PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

ROSA GALLICA

The rose, in some form of its many varieties, is indigenous tothe warmer parts of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and othercountries. Its use in medicine as well as in perfumes dates from theearliest times. The Rosa gallica is said to have been introduced intoFrance by the Count of Champagne on his return from the Crusadesin 1241. In the study of attar of roses made by the writer on thebottom lands beneath Mt. Olympus in Turkey, the roses planted inrows appeared much like raspberry fields, the roses being of a ratherinsignificant appearance, but very fragrant. The use of the rose inconfection form, in pharmacopeial medicine, once very populär, has,with the exception of its employment in blue mass (Massa hydrar-ghim), become nearly obsolete. In the "Arabian Nights" (88), rosewater is often referred to, and in Turkish home life it is employed asa refreshing perfume after bathing.

RUBUS

Blackberry, Rubus villosus, grows abundantly in most parts ofthe United States. The roots of the various species as well as varietiesor rubus are more or less astringent and have been used in do-mestic medicine from the days of America's first settlement. TheCherokee Indians (Rafinesque [535]), chewed the root of this plantand swallowed the saliva for a cough, probably its astringency beinghelpful to the throat membranes. They also used a poultice of it forpiles, in which. direction its mild astringency seems rationally to adaptit. A syrup of blackberry root has been a great favorite in somesections of the country as a remedy for dysentery. This use of thedrug in domestic medication, in which it has always been valued inAmerica, led finally to its employment by the members of the medicalprofession. The juice of the blackberry fruit, spiced and mixed withwhisky, is and has ever been a valued carminative drink in Kentuckyand other parts of the Southern United States, and founded the phar-macopeial blackberry cordial.

SABAL

Saw palmetto, Serenoa serrulata, Sabal serrulata. The berryof the saw palmetto, practically unknown in medicine before 1879,came rapidly into conspicuity, both in pharmacy and in medicine, afterthat date. It had been observed by the settlers of the South that ani-mals feeding on the matured fruit "grew very sleek and fat," a factthat was ascribed to the therapeutic qualities of the berries, reasoningfrom which they prepared a decoction of the fruit for domestic medi-cation. In 1877, Dr. Reed, of the Southern United States, in an ar-ticle entitled "A New Remedy," in the Medical Brief, St. Louis (417),stated that several persons in his neighborhood were using a prepara-tion of the berry, giving instances of its use in various directions. Thisarticle was reproduced in New Preparations (467), July, 1879, ar »d wasfollowed in the same publication by another article from the Medical

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