244 MYRICA. 



young shoots, used for their twisted cloth- All the sp. 



are eq. IVuits containinjj: tartaric acid, wliite Mulberries 



sweeter. Leaves of alt can feed the silk worm like M. 



alba^ our native kinds give stronger silk. The white 



Mulberry was found by Soto in 1540, by Laudoniere in 



1567, and by Joutel in 1685, from Florida to Texas, it 



is not the M. alba, but my M. tomentom, Raf. Fl. lud. 



The Black Mulberry of Louisiana and Texas is my 3L 

 scahra. 



MU^A, L. Banana, Plantam tree. Native of Florida 



below lat. 28. Several sp. cult, in all tropical climates. 

 The most valuable of all trees, Eacli tree produces 100 

 lbs. of delicious food, one acre holds 1600 trees, and 

 gives l60,000ibs. of food, while wheat only 1200lbs. per 

 acre, and potatoes 4000lbs, Fruits excellent, edible in 

 many ways. Young shoots edible boiled. Stems give 

 bread and wine from pulp and juice, when old aftbrd 

 ropes, thread and tinder, leaves a thatch, &c. 



MYRICA, L. Sweet gale^ Bayberry^ PFaxberry^lf^aX' 

 myrtle. All the sp. equiv. Valuable evergreen shrubs. 

 Leaves fragrant, balsamic, containing like the bark tan- 

 nin, resm, gallic acid and mucilage ,• they are emetic, 

 pectoral, astringent, nervine, subnarcotic, cephalic, ver- 

 mifuge, menagogue, stomachic, &c. Useful in uterine 

 hemorrhage, hysterical complaints, palsies, cholics and 

 scrofula in powders, decoction and tea. The tea of -31". 

 g-afe milder, formerly drank in Europe as tea, and leaves 

 put in soups, used in Russia for gout, fevers, itch and 

 insects. The bark chewed is a good sialagogue, made 

 into snuft' it is a powerful errhine : taste acrid, stimu- 

 lant, in large doses of a drachm it produces a burning 

 sensation and vomiting, sometimes diuresis. Bark of the 

 root used for the tooth ache. The inner bark pounded 

 soft dispels scrofuions swellings and sores, a strong lea 

 of the leaves being drank also. A tincture of the berries 

 with Heracleum is used for violent flatulent cholics and 

 cramps. The buds d^^e yellow. The berries are covei^ed 

 with a peculiar wax, easily extracted by boiling, cooling 

 and purifying, they give 32 per cent- of wax, fragrant, 

 greenish and brittle, used for beautiful fragrant cand!es, 

 soap, blacking balls, plasters. It contains cerine, itf^/- 

 ricine insuiuble in alcohol^ and a peculiar oil. It is ac- 



