504 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



berry-like fruit, surmounted by the short calyx teeth. The plants 

 of this family are furthermore distinguished by the stomata having 

 2 neighboring or subsidiary cells which lie parallel to the pore. This 

 sub-family includes the blueberry and huckleberry plants. 3. The 

 MONOTROPACE.E, or Indian pipe sub-family. These well-known 

 saprophytes are free from chlorophyll and include the Indian pipe 

 and beech drops. Some writers divide the Ericacea3, by placing those 

 plants in which the flowers have a polypetalous corolla into a sub- 

 family by themselves. The latter include the PYROLACE.E, which 

 comprises about 20 species, including Pyrola, Chimaphila and pos- 

 sibly 2 other genera. 



CHIMAPHILA. Pipsissewa or Prince's Pine. The dried leaves 

 of Chimaphila umbellata (Fam. Ericaceae, sub-fam. Pyrolaceae), a 

 perennial herb indigenous to the United States and southern Canada 

 and northern Europe and Siberia. 



Description. Lanceolate or oblanceolate, 2.5 to 5 cm. in length, 

 8 to 18 mm. in breadth; summit obtuse or acute; base acute or 

 cuneate; margin sharply serrate; upper surface dark green, not 

 mottled, glabrous, shiny; midrib and veins depressed, the latter 

 diverging at an angle of about 60 and uniting with each other near 

 the margin; under surface yellowish-green; petiole about 1 mm. in 

 length; texture coriaceous, brittle; odor slight; taste astringent, 

 bitter. 



INNER STRUCTURE. See Fig. 214. 



Powder. Yellowish-green, or dark green; calcium oxalate in 

 rosette aggregates, from 0.035 to 0.060 mm. in diameter; character- 

 istic thick-walled cells of the lower epidermis having broadly elliptical 

 stomata, which lack subsidiary cells; mesophyll containing plastids; 

 parenchyma containing irregular, reddish-brown masses containing 

 tannin; sclerenchymatous fibers of stem with relatively thick walls 

 associated with spiral or annular trachea; also fragments containing 

 a purplish pigment which is colored yellowish-red with acids and 

 bright green with alkalies. 



Arbutin is a bitter glucoside, which crystallizes in needles or prisms, 

 and the cells containing it may be determined by the use of nitric 

 acid, which colors them orange-yellow to dark reddish-brown. It 

 occurs distributed in the cells of the loose mesophyll and palisade 

 layers of Chimaphila. Arbutin yields, upon hydrolysis, glucose and 

 hydrochinon. The latter substance is sublimable, and may be easily 

 obtained as a microsublimate. The sections of the leaves of Chim- 

 aphila, or a small quantity of the powdered leaves, are first treated 

 with a few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid or a solution of emulsin. 



