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Any one of several plants of different genera and species, most of which are (or were formerly) reputed to be efficacious as remedies for the bites of serpents; also, the roots of any of these.

-- Button shell (Zoöl.), a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. -- Button snakeroot. (Bot.) (a) The American composite genus Liatris, having rounded buttonlike heads of flowers. (b) An American umbelliferous plant with rigid, narrow leaves, and flowers in dense heads. -- Button tree (Bot.), a genus of…

enus of bitter herbs or shrubs having eight stamens and a two-celled ovary (as the Seneca snakeroot, the flowering wintergreen, etc.); milkwort.

site genus Hieracium (H. venosum); -- probably so named from its spotted leaves. See also Snakeroot.

y grass. See under Holy. -- Seneca eil, petroleum or naphtha. -- Seneca root, or Seneca snakeroot (Bot.), the rootstock of an American species of milkworth (Polygala Senega) having an aromatic but bitter taste. It is often used medicinally as an expectorant and diuretic, and, in large doses, as an emetic and catharti…

The fibrous aromatic root of the Virginia snakeroot (Aristolochia Serpentaria).

The Virginia snakeroot. See Snakeroot.