468 
V arieties. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1      Sept.,  1877. 
compound  quills  of  a  chestnut-brown  color,  usually  tinged  with  purple,  and  is  used 
in  Brazil  like  cinnamon. 
Under  the  name  of  sassafras,  both  Venezuela  and  Brazil  exhibited  the  bark  ot 
Ocotea  (Nectandra)  cymbarum  which  has  a  peculiar  aromatic  odor  and  warm  cam- 
phoraceous  taste,  not  in  the  least  resembling  the  stem  or  root  bark  of  our  sassafras, 
either  in  appearance  or  flavor,  but  is  doubtless  valuable  as  a  stimulant. 
All  the  plants  referred  to  above  belong  to  the  natural  order  Lauraceae  which  is 
particularly  rich  in  warm  aromatic  volatile  oils  ;  but  a  limited  number  of  its  spe- 
cies occur  in  temperate  countries,  the  large  majority  being  confined  to  tropical  and 
subtropical  regions,  where  many  are  employed  either  medicinally  or  for  dietetic 
purposes. 
VARIETIES. 
The  Peruvian  Nitre-Beds.— On  the  Pacific  coast  of  South  America,  extending 
from  the  fourth  to  the  fortieth  degree  of  south  latitude,  about  2,400  miles  along  the 
slope  of  the  Andes  to  the  sea,  in  Bolivia,  Peru  and  part  of  Chili,  there  has  been 
found  a  line  of  deposits  of  sodium  nitrate,  the  "Peruvian  nitre."  The  beds  are  of 
variable  thickness,  covered  by  one  to  ten  yards'  depth  of  earth  and  half-formed 
sandstone.  The  dry  soil  of  the  most  of  this  rainless  country  is  pervaded,  in  some 
degree,  with  this  deposit.  The  mummied  remains  of  the  old  Peruvian  people  are 
embalmed  with  it  by  the  earth  in  which  they  were  buried  j  and  its  crystals  glisten 
on  those  ghastly  relicts  which  were  presented  in  the  Peruvian  department  of  the 
Centennial  Exhibition,  and  those  brought  to  this  country  by  Dr.  Steere.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  in  the  province  of  Tarapaca,  within  fifty  square  leagues,  the 
quantity  of  the  nitre  is  not  less  than  63,000,000  tons.  The  appropriation  of  this 
vast  resource  has  been  taken  up  rather  slowly,  but  has  much  increased  for  ten  or 
twelve  years  past.  Vessels  laden  with  it  go  to  the  coasts  of  manufacturing  countries. 
At  Glasgow  the  works  devoted  to  the  production  of  ordinary  saltpetre  from  the 
nitre  of  Peru  extend  over  acres  of  ground.  In  1868,  100,000,000  pound  were  used 
in  Great  Britain.  As  yet,  it  has  been  applied  to  the  nourishment  of  crops  only  to 
a  limited  extent.  But  this  seems  to  be  its  chief  destination,  and  for  this  use  it  lies 
in  the  earth,  a  vast  mine  of  wealth,  for  the  disposal  of  coming  generations.  When 
multiplied  population  puts  the  sustaining  power  of  the  earth  really  to  the  test,  this 
fund  of  sustenance  on  the  Peruvian  coast  must  come  to  outweigh  in  value  the  gold 
and  silver  mines  of  the  Californian  coast. — Professor  Albert  B.  Prescott,  in  Pop.  Set. 
Monthly  for  July. 
Potash  and  Soda  in  Organized  Structures. — There  remains  to  notice  another 
representavive  of  the  adequate  resources,  potassium.  The  statements  made  as  to 
the  supply  of  phosphorus,  with  some  reservation,  become  true  for  potassium.  Cer- 
tain of  the  rocks  contain  a  proportion  of  it,  but  from  insolubility  this  is  slowly 
