254       Microscopical  Characters  of  Spurious  Pareira.  {Am  May*'i?92?rm" 
manner.  The  wood  fibres  themselves  present  similar  markings, 
and  some  with  bordered  pits  also  occur. 
The  microscopical  structure  of  the  stem  of  chondodendron  was 
very  fully  described  by  John  Moss,  in  a  paper  published  in  the 
Pharmaceutical  Journal,  March,  1876. 
Root. — A  longitudinal  and  tangential  section  of  the  roots,  both  of 
the  true  and  spurious  pareira,  shows  that  the  woody  bundles  are 
arranged  in  an  open  network.  Dotted  and  reticulated  vessels,  with 
lateral  prolongations  similar  to  those  in  the  stem,  are  abundant  in 
both  kinds,  and  are  especially  evident  when  the  sections  are  not 
perfectly  exhausted  of  air.  In  a  transverse  section  the  cavities  of 
the  pitted  vessels  in  the  woody  bundles  of  the  root  of  chondoden- 
dron are  seen  to  be  not  more  than  half  the  diameter  of  those  in  the 
stem.  This  is  an  important  character.  Starch  is  much  more 
abundant  in  the  root  of  true  pareira  than  in  the  stem.  All  the  par- 
enchymatous tissue,  even  that  considerably  thickened  by  secondary 
deposits,  is  full  of  it.  The  granules  are  mostly  compound,  but  not 
of  large  size.  Crystals,  apparently  octahedral,  are  also  present.  The 
root  has  much  the  same  general  structure  as  the  stem,  as  far  as  the 
distribution  of  the  woody  bundles  is  concerned. 
On  comparing  a  section  of  the  root  of  the  spurious  pareira  with  a 
section  of  the  root  of  chondodendron  I  find  the  following  differences : 
(1)  The  vessels  in  the  woody  bundles  of  the  spurious  are  about 
twice  the  diameter  of  those  in  true  pareira. 
(2)  The  sclerenchymatous  tissue  outside  each  zone  is  more  con- 
spicuous. 
(3)  The  bases  of  the  woody  wedges  are  concave.  In  true  pareira 
they  are  nearly  straight. 
(4)  The  mass  of  parenchyma  at  the  base  of  the  wedges  is  in  con- 
sequence nearly  circular. 
(5)  The  spurious  pareira  contains  only  a  few  scattered  grains  of 
starch. 
(6)  The  medullary  rays  are  narrow  in  the  spurious  variety,  and 
the  cells  are  elongated  in  a  radial  direction.  In  true  pareira  they 
are  broad,  and  the  central  cells  elongated  transversely.  They  are 
also  loaded  with  starch  granules. 
(7)  The  zones  of  the  spurious  are  more  regular  in  size,  and  the 
number  of  woody  wedges  is  greater.  The  point  from  which  the 
wedges  radiate  is  very  eccentric. 
