rickettsia: any of a group of very small rod-shaped bacteria that live in biting arthropods (as ticks and mites) and cause disease in vertebrate hosts; they cause typhus and other febrile diseases in human beings
whole: an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity
solomon's-seal: any of several plants of the genus Polygonatum having paired drooping yellowish-green flowers and a thick rootstock with scars shaped like Solomon's seal