64 A COMPENDIUM OF 
timeters) long; they are very much wrinkled 
and of a red-brown color. The main root has 
rather a thick bark, with a light-yellow, porous 
wood, near the centre of which are many irreg- 
ular meshes of resin cells, with numerous rays 
diverging from the centre and central pith. 
Lovage has a pungent aromatic, sweetish and 
somewhat bitter taste with little odor. Lovage 
contains, according to authority, sugar, starch, 
resin, muctlage, bitter extract, a volatile ot/, and 
a peculiar coloring matter called /igu/in. It has 
been used as a remedy, and its virtues are said 
to be stimulant, diuretic, carminative, and em- 
menagogue. As found in the stores it is in 
small pieces, usually in packages, Not officinal; 
an alcoholic solution of the root gives a hand- 
some red color to water free from lime, 
Penthorum Sedoides, Sedum Acre, Biting 
Stone, Crop, Ditch Stone Crop, House Leek and 
Garden Opine.—Natural order Crassulacez. If 
not identical in all particulars they have the 
same characteristics so far as their medicinal 
effects are concerned. The stone crop is a spe- 
cies of moss growing in and about old fields and 
old walls. This homely perennial plant attains 
the height of from 8 to rz inches (20 to 30 cen- 
timeters), and is cultivated in the gardens of 
Europe; the stem is erect, angled, or somewhat 
_ branched, leaves scattered, nearly sessile, lan- 
ceolate (lance), and acute at both ends, and 
sharply serrate (saw-like). Flowers of a yellow- 
green, arranged in (cyme) rows from the centre, 
calyx hairy (pubescent), sepals (cunate) in 
wedge-like form, filaments smo 
orn oth, anthers 
two-celled, pistils numbering five and united 
