Part 10

“The commercial bark varies most widely, according to the species, the age, and the presence or absence of the corky layer, so that a general description is extremely difficult. The outer surface of old bark of all species is more or less ashy gray, due to the growth of lichens. When young, it is smooth or even glossy and of a brown color, varying more or less to orange or purplish red. With age it gradually becomes warty, the warts at length confluent into ridges and the ridges at length fissured. The inner surface is at first whitish, becoming gradually yellowish or pale brown, smooth, and very finely and closely striate, the striæ long and straight. When the bark has been deprived of the corky layer, the outer surface is almost exactly like the inner. In young bark, however, a green layer appears upon the removal of the cork. The fracture of the outer layer is smooth, short, and granular, of the inner more or less tough-fibrous. The transverse section is brownish and exhibits rather broad bast-wedges and medullary rays. The odor is slight, the taste warm, spicy, and somewhat astringent and, especially of the young bark, bitter.”

Collection, prices, and uses.—The bark of the trunk or root is removed in spring and summer.

At present there does not seem to be much demand for magnolia bark. The price paid for the collection of the bark is about 3 cents a pound.

The bark is used for its tonic properties, for exciting perspiration, and in the treatment of fevers.

TULIP-POPLAR.

Liriodendron tulipifera L.

Other common names.—Liriodendron, tulip-tree, whitewood, canoewood, yellow poplar, blue poplar, hickory-poplar, lyre-tree, saddle-leaf, saddle-tree, cucumber-tree.

Habitat and range.—The tulip-poplar, which occurs in rich woods, attains its greatest size in the Middle and Southern States; its range extends from New England to Florida, westward to Michigan and Arkansas. It is also cultivated.

Description of tree.—This most handsome native forest tree, a member of the magnolia family (Magnoliaceæ), is readily distinguished by its somewhat peculiarly shaped leaves, and in spring by its greenish yellow tulip-shaped flowers. It attains great height, from 60 to 190 feet, and is very symmetrical in shape, with a straight, cylindrical trunk covered with grayish brown bark which in young trees is smooth, but becoming rough and fissured as the tree grows older (fig. 18). The leaves are smooth, generally rounded at the base, the top notched, or appearing as though cut straight across. They are roundish in outline or broadly oval, from 3 to 6 inches long, and have two to four lobes at the base and two at the top, the margins between the lobes rounded out, the base rounded or abruptly obtuse. (Fig. 19.)

The erect flowers appear in spring, and although they are quite large—about 2 inches long—they are not very conspicuous for the reason that their colors so blend with the yellow-green foliage of early spring that they pass almost unnoticed. On examining these flowers more closely they will be found to resemble tulips in form, with a very modest coloring, however, of green with a slight orange tinge toward the base of the petals, and the inside of the flower orange colored. The flowers have six petals and three reflexed petal-like sepals, and numerous stamens. The fruit ripens in the form of a dry, pointed cone, about 3 inches in length. (Fig. 19.)

Description of bark.—The bark of both trunk and root, deprived of the outer layer, is used medicinally, and the tulip-poplar, or, as it is most frequently called in the drug trade, yellow poplar, or Liriodendron, was official in the United States Pharmacopœia from 1820 to 1880. It consists of slab-like pieces 3 or 4 inches long, very light, the outside as well as the inside of the inner bark yellowish white. When broken the fracture is ragged, splintery, and uneven. There is a pronounced heavy, unpleasant odor, and the taste is aromatic, pungent, bitter, and somewhat astringent. The root bark is somewhat darker than that of the tree and is considered much more powerful.

Collection, prices, and uses.—In spring the bark is easily separated from the wood; the outer layer is shaved off, and the inner bark is then peeled in large slabs about 6 inches in width and from 3 to 6 feet in length. The root bark is collected in winter.

Collectors receive from about 1-1/4 to 3 cents a pound.

The bark of the tulip-poplar is regarded as a bitter, stimulant tonic, and is considered useful in fevers, rheumatism, and digestive disorders.

SASSAFRAS.

Sassafras sassafras (L.) Karst.

Pharmacopœial name.—Sassafras.

Synonyms.—Sassafras officinale Nees & Eberm.; Sassafras variifolium (Salisb.) O. Kuntze.

Other common names.—Ague-tree, saxifrax, cinnamonwood, saloop, smelling-stick.

Habitat and range.—Sassafras is a native tree, occurring in rich woods from Massachusetts to Ontario and Michigan, south to Florida and Texas.

Description of tree.—Sometimes the sassafras reaches almost 100 feet in height, its greatest height being attained in the South, but in the North it occurs principally as a shrub. The bark of old trees is rough and fissured, and of a grayish color, but the young twigs are smooth and green. The leaves are very variable in outline—some oval, some with three lobes, and some with but one lobe on the side, shaped like a mitten (fig. 20). The flowers are yellowish green and fragrant, and are borne in inconspicuous clusters, the staminate and pistillate on different trees; they appear in early spring, about the time that the leaves unfold. The fruit, which ripens about September, is oblong roundish, about the size of a pea, dark blue, one seeded, and borne on a thick, club-shaped red stalk (fig. 20). All parts of the tree are aromatic. It belongs to the laurel family (Lauraceæ). The wood is light, but strong and durable, whitish or with a reddish tinge, and also aromatic, except in the older trees.

Description of bark.—The dried bark of the root of sassafras is official in the United States Pharmacopœia. As it occurs in the shops, it is in irregular curved pieces of varying length; smooth, the outer grayish layer having been removed; rusty red, soft, and breaking with a short, cork-like fracture. The inside of the bark is marked with short, indefinite lines. The odor is very aromatic, and the taste is sweetish, bitingly aromatic, and astringent.

Collection, prices, and uses.—Sassafras bark is collected in early spring or autumn from the root, and the outer layer removed.

Sassafras bark is used for its tonic properties. It forms a popular domestic “spring medicine,” and in early spring the market women display on their stands bundles of sassafras bark, to be made into a tea, by many people regarded as a useful remedy.

Sassafras oil, also official in the United States Pharmacopœia, is distilled especially from the root bark, but often also from the whole root. Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are the most important centers of production. It is used as an anodyne, also as a stimulant in neuralgia, and for the purpose of flavoring confectionery and soaps.

The dried pith (or medulla) from the branches is likewise official. It yields a mucilaginous liquid with water, and forms a soothing application for inflamed conditions.

The price paid to collectors may range from 2 to 10 cents a pound, according to quality.

SPICEBUSH.