494  Parthenium  Integrifolium.  ^^"''£^{88^'^' 
PARTHENIUM  INTEGRIFOLIUM,  Lm. 
Natural  order,  Composifce ;  Tribe,  Senecionidece ;  Sub-tribe, 
3Ielampodinece. 
By  Frank  B.  Meyer,  Ph.  G." 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
This  plant  inhabits  the  central  portion  of  the  United  States,  grow- 
ing in  moist  or  dry  soil  in  uncultivated  fields.  It  is  a  perennial, 
having  a  large  thick  root,  to  which  are  attached  numerous  rootlets 
^arjdng  in  size  and  length,  s6me  of  them  being  four  or  five  times  as 
long  as  the  main  root.  After  drying,  it  is  dark  brown  or  blackish 
5ind  internally,  when  moistened,  shows  a  greenish  color.  The  woody 
stem,  with  branches,  attains  a  height  of  about  three  feet.  The  leaves 
itre  alternate,  the  upper  ones  sessile,  serrate,  ovate,  acute,  six  to  eight 
inches  long  below,  an  inch  or  less  above.  The  stem  terminates  with 
numerous  flowers  disposed  in  a  dense  corymb.  Involucre  green,  bell- 
shaped.    Ray  flowers  five,  white  ;  heads  small. 
The  tops  of  this  plant  having  been  used  for  several  years,  in  some 
sections  of  Indiana,  with  good  results  in  the  cure  of  fever  and  ague, 
the  writer  was  led  to  malve  an  analysis,  but  unfortunately  he  was  lim- 
ited in  his  undertaking,  only  one  pound  of  the  tops  being  procurable 
in  a  proper  condition. 
The  material  was  reduced  to  a  coarse  powder,  since  it  was  found 
impossible  to  powder  it  finely  owing  to  its  resinous  qualities.  Eight 
troyounces  of  the  powder  were  exhausted  by  percolation  with  alcohol 
of  sp.  gr.  '835 ;  from  the  tincture  thus  obtained  the  alcohol  was 
recovered  by  distillation  and  the  residue  macerated  for  two  days  with 
water  acidulated  with  acetic  acid.  The  clear  yellowish-red  filtrate, 
tested  with  potassium  iodoliydrargyrate,  gave  indications  of  the  prob- 
able presence  of  an  alkaloid ;  on  concentration,  separated  a  minute 
amount  of  crystals,  which  were  removed,  and  was  then  precipitated 
successively  with  acetate  and  sub-acetate  of  lead,  the  precipitate  by 
the  former  being  orange-colored  and  by  the  latter  lemon-yellow.  The 
filtratf!,  freed  from  lead  by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  yielded  on  concen- 
tration a  little  resin-like  substance,  and  afterwards  reddish  crystals, 
which  could  not  be  decolorized  by  recrystallization  and  yielded,  with 
ferric  chloride,  a  crimson-colored  solution,  and  with  Fehling's  solution 
a  precipitate  of  cuprous  oxide. 
