REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 



135 



to the notice of the medical profession generally; and it has since held 

 a place among anthelmintic medicines. The roots are gathered for the 

 markets in July and August. Plate XVII. 



Cimicifuga eacemosa — Tall Snake-root ; Black Snake-root; Blade 



Cohosh. 



A plant of the natural order Ranunculacece ; a tall, herbaceous peren- 

 nial, growing in rich woods in nearly all the wooded and mountainous 

 districts of our country. The stem is smooth, stout, and from 3 to G or 

 sometimes 8 feet high, bearing two to three decompound leaves near 

 the middle, and above and below naked. The stem terminates in a 

 simple or sparingly branched spike-like raceme of small white flowers. 

 There also spring from the root two or three large leaves on long stalks. 

 The entire leaves with their stalks are a foot or two in length, divided 

 into three main stalked branches, these each again divided into three 

 or five smaller sections, each of which is composed of three ovate, 

 coarsely toothed or lobed leaflets 1 to 3 inches long. The raceme of 

 flowers is often a foot and sometimes 2 feet in length, sometimes with 

 two or three smaller racemes. The flowers are small (about one-half inch 

 when expanded), on slender pedicels about half an inch long, very nu- 

 merous, sometimes as many as eighty to one hundred on the raceme. 

 The lower flowers of the raceme expand first, then successively those 

 toward the top. They consist of a calyx of four or five small, roundish 

 petals (which drop off as soon as the flower opens), a multitude of sta- 

 mens with slender filaments and small white oblong anthers, and one or 

 several ovaries, of which only one matures into a dry oblong pod, con- 

 taining numerous seeds. The white terminal racemes are very conspic- 

 uous when in flower. The root-stock is said to be mucilaginous, some- 

 what bitter and astringent. It is large, thick, and irregularly branched. 

 The common name is probably derived from a popular notion of its effi- 

 cacy as an antidote to snake bites. It has long had some reputation in 

 domestic practice in the treatment of various diseases, particularly 

 rheumatism and dropsy, and sixty years ago began to be investigated 

 and tried by physicians, and finally gained a prominent place in the 

 materia inedica, its power in cases of rheumatism, nervous diseases, 

 and chronic lung complaints being well established. Plate XVIII. 



Oicuta maculata — False Parsley; Poison Hemlock; Spotted Coivbane. 



An umbelliferous plant belonging to the same natural order as cara- 

 way and parsley. The root is perennial j the stem dies to the ground 

 annually. It grows in swampy grounds and in low meadows in various 

 parts of the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The plants of 

 this family are characterized by having their flowers in what are called 

 umbels, the flower stalks branching out in all directions from a common 

 center like the ribs of an umbrella. Frequently these primary stalks 

 are again divided into smaller or secondary umbels or umbellets, as in 

 the caraway, parsnip, &c. Each one of the final divisions of the umbel 

 bears a single small flower. These flowers are so much alike in the dif- 

 ferent species and genera of the order that it usually requires very care- 

 ful study to distinguish them one from another. The flower is of the 

 kind called superior or above the ovary. It has usually a very minute 

 five-toothed calyx, a corolla of five small petals, alternating with five 

 stamens, and two styles surmounting the ovary, which develops into 

 two carpels commonly called seeds, which are usually flattened and 

 placed face to face, as may be readily seen in the seeds of the parsnip 

 or carrot. In the Cicuta maculata the umbels at the ends of the stem and 



