candolle, or _Minispermum
palmatum_) furnishes the medicinal Colombo root, which is one of the
most useful stomachics and tonics in cases of dyspepsia. It is
scarcely ever cultivated, the spontaneous produce of thick forests on
the shores of Oibo and Mozambique and many miles inland on the eastern
shores of Africa, Madagascar and Bombay, proving sufficient. The
supplies principally go to Ceylon. The roots are perennial, and
consist of several fasciculated, fusiform, branched, fleshy, curved
and descending tubers, from one to two inches thick, with a brown
warty epidermis; internally deep yellow, odorless, very bitter.

The main roots are dug up by the natives in March (the hot season).
The offsets are cut in slices and hung up on cords to dry in the
shade. It is deemed fit to ship when, on exposure to the sun, it
breaks short, and of a bad quality when it is soft and
black.--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

It contains a bitter crystallizable principle called Calumbin.

The commercial parcels are often adulterated with the roots of _Costus
indicus, C. speciosus_, and _C. Arabicus_ (Kusmus, Putckuk, &c.). It
is imported into this country in bags and chests of from one to three
cwt., and ranges in price from L1 to L2 the cwt. The imports in 1846
to London were 82 packages, and in 1850, 214 packages, but the stock
held in London is always large, being nearly 2,500 packages.

Colocynth, furnished by _Cucumis colocynthis_ and _C.
pseudocolocynthis_, is the dried medullary part of a wild species of
gourd which is cultivated in Spain. It also grows wild in Japan, the
sandy lands of Coromandel, Cape of Good Hope, Syria, Nubia, Egypt,
Turkey, and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. It may be obtained
in the jungles of India in cart loads. The fruit, which is about the
size of an orange, with a thin but solid rind, is gathered in autumn,
when ripe and yellow, and in most countries is peeled and dried either
in the sun or by stoves. It comes over from Cadiz, Trieste, Mogadore,
&c., in cases, casks, &c., and duty was paid on about 11,000 lbs. in
1839.

CUBEBS.--The dried unripe fruit of _P. Cubebi_, or _Cubeba
qfficinalia_, a climbing plant of the pepper tribe, native of Prince
of Wales' Island, Java, and the Indian islands furnishes the medicinal
cubebs, which is used extensively in arresting discharges from mucous
membranes. In appearance cubebs resemble black pepper, except that
they are higher colored and are each furni