GERANIUM. 113 



one-half inch thick, more or less branched, pale reddish-brown, with numer- 

 ous fibrous rootlets. Stem erect, 1 to 2 feet high, somewhat branched 

 dichotomously, hairy. Eadical leaves large, on long hairy petioles, deeply 

 cut into 5 or 7 segments, which are cuneate or oblong, and lobed and cut 

 at the end ; stem-leaves similar in shape but much smaller, opposite, 

 placed at the forks of the stem, sessile or on short petioles. All the leaves 

 are at first green, but as they grow old become more or less blotched with 

 whitish spots. The flower-stalks arise from the forks of the stem, each 

 bearing two flowers, one inch in diameter, on shoi-t pedicels. The flowers 

 are produced from May till July. 



Habitat. — Spotted geranium is one of the commonest plants in open 

 woods from Canada to Florida, and dm-ing its period of blooming is con- 

 spicuously beautiful. Though its flowers are less showy than those of 

 many of the exotic garden geraniums (pelargonium), to the lover of nature 

 they are far more interesting when seen displayed in lavish profusion in 

 their native home, the woods. 



Fart Used. — The rhizome — United States Pharmacojxeia. 



Constituents. — Geranium root has a simple astringent taste, due to a con- 

 siderable percentage of tannic and gallic acids, which appear to be its only 

 important constituents, though there are also present gum, starch, pectin, 

 resin, coloring matter, etc. 



Preparations. — Extractum geranii fluidrun — fluid extract of geranium. 

 — United States Pharmacopoeia. As geranium imj)arts its virtues readily to 

 both water and alcohol, it may be administered in decoction or tincture. 

 In many cases to which the drug is applicable the decoction is by far the 

 most eligible preparation. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Geranium is justly considered one of our 

 best indigenous astringents — one, however, whose virtues are not fully ap- 

 preciated by the profession at large. Though active and eflficient, it is stiU 

 mild and unirritating and devoid of all unpleasant or offensive properties. 

 It is therefore particularly suited to the later stages of diaiThoea and dysen- 

 tery, especially in children. In such cases a decoction in milk has been 

 found very serviceable. It has also been employed internally in a variety 

 ■of hemorrhages, with asserted benefit. As a topical astringent it has a stiU 

 wider field of usefulness, and may be employed in any case to which this 

 class of remedies is applicable, such as catarrhal inflammations and hemor- 

 rhages from mucous surfaces. As an injection in gonorrhoea, gleet, and 

 leucorrhoea, the decoction is much more serviceable than a simple solution 

 of tannin, doubtless from the fact that there is present mucilaginous ma- 

 terial which exerts a soothing influence. In fine powder the drug may be 

 employed as a styptic in bleeding from the nose and from the gums after 

 the extraction of teeth. 



Finally, geranium, though possessing no properties of a specific char- 

 acter, is undeniably a valuable astringent, and since the cases to which it 



