54§  The  Apocynacece  in  Materia  Medica.  {AxwS™$£' 
rangular,  a  little  elongated,  with  thickened  walls  and  quite  wavy. 
The  hairs  of  the  seed  start  from  this  zone,  they  are  very. small, 
short,  unicellular  and  extremely  fine.  With  the  microscope  they 
appear  nearly  colorless,  while  the  cell  wall  is  colored  a  yellow- 
brown. 
Beneath  is  a  zone  formed  of  cells  very  strongly  flattened  and 
little  visible  unless  swollen  a  little  by  reagents.  These  elements 
are  elongated  upon  the  section  parallel  to  the  surface.  The  con- 
tents are  brownish  and  the  cell  walls  are  thin  and  colored. 
(b)  The  albumen,  with  polyhedral  cells,  quite  irregular,  with  thick 
walls ;  the  first  layer  under  the  seminal  tegument  is  more  regular. 
The  last  with  its  external  walls  much  thickened.  In  these  cells 
are  the  droplets  of  oil.  Between  the  albumen  and  the  embryo  we 
see  also  that  which  was  pointed  out  by  Blondel,  some  tracings  of 
cells. 
(c)  The  embryo  presents  nothing  special ;  it  is  nearly  analogous 
in  all  the  Strophanthus.    It  does  not  contain  any  oxalate. 
Placed  in  contact  with  concentrated  sulphuric  acid,  the  albumen 
and  the  embryo  act  with  a  little  difference,  which  proves  at  times 
the  more  the  inequality  in  value  of  the  seeds  according  to  the 
origin,  and  the  probability  that  the  forms  or  the  species  are  multi- 
plied under  a  single  name.  In  the  most  of  these  seeds,  the  green 
coloration  is  produced  very  rapidly,  at  other  times  much  more 
slowly.  The  color  is  very  deep  green  throughout,  nearly  black. 
This  changes  quickly  to  a  coloration  rather  varied,  but  ordinarily 
violet  or  violet-red,  sometimes  yellow.  The  embryo  becomes 
colored  green  more  slowly  than  the  albumen,  less  strongly  and 
sometimes  hardly  at  all.  The  final  color  is  also  violet  or  blue. 
Generally,  at  the  end  of  a  few  minutes,  the  entire  section  is 
violet. 
STROPHANTHUS  MINOR. 
Strophanthus  Minor  Pax.  Strophanthus  of  the  Niger  Blondel. 
There  arrived  in  England  under  the  name  of  S.  hispidus  or  under 
that  of  Strophanthus  from  the  Niger  numerous  mixtures  in  which 
one  could  distinguish  :  The  true  hispidus,  a  nearly  related  form,  but 
different,  for  which  Blondel  retained  the  name  of  Strophanthus 
of  the  Niger;  a.  third  sort  discovered  later  and  named  by  Blondel 
S.  minor,  and  from  our  present  knowledge  we  suppose  that 
these  mixtures  are  still  more  complex.    However,  Pax,  Franchet, 
