468 
Pink-Root. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
October,  1910. 
is  used  and  is  said  to  have  been  found  a  very  efficacious  remedy." 
In  a  footnote  Barton  says :  "  From  the  information  of  my  friend, 
the  late  Dr.  James  Greenway,  of  Virginia." 
Dr.  John  Redman  Coxe  in  the  early  editions  of  the  American 
Dispensatory  says :  "  Silene  virginica,  ground  pink.  This  species 
of  silene  or  catchfly  is  abundant  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Some  of  the  Indians  say  it  is  a  poisonous  plant.  In  decoction  the 
root  has  been  found  to  be  an  efficacious  anthelmintic." 
Many  other  early  writers  on  American  materia  medica  mention 
this  particular  member  of  the  pink  family  which  appears  to  have  met 
with  some  use  both  at  home  and  abroad  and  may,  in  part  at  least, 
account  for  the  practice  observed  by  Fluckiger  and  Hanbury  who 
note  that  spigelia  or  pink-root  is  sometimes  erroneously  latinized 
in  price  lists  as  "Radix  Caryophylli" 
In  some  of  the  early  Eclectic  works  on  materia  medica,  Silene 
virginica  was  recommended  as  a  vermifuge  and  a  nervine.  It  was 
popularly  known  as  "  wild  pink,  pink  catchfly,  fire  pink,  ground  pink, 
and  Virginia  pink."  No  reference  to  the  use  of  this  root  could  be 
found  in  recent  literature  and  an  inquiry  addressed  to  some  of 
the  larger  herb  dealers  in  the  country  failed  to  find  a  single  one 
who  had  any  knowledge  of  the  drug  or  its  uses,  and  practically  the 
only  available  reference  to  it,  of  recent  date,  is  the  continuation 
of  a  rather  misleading  notice  in  the  United  States  Dispensatory. 
The  earlier  editions  of  the  United  States  Dispensatory  say: 
Silene  virginica,  catchfly,  wild  pink,  an  indigenous  perennial  plant 
growing  in  Western  Virginia  and  Carolina,  and  in  the  States 
beyond  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Dr.  Barton  in  his  "  Collections  " 
states  that  a  decoction  of  the  roots  is  said  to  be  efficacious  as  an 
anthelmintic.  We  are  told  that  it  is  considered  poisonous  by  some 
of  the  Indians.  The  5\  pennsylvanica  which  grows  in  the  eastern 
section  of  the  Union  from  New  York  to  Virginia  probably  pos- 
sesses similar  properties. 
The  19th  edition  of  the  United  States  Dispensatory  (1907) 
says:  Silene — Silene  virginica  L.  (Fam.  Caryophyllaceae),  catchfly, 
wild  pink.  The  wild  pink  of  West  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  was 
considered  by  the  Indians  poisonous  and  by  Barton  an  anthelmintic. 
The  latter  description  is  short,  positive,  and  pithy,  and  is  evi- 
dently the  product  of  shears  and  blue  pencil,  but  would  it  not  be 
more  in  keeping  with  a  book  of  reference  to  delete  it  entirely  or 
to  reconstruct  it  and  allow  it  to  appear  as  a  memorial  of  a  one 
