200 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



berries, which are about 8 mm. in diameter and composed of 10 loculi, 

 each of which contains a single, lenticular, black seed. The sarcocarp 

 is fleshy, sweet and slightly acrid and contains a purplish-red coloring 

 principle which is soluble in water but not in alcohol, and which is 

 decomposed on heating the aqueous solution. The fruit also con- 

 tains phytolaccic acid, several fruit-acids and phytolaccin, a sub- 

 stance resembling tannin. 



Literature. Holm, Merck's Report, 1907, p. 312. 



CARYOPHYLLACE^;, OR PINK FAMILY 



Mostly annual or perennial herbs represented by about 1500 

 species and are found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, a large 

 number growing in the United States. The stems are mostly swollen 

 at the nodes; the leaves are entire and opposite and the flowers are 

 symmetrical and 4- to 5-merous. Calcium oxalate occurs in the 

 form of rosette aggregates ormicro crystals. The hairs, both glan- 

 dular and non-glandular, are simple and uniseriate. Especially 

 characteristic are the stomata, the walls of their two neighboring 

 cells being transverse to the pores. Sclerenchymatous tissue is 

 wanting in the leaf, but present in the form of a closed ring in the 

 cortex of the stem. In the latter, the medullary rays are replaced 

 by parenchyma. 



RADIX SAPONARLE RUBRA. Red Soaproot, Soapwort or Sapon- 

 ary. The rhizome and roots of the perennial herb commonly known 

 as Bouncing Bet or Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis (Fam. Caryo- 

 phyllaceae). The plant has been naturalized from Europe and is 

 very common in certain localities, growing along roadsides, river 

 banks and in waste places. The flowers are showy and vary from 

 white to rose pink in color. The thick rhizomes, with their more 01 

 less fleshy roots, are gathered from one- or two-year old plants 

 deprived of the smaller roots and cut transversely into pieces of 

 suitable length. 



Description. Cylindrical, more or less branched, from 5 to 12 

 cm. in length and 5 to 10 mm. in thickness; outer surface reddish- 

 brown, longitudinally wrinkled and furrowed and occasionally spirally 

 twisted; fracture short and even; inner surface with a brownish- 

 red corky layer, cambial zone distinct separating the non-radiate 

 yellowish wood from the whitish, yellowish or grayish-brown cortex; 

 odor slight; taste sweetish and bitter. Rhizomes usually more or 

 less knotted and 4-angled and possess 2 to 4 characteristic wood 

 wedges. 



Inner Structure. See Fig. 86. 



