VEGETABLES. 



263 



Peruvian bark : our medical gentlemen in the coun- 

 try should try the bark of our native species, 



1. JJlmus Americana of Marshal, American 

 rough-leaved elm tree. Red elm. 



This tree rises to the height of about thirty feet, 

 with a pretty strong trunk; dividing into many 

 branches, covered with a lightish coloured rough 

 bark. The leaves are oblong, oval and sharp pointed, 

 somewhat unequally sawed on their edges, unequal at 

 the base, very rough on their upper surface, and 

 hairy underneath. The flowers are produced thick 

 upon the branches, upon short collected footstalks; 

 and are succeeded by oval, compressed, membrana- 

 ceous seed vessels, with entire margins, containing 

 each one oval compressed seed.* 



The virtues of this tree were first publicly noticed 

 by Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, in the year 1789. He 

 observes, that the inner bark, by infusion, or gentle 

 boiling in water, affords a great quantity of insipid 

 mucous substance, that may be employed with safety 

 as food ; I have eaten it repeatedly, and found it 

 to agree with me perfectly well, and when mixed 

 with sugar or lemon juice, it became very palatable. 

 The knowledge of this fact may be very serviceable 

 to such travellers, in the unsettled parts of our coun- 

 try, as lose their way, or fall short of provisions. It 

 has been beneficially administered in catarrhs, pleu- 

 risies, quinsies, and applied as a poultice to tumours, 

 and as a liniment to chaps and festers.f 



* Arbustrum Americanum> Philadelphia, 1785. Crukshank. 

 1* Carey's Amer. Mus. vol. vii, 1790. 



