542 
ON  RHATANY  ROOT. 
wholly  silent  on  the  subject.  The  short  notices  which  occur  in 
German  works  on  Materia  Medicaand  Pharmacy,  describing  roots 
found  mixed,  either  accidentally  or  intentionally,  with  genuine 
Rhatany,  are  very  brief  and  insufficient.  Moreover,  they  say 
nothing  about  the  internal  structure  of  these  roots,  and  nothing, 
of  course,  about  the  drug  now  under  discussion.  The  only  an- 
atomical examination  of  Payta  Rhatany  hitherto  made,  is  that  of 
Berg,  the  result  of  which  is  published  in  brief  in  his  work  on 
Materia  Medica. 
As  regards  external  appearance,  the  stems  of  the  Savanilla 
Rhatany,  are  never  so  knotty  and  irregularly  rounded  as  those 
of  the  old  kind  of  Rhatany,  but  are  more  symmetrical  and  slen- 
der, more  regularly  cylindrical,  and  generally  shorter.  Its  roots 
(we  cannot  speak  of  one  principal  root,)  as  to  thickness,  are  as 
different  as  those  of  the  stumpy  variety  of  Payta  Rhatany,  but 
never  so  long  as  those  of  Peruvian  Rhatany  sometimes  are. 
Their  anatomical  structure  readily  admits  of  their  being  broken, 
without  the  bark  thereby  splitting  off.  Pieces  of  root,  from  four 
to  at  most  ten  inches  long,  are  the  most  frequent,  and  these  with 
the  root-stocks  before  described,  to  some  of  which  are  attached 
roots  of  from  four  to  six  inches,  form  the  contents  of  the  seron. 
The  roots  are  marked  with  shallow,  undulated  furrows,  which  are 
near  each  other,  but  not  always  parallel.  The  roots  are  also 
marked,  often  all  round,  by  deep  narrow,  transverse  cracks, 
which  sometimes  even  lay  bare  the  wood.  The  bark  is  united 
to  the  wood  by  a  rather  broad  inner  cortical  layer,  and  adheres 
to  it  with  firmness.  I  shall  revert  to  this  rather  important  dis- 
tinctive point  when  I  describe  the  anatomical  structure  of  the 
root. 
It  is  difficult,  in  fact  almost  impossible,  briefly  to  define  the 
color  of  Savanilla  Rhatany,  It  is  a  singular  mixture  of  different 
shades,  a  mixture  of  cinnamon-brown  and  violet-red,  dusted,  as 
it  were,  with  a  fine  leaden  grey.  If  slightly  rubbed  with  a  soft 
substance,  the  bark  assumes  a  peculiar,  almost  garnet-red  lustre, 
which  widely  differs  from  the  weaker  and  duller  resinous  appear- 
ance of  Peruvian  Rhatany.  The  adhesion  of  the  bark  to  the 
wood  is  so  strong  in  Savanilla  Rhatany  Root,  that  when  broken 
in  pieces,  the  bark  always  remains  attached,  which  is  never  the 
case  in  Payta  Rhatany,  where,  if  so  treated,  the  bark  splits  or 
