PHARMACOPG:IAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
to the people in sections where it is found, who call it itch-weed, Indian 
poke, poke-root,* or American hellebore, swamp hellebore, etc. The 
earliest travelers made mention of it. Jossélyn (345) records that it 
was used as an ordeal test by the American Indians, somewhat on the 
saine order as the ordeals by the negroes of Africa at the present day. 
He supposed it was the same as Veratrum album of Europe, and notes 
its abundance, stating “that you may in a small compass gather whole 
cart-loads of it.” : 
Peter Kalm (350) states that it is very common in marshy places 
and frequently causes the death of stock which eat the young leaves 
in spring; also that the settlers employed a decoction of the root to 
poison the seed-corn, to prevent the birds from eating it ;+ and also 
that the root was used as an insecticide. ‘ 
According to Loudon the plant was introduced into Europe in 
1742, though most authorities ascribe to Peter Collinson its in- 
troduction in 1763 (8). It was named and described in the first 
edition of Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis (vol. 3, p. 422, 1789) as Veratrum 
viride, and Aiton by most writers is given as the author of the name. 
In justice, however, the credit should be given to William Solander, 
an English botanist and illustrious pupil of Linnzeus, who (although 
no mention of the fact is made in the publication) furnished the de- 
scriptions and nomenclature of the new species described in Aiton’s 
work. 
a ore viride is conceded by all modern botanists to be a dis- 
tinct species; it is so close, however, to Veratrum album of Europe 
that the early explorers of America and some of the earlier botanists 
and travelers—Michaux (433) (Flor. bor. am., Vol. IT, p. 249), Josse- 
lyn (345), Kalm (350), David Schépf (582)—thought it was the same 
species. Certainly the rhizomes of both plants bear a close resemblance 
to each other, even in their microscopical aspects. (E. S. Baslin, Am- 
Jour. Phar., 1895, p. 196.) 
VIBURNUM OPULUS 
High cranberry, Viburnum opulus, known also as cramp bark, 
is a shrub growing in swamps and damp localities of the Northern 
United States. The bark of this shrub was used by the Indians as 
a diuretic, a decoction being freely employed. According to Rafinesque 
(535), pills and plasters were also devised from this plant, and the 
bark was smoked, instead of tobacco, by some of the Western Indian 
tribes. The leaves of Viburnum opulus and other species were used 
by the Indians as a tea, and also by the settlers of the Southern States 
in early Colonial days. The domestic use of viburnum did not impress 
the medical profession to any extent until the day of Beach (49), as 
is evidenced by the fact that such conspicuous authorities as Zollick- 
offer (706), and even the United States Dispensatory, 1833 edition, 
neglected to mention either the plant or its uses. 
* A name universally employed for phytolacca decandra. : ae 2 
+The statement being that the marauding birds were sickened and did not return. 
{Dictionary of National Biography. “Aiton, Wm.” New York, 1885 to date. 
gr 
