PHARMACOPCIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
UVA URSI 
Bearberry, Uva ursi (Arctostaphylos uva ursi) (Linné), which 
takes its name from the fact that its berries are eaten by bears and 
other animals, is a low evergreen shrub common to the Northern coun- 
tries of Europe and America. The leaves, which are used in medicine, 
are an article of commerce in the northern sections of Europe, Amer- 
ica, and some parts of Asia. Being used in tanning, in Sweden and 
Russia, according to Rafinesque (535), they established the well- 
known Russia leather. The astringent leaves were once highly valued 
in Europe, but have since fallen into disuse. The domestic employ- 
ment of the drug introduced it to American medicine, Drs. Wistar, 
Barton (43), and Bigelow (69) recommending a decoction of it as 
a wash for leucorrhea and as an injection in gonorrhea and catarrh 
of the bladder. For these purposes, as based on its domestic employ- 
ment, the plant has its professional record, but has never been very 
important in any school of medicine. 
VALERIANA 
The herbaceous perennial Valeriana officinalis is found through- 
out Europe from Spain to Iceland, extending also from the Crimza, 
over Northern Asia, into China. It not only grows wild, but in Eng- 
land especially is cultivated as a drug plant. It was known to the 
Greeks and Romans, and the wild nard described by Dioscorides (194) 
and Pliny (514) is supposed to be a species of valerian, of which, in 
addition to the Valeriana officinalis, nine species are found in Asia 
Minor. The name valerian, however, was not used by the classical 
writers, occurring first in the ninth and tenth centuries. It is found 
in the Anglo-Saxon names of home remedies, and in domestic books as 
early as the eleventh century. Saladinus (570) of Ascoli, 1450, di- 
rected that the root be collected in the month of August. In medi- 
zval days in England the flavor of valerian was considered by the 
common people a delightful addition to broths and pottages, Gerarde 
(262) in his Herball, 1567, remarking that the poorer classes of people 
in the north of England did not consider such forms of food worth 
anything without it. Strangely enough also the odor of valerian, now 
considered exceedingly disagreeable, was in the sixteenth century ac- 
cepted as a perfume, and as a perfume it is still used in the Orient. 
In this connection we will add that we have known valerian to be a 
constituent of a perfume very popular with some ladies, but exceed- 
ingly unpleasant to some other people. In domestic medicine a tea 
from the root of valerian has been employed as a stimulant and 
antispasmodic in nervous diseases peculiar to females. 
VANILLA 
The conquering Spaniards found vanilla in use as a flavor for 
cacao among the Aztecs of Mexico, and naturally made this plant 
known to Europe. It was then described and illustrated by Hernandez 
(314), the “Pliny of the Spaniards,” in his history of Mexico, who de- 
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