ASTRAGALUS VERUS. - TRUE CLASS XVII. DIADELPHIA.-ORDER III. DECANDRIA. NATURAL ORDER, LEGUMINOSE.--THE PEA TRIBE. THIS species of Astragalus is a native of the north of Persia, where it is called Kurn, flowering in July and August; we are indebted to Oliver for the discovery of this plant, which furnishes the Gum Tragacanth of commerce. This is a low tree, seldom exceeding three feet in height; the stem is about an inch in diameter; the branches numerous and crowded together, and covered with imbricated spines and scales formed of the petioles of the preceding year; the leaves are pinnate, consisting of six or eight pairs of leaflets; the pinnæ are nearly opposite, villous, stiff, and pointed; the flowers are small and of a yellow colour, and arise from the axilla of the leaves; the calyx is divided at the brim into five pointed segments; the corolla is of the papilionaceous kind. Tournefort tells us, that the naked hillocks of Mount Ida in Candia produce this plant abundantly. The gum exudes spontaneously towards the end of June and in the following months, during which period the nutritious juice of the plant, thickened by the summer heat, bursts most of the vessels in which it is confined. This juice coagulates in threads, which make their way into the pores of the bark, through which being pushed forward by fresh juice they issue forth, and are at length hardened in the air, either in irregular lumps, or in long vermicular pieces bent into a variety of shapes. The best sort is white and semi-transparent, dry, but somewhat soft to the touch. It is extremely different in many of its properties to gum arabic; one part of this diffused in one hundred parts of water affords a fluid of the same consistency as one part of gum arabic dissolved in ten parts of water. Water is, however, but an imperfect solvent to it, not forming the same intimate union with it as with other gums. When tragacanth is put into water it slowly imbibes a great quantity, swells into a large volume, and forms a soft but not fluid mucilage. On the addition of more water, and if the mixture be agitated, the gum will be more generally diffused throughout the liquor, which will appear turbid. If left at rest the mucilage will again separate and subside; the supernatant water appearing limpid, and holding only a very small portion of the gum. This is more costly than gum arabic or senegal, but its employment is highly beneficial in topical dyeing, when the mordant is prepared with nitrous acid; since other gummy solutions are coagulated by the application of this active alterative. In 1830 the quantity of tragacanth retained for home consumption was 29,725 lbs. It is admitted on a duty of 1s. per lb. ; its price being from £16 to £18 per cwt. SENSIBLE AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES. Gum Tragacanth when good is inodorous, and as it dissolves in the mouth imparts a slight bitter taste: the best gum is semi-transparent, and of a clear whitish colour, and in small, thin, wrinkled, vermicular pieces or lumps; the larger lumps are of a yellowish colour, and more bitter to the taste. This gum differs from all other known gums, in giving a thick consistence to a much larger quantity of water, and at the same time being much more difficult of solution, or rather, dissolving only imperfectly, unless triturated after digestion with a larger portion of water; for although the liquor looks turbid, on standing the mucilage subsides, the water on the surface retaining little or none of the gum. If the water be acidulated with any of the mineral acids, a small portion of the gum becomes dissolved. Tragacanth is reduced to powder with much difficulty, unless thoroughly dried. According to Neumann, it gives nothing over in distillation, either to water or alcohol; it is also insoluble in alcohol or ether. The mucilage is precipitated by the sulphate of copper, superacetate of lead, and oxymuriate of tin; but not by silicated potass or the oxysulphate of iron: in these circumstances the mucilage of tragacanth differs from that of gum arabic. Mr. Field, in his Treatise on Colours, says that, "Tragacanth is of excellent use when colours are required to lie flat, or not bear out with gloss, and also when a gelatinous texture of the vehicle is of use to preserve the touch of the pencil and prevent the flowing of some colours; or to fix drawings executed with the black-lead pencil." MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES.-Gum tragacanth is demulcent, hence it is very useful for allaying tickling coughs and sheathing the fauces in catarrhal affections; and for these purposes (from its great viscidity) it is preferable to gum arabic: it is seldom given alone, being generally combined with more powerful medicines, more especially in the form of troches, for which purpose it is very well adapted. Tragacanth may be taken in powder, from ten grains to one drachm or more, in any suitable vehicle. Off. Pp. Mucilago Astragali Tragacanthæ, E. D. Pulvis Tragacanthæ Compositum, L. A superstitious veneration for particular flowers-in other words, flower-worship-is an ancient, and, in some respects, a poetical variety of the depraved systems of religious homage into which certain of the human family have fallen. It is to be traced ages back in the religious observances of the Hindoos, and among the more enlightened Chinese: it formed an important part of the mysteries of Egyptian idolatry; and it is remarkable that the past and present monuments of the Mexicans exhibit, and with great promi nence, the same feature; while at an earlier period than the present, certain flowers were regarded even by some Europeans with a degree of veneration only too closely approximating the more declared feeling of flower-worship. There is a love for these beautiful creations innate in the constitution of the human being, and participated in equally by civilised and savage men. Their exquisite attributes of painting and perfume address themselves directly to our more refined feelings, while they have a tendency to direct upwards to the God that made them: the grievous error lay in not stopping short before these feelings became idolatry. It will be easily conjectured that no temperate region was the parent of the superstition. It arose in those warmer latitudes where the vegetable world has been endowed with a vigour of growth, and gorgeousness of apparel, of which austerer climates are ignorant. Its aspect indeed is most imposing, and, to be fully realised, must be beheld. In the few exiles which pass an artificial existence in our stoves, we are supplied with some faint and feeble types of the vegetable glories of the tropics; and even these will produce an impression not soon effaced from any cultivated mind. But there, where the Indian, penetrating the hot, damp jungles of his forests, suddenly comes upon a great, glowing, wonderfully-formed and tinged orchid, squatting like some animated being upon a shaggy trunk, or where the Hindoo paddles across a blue lake, literally paved with lotus flowers, it is not a violent supposition that the spectacle will impress him with feelings akin to awe. The next step is not difficult to be foreseen. As flower-worship took its origin, so, alas! it retains its existence, only among the most ignorant of the human family. Humboldt and Bonpland, in their splendid work on Equinoctial Plants, give an account of a very curious tree called by the Mexicans by the dreadful title of the Macpalxochiquaukitl!—which signifies hand, flower, tree. Its botanical title is almost as long, but is a trifle more euphonious-the Cheirostemon platanoides. There existed only one specimen of this sacred tree in all Mexico, at least to the knowledge of the Mexicans; and this circumstance, added to the really remarkable aspect of the flowers, appears to have won for it the veneration of the Indian population. From the centre of the flower there springs a columnar tube, which may be supposed to represent an arm and wrist; and this then breaks into five stamens, coloured blood-red, and disposed after a manner not very dissimilar to the arrangement of the fingers and thumb of the human hand. The very points of these vegetable fingers are curved, and somewhat resemble the formidable ungulated talons with which painters delight to ornament the hands of witches and demons. These parts of the flower are of a considerable size, and project in a menacing manner some distance above the petals. It may easily, therefore, be conceived that a high and noble-looking tree-for such it is-laden with flowers of such marvellous configuration, brandishing aloft, in fact, a thousand gory hands, was an object likely to excite in no ordinary degree the superstitions, and even the terrors, of the ignorant. The tree was worshipped by thousands; it was believed to be the only specimen in the world of its kind; and the opinion was common that any attempt to propagate it would prove abortive. A great number of seeds was procured by our travellers, planted, and watched over with the most sedulous care, but not one of them succeeded. So great, say they, was the veneration paid to it by the Indians, and so eagerly were the precious flowers thereof sought after, that they were frequently plucked long before their expansion; and the tree was consequently never suffered to ripen its fruit. In spite, however, of the firmest convictions of the indivisibility of this tree-the Manitas, as it is commonly called-it has been propagated by cuttings, some of which are at this moment thriving in some of the larger stoves of our modern collectors. In Lyon's 'Journal of a Residence in Mexico,' he mentions having seen this famous tree, and confirms all that has been above written concerning it, adding, that as if to make the resemblance to a hand complete, the points of the fingers are terminated by processes resembling claws! Whilst the resemblance to the human hand was recognised in this instance, it would have been most strange had the remarkable race of mimics—the orchids-escaped observation or veneration. These plants, which have no parallel in nature for singularity, beauty, and fragrance, and which, in some of their species, imitate the most wonderful diversity of objects, are held in high veneration by the Mexicans. The Queen of the Orchids especially is inestimably prized; and others receive a subordinate measure of respect. Those who have access to Mr. Bateman's splendid work on the Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, will find there several interesting particulars relating to this subject. In other countries, orchids have been objects of veneration. The famed lotus flower has a world-wide reputation for sanctity. The Nelumbium is a splendid waterflower, and is found floating in the pools and ditches of Asia, and in the Nile: it yields a nut which is supposed to be analogous with the sacred bean of the ancients. The flowers of both tribes are glorious objects-some are blue, white, yellow, rose-coloured; and they appear lovely in the extreme when resting on the bosom of the wave. The flower was worshipped alike in Egypt, taking a place in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as in India in those of Brahma. The sculptural remains of ancient Egypt abound with the sacred plant in every stage of its development, the flowers and fruit being represented with the utmost accuracy. Among the Hindoos it was considered an emblem of the world, and the flower was looked upon as the cradle of Brahma. It was used to decorate the temples of their idols, and laid as a most acceptable votive offering upon their altars. Sir George Staunton writes-The Chinese always held this plant in such high value, that at length they regarded it as sacred. That character, however, has not limited it to useless or ornamental purposes. Their ponds, to the extent of many acres, are covered with it, and exhibit a very beautiful appearance when in flower.' When Sir William Jones was on one occasion at dinner on the borders of the Ganges, desiring to examine the sacred flower, he despatched some of his people to procure him a specimen; it was brought to him, and immediately all his Indian attendants fell on their faces and paid adoration to it. Without multiplying examples, this may suffice to direct the reader's attention to an interesting, but, to every right mind, a sad and painful subject of thought. |