LILIACEAE (LILY FAMILY) 



79 



the seeds are fatal to poultry, and even human life has been lost 

 through the mistaking of its root for that of some other harmless 

 plant. This fleshy rootstock, however, is medicinally valuable, 

 and when collected after the leaves have died in autumn, carefully 

 cleansed, and dried, it is worth five to ten cents a pound in the 

 drug market. (Fig. 42.) 



Leaves appear first in the 

 spring, often as early as March, 

 thrusting up through the wet 

 and sometimes frozen soil like 

 large spearheads ; they are 

 at first of a delicate light green 

 color, strongly lengthwise veined 

 and plaited like a fan. When 

 fully unfolded the outer and 

 lower leaves are usually more 

 than a foot long and half as 

 wide, broadly elliptic in shape, 

 pointed at both ends, with 

 sheathing clasp at base; those 

 ascending the stem become suc- 

 cessively smaller as they ap- 

 proach the top. Stalk stout, 

 round, grooved, two to six feet 

 tall, without branches except 

 in the large panicle at its sum- 

 mit; stalk, foliage, and panicle 

 are all hairy. Flowers in a 

 dense slenderly pyramidal clus- 

 ter, six inches to nearly two feet 

 long, the pedicels shorter than the bracts at their bases. The 

 blossoms are about a half -inch broad, pale yellowish green, turning 

 brown as they wither, with six spreading, oblong sepals, united 

 at the base and minutely toothed and fringed at the edge ; stamens 

 six, shorter than the perianth ; styles three, persistent. Staminate, 

 pistillate, and perfect flowers may all be found on the same stalk, 

 but usually the lowermost blossoms are sterile. Capsules nearly an 

 inch long, ovoid, three-lobed, three-celled, and containing many 



FIG. 42. American Hellebore (Vera- 

 trum viride) . X i. 



