APOCYNUM ANDROS MIFOLIUM. 
acute at apex, about two or three inches long. The flowers 
are white, tinged with red, and grow in loose, nodding termi- 
nal or axillary cymes. Cymes paniculate at the top of the 
branches, and in the axils of the upper leaves. The pedun- 
cles are furnished with very small acute bracts. Calyx much 
shorter than the corolla. Corolla as long as the pedicels, bell- 
shaped, white, striped with red, with five acute spreading seg- 
ments. The fruit consists of a pair of long linear acute 
follicles, containing numerous imbricated seeds attached to a 
central receptacle, and each furnished with a long seed-down. 
The other species of the same genus, says Rafinesque, have 
the same properties in a less degree. ‘The Apocynum canna- 
binum is distinguished from the above by smaller leaves and 
flowers in shorter panicles, while the Apocynum hypericifolium 
has prostrated stems with narrow leaves, and grows only on 
the banks of streams and lakes. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
ApocyNUM ANDROSEMIFOLIUM is a very active plant. It 
contains bitter extractive soluble in water and alcohol, a red 
coloring matter not soluble in alcohol, a volatile oil, and caout- 
choue. The root is the most powerful part, but its activity 
is diminished and eventually destroyed by keeping; it must, 
therefore, be used fresh. The powder of! the recently dried 
root acts as an emetic equal to ipecacuanha, and is very gen- 
erally employed by practitioners in the country, with good ad- 
vantage and success. Like other emetic substances, it pro- 
motes diaphorisis and expectoration. It diminishes the fre- 
quency of the pulse, and appears to induce drowsiness inde- 
pendently of the exhaustion consequent upon vomiting. In 
small doses it is a tonic useful in dyspepsia and fevers. It 
gently stimulates the digestive apparatus, and thus effects a 
corresponding impression on the general system. if 
The Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians employed it in syph- 
ilis, and considered it a specific; they used the fresh root 
chewed, swallowing only the juice. The latter use has been 
some time practised in Tennessee and Kentucky. The stem 
as well as the root abounds in a milky juice, which exudes 
when any part of the plant is wounded. "Its taste is nauseous _ 
and intensely bitter. ‘The flowers, notwithstanding, smell of — 
honey, and produce that sweet substance. Bees and other 
insects collect this honey, but small flies are often caught by fe 
inserting their proboscis between the fissures of the anthers, — 
