410 
Cultivation  of  Lactucarium,  etc. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t    Sept.  1, 1873. 
formerly  of  bad  quality  in  Egypt,  except  at  Thebes,  the  reason  of 
which  was,  without  doubt,  that  they  were  only  cultivated  and  looked 
after  in  that  region.  In  the  forests,  the  date  is  found  in  hundreds  of 
thousands,  this  aspect  being  majestic  and  sorrowful.  On  seeing  these 
naked  trunks  rear  themselves  to  sixty  or  seventy  feet  in  the  air,  one 
is  reminded  of  those  delicate  columns  which  the  architecture  of  the 
middle  ages  scattered  with  such  profusion  in  its  buildings. 
The  date  is  the  national  tree  of  the  Egyptians,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  useful  to  man,  in  that  all  its  parts  are  utilised  in  art,  industry, 
medicine,  and  domestic  economy.  Its  culture  has  been  improved  by 
the  Arabs,  who  have  obtained  a  large  number  of  fine  varieties — as 
many  as  thirty  distinct  ones  are  enumerated.  There  are  generally 
four  hundred  trees  per  feddan  (4,500  square  yards).  Delile  states, 
in  his  "Flora  of  Egypt,"  that  from  what  he  has  heard  from  the  grow- 
ers in  the  neighborhood  of  Cairo,  it  is  possible  when  a  tree  is  old  and 
produces  little  fruit,  to  shorten  and  replant  it.  A  year  before  this 
takes  place,  two  pieces  of  wood  are  forced  into  the  trunk,  in  the  shape 
of  a  cross,  at  about  three  yards  from  the  top  ;  the  wedges  and  holes 
in  the  tree  are  then  covered  with  mud,  held  on  by  a  network  of  cord. 
It  is  always  kept  damp ;  every  day  during  the  summer  a  man  mounts 
the  tree  and  waters  it.  This  he  does  by  first  climbing  to  the  top  of 
the  tree,  and  then  drawing  up  a  pitcher  of  water,  which  he  throws  on 
the  mud.  At  the  end  of  the  winter,  radicles  are  found  formed  under 
it.  The  tree  is  then  cut  off  below  the  mud,  and  planted  in  a  holf* 
near  a  trench,  so  that  it  may  be  easily  watered. — Journal  of  Applied 
■Science,  Aug.  1,  1873. 
NOTES  ON  THE  CULTIVATION  AND  PREPARATION  OF 
LACTUCARIUM* 
By  Thomas  Fairgrieve. 
Lactucarium — a  substance  allied  to  opium  in  appearance  and  in 
physical  and  physiological  properties — is  prepared  from  the  milky 
juice  of  various  species  of  Lactuca.    It  was  introduced  into  the 
pharmacy  of  this  country  by  Dr.  Duncan,  Professor  of  Materia  Med- 
ica,  Edinburgh,  in  the  early  part  of  this  century  ;  but  it  had  been  in 
use  for  some  time  previously  in  America,  on  the  recommendation  of 
Dr.  Coxe,  of  Philadelphia.    Professor  Duncan  employed  the  garden 
*  "Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Botanical  Society  of  Edinburgh," 
vol.  xi.  part  2. 
