ACT^EA BANEBERRY. 69 



observers who have had experience in the matter agree that it is thera- 

 peutically much more active when fresh than when long kept. 



Preparations. Extractum ciniicifugse fluidum fluid extract of cimi- 

 cifuga ; tinctura cimicifugse tincture of cimicifuga. United States Phar- 

 macopoeia. Of the unofficial preparations, the one most employed is an 

 impure resin termed cimicifagin or macrotin, obtained by precipitation 

 from an alcoholic tincture with water. The drug may also be adminis- 

 tered in substance or in decoction, though the latter form is objectionable 

 since water does not completely extract its virtues. 



Medical Properties and Uses. In small or moderate doses cimicifuga is 

 a tonic which may be usefully employed in a great variety of affections, as 

 enfeebled condition of the digestive system due to alcoholism, fevers, 

 phthisis, bronchitis, etc. It has been employed also in acute and chronic 

 rheumatism, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, and in cardiac disease, where it 

 acts like, but less efficiently than, digitalis. It has been used as an aid to 

 parturition instead of ergot, and after delivery to relieve after-pains, in 

 puerperal mania and convulsions, and as a remedy for chorea, especially 

 when of rheumatic origin. In very large doses it produces a decided 

 sedative effect, causing vertigo, dilatation of the pupil, and a tendency to 

 somnolence. " To obtain curative effects from cimicifuga, it must be ad- 

 ministered in sufficiently large doses to produce some of its cerebral ef- 

 fects. " Bartholow. 



ACTM A. BANEBEKRY. 



Character of the Genus. Sepals 4 to 5, falling when the flower expands. 

 Petals 4 to 10, small, flat, spatulate, on slender claws. Stamens numerous, 

 hypogynous, with slender white filaments. Ovary solitary, stigma sessile. 

 Fruit a many-seeded berry ; seeds compressed, smooth, horizontal. Per- 

 ennial herbs, with bi-ternately divided leaves, and flowers in a thick termi- 

 nal raceme. 



Actaea spicata Linne, var. rubra Michaux. Bed Baneberry. 



Description. Calyx : sepals 4, ovate, greenish. Corolla : petals often 

 8 to 10, white, oval, acute, much shorter than the stamens. Stamens nu- 

 merous ; filaments filiform. Ovary smooth, white ; stigma oval, 2-lobed, 

 recurved at the ends. Berries red, shining, about 16-seeded, on long 

 pedicels about one-fourth the size of the common peduncle. 



Stem roundish, smooth, about 2 feet high, with bi- or tri-temately di- 

 vided leaves, on long smooth petioles, partly sheathing at the base ; leaflets 

 ovate, sharply cut, and toothed. Eacemes ovate or hemispherical, appear- 

 ing in April and May. Ehizome closely resembling that of cimicifuga, 

 which see. 



Habitat. Rich woods from Hudson's Bay to Pennsylvania and westward 

 to the Rocky Mountains. Less common than the following. 



