I24 
Col  la  i  chj '  m  a  tic  Cork . 
I  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
{       March,  1890. 
root)  gave  145  mgm.  of  alkaloids.  The  Japanese  aconite  used, 
therefore,  contained  o  35  per  cent,  of  alkaloids. 
White  Snakeroot. — A  drug  known  as  white  snakeroot  is  to  some 
extent  used  in  a  proprietary  medicine  in  a  Western  city.  Chas.  H. 
Blouch,  Ph.G.,  ascertained  from  a  Southern  dealer  in  crude  drugs, 
that  it  is  the  rhizome  with  rootlets  of  Eupatorium  aromaticum.  On 
distilling  5^  lbs.  of  the  drug  with  water,  about  25  grains  of  volatile 
oil  were  obtained  having  a  strong  odor  and  a  pungent  taste.  The 
drug  exhausted  by  cold  water,  yielded  with  boiling  water  a  solution 
which  was  precipitated  by  alcohol,  and  this  precipitate  behaved  like 
inulin  in  being  colored  yellow  by  solution  of  iodine,  and  when  boiled 
with  diluted  acid,  in  being  converted  into  a  sugar  reducing  Fehling's 
solution.  A  tincture  was  prepared  with  diluted  alcohol,  and  a  fluid 
extract  with  a  mixture  of  two  parts  of  alcohol  and  one  part  of  water  ; 
on  standing  a  few  days  both  preparations  deposited  sediments 
which,  however,  have  not  been  examined. 
Podophyllum. — Clifford  G.  Dunn,  Ph.G.,  states  that  the  most 
active  constituents  of  the  resin  are  contained  in  the  first  portion  of 
the  alcoholic  percolate,  while  the  later  percolates  yield  a  resin  which 
differs  very  much  from  the  former  in  activity.  Podophyllotoxin 
may  be  prepared  by  macerating  one  ounce  of  the  resin  in  4  fluid 
ounces  of  chloroform  free  from  alcohol,  filtering,  and  adding  the 
filtrate  to  16  parts  of  benzin.  It  forms  a  light  yellowish  white 
powder,  the  chloroformic  solution  of  which  should  remain  clear  on 
the  addition  of  ether,  but  deposit  white  flocks  when  mixed  with 
petroleum  spirit. 
ON  COLLENCHYMATIC  CORK.1 
By  Hans  Molisch. 
Directly  beneath  the  external  epidermis  of  the  fruit  of  numerous 
varieties  of  capsicum  is  found  a  tissue  of  several  tiers  which,  from  its 
appearance,  must  be,  and  thus  far  has  been,  regarded  as  collenchy- 
matic  parenchyma.  T.  F.  Hanausek  [Nahmngs-  u'nd  Gemissmittel, 
p.  312)  describes  it  as  follows  :  "  Beneath  the  epidermis  is  a  paren- 
chyma, the  cells  of  which  are  tangentially  much  elongated  in  the 
first  and  second  rows,  appear  rectangular  in  the  third  and  fourth 
3  Translated  from  Berichte  der  Deutschen  Botanischen  Gesellschaft,  1889,  p.  364. — 
J.  M.  M. 
