HERMODACTYL, in the materia medica, a root brought from Turkey. It is of the shape of a heart flattened, of a white colour, compact, yet easy to cut or powder; of a viscous sweetish taste, with a light degree of acrimony. Hermodactyls were of great repute among the ancients as a cathartic; but those we now meet with in the shops have very little purgative virtue; Neumann declares he never found them to have any effect at all.—The hermodactyl is the root of the Colchicum variegatum, according to some; others suppose it to be the root of the Iris tuberosa.