AMERICAN MEDICINAL PLANTS 



55 



SWEET CUDWEED 



Gnaphalhim obtusifolium L. (Fig. 103.) 



Synonym. — Gnaphalium polycephalum Michx. 



Other common names. — Fragrant life everlasting, sweet balsam, white balsam, 

 featherrweed, rabbit-tobacco. 



Habitat and range. — This plant grows in dry, mostly open places from Nova 

 Scotia to Manitoba and south to Florida, Kansas, and Texas. 



Description. — Sweet cudweed, which is better known in the drug market as life 

 everlasting, is a fragrant herb 1 to 3 feet high, white-woolly nearly throughout, 

 with an erect stem, simple or branched above. The leaves are narrow, one-sixth 

 to one-third of an inch wide, and 1 to 3 inches long, dark green above and densely 

 white- woolly underneath. The flowers, produced about August to September, 

 are borne in numerous barely crowded heads consisting of one to five individual 

 flowers. 



Part used. — The herb. In limited demand onlv. 



Figure 103.— Sweet cudweed (Gnaphalium 

 obtusifolium) 



Figure 104.— Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) 



SWEETFERN 



Comptonia peregrina (L.) Coulter. (Fig. 104.) 



Synonyms. — Comptonia as plenifolia Gaertn.; Myrica asplenifolia L. 



Other common names. — Ferngale, fern bush, meadow fern, shrubby fern, Can- 

 ada sweetgale, spleenwort bush, sweet bush, sweet ferry. 



Habitat and range. — Sweetfern is usually found on hillsides, in dry soil, from 

 Canada to North Carolina and west to Indiana and Saskatchewan. 



Description. — Sweetfern is a shrub from 1 to 3 feet high with slender, erect, or 

 spreading branches and reddish-brown bark. The thin, narrow leaves are from 

 3 to 6 inches long, from one-fourth to one-half an inch wide, deeply divided into 

 many lobes and in general resembling the leaves of a fern. Both male and female 

 flowers are produced. The former are borne in cylindrical catkins in clusters at 

 the ends of the branches and the latter in egg-shaped catkins. The whole plant 

 has a spicy, aromatic odor, which is more pronounced when the leaves are bruised. 



Part used. — The entire plant, especially the leaves and tops. In limited de- 

 mand only, 



