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PHARMACOGNOSY. 
waste places in temperate and sub-tropical regions. 
The commercial supplies are largely obtained from 
France, Germany and Hungary. 
Description. — Campylotropous, reniform, flattened, 
about 3 to 4 mm. long, 2 to 3 mm. broad ; externally 
bluish black, minutely reticulate ; hard but easily cut 
lengthwise along the edge; internally whitish, the 
reserve layer occupying about one-half the seed, the 
embryo crook-shaped ; odor slight, disagreeable when 
bruised; taste hitter. 
Constituents. — Fixed oil about 25 per cent.; pro- 
teids; alkaloids about 0'4 per cent, and consisting 
principally of hyoscyamine together with a small pro- 
portion of atropine and scopolamine (liyoscine); ash 2 
to 3 per cent. 
PEPO (Pumpkin Seed). 
The ripe seeds of Cucurbita Pepo (Fam. Cucurbitacese), 
a procumbent herb native of Tropical America and 
possibly Tropical Asia, and long cultivated in tropical 
and temperate zones as a vegetable and cattle food. 
The seeds of other species of Cucurbita are also used 
in medicine; in Italy C. maxima and in the West 
Indies C. occidentals are the sources of the drug. 
Description. — Anatropous, broadly elliptical, acute, 
acuminate or truncate, flattened, about 20 mm. long, 
10 mm. broad, about 2 mm. thick; externally white 
or light yellow, very smooth or somewhat rough from 
adhering fruit pulp, marked by a shallow groove 
or slight ridge parallel t.o and within 1 mm. of the 
margin; raphe not conspicuous, hilum characterized 
by a minute depression ; seed-coat consisting of two 
distinct layers — the outer white and coriaceous and the 
inner dark green and membranaceous ; embryo white, 
straight, consisting of a small conical hypocotyl and 
