N0N-P0I80N0US DRUCiS 



107 



expressed oil of almond, olive-oil, and the oil of cacao seed 

 known as cacao butter, already studied for their food value 

 (in sections 33 and 39) ; and to these may now be added castor- 

 oil and the oily drug lycopodium. Castor-oil, obtained from 

 the seeds of the castor-oil plant (Fig. 165), is believed not 

 to be taken up by the digestive tract as a food, liut to owe its 



4 





Flu. 1.59. — English Elm (Ubnus campeslris. Elm Family, Vlmacew). 1, 

 flowering twig. 2, leafy shoot. 3, flower, entire, -i, same, cut ver- 

 tically, o. frui-t. (Wossidlo.) — Tree attaining .30 m.; leaves becoming 

 smooth; flowers greenish or Ijrownish; fruit yellowisli. Native home, 

 Eurasia and Northern Africa. 



great medicinal value to its lubricant and mildly irritant 

 properties. The sulphur-yellow powder known as lycopo- 

 dium, obtained from the club moss (Fig. 166), con.sists of 

 minute bodies called spores b}- means of which the plant per- 

 petuates its kind. Each spore contains nearly .50% of a 

 fixed oil, and the .surface is remarkably repellent of water. 

 A teaspoonful of the spores thrown into a bowl of water will 



