304  Daphnidium  Cubeba.  {*m'&ll\\m?m- 
Eeden,  of  Haarlem.  I  had  asked  Dr.  Van  Eeden  for  specimens  of 
any  plants  yielding  cubebs  that  he  might  be  able  to  procure.  In 
response  to  this  request,  he  sent  a  very  fine  series  of  plants,  one  of 
which,  named  Krangean,  and  identified  by  him  as  Tetr  anther  a  citrata, 
Nees,  was,  he  informed  me,  the  source  of  a  fruit  that  is  regularly  sold 
as  cubebs.  This  at  once  suggested  to  me  a  comparison  of  the  fruits 
with  those  of  the  so-called  Daphnidium  Cubeba.  Except  in  the 
stronger  verbena-like  taste  I  could  perceive  no  difference  in  these 
fruits.  At  my  request  Dr.  A.  De  Wevre,  who  has  been  making  a 
histological  study  of  the  true  and  false  cubebs  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Society,  cut  some  sections  of  Dr.  Van  Eeden's  specimen,  of  Dr. 
Porter  Smith's  specimen  of  Daphnidium  Cubeba,  and  of  the  Daph- 
nidium Cubeba  in  the  Museum  of  the  Society,  derived  from  the  same 
parcel  as  that  examined  by  Mr.  J.  O.  Braithwaite  (Pharm.  Joum., 
[3],  xvii,  p.  231).1  The  structure  of  all  three  proved  to  be  identical. 
As  Dr.  De  Wevre  will  subsequently  publish  in  his  thesis  on  cubebs 
the  details  of  the  structure  of  this  fruit,  it  is  not  necessary  to  give 
them  here.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  purposes  of  identification  to 
remark  that  the  layer  of  sclerogenous  cells  of  the  testa  in  Tetranthera 
citrata  is  composed  of  extremely  narrow  cells  without  a  recognizable 
lumen,  whilst  that  of  Piper  Ciibeba  is  formed  of  large  oblong  cells 
having  a  well-marked  lumen.  It  may  be  assumed,  therefore,  as 
proved  that  the  so-called  Daphnidium  Cubeba  of  commerce  must  in 
future  be  referred  to  Litsea  citrata,  Bl.  ("Bijdrag,"  p.  565),  but  that 
the  identity  of  that  plant  with  the  Laurus  Cubeba  of  Loureiro  is 
uncertain. 
It  is  further  of  interest  to  remark  that  the  fruits  of  Litsea  citrata 
are  identical  with  the  "  citronelle  fruits  "  distilled  by  Messrs.  Schim- 
mel  &  Co.,  under  the  name  of  Tetranthera  citrata,  which  are  stated 
by  them  to  yield  citral,  the  flavoring  principle  of  oil  of  lemon, 
to  the  extent  of  30  per  cent,  of  the  oil.  Citral  has  an  odor  between 
that  of  lemon  and  verbena,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  J.  O. 
Braithwaite,  in  his  examination  of  the  fruits  of  Daphnidium  Cubeba 
1  I  have  communicated  with  Messrs.  Braithwaite  and  Farr,  who  admit  that 
my  interpretation  of  the  structure  of  the  fruit  is  the  correct  one,  and  that  the 
description  they  have  given  is  incorrect,  they  having  been  misled  by  imper- 
fectly cut  sections.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  owing  to  the  extreme  hardness 
and  fragility  of  the  testa  as  compared  with  the  soft  tissue  of  the  pericarp  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  make  a  good  section  of  the  fruit. 
