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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 6

Dragon's Blood of Africa.—

Dragon's Blood of Africa.—

This drug, which now only rarely finds its way into commerce, has been known in medicine from the earliest historical times. Under the name of Cinnabar its African origin is mentioned by Discoride's, and it is recorded by a writer attributed to the first century as the production of the Island of Socotra.

Till quite recently nothing has been known as to its history. Dr. Hildebrandt, however, discovered in Somaliland a Dracæna, which yielded Dragon's Blood. The specimen of this plant in the Kew Herbarium consists unfortunately of nothing more than an inflorescence; it has, however, afforded Mr. Baker sufficient data for the description of the plant as a new species under the name of Dracæna schizantha (Journal of Botany, 1871, p. 77). Hildebrandt himself speaks of it as having a habit resembling that of D. Draco (Berlin, Monatschr des Gartenb., 1878, p. 313). A species closely resembling the latter, but quite distinct from D. schizantha, is the plant found in Nubia, and imperfectly described by Kotschy and Peyritsch under the name of Dracæna Ombet. There can be little doubt that this would supply Dragon's Blood no less than the well-known Dragon's tree of the Canaries.

We possess now at Kew a fine young living plant of the Dracæna which yields the Dragon's Blood of Socotra. For this we are indebted to Mr. W. Wykeham Perry, of H.M.S. Undaunted, which during the past year was stationed at Aden. The want of definite information about the Socotra plant which is pointed out in the Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry attracted Mr. Wykeham Perry's notice, and with the aid of Captain Hunter, Assistant-Resident at Aden, he obtained for us a fine specimen which had been brought from Socotra, as well as the Myrrh and Frankincense plants to be hereafter referred to.

Mr. Baker identifies the Socotra Dracæna (having made a special study of the genus) with D. Ombet. But in the absence of flowers the identification cannot be regarded as final, and the plant might even turn out to be the same as that of Somaliland.

Mr. Wykeham Perry obtained the following information respecting it from Captain Hunter:—

"The tree grows only at an elevation of about 1,500 feet above the sea. The natives of Socotra state that the tree is dioecious; that the male and female plants grow at a distance from each other; that the fruit is a berry in clusters, and that the plants of both sexes yield gums.

"The difference in the appearance of the two trees consists in the presence or absence of short stumpy branches from which the head of spiky leaves springs. It is not until the tree is a few years old that any difference in growth appears. In the male tree the branches appear to be thrown out to an unlimited extent. In the female there are no branches at all, but the stem is sometimes forked. It grows to the height of 20 feet, and some-what resembles a mushroom in appearance.

"To obtain the drug called Dra- page 36 gon's Blood the bark is scraped, and after 15 or 20 days the gum exudes and is collected in March. It is chiefly exported from Aden to Bombay, where it is used by the goldsmiths."

I learn from Captain Burton that a similar, if not the same, Dracæna abounds in parts of Arabia visited by him [see Proceed. R. Geogr. Soc.], and this corroborates the older statements of Welstead to the same effect.