HYDRASTIS.

Bright Yellow Branches Short, Fleshy.

H. Canadensis.

Golden Seal.

Horizontal, knotty appearance; branches curved upward; contorted, very rough and wrinkled, hard and brittle: From an inch to two or more in length about a fourth of an inch thick; beset with numerous slender rootlets, or showing marks where they have been. Externally, dark brown; internally, yellow; breaks with a short fracture; inodorous; bitter taste, without astringency. Contains Hydrastia and Berberina.

VALERIANA.

Brown, Upright, Short.

V. officinalis.

Valerian.

From one-fourth to three inches in length, surrounded by a large number of rootlets. The two varieties (growing in moist and dry localities) differ in the dry being smaller, (nearly globular,) rootlets, thinner, and of a lighter color and less shrivelled than the variety growing in moist localities; the dry also contains a larger proportion of the volatile oil. Externally, brown, beset with long, slender, cylindrical rootlets, which, when broken transversely, display a dark epidermis, forming a part of thick white bark, which surrounds a slender woody column; wood wedges near cambium line, separated by medullary rays; taste strong, disagreeable; peculiar camphor-like odor, developed by drying and exposure. Contains Vol. Oil, one-half to two per cent. Valerianic acid is developed in the rhizome by exposure. The oil obtained from the dry root is admixed with this acid. Borneene, Valerol, and a camphor identical with Borneo Camphor are also present.

GEUM.

Brown.

G. rivale.

Water Avens.

From four to six inches long, and one-fourth to one-half of an inch thick; jointed, scaly, tapering, and furnished with numerous descending yellowish fibres, hard and brittle. Externally, dark brown; internally, yellowish brown; breaks with a short fracture thin bark, large wood wedges, separated by narrow medullary rays, enclosing a large pith; clove-like odor; bitterish, astringent taste. Contains Gein-analagous to Tannin.

;

SERPENTARIA.

Brown, Stem Scars in Rows.

Virginia Snake Root.

Aristolochia Serpentaria. A. reticulata.

From two to three inches long, and one-sixth to one-eighth of an inch thick; contorted, bent up and down. Externally, light grayish brown, with numerous long, slender fibres attached; internally, grayish, closely mottled; thin bark; woody zone quite large, in distinct wedges of a white color, and separated by medullary rays; wood bundles not regular-longer on one side. Rootlets have thick bark. The rhizome bears on its upper surface short bases of stems of previous years. Peculiar aromatic odor, resembling Valerian, but less unpleasant; camphoraceous taste. (Under the microscope the rootlets exhibit a central fibro-vascular bundle, surrounded by a nucleus sheath.) Contains Vol. Oil, one-half per cent., Resin, one-half per cent., and small quantity of Tannin. Bitter principle, Aristolochin.

SPIGELIA.

Brown, Horizontal, Scars Deeply Connected.

S. Marilandica.

Pink Root.

This consists of numerous slender, branching, crooked, wrinkled fibres, from three to six inches long, attached to a small, knotty head. Externally, brownish; internally, whitish. (In Spigelia, the stems attached to the rhizome are close together, these overground stems die quite to the ground; the pith is larger than that of Serpentaria; the stems of the latter are attached to the rhizome farther apart, and the overground stems die nearly down to the ground.) Peculiar odor, different from that of Serpentaria; taste, slightly bitter, acrid. (The nucleus sheath observable in Serpentaria is wanting in Spigelia.) Composition not satisfactorily known; the wood contains resin and starch; the cortical part of the rhizome contains Tannic matter, but not the roots.

ASARUM.

Brown Two Edged, Four Angled.

A. Canadense.

Wild Ginger.

Long, creeping rhizome, more or less contorted. In commerce in pieces four to six inches long, and thickness of a straw to a goose quill. Externally, brownish, wrinkled, furnished with short fibres (easily broken), quadrangular, two-edged leaf scars, plainly visible in fresh; internally, nearly white, small wood bundles, sur

rounding a large pith; peculiar aromatic odor; taste, aromatic and warm. Contains a light colored pungent and fragrant Vol. Oil., acrid resin, starch, gum, &c.

Black, Knotty, Branched, Ascending, Thin.

HELLEBORUS.

H. niger.

Black Hellebore.

Collected from wild plants. From one to two inches in length, many head:d, a half inch thick or less. Externally, blackish, many short branches, about the thickness of a straw, smooth and brittle; leaf scars not distinct on rhizome, but distinct and close together on the branches; internally, grayish, thick bark, wood plainly visible and of a yellow color, eight to twelve white wood wedges, rather long and broad, separated by medullary rays, which enclose a large pith. Rootlets break easily and are generally found detached. The younger roots when broken exhibit a thick bark, encircling a simple woody cord; in the older this cord tends to divide into converging wedges, which present a stellate appearance, but not so distinctly as in Actæa. H. Viride smaller, and only four wood bundles. Odor, slightly like Senega; taste, bitter, slightly acrid. Contains Helleborin, which produces a tingling sensation on the tongue, and is said to be highly narcotic. It is a glucoside.

CIMICIFUGA.

Black, Knotty, Branched, Ascending, Thick.

C. racemosa.

Black Snake Root.

Thick, irregularly bent or contorted caudex; from one-third to an inch thick, and very short, knotty, branching, somewhat flattened; furnished with many slender radicles, and made very rough and jagged in appearance by the remains of stems. It is also marked at intervals with the scars of fallen leaves; wiry-roots onetwentieth to one-tenth of an inch in diameter, emitting rootlets still smaller. When broken, a transverse section displays a horny, whitish pith, around which are numbers of rather coarse, irregular woody rays, and outside them a hard, thickish bark. The larger roots, when broken, display a thick, cortical layer, the space within which contains converging wedges of open, woody tissue, three to five in number, forming a star or cross; beautiful structure observable with lens; color, dark, blackish brown; taste, bitter, acrid, astringent; odor, narcotic. Contains gum, resin, sugar, starch, and

tannic acid; the resin, precipitated from strong alcoholic solution by throwing into water amounts to about 33 per cent.; called Cimifugin or Macrotin.

Black, Horizontal, Knotty, Branched.

LEPTANDRA.

L. Virginica.

Culvers Root.

From four to six inches in length, two to four lines in thickness; variously branched; nearly cylindrical; somewhat flattened and tuberculated; many rootlets which break off easily; very hard and firm, and of difficult fracture; externally, blackish; internally, whitish; thin bark; central portion nearly black; the pith generally wanting; wood whitish and thick, and enclosing (when there is any) a pith about the same size; few medullary rays; the central part has a pentagonal or hexagonal appearance; inodorous; taste bitter and acrid. Contains Vol. Oil, Resin, Gum and Leptandrin; to the latter, the virtues are ascribed.

Tuber (corm, so called) surrounded by scales (brown,); roots borne at the base. Fresh corm is inversely pear-shaped, two inches long by an inch or more wide; rounded on one side, flattish on the other. Appears in commerce in transverse slices one-eighth of an inch thick, with a notch at one part of the circumference; both sides nearly white (should not be mouldy or stained), circumference brown; brittle; inodorous; bitterish taste; abounds in starch.

DEVELOPMENT.-A rudimentary corm, borne on the flattened upper side of the old corm. Produces, first year, a flower stem; second year, fruit stem and leaves. After these have come to maturity full development is acquired; this is at the expense of the parent corm, which gradually shrivels and ultimately decays.

Collected between the time of the withering of the leaves and the sprouting of the flower; in drying they lose about 70 per cent. of water. Contains Colchicia in very small proportion, only about 0.05 per cent.

ARUM.

B. Acrid.

A. triphyllum.

Indian Turnip.

Depressed, globose; lower portion wrinkled; color, externally, brown; internally white; in recent state, highly acrid; the acrid principle volatile, driven off by heat; by drying, loses nearly all its acrimony, and becomes quite inert; occurs in commerce in transverse slices, circular, nearly an inch in diameter Contains starch, gum, albumen, &c.