136 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



0.010 to 0.035 mm. long, and spheroidal starch grains from 0.004 

 to 0.008 mm. in diameter. 



Coumarin (Figs. 58 and 59), is rather widely distributed in 

 nature. Of the plants in which it has been found the following may 

 be mentioned: Vanilla grass or sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum 

 odoratum); Carolina vanilla or dog's tongue (Trilisa odoratissima) , 

 one of the Compositse; the yellow melilot (Melilotus omcinalis) , a 

 leguminous herb found in waste places in the Eastern United States 



FIG. 59. Coumarin. Type A, tabular crystals obtained by cooling melted 

 coumarin to 54-56 C.; type B, aggregates of tubular crystals: type C, 

 needles; type D, short prisms obtained from hot aqueous solutions. 



and in which it occurs free as well as combined with melilotic acid; 

 other species of Melilotus, as well as in other genera of the Legu- 

 minossB; sweet-scented bed straw (Galium triflorum), an herb of 

 the Rubiacese growing in the United States; the rhizome of Vitis 

 sessilifolia (Vitacese) of Brazil, and in Prunus Mahaleb (Fam. Rosa- 

 cese), of Europe. 



A number of the orchids contain coumarin, and these belong 

 chiefly to the genus Orchis, as Orchis odoratissima, of Europe; 0. 



