14  Manufacture  of  Carbonate  of  Soda,  etc.  { AMjaJn0l\R"il>74ARfti:s 
New  Reagent  for  Binoxide  of  Hydrogen. — The  Poljtechn.  Notiz- 
blatt  recommends  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  argent-ammonium,  which 
must  be  free  from  every  trace  of  free  ammonia  ;  a  few  drops  added  to 
water  containing  the  binoxide  in  solution,  produces  on  boiling  a  tur- 
bidity in  consequence  of  the  separation  of  minutely  divided  metallic 
silver.— Pharm.  Centrallialle,  1873,  No.  47. 
BOTANICAL  ORIGIN  OF  THE  BALSAMS  OF  TOLU  AND  PERU.* 
By  Professor  Baillon. 
The  plant  which  yields  the  balsam  of  tolu,  and  which,  during  the 
present  century,  has  been  described  under  the  name  of  Myroxylon 
toluiferum,  was  named  by  Linnaeus,  in  his  "Materia  Medica,"  Tolui- 
fera  balsamum,  and  that  name  should  still  be  retained  for  it.  The 
younger  Linnseus  thought  that  the  balsam  of  Peru  was  the  product  of 
another  leguminous  plant  of  the  same  genus,  which  he  had  received 
from  Mutis,  and  which  he  named  M.  peruiferum.  This  was  an  error, 
since  the  pretended  balsam  of  Peru  did  not  even  come  from  South 
America,  but  from  the  Costa  del  Balsamo,  or  Balsam  Coast,  in  San 
Salvador.  The  tree  which  produces  the  greater  part  of  this  San  Sal- 
vador balsam  is  that  w7hich  Klotzsch,  multiplying  beyond  measure  the 
species  of  the  genus,  designated  under  the  name  of  M.  Pereirce,  but 
which  cannot  be  separated  specifically  from  Toluifera  balsamum  [M. 
toluiferum).  Here,  as  in  the  entire  genus,  characters  taken  from  the 
form,  size  and  proportions  of  parts  of  the  fruit, — especially  of  the 
wing  at  its  base,  which  varies  infinitely  in  size  and  direction  in  one 
and  the  same  plant, — cannot  be  held  sufficient  for  the  separation  of 
species.  The  elongated,  or  more  or  less  punctiform  pellucid  spots  of 
the  leaflets,  do  not  appear  as  though  they  ought  to  be  considered  to 
h'ive  specific  value  ;  hence  the  slight  value  of  M.  punctatum. 
The  different  qualities  and  characters  of  the  balsams  seem  to  de- 
pend entirely  upon  the  method  of  extraction.  But  all  the  forms  of 
T.  balsamum  have  one  constant  character  in  the  smooth  surface  of  the 
seeds,  which  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  cotyledons  are  not  rumin- 
ated. On  the  contrary,  in  M.  peruiferum,  which  should  take  the 
name  of  Toluifera  peruifera,  they  are  ruminated.  The  latter  tree 
yields  scarcely  any  useful  products,  or  at  least  any  sent  as  such  to 
*  Note  read  before  the  Congress  at  Lyons  [Repertoire  de  Pharmacie  [n.  s.,. 
i  ,  566],  from  the  Revue  Scientifique. 
