228 
ON HELLEBORUS NIGER. 
showing a clean white internal structure, and in the middle a 
small, more transparent medulla, which, under a magnifier is 
usually sharply 4-5 cornered. The taste is at first slightly 
sweetish, then sharp and radish-like. In old specimens this 
sharp after-taste is frequently wanting. 
Helleborus viridis. — Of all those mentioned, the rhizome of 
this plant has the greatest resemblance to that of Helleborus 
niger. It is branching, many-headed, drawn up, marked with 
dish-like cicatrices of the leaf-stalks, beset with long, solitary 
radicles, I — } of a line in diameter, the color generally grayish- 
black, but towards the origins of the leaf-stalks, grayish-green, 
even in the dry condition. The radicles break with a horny 
fracture, are grayish-green internally, marked in the middle with 
a white, sharply four-cornered, cross-shaped medulla. The taste 
is radish-like and disgustingly acrid. 
Adonis vemalis. — The rhizome has also some similarity to 
that of Helleborus niger ; it may be recognized, however, by its 
radish-like odor. It is also cognoscible by the presence of a 
number of dry, membranous, brownish-colored, and scale-like 
leaves, by the want of the circular scars of the leaf-stalks, as well 
as by the longitudinally wrinkled, fragile, and strongly odorous 
radicles, which, upon fracture appear grayish green, and have a 
white, sharply 4 — 5 cornered medulla. 
The rhizomes of the remaining plants have a less close resem- 
blance to the officinal. 
Actsea spicata. — The rhizome is thick, fleshy, many-headed, 
marked toward the apex with ill defined cicatrices of the leaf- 
stalks, which, although circular, never form dish-like excavations. 
It is beset with long, yellowish-brown, much ramified, and at last 
thread-like radicles ; a smooth fracture of the stronger of these, 
shows a distinct cortical portion, and an obtusely 3 — 5 rayed 
medulla. The taste is slightly bitter, but not radish-like. 
Astrantia major. — This has a thick, fleshy, many-headed, black- 
ish-brown rhizome, of a somewhat resinous odor in the fresh 
state, without smell when dried, beset with much ramified, and 
at last thread-like radicles, the thicker of which are from i — h, 
a line in diameter, and have a brownish-yellow cortical portion, 
and a white rounded medulla. Toward the apex of the rhizome 
are found ring-form scars of the leaf-stalks, or the yet remaining 
leaf-stalks themselves. The taste is feebly bitter. 
