306 
The  Calabar  Bean. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     July  1,  1872. 
ten,  perigynous  and  disposed  in  two  fascicles,  one  consisting  of  nine 
stamens  and  the  other  of  one  vexillary  stamen ;  anthers  bilobed,  in- 
trorse,  and  dehiscing  by  two  longitudinal  slits.  The  ovary  is  stipi- 
tate  and  surmounted  by  a  very  long  style,  bearing  a  globular  stigma, 
the  surface  of  which  is  slightly  hairy  and  covered  with  conical  papillae. 
Immediately  below  the  stigma,  on  the  convex  part  of  the  style,  is  a 
prominence  having  the  shape  of  a  falcate  crest,  which  Professor  Bal- 
four appears  to  have  looked  upon  as  empty  and  vesicular,  and  there- 
fore named  the  genus  "Phy  so  stigma"  The  author,  however,  asserts 
that  this  prominence  is  full,  and  cannot  be  said  in  any  way  to  justify 
the  designation.  The  fruit  is  a  pod  4J  inches  to  6  inches  long,  atten- 
uated at  both  ends,  a  little  compressed  at  the  sides,  bluish  in  color  ; 
the  valves  are  thickish,  striated  and  rugose  on  their  external  surface, 
and  smooth  on  their  internal  face,  which  presents  in  the  intervals 
between  the  seeds  a  sort  of  whitish  cellular  tissue.  Each  pod  con- 
tains two  or  three  seeds,  most  commonly  two.  The  seeds,  which  are 
the  active  part  of  the  plant,  for  neither  the  leaves  nor  the  stems  are 
poisonous,  are  oblong,  convex,  and  slightly  reniform,  a  character 
which  is  more  marked  in  the  beans  proceeding  from  Ogo-wai  than  in 
those  collected  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Como  and  Rhamboe.  They 
are  from  one  to  one  and  a  quarter  inch  long  and  about  two-thirds  of 
an  inch  broad.  The  hilum,  which  surrounds  nearly  half  the  circum- 
ference of  the  bean,  has  the  appearance  of  a  long  cicatrice,  bounded 
by  a  slightly  projecting  line;  is  reddish  and  divided  into  two  equal 
parts  by  a  furrow  that  runs  its  entire  length.  The  external  tegument 
is  testaceous,  rather  rough,  and  of  a  chocolate  brown  color.  In  the 
interior  is  found  a  large  fleshy  embryo,  with  conical  radicle  accum- 
bent  to  the  cotyledons,  which  are  ellipsoidal,  hard,  white,  plano-con- 
vex, perfectly  joined  to  each  other  at  first,  afterwards  retracting,  and 
leaving  between  them  an  empty  space  that  constitutes  a  kind  of  cen- 
tral cavity. 
Chemical  analysis  and  microscopical  examination  have  shown  that 
the  nucleus  is  formed  of  loose  cellular  tissue,  containing  large  granules 
of  amylaceous  matter.  These  starch  grains  are  oval  or  reniform,  or 
sometimes  assume  the  form  of  parallelograms  with  rounded  angles ; 
the  margin  is  sometimes  toothed.  The  spermoderm  contains  several 
coloring  matters,  which  have  recently  been  studied  by  M.  Grassi,  who 
thinks  they  might  be  utilized  in  the  dyeing  of  silk.  The  active  prin- 
ciple of  the  bean  is  the  alkaloid  discovered  in  1864  by  Jobert  and 
