On  Some  Substitutions. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t       Jan.,  1875. 
The  bark  is  without  odor  ;  the  bast  possesses  scarcely  an  acrid  taste  ; 
the  corky  layer  is  in  the  main  rather  feebly  astringent. 
Some  months  ago,  in  one  of  our  wholesale  stores,  I  met  with  a  so- 
called  cotton-root  bark,  which  had  been  obtained  from  the  State  of 
Georgia,  and  which  is  so  entirely  different  from  the  root  bark  of  our 
cultivated  gossypium^  as  to  leave  no  doubt  whatever  in  regard  to  its 
origin  from  a  different  plant.  The  bark  is  in  quills  or  curved  pieces, 
several  inches  to  a  foot  or  more  in  length,  and  one-eighth  to  one-fourtn 
inch  in  thickness,  inodorous,  of  a  slight  astringent,  afterwards  bitterish 
and  distinctly  acrid  taste ;  pale  brown  to  rust-brown  throughout  in  color, 
and  destitute  of  silky  lustre,  except  the  bast  fibres  upon  a  fresh  fracture. 
The  exterior  surface  is  deep  brown,  the  younger  bark  with  shallow, 
longitudinal  suberous  ridges,  the  older  bark  with  the  soft  cork  more  or 
less  fissured,  and  exfoliating  in  small  patches.  The  interior  surface  is 
of  a  dark  brown  or  blackish-brown  color,  and  striate  by  the  rather 
coarse  bast  fibres.  The  bark  breaks  transversely  with  little  difficulty, 
and  exhibits  a  coarse,  splintery  fracture  from  the  numerous  bast  fibres, 
which  are  disposed  in  tangential  rows ;  the  inner  bark  separates  in  the 
same  direction  in  rather  thick  layers.  Some  of  the  coarser  pieces  of 
bark  are  found  with  a  clayey  earth  adhering  in  the  grooves  and  bends. 
The  characters  described  are,  with  very  insignificant  variations,  ob- 
served in  the  bark  of  the  root  of  cotton  plants,  which  some  years  ago 
were  furnished  me  from  several  varieties  grown  in  four  or  five  of  our 
Southern  States,  and  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Dr. 
Robert  Battey,  of  Rome,  Ga.,  and  Mr.  Gallagher,  of  Washington, 
North  Carolina. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  description  agrees  in  several  important 
points  with  the  characteristics  of  mezereon  bark,  to  whicn  cotton-root 
bark  bears  a  close  resemblance,  if  color  and  taste  are  not  considered  ; 
the  thin,  ribbon-like  appearance,  the  silky  lustre  of  the  internal  surface, 
the  transverse  scars  of  suberous  warts  and  the  toughness  of  the  bast 
fibres  are  common  to  both."' 
"'■'After  the  above  was  in  type,  I  have  received,  through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  A. 
W.  Miller,  a  sample  of  cotton-root  bark  collected  by  Wallace  Bros.  &  Stephenson, 
of  Statesville,  North  Carolina.  This  agrees  in  every  respect  with  my  cotton-root 
bark,  except  that  it  is  more  or  less  quilled,  showing  that  it  has  been  taken  from 
the  recently  collected  root,  and  dried  without  endeavoring  to  prevent  its  quilling  j 
my  bark  was  stripped  from  nearly  dry  roots  and  purposely  kept  in  bands.  I  have 
not  noticed  any  striking  difference  in  the  root-bark  of  the  long  and  short  staple 
cotton. 
