DRAGON'S BLOOD

dragon's blood, a red-coloured resin obtained from several species of plants. _calamus draco_ (willd.), one of the rotang or rattan palms, which produces much of the dragon's blood of commerce, is a native of further india and the eastern archipelago. the fruit is round, pointed, scaly, and the size of a large cherry, and when ripe is coated with the resinous exudation known as dragon's blood. the finest dragon's blood, called _jernang_ or _djernang_ in the east indies, is obtained by beating or shaking the gathered fruits, sifting out impurities, and melting by exposure to the heat of the sun or by placing in boiling water; the resin thus purified is then usually moulded into sticks or quills, and after being wrapped in reeds or palm-leaves, is ready for market. an impurer and inferior kind, sold in lumps of considerable size, is extracted from the fruits by boiling. dragon's blood is dark red-brown, nearly opaque and brittle, contains small shell-like flakes, and gives when ground a fine red powder; it is soluble in alcohol, ether, and fixed and volatile oils. if heated it gives off benzoic acid. in europe it was once valued as a medicine on account of its astringent properties, and is now used for colouring varnishes and lacquers; in china, where it is mostly consumed, it is employed to give a red facing to writing paper. the drop dragon's blood of commerce, called _cinnabar_ by pliny (_n.h._ xxxiii. 39), and _sangre de dragon_ by barbosa was formerly and is still one of the products of socotra, and is obtained from _dracaena cinnabari_. the dragon's blood of the canary islands is a resin procured from the surface of the leaves and from cracks in the trunk of _dracaena draco_. the hardened juice of a euphorbiaceous tree, _croton draco_, a resin resembling kino, is the _sangre del drago_ or dragon's blood of the mexicans, used by them as a vulnerary and astringent. dragoon (fr. _dragon_, ger. _dragoner_), originally a mounted soldier trained to fight on foot only (see cavalry). this mounted infantryman of the late 16th and 17th centuries, like his comrades of the infantry who were styled "pike" and "shot," took his name from his weapon, a species of carbine or short musket called the "dragon." dragoons were organized not in squadrons but in companies, like the foot, and their officers and non-commissioned officers bore infantry titles. the invariable tendency of the old-fashioned dragoon, who was always at a disadvantage when engaged against true cavalry, was to improve his horsemanship and armament to the cavalry standard. thus "dragoon" came to mean medium cavalry, and this significance the word has retained since the early wars of frederick the great, save for a few local and temporary returns to the original meaning. the phrases "to dragoon" and "dragonnade" bear witness to the mounted infantry period, this arm being the most efficient and economical form of cavalry for police work and guerrilla warfare. the "dragonnades," properly so called, were the operations of the troops (chiefly mounted) engaged in enforcing louis xiv.'s decrees against protestants after the revocation of the edict of nantes. in the british service the dragoons (1st royals, 2nd scots greys, 6th inniskillings) are heavy cavalry, the dragoon guards (seven regiments) are medium, as are the dragoons of other countries. the light cavalry of the british army in the 18th and early 19th century was for the most part called light dragoons.