19. CIMICÍFUGA, L. Bugbane.
Sepals 4 or 5, falling off soon after the flower expands. Petals, or rather transformed stamens, 1–8, small, on claws, 2-horned at the apex. Stamens as in Actæa. Pistils 1–8, forming dry dehiscent pods in fruit.—Perennials, with 2–3-ternately-divided leaves, the leaflets cut-serrate, and white flowers in elongated wand-like racemes. (Name from cimex, a bug, and fugo, to drive away.)
§ 1. CIMICIFUGA proper. Pistils 3–8, stipitate; seeds flattened laterally, covered with chaffy scales, in one row in the membranaceous pods; style awl-shaped; stigma minute.
1. C. Americàna, Michx. (American Bugbane.) Stem 2–4° high; racemes slender, panicled, ovaries mostly 5, glabrous; pods flattened, veiny, 6–8-seeded.—Mountains of S. Penn. and southward. Aug.–Sept.
§ 2. MACRÒTYS. Pistil solitary, sometimes 2–3, sessile; seeds smooth, flattened and packed horizontally in the pod in two rows, as in Actæa; stigma broad and flat.
2. C. racemòsa, Nutt. (Black Snakeroot. Black Cohosh.) Stem 3–8° high, from a thick knotted rootstock; racemes in fruit becoming 1–3° long; pods ovoid.—Rich woods, Maine to Wisc., and southward. July.—Var. dissécta, Gray. Leaves irregularly pinnately decompound, the rather small leaflets incised.—Centreville, Del. (Commons.)
20. ACTÆ̀A, L. Baneberry. Cohosh.
Sepals 4 or 5, falling off when the flower expands. Petals 4–10, small, flat, spatulate, on slender claws. Stamens numerous, with slender white filaments. Pistil single; stigma sessile, depressed, 2-lobed. Fruit a many-seeded berry. Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed horizontally in 2 rows.—Perennials, with ample 2–3-ternately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (From ἀκτέα, actæa, ancient names of the elder, transferred by Linnæus.)
1. A. spicàta, L., var. rùbra, Ait. (Red Baneberry.) Raceme ovate; petals rhombic-spatulate, much shorter than the stamens; pedicels slender; berries cherry-red, or sometimes white, oval.—Rich woods, common, especially northward. April, May.—Plant 2° high. (Eu.)
2. A. álba, Bigel. (White Baneberry.) Leaflets more incised and sharply toothed; raceme oblong; petals slender, mostly truncate at the end, appearing to be transformed stamens; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as the peduncle and red, the globular-oval berries white.—Rich woods, flowering a week or two later than the other, and more common westward and southward.—White berries rarely occur with slender pedicels, also red berries with thick pedicels; but these are perhaps the result of crossing.