XANTHOXYLUM PRICKLY ASH. 115 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Oxalis is reputed to be useful in scurvy 

 and scorbutic affections generally. As, however, binoxalate of potash has 

 been shown to act more efficiently and more certainly than the plant, the 

 latter may be considered obsolete. An infusion is refrigerant, and may be 

 employed as a cooling drink in febrile affections. 



RUTACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate or op- 

 posite, exstipulate, simple or compound leaves, dotted with pellucid 

 glands, containing aromatic volatile oil. Flowers perfect or unisexual, 

 regular, hypogynous, 3- to 5-merous. Stamens as many or twice as many 

 as the sepals ; ovary of 2 to 5 cells, distinct or united, each cell 1- to 2- 

 ovuled ; styles usually coherent ; fruit a capsule or berry. 



A large and widely distributed order, represented in North America 

 by eight genera, two of which, namely, Xanthoxylum and Ptelea, comprise 

 species of medicinal value. 



XANTHOXYLUM.— Prickly Ash. 



Character of the Genus. — Mowers dioecious. Sepals 4 or 5, in one 

 species wanting. Petals 4 or 5, imbricate in the bud. Stamens 4 or 5, in 

 the sterile flowers alternate with the petals. Pistils 2 to 5, distinct, but 

 with styles conniving or more or less united. Carpels sessile or stipitate, 

 2-valved, 1- to 2-seeded. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate unequally pinnate leaves, the leaflets 

 punctate with pellucid dots ; stems and leaf-stalks commonly armed with 

 prickles. Flowers small, greenish. 



Xanthoxylum Americanum Miller (X. fraxineum Willdenow). — 

 Northern Prickly Ash, Toothache Tree. 



Description. — Calyx absent. Corolla : petals 5. Pistils 3 to 5, dis- 

 tinct ; styles slender. Capsules stipitate, dotted, varying from green to 

 red, 2-valvcd, 1-seeded. 



A shrub, 5 to 10 feet high. Leaflets in about 5 pairs, with an odd ter- 

 minal one, nearly sessile, ovate, acute, slightly serrate, somewhat downy 

 underneath. Both leaves and flowers in axillary clusters, the latter ap- 

 pearing in April or May, before the former are expanded. 



Habitat. — In rocky woods and on river banks from Virginia northward 

 and westward ; not common east of the Hudson River. 



Xanthoxylum clava Herculis Linne (X. Carolinianum Lam). — 

 Southern Prickly Ash, Toothache Tree. 



Description. — Calyx: sepals 5. Corolla: petals 5. Pistils 3; styles 

 short. Capsules 3, nearly sessile. 



A small tree, with branches armed with long sharp prickles. Leaflets 



