concave, soon falling off. Petals 4, shorter than the sepals, clawed. Stamens numerous, longer than the sepals, anthers small. Ovary solitary, many-ovuled, stigma sessile, flat. Fruit a black ovoid, glabrous berry containing numerous small seeds. (Collett). The Baneberry of Britain. Hooker, f. and Thomson say that the berry is black in the European and Himalayan forms, white and red in the American.
Uses:—Stewart remarks regarding this plant:—"I have found no trace of its being used or dreaded" by the hill people on the Panjab Himalaya. It would be interesting to know whether this is correct; for it is curious that so useful a plant should have escaped the notice of the natives of India. Canadian doctors administer the root in snake-bite; and it is said to be attended with much success in the treatment of nervous diseases, rheumatic fever, chorea and lumbago. The berries were formerly used internally for asthma and scrofula, and externally for skin complaints. Baneberry Root is largely exported into Europe and used to adulterate the root of Helleborus niger. Mr. Frederick Stearns describes the root as violently purgative. (Watt).
27. Cimicifuga fœtida, Linn. h.f.br.i., I. 30.
From Latin cimex, a bug; fugare to drive away.
Vern:—Jiunti (Pb.).
Habitat:—Temperate Himalaya, from Bhotan to Gores and Kashmir; altitude 7-12,000 ft. Patarnala forest, Simla.
A perennial, more or less pubescent herb. Stems 3-6 ft., erect, leafy, branched. Leaves 6-18 in., pinnately compound; leaflets 1-3 in., rarely more, ovate or lanceolate, deeply and sharply toothed, terminal leaflet 3-lobed. Flowers nearly regular, hardly 14 in. diam., white, crowded in short or long racemes, solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, and combined in a terminal, sometimes large and spreading panicle. Sepals and petals 5-7 (no clear distinction between them), imbricate, ovate, concave; one or two of the inner ones deeply 2-lobed, the tips white, broad, notched. Stamens numerous, ultimately longer
