CRUDE DRUGS. 569 



Water hemlock (Cicuta maciilata) is a stout, perennial 

 herb growing in wet meadows throughout the United States 

 (Fig. 169). The stems are streaked with purple, the leaves are 

 pinnately compound, the leaflets being oblong-lanceolate and 

 coarsely serrate; the flowers are white, occurring in large com- 

 pound umbels. The fruit is ovoid, with prominent ribs and 

 six conspicuous vittse. The rhizome is large and fleshy and some- 

 times mistaken for parsnip. The fruits contain a volatile alka- 

 loid, cicutine, which is said to resemble coniine, and about i per 

 cent, of a volatile oil resembling oil of cumin. The rhizome, 

 stems and leaves contain a resinous substance, cicutoxin, which 

 is said to be quite poisonous. 



RHUS GLABRA.— SUMAC BERRIES.— The fruit of Rhus 

 glabra (Fam. Anacardiacese) , a shrub (Figs. 164, 249), indigen- 

 ous to Canada and the United States, extending as far west as 

 Arizona (p. 321). 



Description. — Drupe dry, superior, nearly globular, flat- 

 tened, 3 to 4 mm. in diameter, 2.5 mm. thick, and with a slender 

 peduncle about 2 mm. long; reddish externally, very pubescent, 

 apex with a scar and with the remains of the style, base occa- 

 sionally with the 5-cleft calyx ; endocarp smooth, shiny, light red ; 

 i-locular, i-seeded; seed campylotropous, dark brown, smooth, 

 hilum marked by a distinct scar, reserve layer wanting, embryo 

 curved ; inodorous ; taste acidulous and astringent. 



Constituents. — Tannic acid about 2 per cent. ; gallic acid, 

 and acid calcium and potassium malates. 



Allied Drugs. — The leaves of Rhus glabra contain from 

 16 to 25 per cent, of tannin. The galls formed on the petioles 

 and leaves resemble the Chinese or Japanese galls and contain 

 about 60 per cent, of tannin and some gallic acid. 



CUBEBA.— CUBEB BERRIES.— The fruit of Piper Cti- 

 beba (Fam. Piperacese), a woody climber (p. 249), indigenous 

 to Borneo, Java and Sumatra, where it is apparently also culti- 

 vated. The fruit is gathered when full grown but still green, 

 and carefully dried in the sun, the commercial supplies being 

 shipped from Batavia and Singapore. 



Description. — Drupe dry, superior, globular, 4 to 6 mm. in 

 diameter, with a straight, slender peduncle 5 to 7 mm. long: 



