TREES AND SHRUBS FURNISHING MEDICINAL BARKS. 



47 



copoeia for 1S90. As found in commerce, they consist of cylindrical pieces of 

 varying length and of not more than about one-fifth of an inch in thickness, 

 with a greenish gray thin bark, marked with lengthwise lines. The woody 

 portion is light, and the center is sometimes hollow, and sometimes shows a 

 spongy pith. There is but a faint, somewhat narcotic odor, and the taste at 

 first is bitter, then sweet — " bittersweet." 



Collection, prices, and uses. — Bittersweet branches are collected when they 

 are only one or two years old and at a time when the leaves have fallen. The 

 price paid ranges from 3 to 5 cents a pound. 



Bittersweet is used for its diuretic and diaphoretic properties, and. accord- 

 ing to the dose employed, has a quieting, hypnotic influence. 



BUTTON BUSH. 



Cephalantltus occidental is L. 



Other common names. — Buttonwood. buttonwood-shrub. button-tree, swamp- 

 dogwood, pond-dogwood, swampwood, river-bush, honey-ball, pinball. Whitehall, 

 little snowball, globeflower, mountain- 

 globeflower, crane-willow, wild licorice, 

 crouper-bush. 



Habitat and range. — The buttonbush 

 is indigenous to this country, and 

 flourishes in swamps or damp places 

 from southern Canada to Florida and 

 California. 



Description of shrub. — This is usually 

 a widely spreading shrub from 3 to 

 12 feet in height or occasionally a 

 small tree, with large, shining, dark 

 green leaves, and producing from June 

 to September round heads of creamy 

 wbite flowers, the protruding, thread- 

 like styles with the small, knoblike 

 stigmas giving them the appearance of 

 inserted pins, whence the name " pin- 

 ball." The stems are covered with 

 a rough yellowish bark, while the 

 smaller branches are smooth and 

 tinged with red. Some of the leaves 

 are opposite, others ternate — that is, 

 arranged in threes — and are ovate or 



ovate lance shaped, pointed, smooth, and glossy, with unbroken margins, and 

 from 3 to 5 inches long. The flower heads, about 1 inch in diameter, consist of 

 numerous creamy white, stemless flowers, densely crowded together in globular 

 form, each flower having a funnel-shaped corolla with 4-toothed margin, from 

 which the slender style with its globular stigma protrudes. (Fig. 44.) The small 

 dry fruit is inversely pear shaped, splitting open into two to four cells, each con- 

 taining one seed. The buttonbush belongs to the madder family (Bubiacere). 



Description of bark. — The bark occurs commercially in small, curved pieces. 

 smooth and grayish brown and marked with tine lines if taken from young trees. 

 furrowed and scaly and of a dull gray color if collected from older trees. 

 The inner root bark, which is also used, occurs in shorter pieces, and is of a 

 reddish brown color. The inner surface of the bark is whitish and smooth, 

 139 



Fig. 44. 



-Buttonbush i Cephalanthus occiden- 

 talis), leaves and flowers. 



