892 ^ COMPOSITE. 



Rosace<B. The latter is thicker than the rhizome of arnica, being /^ to 

 3*y of an inch in diameter ; it is a true root, furnished on all sides with 

 rootlets, and has an astringent taste. The leaves of Gevum are pinnate 

 and quite unlike those'of arnica. 



FLORES ARNICiE. 



Botanical Origin — See preceding article. 



History — The flowers probably in the first line attracted the atten- 

 tion of popular medicine in Germany, as we pointed out, page 390. 



Description — Arnica montana produces large, handsome, orange- 

 yellow flowers, solitary at the summit of the stem or branches. The 

 involucral scales of the capitulum (20 to 24) are of equal length, but 

 are imbricated, forming a double row. They are very hairy, the shorter 

 hairs being tipped with viscid glands. The receptacle is chaffy, { of an 

 inch in diameter, with about 20 ligulate florets, and of tubular a much 

 larger number. The ligulate florets, an inch in length, are oblong, 

 toothed at the apex, and traversed by about 10 parallel veins. The 

 achenes are brown and hairy, crowned by pappus consisting of a single 

 row of whitish barbed hairs. 



The receptacle is usually inhabited by a fly, Tryi^eta arnicivora 

 Low ^ ; the Pharmacopoeia Germania (1872) therefore ordered the florets 

 to be deprived of the involucre and receptacle— " flosculi a peranthodio 

 liberati." From a chemical point of view the usefulness of this direc- 

 tion may be doubted. 



Arnica flowers have a weak, not unpleasant odour ; they were for- 

 merly used in making the tincture, but as the British Pharmacopoeia 

 now directs that preparation to be made with the root, they have almost 

 gone out of use in Great Britain. 



Chemical Composition— The flowers appear to be rather richer 

 -nicin than the root, and are said to be equal if not superior to it 

 m medicinal powers; yet the essential oil they contain is not the same. 

 It is obtained m but extremely small amount and has a greenish or 

 blue coloration. Hesse (1864) has proved that the flowers are devoid 



pt a peculiar volatile alkaloid which had been supposed to be present 

 m them. ^^ 



in ai 



RADIX TARAXACI. 



Dandelion Root, Taraxacum Root ; F. Pissenlit ; G. Loivenzahnwurzel 



Botanical Origin— TaraxaciLm officinale Wiggers (T. Dens-leonis 

 l)esf Leontodon Taraxacum L.), a plant of the SSrthern hemisphere, 

 lound over the whole of Europe, Central and Northern Asia, and North 

 aWo^'^' r*'^"/i''^ *° ^^^ ^^ctic regions. It varies under a consider- 

 sni.^ T^' ""^ ^^'°^'' ^^^'^^^1 ^^ whi?h have been regarded as distinct 

 species. In many districts it is a troublesome weed. 



hav!h!l°'"^~7?'J'''"S^' *^^ common Dandelion is a plant which must 

 can beTrl'!i J ^.f^^ *^ ^^^ ^^^^^^H no indubitable reference to 

 can be traced m the classical authors of Greece and Italy ; it is thought 



' Figured in Nees von Esenbeck's Plant<e medkinales, Dusseldorf. ii. (1833) fol. 39- 



