AMjan.ci,'  i8fl73RM'|  Impurities  in  Rhizome  of  Cypripedium.  9 
in  heated  air  at  120°  F,  and  then  boiled  several  times  with  alcohol.. 
The  alcoholic  solution,  having  been  filtered  while  hot,  will,  upon  cool- 
ing, deposit  the  solania  in  small  feathery-like  crystals,  resembling 
quinine  in  appearance,  having  a  smell  like  that  of  potatoes,  and  a 
taste  rather  nauseous,  bitter  and  somewhat  sweetish.  With  sulphuric 
acid,  it  gives  a  bright  red  color,  passing  into  reddish  brown.  With, 
iodine  a  characteristic  yellowish  brown  color  is  produced.  Besides 
solania,  I  also  found  in  the  herb  some  fixed  oil,  gum,  chlorophyll  and 
inorganic  salts. 
Pottsville,  Dee.  2,  1872. 
ON  SOME  IMPURITIES   IN  THE   COMMERCIAL  RHIZOME  OF 
CYPRIPEDIUM. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
Bead  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  held  Dec.  11th. 
In  a  paper  read  before  the  pharmaceutical  meeting,  held  in  April 
last,  I  called  attention  to  the  fact*  that  two  different  rhizomes 
are  met  with  in  commerce  under  the  name  of  cypripedium  or  ladies' 
slipper.  Through  the  kindness  of  several  readers  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Pharmacy,  I  was  subsequently  enabled  to  convince  myself 
that  the  two  plants  furnishing  the  commercial  article  are  Cypripedium? 
pubescens,  Willd.  and  0.  parviflorum,  Salisb.,  of  the  rhizomes  of  which 
I  gave  a  short  description. f  I  then  stated  that  the  rhizomes  and  root- 
lets of  these  two  species  are  the  only  ones  constituting  the  commercial 
article,  with  which  I  have  had  but  a  limited  acquaintance  and  experi- 
ence, and  the  commercial  specimens  obtained  several  years  ago  for  my 
cabinet  prove  the  correctness  of  my  observation. 
Recently,  however,  Mr.  G.  L.  Truckenmiller,  a  student  of  this  col- 
lege, directed  my  attention  to  an  admixture  with  the  rhizome  of  Hy- 
drastis canadensis,  Lin.,  which  he  had  observed  in  commercial  cypri- 
pedium, stating  that  an  herbalist  of  this  city  had  informed  him  that 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  collect  the  latter  free  from  the  former^ 
since  the  two  plants  grew  together  in  the  same  localities,  and  their 
interwoven  rootlets  rendered  the  separation  of  the  two  rhizomes  ex- 
tremely difficult. 
The  two  species  of  cypripedium  prefer  bogs  and  marshes,  but  are 
^American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1872,  p.  194.    flbid,  297. 
