694 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



ous matter is removed by sieving. The principal sources of supply 

 of Lycopodium are Germany, Russia and Switzerland (p. 66). 



Description. — A light-yellow, very mobile powder, nearly 

 inodorous and tasteless, floating upon water and not wetted by 

 it, but sinking on being boiled .with it, and burning quickly when 

 thrown into a flame. 



Spores tetrahedral (Fig. 278b), from 25 to 40 ju. in diameter, 

 with one convex side, and delicately reticulate on the surface. 



Constituents. — About 50 per cent, of a greenish-yellow, 

 odorless, non-drying oil with an acid reaction, which consists 

 chiefly of oleic acid, together with some lycopodic, arable, palmitic, 

 stearic, myristic and decyliso-propyl acrylic acids ; a small amount 

 of phytosterin, and 3 to 8.2 per cent, of glycerin. The spores also 

 contain 5.3 per cent, of a nitrogenous substance ; about 3 per cent, 

 of a sugar, and yield about i per cent, of ash. On heating with 

 a solution of potassium hydrate monomethylamine is liberated, 

 and on macerating the spores in alcohol a part of the alcohol is 

 converted into an aldehyde. 



Allied Plants. — The spores of other species of Lycopodium 

 are sometimes collected with those of L. clavatum, as Fir club 

 moss (L. Selago) ; stiff club moss (L. annotinum) ; bog club 

 moss (L. innndatum) , and the ground pine (L. complanatum) 

 (Fig. 46, illus. 2). From the latter an alkaloid, lycopodine, has 

 been isolated. A toxic alkaloid, piliganine, has been obtained 

 from piligan (L. Saururus), growing in Brazil. L. polytrichoides, 

 of the Hawaiian Islands ; L. rubriim, of Venezuela ; L. cernuum, 

 of the Tropics, and L. Selago of Europe, are also employed in 

 medicine. 



Adulterants. — Lycopodium is sometimes admixed with pine 

 pollen, starchy materials, and various inorganic substances, as 

 sulphur, talc and gypsum. A recent adulterant of Lycopodium 

 has been found to consist of corn starch which had been treated 

 in a special manner and then colored with methyl orange. An 

 artificial lycopodium is prepared by treating Bordeaux turpentine 

 (galipot resin) at near the melting point with dry ammonia, the 

 resulting product being then dried and powdered. The fragments 

 are irregular, transparent and are readily detected by means of the 

 microscope. 



