ON VE RAT RUM VIRIDE. 
9] 
THE BOTANICAL HISTORY. 
Veralrum viride. Class, Polygamia; Order, Monoecia, L. 
Natural Order, Junci, (Juss.) Melanthacae, R. Brown and 
Lindley. 
Generic characters. — Hermaphrodite, calyx none; corolla 
six-petaled; stamens six; pistils three; capsules three, many- 
seeded. 
Male. Calyx none; corolla six-petaled; stamens six; pistil 
a rudiment. (Willdenow.) 
Specific characters. — Panicle downy, with the partial 
bractes longer than their pedicles; segments of the corolla 
thickened on the inside, at base. 
Vulgar names. — Besides American hellebore, this is called 
swamp hellebore, white hellebore, Indian poke, poke root, and 
itch weed. 
The veratrum viride has a perennial, thick, fleshy root, 
tunicated at top, the lower part solid, sending off numerous 
white or light yellowish radicles. The stem is annual, 
roundish, striated, solid, and pubescent, with the lower part 
closely invested with sheathing leaves of a bright green color, 
which are from six inches to a foot in length, broad, oval, 
nerved, acuminate, and pubescent. The leaves, towards the 
upper part of the stem, become narrower, and those nearer 
the summit of the plant serve as bractes, proceeding from the 
base of the flower stalks. The flowers form a sort of panicle, 
and are distributed in compound racemes, axillary from the 
upper leaves, terminal, and of a greenish-yellow color. They 
are without a calyx. The corolla is divided into six segments 
green, oval, acute, and nerved, having the alternate ones 
longer than the other three. Its segments are contracted at 
base, forming a kind of claw with a thickened or cartilaginous 
edge. Each flower has six stamens, with recurved filaments, 
and roundish two-lobed anthers. Germs three, with recurved 
acute styles as long as the stamens, some of the flowers have 
