MELON PUMPKIN 165 



Description. The seeds are ovate, flat, nearly white, pitted and 

 brittle ; about 8 to 20 mm. long and 9 to 12 mm. broad ; they have a 

 flat ridge and shallow groove round the edge. The kernels consist 

 of two white, fleshy, oily, easily separable cotyledons and a small 

 radicle ; they have a faint odour and only a slight taste. 



Constituents. Melon pumpkin seeds contain an acrid resin to which 

 their activity has been ascribed and about 30 per cent, of a reddish 

 fixed oil together with proteids, sugar and starch. Recent experiments 

 have failed to show that either the resin or the oil possesses therapeutic 

 activity (Power and Salway, 1910). 



Uses. As a tsenicide. 



QUINCE SEEDS 



(Semina Cydoniae) 



Source, &c. The quince is the fruit of Pyrus Cydoma, Linne (N.O. 

 Eosacece), a small tree indigenous to Persia, but distributed by culti- 

 vation throughout central Europe and other warm countries ; the 

 seeds are imported chiefly from Cape Colony. 



The fruit, which resembles a pear, contains five carpellary cavities, 

 in each of which there are about twenty seeds closely packed in two 

 vertical rows. These seeds are separated from the ripe fruit and 

 dried ; being coated with mucilage they adhere more or less firmly 

 together. 



Description. Quince seeds bear a general resemblance to apple 

 pips. They are of about the same size, and of a similar mahogany- 

 brown colour. By the mutual pressure to which they are subjected 

 in the fruit, quince seeds, however, are distinctly flattened on the 

 two larger sides, whilst of the two narrow sides or edges one is obtuse 

 and boldly arched, the other only slightly curved and often provided 

 with a distinct acute ridge. They frequently adhere firmly to one 

 another in small irregular masses or in two more or less regular rows, 

 being cemented together by dry mucilage, which is visible in the form 

 of whitish flakes on the surface of the seeds and in the interstices 

 between them. This mucilage is derived from the cells of the epidermis 

 of the seed-coat in which it is stored. (Compare fig. 92, E.) 



The seeds are pointed at one end, where the hilum may be dis- 

 tinguished as a minute paler spot, and obtuse at the other (the chalazal 

 extremity). Transverse sections through the seed, which is rather 

 hard, exhibit two firm, yellowish white cotyledons with a very narrow 

 endosperm. The kernel possesses a taste resembling that of bitter 

 almonds, but much fainter. The seed-coats, when chewed, are simply 

 mucilaginous. 



