AFebSyT?8a97m  }     Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  ill 
Gilead  tree,  C.  opobalsamum.  Professor  Schweinfurth  has  recently 
stated  that  Arabian  myrrh  is  the  product  of  Commiphora  Abyssinica, 
Engl.,  and  of  C.  schimperi  (Berichte  der  Pharm.  Gesellschaft,  1893, 
pp.  218  and  237),  but  the  Director  of  Kew  Gardens,  in  a  lengthy 
paper  on  the  subject  in  the  Kew  Bulletin,  1896,  p.  91,  in  which  he 
differs  somewhat  from  the  views  of  Professor  Schweinfurth,  expresses 
the  opinion  that  Commiphora  simplicifolia  may  be  accepted  as  the 
source  of  Yemen  myrrh,  and  that  Fadhli  myrrh  be  yielded  by  both 
C.  myrrha  and  C.  simplicifolia. 
Professor  Schweinfurth  supplied  the  herbarium  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Society  with  specimens  of  C.  Abyssinica,  C.  schimperi,  C. 
simplicifolia,  C.  Africana  and  C.  opobalsamum,  and  it  occurred  to  Mr. 
Holmes  that  some  light  might  be  thrown  on  this  difficult  question 
by  tasting  the  bark  and  fruits  of  these  specimens,  especially  as  true 
myrrh  has  a  very  bitter  taste,  and  a  peculiar  aroma,  hardly  likely  to 
be  entirely  absent  in  the  plant  itself.  In  none  of  these  did  Mr. 
Holmes  detect  the  odor  and  taste  of  myrrh,  and  he  says  we  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  Arabian  myrrh  is  the  produce  of  the 
plant  named  Balsamodendron  myrrha,  by  Nees,and  not  of  C.  Abys- 
sinica, nor  of  C.  simplicifolia,  nor  of  C.  schimperi.  There  are  several 
acrid  gum  resins  that  occur  mixed  with  myrrh  as  imported.  The 
most  abundant  of  these  is  opaque  bdellium,  which,  as  pointed  out 
by  R.  H.  Parker  {Pharm.  Jour.  [3],  11,  p.  41),  differs  from  hotai  in 
its  greater  toughness,  and  in  giving  an  intense  greenish-black  color 
with  ferric  chloride.  These  are,  doubtless,  yielded  by  other  species 
of  Commiphora.  Thirty-five  species  of  Commiphora  are  described 
in  A.  DeCandolle's  Monographic  Phanerogamarum  Prodromi,  Vol. 
4,  PP.  9-29. 
RELATION    OF   THE   GROWTH    OF   FOLIAGE   LEAVES  AND  THE  CHLORO- 
PHYLL FUNCTION. 
The  following  conclusions  have  been  reached  by  D.  T.  MacDougal 
{The  Journal  of  the  Linnean  Society,  31,  526),  after  a  practical  study 
of  a  number  of  plants : 
(1)  Material  constructed  in  active  chlorophyll  areas  and  stored  in 
special  organs  may  be  transported  to  inactive  chlorophyll-bearing 
organs  in  some  plants  in  light  and  in  darkness,  and  be  used  in  such 
manner  as  to  allow  of  the  perfect  development  of  these  organs. 
(2)  The  removal  of  concurrent  members  in  darkness  may  have 
