250 TREES AND TREE-PLANTING. 
proven useful in gangrenous or mortified conditions. 
Baths of a decoction of oak-bark are valuable in weak 
children, whose lax condition is the result of debilitating 
disease. 
Broap-LeaveD Lavrex (Kalmia latifolia), known also 
as mountain laurel, sheep laurel, calico bush, etc. This 
tree-like shrub is quite an active poison, and should be 
employed as a medicine with considerable care. In me- 
dicinal doses it is an alterative, depresses the heart’s ac- 
tion, and is somewhat astringent. It has been success- 
fully employed, because of its alterative properties, as a 
remedy in chronic syphilitic affections. Applied exter- 
nally, the decoction of the leaves has been found valua- 
ble in scald head, but owing to the poisonous nature of 
the substance it must be employed with prudence. 
The leaves are the parts employed in medicine, and 
may be employed either in the form of a decoction or 
tincture. 
Borrernut (Juglans cinerea). Butternut is a mild ca- 
thartic, and operates without pain or irritation, or the 
subsequent constipation which is the objection to most 
other cathartics. It is also a domestic remedy of some 
repute in chronic rheumatism, and in some sections has 
a reputed value as an anti-intermittent. 
The leaves of the butternut have, in the past few 
years, been recommended in the treatment of diphtheria, 
and the reports of eminent French experiments have 
been very favorable, and have to a certain degree been 
corroborated by tests in this country. A strong infusion 
is the form in which they are applied, and may be given 
either as a spray, or applied, by means of a swab, directly 
to the membrane. If further trials prove equally satis- 
factory with those which have already been made, but- 
ternut leaves will be established as a valuable addition 
to the materia medica for this grave affection. 
Catirornia Bay Laure, (Oreodaphne Californica). 
An evergreen tree of considerable size, which is indige- 
