RADIX SPIGELIA 433 



very liard/and clifficvilt to split. The whole seed swells considerably 

 by prolonged digestion in warm water, and has then a heavy, earthy 

 smell The beans are intensely bitter and highly poisonous. ^ 



Microscopic Structure — The hairs of the epidermis are of an 

 analogous structure, but more simple than in nux vomica. The albumen 

 and cotyledons agree in structural features with those of the same parts 

 in nux vomica. 



Chemical Composition — Strychnine exists to the extent of about 

 I'o per cent.; the seeds also contain 0'5 per cent, of brucine. Dried 

 over sulphuric acid and burnt with soda-lime, it yielded us an average 

 of 178 per cent, of nitrogen, which would answer to about 10 per cojit. 

 of albuminoid matter. 



Commerce — We have no information as to the collection of the 

 drug. The seeds are met with irregularly in English trade, being 

 sometimes very abundant, at others scarcely obtainable. 



Uses— The same as those of nux vomica. When procurable at a 

 moderate price, the seeds are valued for the manufacture of strychnine. 



RADIX SPIGELIiE. 



Radix Spigelice Marilcmdicw; Indian Pink Root, Carolina Pink 



Root, Spigelia} 



Botanical Origin—Singelia marilandica L., an herbaceous plant 

 about a foot high, indigenous in the woods of North America, from 

 Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and southward. According to Wood and 

 Bache, it is collected chiefly in the Western and South-western States. 



History— The anthelminthic properties of the root, discovered Ly the 

 Intllans, -wore brought to notice in Europe about the year 1754 by 

 Lmning, Garden, and Chalmers, physicians of Charleston, South Carohna. 

 The drug was admitted to the London Pharmacopoeia in 1788. 



. Description— Pink root has a near resemblance to scrpentary, con- 

 sisting of a short, knotty, dark brown rhizome emitting slender wiry 

 yoots. It is quite wantin<^ in the peculiar odour of the latter drug, or 

 indeed in any aroma ; in taste it is slightly bitter and acrid. Sometnne.s 

 the entire plant with its quadrangular stems a foot high is imported, 

 ^t has opposite leaves about 8 inches long, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, smooth or pubescent. 



Microscopic Structure— The transverse section of the rhizome, 



f^^o^it V\, of an inch in diameter, shows a small woody zone onclosmg a 



f ge pith of elliptic outline, consisting of thin-AN'alled cells _ Usually 



t^e central tissue is decayed. In the roots, the middle cortical layer 



predominates; it swells in water, after which its large cells display tine 



markings. The nucleus-sheath observable in serpentary is 



spiral 



^vanting in spigelia. 



Not satisfactorily known: the vessels of 



fie wood contain resin, the parenchjmie starch; in the cortical part of 

 ^lie rhizome some tannic matters occur, but not in the roots. FeneuHe 



' Pink Boot is sometimes erroneously latinized iu price-lists. '^Badix can/ophjlli." . 



