58 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



(Elliott) who did not use the name until six years afte v 

 it was published by both Nuttall and Barton, and that 

 this same error should have been made in the last very 

 carefully prepared edition of the United States Phar- 

 macopeia, of 1880. 



"The following are the distinctive characters between 

 the two genera, Actsea and Cimicifuga, as established 

 by Linnaeus. They are drawn entirely from the fruit, 

 as there is no other point of distinction. 



Actcea Cimicifuga 



Fruit, a solitary, fleshy berry. Fruit, five or four dry follicles. 



"It will be seen that Cimicifuga racemosa does not 

 accord with either genus as defined by Linnaeus, as the 

 fruit is a dry follicle, but solitary. On this account 

 Rafinesque proposed to establish for it a new genus, 

 Macrotrys, (from makros, large, and botrus, a iiunch, 

 referring to the large raceme of fruit. Eaton), calling 

 the plant Macrotrys acto3oides. (Medical Repository, 

 1808.) 



"There is really some structural ground for Rafi- 

 nesque's genus, because the plant differs from all others 

 of the genus Cimicifuga, as follows; but there is, how- 

 ever, such close relationship in every other particular 

 that this difference can not be considered sufficient for 

 maintaining the plant in a separate genus: 



Cimicifuga racemosa All Other Species of 



Macrotrys Raf. Cimicifuga 

 Follicle abrupt at the base, Follicles five (or four) flat- 

 solitary, ovoid, seeds smooth, tened, stipitate, seed rough 

 numerous, compressed hori- with slender projections, 

 zontally. 



"In 1828 Rafinesque changed his generic name to 

 Botrophis, calling the plant Botrophis Serpentaria. He 



