466 MEDICAL BOTANY 



Order 74.— LOGANIACEjE.— Lindley. 



Calyx inferior, 4 — 5-parted, valvate or imbricate. Corolla regular or irregular, 4 — 5 or 

 10-cleft, with a valvate or convolute aestivation. Stamens inserted on the tube of the 

 corolla, on the same line, not always symmetrical with the lobes. Anthers bilocular, with 

 a longitudinal dehiscence ; pollen with 3 bands. Ovary superior, 2-celled ; style simple ; 

 stigma simple or bilobate. Fruit a capsule and 2-celled, or drupaceous with 1 — 2-seeded 

 stones, or berried with the seeds immersed in a pulp. Seeds often peltate, sometimes 

 winged ; embryo small ; albumen fleshy or cartilaginous. 



These plants are principally tropical or subtropical, very few of them being 

 found in colder latitudes. They are trees, shrubs or herbs, with opposite en- 

 tire leaves, usually having stipules which adhere to the petioles, or are com- 

 bined in the form of interpetiolary sheaths. Most of them are exceedingly 

 poisonous, as is exemplified in various species, of Strychnos. Some are ant- 

 helmintic, as Spigelia, and some are bitter and emetic, as Potalia amara. 

 In P. resinifera, the leaves are mucilaginous and astringent, and are em- 

 ployed in Brazil in cases of ophthalmia (Martius, Nov. Gen. SfC. Bras. 

 ii. 90). 



Sub-order 1. SpigeliEjE. — Flowers isomerous. ^Estivation valvate. Capsule didy- 

 mous, many-seeded. Seed not winged. Generally herbaceous. Stipules sometimes 

 wanting. 



Spigelia. — Linn. 



Calyx inferior, deeply 5-cleft, segments small, pointed, permanent. Corolla funnel- 

 shaped, much longer than the calyx, narrowed at base ; limb spreading, 5-cleft, segments 

 broad, acuminate. Stamens five, simple ; anthers simple. Ovary superior ; style single, 

 subulate, as long as corolla; stigma simple. Capsule didymous, 2-celled, 4-valved. 

 Seeds numerous, minute. 



A genus of about thirty species, principally natives of tropical America, 

 consisting of both suffruticose and herbaceous plants, with opposite and often 

 connate leaves on the lower part of the stem, and quaternate above ; flowers 

 mostly sessile and secund, of a blue or red colour; the roots and seeds often 

 anthelmintic. 



S. marilandica, Linn. — Perennial, stem simple, quadrangular ; leaves opposite, sessile, 

 ovate-lanceolate ; flowers crimson, in a simple, terminal, secund raceme. 



Linn., Sp. PL 249; Bigelow, Am. Med. Bot. i. 146; Barton, Veg. Mat. 

 Med. ii. 75; Rafinesque, Med. Flor. ii. 89; Woodville, ii. 288 ; Stephenson 

 and Churchill, i. vii. ; Griffith, Jour. Phil. Coll. Pharm. iv. 1. 



Common Names. — Pink Root ; Carolina Pink ; Indian Pink ; Worm 

 Grass, &c. 



Foreign Names. — Spigelie de Maryland, Fr.; Spigelia, It.; Nordameri- 

 kanische Spigelie, Ger. 



Description. — Root consisting of a great number of slender fibres, yellow. Stems many, 

 somewhat 4-angled, smooth, annual, of a purplish colour, furnished with sessile, opposite, 

 ovate, entire leaves, glabrous except on the margins and nervures, where they are pubescent. 

 The flowers few in number, are borne in a terminal raceme, which is secund, and arc 

 supported on short pedicels. The corolla is funnel-shaped, contracted towards the top, 

 and divided into five acute segments. It is of a rich carmine colour externally, and 



