196 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Some thought the fruit of the tulip tree and the bark of its roots 

 a cure for fever and ague. Many considered the flowering dogwood 

 equal to Peruvian bark. Some made a medicinal draught from wild 

 laurel wood. Sassafras was in high esteem, both bark and roots 

 being used. " The flowers serve for tea, and the Indians also use 

 the berries as a medicine." A decoction of the wood or buds of 

 the common elder was also " an excellent remedy in agues, and the 

 Indians use it likewise for inflammations." 



The root of the sassafras has been largely used for its aromatic 

 oil. The leaves are variable, " oval and entire, or mitten-shaped, 

 or 3-lobed to about the middle and often as wide as long." It was 

 thus described by the French at Onondaga in 1657: 



The most common plant and the most marvellous of these coun- 

 tries, is that which we call the universal plant, because its leaves 

 bruised close up in a short time all kinds of wounds; these leaves 

 of the size of the hand have the figure of the lily painted on armor, 

 and its roots have the odor of the laurel tree. Relation, 1657 



Conclusion 



It is every way probable that the aborigines had many useful or 

 ornamental articles of wood or of vegetable materials of which we 

 have little idea. Some were laid aside when the more attractive 

 ornaments of the white man met the eye. Nearly all have perished, 

 and many were never mentioned by early observers. A knowledge 

 that some existed has been preserved by mere words in early vocabu- 

 laries, but there is little reason to doubt that some things known to 

 us in stone and bone had their counterparts in wood. Who has 

 seen in New York a wooden bead, or hoe, or shield ? Yet all were 

 in use 300 years ago. That many other common things perished 

 with them, there is no reason to doubt. No trace remains of the 

 grotesque house carvings of the Iroquois, and few of their ingenious 

 appliances in everyday life. The skill shown in some gives us a 

 hint of how skillfully every forest need was met in the abundant 

 supplies of a broad forest land. 



