SERPENTARY 



371 



short, slender, rhizome about 25 mm. long and 3 mm. thick, to the 

 flanks and lower surface of which are attached numerous long, curved, 

 but not wiry or interlacing roots ; these are comparatively stout, 

 being frequently half the thickness of, or even as thick as, the rhizome 

 itself, and seldom much shrivelled. The latter is usually horizontal, 

 but not unfrequently assumes an oblique or even vertical position, 

 and gives off from its upper surface (or from one side) numerous closely 



FIG. 196. Serpentary rhizome. A, Virginian ; B, Texan. 

 (Pharmaceutical Journal.} 



Natural size. 



approximated slender aerial stems. These, when they die down, leave 

 short portions, bearing the scars of leaves, attached to the rhizome ; 

 occasionally a fruiting stem may also be formed 



Both rhizome and roots are brittle, breaking with a short fracture. 

 The former exhibits in transverse section a whitish pith that is distinctly 

 eccentric, being much nearer to the upper than the under surface of 

 the drug ; the wood-bundles are numerous, yellow and curved, the 

 bark yellowish brown and thin ; the section of the root shows a slender 

 yellow wood and a thick white bark. 



The drug, by far the greater part of which consists of the roots, has 

 a tolerably uniform yellowish brown colour, a characteristic camphora- 

 ceous odour, and a strong, disagreeably bitter and acrid taste. 



