16-4 CAPRIFOLIACE^. 



Viburnum prunifolium Linne. — Black Haw. 



Description. — Flowers all alike, fertile. Fruit oblong-ovoid, compressed, 

 bluisli-black, glaucous, sweet. 



A shrub or small tree, 8 to 20 feet liigli. Leaves roundish-oval, ovate 

 or obovate, obtuse or abruptly pointed, finely and sharply serrate, bright 

 green, glabrous. Cymes numerous, sessile, appearing in May. 



Habitat. — In dry woods and thickets from Connecticut to Illinois anl 

 southward. 



Viburnum Opulus Linn^;. — Cranherry Tree, High Cranberry, Cramp- 

 Bark. 



Description. — Marginal flowers of the cymes without stamens or pistils, 

 but with corollas much larger than those of the fertile flowers. Fruit 

 nearly sj)herical, half an inch long, bright red, of a pleasant acid taste, re- 

 sembling that of cranberries, for which it is sometimes substituted. 



A shrub, 3 to 10 feet high, with spreading branches. Leaves 3-lobed, 

 3-ribbed, the lobes acuminate, toothed. Cymes 3 to 4 inches in diameter. 

 The flowers appear in May and June. A cultivated variety of this species, 

 the common garden snow-ball bush, has all its floAvers sterile. 



Habitat. — In swamps and along streams from Pennsylvania northward ; 

 less common than the preceding. 



Part Used. — The bark of V. prunifolium — United States Pharmacopceia. 

 The bai*k of V. Opulus has also been employed, and is said to act like that 

 of the official species. 



Constituents. — Analysis of V. prunifohum has shown the presence of a 

 brown resinous body of a very bitter taste, a greenish-yellow resin, or neutral 

 principle, also bitter, termed viburnin, valerianic acid, tannin, and other 

 unimportant vegetable constituents. V. Opulus probably joossesses similar 

 constituents. 



Preparations. — Extractum viburni fluidum — fluid extract of viburnum. — 

 United States Pharmacopoeia. There are commercial fluid extracts of \, 

 Opulus. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Both these sj^ecies of viburnum are said 

 to be antispasmodic, nervine, astringent, and tonic, and to act specifically 

 upon the uterus. V. prunifolium is especially praised as a uterine sedativi :■, 

 and is considered by many veiy efficient in threatened abortion and ii) 

 dysmenorrhoea. The author has experimented with it to a considerable 

 extent, but with very unsatisfactory results. He has employed it in many 

 cases of threatened abortion, enjoining at the same time absolute rest in 

 the recumbent position, but never with any good effect which could b 

 f airly attributed to the drug. He has never been able to discover that ^"f 

 restrains hemorrhage or abates any of the ordinary symptoms of threat- 

 ened abortion. He has observed, however, that to many patients it is in- 

 tensely disagreeable, not unfrequently exciting nausea and vomiting, and 

 thus directly contributing to bring about the result which it was intended 



