Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1888. 
Note  on  Sta?-  Anise. 
503 
Chinese  materia  medica  aad  natural  history  "  Pen  t'sao  kang  mu/^  vol. 
xxvi.,  fol.  62,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  star  anise  grows  in  the  moun- 
tains near  the  Tso-kiang  and  Yu-kiang  (rivers),  and  that  the  kind 
most  valued  in  China  grows  in  Kuangsi  and  Kuangtung  and  in 
Annan.  Dr.  Bretschneider  remarked  that  both  the  above  rivers  are 
in  Western  Kuangsi,  the  first  being  a  tributary  of  the  West  Eiver. 
The  city  of  Po-se  mentioned  by  Mr.  Piry  is  situated  on  it.  The 
Tso-kiang  is  a  southern  tributary  of  the  Yu-kiang.  These  notes 
appear  to  have  attracted  the  attention  of  the  late  Dr.  Hance,  who  in 
October,  1881,  forwarded  seeds  of  the  true  plant  received  from  Pakhoi 
to  Kew. 
In  the  same  year  fruit  and  fragments  of  the  leaves  were  forwarded 
by  Mr.  C.  Ford  from  the  Hong  Kong  Botanical  Gardens  to  Kew.^ 
A  few  seedlings  of  the  ])lant  obtained  by  Mr.  Kopsch,  Commissioner 
of  the  Chinese  Imperial  Maritime  Customs  at  Pakhoi,  were  grown  in 
the  Hong  Kong  Gardens  and  flowered  in  November,  1886,  when  the 
plants  had  attained  a  height  of  nine  feet.  Some  seedlings  sent  by  Mr. 
Ford  to  Kew  in  1883  flowered  at  Kew  in  1887,  and  from  these  the 
excellent  plate  given  in  the  Botanical  Magazine  was  drawn. 
Sir  Joseph  Hooker  points  out  that  the  plant  must  be  placed  in  quite 
a  different  section  of  the  genus  from  that  to  which  /.  anisatum,  L.,  belongs, 
since  it  has  broad  obtuse  perianth  segments,  and  the  peduncles  are  not 
bracteate  at  the  base.  He  describes  it  as  a  new  and  hitherto  unde- 
scribed  species,  as  follows  : — 
IlliGium  verum,  Hook.  f.  {Bot,  Mag.,  t.  7005,  July,  1888.)— 
lUidum  verum :  foliis  elliptico-lanceolatis  v.  oblanceolatis  obtusis  v. 
obtuse  acuminatis  in  petiolum  brevem  angustatis  floribus  axillaribus 
breviter  pedunculatis  globosis,  perianth ii  foliolis  ad  10  orbiculatis 
concavis  coriaceis  exterioribus  majoribus  ciliolatis  intimis  rubris  stami- 
nibus  ad  10  brevibus,  filamento  cum  connectivo,  in  corpus  carnosum 
subovoidem  confluente,  loculis  adnatis  parallelis  subremotis  oblongis, 
carpellis  ad  8  stigmatibus  brevibus  vix  recurvis  carpellis  maturis  ad 
8  cymbiformibus  longiuscule  rostratis. 
"J.  anisatum,  '  Gsert.  Carp.,'  vol.  i.,  page  338,  t.  69  (Non  Linn)." 
The  leading  features  in  the  plant  appear  to  be  the  solitary  axillary 
globular  flowers,  which  do  not  expand  fully,  the  segments  remaining 
convex,  the  inner  segments  being  red,  and  the  ten  stamens,  in  which 
the  filament  forms  with  the  connective  an  ovoid  body.    The  peduncles 
1  Bot.  Magazine,  t.  7005. 
