Am.  Jour.  Phan 
August,  1887. 
}  Distribution  of  Sqfrol.  417 
Being  indebted  to  Mr.  E.  Merck  of  Darmstadt,  for  a  good  sample 
of  the  bark  of  Beilschmiedia  obtusifolia,  I  may  state  that  it  agrees  to 
some  degree,  in  its  microscopic  structure  both  with  the  bark  of  cassia 
lignea  and  sassafras.  The  Beilschmiedia  bark  is  as  much  as  15  milli- 
metres (half  an  inch)  in  thickness,  and  shows  the  same  exfoliation 
due  to  secondary  cork  bands  (rhytidoma)  as  the  bark  of  sassafras. 
Beilschmiedia  bark  is,  on  the  other  hand,  much  more  fibrous  than 
either  of  the  above-named  barks ;  its  tissue  being  very  rich  in 
long  thin  fibres,  and  in  its  outer  layer  there  are  scattered,  not  in  large 
number,  sclerenchymatous  cells,  having  comparatively  thin  walls. 
The  oil  ducts  of  Beilschmiedia  bark  are  neither  very  numerous,  nor 
considerably  large.  It  remains  to  be  proved  that  they  really  contain 
safrol  as  I  venture  to  say. 
In  the  natural  system,  the  Magnoliaceaa  are  not  much  distant  from 
both  Lauracese  and  Monirniacese.  Eykman  has  shown,1  that  safrol 
also  occurs  in  the  essential  oil  of  the  fruit  of  Illicium  religiosum,  the 
false  star-anise  of  Japan ;  this  tree  belongs  to  the  order  of  Magnoli- 
aceee.  There  the  safrol  is  accompanied  by  eugenol,  the  formula  of  which 
/C3H5 
C6H3 — OCH3 
at  once  reveals  its  relationship  to  safrol  as  also  to  anethol — 
C6ti4  ^CH=CH— CH3 
It  would  appear,  therefore  that  at  least  eugenol  C10H12O2  and  safrol 
C10H10O2  may  be  in  some  generic  relation.  The  former  has  been  met 
with  by  Stenhouse  in  the  leaves  of  the  cinnamon  tree.2  And,  thirdly, 
anethol  C10H12O,  the  chief  constituent  of  the  oil  of  true  star-anise, 
Illicium  anisatum,  is  there  replacing  safrol  as  occurring  in  the  other 
variety. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  be  able  to  convert  one  into  the  other  of 
those  three  highly  aromatic  substances;  their  empirical  formula?: 
C10H12O,  C10H10O2.  C10H12O2  would  apparently  indicate  the  probability 
of  such  transformations,  but  not  their  structure — Phar  Jour,  and 
Trans.  June  4th,  1887,  p.  989. 
1  Pharm.  Joum.,  xv.  (1885),  985,  short  abstract  of  Eykman's  paper  in  the 
Recueil,  above  mentioned. 
2  '  Pharmacographia,'  527. 
