ON SALEP. 
25 
mode of preparation, recommended by Mr. M. De D., is in 
substance as follows: 
Choose the most favorable moment to gather the Orchis, 
which is when the plant begins to fade, and the bulb of the 
preceding year almost entirely withered. About this time 
the bulb destined to reproduce the plant, and which is the 
one employed, has acquired its full growth. If sooner taken, 
it loses more than half its weight when dried, and the salep is 
of inferior quality. The same is the case if you await the 
maturity of the seed; from this moment the germ which bears 
the new bulb already begins to develope itself; vegetation is 
prepared for the following 5 7 ear, and before winter the bud is 
so lengthened as to be ready to shoot up from the ground. 
The preparation of salep should be commenced as soon as 
possible after the bulbs have been pulled up. For this pur- 
pose choose the largest bulbs, clean them by separating the 
small roots, scrape the exterior skin, and throw them in fresh 
water to be washed; then string them, bead fashion, and boil 
in a large quantity of water, until you perceive that some of 
the bulbs become transformed to mucilage, which ordinarily 
takes place in twenty or thirty minutes. When the ebullition 
is not sufficiently prolonged, the salep retains a very strong 
and disagreeable taste. Afterwards they are dried by means 
of a hot sun or stove. The last is best, the action being more 
prompt, and the chance of fermentation removed. Mr. De D. 
says that the indigenous salep prepared by him was similar in 
appearance, and equal in quality, to the best foreign salep. 
Various writers have at different times given their attention 
to a chemical investigation of the dried salep, but one only to 
the constituent principles of the recent bulb. Mr. M. De D. 
published an Essay in the Jlnnales de Chimie as far back 
as 1811. 
According to this author, the same principles are common 
to all the Orchis species. They are mostly distinguished by 
a peculiar, penetrating, venomous smell, which he compares to 
sperm, originating from a volatile oil, which may be separated 
by treating the fresh bulbs with alcohol. By distillation, the 
VOL. VI. — no. i. 4 
