94 Angewandte Botanik. 



although the whole plant is active, only the leaves and flowers are 

 official; it contains a glucoside "eupatorin", and a crystallizable 

 body of the nature of a wax. Eupatorium is at present used as a 

 tonic, diaphoretic, and in large doses as an emetic; formerly it was 

 employed as an antiperiodic. It appears to be superior to Anthemis 

 nobilis or Chamomile as a endorific tonic. The plant is described, 

 and figured; among the anatomical characters may be mentioned a 

 clearly defined System of resiniferous ducts, extending from the 

 root through the stem to the leaves, but of a different structure in 

 respect to the secretory cells, which lack those of the roots; in 

 the roots the ducts are surrounded directly by four endodermal 

 cells. In the rhizome, which is horizontally creeping, and in the 

 aerial stem the ducts are located outside the leptome, between 

 endodermis and the stereomatic pericycle. In the leaves similar ducts 

 follow the midrib, and the larger secondaries; they are here located 

 in the thinwalled parenchyma which surrounds the veins. A typical 

 endodermis was observed throughout the rhizome and the stem 

 above ground. The leaves are bifacial, with the chlorenchyma diffe- 

 rentiated as a ventral palisade tissue, and a dorsal pneumatic. Three 

 types of hairs occur in the stem, and leaves: short, capitate glan- 

 dulär, filiform, pluricellular glandulär, and finally pluricellular, 

 pointed hairs. The mechanical tissue is represented by hypodermal 

 collenchyma, and a closed stereomatic pericycle in the stem above 

 ground, while in the rhizome the pericycle is reduced to isolated 

 arches of stereome outside the leptome, and no collenchyma is 

 developed. In the leaves hypodermal Strands of collenchyma accom- 

 pany the larger veins, beside that the pericycle in the midrib con- 

 sists of this same tissue. Theo Holm. 



Holm, T., Medicinal plants of North America. 23. Sassafras 

 officinale Nees (Merck's Report. XVIII. p. 3—6. f. 1 — 13. Jan. 1909.) 



The drugs obtained from this tree are ''Sassafras U. S. (Br.)", 

 "■Sassafras Medulla U. S.'\ and "'Oleum Sassafras U.S.". The generic 

 name Sassajras appears as early as the latter part of the sixteenth 

 Century in the writings of Dalechamps (1586); it was used, also, 

 by J. Bauhin (1650), by C. Bauhin (1671), and by Ray (1686). 

 Linnaeus referred the genus to Laiirus {Xl'il), and his example 

 was followed by many subsequent authors. Nees von Esenbeck 

 brought it back to Sassafras however, and named the species offici- 

 nale. Among other names may the mentioned: Cormis mas odorata 

 (Plukenet, and Catesby), P^/'sea, and J^r^raw/Äera (Sprengel), and 

 finally Evosmus (Nuttall). The dried bark of the root, collected in 

 the early spring or autumn represents the drug Sassafras^ and 

 although the activity resides in the bark alone, the whole root is 

 by the Britisch Pharmacopoeia recognized as oflicial. At present 

 Sassafras is used almost exclusively as an adjuvant to other more 

 efficient medicines, improving their fiavor and rendering them 

 more acceptable to the stomach. The flowers, fruit, and leaves are 

 described, and figured; furthermore the seedling, which has two 

 hypogeic cotyledons, which become freed from the seed-coat, but 

 remain under ground. The first leaves of the seedling are scale-like, 

 and very small, but some green leaves develop, also, during the 

 first season; these leaves are entire, seldom lobed. Rootshoots abound, 

 and in these the different forms of leaves appear already in the 

 first year. In regard to the anatomical characteristics may be men- 



