STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



the Crowfoot family, but possesses none of the acrid and 

 poisonous qualities of the Ranunculus proper, being used 

 in medicine, as a mild tonic, by the American herb doctors 

 in fevers and disorders of the liver. 



It is very probable that its healing virtues in complaints 

 of the liver gave rise to its common name in old times; 

 some assign the name, " Liver-leaf," to the form of the 

 lobed leaf. 



BLUE COHOSH, PAPOOSE ROOT Caulophyllum thalictroides 



(Michx.). 



(PLATE IV.) 



Though bearing the same Indian name, " Cohosh," our 

 plant has been removed by botanists to another family than 

 the red and white Baneberries, or Cohoshes, which are 

 members of the Ranunculacese or Crowfoot family. There 

 is no beauty in the blossoms of the Blue Cohosh, yet the 

 plant is remarkable for its medicinal uses, which are well 

 known among the Indians and the herbalists of the United 

 States medical schools. 



The round, rather large blue berries are not the portion 

 of the plant that is used, but the thick -knotted root-stock. 

 The leaves are of a dull bluish green, the flowers dark 

 purplish green, lurid in color; the leaves are closely folded 

 about the thick fleshy stem when they first appear. The 

 whole plant impresses one with the conviction that it is 

 poisonous in its nature; there is something that looks 

 uncanny about it. Nature stamps a warning on many of 

 our herbs by unmistakable tokens: the glaring inhar- 

 monious coloring of some; the rank odors exhaled by 

 others; the acrid, biting taste in the leaves and juices all 

 these are safeguards if we would but heed them as warn- 



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