204 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



casionally present a few fibrovascular bundles that look somewhat like crys- 

 tals. 



Amyhun. — ' Under the microscope appearing as granules, mostly very 

 minute, more or less lenticular in form and indistinctly, concentrically stri- 

 ated.' I was unable to procure the officinal wheat starch in the market. The 

 wholesale trade handle only corn starch. The granules of corn starch are al- 

 ways isolated, and average about 7-io,oooth of an inch (20 to 30 micromil- 

 limetres) in diameter. They are quite uniform in size and polyhedral in 

 shape, with rounded corners. The hilum is well developed, and appears as 

 a star-shaped or round depression in the centre of the grain. The rings ai'e 

 faintly seen. Wheat starch grains are much larger, twelve to fifty micromil- 

 limetres (iS-io, 000th inch), than corn starch, but very irregular in size and 

 appearance. To examine starch, mix a small quantity with glycerin and use 

 a two-third, one-half or quarter-inch objective. If a polariscope is at hand, 

 mount in balsam and examine with or without selenite. The mounts in either 

 glycerin or balsam are permanent, but the latter medium renders the grains 

 too transparent for exammation without the polariscope. 



Anisu?n. — ' Consisting of two pericarps each with about fifteen oil tubes, 

 which can be seen in transverse section by the microscope.' A power often 

 diameters is scarcely sufficient to distinguish these ducts, but a Coddington 

 lens of twenty diameters power will show them. The sections must be care- 

 fully made or the filiform ridges and oil tubes will be broken oft'. 



Buchu. — ' Crenate or serrate, with a gland at the the base of each tooth.' 

 Place the drug on a sheet of white paper and examine with the officinal micro- 

 scope. A serviceable mount is made by carefully pressing a leaf between 

 two slides and binding the glass together with gummed paper. This can be 

 examined by either reflected or transverse light. The glands show equally 

 well from either side of the leaf. 



Gossyphun. — 'Under the microscope, appearing as flattened, hollow and 

 twisted bands, spirally striate, and thickened at the edges.' The ten diameter 

 microscope is of no avail whatever here. The lowest power that will satisfac- 

 torily show this structure is an amplification of about thirty diameters, al- 

 though twenty will answer the purpose. Examine the fibres in glycerin. 



Hydrargyrum cum Creta. — ' Continue the trituration until the globules 

 of mercury are no longer visible under a magnifying power often diameters.' 

 The test is easily made, but strong light will show" bright metallic particles 

 in the commercial preparation, although it requires a higher power to show 

 that they are globules. 



Kamala. — 'Under the microscope, is seen to consist of stellately arranged, 

 colorless hairs, mixed with depressed globular glands, containing numerous 

 red, club-shaped vesicles.' My experience has been that the description should 

 state that the stellate hairs are mixed with the glands, as the latter ai^e by far 

 the more numerous of the two. They vary greatly in size, but average about 

 eighty -four micromillimetres (1-300 inch) in diameter. They show fairly 

 well when mounted in glycerin, but should be treated with a solution of potassa 

 in order to show the structure described. The stellate hairs have no resem- 

 blance to the stellate hairs found on the leaves of Verbasctim. 



Lupulmum. — 'Minute granules which, as seen under the microscope, are 

 globular, or sub-globular, or rather hood-shaped, and reticulate.' I find 

 these granules to average 189 micromillimetres (3-400th of an inch) in diam- 

 eter. It requires a power of forty to fifty diameters to make out the above 

 structure, although the granules can be seen under a much lower power. An 

 alcoholic solution of potassa will clean them nicely, and glycerin is a suitable 

 medium for examination. I find that some of the older works give very 

 vague descriptions of these granules. 



