ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



251 



THE HOP-TREE OR WAFER-ASH. 



{Ptelea trifoliaia, L.) 



i:V UR. E. M. HALE, (lIIfAflO. 



Ho|)-ti-ee w VVat'tT Ash (We/in IriJ'oliata, L.) 



The Ilop-trec (Ptelea trifoUata, L.) is a shrub 

 or small tree of the natural order Butaceu;, to 

 which belongs also the Rne of the gardens, the 

 Prickly-ash (Zanthoxi/luni Americamnn, i\lill) 

 and the Southern Prickly-ash (Z. CaroUniunum, 

 Lam.) In some respects these last-named arc 

 medicinal as well as botanical analogues of the 

 Hop-tree. The genus Ptelea has polygamous 

 (lowers, i. e., the perfect and imperfect flowers 

 are variously mixed. They have four or five 

 stamens, and a thin, wing-like fruit, which is 

 two-celled, but one cell only perfects seed. Its 

 name, Ptelea. is the Greek for i:im, given be- 

 cause of the resemblance of the wiug-like or 

 aamaroid fruit. Its six known species are all 

 North American. Throe are Mexican. One 

 Southern species (P. mollis) is clothed with a 

 silky pubescence. Anotlier species, Ptelea Bald- 

 winii, of East Florida, has minute leaves with 

 obtuse leaflets. The remaining species, the sub- 

 ject of onr sketch, known in Britain as Shrubbx 



Trefoil, is indigenous throughout the United 

 States, from tlie East to beyond the Mississippi, 

 and even to Texas, in moist shady plaees, and 

 on the borders of woods and among rocks. It 

 is a tall shrub, but under cmUivation at Gordon 

 Castle, Scotland, it had, in 183;'), readied the 

 height of forty-five feel, with a trunk fifteen 

 inches in dianiefcr, and with branches extend- 

 ing twenty-seven feet from side to side. Two 

 varieties have been found — one with five leaflets 

 (/'. Pentaphjillu, Miench), the other with the 

 branches, petioles and under surface of the leaves 

 clothed with a soft tomentose pubescence, even 

 when old {P.piibescens, Ph.) It was originally 

 scut to England by Bannister, but being lost 

 was reintroduced by Catesby in ITi'l from Car- 

 olina. It is conimon in the gardens of Europe; 

 and in the Jardiii des Plants, at Paris, a tree 

 may be seen the crown of which had in sixty 

 years from planting attained a diameter of forty- 

 live feet. 



The tirst mention of the Ptelea in the medical 

 literature of this country is found in Rafin- 

 esque's Medical Botany. He observes that "the 

 leaves are vulnerary, used for poultices, and an 

 anthelmintic."' It is mentioned in Grifllilh's 

 Medical Botany: "The native species, Ptelea 

 trifolidta, is said to be anthelmintic, for which 

 purpose the leaves and young shoots are used 

 ill strong infusion. The fruit is aromatic and 

 bitter, and is stated to be a good substitute for 

 hops." In Howard's Botanic Medicine, 183C, 

 it is described under the vulgar names of Cure- 

 all, Ague-bark, Pickaway, Anise, and Wing- 

 seed. It is in more or less repute by all the 

 diflTerent medical schools for various medicinal 

 virtues. It certainly is deserving of greater 

 notice for cultivation than it receives in this 

 country. 



ZANTIIOXYLUM CLAVA-HERCUMS. 



During the summer of '64, while a resident of 

 the central part of the State of New York, my 

 attention was called to a tree growing about 

 fifteen miles south of Syracuse and two miles 

 south of the place of the CarditTGiant notoriety. 

 The gentleman who pointed the tree out to me 

 said he thought there was a tree I could not find 

 a niinie for. The tree was standing in an open 

 field, and looked stately and majestic at a dis- 

 tance, having a symmetrical top, the trunk be- 

 ing, I should judge, about eighteen inches 

 in diameter, and free from limbs till it reached 

 the height of twenty feet. The leaves were 

 decompound, something like the Honey-locust, 

 though much larger, many of them measuring 



