CORMUS COLCHICI. 701 



Description — The fresh corm is conical or invei'sely pear-shaped, 

 about 2 inches long by an inch or more wide, rounded on one side, 

 flattish on the other, covered by a bright brown, membranous skin, 

 within which is a second of paler colour. When cut transversely, it 

 appears white, firm, fleshy and homogeneous, abounding in a bitter, 

 starchy juice, of disagreeable odour. The dried slices are inodorous, 

 and have a bitterish taste. They should be of a good white, clean, 

 crisp and brittle, — not mouldy or stained. 



Microscopic Structure — The outer membrane is formed of tan- 

 gentially-extended cells, with thick brownish walls ; the main body of 

 the corm, of large thin- walled, more or less regularly globular cells, 

 loaded with starch, and interrupted by vascular bundles containing 

 spiral vessels. The original form of the starch granules is globular or 

 egg-shaped, but from mutual pressure and agglutination, many are 

 angular or truncated. A large proportion are more or less compound, 

 consisting of several granules united into one. In all, the hilum is 

 very distinct, appearing in some as a mere point, but in most as a line 

 or star. 



Chemical Composition — The corms contain Colchiciii (see next 

 article), starch, sugar, gum, resin, tannin, and fat. When sliced and 

 dried, they lose about 70 per cent, of water.^ By drying, the (pro- 

 bably) volatile body upon which the odour of the fresh corm depends, 

 is lost. 



Uses— Colchicum is much prescribed in cases of gout, rheumatism, 

 dropsy, and cutaneous maladies. 



Other medicinal species of Colchicum. 



Under the name Hermoclacti/lus,- the corms of other species of Col- 

 chicum of Eastern origin anciently enjoyed great reputation in medi- 

 cine. These corms are in structure precisely like those of ordinary 

 colchicum ; they are entire, but deprived of membranous envelopes, of 

 a flattened, heart-shaped form, not wrinkled on the surface, and often 

 very small in size. The starch grains they contain are similar to those 

 of C. autumnale, but in some specimens twice as large. 



There is a great uncertainty as to the species of Colchicum which 

 furnish hermodactyls. Prof J. E. Planchon, who has written an ela- 

 borate article on the subject,^ is in favour of C. variegatum L., a native 

 of the Levant. But one can hardly suppose this plant to be the source 

 of the hermodactyls (SuHnjdn) of the Indian bazaars, which are stated 

 to be brought from Kashmir. 



^ This is the average obtained during ten at all ; see also Cooke in Pharm. Journ. 



years in drying 16 cwt., in the laboratory April 1, 1871. 



of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London. ^Ann. dcs Sciences Xat., Bot., iv. (1855) 



-The Bitter Hermodactyl oi Eoyle is not 132; abstract in Pharvi. Journ. xv. (1856) 



in our opinion the produce of a Colchicum 465. 



