Part 16

Collection, prices, and uses.—The roots are taken up as late as November or December, but before frost, washed, the bark removed with knives, and carefully dried. The fresh bark is regarded as more reliable than the old bark.

At present cotton-root bark is paid for at the rate of from 3 to 5 cents a pound.

This bark, with its emmenagogue and parturifacient properties, forms a valuable remedy in the hands of the physician.

The cotton (the hairs of the seed), freed from impurities and deprived of all fatty matter, is also official in the United States Pharmacopœia.

An oil is expressed from the seed, and various domestic uses have been made of the seed and also of the flowers and leaves.

DOGWOOD.

Cornus florida L.

Other common names.—Cornus, flowering dogwood, American dogwood, Virginia dogwood, Florida dogwood, boxwood, New England boxwood, false boxwood, American cornelian tree, flowering cornel, Florida cornel, white cornel, Indian arrowwood, nature’s-mistake.

Habitat and range.—Dogwood, native in this country, occurs in woods from Massachusetts and southern Ontario to Florida, Texas, and Missouri, but grows most abundantly in the Middle States.

Description of tree.—The dogwood, which belongs to the dogwood family (Cornaceæ), is never a large tree, its greatest height being 40 feet, and more frequently it occurs as a shrub. It is one of the most conspicuous trees in early spring, the naked, leafless branches supporting numerous large, showy white flowers, so called. The white, petal-like parts, however, which are the most showy portions, are in reality “bracts,” the “flowers” themselves being greenish yellow and inconspicuous, except for these four surrounding bracts. The four bracts, or petal-like parts, are white, sometimes pink tinged, of an inverted oval or heart shape, with prominent parallel veins, and peculiarly notched at the end, as though a piece had been torn or bitten out. (Fig. 38.)

After the flowers have disappeared the leaves are put forth. These are generally oval, entire, from 3 to 6 inches in length, the upper surface dark green and smooth or only minutely hairy, while the under surface is lighter in color with slightly hairy veins. The leaves turn a bright red in autumn and with the scarlet fruit, or berries, form a very showy and attractive addition to the autumnal woods. (Fig. 38.)

The trunk of the dogwood is covered with a grayish brown, rough, and fissured bark (fig. 37), and the brown wood is hard and close grained.

Description of bark.—The root bark as found in the stores has had the fissured grayish brown outside layer removed and consists of short, reddish brown, curved pieces or chips about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. The inside is of a reddish purple color, with many short, broad grooves. The fracture is short. It has an astringent, bitter taste, but practically no odor.

Collection, prices, and uses.—Dogwood bark is collected from the root in the fall. It brings from 1 to 3 cents a pound.

It is used in medicine for its astringent, tonic, stimulant, and febrifuge properties and in the fresh state is said to be emetic. The root bark was official in the Pharmacopœia from 1830 to 1890. During the Revolutionary war it was much employed as a substitute for Peruvian bark or cinchona.

The flowers and fruits have properties similar to those of the bark.

Other species.—The bark of the swamp-dogwood (Cornus amomum Mill., syn., C. sericea L.), and the round-leaved dogwood (C. circinata L’Her.) are also used, being sometimes substituted for the flowering dogwood.

The swamp-dogwood, known also as red osier, silky cornel, rose-willow, blue-berried cornel, kinnikinnick, female dogwood, red-brush, red-rod, red willow, and squawbush, is a shrub native in low woods and along streams from Canada to Florida, west to Texas and the Dakotas.

The bark of this species, which was official from 1820 to 1880, is used like the flowering dogwood bark, but is said to be less bitter and astringent. It occurs in thin, quilled pieces, of a purplish brown color on the outside, with fewer warty excrescences than the following species, but otherwise similar. The price paid for this bark ranges from 4 to 6 cents a pound.

The round-leaved dogwood or cornel, called also green osier, is an indigenous shrub growing in shady places in Canada and the northeastern United States.

This bark is also used like that of the flowering dogwood, and was official from 1820 to 1880. It is said to possess less astringency than the flowering dogwood, but is more bitter. In commerce it is found in quilled or curved pieces, of a brownish gray or greenish color outside, with corky warts or marked with lengthwise lines, the inside brown. This also brings from about 4 to 6 cents a pound.

MOOSEWOOD.

Dirca palustris L.

Other common names.—Dirca, American mezereon, leatherwood, leatherbush, leverwood, leaverwood, rope-bark, swampwood, wickopy, wickup.

Habitat and range.—This native shrub is found in wet woods and thickets from New Brunswick to Florida, west to Missouri and Minnesota, but is most common in the Northern and Eastern States.

Description of shrub.—The moosewood, a shrub belonging to the mezereon family (Daphnaceæ), is from 2 to about 6 feet in height, with tough, fibrous bark, and smooth, yellowish green twigs. The leaves, which are hairy when young, are oval with a blunt apex, rounded or narrowed at the base; they become smoother as they mature, and are from 2 to 3 inches long. The flower clusters are produced from April to May, from brown-hairy, scaly buds and consist of 2 to 4 yellowish, funnel-shaped flowers about one-half inch in length, with stamens and style protruding. (Fig. 39.) The one-seeded fruit, or berry, is small, red, oval oblong, and poisonous.

Description of bark.—Moosewood bark occurs in long, stringy, or quilled pieces, light brown or grayish brown on the outside, slightly wrinkled lengthwise, marked here and there with warty excrescences and an occasional patch of lichen growth, the inside straw colored and smooth. The bark is exceedingly tough and fibrous, and can not be broken. The odor is rather strong and aromatic, and the taste pungent and acrid.

Prices and uses.—Moosewood bark brings from 5 to 10 cents a pound.