262 CONIFERS. 



* 



Preparations. — Of juniper berries : Oleum juniperi — oil of juniper ; spir- 

 itus juniperi — spirit of juniper ; spiritus juniperi compositus — compound 

 spirit of juniper. — United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Eed cedar has been most commonly employed in infusion or decoc- 

 tion. The berries possess properties similar to those of common juniper, 

 and have been employed in the same manner. 



Medical Properties and Uses.— Juniper berries are stimulant, diuretic, 

 carminative and emmenagogue, imparting to the urine the odor of violets, 

 and sometimes producing irritation of the urinary passages. They are 

 chiefly employed as an adjuvant to other more active medicines. 



Eed cedar resembles savine in action, but is seldom used. 



TAXUS. 



Tax us baccata Linne var. Canadensis Gray. — American Yew, 

 Ground Hemlock. 



Description. — Flowers dioecious or monoecious ; the sterile in small 

 globular catkins formed of a few naked stamens ; fertile solitary, consisting 

 of an erect ovule with an annular disk, becoming in fruit pulpy and berry- 

 like, globular and red, enclosing a single nut-like seed. Leaves evergreen, 

 one-half to three-fourths inch long, flat, mucronate, rigid, 2-ranked, much 

 resembling those of the hemlock spruce, but larger. A low, diffusely- 

 spreading shrub. 



Habitat. — In dark shady places, often under other evergreens, flourish- 

 ing equally well in cedar swamps, uplands, and rocky gorges ; very com- 

 mon everywhere. In some sections wrongly called poison hemlock. 



This plant, a variety only of the European yew, cannot be said to have, 

 as yet, a place among medicines. It is believed, however, to possess poi- 

 sonous properties, and is perhaps worthy of investigation. Eegarding the 

 poisonous properties of the berries, the author can state that he has eaten 

 them without deleterious effect, but whether because the quantity was in- 

 sufficient or not, is an open question. Cases of fatal poisoning from eating 

 the berries of the European yew are on record, and therefore our variety 

 is certainly open to suspicion. 



CLASS II.— MONOCOTYLEDONOUS OE ENDOGENOUS PLANTS. 



Stems with no distinction of bark, wood, and pith, their fibrous and 

 cellular tissue being irregularly commingled. When perennial, such stems 

 do not increase by the deposition of annual layers outside the wood 

 already formed, but by new material deposited within, whence the term 

 endogenous, that is, growing within. Leaves commonly parallel- veined, 

 sheathing at the base, and not articulated with the stem. Parts of the 



