78 



SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



yet it is apt to produce a certain amount of confusion by drug col- 

 lectors, as the generic name Helonias is applied to the Swamp Pink, a 

 beautiful bog plant occasionally rather abundant in certain localities 

 from New York to Virginia. 



Chamcelirium Luteum is a perennial, dioecious herb having a 

 rather fleshy bitter rhizome, a number of basal leaves which vary 

 from lanceolate to elliptical-spatulate and an herbaceous slender 

 stem from 3 to 5 dm. in length terminated by a spike-like raceme of 

 small white flowers. It grows in moist meadows and thickets 

 throughout the eastern United States. The plant is quite readily 



- 



FIG. 28. Several types of Helonias rhizome: A, oblique rhizome with stem 

 base and two stem scars; B, upright rhizome showing new growth at top. 

 (Moser, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1917, 89, p. 191). 



distinguished from Helonias bullata, which produces a short upright 

 rhizome, very long elliptical-spatulate or oblanceolate leaves which 

 are crowded at the base and from the middle of which arises the 

 bracteate scape usually not longer than the leaves and terminated 

 by a dense raceme of rather large, perfect purple flowers. The latter 

 grows in bogs and appears to be localized in its habita.t. 



Description. Rhizome upright, or oblique, nearly cylindrical 

 and slightly tapering from 0.5 to 3 cm. long, about 1 cm. in diameter; 

 externally grayish-brown, annulate from scars of bud-scales, upper 

 portion with leaf bases enclosing a small bud, lower portion with 



