Note 459 — PART VI.—ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Dr. T. G. Wormley separated, in 1870, a non-nitrogenised remarkably fluorescent body, which he named gelsemic acid (Amer. Journ. of Pharm., 1870), but Sonnenschein and C. Robbins afterwards found gelsemic acid to be identical with æsculin (Ber. der deutsch. Chem. Ges., 1876, 1182). Dr. Wormley has, however, contested this, stating that there are differences. (Amer. Journ. of Pharm., 1882, p. 337. Yearbook of Pharmacy, 1882, p. 169.)
[460] The following are its botanical characters:—Calyx five-parted, corolla funnel-shaped, five-lobed, somewhat oblique, the lobes almost equal, the posterior being innermost in bud; stamens five; anthers oblong sagittate, style long and slender; stigmas two, each two-parted, the divisions being linear; fruit elliptical, flattened contrary to the narrow partition, two-celled, septicidally two-valved, the valves keeled; seeds five to six in each cell, large, flat, and winged; embryo straight in fleshy albumen; the ovate flat, cotyledons much shorter than the slender radicle; stem smooth, twining and shrubby; leaves opposite, entire, ovate, or lanceolate, shining on short petioles, nearly persistent; flowers large, showy, very fragrant, yellow, one to five in the axil of the leaves.