ioo fkfo=<£n<jlantis: Parities. 



Red and black Currans} 



[52] For the Gout, or any Ach. 



Spunck, an excrefcence growing out of black Birch, 

 the Indians ufe it for Touchwood; and therewith they 

 help the Sciatica, or Gout of the Hip, or any great Ach, 

 burning the Patient with it in two or three places upon 

 the Thigh, and upon certain Veins. 2 



Massachusetts Bay, before February, 162S, to be sent to New England (Mass. Col. 

 Rec, vol. i. p. 24) ; and though Isatis tincloria, L., is true woad, Reseda luteola, 

 L. (wold, or weld), and our Genista (woadwaxen), have, it is said (Rees's Cycl., 

 in loco), been known "in English herbals under that name." 



1 "Current-bushes are of two kinds, — red and black. The black currents, 

 which are larger than the red, . . . are reasonable pleasant in eating." — Voyages, 

 p. 72. Our black currant is Ribes jloridum, Herit., — considered by Linnaeus (Sp_ 

 PI., p. 291) only a variety of R. nigrum, L., the true black currant of the gar- 

 dens ; and our red currant, which I have gathered in the White Mountains, — far 

 below the region of R. rigens, Michx., the more common red currant there, — ■ 

 appears to be undistinguishable from R. rubrum, L. (the red currant of gardens) ; 

 unless, possibly, as an American variety of it. This is probably R. albinervium, 

 Michx. (Fl., vol. i. p. no; Pursh, FL, vol. i. p. 163). 



2 Polyforus, Mich., sp. — In his Voyages, p. 70, the author speaks of " a stately 

 tree growing here and there in valleys, not like to any trees in Europe ; having a 

 smooth bark, of a dark-brown colour, the leaves like great maple in England 

 called sycamor; but larger," — which may be Platanus occidentalis, L. (button- 

 wood). And Wood enables us to add one more to this early account of the genera 

 of plants, which we possess, common to the Old World. He tells us (New-Eng- 

 land's Prospect, chap, v.) " the hornbound tree is a tough kind of wood, that 

 requires so much pains in riving as is almost incredible; being the best to make 

 bowls and dishes, not being subject to crack or leak. This tree growing with 

 broad-spread arms, the vines twist their curling branches about them ; which 

 vines afford great store of grapes," &c. This was our American hornbeam (Car- 

 pi/ius Americana, L.). And the same author again alludes to it, in verse, as — 



"The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns; 

 Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse, 

 Who twines embracing arms about his boughs." 



