ANovemberPhia9ri9'  )   Anatomy  of  Umbelliferous  Fruits.  713 
quainted  with  the  formulas  of  either.  Undoubtedly,  this  is  very 
largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the  physician  is  not  as  a  rule  interested 
in  the  mass  of  matter  relating  to  standards  and  tests  that  is  neces- 
sarily contained  in  these  publications.  An  official  epitome  of  each 
of  these  legal  standard  authorities  should  be  prepared  by  a  joint 
committee  of  physicians  and  pharmacists  and  these  be  widely  dis- 
tributed as  mediums  of  education.  Such  epitomes  should  present  in 
a  readable  way  the  information  relating  to  composition,  doses,  prac- 
tical uses  and  combinations  that  appeal  to  the  busy  practitioner.  It 
must  not  be  made  a  commentary  or  an  unwieldy  dissertation.  It  is 
believed  that  without  surrendering  in  the  least  the  dignity  of  au- 
thority or  of  position  such  epitomes  of  the  U.  S.  P.  and  of  the  N.  F. 
can  be  prepared  and  would  go  a  long  way  toward  overcoming  the 
indifference  of  the  medical  practitioners  and  too  often  evident  lack 
of  acquaintance  with  the  official  materia  medica. 
THE  ANATOMY  OF  UMBELLIFEROUS  FRUITS.1 
In  a  series  of  articles  published  in  the  Schweizerische  Apothe- 
ker-Zeitung,  Vol.  57,  No.  13,  pp.  183-188,  Joseph  Styger  describes 
the  macromorphology  and  micromorphology  of  a  number  of  um- 
belliferous fruits.  In  the  first  of  these  articles  the  author  discusses 
the  structure  of  (Enanthe  Phellandrium  Lam.,  O.  Lachenalii  Gmel., 
O.  pimpinelloidea,  JEthusa  Cynapium  L.  and  Levisticum  officinale 
Koch,  as  well  as  the  distribution  of  the  first  and  last  named  plants. 
The  salient  features  of  these  articles  are  hereby  presented : 
(Enanthe  Phellandrium  Lam.  The  home  of  this  species,  com- 
monly known  as  "  Water  Fennel,"  is  Europe  and  Central  Asia.  The 
fruits  are  glabrous,  up  to  5  Mm.  long,  2  Mm.  broad  and  1.5  ISJLm. 
deep,  roundish-cylindrical,  slightly  laterally  compressed,  yellowish- 
brown,  somewhat  acuminate  toward  the  style,  crowned  with  the 
stylar  cushion  and  sometimes  with  the  bent  style.  Ribs  broad, 
slightly  projecting,  the  grooves  being  small  and  darker  than  those 
whose  fruits  are  not  so  readily  split.  Under  a  hand  lens  the  schizo- 
carp  is  compressed  dorsally,  the  fruit  wall  being  very  broad.  The 
broad  ribs  are  slightly  projecting,  the  marginal  ribs  are  strongly 
built;  dorsal  surface  i-striped,  commissural  surface  2-striped.  The 
1  Abstract  prepared  by  Prof.  Heber  W.  Youngken. 
