492 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



Description. — Horizontal, somewhat cylindrical or 4- to 

 6-angled, usually cut into pieces 5 to 8 mm. long, i to 2 mm. in 

 diameter; externally light yellow, longitudinally furrowed, 

 smooth, shiny, nodes with circular leaf-scars and few root-scars; 

 fracture tough, fibrous ; internally, bark light brown, about 0.5 

 mm. thick, wood light yellow and porous, center hollow; odor 

 slight, taste sweetish, slightly acrid. 



Constituents. — Triticin, a Isevo-rotatory carbohydrate resem- 

 bling inulin, 8 per cent. ; dextrose and levulose 2.5 to 3.3 per 

 cent. ; a nitrogenous, gummy substance, 1 1 per cent. ; acid malates ; 

 and about 4.5 per cent, of ash containing much silica. The rhi- 

 zome is free from starch and calcium oxalate, anct the lactic acid 

 found in the extract is apparently a fermentation product. 



VERATRUM. — The rhizome and roots of Vcratrtim viride 

 (Fam. Liliacese), a perennial herb (Fig. 129) found growing in 

 wet meadows usually associated with skunk cabbage (Spathyema 

 foetida), and indigenous to the Eastern and Central United States 

 and naturalized in Canada, British Columbia and Alaska; and 

 Veratrum album, a similar plant, indigenous to Central and South- 

 ern Europe, the former being known as American or green helle- 

 bore and the latter as European or white hellebore. The plant 

 dies down early in the summer and the rhizome may be collected 

 soon thereafter. It is cut longitudinally and dried. Much of the 

 drug used in this country is derived from Veratrum album and 

 imported from Germany (p. 235). 



American or Green Hellebore. — Rhizome upright, obcon- 

 ical, usually cut longitudinally into halves or quarters, 2.5 to 5 

 cm. long, 1.5 to 3 cm. in diameter; externally dark brown or 

 brownish-black, rough and wrinkled, somewhat annulate from 

 scars of bud-scales, top truncate, lower part more or less decayed, 

 with numerous roots and few root-scars ; fracture hard and horny ; 

 internally light yellow, cortex 2 to 3 mm. thick, endodermis dis- 

 tinct, central cylinder with scattered yellow fibrovascular bundles ; 

 odor slight ; taste bitter and acrid. 



Roots yellowish-brown, nearly cylindrical, 3 to 8 cm. long, 

 2 to 3 mm. in diameter ; externally yellowish-brown, longitudinally 

 or transversely wrinkled (Fig. 113) ; internally, bark white, i to 2 

 mm. thick ; wood porous, cylindrical ; fracture short. 



