76 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



of calamus; choline (trimethyl-oxyethyl ammonium hydrate), a 

 strong, non-poisonous base, and formerly known as calamine; a 

 soft resin about 2.3 per cent; tannin; mucilage; starch and calcium 

 oxalate. 



COMMELINACE^E, OR SPIDERWORT FAMILY 



Annual or perennial herbs, mostly indigenous to the tropics and 

 represented by nearly 400 species. It is represented in the United 

 States by Tradescantia and Commelina, some of the species of the 

 latter being used in medicine. 



COMMELINA. Day Flower. The entire plant of Commelina 

 communis, a 'perennial herb growing in the United States south of 

 New York and west to Kansas and Texas. The stem is procumbent 

 or creeping and the plant produces roots at the nodes rather freely. 

 The leaves are broadly lanceolate, being acute at the summit and 

 contracted at the base into sheathing petioles. The floral leaves are 

 large, heart-shaped, clasping bracts enclosing 2 to 4 flowers arranged 

 in cymes. The fruit is a 3-locular capsule containing 1 or 2 seeds in 

 each locule. The seeds are oblong, about 2 mm. in length and retic- 

 ulated. For illustrations of morphology see Fig. 27. 



Commelina probably contains a small amount of an alkaloid 

 and a glucoside; mucilage 13 per cent and starch 0.5 percent. The 

 drug has hemostatic properties. Several species of Commelina 

 growing in Mexico are also used for the same purpose. 



Literature. Herrera, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1897, p. 290; Preston, 

 Ibid., 1898, p. 321. 



LILIACE^;, OR LILY FAMILY 



They are mostly perennial herbs having bulbs or tubers and 

 rarely fibrous roots. There are about 2500 species and are found in 

 nearly all portions of the globe. A few are used in medicine, some 

 furnish food products, but their chief interest is in their ornamental 

 uses. The leaves are for the most part parallel-veined and the flowers 

 are regular and with 6 stamens. There are no striking anatomical 



sclerenchymatous fibers. G, a leptocentric mestome strand from the pith 

 of the rhizome showing leptome (L) tracheae or vessels (H) and sclerenchy- 

 matous fibers (St). H, transverse section of root stele showing endodermis 

 (End) ; pericambium (P) ; a 7-rayed hadrome (H) consisting of large tracheae 

 surrounded by sclerenchymatous fibers; leptome (L) only indicated by V- 

 shaped open spaces. I, transverse section of part of root stele showing 

 tangential cell division on the inner flank of the leptome; letters as in H. 

 After Holm. 



