Am.  Jour.  Pbarin. 
Sept.,  1892. 
Spurious  Cubebs. 
495 
in  Mr.  Kirkby's  cautious  conclusion,  I  wrote  to  Dr.  M.  Treub,  of 
Java,  for  fruiting  specimens  of  any  variety  of  cubebs  that  he  could 
send  me,  at  the  same  time  forwarding  some  of  this  spurious  cubebs 
to  him  for  comparison,  and  also  other  false  cubebs.  Dr.  Treub 
kindly  sent  specimens  of  the  fruit  of  Cubeba  officinalis,  both  dried 
and  preserved  in  spirit,  and  an  herbarium  specimen  of  the  plant 
without  flowers  or  fruit.    He  remarked  in  his  letter: 
"  As  to  the  origin  of  the  false  cubebs  sent  to  me  I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  they  are  not  known  to  me,  except  the  keboe  cubebs,  which 
seem  to  be  the  fruit  of  Cubeba  mollissima,  Miq.  /  believe  the  others 
are  not  from  here!' 
The  specimens  sent  by  Dr.  Treub  were  neither  of  them  the  false 
cubebs  with  the  mace  odor  which  I  wished  to  identify  botanically, 
and  I  then  applied  to  Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley,  of  Singapore,  and  Mr.  L. 
Wray,  of  Perak,  for  information  concerning  it,  thinking  that  if  the 
alse  variety  was  unknown  to  Dr.  Treub  it  was  probably  exported 
from  some  other  island  or  country  to  Singapore,  which  is  the  central 
emporium  of  the. Eastern  Indies. 
In  reply  to  my  inquiries  Mr.  Wray  sent  me  an  herbarium  specimen 
of  a  cubeb  plant  and  some  detached  fruits,  with  the  following 
remarks  : 
"  I  heard  that  some  wild  pepper  was  collected  in  the  district  of  1 
Selama,  and  on  going  there  recently  I  found  that  it  was  *  Lada 
berekor,'  or  tailed  pepper.  I  got  a  specimen  of  it  and  of  the  plant, 
and  I  think  as  it  too  has  a  macy  odor,  and  turns  brown  when  crushed 
with  sulphuric  acid,  that  it  is  the  variety  of  cubeb  that  you  want. 
I  am  sending  you  a  sample,  as  also  the  leaves  of  the  plant.  Might 
I  suggest  that  it  be  examined  physiologically,  as  it  may  have 
properties  which  would  render  it  of  service  as  a  drug.1*  The  Perak 
Government  agent  in  Penang,  to  whom  I  applied  for  information, 
writes  as  follows  :  '  Nothing  is  done  here  in  cubebs.  I  am  told 
that  Singapore  is  the  place,  and  I  have  written  for  samples.  They 
say  it  is  difficult  to  tell  the  difference  between  spurious  and 
genuine.'" 
Meanwhile  my  attention  was  directed  by  a  Dutch  friend  to  the 
1  Mr.  Wray  has  sent  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  and  I  shali  be  pleased  to 
place  two-thirds  of  the  quantity  sent  at  the  disposal  of  any  investigator. — 
E.  M.  H. 
