Part 14

Collection, prices, and uses.—Black alder bark is collected in autumn. The amount paid to collectors ranges from 2 to about 5 cents a pound.

It is used in medicine as a tonic and astringent. The berries are employed for similar purposes as the bark.

WAHOO.

Euonymus atropurpureus Jacq.

Pharmacopœial name.—Euonymus.

Other common names.—Burning-bush, spindle-tree, Indian arrowwood, bursting-heart, strawberry-tree, strawberry-bush, American spindle-tree, bitter ash, pegwood.

Habitat and range.—Wahoo is found in woods and thickets from Ontario and the eastern United States west to Montana.

Description of shrub.—This native shrub or small tree is from 6 to 25 feet in height, more often reaching only 10 feet, with an ashy gray bark, twigs somewhat 4 angled, and leaves from 1-1/2 to 5 inches in length and about half as wide, oval-oblong or elliptical, and long pointed at the apex (fig. 30). They are rather thin in texture, with a prominent midrib, more hairy on the lower surface than above, and the margins round toothed. The 4-petaled purple flowers are produced in June, in loose, slender-stemmed clusters of from 5 to 15 flowers each, and have 4 wavy, obovate petals. The pale purple fruits are rather odd looking, consisting of 4 deeply cleft, flattened lobes, smooth, each cell containing 1 or 2 seeds (fig. 30). These capsules open after they ripen, about October, and disclose the seed surrounded by a red aril (false coat enveloping the seed), the bush at this time presenting a very bright and showy appearance.

The name “wahoo” is applied indiscriminately to Euonymus atropurpureus and E. americanus—the latter a low or trailing bush having crimson capsules, to which the appellation “burning-bush” more properly belongs. Both species, which are members of the staff-tree family (Celastraceæ), are used in medicine, although E. atropurpureus alone is recognized in the United States Pharmacopœia.

Description of bark.—The dried bark of the root of wahoo is official in the United States Pharmacopœia. It is in quilled pieces of irregular size. The outside of the bark is furrowed and ridged, of an ashy or light brownish gray color, showing a few dark patches of soft cork. The inner surface is smooth and whitish or somewhat pale brownish. The fracture is short, whitish, and shows fine silky fibers. There is a distinct odor, and the taste is sweetish, bitter, and somewhat acrid.

Collection, prices, and uses.—Although the bark from the stem is also sometimes gathered, it is the root bark only which is recognized as official.

The root bark at present brings from 9 to 20 cents a pound. It has tonic, diuretic, laxative, and antiperiodic properties; it acts on the liver, increasing the flow of bile, and is also employed in intermittent fevers and in dyspepsia.

FALSE BITTERSWEET.

Celastrus scandens L.

Other common names.—Climbing bittersweet, shrubby bittersweet, fevertwig, fever-twitch, staff-tree, climbing staff-tree, staff-vine, waxwork, Roxbury waxwork, yellowroot, climbing orange-root, Jacob’s-ladder.

Habitat and range.—This woody vine or climbing shrub is found in woods and thickets, growing in rich damp soil, from Ontario to Manitoba, south to North Carolina and New Mexico.

Description of plant.—False bittersweet is a most attractive plant in the fall, with its brilliant orange-yellow and scarlet seed capsules adding a vivid dash of color to the fall and winter landscape, remaining on the vine well into the cold season.

It is an indigenous woody and shrubby climber, growing over adjacent trees or near-by fences. The leaves are thin and smooth, oval, 2 to 4 inches long, and about half as wide, pointed at the apex, and with a pointed or rounded base, the margins furnished with fine, rounded teeth. The small, greenish white or greenish yellow flowers are produced in June, in short terminal clusters, and the fruit is in the form of a roundish, 3-celled, orange-colored capsule, which opens in autumn, disclosing the scarlet-covered seed, making a very showy appearance. This covering is known as an “aril.” (Fig. 31.)

False bittersweet and true bittersweet, on account of the similarity of the common names, are often confused, but the plants do not resemble each other at all, belonging to entirely different families and possessing different medicinal properties. False bittersweet belongs to the staff-tree family (Celastraceæ), while the true bittersweet is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceæ).

Description of bark.—The bark of both plant and root is employed, but especially that of the root. The latter is rather smooth, in small quilled pieces, the outer surface covered with a thin, papery layer of dark orange-brown and the inner surface white and finely grooved. The bark from the stem has a brown-gray color. There is practically no odor, and the taste is bitter, becoming sweet, then somewhat acrid and rather sickening.

Prices and uses.—The price paid to collectors varies from 5 to 10 cents a pound.

The bark of false bittersweet possesses alterative, emetic, diaphoretic, and diuretic properties, and some narcotic action is also attributed to it.

HORSE-CHESTNUT.

Aesculus hippocastanum L.

Other common names.—Hippocastanum, bongay, konker-tree.

Habitat and range.—This handsome tree is a native of Asia, largely cultivated in this country as an ornamental shade tree. In parts of New York and New Jersey it has escaped from cultivation.

Description of tree.—The horse-chestnut is a rather large tree, usually about 40 feet in height, and having many branches. Sometimes it will grow as tall as 100 feet. The bark has a brownish gray color, smoothish on the younger trees, but fissured and scaly on the older ones (fig. 32). The large, shining, resinous leaf buds are a prominent feature of the winter and early spring aspect of the tree. The leaves when mature are smooth, except perhaps for tufts of hairs on the veins of the lower surface, but the young unfolding leaf is quite hairy. The leaves are large, composed of 5 to 7 leaflets 4 to 8 inches long, pointed and broadest at the top and narrowing toward the base, with irregularly round-toothed margins (fig. 33).

The flower cluster, sometimes 1 foot in length, is most handsome and showy in appearance, consisting of a dense, somewhat pyramidal head of large white flowers, the petals fringed, wavy, and spotted with yellow and red, and having protruding stamens. They appear about June. The fruit is roundish and prickly, about an inch or so in diameter, and contains a large, shining brown nut (fig. 33). This tree belongs to the buckeye family (Aesculaceæ).