AMERICAN MEDICINAL PLANTS 



57 



TANSY 



Tanacetum vulgare L. (Fig. 107.) 



Other common names. — Tanacetum, bitter buttons, ginger plant, parsley 

 fern, scented fern, English cost, hindheal. 



Habitat and range. — This is a garden plant introduced from Europe and now 

 escaped from cultivation, occurring as a weed along waysides and fences from 

 New England to Minnesota and southward to North Carolina and Missouri. 



Description. — Tansy is a strong-scented herb with finely divided, fernlike 

 leaves and yellow, buttonlike flowers. It has a stout, somewhat reddish, erect 

 stem, usually smooth, 1^ to 3 feet high, and branching near the top. The entire 

 leaf is about 6 inches long and is divided almost to the center into about seven 

 pairs of segments or lobes which are again divided into smaller lobes having saw- 

 toothed edges, thus giving the leaf a somewhat fernlike appearance. The round- 

 ish, flat-topped, buttonlike, yellow flower heads are produced in terminal clusters 

 from about July to September. The plant contains a volatile oil which is poi- 

 sonous. 



Part used. — The leaves and flowering tops, for which there is a reasonably 

 constant demand, collected at the time of flowering. The volatile oil is distilled 

 from the plant on a commercial scale in Michigan and Indiana. 12 



Figure 107.— Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) 



Figure 108.— Trailing-arbutus (Epigaea repens) 



TRAILING-ARBUTUS 



Epigaea repens L. (Fig. 108.) 



Other common names. — Gravel plant, Mayflower, shadflower, ground laurel, 

 mountain pink, winter pink. 



Habitat and range. — Trailing-arbutus spreads out on the ground in sandy 

 soil, being found from Newfoundland to Michigan and Saskatchewan and south 

 to Kentucky and Florida. 



Description. — This plant, generally referred to in the drug trade as gravel 

 plant but more popularly known as "trailing-arbutus," spreads on the ground 

 with stems 6 inches or more in length. It has rust-colored, hairy twigs bearing 

 leathery, evergreen leaves from 1 to 3 inches long and about half as wide. The 

 flower clusters, which appear from March to May, consist of fragrant, delicate, 

 shell-pink, waxy blossoms. 



Part used. — The leaves, gathered at flowering time. In limited demand only. 



i 2 Sievers, A. F. Op. cit. (See footnote 4.) 



