294 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



mene, 34.76 per cent of resin esters and 2 per cent of resin acids. 

 (Jordan, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1917, 89, p. 581.) 



Styrax is also obtained from Altingia excelsa, of the Indian 

 Archipelago. It yields a soft, white, crystalline balsam developing 

 the fragrant odor of styrol and contains about 50 per cent of an 

 ester of cinnamic acid. A brown solid balsam is also obtained from 

 this tree. It has an. odor of cinnamon and contains a trace of free 

 cinnamic acid and 9.7 per cent of cinnamic acid in the form of an 

 ester. The oil from this plant is known as " Rasamala wood oil," 

 and contains a ketone. 



Literature. Van Itallie and Lemkes, Bot. Abstracts, 1918, 

 I, p. 179. 



ROSACES, OR ROSE FAMILY 



A family of about 1200 species of great diversity of form. With 

 the exception of the flowers, there are no constant morphological 

 characters. The flowers are regular and with numerous stamens. 

 The tracheae usually have bordered pores and occasionally scalari- 

 form perforations. The wood fibers possess bordered pores and are 

 of the tracheid type. In the woody species the pericycle is com- 

 posed of either isolated groups of bast fibers, or a composite and con- 

 tinuous sclerenchymatous ring, being composed in part in some 

 instances of U-shaped stone cells. Calcium oxalate occurs in the 

 form of solitary crystals or rosette aggregates, and with the excep- 

 tion of Quillaja styloids are not present. The secretion cells contain 

 either tannin or mucilage. Lysigenous mucilage canals have only 

 been found in Neurada. Gummosis of the parenchyma cells of the 

 cortex and wood is characteristic of many of the species of Prunus. 

 The gum exudes spontaneously through rifts or channels in the bark 

 as the result of the pressure of the gum and collects upon the outer 

 surface in the form of irregular tears. Both glandular and non- 

 glandular hairs are very common to the epidermal tissues of the 

 plants of this family. 



AMYGDALA AMABA. Bitter Almond. The ripe seed of Prunus 

 Amygdalus amara (Fam. Rosaces), a tree native of Asia Minor, 

 Persia and Syria, cultivated and naturalized in all tropical and 

 warm-temperate regions. The commercial product is obtained 

 mostly from Sicily, southern France, southern Italy and northern 

 Africa. In commercial almonds the yellowish, more or less porous, 

 fibrous and brittle endocarp is frequently present, and this should 

 be removed (Fig. 131). 



