CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS. 493 



Crocus sativus, the orange-red stigmas of which have been used 

 in medicine since ancient times, is an autumnal-flowering plant. 

 The flowers are lilac-purple, somewhat like those of Colchicum, 

 and occur at the summit of a scape rising 15 to 20 cm. above 

 ground. The leaves are linear and rise directly from a more or 

 less globular corm. The plant is cultivated in Spain and other 

 parts of Europe and in the United States as well. The stigmas 

 constitute the drug saffron (Crocus), which was formerly official, 

 and contain a coloring principle, i part of which will impart a 

 distinct yellow color to 100,000 parts of water. Saffron contains 

 a yellow glucoside, crocin, which is soluble in alcohol but not in 

 water, and is colored blue by sulphuric acid. The drug also con- 

 tains 7.5 to 10 per cent, of a volatile oil, which appears to be 

 derived from a coloring principle that resembles carotin ; and the 

 bitter principle picro-crocin. 



e. JUNCACE^ OR RUSH FAMILY.— These are grass-like 

 marsh plants, which are distinguished by the fact that the flowers 

 are small, with a 6-parted glumaceous perianth, and the fruit is a 

 loculicidally dehiscent capsule. The stems are mostly solid, slen- 

 der, usually arise in tufts from the rhizome, and are characterized 

 by stellate parenchyma cells, among which are large, intercellular 

 spaces, the latter also being characteristic of the leaves. The 

 rushes are principally found in cold and temperate regions. 



Several species of Juncus and Luzula have been used in medi- 

 cine, particularly in Europe. The seeds of Lunula compestris, 

 a common wood rush of the United States naturalized from 

 Europe, are edible. Soft rush (Juncus effiisus) and Hard rush 

 (/. conglomeratits) are used in Japan in the manufacture of rush 

 matting. In Holland the rush is grown on the embankments 

 along the coast to prevent the action of the tides. 



VIII. ORDER SCITAMINALES OR SCITAMINE.l!:. 



The plants of this order are mostly found in the Tropics and 

 are perennial herbs with fleshy rhizomes. The leaves are large, 

 more or less elliptical and pinnately veined. The leaf sheaths close 

 tightly around each other and form a kind of false stem. The 

 flowers are epigynous, unsymmetrical or zygomorphic, and fre- 

 quently only one stamen is completely developed 



