CRUDE DRUGS. 427 



verse section, 4 to 5 mm. long, 2 to 2.5 mm. broad, 0.5 to 0.75 

 mm. thick; externally light brown, very smooth and glossy, the 

 raphe extending as a distinct, light-yellow ridge along one edge, 

 outer wall of epidermal cells transparent, mucilaginous and swell- 

 ing in water; easily cut; endosperm white, adhering to the seed- 

 coat, embryo light green, straight, 3 to 4 mm. long, i to 2 mm. 

 broad, cotyledons plano-convex; odor slight; taste mucilaginous 

 and slightly unpleasant. 



Inner Structure. — See Figs. 99, A; 184; 293. 



Constituents. — Fixed oil 30 to 40 per cent. ; proteids about 

 25 per cent. ; mucilage in outer walls of the epidermal cells ; ash 

 I to 4 per cent. 



Ground flaxseed (flaxseed meal or crushed linseed) is not 

 infrequently deficient in oil on account of its being admixed with 

 " oil-cake " or " cake-meal." The latter is the residue after 

 expressing about 20 to 30 per cent, of the oil naturally occurring 

 in the crushed linseed, and the deficiency is sometimes made up 

 by the addition of mineral oils. Ground flaxseed sometimes con- 

 tains fragments of the cereals rye and wheat, which is partly due 

 to the fact that these cereals grow in with the flax, and partly 

 because it is sometimes shipped in meal or flour sacks. 



STAPHISAGRIA.— STAVESACRE.— The ripe seed of Del- 

 phinium Staphisagria (Fam. Ranunculacese), an annual or bien- 

 nial native of Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and cultivated in 

 Austria (Trieste), Italy and Southern France, from which latter 

 countries the commercial supplies are obtained (p. 270). 



Description. — Anatropous, irregularly triangular or some- 

 what tetrahedral, one side convex, the others plane, the micropylar 

 end acute or obtuse, 5 to 6 mm. long, 3 to 6 mm. broad ; externally 

 dark brown, becoming lighter and duller with age, more or less 

 uniformly reticulate, the pits being about 0.5 mm. in diameter, 

 raphe forming a more or less distinct ridge on the largest of the 

 plane surfaces or on the edge of two united sides, epidermis 

 modified to distinct papillae; inner seed-coat yellowish-brown, 

 adhering to the endosperm when moistened, the latter white or 

 yellowish, and enclosing at the pointed end a small, straight 

 embryo i mm. long and with a relatively large hypocotyl ; slightly 

 odorous ; taste of endosperm intensely bitter and acrid. 



