TREES AXD SHRUBS FURNISHING MEDICINAL BARKS. 



15 



BUTTERNUT. 



Juglans cinerea L. 



Other common names. — Juglans, white walnut, lemon-walnut, oilnut. 



Habitat and range. — The butternut tree, which is indigenous to this country, 

 is of common occurrence in rich woods from New Brunswick to North Dakota 

 and south to Georgia. Mississippi, and Arkansas. 



Description of tree. — This much-branched tree, belonging to the walnut 

 family (Juglandacese), is generally from :'»'» to 50 feet in height, rarely exceed- 

 ing 100 feet, and when old has a thick, rough, brownish gray, furrowed bark 

 (fig. G), and the twigs, leaf stems, and leaflets, especially in the early stages 

 of growth, are furnished with sticky 

 hairs. 



The yellowish green leaves are com- 

 posed of from 11 to 19 leaflets, all 

 stemless except the terminal one: the 

 leaflets are 2 to 3 inches long, oblong 

 lance shaped and long pointed at the 

 apex, rounded or blunt at the base. 

 and toothed. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in May, or about the same time 

 as the leaves, the yellowish green male 

 catkins 3 to 5 inches in length, and 

 the female flowers in clusters of G to 8 

 flowers each. In October the sweet 

 and oily oblong nut matures, enveloped 

 in a strong-smelling, sticky husk. The 

 edible nut itself has a thick, hard 

 shell, which is marked with deep fur- 

 rows or lines. 



Description of bark. — Butternut bark, 

 from the root collected in autumn, was 

 official in the United States Pharma- 

 copoeia for 1890. It occurs in quilled 

 pieces varying in length, aial about an 

 eighth of an inch or a trifle more in 

 thickness, deep brown and smoothish 



or somewhat scaly on the outside, the inner surface likewise brown and with 

 parts of the thin, stringy inner layer of the bark attached. It breaks with a 

 short, fibrous fracture, finely checkered with white and brown. The odor is 

 faint, and the taste bitter and acrid. 



Collection, prices, and uses. — Butternut bark, which will bring the collector 

 from 1 to 4 cents a pound, is taken from the root collected in autumn. Its use 

 in medicine is that of a mild cathartic and tonic. 



Fig. G. — Butternut {Juglans cinerea) , trunk. 



IRON WOOD. 



Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch. 



Synonym. — Carpinus virginiana Mill. 



Other common names. — I lop-hornbeam, deerwood, leverwood, black hazel, 

 Indian cedar. 



70075— Bui. 139—09 3 



