Prenanthes is said to be an antidote to the bite of the rattlesnake, and other poisonous serpents. The milky juice of the plant is taken internally, while the leaves steeped in water are to be applied to the wound, and frequently changed. A decoction of the root, which is bitter, has been successfully used in the bite of the rattlesnake, also in dysentery. This plant is deserving further and more accurate investigation, possessing undoubted power over the nervous system. A strong tincture of the green plant (℥viii to alcohol, 76 per cent, Oj) should be employed in doses of from 1 to 20 drops in experimenting for its effects in nervous disorders.
Lucas Land
Lion's Foot or Cankerweed
Prenanthes serpentaria
This plant is an indigenous, perennial herb, with a smooth, somewhat glaucous stem, corymbose-paniculate at the summit, stout, purplish, often deeply so in spots, from 2 to 4 feet in height. The radical leaves are angular-hastate, often more or less deeply 3 to 5-lobed; the uppermost cauline ones lanceolate; between these the intermediate forms hastate and ovate, petiolate, and all irregularly dentate. The heads are pendulous and glabrous; the involucre of 8 linear scales, and from 9 to 12-flowered; the scales purplish, and the corollas whitish. Pappus brown.