COMPOSITAE— THISTLE FAMILY— VANILLA PLANT 773 



or oval, thickish and clasping ; head in corymbose clusters ; achenes glandular 

 pubescent. 



Distribution. From Virginia to Louisiana. 



Trilisa paiiiculata Cass. Hairy Trilisa 



Viscid-hairy, perennial, leaves entire, base lanceolate, narrowly oblong, 

 acute, or obtusish, those of the stem small; heads paniculate; achenes finely 

 pubescent. 



Distribution. From Virginia to Georgia and Florida. 



Poisonous properties. The former plant has the odor of vanilla and con- 

 tains the substance cumarin CHO. Dr. Johnson says : 



Odoratissima deserves much more attention from the fact that it is largely used as an 

 adulterant of smoking tobacco, than from any demonstrated medicinal virtues. There is 

 abundant evidence to show that the leaves of this plant enter largely into the manufacture of 

 many grades of smoking tobacco, especially those employed in our domestic cigarettes. And 

 the author is convinced, from personal experience and observation, that the deleterious effects 

 produced by smoking tobacco thus adulterated are much greater than those produced by the 

 consumption of pure tobacco in even great excess. The inhalation of a few whiffs of the 

 smoke from a cigarette made from this adulterated material, provided the inhalations are 

 made in quick succession, produces a train of cerebral sensations of an intoxicating character 

 as much different from any effect of tobacco alone as could be imagined; and prolonged use 

 of such cigarettes invariably produces great derangement of the digestive organs, very little 

 resembling the dyspepsia induced by excessive use of tobacco, together with cardiac symptoms 

 often of a distressing character. And again, the habit of smoking coumarin in this form 

 appears to become more inveterate, more exacting, than that of the use of tobacco alone, so 

 that the unhappy victim — for such he should be called — is never comfortable except when in- 

 dulging. Hence it happens that cigarette-smoking in this country in its effects upon adoles- 

 cents especially, is assuming the proportions of a great national evil, and is producing far 

 more deleterious effects than in other countries where it is practised to a greater extent but 

 with different material. 



10. Liatris Schreb. Button Snakeroot. Blazing Star. 



Perennial herb, usually from a corm-like tuber ; leaves alternate entire, nar- 

 row; flowers spicate or racemose, discoid, scales of the involucre few or many 

 imbricated in several series, the outer shorter, corolla regular, 5-lobed or S- 

 cleft; branches of the style exserted; achenes 10-ribbed, slender tapering to the 

 base; flowers rose-purple, rarely paler in color. 



Distribution. About 20 species in North America. 



Liatris spicata (L.) Willd. Snakeroot 



Smooth or somewhat hairy perennial; leafy stem; leaves linear the lower 

 3-5 nerved; heads crowded in a long spike, 8-12 flowered; involucre cylindrical,, 

 bell-shaped, flowers purple ; pappus not very plumose. 



Distribution. In moist soil from New England to Florida, Kentucky, Ar- 

 kansas, and South Dakota. 



Liatris pycnostachya Michx. Snakeroot 



Hairy or smooth perennial with a stout stem 3-5 feet high; leaves linear- 

 lanceolate, the upper very narrowly linear; spikes 6-20 inches long, densely 

 flowered, flowers purple; pappus not very plumose. 



Distribution. Prairies, Indiana to Minnesota and southward. 



Liatris punctata Hook. Western Snakeroot 

 A glabrous or sparingly pubescent perennial ; stout' rootstock ; leaves rigid 

 punctate; spike many flowered; heads 3-6 flowered, purple; bracts of involucre 

 oblong, often ciliate on the margins; pappus very plumose. 



