It was a wooden cup but unlike any the Emperor already possessed.
But when the water was poured back into a glass bowl, the blue hue disappeared.
A cup of Philippine lignum nephriticum, Pterocarpus indicus, and flask containing its fluorescent solution.
Image credit:William Edwin Safford
The wood was first described by the Spanish physician and botanist Nicolas Monardes.
Since then I have seen much of it brought from New Spain and used for these and kindred maladies.
Its complexion is hot and dry in the first degree.
Bauhin also received shavings from the same wood along with the cup.
The first scientific study oflignum nephriticiomand its remarkable properties was made by Robert Boyle in 1663.
It wasnt until 1915, whenlignum nephriticiomwas rediscovered by the American botanist William Edwin Safford.
He deduced thatlignum nephriticumactually came from two species of trees that became confused as one.
It was imported into Mexico through the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade and from there, introduced to Europe.
A mature Pterocarpus indicus as seen in Hok Tau in the northeastern New Territories, Hong Kong.
Photo:Geographer/Wikimedia Commons
Eysenhardtia polystachya.
In very attenuate solutions the fluorescence is bluish; in more concentrated solutions it is distinctly yellowish green.
The deciduous shrub can grow up to 5 meters tall and is widespread in its natural range.
The tree is found predominantly in southeastern Asia, northern Australasia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands.
(Eysenhardtia amorphoides, H.B.K.
),Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
