THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
3IAY,  1885. 
ILLICIUM  FLORIDA  NUM,  Ellis. 
Natural  order ^  MagnoUacece,  IlliciecB. 
By  Hp:nry  C.  C.  Maisch,  Ph.G. 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
This  species  is  a  shrub  or  small  tree  growing  in  swamps  iu  Florida, 
Alabama  and  westward  to  Mississippi,  and  is  popularly  known  as 
Southern  star  anise,  Florida  stink  bush,  or  poison  bay. 
The  leaves  are  about  4  inches  long  and  1|  inch  wide,  short  petiolate, 
acuminate,  alternate,  oblong-lanceolate,  entire,  smooth,  indistinctly  pel- 
lucid punctate.  The  midrib  is  very  prominent  on  the  lower  side. 
Flowers  are  about  one  inch  in  diameter;  sepals  six,  green  gradually 
changing  to  color  of  petals,  deciduous ;  petals  purplish  crimson  or 
dark  purple,  linear,  obtuse,  in  three  whorls,  the  outer  having  often  the 
color  of  the  sepals ;  stamens  30  or  more,  about  J  inch  long  and  ^  as 
wide ;  the  anthers  consist  of  two  cells  adnate,  introrse,  half  the  length 
of  the  stamen,  dehiscence  longitudinal;  ovaries  13,  separate;  styles 
short,  erect.  In  the  flowers  the  carpels  are  erect,  but  after  fructifica- 
tion they  spread  horizontally,  forming  a  right  angle  with  the  axis. 
The  carpels  are  capsular,  dry,  not  woody,  dehiscent  at  the  ventral 
suture,  and  contain  each  one  smooth  shining  seed  about  the  size  of  an 
apple  seed. 
Griffith  {Med.  Botany,  p.  101)  said  that  the  bark  may  be  used  as  a 
substitute  for  cascarilla.  The  leaves  are  poisonous.  The  material  for 
this  investigation  was  kindly  furnished  by  Hiland  Flowers,  Ph.G.,  oi 
Amite  City,  La.  (now  of  New  Orleans). 
HLSTOLOGIC A L  INVESTIGATION. 
Root. — The  root,  on  cross-section,  shows  the  bark  and  the  wood  to 
be  of  about  the  sauie  thickness  and  also  the  entire  absence  of  pith. 
The  cork  cells  (Figs.  1  and  2)  are  flattened  and  tangentially  elongated. 
The  bark  is  composed  of  large  and  small  thin-walled  parenchymatous 
cells,  the  small  ones  being  near  the  cambium  and  constituting  the 
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