Chapter XXIV: Part 24

The root in the fresh state is pure white, but by drying becomes of a deep iron-grey. In the Brazilian specimens, there is a short crown emitting as many as a dozen prostrate stems; below this there is generally, as in true ipecacuanha, a naked woody portion, which extends downwards into a thicker root, ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, and six or more inches long. This part of the root is marked by deep fissures on alternate sides, which give it a knotty, sinuous, or undulating outline. It has a brittle, very thick bark, white and farinaceous within, surrounding a strong flexible slender woody column. The root has an earthy odour not altogether unlike that of ipecacuanha, and a slightly sweet taste. It affords no evidence of emetine when tested in the manners described at p. 374, and can therefore easily be distinguished from the true drug.

[1392] Attfield in _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1870) 140.

[1393] _Journ. de Pharm._ xvi. (1872) 405: xvii. 19.

VALERIANACEÆ.

RADIX VALERIANÆ.

_Valerian Root_; F. _Racine de Valériane_; G. _Baldrianwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Valeriana officinalis_ L., an herbaceous perennial plant, growing throughout Europe from Spain to Iceland, the North Cape and the Crimea, and extending over Northern Asia to the coasts of Manchuria. The plant is found in plains and uplands, ascending even in Sweden to 1200 feet above the sea-level.

In England, valerian is cultivated in many villages[1394] near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, the wild plant which occurs in the neighbourhood not being sufficiently plentiful to supply the demand.

In Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, as well as in Holland, the plant is grown to some extent, but by far the largest supply would appear to be grown in the environs of the German town Cölleda, not far from Leipzig.

Valerian is propagated by separating the young plants which are developed at the end of runners emitted from the rootstock.

The wild plant, according to the situation it inhabits, exhibits several divergent forms. Among eight or more varieties noticed by botanists,[1395] we may especially distinguish α. _major_ with a comparatively tall stem and all the leaves toothed, β. _minor_ (_V. angustifolia_ Tausch) with entire or slightly dentate leaves, and also _V. sambucifolia_ Mikan, having only 4 or 5 pairs of leaflets.

=History=—The plant which the Greeks and Romans called Φοῦ or _Phu_, and which Dioscorides and Pliny describe as a sort of wild nard, is usually held to be some species of valerian.[1396]

The word _Valeriana_ is not found in the classical authors. We first meet with it in the 9th or 10th century, at which period and for long afterwards, it was used as synonymous with _Phu_ or _Fu_.

Thus in the writings of Isaac Judæus[1397] occurs the following:—“_Fu id est valeriana, melior rubea et tenuis et quæ venit de Armenia et est diversa in sua complexione_....”

Constantinus Africanus[1398]—“_Fu, id est valeriana. Naturam habet sicut spica nardi_....”

The word _Valeriane_ occurs in the recipes of the Anglo-Saxon leeches written as early as the 11th century.[1399] _Valeriana_, _Amantilla_ and _Fu_ are used as synonymous in the _Alphita_, a mediæval vocabulary of the school of Salernum.[1400]

Saladinus[1401] of Ascoli directs (_circa_ A.D. 1450) the collection in the month of August of “_radices fu id est valerianæ_.”

[1394] Namely Ashover, Woolley Moor, Morton, Stretton, Higham, Shirland, Pilsley, North and South Wingfield, and Brackenfield. From the produce of these villages, one wholesale dealer in Chesterfield obtained in 1872 about 6 tons (13,440 lb.) of root.

[1395] Regel, _Tentamen Floræ Ussuriensis_, 1862 (_Mém. de l’Académie de St. Pétersbourg_).

[1396] _V. officinalis_ L. and nine other species occur in Asia Minor (Tehihatcheff).

[1397] _Opera Omnia_, Lugd. 1515, cap. 45.—It must be remembered that this is a translation from the Arabic. How the word in question stands in the original we have no means of knowing.

[1398] _De omnibus medico cognitu necessariis_, Basil. 1539. 348.

[1399] _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of early England_, iii. (1866) 6. 136.

[1400] S. de Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, iii. (1854) 271-322.

[1401] _Compendium Aromatariorum_, Bonon. 1488.

Valerian was anciently called in English _Setwall_, a name properly applied to _Zedoary_; and the root was so much valued for its medicinal virtues, that as Gerarde[1402] (1567) remarks, the poorer classes in the north of England esteemed “_no broths, pottage, or physicall meats_” to be worth anything without it. Its odour, now considered intolerable, was not so regarded in the 16th century, when it was absolutely the custom to lay the root among clothes as a perfume[1403] in the same way as those of _Valeriana celtica_ L. and the Himalayan valerians are still used in the East.

Some of the names applied to valerian in Northern and Central Europe are remarkable. Thus in Scandinavia we find _Velandsrot_, _Velamsrot_, _Vandelrot_ (Swedish); _Vendelród_, _Venderód_, _Vendingsród_ (Norwegian); and _Velandsurt_ (Danish)—names all signifying _Vandels’ root_.[1404] Valerian is also called in Danish _Danmarks græs_. Among the German-speaking population of Switzerland, a similar word to the last, namely _Tannmark_, is applied to valerian. The _Denemarcha_ mentioned by St. Hildegard,[1405] about A.D. 1160, is the same. These names seem to point to some connexion with Northern Europe which we are wholly unable to explain.

Pentz, a pharmaceutical assistant at Pyrmont, was the first, in 1829, to draw attention to the acid reaction of the distilled water of valerian. Another German assistant, Grote, at Verden, showed in 1831 that the acidity was by no means due to acetic acid, but to a peculiar kind of acid. The latter was identified in 1843 by Dumas with the acid artificially obtained from amylic alcohol and that extracted in 1817 by Chevreul from the fat of dolphins.

=Description=—The valerian root of the shops consists of an upright rhizome of the thickness of the little finger, emitting a few short horizontal branches, besides numerous slender rootlets.[1406] The rhizome is naturally very short, and is rendered still more so by the practice of cutting it in order to facilitate drying. The rootlets, which are generally 3 to 4 inches long, attain ⅒ of an inch in diameter, tapering and dividing into slender fibres towards their extremities. They are shrivelled, very brittle, and, as well as the rhizome, of a dull, earthy brown. When broken transversely, they display a dark epidermis, forming part of a thick white bark which surrounds a slender woody column. The interior of the rhizome is compact, firm and horny, but when old becomes hollow, a portion of the tissue remaining however in the form of transverse septa.

The drug has a peculiar, somewhat terebinthinous and camphor-like odour, and a bitterish, aromatic taste. The root when just taken from the ground has no distinctive smell, but acquires its characteristic odour as it dries.

=Microscopic Structure=[1407]—In the rhizome as well as in the rootlets, the cortical part is separated from the central column by a dark cambial zone; the medullary rays are not distinctly obvious. In old rootstocks, sclerenchymatous cells are met with in the cortical tissue.

[1402] _Herball_, 1636. 1078.

[1403] Turner’s _Herball_, part 3 (1568) 76; Langham, _Garden of Health_, 1633. 598.

[1404] H. Jenssen-Tusch, _Nordiske Plantenavne_, Kjöbenhavn, 1867. 258.

[1405] _Physica_, Argent. 1533. 62.

[1406] The morphological peculiarities of valerian root are well explained in Irmisch, _Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der einheimischen Valeriana-Arten_, Halle, 1854, 44 pages, 4°, 4 plates.

[1407] The structure of the rhizomes and root of the different species of valerian has been discussed by Joannes Chatin in his _Etudes sur les Valérianées_, Paris, 1872, illustrated by 14 beautiful plates.

The parenchyme of the drug is loaded with small starch granules, brownish grains of tannic matter and drops of essential oil. Numerous oil ducts are met with in the outer layer of the tissue.

=Chemical Composition=—Volatile oil is contained in the dry root to the extent of ½ to 2 per cent., yet on an average appears scarcely to exceed ⁴/₅ per cent. This variation in quantity is partly explained by the influence of locality, a dry, stony soil yielding a root richer in oil than one that is moist and fertile. In the latter the plant may be distinguished as the variety _sambucifolia_, which has a less vigorous root, devoid of runners.

Schoonbroodt[1408] has shown that the most important influence is the recent condition of the root. He states that if the root is submitted to distillation when perfectly fresh, it yields a neutral water and a large quantity of essential oil. The latter has but a very faint odour, but by exposure to the air it slowly acidifies, especially if a little alkali is added, and acquires a strong smell. _Valerianic Acid_ which is thus formed amounts to 6 per mille of the fresh root. The dried root yields a distillate of decided valerian odour, containing valerianic acid, but in proportion not exceeding 4 per mille of the root calculated as fresh.

The oil of valerian is of a very peculiar yellowish or brownish, sometimes even almost a little greenish hue, and possessing the characteristic odour of the drug. We found it to deviate the plane of polarization from 11° to 13° to the left when examined by Wild’s Polaristrobometer in a column of 50 millimetres. By submitting it to fractional distillation we noticed[1409] that it affords a magnificent blue fraction. A superb violet or blue colour is produced if one drop of the _crude oil_ dissolved in about 20 drops of bisulphide of carbon is mixed with 1 drop of nitric acid 1·20 sp. gr. Other colorations are produced if bromine or concentrated sulphuric acid are used;[1410] even the tincture of valerian displays similar reactions.

Bruylants (1878) has isolated from oil of valerian—1st. A hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 157° C., yielding a crystallized compound with HCl. 2nd. The liquid compound C₁₀H₁₈O, which by means of chromic acid affords common camphor and formic, acetic and valerianic acids, which are met with in old valerian root, owing no doubt to the slow oxidation of the compound C₁₀H₁₈O. 3rd. There is also present a crystallizable compound of the same composition, which is probably identical with the camphor of Dryobalanops aromatica (see our article on Camphora). It would appear that this substance is of alcoholic nature, being combined in the root with the 3 organic acids mentioned under 2nd. On distilling, these compound ethers are resolved partly into the alcohol C₁₀H₁₈O (borneol) and the acids. This decomposition is fully performed, if the root is macerated with alkaline water, and then, on distilling, a slight excess of sulphuric acid is added. 4th. At about 300° a greenish portion is coming over, which can be obtained colourless by again rectifying it. This oil assumes intense colorations if it is shaken with concentrated mineral acids; it becomes blue by distilling it over potash.

[1408] _Journ. de Médecine de Bruxelles_, 1867 and 1868; _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1869. 17.

[1409] _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 209 (1876).

[1410] _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1871. 462.

Valerianic acid as afforded by the root is not agreeing with normal valerianic acid. It is, more exactly, _isovalerianic acid_, or isopropyl-acetic acid: (CH₃)₂CH·CH₂COOH, which is produced by Valeriana as well as by Archangelica officinalis and Viburnum Opulus. The same acid also may be obtained from the fat of Dolphinus globiceps.

After the root has been submitted to the distillation of the oil, there is found a strongly acid residue containing malic acid, resin, and sugar,—the last capable, according to Schoonbroodt, of reducing cupric oxide.

=Uses=—Valerian is employed as a stimulant and antispasmodic.

=Substitutes=—In the London market there has been offered “_Kesso_” the root of _Patrinia scabiosaefolia_ Link,[1411] a Japanese herb of the order Valerianaceæ. This drug consists of a very short rootstock giving off a large number of rootlets about 5 inches long and ⅒ of an inch in diameter. By the absence of a well-marked upright rhizome in this _Japanese Valerian_ it is widely differing from our Valerian, although at first sight it agrees to some extent with it. As to the odour and taste we find Kesso almost identical with true Valerian.

The less aromatic and now disused root of _Valeriana Phu_ L. consists of a thicker rhizome which lies in the earth obliquely; it is less closely annulated and rooted at the bottom only. It resembles by no means true Valerian.

[1411] According to Holmes, _Ph. J._ x. (1879) 22.

COMPOSITÆ.

RADIX INULÆ.

_Radix Enulæ_, _Radix Helenii_; _Elecampane_;[1412] F. _Racine d’Aunée_; G. _Alantwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Inula Helenium_ L.—This stately perennial plant is very widely distributed, occurring scattered throughout the whole of central and southern Europe, and extending eastward to the Caucasus, Southern Siberia and the Himalaya. It is found here and there apparently wild in the south of England and Ireland, as well as in Southern Norway and in Finland (Schübeler).

Elecampane was formerly cultivated in gardens as a medicinal and culinary plant, and in this manner has wandered to North America. In Holland and some parts of England and Switzerland, it is cultivated on a somewhat larger scale, most largely probably near Cölleda (see p. 377).

[1412] A corruption of _Enula Campana_, the latter word referring to the growth of the plant in Campania (Italy).

=History=—The plant was known to the ancient writers on agriculture and natural history, and even the Roman poets were acquainted with it, and mention Inula as affording a root used both as a medicine and a condiment. Vegetius Renatus, about the beginning of the 5th century, calls it Inula Campana, and St. Isidore in the beginning of the 7th names it as _Inula_, adding—“quam _Alam_ rustici vocant.” It is frequently mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon writings on medicine current in England prior to the Norman Conquest; it is also the “marchalan” of the Welsh Physicians[1413] of the 13th century and was generally well known during the middle ages. Not only was its root much employed as a medicine, but it was also candied and eaten as a sweetmeat.

=Description=—For pharmaceutical use, the root is taken from plants two or three years old; when more advanced, it becomes too woody. The principle mass of the root is a very thick short crown, dividing below into several fleshy branches of which the larger are an inch or two in diameter, covered with a pale yellow bark, internally whitish, and juicy. The smaller roots are dried entire; the larger are variously sliced, which occasions them to curl up irregularly. When dried, they are of a light grey, brittle, horny, smooth-fractured. Cut transversely the young root exhibits an indistinct radiate structure, with a somewhat darker cambial zone separating the thick bark from the woody nucleus. The pith is not sharply defined, and is often porous and hollow. In the older roots the bark is relatively much thinner, and the internal substance is nearly uniform. Elecampane root has a weak aromatic odour suggestive of orris and camphor, and a slightly bitter, not unpleasant, aromatic taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The medullary rays, both of the woody column and the inner part of the bark (_endophlœum_), exhibit large balsam-ducts. In the fresh root they contain an aromatic liquid, which as it dries deposits crystals of helenin, probably derived from the essential oil. The parenchymatous cells of the drug are loaded with inulin in the form of splinter-like fragments, devoid of any peculiar structure.

=Chemical Composition=—It was observed by Le Febvre, as early as 1660, that when the root of elecampane is subjected to distillation with water a crystallizable substance collects in the head of the receiver from which it speedily passes on as the operation proceeds. Similar crystals may also be observed after carefully heating a thin slice of the root, and are even found as a natural efflorescence on the surface of root that has been long kept. They can be extracted from the root by means of alcohol and precipitated with water. Kallen (1874, 1876) showed that the crystals chiefly consist of the _anhydride_, C₁₅H₂₀O₂, of _alantic acid_, melting at 66° C. The anhydride, which is very little aromatic, can easily be sublimed, although it begins to boil only at 275°, yet not without decomposition. Alantic anhydride dissolves in caustic lye, but on saturating the solution with an acid, alantic acid, C₁₅H₂₂O₃, separates. It is not present in the root.

The anhydride is accompanied by a small quantity of _Helenin_, C₆H₈O, and _Alantcamphor_ (i.e. Elecampane-camphor). The crystals of helenin have a slightly (?) bitterish taste, but no odour, and melt at 110°. The camphor, occurring in but very small amount, has not yet been analyzed; it agrees probably with the formula C₁₀H₁₆O; it melts at 64° C., and in taste and smell is suggestive of peppermint. It is very difficult entirely to remove helenin from alantcamphor, these substances being soluble to nearly the same extent in alcohol or ether. By distilling the second of them with pentasulphide of phosphorus, _Cymene_, C₁₀H₁₄, was obtained.

[1413] _Meddygon Myddfai_, p. 61. 284. 311 (see Appendix).

By distilling the root under notice with water, the alantic anhydride is chiefly obtained, but impregnated with _Alantol_, C₁₀H₁₆O (probably). The latter can be removed from the crystals by pressing them between folds of bibulous paper. On submitting this again to distillation, alantol is obtained as an aromatic liquid, boiling at 200°.

The substance most abundantly contained in elecampane root is _Inulin_, discovered in it by Valentine Rose at Berlin in 1804. It has the same composition as starch, C₆H₁₀O₅, but stands to a certain extent in opposition to that substance, which it replaces in the root-system of _Compositæ_. In living plants, inulin is dissolved in the watery juice, and on drying is deposited within the cells in amorphous masses, which in polarized light are inactive, and are not coloured by iodine. There are various other characters, by which inulin differs from starch. Thus for instance, inulin readily dissolves in about 3 parts of boiling water; the solution is perfectly clear and fluid, not paste-like; but on cooling deposits nearly all the inulin. The solution is levogyre and is easily transformed into uncrystallizable sugar. With nitric acid, inulin affords no explosive compound as starch does.

Sachs showed in 1864 that by immersing the roots of elecampane, or _Dahlia variabilis_ or of many other perennial _Compositæ_, in alcohol or glycerin, inulin may be precipitated in a crystalline form. Its globular aggregates of needle-shaped crystals (“sphæro-crystals”) then exhibit under the polarizing microscope a cross similar to that displayed by starch grains.

The amount of inulin varies according to the season, but is most abundant in the autumn. Of the various sources for it, the richest appears to be elecampane. Dragendorff, who has made it the subject of a very exhaustive treatise,[1414] obtained from the root in October not less than 44 per cent., but in spring only 19 per cent.

In the roots of the _Compositæ_ inulin is accompanied, according to Popp,[1415] by two closely allied substances, _Synanthrose_, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O, and _Inuloïd_, C₆H₁₀O₅ + H₂O. Synanthrose is soluble in dilute alcohol, devoid of any rotatory power, and deliquescent. Inuloïd is much more readily soluble in water than inulin. Both these substances are probably present in elecampane.

Inulin is widely distributed in the perennial roots of compositæ, and has also been met with in the natural orders Campanulaceæ, Goodenovieæ (or Goodeniaceæ), Lobeliaceæ, Stylidieæ, and lastly by Kraus (1879) in the root of _Ionidium Ipecacuanha_ St. Hilaire, Violaceæ; the formerly so-called _Ipecacuanha alba lignosa_ (see p. 375, note 4).

=Uses=—Elecampane is an aromatic tonic, but as a medicine is now obsolete. It is chiefly sold for veterinary practice. In France and Switzerland (Neuchâtel), it is employed in the distillation of _Absinthe_.

=Substitutes=—Dioscorides in speaking of _Costus_ root states that it is often mixed with that of elecampane of Kommagene (north-western Syria). The former, derived from _Aplotaxis[1416] auriculata_ DC. (_A. Lappa_ Decaisne, _Aucklandia Costus_ Falconer), is remarkably similar to elecampane both in external appearance and structure. Costus is an important spice, incense and medicine in the east from the antiquity down to the present day;[1417] it would be of great interest to examine it chemically with regard to elecampane.

[1414] _Materialien zu einer Monographie des Inulins_, St. Petersburg, 1870. 141 pages—See also _Prantl’s_ paper on Inulin, as abstracted in _Pharm. Journ._ Sept. 1871. 262.

[1415] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1870. 68.

[1416] Bentham and Hooker unite this plant with _Saussurea_.

[1417] See Cooke, _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1877) 41; Flückiger, _ibid._ 121.

RADIX PYRETHRI.

_Pellitory Root_, _Pellitory of Spain_; F. _Pyrèthre-salivaire_; G. _Bertramwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Anacylus Pyrethrum_ DC. (_Anthemis Pyrethrum_ L.), a low perennial plant with small, much divided leaves, and a radiate flower resembling a large daisy. It is a native of northern Africa, especially Algeria, growing on the high plateaux that intervene between the fertile coast regions and the desert.

=History=—The πύρεθρον of Dioscorides was an umbelliferous plant, the determination of which must be left to conjecture. The pellitory of modern times was familiar to the Arabian writers on medicine, one of whom, Ibn Baytar, describes it very correctly from specimens gathered by himself near the city of Constantine in Algeria. The plant, says he, called by the Berbers _sandasab_, is found nowhere but in Western Africa, from which region it is carried to other countries.[1418]

Pellitory root is a favourite remedy in the East, and has long been an article of export by way of Egypt to India. An Arabic name for it is _Aāqarqarhā_ or _Akulkara_[1419], a word which, under slight variations, is found in the principal languages of India. In Germany, pellitory was known as early as the 12th century; it is named in the oldest printed works on materia medica. In the 13th century “pellitory of _Spain_” (Pelydr ysbain) was a proved “remedy for the toothache” with the Welsh physicians.[1420]

=Description=—The root as found in the shops is simple, 3 to 4 inches long by ⅜ to ⁴/₈ of an inch thick, cylindrical, or tapering, sometimes terminated at top by the bristly remains of leaves, and having only a few hair-like rootlets. It has a brown, rough, shrivelled surface, is compact and brittle, the fractured surface being radiate and destitute of pith. The bark, at most ¹/₂₅ of an inch thick, adheres closely to the wood, a narrow zone of cambium intervening. The woody column is traversed by large medullary rays in which, as in the bark, numerous dark resin-ducts are scattered. The root has a slight aromatic smell, and a persistent, pungent taste, exciting a singular tingling sensation, and a remarkable flow of saliva. The drug is very liable to the attacks of insects.

=Microscopic Structure=—The cortical part of this root is remarkable on account of its suberous layer, which is partly made up of sclerenchyme (thick-walled cells). Balsam-ducts (oil-cells) occur as well in the middle cortical layer as in the medullary rays. Most of the parenchymatous cells are loaded with lumps of inulin; pellitory in fact is one of those roots most abounding in that substance.

[1418] Sontheimer’s translation, ii. (1842) 179.

[1419] _Haq’recarcha_; see Steinschneider, in Rohlfs’ Archiv für Geschichte der Medicin (1879) 342.

[1420] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) 184. 292. 374.

=Chemical Composition=—Pellitory has been analysed by several chemists, whose labours have shown that its pungent taste is due in great part to a resin, not yet fully examined. The root also contains a little volatile oil besides, sugar, gum, and a trace of tannic acid. The so-called _Pyrethrin_ is a mixed substance.

=Commerce=—The root is collected chiefly in Algeria and is exported from Oran and to a smaller extent from Algiers. But from the information we have received from Colonel Playfair, British Consul-General for Algeria, and from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Tunis, it appears that the greater part is shipped from Tunis to Leghorn and Egypt. Mr. Wood was informed that the drug is imported from the frontier town of Tebessa in Algeria into the regency of Tunis, to the extent of 500 _cantars_ (50,000 lb.) per annum.

Bombay imported in the year 1871-72, 740 cwt. of this drug, of which more than half was shipped to other ports of India.[1421]

=Uses=—Chiefly employed as a sialogogue for the relief of toothache, occasionally in the form of tincture as a stimulant and rubefacient.

=Substitute=—In Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, African pellitory is replaced by the root of _Anacyclus officinarum_ Hayne, an annual herb long cultivated in Prussia and Saxony.[1422] Its root of a light grey is only half as thick as that of _A. Pyrethrum_, and is always abundantly provided with adherent remains of stalks and leaves. It is quite as pungent as that of the perennial species.

FLORES ANTHEMIDIS.

_Chamomile Flowers_; F. _Fleurs de Camomille Romaine_; G. _Römische Kamillen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Anthemis nobilis_ L., the Common or Roman Chamomile, a small creeping perennial plant, throwing up in the latter part of the summer solitary flowerheads.

It is abundant on the commons in the neighbourhood of London, and generally throughout the south of England; and extends to Ireland, but is not a native of Scotland, except the islands of Bute and Cumbrae, where Anthemis is stated to grow wild. It is plentiful in the west and centre of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Dalmatia; and occurs as a doubtful native in Southern and Central Russia.

=History=—The identification of the chamomile in the classical and other ancient authors seems to be impossible, on account of the large number of allied plants having similar inflorescence.

The chamomile has been cultivated for centuries in English gardens, the flowers being a common domestic medicine. The double variety was well known in the 16th century.

The plant was introduced, according to Gesner, into Germany from Spain about the close of the middle ages. Tragus first designated it _Chamomilla nobilis_,[1423] and Joachim Camerarius (1598), who had observed its abundance near Rome, gave it the name of _Roman Chamomile_.

[1421] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay_ in 1871-72, pt. ii. 19. 98.

[1422] For further information on the medicinal species of _Anacyclus_, see a paper by Dr. P. Ascherson in _Bonplandia_, 15 April 1858.

[1423] _De Stirpium_ ..., 1552. 149.—In Germany the epithet _edel_ (= _nobilis_) is frequently used in popular botany to designate useful or remarkable plants. Tragus may have been induced to bestow it on the species under notice, on account of its superiority to _Matricaria Camomilla_, the so-called _Common Chamomile_ of the Germans.

Porta, about the year 1604,[1424] states that 100 pounds of _Flores Chamœmeli_ yielded 2 drachmæ of a green volatile oil; we suppose he distilled the flowers under notice.

=Production=—The camomile is cultivated at Mitcham, near London, the land applied to this purpose being in 1864 about 55 acres, and the yield reckoned at about 4 cwt. per acre. The flowers are carefully gathered, and dried by artificial heat; and fetch a high price in the market.[1425]

The plant is grown on a large scale at Kieritzsch, between Leipzig and Altenburg, and near Zeiz and Borna, all in Saxony; and likewise to some extent in Belgium and France.

=Description=—The chamomile flowers found in commerce are never those of the wild plant, but are produced by a variety in which the tubular florets have all, or for the greater part been converted into ligulate florets. In the flowers of some localities this conversion has been less complete, and such flowers having a somewhat yellow centre, are called by druggists _Single Chamomiles_; while those in which all the florets are ligulate and white, are known as _Double Chamomiles_.

Chamomile flowers have the general structure found in the order _Compositæ_. They are ½ to ¾ of an inch across, and consist of a hemispherical involucre about ⅜ of an inch in diameter, composed of a number of nearly equal bracts, scarious at the margin. The receptacle is solid, conical, about ¼ of an inch in height, beset with thin, concave, blunt, narrow, chaffy scales, from the bases of which grow the numerous florets. In the wild plant, the outer of these, to the number of 12 or more, are white, narrow, strap-shaped, and slightly toothed at the apex. The central or disc florets are yellow and tubular, with a somewhat bell-shaped summit from which project the two reflexed stigmas. In the cultivated plant, the ligulate florets predominate, or replace entirely the tubular. The florets which are wholly destitute of pappus are reflexed, so that the capitulum when dried has the aspect of a little white ball. Minute oil-glands are sparingly scattered over the tubular portion of the florets of either kind. The flowers of chamomile, as well as the green parts of the plant, have a strong aroma, and a very bitter taste.

In trade, dried chamomile flowers are esteemed in proportion as they are of large size, very double, and of a good white—the last named quality being due in great measure to fine dry weather during the flowering period. Flowers that are buff or brownish, or only partially double, command a lower price.

=Chemical Composition=—Chamomile flowers yield from 0·6 to 0·8 per cent. of essential oil,[1426] which is at first of a pale blue, but becomes yellowish-brown in the course of a few months.

At Mitcham, oil of chamomile is usually distilled from the _entire plant_, after the best flowers have been gathered. The oil has a shade of green, to remove which it is exposed to sunlight; it thus acquires a brownish-yellow colour, at the same time throwing down a considerable deposit.

[1424] _De distillatione_, Romæ, 1608. 83.

[1425] About £9 per cwt., Foreign Chamomiles being worth from £3 to £4.

[1426] Information obligingly given by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig. The oil distilled by them was examined in Prof. Fittig’s laboratory, Strassburg.

The investigations of several chemists, performed in 1878-79 in Fittig’s laboratory, have shown the oil to contain the following constituents:—At 147-148° C. _isobutylic ethers_ and hydrocarbons are distilling, at 177° _angelicate_ of _isobutyl_, at 200°-201° _angelicate_ of _isamyl_, at 204°-205° _tiglinate_ of _isamyl_ (both these compound ethers answering to the formula C₅H₇O·OC₅H₁₁). In the residual portion hexylic alcohol, C₆H₁₃OH, and an alcohol of the formula C₁₀H₁₆O, are met with, both probably occurring in the form of compound ethers. By decomposing the angelicates and the tiglinate above named with potash, angelic acid, C₅H₈O₂, and tiglinic (or methylcrotonic) acid, isomeric to the former, are obtained to the extent of about 30 or more per cent. of the crude oil. In the oil examined by Fittig, angelic acid was prevailing; from another specimen E. Schmidt (1879) obtained but very little of it, tiglinic acid was by far prevailing (see also article Oleum Crotonis).

We have performed some experiments in order to isolate the _bitter principle_, but have not succeeded in obtaining it in a satisfactory state of purity; it forms a brown extract, apparently a glucoside. We can also confirm the statement that no alkaloid is present.

=Uses=—An infusion or an extract of chamomile is often used as a bitter stomachic and tonic.

=Adulteration and Substitution=—The flowerheads of _Matricaria Chamomilla_ L., designated in Germany _Common Chamomiles_ (_gemeine Kamillen_), are sometimes asked for in this country. In aspect as well as in odour, they are very different from the chamomiles of English pharmacy; they are quite single, not bitter, and have the receptacle devoid of scales and hollow.

A cultivated variety of _Chrysanthemum Parthenium_ Pers., or Feverfew, with the florets all ligulate, and some scales on the receptacle (not having the receptacle _naked_, as in the wild form), common in gardens,[1427] has flowerheads exceedingly like double chamomiles. But they may be distinguished from the latter by their _convex_ or _nearly flat_ receptacle, with the scales lanceolate and acute, and less membranous.

The chamomiles of the Indian bazaars which are brought from Persia and known as _Bābūnah_, are (as we infer from the statement of Royle) the flowers of _Matricaria suaveolens_ L., a slender form of _M. Chamomilla_, growing in Southern Russia, Persia, Southern Siberia, also in North America.

The fresh wild plant of _Anthemis nobilis_ L., pulled up from the ground, is sold in London for making extract, a proceeding highly reprehensible supposing the extract to be sold for medicinal use.

[1427] Is not this plant the _Anthemis? parthenioides_ Bernh., of which De Candolle says (_Prod._ vi. 7)—“ ... simillima _Mat. Parthenio_, sed paleis inter flores instructa. Ferè semper plena in hortis occurrit, et forte ideo paleæ receptaculi ex luxuriante statu ortæ ut in _Chrysanthemi indico et sinensi_ ...”?

SANTONICA.

_Flores Cinæ_, _Semen Cinæ_,[1428] _Semen
Santonicæ_, _Semen Zedoariæ_, _Semen
Contra_, _Semen Sanctum_; _Wormseed_; F.
_Semen-contra_, _Semencine_, _Barbotine_;
G. _Wurmsamen_, _Zitwersamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Artemisia maritima_, var. _a. Stechmanniana_ Besser[1429] (_A. Lercheana_ Karel. et Kiril, in Herbb. Kew, et Mus. Brit.; _A. maritima_ var. _a. pauciflora_ Weber, quoad Ledebour, _Flor. Ross._ ii. 570).

_Artemisiæ_ of the section _Seriphidium_ assume great diversity of form:[1430] they have been the object of attentive study on the part of the Russian botanists Besser (1834-35) and Ledebour (1844-46), whose researches have resulted in the union of many supposed species, under the head of the Linnæan _Artemisia maritima_. This plant has an extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the old world, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt marshes of the British Islands, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France and the Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary and Podolia; thence it extends eastward, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia, the regions of the Caspian, and Central Siberia, to Chinese Mongolia.

The particular variety which furnishes at least the chief part of the drug, is a low, shrubby, aromatic plant, distinguished by its very small, erect, ovoid flowerheads, having oblong, obtuse, involucral scales, the interior scales being scarious. The stem in its upper half is a fastigiate, thyrsoid panicle, crowned with flowerheads. The localities for the plant are the neighbourhood of the Don, the regions of the lower Volga near Sarepta and Zaritzyn, and the Kirghiz deserts.

The drug, which consists of the minute, unopened flowerheads, is collected in large quantities, as we are informed by Björklund (1867), on the vast plains or steppes of the Kirghiz, in the northern part of Turkestan. It was formerly gathered about Sarepta, a German colony in the Government of Saratov, but from direct information we have (1872) received, it appears to be obtained there no longer.

The emporium for wormseed is the great fair of Nishnei-Novgorod (July 15th to Aug. 27th), whence the drug is conveyed to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Western Europe.

Wormseed is found in the Indian bazaars. A specimen received by us from Bombay does not materially differ in form from the Russian drug, but is slightly shaggy and mixed with tomentose stalks. It is probably brought from Afghanistan and Cabul.[1431]

Wilkomm[1432] has described, as mother plant of wormseed, an _Artemisia_ which he calls _A. Cina_. It was obtained in Turkestan by Prof. Petzholdt, who received it from the people gathering the drug. The specimen kindly communicated to us by Prof. Willkomm has flowerheads which do not entirely resemble the wormseed of trade, in that they have fewer scales, but their number may be somewhat varying.

[1428] From the Italian _semenzina_, the diminutive of _semenza_ (seed).

[1429] W. S. Besser in _Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des Naturalistes de Moscou_, vii. (1834) 31.—A specimen of the plant in question labelled in Besser’s handwriting, with a memorandum that it is collected for medicinal use, is in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. It completely agrees with the _Semen Cinæ_ of Russian and German commerce. This remark also applies to a specimen of _A. Lercheana_ Karel. et Kiril. in the same herbarium.

[1430] “Si aliæ Artemisiæ multùm variant, Seriphidia inconstantiâ formarum omnes superant....”—Besser.

[1431] _Artemisia_ No. 3201, Herb. Griffith, Afghanistan, in the Kew Herbarium has capitules precisely agreeing with this Bombay drug.

[1432] _Bot. Zeitung_, 1 März 1872. 130; _Pharm. Journ._ 23 March 1872. 772 (abstract).

=History=—Several species of _Absinthium_ are mentioned by Dioscorides, one of which called Ἀψίνθιον Θαλάσσιον or Σέριϕον, having very small seeds (capitules), and growing in Cappadocia, he states to be taken in honey as a remedy for ascarides and lumbrici: one can hardly doubt but that this is the modern wormseed. Another species is described by the same author as being called Σαντόνιον, from its growing in the country of the Santones in Gaul (the modern Saintonge); he asserts it to resemble σέριϕον in its properties.

In an epistle on intestinal worms attributed to Alexander Trallianus,[1433] who practised medicine with great success at Rome in the 6th century, the use is recommended of a decoction of _Absinthium marinum_ (θαλασσία ἀψίνθη) as a cure for ascarides and round worms.

_Semen sanctum vel Alexandrinum_ is mentioned as a vermifuge for children by Saladinus about A.D. 1450, and by Ruellius, Dodonæus, the Bauhins, and other naturalists of the 16th century. Tragus[1434] mentions that it is imported by way of Genoa. Its ancient reputation has been fully maintained in modern times, and in the form partly of _Santonin_, the drug is still extensively employed.

=Description=—Good samples of the drug consist almost exclusively of entire, unopened flowerheads or capitules, which are so minute that it requires about 90 to make up the weight of one grain. In samples less pure, there is an admixture of stalks, and portions of a small pinnate leaf. The flowerheads are of an elliptic or oblong form, about ⅒ of an inch long, greenish yellow when new, brown if long kept; they grow singly, less frequently in pairs, on short stalks, and are formed of about 18 oblong, obtuse, concave scales, closely imbricated. This involucre is much narrowed at the base in consequence of the lowermost scales being considerably shorter than the rest. The capitule is sometimes associated with a few of the upper leaves of the stem, which are short, narrow, and simple. Notwithstanding its compactness, the capitule is somewhat ridged and angular,[1435] from the involuclar scales having a strong, central nerve or keel. The middle portion of each scale is covered with minute, yellow, sessile glands, which are wanting on the transparent scarious edge. The latter is marked with extremely fine striæ and is quite glabrous; in the young state the keel bears a few woolly colourless hairs, but at maturity the whole flowerhead is shining and nearly glabrous.[1436] The florets number from 3 to 5; they have (in the bud) an ovoid corolla, glandular in its lower portion, a little longer than the ovary, which is destitude of pappus.

[1433] Contained in a work by Hieronymus Mercurialis, entitled _Variarum Lectionum libri quatuor_, Venet. 1570; also in Puschmann’s edition of _Alexander_ (see Appendix), i. 238. 240.

[1434] In Brunfels (_De vera herbarum cognitione_), Argentorati, 1531. 196.

[1435] Maceration in water, which restores the natural shape of the flowerheads, shows that this shrunken, angular form is not found in the growing plant.

[1436] Yet too much stress must not be laid on this character, for as Besser remarks—“_periclinii squamæ in uno loco tomento brevi plus minusve canæ, in aliis nudæ, imo nitidæ_.”

Wormseed when rubbed in the hand exhales a powerful and agreeable odour, resembling cajuput oil and camphor; it has a bitter aromatic taste.

=Chemical Composition=—Wormseed yields from 1 to 2 per cent. of essential oil, having its characteristic smell and taste. The oil is slightly levogyrate and chiefly consists of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O, accompanied by a small amount of hydrocarbon. The former has the odour of the drug, yet rather more agreeable; sp. gr. 0·913 at 20° C. It boils without decomposition at 173°-174°, but in presence of P₂O₅ or P₂S₅ abundantly yields cymol (see p. 333). The latter had already been observed by Völckel (1854) under the name of _cinene_ or _cynene_, yet he assigned to it the formula C₁₂H₉; Hirzel (1854) called it cinæbene.

The water which distills over carries with it volatile acids of the fatty series, also _angelic acid_ (see pp. 313, 386).

The substance to which the remarkable action of wormseed on the human body[1437] is due is _Santonin_, C₁₅H₁₈O₃. It was discovered in 1830 by Kahler, an apothecary of Düsseldorf, who gave a very brief notice of it in the _Archiv der Pharmacie_ of Brandes (xxxiv. 318). Immediately afterwards Augustus Alms, a druggist’s assistant at Penzlin in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, knowing nothing of Kahler’s discovery, obtained the same substance and named it _Santonin_. Alms recommended it to the medical profession, pointing out that it is the anthelminthic principle of wormseed.[1438] Santonin constitutes from 1½ to 2 per cent. of the drug, but appears to diminish in quantity very considerably as the flowers open. It is easily extracted by milk of lime, for, though not an acid and but sparingly soluble in water even at a boiling heat, it is capable of combining with bases. With lime it forms then santoninate of calcium, which is readily soluble in water. On addition of hydrochloric acid, santoninic acid, C₁₅H₂₀O₄, separates, but parts with OH₂, santonin being thus immediately reproduced. Similar facts have been recorded with regard to alantic acid (see p. 381).

Santonin forms crystals of the orthorhombic system, melting at 170°, which are inodorous, but have a bitter taste, especially when dissolved in chloroform or alcohol.[1439] They are colourless, but when exposed to daylight, or to the blue or violet rays, but not to the other colours of the spectrum, they assume a yellow hue, and split into irregular fragments. This change, which takes place even under water, alcohol or ether, is not accompanied by any chemical alteration. This behaviour of santonin when exposed to light, resembles that of erythrocentaurin, C₂₇H₂₄O₈. The latter has been obtained by means of ether, from the alcoholic extract of _Erythræa Centaurium_, and of some other _Gentianaceæ_. Méhu (1866) has shown that the colourless crystals of that substance when exposed to sunlight, assume a brilliant red colour, _without_ undergoing any chemical alteration. The _colourless_ solutions of this body in chloroform or alcohol yield the original substance. Yet as to santonin, Sestini and Cannizzaro (1876) have shown, that its dilute alcoholic solution, on long exposure to sunlight, affords a compound ether of photosantonic acid, namely C₁₅H₁₃O₄(C₂H₅)₂.

[1437] As the affected vision, so that objects appear as if seen through a yellow medium. Other effects are recorded by Stillé (_Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ ii. 641).

[1438] The paper of Alms being contained in the very same periodical (p. 319) as that of Kahler (and further in vol. xxxix. 190), affords additional evidence of the independence of the discovery.

[1439] Its ready solubility in 3 or 4 parts of chloroform renders its estimation easy when mixed with sugar, as in a santonin lozenge.

Wormseed contains, in addition to the above described bodies, resin, sugar, waxy fat, salts of calcium and potassium, and malic acid; when carefully selected and dried, it yielded us 6·5 per cent. of ash, rich in silica.

=Commerce=—Ludwig of St. Petersburg has stated that the imports of wormseed into that city were about as follows:—In 1862, 7400 cwt.; in 1863, 10,500 cwt.; in 1864, 11,400 cwt. The drug was brought from the Kirghiz steppes by Semipalatinsk and by Orenburg.

=Uses=—The drug is employed exclusively for its anthelminthic properties, partly in the form of santonin. It proves of special efficacy for the dislodgement of _Ascaris lumbricoides_.

RADIX ARNICÆ.

_Rhizoma Arnicæ_, _Arnica Root_; F. _Racine d’Arnica_; G. _Arnicawurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Arnica montana_ L., a perennial plant growing in meadows throughout the northern and central regions of the northern hemisphere, but not reaching the British Islands. In western and central Europe it is an inhabitant of the mountains, but in colder countries it grows in the plains.

In high latitudes, as in Arctic Asia and America, a peculiar form of the plant distinguished by narrow, almost linear leaves has been named _A. angustifolia_ Vahl; but numerous transitional forms prove its identity with the ordinary _A. montana_ of Europe.

=History=—The older botanists as Matthiolus, Gesner, Camerarius, Tabernæmontanus, and Clusius were acquainted with Arnica and had some knowledge of its medicinal powers, which appear to have been expressly recommended, towards the end of the 16th century, by Franz Joël, professor of Greifswald, Germany.[1440] All parts of the plant were no doubt popular remedies in Germany at an early period, but Arnica was only introduced into regular medicine on the recommendation of Johann Michael Fehr of Schweinfurt and of several other physicians.[1441] But for enthusiastic laudation of the new remedy, all these writers fall far short of Collin of Vienna, who imagined that in Arnica he had found a European plant possessing all the virtues of Peruvian Bark.[1442] In his hands fevers and agues gave way under its use, and more than 1000 patients in the Pazman Hospital were alleged to have been cured of intermittents by an electuary of the flowers, between 1771 and 1774. Such happy results were not obtained by other physicians.

[1440] Sprengel, _Geschichte der Arzneykunde_, iv. (1827) 546.

[1441] Fehr, _De Arnica lapsorum panacea, in Ephemerid. nat. cur._ Dec. 1, (1678, 1679) No. 2. p. 22 (“usus est in _radice_, _foliis_ et _floribus_”).—G. A. de la Marche, _Dissertatio_, Halæ Magdeburg, 1744.

[1442] Heinrich Joseph Collin, _Heilkräfte des Wolverley_, Breslau, 1777 (translation); also _Arnicæ, in febribus et aliis morbis putridis vires_,—in the _Anni Medici_ of Störck and Collin, ed. nov., Amstel., iii. (1779) 133.

Arnica (_herba_, _flos_, _radix_) had a place in the London Pharmacopœia of 1788, but it soon fell out of notice, so that Woodville writing in 1790, remarks that he had been unable to procure the plant from any of the London druggists. Of late years it has gained some popular notoriety as an application in the form of tincture, for preventing the blackness of bruises, but in England it is rarely prescribed internally.

=Description=—The arnic root of pharmacy consists of a slender, contorted, dark brown rootstock, an inch or two long, emitting from its under side an abundance of wiry simple roots, 3, 4 or more inches in length; it usually bears the remains of the rosette of characteristic, ovate, coriaceous leaves, which are 3-to 5-nerved, ciliated at the margin, and slightly pubescent on their upper surface. It has a faintly aromatic, herby smell, and a rather acrid taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—On a transverse section, the rootstock exhibits a large pith surrounded by a strong woody ring. In the innermost part of the cortical layer, large oil-ducts are found corresponding to the fibro-vascular bundles. Neither starch granules, inulin, or oxalate of calcium are visible in the tissue. The rootlets are of a different structural character, but also contain oil-ducts.

=Chemical Composition=—Several chemists have occupied themselves in endeavouring to isolate the active principle of arnica. Bastick described (1851) a substance which he obtained in minute quantity from the flowers and named _Arnicine_. He states it to possess alkaline properties, to be non-volatile, slightly soluble in water, more so in alcohol or ether; when neutralized with hydrochloric acid, it forms a crystalline salt.

The _Arnicin_ extracted by Walz (1861) both from the root and flowers of arnica is a different substance; it is an amorphous yellow mass of acrid taste, slightly soluble in water, freely in alcohol or ether, and dissolving also in alkaline solutions. It is precipitable from its alcoholic solution by tannic acid or by water. Walz assigns to arnicin the formula C₂₀H₃₀O₄; other chemists that of C₃₅H₅₄O₇. Arnicin has not yet been proved a glucoside, although it is decomposed by dilute acids.

Sigel (1873) obtained from dried arnica root about ½ per cent. of essential oil, and 1 per cent. from the fresh; the oil of the latter had a sp. gr. of 0·999 at 18° C. The oil was found to be a mixture of various bodies, the principle being _dimethylic ether of thymohydroquinone_

{OCH₃
C₁₀H₁₂ { , boiling at about 235°.
{OCH₃

The water from which the oil separates contains _isobutyric acid_, probably also a little _angelic_ and _formic acid_; but neither capronic nor caprylic acid, which had been pointed out by Walz.

Arnica root contains _inulin_, which Dragendorff extracted from it to the extent of about 10 per cent.

=Uses=—Arnica is used chiefly in the form of tincture as a popular application to bruises and chilblains; internally it is occasionally prescribed as a stimulant and diaphoretic.

=Adulteration=—Arnica root has been met with[1443] adulterated with the root of _Geum urbanum_ L., a common herbaceous plant of the order _Rosaceæ_. The latter is thicker than the rhizome of arnica, being ³/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in diameter; it is a true _root_, furnished on all sides with rootlets, and has an _astringent_ taste. The leaves of _Geum_ are pinnate and quite unlike those of arnica.

[1443] Holmes in _Pharm. Journ._, April 11, 1874. 810.

FLORES ARNICÆ.

=Botanical Origin=—See preceding article.

=History=—The flowers probably in the first line attracted the attention of popular medicine in Germany, as we pointed out, page 390.

=Description=—_Arnica montana_ produces large, handsome, orange-yellow flowers, solitary at the summit of the stem or branches. The involucral scales of the capitulum (20 to 24) are of equal length, but are imbricated, forming a double row. They are very hairy, the shorter hairs being tipped with viscid glands. The receptacle is chaffy, ¼ of an inch in diameter, with about 20 ligulate florets, and of tubular a much larger number. The ligulate florets, an inch in length, are oblong, toothed at the apex, and traversed by about 10 parallel veins. The achenes are brown and hairy, crowned by pappus consisting of a single row of whitish barbed hairs.

The receptacle is usually inhabited by a fly, _Trypeta arnicivora_ Löw[1444]; the Pharmacopœia Germania (1872) therefore ordered the florets to be deprived of the involucre and receptacle—“flosculi a peranthodio liberati.” From a chemical point of view the usefulness of this direction may be doubted.

[1444] Figured in Nees von Esenbeck’s _Plantæ medicinales_, Düsseldorf, ii. (1833) fol. 39.

Arnica flowers have a weak, not unpleasant odour; they were formerly used in making the tincture, but as the British Pharmacopœia now directs that preparation to be made with the root, they have almost gone out of use in Great Britain.

=Chemical Composition=—The flowers appear to be rather richer in arnicin than the root, and are said to be equal if not superior to it in medicinal powers; yet the essential oil they contain is not the same. It is obtained in but extremely small amount and has a greenish or blue coloration. Hesse (1864) has proved that the flowers are devoid of a peculiar volatile alkaloid which had been supposed to be present in them.

RADIX TARAXACI.

_Dandelion Root_, _Taraxacum Root_; F. _Pissenlit_; G. _Löwenzahnwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Taraxacum officinale_ Wiggers _T. Dens-leonis_ Desf., _Leontodon Taraxacum_ L., a plant of the northern hemisphere, found over the whole of Europe, Central and Northern Asia, and North America, extending to the Arctic regions. It varies under a considerable number of forms, several of which have been regarded as distinct species. In many districts it is a troublesome weed.

=History=—Though the common Dandelion is a plant which must have been well known to the ancients, no indubitable reference to it can be traced in the classical authors of Greece and Italy; it is thought that ἀθάκη of Theophrast and others means it. The word _Taraxacum_ is however usually regarded as of Greek origin;[1445] we have first met with as _Tarakhshagun_ in the works of the Arabian physicians, who speak of it as a sort of _Wild Endive_. It is thus mentioned by Rhazes in the 10th, and by Avicenna in the 11th century.

The name _Dens Leonis_, an equivalent of which is found in nearly all the languages of Europe, is stated in the herbal of Johann von Cube[1446] to have been bestowed on this plant by one Wilhelm, a surgeon, who held it in great esteem; but of this personage and of the period during which he lived we have sought information in vain, and we may remember that Dens Leonis (“Dant y Llew”) is already met with in the Welsh medicine of the 13th century.[1447]

Dandelion was also much valued as medicine in the time of Gerarde and Parkinson, and is still extensively employed.

=Collection=—In England, taraxacum root is considered to be in perfection for extract in the month of November, the juice at that period affording an ampler and better product than at any other. Bentley contends that it is more bitter in March, and most of all in July, and that at the former period at least it should be preferred.

=Description=—The root is perennial, and tapering, simple, or slightly branched, attaining in a good soil a length of a foot or more, and half an inch to an inch in diameter. Old roots divide at the crown into several heads. The root is fleshy and brittle; externally of a pale brown, internally white, and abounding in an inodorous milky juice of bitter taste. It shrinks very much in drying, losing in weight about 76 per cent.[1448]

Dried dandelion root is half an inch or less in thickness, dark brown, shrivelled with wrinkles running lengthwise often in a spiral direction; when quite dry, it breaks easily with a short corky fracture, showing a very thick white bark, surrounding a woody column. The latter is yellowish, very porous, without pith or rays. A rather broad but indistinct cambium-zone separates the wood from the bark, which latter exhibits numerous well-defined concentric layers. The root has a bitterish taste.