278 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED THARMACOGNOSY 



having special secretion cells termed idioblasts. These are more 

 or less elongated cells, varying from 2 to 10 mm. in length, and occur 

 in the leaves as well as in the axis of the plant. Their contents are 

 either colorless, yellow or red. They have been variously termed 

 tannin and anthocyanin-receptacles or alkaloidal-receptacles. They 

 probably contain a mixture of substances, including a fixed oil, a 

 pigment resembling anthocyanin, tannic acid and one or more 

 alkaloids. The idioblasts are either isolated or arranged in long 

 longitudinal rows. For further discussion and illustration of these 

 cells, consult Kraemer's Applied and Economic Botany, pp. 208-210. 



CORYDALIS. Turkey or Squirrel Corn. The dried tubers of 

 Dicentra (Corydalis) canadensis and the granulate bulbs of 

 Dicentra Cucullaria (Fam. Fumariacese). These are low, stemless, 

 perennial herbs, common in rich woods in the eastern and central 

 United States and Canada. The plants have ternately compound 

 and dissected leaves and form racemes of characteristic flowers, 

 having heart-shaped, and spurred corollas, those of D. canadensis 

 being tinged with purple, while those of D. Cucullaria are yellow at 

 the summit. 



D. Canadensis. The tubers are rounded and frequently ver- 

 tically depressed, the flattened surface more or less concave, from 

 5 to 15 mm. in diameter; usually single, rarely two or more in a 

 cluster; externally, minutely pitted or nearly smooth, grayish- 

 brown, grayish-black or amber colored and more or less translucent; 

 one of the flattened surfaces having a triangular scar from detached 

 rhizome, the other usually with the short rhizome base and numerous 

 fine roots; fracture either hard and horny (the inner surface being 

 yellowish and waxy), or somewhat tough (the fractured surface 

 being yellowish-white and granular) ; odor slight; taste bitter. 



D. Cucullaria. The bulbils of the granulate bulb are plump, 

 ovoid or triangular-ovoid, from 5 to 12 mm. in length; the larger 

 bulbils distinctly concave on one surface, with a scar at the summit 

 from the detached petiole, and usually attached to the short root- 

 stock in clusters of three; the smaller bulbils usually separated from 

 the root-stock and having an acute summit and a scar at the base; 

 externally, yellowish or grayish-brown, usually translucent; frac- 

 ture either hard and horny, the inner surface being grayish and waxy, 

 or tough and whitish granular; odor slight; taste slightly bitter. 



Powder. Light yellow or yellowish-gray; starch grains numer- 

 ous, mostly single or 2-compound, the individual grains from 0.003 

 to 0.060 mm. in length, ovoid or oblong, the broad end of the grain 

 sometimes truncate, and usually having at the point of origin of 



