N. ORD.-RANUNCULACE., 40 
Tribe.—CIMICIFUGEA. 
GENUS.—ACT AA,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
ACT AA ALBA. 
WHITE BANEBERRY. 
SYN.—ACTA4iA ALBA, BIGEL; ACTAIA SPICATA, VAR. ALBA, MICHX.; 
ACTAIA PACHYPODA, ELL.; ACTAiA AMERICANA, VAR. a, PURSH. ; 
ACTAIA BRACHYPETALA, VAR. a, DC. 
COM. NAMES.—WHITE BANEBERRY, WHITE COHOSH, AMERICAN HERB 
CHRISTOPHER, TOAD ROOT; (FR.) HERBE DE STE. CHRISTOPHE 
BLANC; (GER.) WEISSES CHRISTOPHSKRAODT. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH ROOT OF ACTA!A ALBA, BIGEL. 
Description.—This delicate-flowered perennial grows to a height of 2 feet 
and sometimes slightly over. oof somewhat similar to that of cimicifuga, but 
neither as odorous, dark in color, nor as large. Stem erect, nearly smooth, Leaves 
large, 2-3-ternately decompound; /eaflets ovate, acutely cleft, and dentate or in- 
cisely serrate. Jnflorescence a short, terminal ovate-oblong, simple raceme ; flowers 
creamy-white, sometimes by abortion declinous; pedicles becoming pink, and thick- 
ened in fruit, until they are equal in size to the common peduncle. Sepals 4 to 5 
petaloid, early deciduous. Peéa/s 3 to 9, small, slender and spatulate, their tips either 
truncate or emarginate, their bases converted into short claws. The petals of this 
species appear like metamorphosed stamens (staminidia). Stamens numerous ; 
filaments white, slender; anthers innate, introrse. Pistil simple, solitary, with a 
sulcus at the insertion of the parietal placenta; stigma sessile, 2-lobed. Fruita 
cluster of bluish-white, many-seeded berries or carpels; seeds smooth, compressed, 
and horizontal. . : 
/ 
History and Habitat—The white cohosh is a common herb in our rocky 
woods, especially southward and westward. It flowers in May and ripens its 
pretty china-like fruit in October. This species, together with Actea rubra (red 
cohosh), has received the attention of many writers upon medical botany. The 
two species vary principally in the color of the berries and thickness of the 
pedicles; probably slightly only in their properties and action. They are, how- 
ever, widely different from Actea racemosa, Our Cimicifuga, and should under no 
circumstances be confounded with that drug. Just how much our species of Acta 
differ from the European Actea spicata, Linn., still remains to be proven. This 
much we know, that the American species are much milder in their properties. 
ey 
* Axri, akte, elder, from a resemblance in the foliage. 
