ELECAMPANE (Inula Helenium), a perennial plant, family Compositae, common in many parts of Britain, and ranges throughout central and southern Europe, and in Asia as far eastwards as the Himalayas. It is also widely naturalized in North America, occurring along roadsides and in fields from Nova Scotia westward to Ontario and Minnesota and southward to North Carolina and Georgia. Elecampane is a rather stout and rigid herb, the stem of which attains a height of 3 to 5 ft.; the leaves are large and toothed, the lower ones stalked, the rest em bracing the stem; the flowers are yellow, 2 in. broad,. and have many rays, each three-notched at the extremity. The root is thick, branching and mucilaginous, and has a warm, bitter taste and a camphoraceous odour. Besides inulin iso meric with starch, the root contains helenin, By the ancients the root was employed both as a medicine and as a condiment, and in England it was formerly in great repute as a tonic and stimulant of the secretory organs. As a drug, however, the root is now seldom resorted to except in veterinary practice.