The false-hellebores are tall, robust herbs, with unbranched leafy 

 stems arising from a short, thick, brownish or black, poisonous root- 

 stock, which is sometimes covered with a layer of coarse fibrous 

 dead leaf sheaths of previous years. The roots are few, branched, 

 and externally black. The black color of the rootstock may possibly 

 account for the generic name Veratrwm, as that word is derived from 

 the Latin vere, truly, and ater, black. The leaves are large, coarse, 

 plaited or folded, and heavily ribbed, stemless or contracted to a 

 broad sheath at the base and are gradually smaller and narrower 

 near the top of the stalk. The flowers are dull white, greenish, or 

 purplish, borne in showy terminal and elongated clusters. These 

 plants have six persistent petallike parts and six stamens; the cap- 

 sule is three-celled, each cell containing several to many broad- 

 winged seeds. The lower flowers are often male (staminate) only 

 or the staminate and female (pistillate) flowers may occur on sep- 

 arate plants. 



The roots of American false-hellebore (V. viride) and of the 

 European, or white false-hellebore (F. album] yield a powerful poi- 

 sonous drug, which is used as a heart and arterial sedative. 4 The 

 drug, which contains various related alkaloids, including cevadine, 

 jervine, and veratrine, reduces the pulse power without reducing 

 frequency, but an overdose results in very low pulse, nausea, and 

 muscular prostration. Probably the poisonous effect on livestock 

 is similar, although more marked. There is chemical evidence for 

 believing that similar properties reside in the roots of western 

 species of false-hellebore. 



Western false-hellebore is the most common species in the Western 

 States, although American false-hellebore is common in the eastern 

 United States and Canada and has an equally wide distribution. It 

 has much the same characters as western false-hellebore, but is 

 usually recognizable by its drooping clusters of green or yellowish 

 green flowers. The powdered, dried roots of this species are often 

 used as an insecticide, and large quantities are gathered in the Ap- 

 palachians for that purpose. Fringed false-hellebore (V. -fvmbrid- 

 twn)) which grows near the coast in northern California and possibly 

 also in southern Oregon, is interesting because the margins of the 

 petallike parts are fringed, being cleft into many threadlike seg- 

 ments. 



* Wood, H. C., Remington, J. P., and Sadtler, S. P., assisted by Lyons, A. B., and Wood, 



H. C. Jr. THE DISPENSATORY OF THE ONITBD STATES OF AMERICA, BY DR. GEO. B. WOOD AND 



DR. FRANKLIN BACHE. Ed. 19, thoroughly rev. and largely rewritten . . . 1,947 pp. 

 Philadelphia and London. 1907. 



