CIMICIFUGA 55 



it was commonly known to the early settlers as black 

 snakeroot. Other names commonly applied to it were 

 "black cohosh," 1 rattle weed, rattle root and 

 rattle snakeroot, so named because the dried 

 spikes carrying the seed rattle in the wind. These 

 last terms are sometimes corrupted into rattlesnake 

 root and blacksnake root. Because of its employ- 

 ment in female ailments by the Indians, the name 

 "squawroot" was also given this plant, but this term 

 was more extensively employed with reference to Caulo- 

 phyllum thalictroides, or blue "cohosh," the majority 

 of writers giving the preference to that drug. The name 

 cimicifuga suggested the common names "bugwort" 

 and "bugbane," but while these were applicable to the 

 various European species, that were used to drive away 

 insects, they were, so far as we know, misapplied in the 

 direction of the American species. Still another com- 

 mon name was richweed, given by Gronovius, 1752, 

 because the plant frequents rich woodlands. But the 

 name "richweed" is now given by botanists to Pilea 

 pumila, a very different plant. 



Macrotys was observed by the earliest European 

 travelers in America, being first described by Plukenet 

 in 1705. That writer, who lived when new plants were 

 pouring into England from this country, and whose 

 publications were rich in descriptions of American 

 plants, classed cimicifuga with the Actcea spicata of 

 Europe, using the old generic name "Christophoriana 

 Canadensis racemosa." His inaccurate, but yet suffi- 

 cient, drawing establishes the plant's identity. His 

 specimen is preserved in his herbarium in the British 



1 The name " cohosh, " an Indian term of uncertain meaning, was given to four widely 

 different American plants, namely, macrotys or "black cohosh," Actsea alba or 

 "white cohosh," Actsea spicata or "red cohosh," and CaulophyUum thalictroides, 

 or "blue cohosh." 



