7 
After washing, the roots should be carefully dried. This can best 
be accomplished by exposing them to light and air (not direct sunlight) 
on racks or shelves, or on clean, well-ventilated barn floors or lofts. 
They should be spread out thinly and turned occasionally from day to 
day until completely cured. When this point is reached, in perhaps 
three to six weeks, the roots will snap readily when bent. During the 
curing process the roots, if dried out of doors, should be placed under, 
shelter at night and upon the approach of rainy weather. 
With some roots additional preparation is required, such as slicing 
and the removal of fibrous rootlets. Wherever this is necessary men- 
tion will be made of it under the descriptions of the different plants. 
In general, it may be said that large roots should always be split or, 
sliced when green in order to facilitate drying. 
BARES. 
The plants considered in this bulletin do not furnish medicinal barks, 
but inasmuch as there are certain sections of the country where trees 
furnishing such barks are rather abundant, directions for their collec- 
tion may not be out of place here. 
Barks of trees should be gathered in spring, when the sap begins to 
flow, but may also be peeled in winter. In the case of the coarser 
barks (as elm, hemlock, poplar, oak, pine, and wild cherry) the outer 
layer is shaved off before the bark is removed from the tree, which 
process is known as ‘‘rossing.” Only the inner bark of these trees is 
used medicinally. Barks may also be cured by exposure to sunlight. 
Moisture must be avoided. 
LEAVES AND HERBS. 
Leaves and herbs should be collected when the plants are in full 
flower. It is very desirable that they retain their bright green color 
after curing, and this can be done by careful drying in the shade. In 
the collection of leaves the whole plant may be cut and the leaves may 
be stripped from it, rejecting the stems as much as possible. In the 
case of herbs the coarse and large stems should be rejected and only 
the flowering tops and more tender stems and leaves included. All 
grasses, bits of other plants, and other foreign substances should be 
carefully removed, as well as dead, shriveled, diseased, and discolored 
specimens. 
Both leaves and herbs should be spread out in thin layers on clean 
floors, racks or shelves, in the shade but where there is free circula- 
tion of air, and turned frequently until thoroughly dry. Moisture 
will darken them. The same precautions that are necessary in cur- 
ing roots apply here also, so far as placing them under cover 3 avo = 
dew or rain is popcerncd. ; is 
188 
