484 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



black and reticulate; internally, having a large, oily reserve layer 

 in which is embedded the small, greenish embryo. Black caraway 

 contains 1.5 per cent of a volatile oil; 1.5 per cent of a glucoside, 

 melanthin, which resembles saponin and helleborin; a fluorescent 

 alkaloid, damascenin, giving the volatile oil from N. damascena its 

 fluorescence; another alkaloid, connigelline; and about 35 per cent 

 of a fixed oil. 



Due to the recent abnormal shortage of Indian dill-seed (Peu- 

 cedanum Sowa) has been sold as a substitute but is very inferior to 

 the Dutch caraway. Mogador caraway from Morocco is suitable 

 only for distilling oil for perfuming soap. " Levant " caraway from 

 Tunis, a novelty in the London market, is the most acceptable sub- 

 stitute for the Dutch article so far offered. North Russian caraway 

 is especially suited for the flavoring of the liqueur known as kummel, 

 but yields very little volatile oil. 



CONIUM. Poison Hemlock. The fruit of Conium maculatum 

 (Fam. Umbelliferse), a large biennial herb indigenous to Europe, and 

 naturalized in North and South America and in various parts of Asia. 

 The juice of this plant entered into the famous hemlock potion of 

 the Greeks, and was employed by them in putting their criminals 

 to death. The fruit is collected when full grown but still green 

 from wild plants, carefully dried and preserved. 



Description. Mericarps usually separated; cremocarp broadly 

 ovoid, slightly compressed laterally, 3 to 4 mm. in length, about 2 mm. 

 in diameter, with a pedicel 3 to 5 mm. in length, externally grayish- 

 green, with 10 straight more or less crenate yellowish ribs, stylo- 

 podium depressed, internally greenish-brown, with a slender carpo- 

 phore attached to each mericarp, the latter 5-angled and somewhat 

 reniform in cross-section and without any vittse; seeds reniform, with 

 a deep furrow on the commissural side, and with a small embryo 

 at the upper end of the reserve layer; odor distinct; taste 

 slight. 



Inner Structure. (Fig. 208.) An epidermal layer of slightly 

 papillose cells; several layers of yellowish-brown cells, the inner and 

 radial walls of which are somewhat thickened ; a middle layer of thin- 

 walled cells; and an inner layer of small rectangular cells having 

 thick walls; in each of the ribs occurs a single fibrovascular bundle 

 surrounded by a layer of thick- walled sclerenchymatous fibers; 

 endosperm pentangular in outline and reniform on the inner surface 

 and consisting of polygonal cells containing an oily cytoplasm and 

 numerous aleurone grains, the latter containing rosette aggregates 

 of calcium oxalate from 0.002 to 0.005 in diameter. 



