CANADIAN EANUNCULACEiE. 85 



aenus XV.— CIMICIFUaA, Linnœus. 

 Bentham and Hooker, Genera Plantarnm, I., p. 9. 



1. — CiMICIFUGA RACEMOSA, Nuttall. 



Rootstock thick and knotted. Leaves triternate, leaflets ovate-oblong, incisely serrate. 

 Racemes branching, very long and wand-like, 6 to 12 inches when in flower, elongating 

 to from 1 to 3 feet in fruit. Sepals white, or greenish-white, caducous. Fruit, monogy- 

 nous (sometimes digynous, DC). Petals 4 to 6, small. Stamens numerous (as in Actœa) 

 with slender white filaments, " about 100 to each flower, giving the raceme the appear- 

 ance of a long and slender j)lume," (Wood.) Flowers fetid. Carpels globose-ovate. 

 Seeds *7 or 8, compressed. Flowers in July. Black Snake Root. Black Cohosh. Bug-bane. 



Cimicifuga racemosa. Nuttall, Gen. PI., IL, p. 15. (1818). Barton, Fl. Philad., XL, p. 12. 

 (1819). Elliott, Bot. S. Carol., II., p. 16. (1821). Torr. & Gr., FI. N. Am., I., p. 36. Torr., 

 Fl. N. Y., I., p. 22, t. 4. Gray, Gen. 111., I., p. 51, t. 20. Manual, ed. 2, p. 15 ; ed. 5, p. 48. 

 Chapman, Fl. S. U. S., p. 11. Lawson, Ranunc, Canad., p. 50. "Watson, Bibl. Index, I., 

 p. 9. Macoun, Cat., No. 15. Wood, CI. Bk. & Fl., p. 211. Bentley, Pharmaceutical 

 Journal, series 2, II., p. 460. 



C. serpentaria. Pursh, Fl. N. Am., II., p. 372. 



Aclœa racemosa. Linn. Sp. PL, p. ^722. Amoen. Acad., VII., p. 193, t. 4. Alton f., 

 Hort. Kew, ed. 2, IIL, p. 28(3. Willd. Sp. PI., IL, p. 1139. Michaux, FL, I., p. 308. DC. 

 Syst. Nat., I., p. 384. Prod., I., p. 6L Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., I., p. 2Y. 



A. monogyna. Walter, FL Carolina, p. 151. 



A. orthostachya and gyrostachya. Wendroth, Index Sem. Hort. Marburg., 1840. 

 Macrotys actœoides. Rafinesque, N. Y. Med. Rep., V,, p. 354. Desv. Jour. Bot., IL, p 1*70. 

 M. serpentaria. Eaton, Manixal, ed. 4, p. 356. 



M. racemosa. Eaton, Man., ed. 5, p. 288. 



Botrophis Serpentaria. Rafiu., Med. FL, I., p. 85, f. 16. 



B. actœoides. Fischer & Meyer, Index Sem. Petrop., 1835. 



Actœa racemis longissimis. Gronovius, Flora Virgiuica, p. 59. (1*743). 



For an exhaustive account of the medicinal properties of this plant, see Prof. Bentley's 

 paper in the London " Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions," second series, Vol. II., 

 p. 460, (March, 1861), from which it appears that the root had long been a popular remedy 

 in consumptiA'e and bronchial afiections in several of the western States of the American 

 Union, and was first brought into regular practice by Dr. Garden, of Virginia, in 1823, as 

 a medicine of great value in tubercular consumption. The rhizome is the part used. A 

 resinoid extract is i^rocured by precipitation from the concentrated tincture of cimicifuga 

 by water ; this has been termed Cimicifugin or Macrotin (Pharm. Jour., XVI., p. 273), but 

 it does not possess all the active constituents of the root, which are best taken up by water 

 and (especially) alcohol. Hence water and alcohol are commonly used in the medicinal 

 preparations of cimicifuga. k fluid extract ix,nà. & dry extract have been prepared by Prof. 

 Procter, (Amer. Jour. Pharm., XXVL, p. 107). 



Habitat in Florida, Virginia, Canada. — Linnœus. 



Canada. — Ftirsh. Cayuga, Grand River, Ontario. — Dr. P. W. Maclagan, in Herb, Edin. 

 Norfolk County, Ontario. — Dr. Nichol, according to Macouu's Catalogue. Canada to 



