686 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



seeds covered with silky hairs. The seeds contain two deadly alkaloids, strych- 

 nin C 01 H 00 N 2 O and brucin C ,H 26 N O 4 + 4 H O. Strychnin is bitter, used as 

 a tonic and to stimulate the circulation. The bark and root are also bitter. The 

 natives of India use it for snake bites and fevers. This alkaloid is also ob- 

 tained from other plants of this order, being extracted by water acidulated with 

 hydrochloric acid. It has an intensely bitter taste perceptible in very dilute 

 solution (1 in 700,000). 



Delafoy has shown that starving frogs are much more sensitive to strychnin 

 than are normal frogs. 1 



Fig. 395. Yellow Jessamine (Gelsmium sempervirens.) Flowering 

 branch, bud, dehiscent fruit, longitudinal sections of fruit and flowers. 

 Root contains poisonous alkaloid. (After Faguet.) 



1 In a recent paper by Reid Hunt "The Effects of a Restricted Diet and of Various Diets 

 Upon the Resistance of Animals to Certain Poisons," Bulletin Hygienic Laboratory, Public 

 Health and Marine Hospital Service, of the U. S. Treasury Department, he reports that diet 

 has a marked effect upon resistance of animals to certain poisons; the resistance of some 



