50 



Icn^^th the seed is from 5 — 10 m.ni. long and from 1 — 2 m.m. 

 broad. The crushed seeds have a characteristic taste and odor. 

 Aside from the taste there are few characteristics of the tiss- 

 ues which are useful in diagnosing the seed. 



GENTIAN. 



{Geritiana lulea.) 



This powder is brownish in color and has a characteristic 

 bitter taste and odor. The cells contain no oxalate crystals and 

 no root hairs arc present. Usually small cells with broken walls 

 and having numerous oblique pores arc found. The odor is suffi- 

 cient to identify this drug. It is, however, of very rare occurrence. 



GINGER. 



{Zingiber officinale.) 



There are several varieties of ginger in use at present, both 

 as a spice and drug, and these are sometimes used in certain 

 feeds, but ginger is not of common occurrence. When found it 

 is usually in a ground state and the fragments have a few charac- 

 teristics which serve as a means of identification for this s])ice. 

 Of primary importance are the characteristic starch grains \\4aich 

 in the case of the ordinary ginger are irregular in shape, some- 

 what resembling curcuma but very much smaller. They are 

 flattened ovate and generally have an angled or sharp point at 

 the narrow end which is quite distinct. The cxccntric hilum 

 is always within the angle and is distinctly visible. The grains 

 have many laminae which are sometimes visible and sometimes 

 not, as the case may be. Usually the grains are found singly, 

 although in some varieties aggregates of two or three grains may 

 occur. In size the grains range between 20 — 30;u through their 

 longest diameter, although sinaller grains may occur and occa- 

 sionally some ranging a little larger than 30/i. 



In addition to the starch grains the bast fibres are of use in 

 diagnosing this substance. These are very flat, broad, long ves- 

 sels with thin walls and sometimes reach a length of 3 — 5 m.m. 

 and a width of approximately 50/x. The cell walls have pores 

 which arc usually crossed with diagonal clefts. 



