426 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



COLCHICI SEMEN.— COLCHICUM SEED.— The dried, 

 ripe seeds of Colchicum autumnale (Earn. Liliaceae), a perennial 

 bulbous plant, native of and growing in moist meadows in South- 

 ern and Middle Europe and Northern Africa (p. 236). The com- 

 mercial supplies come chiefly from England and Germany. 



Description. — Hemi-anatropous, ovoid or irregularly glob- 

 ular, more or less beaked, with an easily detachable strophiole, 

 2 to 3 mm. in diameter ; externally dark brown, becoming darker 

 with age, minutely pitted, the epidermis detached in irregular 

 patches in older seeds ; frequently agglutinated when fresh, due 

 to the presence of a saccharine exudation; very hard when dry, 

 tough when damp, internally whitish, endosperm hard, embryo 



Fig. 184. Transverse section of flaxseed; E, epidermal cells with small lumen and 

 very thick outer wall showing mucilage lamellae; PY, PO, parenchyma ceUs; ST, stone 

 cells; P, parenchyma below stone cells; O, obliterated cells; CO, cells with reddish- 

 brown contents; EN, endosperm. 



0.5 mm. long and situated at end opposite the strophiole; nearly 

 inodorous ; taste feeble, bitter and somewhat acrid. 



Constituents. — Proteids ; fixed oil about 6 per cent. ; a tan- 

 nin-like substance in the seed-coat ; starch grains in the caruncle ; 

 an alkaloid colchicine 0.4 to 0.6 per cent. (0.55 per cent, required 

 by the U.S. P.) ; a resinous principle colchicoresin ; ash about 2.5 

 per cent. (See also Colchici Cormus.) 



LINUM.— LINSEED OR ELAXSEED.— The seed of Li- 

 num usitatissimum (Earn. Linacese), an annual, which is culti- 

 vated in nearly all temperate and tropical regions, either for the 

 fiber (flax) or seed (p. 303). 



Description. — Anatropous, ovoid or oblong-lanceolate, flat- 

 tened, somewhat less rounded on one side and on one margin, apex 

 acute or beaked, chalazal end rounded, plano-convex in trans- 



