THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER,  1886. 
SOPHOEA  SPECIOSA,  Bentham. 
By  Mokitz  Kalteyee,  Ph.  G.  and  William  E.  Neil,  Ph.  G. 
(Condensed  from  two  Inaugural  Essays.) 
This  evergreen  shrub  is  a  native  of  Texas  and  ISTew  Mexico, 
flourishing  on  rough  rocky  hill-sides,  and  avoiding  the  rich  black 
soil  of  the  prairie.  Near  Matagorda  Bay  it  is  a  small  tree  about  30 
feet  in  height ;  near  San  Antonio  it  attains  the  height  of  6  or  8 
feet,  and  grows  in  patches,  intermingled  with  the  mezquite,  often 
clinging  to  the  edge  of  a  ledge  of  rock  with  large  portions  of  the 
roots  bare  and  exposed  to  the  heat  and  cold  of  many  summers  and 
winters,  and  by  its  long  tap-root  enabled  to  withstand  the  frequent 
droughts.  The  trunk  is  tough,  crooked  and  rough,  with  a  gray- 
brown  thin  bark,  and  with  hard  and  heavy  yellow  wood,  which  in 
some  localities  is  called  lignum  vitce.  The  leaves  are  impari-pinnate ; 
the  leaflets  in  3  to  5  pairs,  about  1J  inch  long,  obovate  or  oblancec- 
late,  obtuse  or  emarginate,  entire,  reticulate,  dark-green  and  glossy 
above,  and  paler  beneath.  The  showy  flowers  appear  in  February 
and  March,  grow  in  racemes,  and  have  a  blue- purple  papilionaceous 
corolla,  ten  distinct  stamens  and  a  strong  fragrant  odor.  The  fruit 
is  indehiscent,  more  or  less  moniliform,  often  curved,  grayish-pubes- 
cent, and  contains  from  1  to  8  seeds.  The  seeds  are  roundish-ovate, 
about  J  inch  long  and  f  inch  thick  ;  the  testa  is  hard,  brittle, 
somewhat  granular,  dark-red  or  sometimes  yellowish,  and  marked 
from  the  slightly  flattened  hilum  by  a  longitudinal  ridge.  It  con- 
tains a  thin  layer  of  firm  whitish  albumen,  and  an  embryo  of  the 
shape  of  the  seed,  with  two  white,  rather  concavo-convex,  cotyledons 
and  a  short  radicle  bent  at  a  right  angle.  The  average  weight  of  the 
seed  is  20  grains,  that  of  the  kernel  about  12  grains,  and  of  the  inte- 
guments 8  grains.  The  seed  is  inodorous,  and  the  taste  bean-like 
and  somewhat  bitter.    Though  known  to  be  poisonous,  and  hence 
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