THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
DECEMBER,  1888. 
SOME  INDIAN  FOOD  PLANTS. 
A  contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy. 
1.     SHEPHERDIA  ARGENTEA,  NUTTALL. 
By  Henry  Trimble. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  November  20th. 
In  September  of  this  year  I  was  furnished  with  some  fruit 
of  the  above  plant  by  Dr.  V.  Havard,  United  States  Army  Sur- 
geon at  Fort  Abraham  Lincoln,  Dakota,  who  also  forwarded  the 
following  description :  Shepherdia  argentea,  Nattall,  (Buffalo  berry, 
Bullberry,  the  grains  de  boeuf  of  the  Canadians)  of  the  order 
Eleagnacece.  Branching,  spiny  shrub  generally  5  to  8  feet  high  but 
in  favorable  localities,  along  streams,  becoming  arborescent  with  a 
stem  six  inches  in  diameter  and  reaching  an  altitude  of  16  or 
more  feet.  Rare  east  of  the  Missouri  River,  abundant  on  this  river 
and  thence  extending  westward  to  the  Sierra  Nevada,  being  common  in 
Oregon,  Nevada  and  Utah.  From  the  Saskatchewan  in  the  British 
Possessions,  it  extends  southward  through  Montana,  Wyoming  and 
Colorada  to  New  Mexico.  Its  most  congenial  habitat  is  probably  the 
upper  Missouri  and  tributaries  through  Nebraska,  Dakota  and  Mon- 
tana. Sometimes  it  lines  the  banks  of  this  river  for  miles  together, 
forming  impassable  hedges.  The  leaves  are  opposite,  entire,  mostly 
oblong,  1  to  2  inches  long,  silvery  on  both  sides  and  slightly  dotted 
with  ferruginous  scales;  the  bluish  white  foliage  contrasting  singularly 
with  that  of  other  shrubs.  The  flowers  are  dioecious ;  the  male  bushes 
becoming  covered  with  a  profusion  of  small  yellow  blossoms  in  April; 
these  have  a  four-parted  perianth  and  eight  stamens  alternating  with 
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