2 AMERICAN MEDICINAL LEAVES AND HERBS, 
SKULLCAP. 
Scutellaria lateriflora L. 
Pharmacopeial name.—Scutellaria. ‘ 
Other common names.—American skullcap, blue skullcap, mad-dog skullcap, side- | 
flowering skullcap, madweed, hoodwort, blue pimpernel, hooded willow-herb. 
Habitat and range.—This species is native in damp places along banks of streams 
from Canada southward to 
Fiorida, New Mexico, and 
Washington. 
Description.—The lip- 
shaped flowers and squar- 
ish stems of the skullcap 
indicate that it isa member 
of the mint family (Men- 
thacez). It isa perennial 
of slender, erect habit, its 
square, leafy, branching 
stem ranging from 8 inches 
to 2 feet in height, smooth, 
or sometimes hairy at the 
top. Theleavesare placed 
opposite to each other on 
the stem on slender stalks 
and are about | to 3 inches 
in length and about one- 
third as wide, thin in tex- 
ture, oblong or lance shaped, 
with margins coarsely 
toothed. They gradually 
become smaller toward the 
top, and sometimes those 
at the very top have the 
margins unbroken. The 
flowers are borne 1n narrow, 
spikelike, one-sided clus- 
ters, generally in the axils 
Fig. 14.—Skulleap (Scutellaria laterifiora), flowering branch, showing of the leaves, but frequent- 
also seed capsules. 
ly also at the top, and are 
interspersed with leafy bracts. They appear from about July to September and are 
blue, shading off to whitish. The tubular, 2-lipped flowers are about a quarter of an 
inch in length, and the calyx, or outer green covering of the flower, is also two lipped, 
the upper lip shaped like a helmet and closing in fruit. (Fig. 14.) 
Collection, prices, and uses.—The dried plant is at present official in the United 
States Pharmacopeia. The entire plant is collected when in flower and should be 
carefully dried in the shade. The price ranges from about 3 to 4 cents a pound. 
Very frequently collectors will gather some other species in place of the official plant, 
most of those thus wrongly finding their way into the market being generally of stouter 
erowth, with broader leaves and much larger flowers. 
This plant was once considered valuable for the prevention of hydrophobia, whence 
the names ‘‘mad-dog skullcap” and ‘‘madweed,”’ but it is now known to be useless for 
that purpose. It is used principally as a tonic and to a limited extent for allaying 
nervous irritation of various kinds. 
29 
fe Ore 
