Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1893. 
Dragon  s  Blood. 
461 
"  Caroli  Linnsei  Materia  Medica,"  Liber  I,  De  Plantis,  p.  184,  No. 
522.  It  is  true  that  Java  and  India  orientalis  were  erroneously 
stated  by  Linne  to  be  the  native  countries  of  the  tree. 
The  description  of  the  resin,  as  given  by  Martius,  is  so  accurate 
that  we  may  feel  quite  sure  that  he  had  it  before  him.  Whether  he 
had  actually  the  opportunity  of  ascertaining  its  botanical  origin 
must  remain  unsettled.  But  Lindley  already,  in  his  "  Flora  Medica  " 
1838,  p.  257,  mentioned  Pterocarpns  Draco  as  yielding  the  red  juice 
from  the  wounded  stems  ;  he  also  quoted  a  statement  of  Jacquin's 
to  the  effect  that  large  quantities  of  that  dragon's  blood  had  once 
been  exported  from  Carthagena  to  Spain.  When  Jacquin  paid  a 
visit  to  Carthagena,  between  I754and  1759,  he  found  the  commerce  in 
dragon's  blood  had  almost  ceased.  In  his  "  Enumeratio  systematica 
plantarum  quas  in  insulis  Caribaeis  vicinaque  American  continente 
novas  detexit,"  etc.,  Lugduni  Bat.,  1760,  t.  183,  N.  I.  Von  Jacquin 
figured  the  tree  under  the  name  of  Pterocarpns  officinalis,  whereas  in 
Hayne's  "  Darstellung  und  Beschreibung  der  in  der  Arzneikunde 
gebrauchlichen  Gewachse,"  t.  IX,  pi.  9,  the  name  of  Pterocarpns 
Draco,  Hayne,  was  applied  to  the  tree  which  is  now  known  as  Ptero- 
carpns snberosus,  DC;  it  is  a  native  of  Guiana. 
Guibourt  was  also  acquainted  with  the  dragon's  blood  from  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  which  he  ("  rlistoire  naturelle  des  Drogues 
simples,"  II,  1869,  139,  and  III,  346)  attributed  to  Linne's  Ptero- 
carpns Draco ;  he  says  the  resin  was  very  rarely  to  be  met  with. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  we  may  unhesitatingly  regard 
that  tree  as  the  source  of  the  dragon's  blood  discovered  near 
Carthagena  by  the  Spanish  invaders.  Its  corky  indehiscent  pod 
of  nearly  orbicular  outline  tolerably  answers  to  the  figures  of  Mon- 
ardes,  and  the  solitary,  kidney-shaped  seed,  if  duly  shrivelled,  may 
remind,  in  the  eyes  of  a  fantastic  observer,  of  what  he  supposes  to 
be  a  dragon. 
In  India,  Pterocarpns  Marsupium,  Roxb.,  affords  the  exudation 
called  kino,  which  is  but  little  used  now.  It  would  be  debirable  to 
investigate  the  chemical  composition  of  the  dragon's  blood  of  the 
Pterocarpns  Draco,  and  to  examine  whether  it  does  or  does  not 
agree  with  the  kino  of  the  nearly  allied  species,  P.  Marsupinm,  of 
Malabar.  On  applying  to  Jamaica,  the  material  for  such  an  investi- 
gation would  probably  be  obtainable.  It  would  be  desirable  to  know 
whether  two  trees  so  closely  allied,  like  the  two  species  of  Pterocar- 
