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 
Fic. 42.— American Hellebore (Vera- 
trum viride). X §. 
