Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1895. 
Structure  of  Veratrum  Viride. 
201 
Owing  to  the  peculiar  course  of  its  bundles,  the  appearance  of  the 
longitudinal  section  of  the  rhizome  is  not  very  unlike  that  of  the 
transverse  section. 
The  parenchyma  of  both  roots  and  rhizome  is  rich  in  small- 
grained  starch,  and  there  are  also  in  both  scattered  cells  containing 
bundles  of  needle-like  raphides. 
The  starch  grains  are  sometimes  nearly  spherical,  simple,  and 
with  a  central,  and  often  fissured,  hilum  ;  but  they  are  more  fre- 
quently compound,  consisting  of  two,  three,  or  sometimes  of  a 
larger  number  of  easily  separable  grains.  Stratification  lines  are 
only  recognized  with  difficulty,  even  in  the  largest  grains. 
The  writer  has  observed  in  one  instance  the  fraudulent  substitu- 
tion of  the  rhizome  and  rootlets  of  Symplocarpus  fcetidus  for  those 
of  Veratrum  viride.  The  drug  was  so  prepared  that  the  incautious 
purchaser  might  easily  have  mistaken  it  for  the  genuine  article,  but 
the  fraud  could  not  have  deceived  a  careful  observer,  for  the  roots 
of  Symplocarpus  are  much  coarser,  averaging  at  least  an  eighth  of 
an  inch  in  diameter ;  the  rhizomes  also  average  considerably  larger, 
the  cortex  is  relatively  thicker,  the  structure  of  the  rhizome  is  more 
porous,  the  starch  grains  are  much  smaller,  and  the  leaf-bases  at  the 
top  are  much  less  numerous  and  not  tunicated.    The  foetid  odor  of 
Fig.  5. 
