720 A TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY. 



the drug (Fig. 227, C). Safflower contains a small percentage 

 of a yellow coloring principle (safflower-yellow), which is soluble 

 in water, and 0.3 to 0.6 per cent, of a red coloring principle (car- 

 thamin or carthamic acid), which is insoluble in water but soluble 

 in alcohol, the solution having a purplish-red color. A volatile 

 oil is also present. Carthamin is used in conjunction with French 

 chalk in the preparation of a rouge. 



TANSY is the dried leaves and tops of Chrysanthemum (Tana- 

 cctum vulgar e), a perennial, aromatic herb indigenous to Europe, 

 extensively cultivated and naturalized in the United States. The 

 leaves are large and pinnately divided, and the flowers, both tubu- 

 lar and ligulate, are yellow, the heads being in terminal corymbs. 



The plant yields from o.i to 0.3 per cent, of a volatile oil, 

 consisting of thujone, borneol and camphor; and 3 resins. 



ELECAMPANE (Inula Helenium) is a large, perennial, densely 

 pubescent herb with alternate leaves and large, solitary terminal 

 heads, consisting of yellow tubular and ligulate florets (Fig. 227). 

 The plant is indigenous to Central Europe and Asia, and natural- 

 ized in North America from Canada to North Carolina. The 

 root is used in medicine and was formerly official as INULA. 



The root of Polymnia Uvedalia, a plant closely related to 

 Inula, but indigenous to the United States east of the Mississippi, 

 contains a volatile oil, a glucoside, tannin, and a resinous sub- 

 stance consisting of two resins, one of which is pale yellow and 

 soft, the other dark brown and hard. 



The following Composite, while not of very great importance, 

 are used in some localities : 



YARROW (Achillea Millefolium) is a common weed naturalized 

 from Europe (Fig. 397), and contains about o.i per cent, of a dark 

 blue volatile oil with a strongly aromatic odor and a small amount 

 of a bitter alkaloid, achilleine. The roots of yarrow, on the other 

 hand, yield a volatile oil with a valerian-like odor. Achillea nobilis 

 of Europe contains an oil resembling that of yarrow, but it is of 

 finer quality and has a spice-like taste. Achillea nwschata, an 

 alpine plant of Europe, yields three alkaloids and a volatile oil 

 containing cineol, and is used in Italy in the preparation of the 

 liquor, "Esprit d' Iva." Achillea tanacctifolia yields a blue volatile 

 oil having the odor of tansy. 



