70 FLOWERS 



however, is a comparatively rare plant, are distinguished by their 

 dark red anthers. 



Use. Elder flowers are chiefly used for the preparation of the 

 distilled water. 



Notes. The fresh ripe fruits contain ty rosin ; the leaves and bark an alkaloid, 

 sambucine, and a purgative principle. The leaves also contain the cyanogenetic 

 glucoside sambunigrin, the glucoside of laevo-phenylglycollic acid (compare 

 p. 38). Green elder ointment is prepared by infusing the leaves in a melted 

 mixture of lard and suet. 



CHAMOMILE FLOWERS 



(Flores Anthemidis) 



Source, &C. The common or Roman chamomile, Anthemis nobilis, 

 Linne (N.O. Compositce), is a small creeping perennial plant with 



FIG. 39. Single chamomile. A, entire ; B, cut vertically, 

 showing the solid, conical receptacle. Natural size. 

 (Bentley and Trimen.) 



shortly ascending, leafy, flowering branches, bearing terminal white- 

 rayed flowerheads. It is common on waste grounds in this country, 

 and is cultivated for medicinal use both in England (Hampshire, &c.) 

 and in Belgium, France, and Saxony. Formerly large quantities 

 were produced near Mitcham, but at present there is but little grown 

 in Surrey, and that little is used chiefly for distillation. The flowers 

 have been used for centuries as a domestic medicine. 



The inflorescence of the wild plant is a capitulum surrounded by 

 two or three rows of overlapping bracts ; the disc-florets are yellow, 

 tubular, closely packed on an elongated conical receptacle and sur- 

 rounded by a single row of ray-florets with white ligulate corollas. 

 Such chamomile flowers, which are properly designated ' single,' are 

 collected to some extent in Scotland, but they are not official. 



Under certain circumstances the flower may become more or less 

 double. The yellow tubular corollas of the disc-florets become more 

 or less completely white and ligulate, and the flowerhead is converted 

 into a hemispherical mass of white ligulate florets. These are ' double ' 

 chamomiles, and form the bulk of the imported, cultivated flowers ; 



