PODOPHYLLUM. I 27 



western New York and its cultivation could be developed 

 to an industry. The plant is well knowTi and is character- 

 istic by reason of its leaves and striking white blossom in 

 spring, and later in the year by its fruit. This, when ripe, 

 is pleasantly acid and is devoid of purgative properties. 



Description. — The rhizome of the market is composed of 

 pieces from 4 to 12 cm. in length and about 0.5 to i cm. 

 in width. It has^ flattened joints at intervals of from 4 

 to 6 cm. which bear on their upper surfaces the cup-like 

 scars of the single stems, and from their lower surfaces a 

 number of delicate roots. Between the scars the rhizome 

 is cylindrical and smooth, sometimes slightly wrinkled in 

 drying, and light brown in color. It has a sharp frac- 

 ture, is hard and short, to waxy. The odor is very slight ; 

 sweetish taste, later mucilaginous and acrid. In drying, 

 the root contracts but little, and the fresh specimens 

 closely resemble the market varieties, varying only in the 

 lighter color and the fuller firm character. Stems rarely 

 enter into commerce, though stem elements have been 

 detected by the writer in some powders. This should be 

 considered as a very rare adulteration. 



Histology. — Under a low power, a cross-section of the 

 fresh root, between the nodes, shows on the outside a 

 brown epidermis encircling a whitish to grayish-white 

 cortical layer ; within this there is an irregular circle of 

 separated oval fibro- vascular bundles, varying in number 

 from eighteen to thirty. Within them there is the central 

 cylinder of parenchymatic tissue, the pith, connected 

 with the parenchyma of the cortical cylinder, between the 

 bundles by parenchymatic strings. 



With a high power the epidermis is seen to consist of 

 one or two layers of cutinized cells. In old specimens 

 and in the region of the nodes this layer is more dis- 

 tinctly corky and is frequently four or five layers thick. 

 The average size of these cork cells is 0.022 X 0.045 microns. 

 The cortical layer averages about twenty layers of 



