672 , ROSACEE. 
the patient should: fast the day before using the: medicine. ' 
(Stillé and Maisch.) 
Description.—The panicles are about 12 inches whe 
much branched ; axis and branches zigzag, hairy, and glan- 
dular, each bakeich supported by a giliate. sheathing bract; 
flowers very numerous, } to 4 inch broad, each with two large. 
roundish membranous-veined bracts at the base, which are 
green in the staminate flowers, but become purplish-red in the 
_ pistillate flowers ; calyx shortly stalked, top-shaped, hairy, and 
_ with ten membranous and veined segments arranged in two 
alternating whorls. The sepals of the outér whorl of the male 
flowers are greenish-yellow, small, and early linear ; but in ~ 
the female flowers they are finally about 2 inch long, and 
much larger than the inner row of pepals: and when fully « 
developed are obovate and of a red color. The five linear. 
petals are incénspicuous and “much shorter ‘than the inner _ 
sepals, with which they alternate. Stamens between fifteen 
- and thirty, very small and shrivelled in‘ the female flowers, - 
_ equalling the petals in the male flowers, inserted in the con- 
tracted throat of the calyx. . Carpels two, or occasionally three, 
distinet, enclosed in the calyx tube; styles projecting from the 
_ tube ; fruit a small membranous achene, pointed by the persis 
— teht alior® base of the style, and containing a straight fleshy 
embryo with two plano-convex cotyledons. | 
_ The female inflorescence being most ‘frequently collected,’ 
the commercial article should: have a pale brownish-red hue, — 
and is often distinguished as red kousso. It is collected before -_ 
the fruit has ripened, and either the entire inflorescence is 
dried loosely, or before quite dry a number of panicles are 
formed into cylindrical rolls, measuring about 10 to 20 inches 
in length, weighing about 4 to 8 ounces-and tied by split 
_ eulms of Cyperus articulatus; the loose panicles are usually 
much broken. The male inflorescence has j in the dry state a 
_ light greenish-brown colour, and is sometimes known as kousso- 
' esels. The odour of both varieties is not strong, but pleasant — 
; and tea-like ; the taste is gradually developed, mucilaginous, 
rish, acrid, aod: ———— : Mesieds fi Mate) 
