EXUDATIONS, JUICES, ETC. 
229 
with four lanceolate divisions ; corolla yellow, rotate, 
about 10 mm. long, with 4 lanceolate lobes, each with a 
pair of nectaries above the base; stamens four, inserted 
at the base of the corolla tube; style slender, with two 
recurved stigmas ; ovary one-celled, with two parietal 
placentae. Fruit a superior, ovoid, pointed, yellowish 
brown, bicarpellary, unilocular capsule. Seeds numer- 
ous, anatropous, somewhat oblong, flattened, about 0'5 
mm. long, testa reticulate; embryo small, straight, im- 
imbedded in the endosperm. Odor slight. Taste 
extremely bitter. 
Constituents. — Two amorphous, bitter principles : 
one a glucoside chiratin, which is precipitated by 
tannin, the other non-glucosidal and not precipitated 
by tannin. The drug also contains resin, tannin and 
ash 4 to 8 per cent. 
Allied Plants. — Other species of Swertia, as well as 
other bitter plants known in India as “ chiretta,” find 
their way into the market. These are, however, easily 
distinguished from the true drug. 
VII. EXUDATIONS, JUICES AND OTHER 
PLANT PRODUCTS. 
A large number of substances are used in medicine 
which represent to a greater or less extent the constit- 
uents of the cells or alteration or decomposition prod- 
ucts of them. These are in the nature of exudations, 
inspissated juices, extracts, products of distillation, etc. 
The exudation products of milk-vessels or secretion- 
reservoirs are eliminated either through natural or 
artificial wounds of the stem, and they are col- 
lected in special receptacles, as in the case of gamboge, 
scammony and turpentine ; or they are allowed to dry 
and more or less harden on the stem, afterward being 
collected, as acacia and tragacanth; or the more or less 
