THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 47 



form one piece when they are said to be connate. In the 

 common teasel the leaves are connate and in the hollow 

 thus formed there is nearly always a little rain water and 

 this forms a perfect barrier to any creeping insect that 

 would ascend the stem. Occasionally the base of a single 

 leaf of the alternate type may grow together around the 

 stem in which case the leaf is described as perfoliate. One 

 of the bellworts {Uvularia perfoliata) is a good example 

 of such leaves. 



SHITTIMWOOD. 



BY A. S. FOSTER. 



LAST year the market for the bark of this tree w^as brisk; 

 now the dealers are engaging all that can be put on 

 the market and the demand is very active. The state still 

 owns considerable land and the bark will be removed from 

 the trees on these tracts upon a royalty basis, perhaps. 



It appears that all the Rhamnals of the Pacific Coast 

 have strong medicinal qualities. The extract of the bark 

 is used in a number of "blood purifiers." It is the active 

 cathartic in the "Cascarets" so widel3' advertised, and so 

 called from the Spanish name Cascara sagrada, sacred 

 bark, applied to Rhamnus Californicus. This is a beauti- 

 ful evergreen shrub with small silvery leaves and some- 

 what tomentose 3'oung branches which is often used in 

 domestic medicine. Our tree Rhamnus Purshianus grows 

 from ten to thirty feet high through Washington and Ore- 

 gon west of the Cascade Mountains. The bark is smooth 

 and the tree is comparatively free from the usual mosses 

 and lichens v^^hich infest most forest trees of this region. 

 It grows upright and S3^mmetricallylike all self-respecting 

 trees should grow, and prefers an open side-hill exposure 

 rather than a lower level. It resembles in winter aspect a 

 young 3'cllow poplar {Liriodendron tulipifera) . 



On this tree nearly all the buds are terminal and but 

 few axillarj^ they are naked and the flower clusters 

 develop with the leaves, appearing in small umbellate 

 cymes. The leaves are eliptical, five inches long by two 

 inches broad and denticulate. The fruit is a black berry 



