THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JULY,  i89o. 
THE  BOTANICAL  ORIGIN  OF  SOME  PHARMACOPCEIAL 
DRUGS. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
Read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  York,  June  M. 
The  recent  publication  of  the  sixth  edition  of  Gray's  Manual  of 
the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United  States,  and  the  fact  that  this 
standard  work  has  been  thoroughly  revised  and  extended  by  Pro- 
fessors Sereno  Watson  and  John  M.  Coulter,  naturally  lead  to  a 
comparison  of  its  authoritative  statements  with  those  of  the  present 
Pharmacopoeia,  and  invite  further  inquiries  concerning  drugs  derived 
from  either  indigenous  or  naturalized  plants.  The  following  frag- 
mentary notes  have  thus  originated ;  they  cannot  lay  claim  to  com- 
pleteness, but  are  reported  now  with  the  view  of  inducing  others  to 
similar  investigations. 
Prickly  ash  bark  is  obtained  from  two  species  of  Xanthoxylum, 
which  are  usually  distinguished  as  the  Northern  and  Southern 
prickly  ash.  The  botanical  nomenclature  of  both  species  has  been 
rather  confused  in  the  past,  and  it  may  therefore  not  be  considered 
out  of  place  to  briefly  mention  the  various  synonyms  which  are 
quoted  in  full  in  the  excellent  "  Report  on  the  Forests  of  North 
America,"  by  Prof.  C.  S.  Sargent,  issued  in  1884  as  one  of  the 
supplemental  reports  of  the  tenth  census. 
X.  americanum,  Miller,  is  the  Northern  prickly  ash,  and  the 
following  are  synonyms  for  the  same  plant :  X.  Clava-Herculis, 
Lamarck  (not  Linne) ;  X.  fraxinifolium,  Marshall;  X.  fraxineum, 
Willdenow ;  X.  mite,  Willdenoiv ;  X.  ramiflorum,  Michaux ;  X. 
tricarpum,  Hooker,  and  Thylax  fraxineum,  Rafinesque.    It  is  shrubby, 
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