696 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



wedges; the rhizome having a circular pith; odor faint, aromatic; 

 taste sweetish, followed by an acrid and tingling sensation resembling 

 that of aconite, but lacking the persistency and numbing qualities 

 of the latter. 



INNER STRUCTURE. See Fig. 307. 



Constituents. Inulin 5.9 per cent; inuloid, 6 per cent; sucrose, 

 7 per cent; vulose, 4 per cent; betaine, 0.1 per cent; resins, 1.9 per 

 cent, consisting of 2 isomeric phytosterols; phytosterolin ; and the 

 following fatty acids, oleic, linolic, cerotic and palmitic. Echinacea 

 probably also contains a glucoside. 



Literature. Kraemer and Sollenberger, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1911, 

 p. 315; Heyl and Hart, Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1915, p. 1769. 



SENECIO. Golden Senecio or Ragwort, Life Root. The over- 

 ground plant of Senecio aureus (Fam. Compositse), a perennial herb, 

 growing in swamps and wet meadows throughout the northern and 

 central United States. The leaves and flowering tops are gathered 

 in the early summer and carefully dried. 



Description. Consisting of a grop of bc,Gd leaves and a leafy 

 flowering scape. Basal leaves, orbicular or oblong, long petiolate, 

 the lamina from 1 to 6 cm. in length, and 1 to 5 cm. in breadth; 

 summit rounded, the base acute or cordate, the margin crenate- 

 dentate; both surfaces olive-green or purplish-green, considerably 

 wrinkled, glabrous, the mid-vein and lower veins of the first order 

 prominent, the latter diverging at a very c,cute angle and uniting 

 near the margin; petioles from 3 to 8 cm. in length, having 8 to 10 

 prominent ribs, light brown and frequently covered at the base with 

 soft woolly hairs. Flowering stalk from 15 to 40 cm. in length, 

 having 8 to 10 prominent ribs, olive-green, when young, usually 

 covered with soft woolly hairs, which are easily detachable, leaving 

 the stems glabrous; leaves alternate, the upper sessile, the lower 

 being petiolate, having a lanceolate outline and being usually lacin- 

 iate-pinnatifid. Flowers, in open corymbs, the heads having slender 

 peduncles which vary from 3 to 7 cm. in length; involucral scales, 

 linear, erect-connivent ; ray florets 8 to 12 having golden yellow 

 ligulate corollas; tubular florets yellow and perfect; achenes hairy 

 and having a white pappus, about 6 mm. in length; odor distinct, 

 aromatic; taste acrid and somewhat bitter and pungent. 



Inner Structure. Epidermal cells of the lower surface having 

 strongly undulate walls, the stomata being narrowly elliptical, about 

 0.030 mm. in length, the neighboring cells being transverse to the 

 pore; the cells of the upper surface resemble those of the lower sur- 

 face, the walls, however, being only slightly undulate; transverse 



