218 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



be the plant from which the crown of thorns placed upon the head of Christ 

 was composed. 



Ceanothus. — Linn. 



Calyx 5-cleft, campanulate, circumscissile, lower part permanent. Petals 5, unguicu- 

 late. Stamens 5, exserted. Styles 2 — 3, united to the middle, diverging above. Capsule 

 3-angled, 3-celled, 3-seeded ; cells opening by the inner suture. 



This almost American genus consists of shrubs or shrubby plants, which 

 are unarmed. The roots of the whole of them are large, reddish, and astrin- 

 gent. The leaves are alternate, usually ovate or elliptical, serrate or entire, 

 persistent or deciduous. The flowers are white, blue, or yellowish in umbel- 

 like fascicles, which are aggregated at the extremity of the branches. It is 

 probable that the medical properties of all the species are very much the 

 same, though one only, has attracted attention. 



C. americanus, Linn. — Leaves ovate, or oblong-ovate, smooth above, tomentose beneath. 

 Panicles axillary, peduncled, elongate, leafy. 



Linn., Sp. PL, 284; Bot. Mag., 1479; Darlington, Fl. Cest., 148; 

 Torrey and Gray, FL, i. 264; De Candolle, Prod., ii. 31. 

 Common Name. — New Jersey Tea. 



Description — Root dark-red. Stem shrubby, suffruticose, from one to three feet high, 

 with many branches, the younger of which are pubescent. The leaves are 3-nerved, 

 rounded, or a little cordate at base, ovate or oblong-ovate, somewhat acuminate at the 

 apex, serrate, nearly smooth above, and whitish, tomentose beneath, the pubescence of 

 the veins and petioles somewhat reddish. The calyx is white, 5-cleft, and the upper por- 

 tion separates by a transverse line, leaving the tube adhering to the fruit. The corolla 

 is formed of five saccate, arched petals, which are longer than the calyx, and with fili- 

 form claws at base. The stamens are five, exserted, and bearing ovate, 2-celled anthers. 

 The ovary is 3-angled, and surrounded with a 10-toothed disk. The styles are three, 

 united to the middle, but diverging above. The fruit is dry and coriaceous, obtusely tri- 

 angular, 3-celled and 3-seeded. The seeds are convex externally, and concave within, 

 the cavity marked with a longitudinal line. 



The New Jersey Tea is found in all parts of the United States, in copses 

 and dry woods, flowering from June until September. There are several 

 varieties, differing principally in the form- of the leaves. It is a well-known 

 plant, and is celebrated for having been much used during the Revolutionary 

 war as a substitute for the Chinese tea, whence its common name. The leaves 

 when dried have an odour very much resembling that of the black tea of 

 commerce, and are said to form an excellent substitute for it. They are 

 slightly bitter, and somewhat astringent. The root is much more active, 

 and was in use among the Indians as an astringent and febrifuge, and was 

 afterwards very much employed as a remedy in gonorrhoea and even syphi- 

 lis. In the first of these complaints, it is stated by Ferrien, a cure is effected 

 in two or three days ; and in the latter, even inveterate cases yield to it in 

 fifteen. It is given, he says, in decoction, .made with two drachms of the 

 root to the pint of water. Adanson also observes that he has employed it in 

 these diseases with success. We quote this from Merat and De Lens' Dic- 

 tionary, not having seen the works in which these statements are made ; but 

 they receive confirmation, in part at least, from the success that has attended 

 this method of cure by empirics in our country. Dr. Hubbard (Boston Med. 

 and Surg. Journ., Sept. 1835) speaks in high terms of a decoction of the 

 leaves as a wash and gargle in the aphtha? of children, and in those cases of 

 sore mouth subsequent to fever, and states that he was successful with it 



