198  Structure  of  Veratrum  Viride.  {AmAP%r;Sarm" 
In  our  latitude  the  blossoming  takes  place  in  the  latter  part  of 
June  or  early  in  July. 
The  rhizome  is  fleshy,  upright  or  oblique,  obconical,  one  and  one- 
half  to  three  inches  long,  and  one  to  one  and  one-fourth  inches 
thick  at  its  upper  end,  and  densely  covered  with  somewhat  fleshy, 
simple  roots,  about  one-twelfth  of  an  inch  thick  and  from  six  to  ten 
inches  long.  Those  toward  the  somewhat  truncate  lower  end  of 
the  rhizome  are  dead,  or,  in  older  rhizomes,  even  withered  away, 
leaving  rounded  scars.    In  the  fresh  state  the  roots  are  white,  the 
Fig.  2. 
older  ones  closely  and  irregularly  wrinkled,  while  the  younger  ones 
are  nearly  smooth  ;  but  in  the  dried  form  the  color  is  yellowish 
or  yellowish-brown,  and  all  the  roots  are  much  shrivelled  and 
wrinkled.  The  wrinkling  is  due  to  the  loosely  arranged  and  thin- 
walled  parenchyma  of  the  cortex,  and  particularly  to  the  numerous 
large,  lysigenous,  intercellular  spaces  in  the  cortex.  Toward  the 
lower  ends  of  the  roots  are  numerous  fine  fibrils,  which,  however, 
are  only  sparingly  present  in  the  dried  drug. 
The  central  radial  bundle  of  the  roots  is  from  eight  to  fourteen 
