210 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ot the desert vegetation. Prevention was easier and safer 

 than cure. To this day if an Indian of certain California 

 tribes is bitten by a rattlesnake and cannot get aid from 

 white people, he gives up to die, believing that there is 

 no hope. Such a bite is not, however, necessarily fatal. 

 Cuts, bruises, sprains, burns, frostbites, and many 

 other injuries of a like nature, were common among the 



Indians ; and the 

 trees of the for- 

 est furnished 

 poultices, salves, 

 and liniments in 

 profusion. The 

 bark of slippery 

 elm (U Im us 

 pubescens) was 

 as great a fav- 

 orite among the 

 savages as it was 

 later and still is, 

 with the civiliz- 

 ed physician. All 

 drug stores sell 

 it; but long be- 

 fore there were 

 drug stores in 

 America, the red 

 doctors under- 



ANGELICA TREE 



Indians called this the toothache tree (Aralia 

 spinosa) and made poultices of its bark which 

 served as a counter irritant in toothache. It was 

 a fever medicine also. 



stood the healing 



properties of this bark. John Lawson, who has been 



already quoted, wrote of this remedy as follows more 



than two hundred years ago: 



The Indians take the bark of its roots and beat it whilst green 

 to a pulp and then dry it in the chimney where it becomes of a 

 reddish color. This they use as a sovereign remedy to heal a 

 cut or a green wound. 



One hundred 

 and forty years 

 after Lawson 's 

 time, one of the 

 foremost physi- 

 cians of Ameri- 

 ca, Dr. Wooster 

 Beach, paid the 

 following high 

 compliment to 

 elm bark, the 

 use of which had 

 been learned 

 from Indian doc- 

 tors: 



It quickly and 

 powerfully allays 

 inflammation, pro- 

 motes resolution, 

 also suppuration, 

 and heals speedily. 

 We make exten- 

 sive use of the 

 flour of the bark 

 in the form of 

 poultice, for every YAUPON HOLLY 



variety of inflam- The notorious "black drink" of the southern In- 

 mation, wounds, dians and the Spaniards in Florida was brewed 

 and ulcert In . , m ,he ro s '<:d leaves and twigs of yaupon 



Lint (,!'; H ho ," y - U w " a remed y for nemi " * 

 point of utility. It taken once a year. 



is of far more value than its weight in gold ; and, therefore, 

 whoever has a tree on his farm should never permit it to be cut. 

 Slippery elm is easily distinguished from the four 

 other elms of this country by its thick mucilagi- 

 nous inner bark, but its leaf assists frequently in 

 identifying it. Its apex is usually longer and nar- 

 rower than the apexes of the leaves of other elms, 

 and the leaf feels rough and harsh, no matter in what 

 direction it is rubbed. When the leaves are crushed in 

 the hand they give a crackling sensation. 



The fruit of yellow poplar, beaten, boiled, and made 

 into salve, was an Indian remedy of which an early trav- 

 eler wrote : "The buds, made into ointment, cure scalds, 

 inflammations, and burns. I saw several bushels thereof." 

 Indian doctors were able to do more with the leaves 

 of the common beech tree (Fagus atropunicea) than 

 modern doctors 



are doing, for 



current dispen- 

 satories do not 



mention beech 



leaves. John 



Carver, who 



traveled on the 



head waters of 



the Mississippi 



river at a time 



when the region 



was practically 



unknown to 



white men, thus 



wrote of the 



medicinal value 



of beech leaves 



in winter: 



The leaves which 

 are white, continue 

 on the tree during 

 the whole winter. 

 A decoction made 

 of them is a cer- 

 tain and expedi- 

 tious cure for 

 wounds which arise 



from burning or scalding, as well as a restoration for those 

 members that are nipped by frost. 



Beech is one of the few deciduous trees whose leaves 

 remain on the twigs during the winter and they are thus 

 preserved against decay. That fact probably suggested 

 their use to the Indians. 



The bark of white pine (Pinus strobus) was made 

 into poultices for burns and other sores ; and this remedy 

 has come down to the present time, and this pine bark- 

 is still in the market. It runs high in tannin and resin. 



The Indians administered tea made from the bark of 

 sassafras roots, also from buds and flowers, as an in- 

 ternal remedy for wounds. The tea is in wide use yet, as 

 a popular blood purifier, and is drunk in early spring by 

 many a person who does not know that it is an Indian 

 medicine handed down from past centuries. 



Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) supplied the great eye 

 lotion for the Indians of the Southwest. The glare of 

 the sun in that hot, arid region, is severe on the eyes and 

 is apt to produce chronic inflammation of the lids. The 



WILD CHERRY 



This tree's bark furnished tonic to Northern 

 dians and was likewise employed in fevers, 

 is still considered valuable as a medicine. 



