ROOTS OF ACONITES. 127 
collar or much shortened axis which produces alternately cataphylls acting ss bud-scales 
and foliage leaves, and when mature grows into a leaf- and flower-bearing stem. At the 
same time buds are formed in the axils of some of the basal leaves, the strongest of which 
secures or secure the rejuvenation of the individual after the dying down of the flower- 
bearing stem at the close of the season. If several buds develop and their bases persist, 
as is the case in robust individuals, a branched collar or ‘caudex multiceps’? may be formed. 
If the root of a mature plant be examined, it will be found in cross-section to consist of 
cord-like strands which are embedded in dead suberised tissue and surrounded by a common 
bark (see Prate 93) which is pierced by numerous root-fibres springing from the strands. 
These may be free, running parallel with each other for a considerable distance, or 
apastomose variously, or they may separate entirely and, becoming independent, give 
rise to new individuals. As the bark and the dead tissue surrounding the strands decay, 
these may be laid partly bare (see PrarE 92). The process by which the peculiar fission 
of the roots is finally brought about has been fully deseribed by A. Meyer [in Arch. d. 
Pharm, vol. 219 (1881) pp. 184 % 185]. Тһе species possessing perennial roots of this 
kind correspond to the section Lycoctonum. They also are distinguished by а peculiar 
habit by which they are generally easily recognised. Outside India a number of mostly 
very closely allied species with a similar root-structure occur over an area extending 
from the Pyrenees to Sachalin and Japan. Like the Indian species of this type, they 
are mostly confined to woods. қ 
3. Biennial roots. Тһе greatest number of species have, however, roots which 
are biennial and normally paired, and at the same time tuberous, oue of each pair bearing, 
when mature, a stem producing leaves and flowers, the other crowned with a bud destined 
to grow out into a similar stem in the next season when that of the preceding year 
and also the root which supported it would be dead and withered. The tubers, and with 
them the individuals, are renewed from buds іп the axils of the lowest leaves. Usually only 
one develops from each stem; hence the pairing. Under favourable conditions, however, 
two or even more may grow up, with the result that small clusters of tubers are formed. 
As the old and the new plant stand in the relation of mother and daughter, the old and new 
tubers have been called mother- and daughter-tubers, which must, of course, not be meant 
to imply that one root springs directly from the other. Тһе bud which is going to 
produce the daughter-tuber is formed very early, but the growth of the bud proper is 
soon arrested and it remains in a dormant state for a whole year, whilst from its base 
an adventitious root springs which soon outgrows the bud by many times in volume 
and assumes the shape of a tuber, pushing aside what there may have been left of 
the petiole in the axil of which the bud originated. Тһе connection of the daughter- 
tuber with the mother-plant is maintained by a usually very short neck through 
which the food material wanders from the stem into the new tuber to be there 
deposited mainly as reserve starch and alkaloids. It is therefore these daughter- 
tubers which are principally collected, and they should, of course, not be taken up 
before they have attained maturity. es 4 ; 
The structure of these root-tubers exhibits a remarkable variety with respect to 
the disposition of the cambium and consequently of the secondary xylem- and phloem- 
strands. The importance of this condition from a purely scientific point of view as 
well as for the discrimination of the Aconite tubers as they come into the market 
has not escaped the attention of the students of anatomy and pharmacy. Irmisch 
who had as early as 1854 (Zeitschr. f. d. gesammi. Naturwissensch, iv. pp. 181—193, 
