Part 8

Habitat and range.—The ironwood is indigenous to this country, and is common in rich woods in Canada and the eastern United States, and westward to Minnesota and Texas. It is occasionally cultivated.

Description of tree.—This usually slender tree attains its greatest height, sometimes 50 feet, in the western part of its range, while farther eastward it grows only about 15 to 20 feet high. The brownish trunk is finely furrowed in short, lengthwise lines. The wood is very hard and heavy, and is employed in making farm implements.

The leaves somewhat resemble those of the sweet birch, to which family (Betulaceæ) this tree belongs, but they are rough to the touch, instead of smooth and shining like the birch leaf. They are from 2-1/2 to 4 inches in length and about an inch or more in width, oval or oblong-oval in shape, long pointed at the apex, and rounded at the base, and with margins very sharply double toothed. The upper surface of the leaves is usually smooth, except sometimes slightly hairy on the veins, while the lower surface is hairy or even woolly. (Fig. 7.) The green, inconspicuous flowers are borne in catkins, male and female, and are produced from April to May. The male catkins are cylindrical, and about 1-1/2 to 3 inches long, while the female catkins are short, maturing in July or August into large fruiting cones from 1-1/2 to about 2-1/2 inches in length, and very much resembling hops (fig. 7).

Description of wood and bark.—The inner wood and the bark, which are bitter, are the parts employed in medicine. The wood is white, very hard and strong, and occurs in pieces a few inches in length and of varying thickness. The bark as found in the stores is in flat pieces about 2 inches in length; the outside grayish green with thin, short scales; the inside brown, marked with long fine lines or ridges, and generally with considerable of the woody portion adhering. There is practically no odor.

Prices and uses.—At present the price paid to collectors runs from about 5 to 6 cents a pound.

Ironwood is used for its tonic, alterative, and antiperiodic properties.

SWEET BIRCH.

Betula lenta L.

Other common names.—Black birch, cherry-birch, spice-birch, river-birch, mahogany-birch, mountain-mahogany.

Habitat and range.—This indigenous tree occurs in rich woodlands from Newfoundland to Ontario, south to Florida and Tennessee.

Description of tree.—Sweet birch, which somewhat resembles the cherry tree, attains a height of from 50 to 80 feet, and has brownish red, sweet, and aromatic bark. The bark of the trunk of older trees is rather thick, as much as one-half inch, and has rough, platelike fissures (fig. 8). The younger branches are covered with a beautiful, shining, reddish brown bark, with a layer of yellowish green beneath the surface, and furnished with numerous small, whitish spots, known technically as “lenticels,” and which may be designated as “breathing pores.” In most of the birches the bark comes off in layers, but this is not the case with the sweet birch. The youngest twigs of the sweet birch are densely hairy. The wood is much used in cabinet work, being fine and close grained, and taking on a very high polish. It has a rosy color when first cut, which becomes darker by exposure.

The young leaves are covered with shining, silvery, silky hairs, but as they grow older these disappear almost entirely. In shape the leaves are oval or oblong-oval, acute or acuminate at the apex, somewhat heart shaped at the base, and sharply toothed; they are about 3 to 4 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide, smooth, bright green and shining on the upper surface, and dull green on the lower surface with hairy veins. (Fig. 9.) Like the bark, the leaves are also aromatic.

The flowers are of two kinds, staminate or male and pistillate or female, and are borne in separate catkins or slender spikes. The male catkins are in drooping clusters 2 to 3 inches long, while the female catkins are shorter, only about 1 inch or less in length, thicker, stemless, and nearly erect. (Fig. 9.) They expand with the leaves or before, about April or May. The cylindrical, conelike fruit is about an inch in length. The sweet birch belongs to the birch family (Betulaceæ).

Description of bark.—The birch bark of commerce consists of pieces of irregular size, generally reddish brown and smooth on the outside, the thin outer layer having been removed, but with pieces of it sometimes adhering. The inner surface is also reddish brown and smooth. Birch bark breaks with a clean, even, somewhat granular fracture.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The bark is collected in late summer. It furnishes the oil of sweet birch or oil of Betula, official in the United States Pharmacopœia, and obtained by maceration and distillation. It is almost identical with wintergreen oil, and is employed for similar purposes. Both bark and oil are used for flavoring. Birch bark will bring from about 1 to 3 cents a pound.

The bitter, aromatic leaves are also used in domestic practice, and birch beer is made from the sweet sap.

TAG-ALDER.

Alnus rugosa (Du Roi) K. Koch.

Synonym.—Alnus serrulata Willd.

Other common names.—Common alder, red alder, smooth alder, green alder, American alder, speckled alder, swamp-alder, notch-leaved alder.

Habitat and range.—Tag-alder is found in swamps and along the marshy banks of streams from New England south to Florida and Texas, and westward to Ohio and Minnesota. It is a native of this country.

Description of tree.—Sometimes the tag-alder, which belongs to the birch family (Betulaceæ), attains the height of a tree, but more often it is only a shrub, growing from 5 to 20 feet high, with a smooth brownish gray bark. The leaves are 2 to 4-1/2 inches long, oval, somewhat leathery, green above and below, the apex round or blunt, and the base narrowed or rounded, the margins minutely but sharply toothed. The flowers are produced before the leaves are out, early in spring, about March or April. They are reddish green, the female flowers borne in an erect catkin, while the male flowers are borne in a drooping catkin. The small, oval, conelike fruit usually remains on the shrub throughout the winter. (Fig. 10.)

Description of bark.—As it occurs in commerce, tag-alder bark is in straight, curved, or occasionally quilled pieces of varying length and width, but generally broken up into rather small pieces, the outer surface brownish gray or greenish gray and smoothish, the inside cinnamon colored and closely and coarsely ridged. It breaks with a sharp, even fracture. The odor is strong and rather aromatic, and the taste astringent and bitter.

Prices and uses.—The amount paid to collectors ranges from 1 to 4 cents a pound.

Tag-alder bark is used in medicine for its astringent, alterative, and emetic properties.

WHITE OAK.

Quercus alba L.

Pharmacopœial name.—Quercus.