IPECACUANHA. H 



plant. The root is simple, or somewhat branched, and furnished 

 with a few short radicles ; it is roundish, three or four inches 

 in length, and two or three lines in thickness, irregularly bent, 

 externally of a brown colour, and annulated with numerous, 

 prominent, unequal rings. The stem is procumbent at the base, 

 rising from five to nine inches in height, round, the thickness 

 of a hen's quill, smooth, leafless, of a brownish colour, knotted 

 at the lower part, and leafy towards the upper ; after the first 

 year it throws out a few knotty runners, from which, about six 

 inches apart, new stems arise. The inferior leaves are caducous, 

 so that not more than eight generally remain at the summit of 

 each stem when it flowers; they are nearly sessile, opposite, 

 spreading, ovate, pointed at both ends, three or four inches 

 long, and less than two broad ; of a bright green on the upper 

 surface, beneath of a whitish-green colour ; pubescent, veined ; 

 at the base of each pair of leaves is a pair of short, fimbriated, 

 withering stipules embracing the stem. The fowers are aggre- 

 gated in a solitary head, on a round, downy footstalk terminating 

 the stem, somewhat drooping, and encompassed by a four-leaved 

 involucre, The florets are sessile, from fifteen to twenty-four 

 in number, interspersed with little bracteas. The calyx very 

 small, five-toothed, superior, and persistent. The corolla mono- 

 petalous, the border shorter than the tube, woolly about the 

 throat, swelling upwards, and divided into five ovate, acute, 

 spreading segments. The f laments are short, capillary, in- 

 serted into the upper part of the tube, and bearing oblong, 

 linear, erect anthers. The germen is ovate, surmounted by a 

 thread-shaped style, as long as the tube, surrounded at the base 

 with a short, nectariferous rim, and terminated by two obtuse 

 stigmas the length of the anthers. The fruit is a one-celled 

 berry, of a reddish-purple colour, becoming wrinkled and black, 

 and containing two smooth, oval -eeds. Pereira (op. cit.) gives 

 the following description of the root : " The root of this plant 

 is the Ipecacuanha {Radix Ipecacuanha) of the shops. No 

 other root is known in English commerce by this name. By 



