LILUCE2E. 487 



■what the ancients have said about this plant; they usually 



prescribe the dried berries which are to be found in the bazars 

 of all large towns. 



Description. — The root consists of a short horizontal 

 rhizome about | of an inch thick, the upper side is scaly and 

 marked by stem*scars, below it gives off numerous long, whitish, 

 nearly simple roots, which on drying become much wrinkled. 

 It has hardly any odour and a mawkish sweet taste. The ber- 

 ries are scarlet, about the size of a pea, 3-celled, one or two of 

 the cells often abortive, seeds 1-2 in each cell, globose, with a 

 horny albumen, and a transverse embryo, far out of the centre. 



r W 



Chemical composition. — Examined by Dulong, the root was 

 found to contain yellow resin, sugar, gum, albumin, chlorides, 

 phosphates, malates, and acetates. Yanquelin and Robiquet 

 (1805) discovered asjyaragin in the shoots, a substance which 

 has since beeu found in many other plants. Rcinsch (1870) 

 found in the berries much grape sugar and spargancin, an 

 orange-red sublimable colouring matter soluble in ether and 

 crystallizing in scales. The seeds contain a fixed oil, an aro; 

 matic resin, crystallizable sugar, and a crystalline bitter prin- 

 ^^ple, spargin. Asparagin, C^H^N^O^H'^0, forms colourless, 

 inodorous, and nearly tasteless crystals, which are insoluble in 

 strong alcohol and ether. It unites with both acids and alkalies, 

 and when boiled with them is converted into aspartic acidy 

 C*IFN0% and ammonia. Nitrous acid converts it into malic 

 acid, C^H'^0'*, water and nitrogen. For further information 

 concerning Asparagin, the reader is referred to Watts' Did. of 

 GJiem., 2nd Ed., L, 325. 



The mean of four analyses quoted by Konig gives the fol- 

 io wmg as the proximate composition : 



Water 93*75 per cent. 



Albuminoids 1*79 



Fat 



Su 



gar 



25 



37 



Nitrogen free extractive 2*26 



Cellulose 1-04 



Ash \'\ y' ■ -54 



9t 



99 

 99 



99 



99 



99 



