22 



AMERICAN MEDICINAL LEAVES AND HERBS. 



SKULLCAP. 



Scutellaria later ijlorn L. 



Pharmacopoeial name. — Scutellaria. 



Other common naviea. — American skullcap, blue skullcap, mad-dog skullcap, side- 

 flowering skullcap, madwoed, hoodwort, blue pimpernel, hooded willow-herb. 



Ilahitat and range. — This species is native in damj) ])laces along banks of streams 



from Canada southward to 

 Florida, New Mexico, and 

 Washington. 



Description. — The lip- 

 shaped flowers and squar- 

 ish stems of the skullcap 

 indicate that it is a member 

 of the mint family (Men- 

 thacese). It is a perennial 

 of slender, erect habit, its 

 square, leafy, branching 

 stem ranging from 8 inches 

 to 2 feet in height, smooth, 

 or sometimes hairy at the 

 top . The leaves are placed 

 opposite to each other on 

 the stem on slender stalks 

 and are about 1 to 3 inches 

 in length and about one- 

 third as wide, thin in tex- 

 ture, oblong or lance shaped, 

 with margins coarsely 

 toothed. They gradually 

 become smaller toward the 

 top, and sometimes those 

 at the very top have the 

 margins unbroken. The 

 flowers are borne in narrow, 

 spikelike, one-sided clus- 

 ters, generally in the axils 

 of the leaves, but frequent- 

 ly also at the top, and are 



Fig. 



14.— SkuUoap (Scutellaria laloi/lora}, floworin;; 

 also seed capsules. 



branch, showing 



interspersed with leafy bracts. They appear from about July to September and are 

 blue, shading off to whitish. Tlie tubular, 2-lipped flowers are about a quarter of an 

 inch in length, and the calyx, or outer green covering of the flower, is also two lipped, 

 the upper lip shaped like a helmet and closing in fruit. (Fig. 14.) 



Collection, prices, and uses. — The dried plant is at present official in the United 

 States Pharmaropnria. The entire plant is collected when in flower and should be 

 carefully dried in the shade. The price ranges from about 3 to 1 cents a jwund. 



Very frequently collectors will gather some other species in place of the official plant, 

 most of those thus wrongly finding their way into the market being generally of stouter 

 growth, with broader leaves and much larger flowers. 



This plant was once considered valuable for the prevention of hydrophobia, whence 

 the names "mad-dog skullcap " and "madweed," but it is now known to be useless for 

 that j)urpose. It is used principally as a tonic and to a limited extent for allaying 

 nervous irritation of various kinds. 

 21lt 



