290 
PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES. 
the  opopanax-like  odor.  But  while  the  main  root  of  the  imported 
kind  is  covered  with  horizontal  wrinkles,  the  American  shows 
none  but  longitudinal  strise  ;  and  it  will  require  some  more  and 
very  substantial  evidence  to  allow  us  to  admit  that  this  difference 
was  solely  the  result  of  acclimatisation. 
With  neither  of  these  roots,  however,  has  the  Japanese  drug . 
any  resemblance,  being  neither  of  a  spongy  consistence,  nor  of 
the  odor  or  taste  of  Levisticum  ;  and  in  absence  of  any  clue  to 
the  origin  of  the  plant  or  the  name  which  it  bears  in  Japan,  I 
have  at  different  times  thought  it  not  unlikely  that  the  roots 
might  be  those  of  an  Imperatoria,  or  of  Angelica  sylvestris,  L. 
(Hay ne,  I  c.  t.  9.  Woodville,  Med.  Bot,  i.  p.  89,  t.  36,)  of  Arch- 
angelica  decurrens,  (Ledebour,  Flora  altaica,  i.  p.  316,  Icones, 
tab.  166,)  or  of  A.  peregrin  a,  Nut  tall,  (Torrey  and  Gray,  Fl.  N. 
Am.,  p.  622,  -  A.  Gmelini,  DeC.  Prof.  A.  Gray,  Mem.  Am. 
Acad.,  new  ser.,  vi.  377,)  as  being  -  nearly  related  to  Levisticum, 
and  all  of  them  plants  of  North  America  or  Northern  Asia.  Yet, 
on  examination,  neither  these  nor  the  Umbelliferse  mentioned  by 
Kaempfer,  Thunberg,  v.  Sieboldt,*  Hoffman  and  Schultes,f  or  by 
Prof.  Asa  Gray,J  and  in  Walper's  Repertorium  and  the  Annates 
Botanices,  gave  indications  which  could  be  called  satisfactory. 
Black's  Catalogue  of  Japanese  Plants,  an  appendix  to  Hodgson's 
Japan,  I  have  been  unable  to  procure. 
A  better  promise  offered  a  notice  of  what  I  must  presume  are 
these  identical  roots  in  Mr.  Hanbury's  Notes  on  Chinese  Materia 
Medico  &  where  they  are  described  under  the  names  of  Yu-shuJi 
and  Cliuen-Keung,  our  drug  appearing  to  be  a  mixture  of  both, 
supposing  there  be  a  difference  between  them.  The  description 
there  given  concurs  so  closely  with  the  appearance  of  our  own 
specimen,  that  it  may  serve  our  purpose  here: 
1.  "  Yu-shuh,  root  of  a  plant  of  the  nat.  ord.  Umbelliferw  ?  Con- 
torted fleshy  roots,  anteriorly  about  f  of  an  inch  thick,  but  lower 
down  swelled  into  nodular  tubers  an  inch  or  two  in  diameter, 
*  VerJiandelingen  Batav.  Genootshop,  vol.  vii.  (1830).    Abhandl.  Math.  Phys. 
K  .  Ju  r  Ak.  iv.  134,  (1846.) 
\  Index  in  Journal  Asiatique  of  1852. 
%  Perry's  Expedition,  vol.  ii.  312.  Mem.  Amer.  Acad,  new  series,  vol.  vi.  377. 
\  Pharm.  Journ.  Trans.  (2)  iii.  pp.  315,316. 
