PHYTOLACCACEJE. 49 



several families with which they are connected by their flowers and 

 fruit. Like the Marvels of Peru, the herbaceous Pliytolaccacece often 

 have a tap-root filled with feculae and resinous substances. As to their 

 stems they present also in their thickness numerous concentric circles 

 of fibro-vascular fascicles, whose presence has induced several authors 1 

 to cite these stems as an example of the formation of several layers 

 of wood in one and the same period of vegetation. The concentric 

 layers, more or less regular, are separated by circular ones of paren- 

 chymatous 2 tissue. Here also the bundles are distributed more 

 internally than the wood proper, and consequently the pith is 

 riddled 3 by them. When the bundles, which alternate with the 

 medullary rays in a given layer, alternate at the same time with 

 those of a neighbouring zone, as in P. esculenta, icosandra, &c., 4 the 

 fibro-vascular bundles of one zone seem to continue the medullary 

 rays of the more interior and of the more exterior zone. This 

 arrangement is observed also in some other genera of Pliytolaccacece. 



The uses 5 of these plants are not numerous. The most useful 

 are, without doubt, the Phytolaccas, especially P. decandra 6 (figs. 21— 

 28), which is an evacuant drug. Its root (fig. 28) has been employed 

 as a substitute for the purgative Coiivolvidacete under the name of 

 Mcchoacan dn Canada"' Its leaves are acrid, and its fruit is an 

 active purgative before attaining maturity. It is said that even the 

 flesh of pigeons which feed on it becomes laxative ; and it is doubt- 

 less quite right that the use of these fruits in colouring food and 

 beverages should be proscribed. The same properties are found in 

 Anisomeria drastica 8 of Chili, whose root is slightly bitter when 

 masticated, but rich in a resinous substance producing powerful 

 evacuant effects. These plants have also an irritant action when 



1 Ch. Mart., in Eev. Sort. (1855), 122.— 6 See p. 24, note 1 (Pocan, Garget, Cocum 

 Oliv., Stem in Dicot., 28. of the United States). 



2 AlsoM.N^GELl(-Pe^r. z. Wiss. Bot., i. 14) 7 " MecTioacanna spuria s. canadensis." 

 cites them as examples of Dicotyledones which BiGELOW (Med. Bot., i. t. 3) cites tbis plant as 

 have limited rings of cambium in the epenchyme. acting like Ipecacuanha, as Antirheumatical, but 



3 Teeyib., \nBot. Zeit. (1856), 833. at the same time as acrid, and narcotic, &c. 



4 Regn., in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, xiv. 8 Moq., Prodr., 25, n. 2. — Phytolacca dras- 

 \Z\). t* ca P £EPP > e t Endl., Nov. Gen. et Spec, 26, 



5 Endi., Enchirid., 509. — LiNDl., Veg. t. 43. ^.—Pircunia suffruticosa Beet. The 

 Kingd., 508; Fl. Med., 351. — Rosenth., same properties exist in A. litloralis, which is 

 Syn. PI. Diaphor., 702. perhaps only a variety of it. 



VOL. IV. 



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