NAT. ORDER. COMPOSITE. 39 



female part is simiilar to that in the hermaphrodite florets, the seeds 

 are solitary, striated, quadrangular, and furnished with a simple feather 

 or papus ; the rccrptaclr is naked and flat. 



This valuable plant, bearing a large and beautiful flower, is a na- 

 tive of Europe, where it is cultivated not only as an ornament for the 

 garden, but more extensively for medical uses. It was introduced 

 into the United States by our first settlers, and has now become nat- 

 uralized in many parts of the country, growing spontaneously in the 

 meadows and by the road-sides in New England and Pennsylvania. 

 July and August are the months in which it flowers. The root is the 

 officinal part directed for use, which should be taken from the ground 

 in the autumn of the second year of its growth, as after that time it 

 will generally become stringy and woody ; when fresh it is thick and 

 branched, having cylindrical ramifications which are furnished with 

 thread-like fibres, and the transverse sections present radiating lines. 

 The dried root which is found in the shops is an article of considerable 

 traffic with some of our country people, who dig it at the proper sea- 

 son, cut it into longitudinal or transverse slices, and prepare it for the 

 practitioner or purchaser, by drying it in the shade ; the internal color 

 of the root when it has been subjected to the above process, is of a 

 greyish cast ; the smell is slightly camphorous and it has an agreeable 

 aromatic taste, which is at first glutinous and rancid, but upon chewing 

 becomes warm, aromatic, and bitter. Its medical properties may be 

 extracted by either alcohol or water, but the former will become more 

 strongly impregnated with them, and its bitterness and pungency more 

 plainly developed. Mr. Rose, a chemist of Berlin, discovered in Ele- 

 campane a peculiar principle resembling starch, which he named alan- 

 tin ; but Dr. Thompson proposed the title of inulin, as being more 

 appropriate, and it has been generally adopted. Independent of this 

 principle, however, Elecampane contains, according to some writers, a 

 white concrete substance, called hcbcnin, intermediate in its properties 

 between the essential oils and camphor, and separable by distillation 

 with water ; a bitter extractive, soluble in water and spirit ; together 



