TREES AND SHRUBS FURNISHING MEDICINAL BARKS. 



33 



Southern prickly ash. as found in the trade, is in large sheets or quilled 

 pieces, the outside a bluish gray or slate gray, with patches of silvery gray 

 and numerous large corky excrescences sometimes with the large spines still 



attached. In other particulars it resembles the northern prickly ash. 



Prices and uses. — The price paid to collectors ranges from about 4 to 9 cents 

 a pound for the northern prickly ash and from 3 to 8 cents for the southern 

 prickly ash. 



Prickly ash bark has alterative, stimulant, and sialagogue properties, and 

 is used in rheumatism and for increasing the secretions, for toothache, and 

 externally as a couuterirritant. 



WAFER- ASH. 



Ptelea trifoliata L. 



Other common names. — Ptelea. wingseed. hop-tree, shrubby trefoil, swamp- 

 dogwood, three-leaved hop-tree, ague-bark, prairie-grub, quinine-tree, stinking 



ash. stinking prairie-bush, sang-tree. pickaway-anise. 



Habitat and range. — This indigenous shrub is found in shady woods from 

 New York to Florida, west to Minnesota and Texas, occurring in greatest abun- 

 dance west of the Alleghanies. 



Description of shrub. — The wafer-ash. belonging to the rue family < Rutaceae), 

 is a shrub or small tree usually from 6 to 8 feet and not more than 20 feet 

 in height, with leaves consisting of three 

 oval leaflets 2 to 5 inches long, dark 

 green and shining above, paler beneath, 

 the margins slightly round toothed (fig. 

 28). The leaves are borne on long stems, 

 but the leaflets are stemless. The flowers, 

 which appear in June, are numerous in 

 terminal compound clusters, greenish 

 white, and have a disagreeable odor. The 

 foliage also has an unpleasant odor. The 

 flowers are followed by large clusters of 

 winged fruits, each one containing two 

 seeds. These fruits are flat, rounded in 

 outline, the seeds surrounded by a mem- 

 branous, veined wing (fig. 28). They 

 have a bitter taste and have been used in 

 place of hops. The wood of the wafer- 

 ash is light brown. 



Description of hark. — The dried bark of 

 the root is the part employed in medicine, 

 and as found in the stores it is in quilled 

 pieces varying in length from one to sev- 

 eral inches. The thin cuter layer is pale 



brown and irregularly ridged and wrinkled. The inner surface is yellowish 

 white, becoming darker with age. The bark, which is brittle, breaks with a 

 smooth fracture, has a peculiar odor, and a bitter, pungent, and somewhat acrid 

 taste. 



Collection, prices, and uses. — The bark is taken from the roots. At present 

 it brings collectors from about 4 to 8 cents a pound. 

 139 



Fig. 



. — Wafer-ash [Ptelea trifoliata 

 leaves and fruits. 



