96 A COMPENDIUM OF 
officinal, and only figures in domestic practice. 
Gillenia, like most of the rhizomous plants herein 
enumerated, is perennial as to its roots, and an- 
nual as to its stems and foliage. 
Cimicifuga, Black Snake-Root, Cimicifuga 
Racemosa. — Natural order Ranunculacez. | 
Commonly known as “BLack sNAKE-ROOT,” 
ACTEA COHOSH, etc., etc., but Prof. Asa Gray 
denies the right of it being called acteze, which 
he asserts belongs to the baneberry order. The 
plant under discussion is the Cimicifuga Race- 
mosa, and obtains its name from the Latin 
cimex—a bug, and Juga—to drive away ; having 
the power. especially a Siberian variety, to kill 
or drive away vermin. The Cimicifuga is quite 
a tall, perennial plant, native of the American 
woods, and attains the height of 6 feet (2 me- 
ters), or more; the leaves are large with ter- 
nately divided leaflets and serrated as to their 
margins. The flowers are white and in racemes 
with many stamens, and from 1 to 8 pistils, 
very small with sessile stigmas, fruit ovoidal 
Within a capsule and many seeded. The rhi- 
zome as it occurs in commerce or drug market 
s thick, dark and irregular in character, from 
2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 centimeters) long and 
about 4-5 of an inch (2 centimeters) in diameter. 
When broken the fracture presents a smooth 
surface with a large pith, and by the aid of a 
magnifying glass of several diameters you can 
See the pith surrounded by many wedges of 
Wood, sn Cisucituga contains tannic 
and gallic acids, also starch, gum, resin, and an 
active principle termed Cimicifugin, which is 
crystalline and volatile, must not be confounded 
