92 TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM. 
divided into five rounded, unequal lobes. Stamens 
inserted in the tube of the corolla, hairy, with 
oblong anthers. Germ inferior, roundish; style 
longer than the corolla; stigma peltate. The 
fruit is an oval berry of a deep orange yellow,* 
hairy, somewhat three sided, crowned with the 
ealyx, containing three cells and three hard, bony, 
furrowed seeds, from which the name of the genus 
is taken. — 
This plant was made the subject of an inter- 
esting communication to the Linnzan society of 
New England, by Dr. John Randall. ‘The exper- 
iments made by him on its medical uses and phar- 
maceutical preparations were numerous, and 
serve to throw much light on its properties. In 
trying the solvent powers of water and alcohol, he 
found that water afforded a much greater quanti- 
ty of extract than alcohol, and that the spirituous 
extract was perfectly soluble in water, whence he 
infers that no resin in a pure state exists in the 
plant. He discovered no volatile oil by distilla- 
tion, nor any other principle of activity in water 
distilled from the plant. He concludes also, that 
* Pursh observes that the flowers and herries are purple. In all 
the specimens I have examined, which have not been few in number, 
the fruit was of a bright orange colour. If Pursh has seen a plant 
with purple berries, it is probably a different species from the true 
plant of Linnwus and Dillenius, which had « Jructus lutescentes.” 
