228 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



stem, smooth or slightly hairy, the lower palmately divided, the 

 upper pinnately-compound, the ultimate divisions being narrowly 

 linear and acute. Flowers mostly single, at the summit of the scape, 

 about 3.5 cm. in breadth, pendulous, with a calyx consisting of 5 

 ovate hairy sepals, a corolla of 10 to 20 lanceolate, nearly spatulate, 

 yellowish petals, stamens indefinite, pistils numerous, forming in 

 fruit a dense head of ovoid achenes; odor slight; taste bitter and 

 slightly acrid. 



Inner Structure. Leaves unifacial, the epidermal cells being 

 longitudinally elongated and having wavy walls; the stomata, which 

 are without neighboring cells, are deeply imbedded upon the lower 

 surface. Fibrovascular bundles having tracheae with spiral thick- 

 enings or marked with bordered pores and associated with narrow, 

 lignified sclerenchymatous fibers. Non-glandular hairs, 1-celled, 

 more or less curved and occasionally in the form of double hairs. 



Powder. Grayish-green; numerous fragments of pith paren- 

 chyma with a few simple pores, the cells attaining a length of 0.250 

 mm.; groups of narrow sclerenchymatous fibers, mostly with lig- 

 nified walls from 0.005 to 0.007 mm. in thickness and having few 

 round or oblique simple pores; tracheae 0.017 mm. in width, with 

 spiral thickenings or bordered pores, epidermal cells from the stem 

 and petiole, elongated in surface view and associated with elliptical 

 stomata, the latter 0.064 mm. in length; fragments of the epidermal 

 tissue from the lamina of the leaf, composed of finely striated cells 

 with wavy vertical walls, associated with broadly elliptical stomata, 

 the latter attaining a length of 0.047 mm.; brownish-colored frag- 

 ments from the scales at the base of the stem, composed of elongated 

 cells with somewhat rounded ends and yellowish-brown walls; starch 

 grains and calcium oxalate crystals are very few or wanting. New- 

 comb. 



Constituents. Adonidin, a mixture of principles having the physi- 

 ological action of Digitalis, and of which Picroadonidin, an amor- 

 phous glucoside, is the cardiac acting principle. Also Adonidinic 

 acid and a substance resembling Quercitrin. 



ADONIS. Herba Adonidis ^Estivalis. The overground plant 

 of Adonis sestivalis (Fam. Ranunculacese), an annual herb common in 

 southern and central Europe. The plants are gathered in May or 

 June at the time of flowering, and dried after removing the roots. 



The stem is nearly smooth, furrowed and in the upper portion, 

 more or less branched ; the leaves are pinnately divided, the ultimate 

 segments being linear and acute; the flowers are terminal, consisting 

 of a 5-parted calyx, the sepals being narrow-lanceolate; corolla of 



