Angostura Bark
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the aromatic, bitter medicinal bark obtained chiefly from galipea officinalis, a tree of 10 to 20 feet high, growing in the northern egions of South America; natural order reg rutaceæ. The bark is valuable as a tonic and febrifuge. ANGOULÊME (än-gö-lam'), the capital of the French department of Charente, and formerly the province of Angoumois, 83 miles N. E. of Bordeaux by rail. It It contains a fine Romanesque cathedral (1136), and a striking hotel de ville, with which is incorporated the remnant of the ancient castle of Angoulême, where was born the celebrated Mar- ANGOULÊME guerite of Navarre. There are manufactures of machinery, paper, and wire, and a brisk trade in brandy. Pop. about 40,000. ANGOULÊME, LOUIS ANTOINE DE BOURBON, DUC D', the eldest son of Charles X. of France, and Dauphin during his father's reign, born at Versailles, Aug. 6, 1775. At the Revolution he retired from France with his father, and after abortive military operations at the head of a body of French émigrés in 1792, lived with the royal exiles on the Continent, and later in England. In 1799 he married his cousin, Marie Thérèse, the only daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. Louis XVIII. appointed him lieutenant-general of the kingdom; and, when Napoleon returned from Elba, he made a weak attempt to oppose him, but, deserted by his his troops, was forced to surrender. In 1823 he led the French army of invasion into Spain. On the revolution in July, 1830, he signed, with his father, an abdication in favor of his nephew, the Duc de Bordeaux; and when the Chambers declared the family of Charles X. to have forfeited the throne, he accompanied him into exile, to Holyrood, to Prague, and to Görz, where he died June 3, 1844.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the bark was still a working drug, listed as "valuable as a tonic and febrifuge" — that use has gone. Quinine and later synthetic antimalarials displaced it, and it was dropped from the standard pharmacopoeias; today it survives only as a bitter flavouring and a herbal curiosity. Botanists have also moved the tree: the plant Collier's calls Galipea officinalis is now generally treated as Angostura trifoliata, still in the Rutaceae. Perhaps the most useful modern footnote is that Angostura bitters, named for the Orinoco town of Angostura (renamed Ciudad Bolivar) where it was devised, contains no angostura bark at all.
Written for this edition, 2026.