308 
Gleanings  in  3Iateria  Medica. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharui 
(       June,  1885. 
able  weather,  over  a  charcoal  fire;  or  to  make  the  red  or  clarified 
ginseng  it  is  placed  in  wicker  baskets  which  are  put  in  a  large  earthen- 
ware vessel  with  a  closely  fitting  cover  and  pierced  at  the  bottom  with 
holes.  It  is  then  placed  over  boihng  water  and  steamed  for  about  four 
hours.  The  export  of  this  quality  of  ginseng  is  a  strict  monopoly  and 
death  is  the  punishment  for  smuggling  it  out  of  the  country.  The 
annual  amount  exported  to  China  is  202  piculs,  valued  at  forty  dollars 
a  picul  (133J  lbs.)  The  white  ginseng  is  worth  about  half  as  much. 
It  is  the  wild  ginseng  for  which  enormous  prices  are  sometimes  paid. 
— Phar.  Jour  and  Trans.,  March  7,  1885,  p.  732. 
Synthe.iis  of  hoinoquinine  (see  ''Am.  Jour.  Phar./'  1885,  p.  249). 
By  decomposing  homoqninine  with  caustic  soda  and  determining  the 
amount  of  quinine  thus  })r(>dueed,  B.  H.  Paul  and  A.  J.  Cownley 
obtained  41*4  per  cent,  of  quinine  and  58'6  cupreine.  By  mixing  the 
ether  solutions  of  cupreine  and  excess  of  quinine  and  after  crystallizing, 
determining  tlie  surplus  quinine,  the  same  authors  obtained  in  two 
exi)eriments  tlie  following  figures  as  representing  the  composition  of 
liomoquinine  :  quinine  .")7"2U  and  39'08  per  cent.;  cupreine  62*80  and 
()0'U2  per  cent.  Fj'om  these  resuhs  the  proportion  of  quinine  and 
cupreine  in  liomoquinine  seems  to  be  as  2:3. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans., 
March  7,  1885,  p.  729. 
Vac.Giniuin  Ardostaphylos,  Lin.,  Trebizond  tea.  From  communica- 
tions by  E.  M.  Holmes  and  \V.  J.  T.  Dyer  to  "Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans.,"  January  17  and  March  27,  1885,  it  appears  that  this  tea  was 
first  prepared  about  the  year  1877,  and  became  a  commercial  article  in 
1880.  About  5,000  ocques  (the  ocque  =  2f  lbs.)  are  manufactured 
annually,  the  cost  on  the  spot  being  about  5  piastres  per  ocque.  The 
plant  grows  in  Trebizond,  Kroum  and  other  parts  of  Asiatic  Turkey, 
on  mountains  not  below  an  altitude  of  5,000  feet,  and  is  not  found 
beyond  the  mountains  of  Gummo  hame.  The  tea  is  manufactured  by 
Circassian  planters  in  the  province  of  Roum,  and  has  the  appearance 
and  aroma  of  coarse  black  tea,  but  a  sweet  and  somewliat  less  astrin- 
gent taste.  The  best  quality  is  yielded  in  May,  several  gatherings 
being  made  during  the  year.  The  leaf  is  much  thinner  than  the  true 
tea  leaf,  and  could,  Mr.  Holmes  thinks,  be  easily  distinguished  by  a 
botanist  from  the  true  tea  leaf  when  soaked  in  water,  should  the  tea 
over  come  into  use  as  an  adulterant  of  cheap  teas. 
