312        ON  THE  BERRIES  AND  LEAVES  OP  ILEX  OPACA. 
ON  THE  BERRIES  AND  LEAVES  OF  ILEX  OPACA. 
By  Dillwyn  P.  Pancoast. 
(Extracted  from  an  Inaugural  Essay.) 
The  Ilex  Opaca  (the  American  Holly)  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  our  native  evergreen  trees ;  it  is  much  used  for  or- 
nament during  the  "winter  holiday  season,  the  bright  scarlet  of 
the  berries  forming  a  beautiful  contrast  with  the  dark  luxurious 
green  of  its  foliage.  This  variety  appears  to  be  entirely  indi- 
genous to  the  Western  Continent,  being  found  throughout  its 
Atlantic  section  from  Maine  to  Louisiana,  and  is  particularly 
abundant  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  It  is  usually  a  small  or 
middling  sized  tree,  seldom  attaining,  even  in  the  most  favorable 
situations,  an  altitude  of  more  than  thirty  feet,  and  in  our  lati- 
tude, rarely  one  so  great.  The  leaves  and  fruit  are  the  parts 
used  in  medicine  ;  the  former  by  their  peculiar  appearance 
render  the  tree  quite  distinguishable  when  associated  with  others 
of  the  forest  class  ;  they  have  a  bitter  somewhat  austere  taste. 
The  latter  are  about  the  size  of  a  pea,  possessing  a  taste  at  first 
sweetish,  afterwards  very  bitter,  and  extremely  nauseous.  They 
are  principally  used  in  domestic  practice,  as  an  alterative,  and 
by  practitioners  of  the  "  Eclectic  School,"  by  whom  they  are 
highly  esteemed  as  anti-intermittent,  febrifuge,  tonic  and  dia- 
phoretic. 
The  berries  are  said  also  to  possess  emeto-cathartic  properties  ; 
we  have  known  six  of  them  to  produce  brisk  catharsis,  attended 
by  considerable  nausea  and  headache.  From  the  leaves  of  the 
Ilex  aquifolium,  a  closely  allied  European  variety,  Labourdais 
obtained  an  amorphous  extractive  principle,  for  which  he  pro- 
posed the  name  of  "Ilicin."  As  far  as  I  am  aware,  however, 
no  analysis  of  the  variety  under  consideration  has  ever  been 
made. 
With  a  view  therefore  of  ascertaining  something  with  regard 
to  its  properties,  the  following  experiments  were  instituted. 
Chemical  Investigation  of  the  Fruit. 
Solution  of  gelatin  and  tartar  emetic  produced  no  change  in 
an  infusion  made  from  the  bruised  berries.  Tincture  of  the  sesqui- 
chloride  of  iron  gave  a  dark,  olive-green  precipitate,  indicating 
