Part 3

The stipe bases remain green for a very long period, and these small, claw-shaped, furrowed portions, or “fingers” as they are called, form a large proportion of the drug found on the American market and, in fact, are said to have largely superseded the rootstock. Male-fern has a disagreeable odor, and the taste is described as bitter-sweet, astringent, acrid, and nauseous.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The best time for collecting male-fern root is from July to September. The root should be carefully cleaned, but not washed, dried out of doors in the shade as quickly as possible, and shipped to druggists at once. The United States Pharmacopœia directs that “the chaff, together with the dead portions of the rhizome and stipes, should be removed, and only such portions used as have retained their internal green color.”

Great care is necessary in the preservation of this drug in order to prevent it from deteriorating. If kept too long, its activity will be impaired, and it is said that it will retain its qualities much longer if it is not peeled until required for use. The unreliability sometimes attributed to this drug can in most instances be traced to the presence of the rootstocks of other ferns with which it is often adulterated, or it will be found to be due to improper storing or to the length of time that it has been kept.

The prices paid for male-fern root range from 5 to 10 cents a pound.

Male-fern, official in the United States Pharmacopœia, has been used since the remotest times as a remedy for worms. Grave results are sometimes caused by overdoses.

COUCH-GRASS.

Agropyron repens (L.) Beauv.

Synonym.—Triticum repens L.

Pharmacopœial name.—Triticum.

Other common names.—Dog-grass, quick-grass, quack-grass, quitch-grass, quake-grass, scutch-grass, twitch-grass, witch-grass, wheat-grass, creeping wheat-grass, devil’s-grass, durfa-grass, Durfee-grass, Dutch-grass, Fin’s-grass, Chandler’s-grass.

Habitat and range.—Like many of our weeds, couch-grass was introduced from Europe, and is now one of the worst pests the farmer has to contend with, taking possession of cultivated ground and crowding out valuable crops. It occurs most abundantly from Maine to Maryland, westward to Minnesota and Missouri, and is spreading on farms on the Pacific slope, but is rather sparingly distributed in the South.

Description of plant.—Couch-grass is rather coarse, 1 to 3 feet high, and when in flower very much resembles rye or beardless wheat (fig. 1). Several round, smooth, hollow stems, thickened at the joints, are produced from the long, creeping, jointed rootstock. The stems bear 5 to 7 leaves from 3 to 12 inches long, rough on the upper surface and smooth beneath, while the long, cleft leaf sheaths are smooth. The solitary terminal flowering heads or spikes are compressed, and consist of two rows of spikelets on a wavy and flattened axis. These heads are produced from July to September. Couch-grass belongs to the grass family (Poaceæ).

Description of rootstock.—The pale-yellow, smooth rootstock is long, tough, and jointed, creeping along underneath the ground and pushing in every direction. As found in the stores, it consists of short, angular pieces, from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, of a shining straw color, and hollow. These pieces are odorless, but have a somewhat sweetish taste.

Collection, prices, and uses.—Couch-grass, which is official in the United States Pharmacopœia, should be collected in spring, carefully cleaned, and the rootlets removed. The rootstock (not the rootlets) is then cut into short pieces, about two-fifths of an inch in length, for which purpose an ordinary feed-cutting machine may be used, and thoroughly dried.

Couch-grass is usually destroyed by plowing up and burning, for if any of the joints are permitted to remain in the soil new plants will be produced. But, instead of burning, the rootstocks may be saved and prepared for the drug market in the manner above stated. The prices range from 3 to 5 cents a pound. At present couch-grass is collected chiefly in Europe.

A fluid extract is prepared from couch-grass, which is used in affections of the kidney and bladder.

WILD TURNIP.

Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Torr.

Synonym.—Arum triphyllum L.

Other common names.—Arum, three-leaved arum, Indian turnip, jack-in-the-pulpit, wake-robin, wild pepper, dragon-turnip, brown dragon, devil’s-ear, marsh-turnip, swamp-turnip, meadow-turnip, pepper-turnip, starchwort, bog-onion, priest’s-pintle, lords-and-ladies.

Habitat and range.—Wild turnip inhabits moist woods from Canada to Florida and westward to Kansas and Minnesota.

Description of plant.—Early in April the quaint green and brownish purple hooded flowers of the wild turnip may be seen in the shady depths of the woods.

It is a perennial plant belonging to the arum family (Araceæ), and reaches a height of from 10 inches to 3 feet. The leaves, of which there are only one or two, unfold with the flowers; they are borne on long, erect, sheathing stalks, and consist of three smooth, oval leaflets; the latter are 3 to 6 inches long, and from 1½ to 3½ inches wide, net veined, and with one vein running parallel with the margins. The “flower” is curiously formed, somewhat like the calla lily, consisting of what is known botanically as a spathe, within which is inclosed the spadix. The spathe is an oval, leaflike part, the lower portion of which, in the flower under consideration, is rolled together so as to form a tube, while the upper, pointed part is usually bent forward, thus forming a flap or hood over the tube-shaped part which contains the spadix. (Fig. 2.) In fact it is very similar to the familiar flower of the calla lily of the gardens, except that, instead of being white, the wild turnip is either all green or striped with very dark purple, sometimes seeming almost black, and in the calla lily the “flap” is turned back, whereas in the wild turnip it is bent forward over the tube. Inside of the spathe is the spadix, also green or purple, which is club shaped, rounded at the summit, and narrowly contracted at the base, where it is surrounded by either the male or female flowers or both, in the latter case (the most infrequent) the male flowers being placed below the female flowers. In autumn the fruit ripens in the form of a bunch of bright scarlet, shining berries. The entire plant is acrid, but the root more especially so.

Description of “root.”—The underground portion of this plant is known botanically as a “corm,” and is somewhat globular and shaped like a turnip. The lower part of the corm is flat and wrinkled, while the upper part is surrounded by coarse, wavy rootlets. The outside is brownish gray and the inside white and mealy. It has no odor, but an intensely acrid, burning taste, and to those who may have been induced in their school days to taste of this root wild turnip will be familiar chiefly on account of its never-to-be-forgotten acrid, indeed caustic, properties. The dried article of commerce consists of round, white slices, with brown edges, only slightly shrunken, and breaking with a starchy fracture.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The partially dried corm is used in medicine. It is dug in summer, transversely sliced, and dried. When first dug it is intensely acrid, but drying and heat diminish the acridity. It loses its acridity rapidly with age. Wild turnip brings from 7 to 10 cents a pound.

The corm of wild turnip, which was official in the United States Pharmacopœia from 1820 to 1870, is used as a stimulant, diaphoretic, expectorant, and irritant.

SKUNK-CABBAGE.

Spathyema foetida (L.) Raf.