150  ON  THE  BOTANICAL  ORIGIN  OF  GAMBOGE. 
the  discovery  of  that  substance,  I  obtained  a  number  of  small 
silky,  needle-like  crystals,  which  proved  to  be  that  alkaloid. 
On  my  arrival  in  England,  I  placed  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Attfield 
samples  of  the  fragments  of  the  nuts,  stating  that  they  produced 
theine,  and  wished  him  to  test  the  validity  of  my  conclusions. 
I  am  happy  to  state  he  has  fully  confirmed  my  discovery."  Pro- 
fessor Bentley  added  that  Dr.  Daniell  would  read  a  paper  on 
the  subject  at  the  next  Pharmaceutical  meeting,  and  also  that  Dr. 
Attfield  would  at  the  same  time  give  the  details  of  his  analysis  of 
Kola  nuts.  Professor  Bentley  thought  it  probable  that  the 
alkaloid  thus  obtained,  from  the  near  botanical  affinity  of  the 
genus  producing  it  to  that  from  which  cocoa  and  chocolate  were 
obtained,  might  be  theobromine  instead  of  theine,  although  the 
appearance  of  the  crystals,  it  must  be  admitted,  was  more  that 
of  theine. — Lond.  Pharm*  Journal,  Feb.,  1865. 
ON  THE  BOTANICAL  ORIGIN  OF  GAMBOGE. 
By  Daniel  Hanbury,  F.  L.  S. 
The  botanical  origin  of  Gamboge  has  been  long  involved  in 
some  obscurity,  for  although  the  drug  was  evidently  produced 
by  a  plant  of  the  genus  Garcinia  it  has  not  until  recently  been 
possible,  for  want  of  good  specimens,  to  determine  the  species. 
Hermann,  a  Dutch  naturalist  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
who  resided  in  Ceylon,  referred  the  origin  of  gamboge  to  two 
plants,  one  of  which  is  known  to  modern  botanists  as  Garcinia 
Morella,  the  other  as  G.  Cambogia  ;  and  we  have  it,  on  the 
authority  of  Mr.  Thwaites,  Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic 
Garden  of  Peradenia,  that  the  former  is  capable  of  affording 
a  very  good  form  of  the  drug,  but  that  such  is  not  the  case  with 
the  latter.  It  is,  however,  well  known  that  gamboge  is  not  an 
export  of  Ceylon,  but  that  it  is  a  production  of  Siam,  a  country 
which  is  still  nearly  unexplored  by  the  botanist.  Whether 
gamboge  in  Siam  was  yielded  by  the  same  tree  as  that  which 
affords  it  in  Ceylon,  was  a  question  which  could  only  be  settled 
by  a  careful  examination  of  good  botanical  specimens. 
Some  years  ago  Dr.  Christison,  of  Edinburgh,  received  from 
Singapore  specimens  of  a   Garcinia  cultivated  there  on  the 
