﻿82 NATIVE MEDICINES. June, 



particular, attracted attention by its wliite stem, 

 light green spray, and pendent, golden catkins. 

 Willows of a darker foliage lined the river bank ; 

 and the background was covered with dark green 

 pines, intermixed with patches of lively aspen, and 

 here and there a tapering larch, gay with its 

 minute tufts of crimson flowers, and young pale 

 green leaves. The balsam poplar, with a silvery 

 foliage though an ungainly stem, and the dank 

 elder, disputed the strand at intervals with the 

 willows ; among which the purple twigs of the 

 dog-w^ood contributed effectively to add variety 

 and harmony to the colours of spring. 



The Actoea alba grows abundantly here ; it is 

 called by the Canadians le racine dJours^ and by 

 the Crees, musqua-mitsu-in (bears' food) . A de- 

 coction of its#roots and of the tops of the spruce 

 fir is used as a drink in stomachic complaints. The 

 Acorns calamus is another of the indigenous plants 

 that enter into the native pharmacopoeia, and is 

 used as a remedy in colic. About the size of a 

 small pea of the root, dried before the fire or in 

 the sun, is a dose for an adult, and the pain is 

 said to be removed soon after it is masticated and 

 swallowed. When administered to children, the 

 root is rasped, and the filings swallowed in a glass 

 of water, or of weak tea with sugar. A drop of 

 the juice of the recent root is dropped into in- 



