CHAPTER XLII: THE PRICKLY ASH AND THE 

 HOP TREE 



Family Rutace.€ 



The rue family is best known through the genus Citrus, 

 which includes oranges and lemons. It is a large botanical group 

 of trees and shrubs, all of which have bitter aromatic sap, and 

 an oil distributed in glandular dots all over the leaves. 



The Prickly Ash, or Toothache Tree {Fagara Clava- 

 Herculis, Small) has all the characteristics suggested by its names. 

 Its compound leaves resemble those of the ash except that these 

 alternate on the twig, while ash leaves are always opposite. The 

 twigs are set with sharp prickles, each raised on a corky base. 

 In Arkansas, where the tree forms thickets of considerable extent, 

 it is also called "tear-blanket" and "wait-a-bit"! 



There is an acrid, resinous juice in the twigs, leaves and 

 bark which is used as a stimulant in medicine. The bark of the 

 roots is especially bitter. The Negro in the South chews a piece 

 of prickly ash bark to cure the toothache. "Sting-tongue" and 

 "pepperwood" he calls it, for it produces a burning sensation 

 and a copious flow of saliva. Possibly it is as a counter-irritant 

 only that it relieves the pain. Belief in its curative powers is 

 widespread; the collecting of its bark has almost exterminated 

 the species along the southeastern coast. 



The prickly ash in its best estate looks like a well-grown 

 apple tree, and often grows over 40 feet in height. It is found 

 along streams in sandy soil from Virginia to Florida and west to 

 Texas and Arkansas. As a rule it is under 25 feet in height. 

 The small, greenish flowers are clustered on the ends of branches. 

 The birds are fond of the aromatic seeds which hang out of the 

 seed cases in the autumn. 



The prickly ash of the North is Fagara Americanum, a shrub 

 found on mountain slopes from Quebec west to Nebraska and 

 Missouri, and south to Virginia. It will easily be recognised by 



348 



