534 
Aralia  Nudicaulis. 
(Am.  Jour.  Phai m. 
X     October,  1897. 
Eucalyptus  rostrata  is  one  of  the  leading  trees  in  many  of  the 
forests  of  Victoria,  and  is  productive  of  this  kinic  substance,  which, 
being  unable  to  force  its  way  through  the  hard,  tough  outer  bark, 
lodges  itself  in  treacly  form  in  large  orifices  or  carbuncles  between 
the  wood  and  the  bark  in  such  quantities  that  I  have  known  one 
and  two  bucketfuls  of  the  liquid  to  be  obtained  by  boring  a  small 
orifice  in  the  swollen  part.  This  liquid  kino,  when  evaporated  in  a 
vacuum  pan,  is  obtained  as  beautiful  ruby-red  gum  kino  entirely 
soluble  in  water  or  spirit.  The  supply  from  Australia  would  be  very 
great  if  only  a  remunerative  market  opened. 
ARALIA  NUDICAULIS.1 
By  William  C.  Ai/pkrs  and  Benjamin  1,.  Murray. 
Aralia  nudicaulis  grows  abundantly  in  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States,  extending  north  into  Canada,  south  as  far  as  North 
Carolina,  and  west  to  the  Mississippi  Valley,  selecting  principally 
rich  hilly  woods.  It  is  indigenous  to  the  United  States,  not  being 
mentioned  in  European  text-books,  and  has  a  number  of  synonyms, 
as  wild  licorice,  shotbush,  small  spikenard,  false  sarsaparilla,  Vir- 
ginia sarsaparilla,  and  wild  sarsaparilla,  the  latter  being  the  term 
more  commonly  used.  While  country  people  know  this  aromatic 
herb  well  under  the  name  of  wild  sarsaparilla,  or  simply  sarsaparilla, 
and  use  it  "  to  purify  the  blood  and  cleanse  the  skin,"  it  has  attracted 
but  little  attention  by  the  medical  profession ;  its  only  use  in  medi- 
cine seems  to  be  to  serve  as  an  adulterant  of  the  official  sarsaparilla, 
in  several  lots  of  which,  purchased  in  the  New  York  market,  the 
writers  have  discovered  it. 
The  late  Professor  Bastin  examined  Aralia  nudicaulis  microscopi- 
cally, and  published  the  results  of  his  examination  in  The  Western 
Druggist,  Vol.  VII,  1885,  p.  314.  This  is  the  only  literature  that 
the  writers  were  able  to  find  on  this  interesting  plant,  and  a  chemi- 
cal examination  of  its  rhizome  was  probably  never  made  before. 
There  is  a  slight  difference  in  the  description  of  the  leaves  and  the 
rhizome  between  Bastin's  paper  and  ours,  which  suggests  the  idea 
that  possibly  the  Western  species  varies  from  the  Eastern,  Bastin 
having  collected  his  specimens  in  the  vicinity  of  Chicago,  while 
1  Read  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
August,  1897. 
