the  English-grown  Lebanon  cedars  differs  greatly 
in  color,  hardness  and  odor,  and  the  wood  of  the  English  oak  grown 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  is  worthless.  The  patchouli  plant  cultiva- 
ted at  Singapore  is  of  course  not  propagated  by  seed,  as  it  never 
flowers.  It  may  be  a  hybrid,  and  if  its  difference  of  odor  be  not  attri- 
butable to  this  cause  it  may  be  to  the  drying,  fermenting  and  dis- 
tilling processes  being  carried  on  in  a  different  way  to  that  adopted  in 
Province  Wellesley.  These  reasons  may  also  account  in  some  measure 
for  the  differences  observed  in  the  Chinese  oil  of  peppermint. 
Inquiring  into  the  causes  which  influence  the  price  of  any  volatile 
oil,  we  find  that  besides  supply  and  demand,  quality  is  considered. 
