6 
Belladonna  and  Hyoscyamus. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
\    January,  1915. 
and  mounting  in  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  which  with  H.  niger  imparts 
a  deep  pink  or  rose-red  color  to  the  many  cells  containing  antho- 
cyanin.  The  young  seedlings  may  also  be  differentiated,  although 
less  accurately,  by  noting  the  purplish  hue  of  the  petioles  and  buds 
of  H.  niger.  A  few  grammes  of  the  official  leaves  and  flowering 
tops  of  H.  niger,  when  powdered  and  shaken  for  a  few  moments 
with  hot  water,  impart  a  faint  bluish  color  to  the  water.  If  the 
mixture  is  filtered  and  dilute  hydrochloric  acid  added  to  the  filtrate, 
it  becomes  pink.  The  intensity  of  the  color  depends  upon  the  care 
which  has  been  taken  in  the  collection  and  drying  of  the  drug  and 
upon  the  amount  of  basal  leaves  or  foreign  matter. 
The  purple  color  of  the  corolla,  the  fruit,  and  of  the  stems  of 
Atropa  Belladonna  gives  the  same  reactions  as  anthocyanin  from 
Hyoscyamus  niger.  The  extraction  of  the  coloring  principle  from 
Belladonna  flowers  is  slow,  and  other  extractives  tend  to  cloud  the 
reactions.  The  tests  with  Belladonna  are  best  made  by  placing  frag- 
ments of  the  corolla  in  the  reagents,  either  in  test-tubes  or  on 
microscopic  slides. 
The  pollen  grains  of  Hyoscyamus  are  quite  characteristic,  being 
flattened  and  triangular,  from  forty  to  fifty  microns  broad  and  from 
thirty-four  to  forty  microns  thick.  In  outline  they  appear  either 
rounded,  elliptical,  or  triangular,  depending  on  the  point  of  vision. 
The  surrounding  membrane  of  the  pollen  grain  consists  of  two  parts, 
a  continuous  layer  of  intine  and  an  outer  layer  of  exine  which  is 
usually  ruptured  over  the  angles  at  the  maturity  of  the  grain,  leaving 
thin  places  for  the  development  of  the  pollen  tube.  The  exine  layer 
is  quite  smooth  and  yellowish  in  color.  Occasionally  pollen  grains 
may  be  observed  with  the  pollen  tube  protruding  through  one  of  the 
thin  places.  The  number  of  pollen  grains  found  in  the  powdered 
drug  Hyoscyamus  is  proportional  to  the  amount  of  stem,  first-year 
basal  leaves,  and  other  extraneous  matter  ground  with  the  flowering 
tops.  If  powdered  Hyoscyamus  is  prepared  from  flowering  tops 
with  a  somewhat  uniform  amount  of  stem,  the  number  of  pollen 
grains  is  fairly  constant.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  flowering 
tops  seldom  have  less  than  two  or  more  than  four  blossoms  mature 
at  one  time.  In  a  number  of  commercial  samples  of  Hyoscyamus, 
consisting  of  the  flowering  tops  with  a  minimum  amount  of  stem, 
I  have  found,  after  powdering,  the  following  numbers  of  pollen 
grains : 
