554 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



including New York and Pennsylvania. The flower-heads are 

 collected, when they are mature or expanded, from wild plants. 



Description. — Rounded, conical, 3 to 10 mm. broad (Fig. 

 242); peduncle 0.5 to 3.5 cm. long, nearly glabrous; involucre 

 hemispherical, scales twenty to thirty, imbricated, oblanceolate, the 

 middle portion brownish, margin whitish, pubescent ; torus 

 ovoid, becoming conical and hollow, deeply pitted, naked, 3 to 5 

 mm. high, about 1.5 mm. in diameter; ray or ligulate florets 

 (Fig. 242, D), twelve to eighteen, pistillate, about 12 mm. long, 

 corolla white, 3-toothed, 4-veined ; disk or tubular flowers (Fig. 

 242, C), numerous, )'ellowish, perfect, oblong, small, somewhat 

 glandular, about 2.5 mm. long ; akenes somewhat obovoid, about 

 0.5 mm. long; faintly 3- to 5-ribbed; pappus none, or forming a 

 membranous crown ; odor distinct ; taste aromatic and bitter. 



CoNST[TUENTS. — Volatile oil, about 0.25 per cent., of a viscid 

 consistency and an intense blue color. The color is due to azulene, 

 a principle similar to that found in the volatile oils derived from 

 Absinthium, Achillea (yarrow), Sumbul and Valerian! The 

 flowers are also said to contain a bitter principle anthemic acid, 

 which forms colorless, silky needles soluble in water and alcohol, 

 and anthemidin, which separates from the alcoholic solution in the 

 form of a tasteless crystalline compound. Malic acid and tannin 

 are also present in the drug. 



Adulterants. — ]\Iatricaria is not infrequently adulterated 

 with the flower-heads of other Compositse, as Anthcinis arvensis. ' 

 In these, the peduncle is pubescent ; the receptacle solid and 

 conical ; involucral scales lanceolate ; chaflf-scales lanceolate or 

 lanceolate-acuminate, about 4 mm. long. In Antheinis Cotula 

 the peduncles are slightly pubescent and the ligulate flowers 

 neutral. 



ANTHE^^IIS.— RO^IAN or ENGLISH CHAMOMILE.— 

 The expanded flower-heads of Antheinis nobilis (Fam. Compos- 

 itse), a perennial herb indigenous to Southern and Western 

 Europe and cultivated in Belgium, England, France, Germany, 

 Hungary and the United States, and naturalized from Rhode 

 Island to Michigan and south to Delaware (p. 393). The flowers 

 are collected from cultivated plants, and dried by artificial means, 

 the principal supplies coming from Belgium, France and Saxony. 



