The rootstock contains a large quantity of starch which has been utilized for food in the periods of famine which have desolated India and Egypt.
"The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines"
T. H. Pardo de Tavera
Yet the ground-pine may grow from its creeping rootstock for a thousand years in the shade of one grove and never be over a foot tall.
"Old Plymouth Trails"
Winthrop Packard
But like most medicines, so the homoeopaths have taught us, the plant that heals may also poison; and the coarse, thick rootstock of this hellebore sometimes does deadly work.
"Wild Flowers Worth Knowing"
Neltje Blanchan et al