604 Angewandte Botanik. 



no endodermis, and the pericycle is merely represented by isolated 

 Strands of stereome. The pith contains large spheric crystals of 

 calcium-oxalate, the material having been kept in alcohol. 



Corresponding with the erect position of the leaves is a centric 

 structure expressed not only by the disposition of the stomata on 

 both faces of the blade, but also by the presence of palisades on 

 dorsal as well as the ventral face. The stomata lack subsidiary 

 cells; pluricellular, pointed hairs abound in some specimens, but 

 not in others. There are many ducts in chlorenchyma, and in the 

 colorless, thinwalled parenchyma which surrounds the midrib; the 

 midrib consists of a Single mestome-strand without endodermis, and 

 of which the pericycle is only thinwalled; thinwalled, green paren- 

 chyma-sheats Surround the lateral veins. 



In comparing this species with E. Ipecaciianha it is readily seen 

 that there are several, and quite important, anatomical differences, 

 for instance: the root of E. Ipecaciianha contains only a few separate 

 mestome-strands, while these are very numerous in the other spe- 

 cies. The stem of E. Ipecacuanha has cork, and a closed sheath of 

 stereome; neither leptome, libriform nor vessels become developed 

 from the interfascicular cambium, while in E. corollata secundary, 

 typical mestome-strands arise; the pith showed no spheric crystals 

 in E. Ipecaciianha. The leaves of the latter species have no collen- 

 chyma, and the ducts form a dense network just beneath epidermis. 



Theo Holm 



Holm, T., Medicinal plants of North America. 40. Convallaria 

 majalis L. (Merck's Report 19. p. 160 — 162. fig. 1—14. June 1910.) 

 The drug known as „Convallaria" is the dried rhizome and 

 roots of C. majalis L.; it has a distinct odor, and a sweetish, bitter, 

 slightly acrid taste. Two constituents were found in the drug by 

 G. F. Walz: Convallarin and Convallamarin. Taken internally the 

 flowers are said to be emetic and cathartic, and they were formerly 

 used in epilepsy and against worms. An aromatic, volatile oil was 

 obtained from the leaves by Haensel. In Russia this plant has 

 been used for many years for the reliet of dropsy, also in valvulär 

 heart-disease. While convallarin acts as a purgative, convallamarin 

 is Said to produce active vomiting, and to paralize the heart. The 

 plant is widely dispersed through Europe and Asia, and occurs, 

 futhermore, in the high mountains of Virginia and the Caroli- 

 nas. A few anatomical points may be recorded as for instance that 

 the secondary roots which proceed from the base of the vertical, 

 aerial shoot are contractile (exodermis), all the other roots are sim- 

 ply nutritive. The mechanical tissues are poorly represented in the 

 rhizome there being only a hypodermal Stratum of collenchyma, 

 but no stereome in the pericycle. We find, futhermore, in the rhi- 

 zome two almost concentric bands of mestome-bundles, the peripheral, 

 located just inside endodermis, being collateral, the inner ones, 

 located in the pith, being leptocentric. In the flowering scape there 

 are, also, two bands of mestome-bundles, and characteristic of the 

 peripheral is the presence of a' rudimentary cambium. The structure 

 of the leaf is centric, with stomata on both faces of the blade, and 

 with a homogeneous chlorenchyma of rectangular, somewhat irregu- 

 larly lobed cells parallel with the surface, not vertical on this, thus 

 there are no palisades in the stricter sense of the word. All the 

 veins contain collateral mestome-strands supported by collenchyma, 

 and by a little stereome on the leptome-side. Theo Holm. 



