404  Flowering  of  Euryangium  Sumbul.  {^""slp^'isy^^'™* 
before  a  society  bound  as  ours  is  by  a  code  of  ethics,  that  our  art  affords 
a  noble  field  for  the  best  abilities  and  the  highest  professional  honor, 
and  that  the  man  who  follows  it  only  for  the  lucre  which  he  can  decoct, 
distil,  percolate,  filter,  express,  or  otherwise  extract,  without  recogniz- 
ing the  obligations  entailed  upon  him  by  his  position  toward  science 
and  humanity,  would  find  more  congenial  employment  in  the  glorious 
army  of  patent-medicine  men,  whose  business  cannot  be  said  to  add 
anything  to  the  common  wealth,  happiness  and  progress  ? 
Plainjieldy  N.  J.,  February  3,  1875. 
FLOWERING  OF  TWY.  EURYANGIUM  SUMBUL,  KAUFFMANN,  IN 
ENGLAND  * 
This  important  plant  is  now  flowering  in  the  herbaceous  ground  of 
the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  for  the  first  time  in  this  country.  It  yields 
the  drug  Radix  Sumbul,"  introduced  to  Russia  as  a  substitute  for 
musk  about  the  year  1835,  and  then  recommended  as  a  remedy  for 
cholera.  It  became  known  in  Germany  in  1840,  and  ten  years  later 
in  England.  It  was  admitted  into  the  "British  Pharmacopoeia"  in 
1867,  and  is  now  prescribed,  in  the  tincture  form,  as  a  stimulating 
tonic.  It  is  said  to  be  a  nervine  stimulant,  like  valerian,  and  to  pos- 
sess antispasmodic  properties.  Further  than  the  above  its  history  has 
not  been  found  traceable  by  the  authors  of  the  "  Pharmacographia." 
The  plant  was  discovered  in  1869  by  a  Russian  traveler,  Fedschenko, 
in  the  mountains  of  Maghian,  near  Pianjakent,  a  small  Russian  town 
eastward  of  Samarkand.  The  root,  as  found  in  commerce,  consists  of 
transverse  slices,  i  to  2  inches,  rarely  as  much  as  5  inches,  in  diameter, 
and  an  inch  or  more  in  thickness  ;  the  bristly  crown  and  tapering  lower 
portions,  often  no  thicker  than  a  quill,  are  also  met  with.  The  Kew 
specimen  is  nearly  8J  feet  in  height.  The  root-stock  is  somewhat  fusi- 
form in  shape,  about  3  J  inches  in  diameter  at  the  top,  where  it  is  thinly 
covered  with  the  persistent  fibres  of  the  old  leaves.  Those  of  the 
present  year  commenced  to  wither  soon  after  the  flower-stem  became 
visible,  and  were  quite  dead  when  its  full  height  was  attained.  They 
are  supradecompound,  much  as  in  some  species  of  Ferula^  especially 
F.  campestris^  to  the  leaf  segments  of  which  those  of  the  sumbul  have 
a  very  close  resemblance.  The  panicle  is  composed  of  about  ten 
alternate  spreading  branches,  the  lowest  about  5  feet  from  the  apex. 
*  From  the  "  Gardeners'  Chronicle,"  July  3. 
