DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
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Leaves ovate, in the var. coi'data Torr. & Gray, heart-shaped. 
The marginal flowers are usually sterile and radiant, consist- 
ing merely of a showy membranaceous and colored flat and 
dilated calyx. Calyx-tube hemispherical, 8-10-ribbed, co- 
herent with the ovary ; the limb 4-5-toothed. Petals ovate, 
stamens 8-10. Capsule 15-ribbed, crowned with 2 diverg- 
ing styles. Over the State in rocky lands and in ravines. 
The variety is very abundant in the mountain gorges of East 
Tennessee. The root, collected in summer. 
CRASSULACEiE. (Stone-crop Family.) 
Penthorum sedoides, L. Virginia Stone- crop. A weed- like 
perennial, upright, with scattered leaves and yellowish-green 
flowers loosely spiked along the upper side of the naked 
branches of the cyme. Sepals 5. Petals rare, if any. Stamens 
10. Pistils 5, united below, forming a 5-angled, 5-horned 
5-celled capsule, which opens by the falling off of the beaks. 
In muddy, wet places, very common. FI. May, herb col- 
lected in summer. 
HAMAMELIDEAE. (Witch-Hazel Family.) 
Hamamelis Virginica, L. Witch-Hazel. Tall shrubs or some- 
times trees, with straight- veined leaves and yellow, perfect 
or polygamous flowers, blooming in November or December, 
maturing seeds next summer. Calyx 4-parted with 2 or 3 
bractlets at the base; petals 4, strap shaped, long and nar- 
row, stamens 8, styles 2. Capsule opening loculicidally 
from the top, enclosing a single, large and bony seed. Along 
water courses and in wet lands. Collect the bark and leaves 
- in early summer. 
Liquidambar styraciflua, L. Sweetgum. A stately tree of very 
symmetric growth, loving damp, inundated lands or creek 
and river banks. Under such conditions it grows well in the 
poorest soils. It attains a height of 80-100°. Leaves rounded, 
deeply 5-7-lobed, smooth and shining, glandular serrate, 
the lobes pointed. The flowers are monoecious, surrounded 
by a four-leaved deciduous involucre ; the male catkins 
