DENDROLOGY. 175 



chaises ; the workmen find it excellently adapted to this object, 

 not only from its lightness, but because it is not liable to split, 

 and receives paint in a superior manner. 



The medicinal properties of the butternut bark, have long since 

 been proved, by several eminent physicians of the United States. 

 An extract in water, or even a decoction sweetened with honey, 

 is acknowledged to be one of the best cathartics afforded by 

 materia medica ; its purgative operation is always sure, and 

 unattended, in the most delicate constitutions, with pain or 

 irritation. Experience has shown that it produces the best effects 

 in many cases of dysentery. It is commonly given in the form 

 of pills, and to adults, in doses from half a dram to a dram. It 

 is not however in general use, except in the country. It is 

 obtained by boiling the bark entire in water, till the liquid is 

 reduced by evaporation, to a thick, viscid substance, which is 

 almost black. This is a faulty process ; the exterior bark, or 

 the dead part which covers the cellular integument, should first 

 be taken off, for by continued boiling, it becomes charged with 

 four-fifths of the liquid, already enriched with extractive matter. 

 . This bark is also successfully employed as a revulsive, in 

 inflamatory ophthalmias and in the tooth ache : a piece of it 

 soaked in warm water, is applied in these cases to the back of 

 the neck. In the country it is sometimes employed for dying 

 wool of a dark brown color ; but the bark of the black walnut is 

 preferable. On a live tree, the cellular integument, when first 

 exposed, is of a pure white, in a moment it changes to a beautiful 

 lemon color, and soon after to a deep brown. If the trunk of 

 this tree is pierced in the month which precedes the unfolding 

 of the leaves, a pretty copious discharge ensues of a slightly 

 sugary sap, from which, by evaporation, sugar is obtained inferior 

 to that of the sugar maple. 



