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NEW AMERICAN REMEDIES. 
with the tube adnate to the ovary, hemispherical, 8--10-ribbed ; limb 4-5-toothed, 
persistent. Petals 4-5, ovate, sessile, regular. Stamens twice as many as the 
petals. Styles 2, distinct. Capsule crowned with the styles and the limb of the 
calyx, 2-ceiled below, 1-celled above, opening by a foramen between the styles. 
Seeds numerous, membranaceous, reticulated. Shrubs. Leaves opposite, ex- 
stipulate. Flowers in corymbose cymes, white or rose-coloured ; the marginal 
ones usually sterile and radiant, showy.* 
Specific Character.—Shrub from 4-8 feet high. Leaves ovate or cordate, 
generally acuminate, 3-6 inches long, serrately toothed, smooth or slightly pu¬ 
bescent, and green on both sides. Flowers in flat fastigiate cymes, all fertile, 
or rarely all radiant like the common Hydrangea of our gardens.f 
Habitat. —This species of Hydrangea is only found in a native state in North 
America, where it is more or less abundant throughout the Southern, Middle, 
and Western States. Torrey and Gray, in their Flora, say that it occurs on the 
shady banks of streams, from Pennsylvania to the mountains of Georgia, and 
west to Missouri. It is also found growing on the sides of hills and mountains, 
and is said to be abundant in the Susquehanna and Schuylkill valleys. In North 
America it flowers about the end of June and in July. The flowers are showy, 
and hence are frequently used in Philadelphia for bouquets, etc. The plant was 
introduced into this country in the early part of the eighteenth century ; but 
the commonly cultivated garden Hydrangea is not this species, but, as already 
noticed, Hydrangea hortensis , a plant originally introduced from China and 
Japan, -where it is supposed to have been originally a native, although it has as 
yet never been found growing wild. 
Collection , etc. —The most active portion of the plant is said to be the root; 
in fact, so far as I know, it is the only part that has been used as a remedial 
agent. This should be collected in the autumn months, or early in the spring 
before active vegetation has commenced. When fresh, the root is very fleshy 
and soft, and should be then, if of any thickness, cut into transverse slices of 
moderate length, and dried carefully by a moderate heat. • 
General Characteristics. —As imported, the root of Hydrangea arbo- 
rescens (which, as just noticed, is the only part used as a remedial agent) is 
found cut into slices of various sizes and lengths, and mixed in a greater or less 
proportion with the smaller branches or rootlets. These rootlets are either at¬ 
tached to the larger portions of the roots, or unconnected to them. 
The slices of the main root or larger branches vary in length from about a 
quarter of an inch to one inch and a half, averaging about three-quarters of an 
inch; but pieces of two, three, four, or even more inches in length are occa¬ 
sionally found mixed with them. In thickness they vary, generally from about 
an eighth to half an inch, averaging above a quarter of an inch. They are 
nearly cylindrical in shape ; and straight, or somewhat twisted, especially if of 
any great length. The colour varies according to their size, etc., from pale- 
yellow to yellowish-brown. Their external surface is more or less rough, from 
the presence of minute sharp protuberances, and the remains of the broken-off 
rootlets. Some of the pieces have attached to them branches and rootlets, which 
in certain cases are some inches in length. Other pieces are enlarged above 
into a tuberosity, which shows traces of the parts to which the aerial stems 
were originally attached. The moderate-sized pieces break with a close fracture; 
the larger ones are broken with difficulty ; all of them are very tough and diffi¬ 
cult to reduce to powder. They have a peculiar, somewhat aromatic odour ; 
* De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus,’ vol. iv. pp. 13 and 14; Torrey and Gray’s ‘Flora of North 
America,’ vol. i. p. 591; and Gray’s £ Manual of the Botany of "the Northern United States.’ 
t Torrey and Gray, as above; Amer. Journ. Pharm.,vol. xviii. 1852, p. 15; and Wood and 
Bache’s ‘United States Dispensatory,’ 11th edit, p, 1425. 
