Angewandte Botanik. 397 



trifolia Salisb. With supplementär y note on the seed- 

 ling of Cimicifuga racemosa Nutt. (Merck's Report. XX. p. 4—6. 

 fig. 1 — 18. Jan. 1911.) 



The rhizome was tbrmerly official in the U. S. Pharmacopeia; 

 the drug eontains berberine, and is a simple tonic bitter, resembling 

 Quassia in its mode of action, and applicable in all cases in which 

 the latter is prescribed. The plant is figured and described. Among 

 the anatomical characteristics the following may be mentioned. The 

 roots persist for several years, but without increasing in thickness. 

 Cork develops in the hypodcrmal Stratum of the cortex in the rhi- 

 zome, which has, also, a distinct endodermis, and a stereomatic 

 pericycle, surrounding two groups of collateral mestome-strands. 

 The rlowering scape shows a similar structure. The leaves are 

 evergreen, and the ventral face is hairy from Short, unicellular, 

 pointed hairs; stomata occur on both faces, but are most numerous 

 on the dorsal; they lack subsidiary cells. In the midrib are three 

 separate mestome-strands. 



The seedling of Cimicifuga racemosa Nutt. has the cotyledons 

 above ground, and the plumule develops about three small leaves 

 during the first season, all with long petioles and with three-lobed 

 to three-foliolate blades; the primary root persists only one year. 



Theo Holm. 



Holm.Th., Medicinal plants of North America. 49. Arisaema 

 triphyllum (L.) Torr. (Merck's Report XX. p. 66—69. fig. 1—13. 

 March 1911.) 



The corm was formerly official; it is violently acrid, when 

 fresh; Spica and Biscaro ascribe this acridity to the presence of 

 saponin, while Weber thought it depended upon the raphides of 

 calcium Oxalate. Partially dried the drug is used internally as a 

 stimulant to the secretions in asthma, whooping cough, rheumatism 

 etc. The mature plant and the seedling are described and figured. 

 The roots are contractile, and the tissue active in this respect is 

 the inner cortical parenchyma but only in the basal portion of the 

 root; the stele with endodermis is passively contracted, so also 

 epidermis and the peripheral strata of cortex. There are in the corm 

 many strata of thinwalled cork surrounding a large starch-bearing 

 parenchyma, and the mestome-strands are simply collateral, desti- 

 tute of mechanical tissue. In the flowering scape is only hypodermal 

 collenchyma as isolated Strands; there is no endodermis, and the 

 collateral mestome-strands represent a peripheral, circular .band 

 surrounding several scattered Strands in the parenchyma inside. 

 Cells containing latex accompany the leptome. A bifacial structure 

 was observed in the leaf-blade; there is a ventral palisade-tissue of 

 a Single Stratum covering about four layers of pneumatic tissue 

 with many raphide-cells. The midrib consists of about twenty sepa- 

 rate mestome-strands with a corresponding number of hypodermal 

 Strands of collenchyma, but lacks stereome. Theo Holm. 



Holm, Th., Medicinal plants of North America. 50. Arctosta- 

 phylos Uva-ursi Spreng. (Merck's Report. XX. p. 95—96. fig. 1 — 11. 

 April mil.) 



The dried leaves yield the drug Uva-ursi U. S. (Br.) which 

 eontains arbutin, methylarbutin, urson, tannic and gallic aeids, a 



