NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
To these simple people, no doubt, we owe many of the 
significant local names by which our native plants are still 
distinguished, and which will always be adopted when 
speaking of them in familiar parlance. Occasionally we 
pause and ponder on the source whence such a name ays 
Boneset, for Hupatorium perfoliatum (L.), has been derived. 
We can only surmise that the powerful virtues of the plant 
are serviceable, in cases of dislocations and fractures, in 
reducing fever and causing a more healthy action of the 
blood, thus accelerating the return of strength to the injured 
limb. 
The sanative qualities of these plants are no new dis- 
covery, nor are the medicinal properties confined to one 
species alone; some are used in curing the bites of snakes, 
as H. ageratoides (L.), and an infusion of the leaves of 
another species is an excellent diet drink; almost all are 
sudorifics and tonics. 
The genus Eupatorium is dedicated to Eupator Mithri- 
dates, who is said to have used a species of the genus in 
medicine. Several species of these homely plants are used 
in fevers and intermittents by the herb-doctors and Indians. 
The tallest and most showy of the Eupatoriums is 
TRUMPETWEED—THOROUGHWORT—E. purpureum (L.). 
The flowers, in dense corymbs, are of a deep flesh-color, 
approaching to red; leaves shining, coarsely veined, narrow- 
ing to a point, the upper ones much narrower, mostly 
growing in whorls round the stout stem. The plant has a 
bitter, somewhat resinous scent when the leaves are bruised. 
This tall Thoroughwort is abundant on the banks of creeks 
and in marshy places, where it often reaches the height of 
five or six feet. 
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