THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
APRIL,  1873. 
^SCULUS  PAVIA,  LIN.— RED  BUCKEYE. 
By  E.  C.  Batchelor. 
From  the  Author's  Inaugural  Essay. 
The  red  buckeye  of  the  Southern  States  is  generally  regarded  as  a 
poison  ;  I  have  often  heard  farmers  attribute  the  death  of  stock  to 
their  having  eaten  of  some  part  of  the  plant.  I  have  endeavored,  in 
my  experiments  with  the  seeds,  under  Prof.  John  M.  Maisch,  to  as- 
certain what  amount  of  truth  there  may  be  in  such  reports,  and,  so 
far  as  my  researches  have  gone,  they  prove  that  the  seeds  are  pos- 
sessed of  decided  poisonous  properties,  residing  chiefly  in  a  glucoside 
found  in  the  cotyledons.  The  symptoms  are  similar  to  those  of  strych- 
nia poisoning.  Unfortunately  I  neglected  to  estimate  the  yield  of 
the  active  principle,  but  it  must  be  at  least  2J  per  cent.  From  the 
following  analysis  it  appears  that  there  is  much  truth  in  the  state- 
ments of  the  farmers  as  to  its  poisonous  properties,  and  many  deaths 
among  cattle  may  be  justly  attributed  to  this  shrub. 
iEscuLUS  Pa  via,  Lin. — Red  Buckeye. 
Nat.  Ord. — Sapindaceae. 
Habitat. — United  States  :  Virginia,  southward  and  westward. 
Small  tree  or  shrub,  sometimes  reaching  the  height  of  ten  feet.  Fruit 
smooth.  Leaves  opposite,  digitate,  leaflets  3,  5  or  7,  serrate,  straight- 
veined,  like  those  of  the  chestnut ;  glabrous  or  soft  downy  beneath. 
Flowers  in  a  terminal  thyrsus  or  panicle,  often  polygamous,  the  greater 
portion  having  imperfect  pistils  and  sterile.  Pedicels  jointed.  Calyx 
tubular,  five-lobed,  rather  oblique  or  gibbous  at  the  base.  Petals  4, 
erect  and  conniving  ;  the  two  upper  smaller  and  longer  than  the 
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