456  Barh  of  Rhamnus  Frangula.        { ^"bct  m'^""' 
ago  as  1694.  As  a  popular  medicine  and  spice,  it  is  much  sold  in 
Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  in  Central  Russia  ;  and  by  the  Tartars  it  is 
taken  with  ten.  It  is  also  in  requisition  in  Russia  as  a  cattle-medi- 
cine ;  and  all  over  Europe  there  is  a  small  consumption  of  it  in  regu- 
lar medicine. 
There  is  doubtless  some  quantity  of  galangal  of  both  sorts  used  in 
India.  By  a  "  Report  on  the  External  Commerce  of  the  Presidency 
of  Bombay  for  the  year  1865-66,"  I  find  that  there  was  imported 
into  the  port  of  Bombay  of  "  Gallingall "  from  China  520  cwt.,  from 
Penang,  Singapore,  the  Straits  of  Malacca  and  Siam  70  cwt.,  and  from 
ports  in  Malabar  834  cwt.  Of  the  total  quantity  (1424  cwt.),  716 
cwt.  was  reshipped  to  the  Arabian  and  Persian  Gulfs. 
According  to  Rondot,  writing  in  1848,  the  trade  in  this  drug  is  on 
the  decline;'^  and  the  statistics  which  I  have  examined  tend  strongly 
to  show  that  this  is  the  fact. 
The  foregoing  notes  may  be  thus  summarized: 
1.  Galangal  was  noticed  by  the  Arab  geographer  Ibn  Khurdadbah 
in  the  ninth  century  as  a  prodiiction  of  the  region  which  exports 
musk,  camphor  and  aloes-wood. 
2.  It  was  used  by  the  Arabians  and  later  Greek  physicians,  and 
was  known  in  northern  Europe  in  the  twelfth  century. 
>).  It  was  imported  during  the  thirteenth  century  with  other 
eastern  spices  by  way  of  Aden,  the  Red  Sea  and  Egypt,  to  Akka, 
in  Syria,  whence  it  was  carried  to  other  ports  of  the  Mediterranean. 
4.  Two  forms  of  the  drug  were  noticed  by  Garcia  d'Orta  in  1563  ; 
these  are  still  found  in  conimerce,  and  are  derived  respectively  from 
Alpinia  Cralanga,  Willd.,  and  li.  offi.einarum,  Hance. 
5.  Galangal  is  still  used  throughout  Europe,  but  is  consumed  most 
largely  in  Russia.  It  is  also  used  m  India,  and  is  shipped  to  ports 
in' the  Persian  Gulf  and  Red  Sea. 
BRIEF  REMARKS  ON  THE  BARKOF  RHAMNUS  FRANGULA, 
OR  BLACK  ALDER  TREE. 
By  H.  C.  Baildon,  Edinburgh. 
Some  time  since  a  gentleman  from  Holland  applied  to  me  to  pre- 
pare for  him  a  decoction  of  the  Rhammis  Frangula  bark.    The  bark 
he  brought  with  him,  having  previously  found  that  he  could  not  obtain 
*  "  Commerce  d'Exportation  de  la  Chine,"  Paris,  1848,  p.  98. 
