Vermont Shrubs and Woody Vines 



123 



RUE FAMILY. RUTAOEAE 



This is an interesting family of plants, chiefly trees and 

 shrubs, including the citrus fruits, orange and lemon, the fraxin- 

 ella of old-fashioned gardens and the garden rue from which 

 comes the family name. This rue was probably more common- 

 ly cultivated formerly than now and it has established itself in 

 at least one place (Weybridge) as a garden escape. The leaves 

 or other parts are characterized by transparent dots which con- 

 tain a pungent aromatic oil. Only one representative occurs in 

 Vermont. 



THE PRiCKivY-ASH. Xanthoxylum aniericanunt Mill. 

 This is a shrub of three to eight feet usually forming thick- 

 ets on rocky woods and banks. It is frequent in portions of 



the Champlain valley. This 

 is readily recognized by its 

 prickly stem and strongly 

 aromatic bark and leaves, 

 the latter being compound, 

 somewhat like the ash only 

 smaller, hence the name. 

 The American Indians used 

 the prickly ash as a medi- 

 cine and it became one of 

 the popular home remedies 

 of the herb-doctors of the 

 early settlements, an in- 

 fusion of the bark being 

 used for ulcerous wounds, 

 rheumatism, colic, etc. The 

 bark was sometimes chew- 

 ed as a remedy for tooth- 

 ache, and it is therefore 

 sometimes known as the toothache-tree. One who has recently 

 tried it says that it excites the flow of saliva and drives away the 

 toothache, at least temporarily, but that the taste of the bark is 

 scarcely less disagreeable than the ache it relieves. 



Prickly Ash. 

 Fruiting twig, X ^2 



