SEEDS. 
113 
up by the addition of mineral oils. Ground flaxseed 
sometimes contains fragments of the cereals, rye and 
wheat, which is partly due to the fact that these cereals 
grow in with the flax, and partly because it is some- 
times shipped in meal or flour sacks. 
STAPH ISAGRIA (Stavesacre). 
The ripe seed of Delphinium Staphisagria (Fam. 
Ranunculaceae), an annual or biennial native of South- 
ern Europe and Asia Minor, and cultivated in Austria 
(Trieste), Italy and Southern France, from which latter 
countries the commercial supplies are obtained. 
Description. — Anatropous, irregularly triangular or 
obscurely tetrahedral, one side convex, the others plane, 
the micropylar end acute or obtuse, 5 to 6 mm. long, 
3 to 6 mm. broad ; externally dark brown, becoming 
lighter and duller with age, more or less uniformly 
reticulate, the pits being about 0 5 mm. in diameter, 
raphe forming a more or less distinct ridge on the 
largest of the plane surfaces or on the edge of two 
united sides, epidermis modified to distinct papillae ; 
inner seed-coat yellowish brown, adhering to the endo- 
sperm when moistened, the latter white or yellowish 
and inclosing, at the pointed end, a small straight 
embryo 1 mm. long and with a relatively large hypo- 
cotyl; slightly odorous ; taste of endosperm intensely 
bitter and acrid. 
Constituents. — Alkaloids, of which there are five, 
about 1 per cent. : these are delphinine and delphi- 
sine, which are crystalline ; delphinoidine and staphi- 
sagrine, which are amorphous, and stapliisagroine, 
which differs from the others in that it is insoluble in 
chloroform. The seeds also contain, besides proteids, 
about 25 per cent, of a fixed oil, and yield about 8 or 
9 per cent, of ash. 
