FRAXINUS ASH. 231 



dismissed from the Pharmacopoeia in 1880. They are probably little less 

 efficient than the official species. 



Constituents. — A. tuberosa has yielded to analysis, besides common 

 vegetable principles, two resins, and a peculiar principle possessing the 

 taste of the root. The other species have been analysed with somewhat 

 similar results. 



Preparations. — None are official. They are commonly administered in 

 decoction. Extracts and oleo-resinous preparations occur as commercial 

 articles. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The various species of asclepias have 

 been employed with diuretic, diaphoretic, expectorant, emetic, and even 

 purgative eifect. They have also been credited, though on insufficient 

 grounds, with specific action in certain diseases. Their diajihoretie 

 effects have been found viseful in acute pulmonary and bronchial affections 

 and in rheumatism. 



OLEACE>E. 



Character of the Order. — Trees or shrubs with oj)posite, simple or com- 

 pound leaves, and perfect or unisexual flowers. Calyx 4-cleft, sometimes 

 obsolete. Corolla 4-cleft, or of 4 separate petals, sometimes wanting. 

 Stamens 2, rarely 3 or 4. Ovary free, 2-celled, commonly 2-ovuled. 

 Fruit drupaceous, baccate, capsular or samaroid. 



An order, taking its name from the olive (Olea Europcea), which com- 

 prises about 20 genera and 150 species, mostly natives of temperate regions. 

 Its most important representatives in North America are found in the 

 genus 



FRAXINUS.— Ash. 



Fraxinus Americana Linne. — White Ash. 



Description. — Calyx minute, 4-toothed, persistent. Corolla wanting. 

 Stamens 2, rarely 3 or 4. Style single, stigma 2-cleft. Fruit a samara, flat- 

 tened, winged at the apex, 1- to 2-seeded. 



A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with gray furrowed bark, smooth gray 

 branchlets, and rusty-colored buds. Leaves 12 to 14 inches long, un- 

 equally pinnate ; leaflets 7 to 9, ovate or lance-oblong, pointed, entire, 

 rarely denticulate, light-green above, pale and either smooth or pubescent 

 underneath. Flowers dioecious, in crowded panicles or racemes, from the 

 axils of the preceding year's leaves. Fruit terete below, expanded above 

 into a lanceolate, oblanceolate, or wedge-linear wing. 



Habitat. — Eiver banks and margins of swamps from Canada to Florida. 



Part Used. — The inner bark — not official. 



Constituents. — Unknown. 



Preparations. — It has been used in infusion and vinous tincture. 



