288 A COMPENDIUM OF 
tive, nearly 50 per cent of resin, choline and lu- 
pamaric acid, ‘The volatile oilis said to yield 
valerianic acid on exposure to the air. The 
medical effects are stimulant, anodyne and 
tonic, and is given in form of powder, tincture 
and fluid extract. Dose of the tincture, 30 to 
60 drops; of the fluid extract, 10 to 15 drops. 
Crocus, Saffron, Crocus Sativa.—Natural 
order Iridaceze. Native of Western Asia, and 
now found and cultivated in France, Italy and 
Spain. This small plant, with its bulbous or 
cormous root, sends up numerous narrow lance- 
shaped leaves having a white midrib, orna- 
mented with light-purple flowers, funnel-form, 
with a long tube or throat, and bearded; they 
precede the leaves, The stigmas are in three 
deep, wedge-shaped divisions and notched at 
their extremities; fruit an oval capsule, three- 
celled and containing many seeds, The stigmas 
and part of the style are the saffron of the 
stores. To the naked eye, when not carefully 
examined, the Saffron appears only to be a 
mass of orange-brown fibres, but when care- 
fully examined these thread-like styles have at 
one end three long orange-colored stigmas, 
broadest at the summit. Odor peculiar and 
penetratingly aromatic; taste aromatic and 
bitter; tinging the saliva yellow when chewed. 
The carthamus or dyers’ saffron is often used 
as an adulterant. Saffron contains wax, mu- 
ctlage, sugar, protetds, ash, picrocrocin, crocin, 
and a volatile oi/. Its effects as a medicine are 
Carminative, emmenagogue, and diaphoretic; 
administered in form of powder, infusion, and 
syrup. Dose from 5°to 30 grains. Saffron en- 
