ortant. They bring the Adresol in _dried_.
Like stuff dead for months. They don't bring it green, and dry it
themselves. They bring it _dried_. Now then, your father says that one
root would yield a thousand per cent. more Adresol than the green
foliage. And the green foliage five hundred per cent. more than the
dried. Why then do the neches bring in the dried stuff in the open
growing season? Do they prefer it that way?" He shook his head
thoughtfully. "Guess it's not that. There's a reason though. These folk
have been using this stuff for ages. Yet they never bring it green. They
never bring the root. Why not? Do they know about the yield of the
foliage, of the root? Maybe. But I don't think so. I'd like to say
_they've never seen the stuff in its growing state_. Only dead!"

Steve picked up the notebook in front of him.

"I want to read this to you, boy. You've read it. We've both read it,
but it's got a different meaning--now. Listen."

"Adresol has many features, interesting and deadly, foreign to all other
known drug-producing flora. Aconite, digitalis, and the commoner
varieties of toxins lie dormant in the producing plant. That is, there
are no exhalations of a noxious nature. In Adresol the drug is
active--violently active. Adresol extracted and duly treated (see note
X, Book C) for uses in medicine is not only harmless to the human body
in critical stages of disease, but even beneficial to the whole system
in a manner not yet fully explored. But in its active, crude state in
the growing plant, it is of a very violent and deadly character. It
would almost seem that an All-wise Creator has, for this reason, set it
to flourish in climates almost unendurable to human and animal life, and
in remotenesses almost inaccessible. No animal or human life could exist
within the range of the poison its deadly bloom exhales. The plant
belongs to the order Liliaceae and would seem from its general form to be
closely allied with the Lilium Candidum. This, however, only applies to
its form, and by no means to its habit. Its magnificent bloom is dead
white and of intense purity. A field of this strange plant in full
bloom, viewed from above, would probably give an appearance like the
spread of a white damask table-cloth of giant proportions. The blooms
almost entirely obscure the weed-like foliage. The danger lies in the
pungent, sickly, but delicious perfume it exhales, which is so intense,
that, coming up against the wind,