SPERMATOPHYTA RANUNCULACEAE 455 



part of it, and the rest of the alcohol added. After thorough mixture, the whole is allowed 

 to stand eight days in a well-stoppered bottle. The tincture thus prepared, after straining 

 and filtering, should have a light, seal-brown color by transmitted light, an acrid astringent 

 taste, and a decidedly acid reaction. 



Dr. White in his Dermatitis Venenata calls attention to the irritating por- 

 perties of the common wind-flower A. quinquefolia. The species is widely 

 distributed in woods in Eastern North America. He states that a large whole- 

 sale dealer in medical plants regarded it as an externally corrosive poison. It 

 is probable that other species of the genus are more or less acrid. Some of 

 these plants like the white meadow wind-flower A. canadensis are probably 

 looked upon with some suspicion. Dr. Johnson in his Manual of Medical 

 Botany, makes this statement in regard to the common Wind-flower : 



Pulsatilla is an acrid irritant which, in large doses, has often produced serious and 

 alarming effects. In safe medicinal doses, however, its effects are by no means so well 

 known. At various times and by numerous authors it has been highly praised as a remedy 

 in diseases of the eye, in rheumatism, amenorrhoea, dismenorrhoea, etc. In this country 

 it has been employed chiefly by homeopathic practitioners, and usually in very minute 

 doses. Many of the results claimed for it under such circumstances are at least doubtful. 

 Certain it is that other practitioners have not been able to confirm them. 



Anemone quinquefolia L. Wind Flower 



A low smooth perennial with filiform rootstock, involucre or 3-petioled, 

 trifoliolate, toothed leaves, sepals 4-7, ovate, white, pale blue or purple; carpels 

 15-20 oblong with a hooked beak. 



Distribution. In woods from Nova Scotia to Georgia and the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, also in Europe. 



Fig. 229. Wind flower (Anemone quinque- 

 folia). A well known plant with more or 

 less acrid properties. (Ada Hayden.) 



