1916] Kennedy, — Historical Data regarding the Sweet Bay 207 



trees stand; and, during the whole of their being in blossom, they 

 spread their odoriferous exhalations. The berries likewise look very 

 fine when they are ripe, for they have a rieh red color, and hang in 

 bunches on slender stalks. The cough, and other pectoral diseases, 

 are cured by putting the berries into ruin or brandy, of which a 

 draught every morning may be taken; the virtues of this remedy 

 were universally extolled, and even praised for their salutary effects 

 in consumptions. . . . and it was thought that a decoction of it could 

 stop the dysentery. Persons who had caught cold, boiled the branches 

 of the beaver tree in water, and drank it to their great relief." 



Mark Catesby in his considerable and important work The Natural 

 History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (2 vols, folio, 

 London, 1771) gives at page 39 an account of the Sweet Flowering 

 Bay with an excellent plate and description. A portion of the text 

 runs: "They [i. e. these trees] grow naturally in moist places, and 

 often in shallow water; and what, is extraordinary, they being re- 

 moved on high dry ground, become more regular and handsomer trees, 

 and are more prolific of flowers and fruit. They usually lose their 

 leaves in winter, except it be moderate." 



"This beautiful flowering tree is a native both of Virginia and 

 Carolina and is growing at Mr. Fairchild's in Hoxton and Mr. Collin- 

 son's at Peckham [Fngland] . . . requiring no protection in our 

 coldest winters." 



One of the earliest volumes on Materia Medica Americana, namely 

 that of David Schoepf, printed at Erlangen, Bavaria, in 1787, has on 

 page 91 an old-fashioned list of pharmaceutical uses of Magnolia 

 glauca, from the aromatic bitter of its bark to its ashes made into an 

 ointment for ulcers. This book shows at least how much value was 

 given to the very noticeable tree. 



On pages 139 and 140 in the first edition of his Plants of Boston, 

 published in 1S14, Dr. Jacob Bigelow says of Magnolia glauca: "The 

 only species of this superb genus, that has been found native in our 

 climate. It attains the height of a dozen feet, but is sometimes 

 killed down to the roots by severe winters. . . . The bark is highly 

 aromatic, and possesses medicinal properties. It grows plentifully 

 in a sheltered swamp at Gloucester, ('ape Ann, twenty five miles 

 from Boston, which is perhaps its most northern boundary. — June, 

 July." 



Magnolia glauca is similarly treated in the 2nd edition of the same 



