Part 11

Benzoin benzoin (L.) Coulter.

Synonyms.—Laurus benzoin L.; Lindera benzoin Meissn.; Benzoin odoriferum Nees.

Other common names.—Feverbush, Benjamin-bush, wild allspice, spicewood, snapwood.

Habitat and range.—This indigenous shrub frequents damp, shady woods and is seen along streams from Ontario south to North Carolina and Kansas.

Description of shrub.—The stemless clusters of yellow flowers of the spicebush appear very early in spring, about March or April, before the leaves. This shrub, a member of the laurel family (Lauraceæ), ranges from 4 to 20 feet in height, and has a smooth bark and slender green twigs. The leaves are oval, sharp pointed, 2 to 5 inches long, about half as wide and narrowing toward the base, lighter colored on the lower surface, and with margins entire. Some of the leaves are rounded at the top. The flowers are small, bright yellow, with a fragrant odor, and about four to six in a cluster, the staminate and pistillate flowers produced separately. The clusters of fruit ripen in autumn, and each bright red, obovate fruit contains one large white seed. (Fig. 21.)

Description of bark.—The thin quilled pieces of bark, as found in commerce, are dark brown on the outside, with small corky warts, and lighter brown and smooth on the inner surface. In older bark the corky excrescences will be found more prominent, and the color is also more ashen. The bark of the spicebush breaks with a short, granular fracture, has a faint, pleasant odor, and a warm, spicy, and astringent taste.

Collection, prices, and uses.—In the spring the bark can be readily removed in quills, and this is generally the time when it is gathered.

At present the price paid to collectors is about 3 cents a pound.

The bark is used as a remedy against worms and is also employed in the treatment of fevers.

The fruits are likewise employed in medicine.

WITCH-HAZEL.

Hamamelis virginiana L.

Pharmacopœial name.—Hamamelis.

Other common names.—Snapping hazel, winterbloom, wych-hazel, striped alder, spotted alder, tobacco-wood.

Habitat and range.—Witch-hazel is found in low damp woods from New Brunswick to Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas.

Description of shrub.—This indigenous shrub is one of our most peculiar plants, inasmuch as it begins to flower when all other trees and plants not only are through flowering, but generally have lost their foliage, namely, in November or even December. The seed is formed, but does not ripen until the following season. The peculiar, yellow, threadlike flowers among the usually bare branches at a season when most other vegetation is dead and the snow sometimes flies is a novel sight.

Witch-hazel sometimes grows to about 25 feet in height, usually only 8 to 15 feet, with a crooked stem covered with smoothish brown bark, often with a growth of lichens, and having many long, forking branches. The leaves are 3 to 5 inches long, broadly oval or heart-shaped oval, with uneven sides, wavy margins and downy hairs when young, but becoming smooth as they grow older (fig 22).

The flowers, as already stated, appear very late in autumn; they are bright yellow, and consist of a 4-parted corolla, with four long, narrow, strap-shaped petals, which are variously twisted when in full flower. The beaked, densely hairy seed capsule matures the following season, bursting open elastically, and scattering the large, black and shining, bonelike seeds for a distance of several feet. Thus, while the tree is in flower, there may be seen at the same time the mature seed capsules of the previous season. (Fig. 22.) This shrub belongs to the witch-hazel family (Hamamelidaceæ).

Description of bark.—Under witch-hazel or hamamelis bark, official in the United States Pharmacopœia, is understood the bark and twigs of the witch-hazel. The bark is found in commerce in the form of quills, varying in length and width, and is sometimes a purplish brown on the outside, sometimes a whitish or grayish brown color; occasionally it is smooth with a few warty protuberances or numerous lenticels, and again it is furrowed and scaly, or even ragged. The inside is pale brown or yellowish, usually with long, straight lines. Sometimes fragments of the whitish wood are found adhering to the inner surface, and such bark should be discarded. Witch-hazel bark breaks with a weak fracture. There is a scarcely perceptible odor, and the taste is astringent and somewhat bitter.

The tough, flexible twigs do not exceed one-quarter of an inch in diameter, are branching, yellowish brown to a very dark or purplish brown, faintly wrinkled lengthwise, and with small, round, light-colored lenticels. There is a small central pith, and the bark which surrounds the greenish white wood occupies about one-fifth of the radius. If the twigs are more than a quarter of an inch in thickness, there will be too large a percentage of wood, which is inert.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The bark and twigs are the parts designated as official in the United States Pharmacopœia. In the United States Pharmacopœia, 1890, the leaves only were official. The witch-hazel industry is carried on to a considerable extent in portions of the New England States, the farmers bringing in to the distilleries cartloads of the brush. Witch-hazel bark brings about 1 to 4 cents a pound.

Witch-hazel is generally used for relieving inflammation of various kinds, and its soothing properties were known to the American Indians. The name “witch-hazel” is derived from the fact that formerly the forked branches were used as “divining rods,” it having been the belief that these branches were endowed with a miraculous power of locating treasures, sources of water for wells, etc.

The leaves are still official in the United States Pharmacopœia.

BLACKBERRY.

(1) Rubus villosus Ait.; (2) Rubus nigrobaccus Bailey; (3) Rubus cuneifolius Pursh.

Pharmacopœial name.—Rubus.

Synonym.—(2) Rubus villosus A. Gray, not Ait.

Common names.—(1) American blackberry, bramble high-bush blackberry, one-flowered dewberry, fingerberry; (2) high-bush blackberry; (3) sand-blackberry, knee-high blackberry.