502 
Note  on  Star  Anise. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1888. 
astringency,  and  always  to  be  had  of  good  quality;  it  is  therefore  a 
matter  of  surprise  and  regret  that  it  has  been  rejected  from  the  British 
Pharmacopoeia/' 
Notwithstanding  this  adverse  opinion,  which  appears  to  be  only  an 
opinion,  if  the  committee  on  revision  of  the  U.  S.  P.  will  make  the 
change  to  gambler  in  cubes,  and  include  in  addition  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  Br.  P.,  that  it  shall  not  yield  over  5  per  cent,  of  ash,  I 
believe  it  would  be  preferable  for  the  following  reasons  : 
1.  Gambler  has  more  available  astringency. 
2.  If  in  cubes  it  cannot  be  so  easily  adulterated. 
3.  Being  more  carefully  dried  it  is  more  easily  powdered  than  cutch, 
and  without  the  further  application  of  heat. 
4.  The  cubes  are  more  uniform  in  composition,  and  are  not  liable 
to  contain  mordants  added  for  the  use  of  dyers. 
NOTE  ON  STAR  ANISE. 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  F.  L.  S.,  Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society  of  Great  Britain. 
The  recent  publication  of  a  description  and  figure  of  the  true  star 
anise  plant  in  the  Botanical  Ifagazine,  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  affords 
an  opportunity  of  adding  to  the  notes  on  this  subject  which  appeared 
in  a  previous  volume  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  ([3],  vol.  xi.  page 
489.    See  also  Am.  Jour.  Phar.  1881,  pages  335  and  412). 
In  December,  1880,  notwithstanding  the  publication  of  /.  anisaium 
as  the  botanical  source  of  star  anise  in  Bentley  and  Trimen's  "  Medic- 
inal Plants,'^  Dr.  Bretschueider,  then  medical  officer  to  the  Russian 
Embassy  at  Peking,  in  Notes  on  some  Botanical  Questions  connected 
with  the  Export  Trade  of  China,^^  states  the  plant  which  produces 
this  article  is  still  unknown  to  botanists,''  and  he  then  goes  on  to  re- 
mark. The  first  authentic  information  concerning  the  actual  habitat 
of  the  star  anise  tree  was  furnished  by  Mr.  Piry,  in  his  ^  Report  on 
the  Trade  in  the  Port  of  Pakhoo '  for  the  years  1878-1879,  in  which 
star  anise  is  said  to  be  brought  for  exportation  to  Kin-chow  and 
Pakhoi  from  the  province  of  Kuangsi,  two  districts  in  that  province 
producing  the  article,  Lung-chow  on  the  borders  of  Annam  and  the 
country  about  Po-se  on  the  West  River,  close  to  Yunnan.'' 
Dr.  Bretschueider  adds  a  translation  from  the  well-known  work  on 
