240  Liquor  Pot  as  see  and  Liquor  Sodce.  {AmMay,ri^7.arm 
The  leaves,  from  four  to  seven  in  each  whorl,  are  short-peti- 
oled,  lanceolate  and  minutely  serrate. 
The  flowers  are  small  and  white,  having  a  four-parted  calyx  and 
a  tubular  corolla,  with  two  exserted  stamens. 
The  fruit  is  an  ovate,  two-celled  and  many-seeded  capsule. 
The  plant  flowers  in  July  and  August. 
The  rhizome,  from  4  to  6  inches  in  length  and  l/±  inch  in  thick- 
ness, is  horizontal,  somewhat  bent  and  branched  with  short  stem 
remnants  or  cup-shaped  scars  on  the  upper  side,  and  beset  with 
numerous  long,  straight  and  brittle  rootlets.  The  rhizome  is  hard 
and  breaks  with  a  woody  fracture,  is  almost  inodorous,  and  has  a 
bitter  and  feebly  acrid  taste.  Internally  it  shows  a  blackish  bark, 
and  a  hard,  yellowish  circle  of  wood  enclosing  a  three-  to  six-rayed 
purplish  pith. 
The  roots,  which  may  be  several  inches  in  length,  are  about 
y2  inch  in  diameter,  somewhat  longitudinally  wrinkled,  pur- 
plish-brown, and  break  with  a  short  fracture. 
A  transverse  section  of  the  rhizome  shows  a  relatively  thick  bark, 
consisting  of  ordinary  parenchyma,  covered  by  a  hypoderma  of  col- 
lenchyma  and  a  thin  cork,  the  whole  being  enclosed  by  a  persistent 
epidermis.  The  inner  layer  of  the  bark  shows  a  distinct  endoder- 
mis,  beneath  which  is  found  an  interrupted  circle  of  lignified  fibres, 
constituting  a  sclerenchymatous  pericycle.  The  wood  is  disposed 
in  a  single  circle,  and  consists  of  ducts  and  lignified  fibres  arranged 
in  more  or  less  distinct  radial  rows.  The  pith  is  large,  from  three- 
to  six-rayed,  consisting  of  ordinary  parenchyma. 
A  cross-section  of  the  root  shows  a  very  thick  cortex,  sharply 
marked  off  from  the  woody  cylinder  by  a  distinct  endodermis.  The 
cortical  tissues  consist  of  ordinary  parenchyma  covered  by  a  strongly 
cutinized  epidermis,  beneath  which  is  seen  a  single  layer  of  exoder- 
mal  cells.  Immediately  beneath  the  endodermis  is  found  a  single- 
layered  parenchymatous  pericycle  which  encloses  the  wood  bundles. 
LIQUOR  POTASS^  AND  LIQUOR  SOD^. 
By  John  P.  Bates,  Ph.G. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy.    No.  164. 
According  to  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  liquor  potassae  is 
"an  aqueous  solution  of  potassium  hydrate  [KOH=55-99],  contain- 
