434 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



A full account of it is given in London Journ. Bot. i. 39. It is said that 

 Theine has been detected in the leaves by Mr. Stenhouse. The I. gongonha 

 is employed in Brazil in the same way. The fruit of I. macoucoua, in an 

 unripe state, abound in tannin, and are used as a substitute for galls. (Martius, 

 Mat. Med. Bras. 126.) 



Prinos. — Linn. 



Calyx 6-cleft, small, persistent. Corolla deeply 6-cleft, rotate. Stamens 6, filaments 

 subulate, erect, shorter than the corolla. Anthers oblong, obtuse. Ovary superior, ovate, 

 bearing a single style with an obtuse stigma. Fruit a berry. 



An American genus, closely allied to Ilex, consisting of small trees or 

 shrubs, with alternate, deciduous, or persistent leaves, and axillary or termi- 

 nal flowers, which are small, and sometimes 5 to 8-cleft, with a similar 

 number of stamina and seeds. 



P. verticillatus, Linn. — Leaves deciduous, ovate, serrate, acuminate, pubescent be- 

 neath. Flowers often dioecious, 6-parted. Fertile flowers aggregated ; sterile ones axil- 

 lary, subumbellate. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 471 ; Bigelow, Am. Med. Bot., iii. 141 ; Barton, Veg. 

 Mat. Med., i. 203. 



Common Names. — Winter-berry ; Black Alder, &c. 



Foreign Names. — Apalachine a feuilles de prunier, Fr. ; Virginische 

 Winterbeere, Ger. 



Description. — A shrub from eight to fifteen feet high, with a bluish-gray or ash-coloured 

 bark. The branches are alternate, horizontal, and spreading, furnished with ovate-acu- 

 minate leaves, dentate on their edges, of an olive-green, and smooth above, but pubescent 

 beneath, especially on the ribs ; they are alternate and petiolate. The flowers are small 

 and white, and are clustered in axillary and lateral groups ; rarely solitary. The calyx 

 is small and persistent, and the corolla rotate, 6 and sometimes 7-cleft. The stamens 

 are equal in number to the divisions of the corolla. The berries are globular, and of a 

 bright-red colour, persistent after the fall of the leaves. 



The Winter-berry is found in most parts of the United States, in damp 

 situations and on the borders of water-courses, flowering in June, and ripening 

 its berries late in the autumn. The officinal portion is the bark, which, when 

 dried, is in slender pieces, more or less rolled, of a greenish-white colour in- 

 ternally, and of an ash-gray mixed with brown externally, brittle, and with- 

 out odour ; the taste is bitter and astringent, which is imparted to water. The 

 berries have a sweetish, bitter taste, and are sometimes used. No chemical 

 examination has been made of either of them. 



Medical Properties. — The bark is tonic and astringent, and is much used 

 in domestic practice. It was known to the Indians, and was first noticed by 

 Schoepf, who says that " it is an antiseptic, and is used in gangrene and 

 jaundice;" and it still enjoys much popular reputation as a local application 

 to ill-conditioned ulcers and chronic cutaneous eruptions. It is also much 

 employed in the treatment of intermittent fevers, but is far inferior in power to 

 a number of other indigenous tonics. There is more evidence of its good 

 effects in diarrhoea, in which it is extensively prescribed in some parts of the 

 country ; and also as a corroborant in dropsy, &c. Dr. Wm. P. C. Barton 

 states that he " used both bark and berries on several occasions ; and it is 

 with no little satisfaction I bear testimony to its deserved claim to those com- 

 mendations that have been bestowed upon it." 



it is administered either in substance or decoction. The dose of the first 

 is from thirty grains to a drachm, several times a day. The decoction, 

 which is the preferable form, is made with two ounces of the bark to three 



