Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/571

 j A L J A L 547 since the beginning of the 17th century, and derives its name from the city of Jalapa in Mexico, near which it grows, but its botanical source was not accurately deter mined until the year 1829, when Dr Coxe of Philadelphia published a description and coloured figure taken from i living plants sent him two years previously from Mexico. The Jalap plant has slender herbaceous twining stems, j with alternately-placed cordate acuminate leaves sharply pointed at the basal angles, and salver-shaped deep purplish-pink flowers. The underground stems are slender and creeping ; their vertical roots enlarge and form turnip-shaped tubers, which, as they do not bear leaf organs on their surface, are sometimes called tubercules. The roots are dug up in Mexico throughout the year, and are suspended to dry in a net over the hearth of the Indians huts, and hence acquire a smoky odour. The large tubers are often gashed to cause them to dry more quickly, la appearance they vary from spindle-shaped to ovoid or globular, and in size from a pigeon s egg to a man s fist. Externally they are brown, and marked with small trans verse paler scars, and internally they present a dirty white resinous or starchy fracture. The ordinary drug is distinguished in commerce as Vera Cruz jalap, from the name of the port whence it is shipped. The average annual imports into Great Britain have been estimated at 180,000 lb. Jalap has been cultivated for ten years past in India, at Ootacamund, and grows there as easily as a yam, often producing clusters of tubers weighing over 9 K&amp;gt; ; but these, as they differ in appearance from the commercial article, have not as yet obtained a place in the English market. They are found, however, to be rich in resin, containing 18 per cent. In Jamaica also the plant has been grown, at first amongst the cinchona trees but more recently in new ground, as it was found to exhaust the soil. The 1880 crop of jalap in Jamaica amounted to 14,294 lb, and sold in the fresh state for 62, 3s. 8d. Some of it was exported to the London market. Jalap owes it properties to jalapin, a resin which is present in it to the extent of 12 to 18 percent. According to Mayer 1 its composition is C 31 H 50 O 1C. Jalapin is soluble in alcohol, but insoluble in ether and bisulphide of carbon. Jalap also contains in small quantity convolvulin, a resin soluble in ether, homologous with jalapin, and of the composition C 34 H 5(3 O 1G . It yields also about 19 per cent, of sugar according to Guibourt, and starch, gum, un- crystallizable sugar, and colouring matter. Besides Mexican or Vera Cruz jalap, a drug called Tampico jalap has been imported during the last few years in considerable quantity. It has a much more shrivelled appearance and paler colour than ordinary jalap, and lacks the small transverse scars present in the true drug. It differs also in containing in the place of jalapin a resin identical with the convolvulin above mentioned, and with the para-rhodeoretin of Kayser, which exists in it to the extent of 11 per cent. This kind of jalap, the Purga de Sierra Gorda of the Mexicans, was traced by Hanbury to Ipomeea simulans, Hanbury. It grows in Mexico along the mountain range of the Sierra Gorda in the neighbour hood of San Luis de la Paz, from which district it is carried down to Tampico, whence it is exported. A third variety of jalap known as woody jalap, male jalap, or Orizaba root, or by the Mexicans as Purgo macho, is derived from Ipomsea orizabensis, Ledanois, a plant of Orizaba. The root occurs in fibrous pieces, which are usually rectangular blocks of irregular shape, 2 inches or more in diameter, and are evidently portions of a large root. It is only 1 By Mayer, Gmelin, and others, jalapin is called convolvulin. It is identical with the rhodeoretin of Kayser. occasionally met with in commerce. The resin contained in it is identical with that found in Tampico jalap. According to Dr W. Rutherford, jalap acts as a powerful hepatic and intestinal stimulant. It is used as a hydra- gogue cathartic in combination with cream of tartar in dropsy, and in all cases where it is desirable to cause a copious watery evacuation, also as a vermifuge. Buchheim asserts that jalap is only purgative when combined with bile, in which the resin is soluble. JALAPA, or XALAPA, the Aztec Xalapan, a town of Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, and about 70 miles inland from the city and port of that name, with which it communicates by a railway opened since 1870. There are few towns in Mexico which are so happily situated : at a height of 4500 feet above the sea, on the edge of the plateau behind which towers the summit of Macultepec, it looks out over the rich lowlands of the tierra calimte, enjoying their beauty and escaping their baneful vapours. The immediate vicinity is abundantly fertile, and yields a harvest of rare variety for the botanist. The town lost much of its importance as a commercial entrepot by the opening of the railway from Vera Cruz via Orizaba to Mexico, but the line above mentioned may help to restore its prosperity. Of chief note among the public buildings are the principal church and the old Franciscan monastery, built in 1555. The population is stated at 10,000. JALAUN, a British district in the lieutenant-governor ship of the North-Western Provinces of India, lies between 25 46 and 26 26 N. lat., and between 78 59 and 79 55 E. long., with an area of 1553 square miles, and forms the northern district of the Jhansi division. It is bounded on the N.E. and N&quot;. by the river Jumna, on the W. by the Gwalior and Datia states, on the S. by the Samthar state and the river Betwa, and on the E. by Baoni state. The district lies entirely within the level plain of Bundelkhand, north of the hill country, and is almost surrounded by the Jumna and its tributaries the Betwa and Pahuj. The central region thus enclosed is a dead level of cultivated land, almost destitute of trees, and sparsely dotted with villages. The southern portion especially presents one unbroken sheet of cultivation. The boundary rivers form the only interesting feature in Jalaun. The little river Noh flows through the centre of the district, which it drains by innumerable small ravines instead of watering. Jalaun has little picturesqueness or beauty, but possesses great fertility and abundant agricultural resources. The census of 1872 gives a population of 404,384, of whom 216,607 were males and 187,777 females. The principal tribes are the Brahmans, the Kurmis, the Givjars, the Kachhwahas, the Lengars, the Kayaths, and the Musalmans. There were four towns in 1872 with a population exceeding 5000 : Kalpi, 15,570 ; Kunch, 14,448 ; Jalaun, 10,197 ; and Urai, 6398. The staple crops are the cereals, gram, and cotton. Oil-seeds, dye-stuffs, and sugar-cane are also raised, but in no large quantities. Irrigation was employed in 1872 over 19,157 acres. Jalaun has suffered much from the noxious kdns grass, owing to the spread of which many villages have been abandoned and their lands thrown out of cultivation. Drought is the great danger in Jalaun. The last important drought was that of 1868-69 ; no actual famine resulted, but great distress prevailed. Jalaun is almost entirely an agricultural district, and its trade accordingly depends mainly upon its raw materials and food-stuffs. Kalpi is the great mart of the district ; Kunch is also a considerable trading town. The river traffic by Kalpi is chiefly for through goods ; and the Jumna is little used as a highway. A good commercial road connects Urai and Jalaun with Phaphund, the railway station on the East Indian line. There is also a great military road from Kalpi to Jhansi. The administration is on the non-regulation system, which unites civil, criminal, and fiscal functions in the same officer. In 1860 there were 1434 children under instruction ; in 1871, 2703. The climate, though hot and dry, is not considered unhealthy. The mean temperature is 81 9 Fahr. The prevailing diseases are fevers, and dysentery and other bowel complaints. Jalaun seems to have been subject to the Naga dynasty, which