N. ORD.~RANUNCULACEZ, 44 
Tribe.—CIMICIFUGEE. 
GENUS.— CIMIGIFUGA,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
CIMICIFUGA. 
BLACK COHOSH. 
SYN.—CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA, ELL.; C. SERPENTARIA, PURSH.; AC- 
TAA RACEMOSA, LINN.; A. ORTHOSTACHYA, AND GYROSTACHY A, 
WEND.; A. MONOGYNIA, WALT.; MACROTRYS ACTAZOIDES, RAF.; 
M. SERPENTARIA, AND RACEMOSA, EATON; BOTROPHIS SERPEN- 
TARIA, RAF.; B. ACTAIOIDES, FISCH AND MEY.: CHRYSTOPHOR- 
IANA CANADENSE RACEMOSA, PLUCK. 
COM. NAMES.—BLACK COHOSH, BLACK SNAKE-ROOT,} RICH WEED,} 
SQUAW-ROOT,? RATTLE-WEED, RATTLE-ROOT, RATTLESNAKE 
ROOT, | BUGBANE; (FR.) ACTEE A GRAPPE; (GER.) SWARZE COHOSCH, 
TRAUBENFORMIGES CHRISTOPHSKRAUT. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH ROOT OF CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA, LINN. 
Description.—This tall, graceful, and showy perennial grows to a height ot 
from 3 to 8 feet. Rootstock thick, blackish, successively knotted and fringe-ringed, 
whitish-yellow internally, with a ring of cuneiform wood-bundles pointing inward ; 
rootlets long, simple, and uniform, a section under a lens shows the cuneiform- 
bundles arranged like a cross. S¢em smooth, angular, or furrowed. Leaves alter- 
nate, tri-ternately divided, the lowermost almost radical, very large and ample, the 
petiole at its base almost as large as the stem; /eaflets various on the same petiole, 
simple, bifid, and trifid, all ovate-oblong, cut serrate. /nflorescence of very long, 
simple, or compound, virgate, inclined, upper-axillary or terminal racemes ; flowers 
scattered, foetid, creamy-white. Sepals 4-5, petal-like, scaphoid, early deciduous. 
Petals (Staminodia) 1-8, very small, long clawed, and 2-horned or forked ; apices 
antherose. Stamens numerous; filaments slender, club-shaped, creamy-white ; 
anthers innate, introrse, yellow. /%séi solitary, simple; ovary ovoid, sessile ; style 
short ; s#gma simple, inclined to be lateral, the centre somewhat cylindrically de- 
pressed, /7a2¢ numerous, dry, ovoid or globose, dehiscent carpels, arranged upon 
a raceme from 1 to 3 feet in length, and retaining each its stigma in the form of 
an oblique beak ; seeds semi-discoid, smooth, horizontal, and compressed. 
History and Habitat.—This indigenous plant is comparatively common all 
; : as j i ced asa vermifuge, 
* Cimex, a bug, fugo, I drive away. A Siberian species being use : 
‘ oa a — ce ) t is Sanicuda Canadensis (Umbellifere), If written black-snake root the name might be 
applied, but does not apply. j ‘ : : Irti 
t Two other ene us known by this name, viz.: Co//insonia Canadensis (Labiate), and Pilea pumila (Urticacez), 
4 The true squaw root is Conopholis (Orobanche) Americana (Orobanchaceze) . 
|| This name properly belongs to many species of Maba/us (Composit). 
