238 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



the base, the stamens being unequal ; Aloe vera which yields the 

 Barbadoes or CuRAgAo aloes has leaves with yellow or reddish 

 spines and yellow flowers in which the stamens are as long as the 

 corolla (Fig. 130) ; Aloe spicata and some other African species 

 which yield Cape aloes, have flowers in close spikes, the petals 

 being white and marked by green lines, and the stamens much 

 longer than the corolla. The inspissated juice is official in all the 

 pharmacopoeias (p. 661). 



Urginea maritima, which yields the drug squill, is char- 

 acterized by its large onion-like bulb, from which arise ten to 

 twenty broadly lanceolate, grayish-green leaves ; and by having 

 the inflorescence in long spikes consisting of whitish flov/ers 

 which have a distinctly purple stripe on each division of the 

 perianth (p. 510). 



Convallaria majalis or Lily-of-the-valley is a plant which is 

 well known. It produces a raceme of delicately odorous white 

 flowers and beautiful oblong leaves with prominent parallel veins. 

 The rhizome and roots are official (p. 488). 



Sinilax species. The drug sarsaparilla (p. 446) is yielded by 

 a number of species of Smilax. These are mostly vines with 

 woody or herbaceous, often prickly stems and leaves with petioles 

 which have a pair of persistent tendril-like appendages. The 

 flowers are small, mostly greenish, dioecious and in axillary 

 umbels. The fruit is a globose berry. Not a great deal is known 

 of the species which yield the drug, with the exception of Smilax 

 medica which yields the Mexican sarsaparilla. In Smilax medica 

 the leaves vary from more or less cordate to auriculate-hastate ; in 

 Smilax officinalis which yields the Jamaica sarsaparilla they are 

 ovate, as they are also in Smilax papyracca which yields Para 

 sarsaparilla. Nothing is known of the plant yielding Honduras 

 sarsaparilla, although this drug has been in use for nearly four 

 centuries. The plants have short rhizomes which give rise to long 

 roots v/hich are the part used in medicine. 



A dragon's blood, resembling that derived from Calamus 

 Draco (p. 232) is obtained from Draccena Draco, a tree growing 

 in the Canary Islands. Some of the trees of this species are of 

 historic interest, as the dragon tree of Orotava which is 46 feet in 

 circumference at the base. 



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