"^""'j^ij^'issr™'}         Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica.  353 
dicinclionine  with  sulphuric  acid  to  130°  C. — Ann.  d.  Chem.,  vol.  227, 
p.  153-161. 
FaL'^e  cubebs  have  been  offered  in  the  London  and  New  York  mar- 
ket. In  1861  Gronewegen  referred  a  false  cubeb  to  Piper  anisatuni, 
Humb.  et  BonpL,  and  Stille  and  Maisch  (Nat.  Disp.,  2d  edit.,  p.  479, 
3d  edit.,  p.  522)  consider  this  to  be  probably  the  same  which  Fllicki- 
ger  and  Hanbury  (Pharmacographia,  2d  edit.,  p.  588)  refer  to  Piper 
crassipes,  Korthals.  Wm.  Kirkby  finds  the  description  of  the  latter 
to  differ  from  that  of  the  drug  under  notice,  in  that  the  stalk  of  P. 
crassipes  is  one  and  a  half  times  to  twice  as  long  as  the  berry,  and 
that  the  taste  is  very  bitter.  A  fruit  seen  by  Kirkby  in  Kew  Gardens, 
said  to  be  from  Piper  sylvestre  ?  Lam.,  closely  resembles  this  false 
cubeb,  but  has  a  lighter  color,  a  longer  terete  stalk,  an  odor  reminding 
one  of  pepper,  and  a  taste  not  aromatic.  Kirkby 's  description  of 
cubebs  and  the  false  drug,  arranged  for  convenient  comj^arison,  is  as 
follows : 
Cubebs.  I  False  Cubebs. 
Spherical,  somewhat  pointed  at  the 
apex,  reticulately  wrinkled,  contracted 
at  the  base  into  a  stalk. 
Color  brownish  gray  or  blackish. 
Odor  aromatic,  spicy  and  characteristic. 
Taste  pungent,  aromatic,  sliglitly  bitter. 
Diameter  3  to  5  mm. 
Stalk  5  to  9  mm. 
Pericarp  in  three  layers.   Exterior  one, 
beneath  the  epidermis,  an  interrupted 
row  of  cubic  thick-walled  cells,  in  groups 
of  tluee  or  four.    Middle  layer  broad, 
made  up  of  loose  undeveloped  tissue, 
containing  stellate   groups   of  needle- 
shaped  crystals  and  large  quantities  of 
starch,  and  interspersed  with  larger  oil 
cells,  the  latter  colored  red-brown  with 
concentrated  H2SO4;  a  section  kent  in  \ 
glycerin  for  several  weeks  shows  large  | 
groups  of  prismatic  crystals,  concentri-  ! 
callj'  ari'anged.   Inner  layer  consists  of 
about  four  rows  of  parenchyma  cells,  tan-  | 
gentially  elongated,  and  on  outer  margin 
of  11  or  12  wood  bundles,  formed  mostly 
of  narrow  spiral  vessels,  with  few  dotted  < 
vessels. 
Like  cubebs,  but  more  strongly  wrin- 
kled. 
Color  brownish  gray  to  brown,  rarely 
approaching  black. 
Odor  rather  pleasant,  resembling  mace. 
Taste  aromatic,  warm,  somewhat  bitter. 
Diameter  4  to  0  mm. 
Stalk  flattened,  4  to  7  mm. 
Pericarp  in  three  layers.  Exterior  one, 
an  interrupted  ring  of  thickened  ceUs, 
little  larger  than  in  cubebs.  Middle  layer 
composed  of  loose  parenchyma,  contain- 
ing starch  less  abundantly  than  cubebs, 
and  interspersed  with  oil  cells,  the  latter 
colored  red  with  H0SO4;  a  section  does 
not  yield  crystals.  Inner  layer  free  from 
starch,  composed  of  ten  rows  of  tangen- 
tially  extended  thin-walled  cells,  and  on 
outer  margin  of  14  or  15  wood  bundles, 
formed  of  narrow  spiral  vessels,  with  few 
dotted  vessels. 
In  both  drugs  the  testa  consists  of  one  row  of  large  encrusted,  thick- 
walled  cells,  elongated  and  radially  arranged,  and  containing  calcium 
carbonate.    Surrounding  the  jjerisperm  is  a  red  membrane  formed  of 
23 
