252 BETULACE.E. 



Parts used. — The leaves and tops — not official. 



Constituents. — The most important constituents are volatile oil and tan- 

 nin. 



Preparations. — Commonly used in decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Sweet-fern is stimulant and astringent. 

 It is occasionally employed as a domestic remedy in diarrhoea, colic, etc. 



BETULACE>E. 



Character of the Order. — Trees or shrubs with simple, alternate, stipu- 

 late leaves, often strongly feather-veined. Flowers monoecious, in scaly 

 catkins, 2 or 3 under each bract, and without a perianth. Ovary 2-celled ; 

 stigmas 2. Fruit a dry, 1-celled, 1-seeded, often winged nut. 



A small order inhabiting chiefly the northern temperate regions. 



BETULA.— Birch. 



Betula lenta Linne. — Sweet, Black, or Cherry Birch. 



Description. — Staminate flowers 3, under each scale of the catkin, each 

 with 4 short stamens. Pistillate flowers 2 or 3 under each scale of the 

 catkin, each consisting of a naked ovary which, in fruit, becomes a winged 

 nutlet or samara. 



A medium-sized tree with brownish-red, cherry-like bark. Leaves 

 ovate or oblong-ovate, cordate, acuminate, sharply serrate, smooth and 

 shining above, glabrous beneath. Sterile catkins long and drooping, ter- 

 minal and lateral, formed in summer, and expanding the following spring. 

 Fertile catkins oblong-cylindrical in fruit, usually terminal on short lateral 

 branches of the season. Bark, of the younger branches especially, aro- 

 matic, having the odor and taste of gaultheria. When wounded the stem 

 yields a saccharine juice. 



Habitat. — In moist woods from New England to Illinois northward, and 

 along the Alleghanies southward. 



Parts Used. — The bark, leaves, and saccharine juice — not official. 



Constituents. — The bark and leaves, by distillation, yield a volatile oil 

 identical in composition with that obtained from gaultheria, and, it is said, 

 frequently sold for the latter. 



Preparations. — Commonly used in decoction. The oil evidently pos- 

 sesses all the virtues of the drug, and is therefore the most efficient prepa- 

 ration. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The white birch of Europe (Betula alba 

 Linne) and the related American species, Betula alba, var. Populifolia Spaeh, 

 and Betula lenta L., have been considered purifiers of the blood, and have 

 been employed as domestic remedies in rheumatism, gout, cutaneous affec- 

 tions, etc. Whatever ^virtues they possess are probably due to their vola- 



