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Any one of several plants yielding a red pigment which is used by the North American Indians, as the bloodroot and two species of Lithospermum (L. hirtum, and L. canescens); also, the pigment itself.

The similar plant Anchusa officinalis; bugloss; also, the American puccoon.

red root and red sap, and bearing a pretty, white flower in early spring; -- called also puccoon, redroot, bloodwort, tetterwort, turmeric, and Indian paint. It has acrid emetic properties, and the rootstock is used as a stimulant expectorant. See Sanguinaria.

of the genus Symphoricarpus (S. vulgaris), bearing small red berries. -- Indian dye, the puccoon. -- Indian fig. (Bot.) (a) The banyan. See Banyan. (b) The prickly pear. -- Indian file, single file; arrangement of persons in a row following one after another, the usual way among Indians of traversing woods, especial…

One of three alkaloids found in the root of the yellow puccoon (Hydrastis Canadensis). It is a yellow crystalline substance, and resembles berberine.

down as an amorphous yellow powder on adding corrosive sublimate to limewater. -- Yellow puccoon. (Bot.) Same as Orangeroot. -- Yellow rail (Zoöl.), a small American rail (Porzana Noveboracensis) in which the lower parts are dull yellow, darkest on the breast. The back is streaked with brownish yellow and with black,…