686 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



roadsides in the northern United States and Canada. The varie- 

 gated variety, the leaves of which have a creamy white margin, is a 

 common ornamental plant, thriving in shady places. The leaves 

 are gathered in June and July, after the flowering of the plant, 

 carefully dried and preserved. 



Description. Usually in broken pieces; leaves ovate-reniform, 

 long petiolate, from 8 to 15 cm. in length; summit acute, base 

 cordate, margin angulately lobed, and dentate having reddish-brown 

 teeth; ventral surface, dark green and glabrous; dorsal surf ace white 

 tomentose, having prominent 5 to 9 palmate-veins; odor slight; 

 taste mucilaginous and slightly bitter. 



Inner Structure. Epidermal cells of dorsal surface polygonal, 

 the cuticle being finely papillose; epidermal cells of the ventral sur- 

 face undulate, having numerous stomata and hairs; non-glandular 

 hairs unicellular consisting of 3 to 6 cells, the upper cells being very 

 long, irregularly twisted and matted together; very characteristic 

 are the 6-sided intercellular spaces beneath the broadly elliptical 

 stomata, which are about 0.050 mm. in width. 



Constituents. A small quantity of volatile oil; about 2.6 per 

 cent of a bitter glucoside; a caoutchouc-like substance; mucilage; 

 gallic acid; dextrin; about 6.2 per cent of albuminous substances; 

 and ash from 15 to 20 per cent. 



Literature. Meyer, Wissenchaftliche Drogenkunde, Vol. II., 

 p. 216. 



PYRETHRUM. Pellitory. The root of Anacylus Pyrethrum (Fam. 

 Compositse), a perennial herb indigenous to northern Africa and 

 southern Europe, the commercial article coming from Algeria. The 

 root is collected in autumn and dried. 



Description. Nearly cylindrical, slightly tapering, or broken 

 into irregular pieces, 2.5 to 10 cm. in length, 3 to 20 mm. in diameter; 

 externally dark brown, wrinkled and somewhat furrowed longitu- 

 dinally, with few rootlets or rootlet-scars ; crown somewhat annulate 

 from scars of bud-scales, and sometimes tufted with coarse fibers of 

 fibrovascular tissue or having long, soft-woolly, nearly straight, one- 

 celled hairs; fracture short and horny when dry, tough when damp; 

 bark dark brown internally, with two circular rows of resin canals, 

 0.5 to 1 mm. in thickness, and closely adhering to the light yellow, 

 radiate, porous wood, in the medullary rays of which resin canals 

 are also found; odor distinct, penetrating; taste pungent, acrid. 



Powder. Light to dark brown; parenchymatous cells with 

 irregular crystalloidal masses of inulin; periderm having nearly 

 isodiametric stone cells, the contents of which are yellowish-brown; 



