294 COMPOSIT. 
iodine with purplish centres, such as starch and dextrin would 
exhibit. After immersion in glycerine and alcohol, the section 
showed no spheroidal crystals of inulin, but ceased to give the 
purplish-black colour. The vascular bundles are of a bright — 
yellow colour, and consist of spiral vessels; they form one irre- 
gular ring round the rhizome about midway between the cir- 
cumference and centre. 
Chemical composition.—A decoction of the powdered chisel 
gave a blue or violet black colour with iodine, but was not_ 
affected by iron salts. Water extracted 15°6 per cent. of . “4 
soluble substances, consisting of 6°2 per cent. of glucose, esti- 
mated by standard potassio-cupric tartrate, and a quantity of | 
mucilage. The mare was then boiled for two hours with | 
hydrochloric acid (1 per cent.), an operation which rendered | 
soluble over 60 per cent. of the drug, while 25 parts of this 
was glucose. Some fresh powder yielded to rectified spirit 
6°75 of extract, which, with the exception of a little fatty mat- 
ter, was soluble in water, This solution was sweet to the taste, 
abundantly reduced Fehling’s solution, and was negative — 
- towards alkaloidal tests. Evaporated to dryness it was amor- 
phous, and when heated, gave off the odour of burnt sugar, 
The ash was 3-3 per cent. The analysis of the drug shows it to 
be nutritive rather than medicinally active. 
TUSSILAGO FARFARA, Linn. 
 Fig:—Eng. Bot. vi. t. 429; Woodville t. 13, Colt’s-foot 
(Eng.), Pas Vane, Taconnet, Herbe de Saint Quirin (Fr.). 
Hab.—Western Himalaya ; Persia; Europe. The herb. 
Vernacular.—Fanjiun (Arab., Ind. Bazars) ; Watpan (Hind.). 
History, Uses, &c. —This plant is the Syxov of the 
Greeks and the Tussilago and Forfaras of the Romans. From 
the earliest times it has been este couchs and other 
pectoral affections. Hippocrates recommends the root with 
honey: in ulcerations of the lungs, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen | 
relate that the smoke of the leaves, received into the mouth 
