144 SEEDS 



indigenous to Asia Minor and southern Europe. The plant is cultivated 

 in France and Italy, our supplies being derived chiefly from Trieste 

 and from the south of Italy. 



Stavesacre was well known to both the Greeks and the Romans. 

 Dioscorides mentions it, and Pliny describes its use as a parasiticide. 

 It continued to be extensively employed throughout the Middle Ages, 

 but is now in much less demand. 



The fruit consists of three follicles, in each of which a few seeds are 

 closely packed ; these are collected when ripe. 



Description. The seed, as seen in commerce, are about 6 mm. in 

 length and rather less in breadth. They usually appear to be dark grey 

 in colour, but when freed from the dust with which they are covered 

 are seen to be dark brown, and then the characteristic markings on 

 the surface of the seed become more evident. In shape they are 

 usually irregularly or obscurely four-sided, one side being curved 

 and larger than the others, which are nearly 

 flat or even depressed. The surface of the seed 

 is more or less uniformly reticulate and covered 

 with minute papillse visible under a lens. One 

 end of the seed is usually more pointed than 

 FIG. 84. Stavesacre tne otner . near tne pointed end the hilum is 

 seed, entire and . .1 -, i* . -n i 



cut longitudinally, vlslble as a narrow lme " B y soaking a seed in 

 showing embryo, water and cutting it transversely just below the 

 Magnified 2 diam. hilum, the minute embryo may be found em- 

 (Maisch.) bedded in a large, whitish or yellowish oily en- 



dosperm. 



The seed-coat is nearly tasteless, but the endosperm is intensely 

 bitter and acrid ; the seeds have no marked odour. 

 The student should observe 



(a) The dull earthy colour of the seed, 



(b) The characteristic obscurely quadrangular shape, 



(c) The rough as well as pitted surface, 



(d) The bitter, oily endosperm. 



Constituents. The seeds contain several alkaloids (in all about 

 1 per cent.), the most important of which are delphinine, delphisine, 

 and delphinoidine ; less important are staphisagroine, of which traces 

 only are present, and staphisagrine, which is probably a mixture. 



Delphinine, C 31 H 49 NO 7 , is crystalline and extremely poisonous. 

 Delphisine is amorphous, but about twice as poisonous as delphinme, 

 while delphinoidine, which is also amorphous, is much less toxic. 



The seeds also contain from 30 to 35 per cent, of fixed oil, which 

 may be extracted either by expression (expressed oil of Stavesacre) 

 or by solvents such as petroleum spirit, &c. ; in either case the oil 

 carries with it the greater part of the alkaloids, including practically 



