186 SEEDS 



Description. Grains of paradise are small, hard, shining seeds of 

 a rich reddish brown colour. They vary much in shape but are 

 frequently sub-pyramidal with rounded or obtuse angles, and average 

 about 3 mm. in length ; the surface is seen under a lens to be minutely 

 but distinctly papillose. Attached to one extremity of the seed are 

 usually the paler fibrous remains of the funiculus, which project in 

 the form of a beak. Cut transversely near the hilum, they exhibit a 

 copious, white, starchy perisperm surrounding a yellowish, horny 

 endosperm in which a minute paler embryo is embedded. The 

 longitudinal section also exhibits the perisperm, endosperm, and 

 embryo, the radicle of the latter being directed towards the funiculus. 

 The crushed seeds have a faintly aromatic odour, but the taste is 

 intensely pungent, rivalling that of capsicum fruit. 

 The student should observe 



(a) The rich, reddish brown colour, 



(b) The papillose surface, 



(c) The large projecting funiculus, 



(d) The pungent taste ; 



and should compare them with cardamom seeds 

 (see page 139). 



Constituents. Grains of paradise contain a 

 little (0-3 per cent.) volatile oil and a yellowish 

 extremely pungent, oily body, paradol which 

 FIG 99 Grain of nas no * ^ e * keen obtained in a crystalline 

 Paradise. (Mag- form. It resembles gingerol (see p. 378), but 

 nified.) its pungency is not destroyed by boiling with 



2 per cent, solution of caustic potash. 



Uses. The seeds possess stimulant properties, and were formerly 

 employed as a condiment ; now they are chiefly used in veterinary 

 medicine. 



COLCHICUM SEEDS 



(Semina Colchici) 



Source, &C. The meadow saffron, Colchicumautumnale, Linne (N.O. 

 Liliacece), is widely distributed over Europe, and abundant in some 

 parts of England in moist meadows and pastures. It produces in 

 the autumn a conspicuous, reddish purple flower that springs from 

 the side of an enlarged contracted stem (corm) several centimetres 

 below the surface of the ground. The ovary is superior and lies at 

 about the same depth in the ground. The leaves appear soon after 

 the flower, and attain in the spring a length of 20 or 25 cm. The ovary 

 is then raised to the surface by the elongation of the peduncle, after 

 which the leaves wither. The fruit, a three-celled capsule, ripens in 

 the summer, dehiscing septicidally and disclosing numerous seeds 



