12-3 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.—The flowers have not been examined: they 
probably, however, contain a volatile oil at least. The bark of J/. grandiflora was 
examined by Dr. Procter,* who found a volatile oil, resin, and a crystalline principle 
resembling /zvzodendrine. | 
Magnolin.—This bitter principle was extracted from the fruit of WZ. umbrella 
by Wallace Procter, 1872, as acicular crystals, having a bitter taste. They are 
insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol and chloroform, melt at 80°-82° (176°- 
179.6° F.), and emit white vapors at 125° (257° F.), which condense in oily drops, 
consisting partly of the original principle and of resin. (Wittstein.) 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.—The effects of the odor of the flowers, as 
reported by Drs. Barton. S. A. Jones,t and T. F. Allen,t are: Great uneasiness 
and oppression of the chest, with an inability to expand the lungs, a feeling as 
if having swallowed a large bolus of unmasticated food which distressed the 
stomach, and a tendency to fainting. Showing thus a dilation of the vascular 
system so commonly following the insufflation of strongly odorous flowers in 
susceptible persons. Magnolia certainly deserves a careful proving of the fresh 
bark and flowers; the flowers alone can hardly add to our medicament while we 
have Cactus grandiflorus. : 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE 12. 
1. End of a flowering branch, Landisville, N. J., July 3d, 1885. 
2. Stamen. 
3. Section of a carpel. 
4. Fruit. | 
‘(2 and 3 enlarged.) 
* Am. Four. Phar., 1842, p. 89. + Am. Hom, Obs., June, 1875. t Zncyc. Pure Mat. Med, vi., 142. 
