1916] Cultivation of Crude Dkug Plants 175 



costs about $5 a pound aud yields the grower from $3 to $4. It is 

 easily cultivated and thrives best in rich, soft, loamy woodlands, 

 and should at all times be kept free from grass. If a wooded tract 

 is not available, artificial shading should be supplied. Hydrastis 

 lives from four to six years, the rhizomes becoming weaker with 

 age. The propagation should be by cuttings. The matured rhi- 

 zomes contain many rootlets and undeveloped buds. Just as each 

 ''eye" in a potato will produce a new plant, so will each bud on the 

 rhizome provide a young shoot, if only the root be left with it. In 

 propagating the plant, the rhizomes should be sliced transversely 

 into several parts, each having its bud and a few of the fibrous 

 roots, and these should be planted a few inches apart, in rows, in 

 shaded, grass-free beds containing suitable moist soil. The young 

 plants will show a quick, thrifty growth. Many cuttings which ap- 

 parently die, spend their first year in budding up a good root and 

 bud system, and the second season will bring forth vigorous young 

 plants. The rapid rate at which an hydrastis bed may be increased 

 by means of cuttings is indicated by the fact that one old root will 

 yield about five eye-cuttings, each with rootlets. The cuttings 

 should be planted about one inch beneath the soil, a few inches 

 apart, and allowed to remain for two years and then transplanted 

 into rows or a bed. The parent rhizome (four to six years old), after 

 the leaf has withered but can still be located, should be lifted from 

 the earth and three-fourths of it cut off, the growing end bearing 

 the terminal bud replaced in the earth, thus leaving in the bed the 

 full-grown plant to continue the life of the bed. Hydrastis rapidly 

 depletes the soil, which should be replenished either by well- 

 mulched horse manure, henyard refuse, wood ashes, butcher-shop 

 waste, or bam manure, worked into an artificial soil. Wild soil 

 should not be added because of the contamination of insects and 

 other pests, such as worms, snails, etc. The plants should be 

 occasionally sprayed with Bordeaux mixture. 



ATROPA BELLADONNA 



(Synonyms: Deadly Nightshade, Black Cherry,. Great Morel, 

 etc. ) 



The United States Pharmacopoeia recognizes the leaves and roots 

 of this plant and specifies that the leaves shall assay not less than 



