CHELIDONIUM MAJUS. 
summer, It rises to the height of from one to two feet—has 
many tender, round, green, watery stalks, with large joints, 
very brittle and transparent. Leaves smooth, glaucous, spread. 
ing, consisting of two—four pairs of leaflets, with an odd one, 
Leaflets irregularly dentate and lobed, the partial stalks winged 
at base. Umbels thin, axillary, pedunculate. Petals elliptical, 
entire yellow, and very fugacious, like every other part of the 
flower. The flowers are succeeded by pods, which, when fully 
ripe, burst suddenly, or, if compressed by the fingers, they will 
instantly fly to pieces, and scatter the seed ; hence, Celandine 
is sometimes also called Touwch-me-not, 
The plant is of remarkable easy culture, 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The whole plant, Cue.montrum Magus, is very brittle, and ex- 
udes, when broken, an orange colored feetid juice. Its taste is 
intensely bitter and acrid, occasioning a sense of burning in the 
mouth and fauces, which lasts for some time. If applied to 
the skin, the juice produces inflammation, and even vesication. 
The whole plant is used; the root is more powerful than the 
stem, and is the part most generally approved. The active 
principle is soluble both in water and alcohol, and although not 
volatile, is somewhat diminished by drying. According to an 
analysis by M, M. Chevallier and Lassaigne (Jour, de Pharm., 
III. 451), the. plant afforded a bitter resinous substance of a 
deep yellow color—a kind of gum-resin of an orange color, and 
bitter, nauceous taste, mucilage, albumen, and various saline 
substances, besides free malic acid and silica. Dr. Probst, of 
Heidelberg, has more recently found in it a peculiar acid, de- 
nominated Cheledonic acid ;.two aikaline principles, one of 
which forms neutral salts with the acids, and is called Chelery- 
thrin, in consequence of the intense redness of its salts; the 
other unites with, but does not neutralize the acids, and is 
named Chelidonin ; and iastly, a neutral, crystallizable, bitter 
principle, which, from its yellow color, is called Chilidoxanthin 
Of these principles, chelerythrin appears to rank among the 
acrid narcotic puisons (Annal. der Pharm. XXIX. 113). 
Celandine is an acrid purgative, possessed also of diuretic, — 
diaphoretic, and expectorant properties. In over doses it pro- = 
: duces _ ee effects, and is by some considered pier ae 
