Sub Order.-4. CANNABINE. Hemp family. HERBS, tough bark. Juice watery. LEAVES, opposite and palmately lobed or compound. FLOWERS, dioecious, green, sterile, racemed, or panicled; fertile, in clusters or catkins. CALYX, of one sepal. SEED, no albumen. CONIFERA. Pine family. TREES or SHRUBS, (wood destitute of ducts) composed chiefly of homogeneous, large woody fibre, which is marked with circular disks on two sides. JUICE, resinous. LEAVES, mostly awl shaped, or needle shaped. FLOWERS, monoecious, rarely dioecious in catkins, destitute of calyx or corolla. Ovules, orthotropous, embryo in axis of the albumen, nearly its length. Sub Order.-1. ABIETINEÆ. Proper Pine family. FERTILE FLOWERS, in catkins, with bracts. CARPELS, in the form of scales, in the axil of a bract forming a strobile or cone in fruit. Sub Order.-2. CUPRESSINEÆ. Cypress family. FERTILE FLOWERS, consisting of few carpellary scales without bracts. FRUIT, a closed strobile, or a sort of drupe. Sub Order.-3. TAXINE. Yew family. FERTILE FLOWERS, solitary, consisting of a naked ovule, ripening into a nut-like or drupe-like seed. CLASS II. MONOCO MONOCOTYLEDONOUS ENDOGENOUS PLANTS. a. Spadiceous Division. ARACEE. Arum family. PLANTS, with acrid or pungent juice. LEAVES, simple or compound, often veiny. FLOWERS, crowded on a spadix, which is usually surrounded by a spathe. SEEDS, with fleshy albumen or none, but filled with the large fleshy embryo. FRUIT, a berry usually. ORCHIDACEÆ. b. Petaloideous Division. Orchis family. HERBS, sometimes parasites or epiphytes. LEAVES, entire often sheathing. PERIANTH, (or petaloid calyx and corolla, consisting of · six apparent petals) irregular, the three inner petals larger, and one, (called labellum or lip) of unusual shape, and larger than the others. Stamens, gynandrous, forming one column, with the pistil. Ovary, one-celled. Stigma, viscid, spot in front of the gynandrous column. FRUIT, a twisted capsule, one-celled many seeded; parietal placenta. IRIDACEÆ. Iris family. HERBS, ROOTSTALKS, TUBERS, or CORMS, acrid. LEAVES, equitant, two-ranked, and regular or irregular. FLOWERS, perfect, the divisions of the calyx, six cleft. Perianth, petal like, convolute in bud, in two sets. Stamens, three, distinct or monadelphous, alternate with the inner divisions of the perianth. Ovary, three-celled, Anther, extrorse. POD, three-celled, loculicidal, many seeded. SEEDS, anatropous, embryo, straight in fleshy albumen. LILIACEA. Lily family. HERBS, or rarely Woody Plants. FLOWERS, regular, symmetrical, almost always 6-androus. Anthers, two-celled. FRUIT, a many-seeded pod or berry, small embryo enclosed in copious albumen. MELANTHACEA or COLCHICACEE, much resembles LILIACEÆ. (Tribe 2, of the above) c. Glumaceous Division. GRAMINEE Grass family. STEMS, (culms) hollow closed at joints, fibrous roots. FLOWERS, imbricated, with two-ranked glumes or bracts, OVARY, one-celled, one-ovuled, forming a seed-like grain (caryopsis,) embryo, small on the outside and at base of the floury albumen. ORGANIC MATERIA MEDICA. THE CHARACTERISTICS, CONSTITUENTS, ADULTERATIONS, ETC., OF DRUGS. ROOTS. I-MONOCOTYLEDONOUS OR ENDOGENOUS. SARSAPARILLA. Smilax officinalis. Sarsaparilla. This is afforded by several woody climbers, habitating South America, Central America and Mexico. Its botanical source is a matter of controversy, although the above is generally recognized. The varieties used in medicine have a thick, short, knotty rhizome, from which grow in a horizontal direction the fleshy roots. These appear in commerce several feet in length, and about the thickness of a quill, cylindrical and flexible, thick exterior cortical portion, covered with a thin and easily separated epidermis; this epidermis varies in color according to the variety. On a transverse section its woody bundles are seen to be confined to the central part, enclosed by a brown ring. Within this ring the bundles are closely united to form a woody zone. The very centre of the section consists of white medullary tissue, through which wood bundles are sometimes scattered. On a longitudinal section the epidermis shows several rows of elongated cells. The parenchymatous cells, if not devoid of solid contents, are filled with starch granules, and occasionally crystals of CaOx. The various sorts of S. differ, not only in being mealy, or non-mealy, but also as regards the thickness of the woody zone. They are all of a slightly acrid taste, and of little odor. The thin, wiry roots are not employed medicinally. VARIETIES. Honduras-Mealy, Pale-brown epidermis, Abounds in starch. Mexican 66 Orange Little starch. 66 Free from starch. Dull-brown 66 66 66 Its interesting principle is variously termed Smilacin, Salseparin, Parillinic acid. It occurs in the form of colorless acicular crystals, and is of a persistent acrid taste. This principle is analagous to the Saponinoid principle of Seneka. The Mexican variety yields the most (2 per cent). II-DICOTYLEDONOUS OR EXOGENS. FLESHY ROOTS WITHOUT STARCH. TARAXACUM. A. Inulin, Laticiferous vessels. T. Dens-Leonis. Dandelion. It This grows mainly in grassy spots, inhabiting Europe and North America. It is several inches in length, half an inch or less in thickness, round and tapering; light brown externally, whitish within, and abounding in an inodorous, milky juice, of a bitter taste. shrinks very much in drying, losing about 76 per cent. in weight. In the dried state, it is dark brown, shrivelled with wrinkles running longitudinally, often in a spiral direction; brittle, and when broken, presents a shining, resinous fracture, showing a very thick white bark, surrounding a woody column. The latter is yellowish, very porous, without pith or rays; a rather broad but indistinct cambium zone separates the wood from the bark, which latter exhibits numerous concentric layers. The laticiferous vessels have parenchyma and medullary rays between them. The root may be said to be vertically traversed by ten to twenty concentric rings of laticiferous vessels. The tissue of the dried root is loaded with inulin. It is directed to be collected in autumn. No odor-taste sweet in winter, bitter in autumn, very bitter in spring. It contains large quantities of sugar (about 36 per cent.) in winter; this is converted into inulin. Taraxacin, its principle, is obtained from the thick juice. It is frequently adulterated with Chicory, from which it may be distinguished by the latter having the laticiferous vessels in radial lines, and the juice of a brighter color, and much more bitter. LAPPA. L. Minor. Burdock. Spindle-shaped root, several inches in length, about an inch thick, brown externally, white and spongy within, furnished with threadlike rootlets, and having withered scales near the summit. The |