88 THE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY HERB DOCTOR, 
The aned root, powdered and mixed with sugar, serves the 
same purpose. The root is esteemed a good pectoral, and like 
angelica root, is candied and sold as sweetmeat. Dr. Hill 
says he has found an infusion of the fresh root sweetened with 
honey to be very successful for the ‘whooping-cough. It 
operates by urine powerfully, and by sweat. The juice will 
cure the itch, applied externally. The decoction of the root 
in wine, or the juice taken therein, expels urine; and gargled 
in the mouth, or the root chewed, fastens loose teeth and keeps 
them from putrefaction. ‘The decoction or juice in honey is 
good for those who spit blood. The root boiled well in 
vinegar, beaten and made into an ointment with hog’s lard is 
an excellent remedy for scabs. In the root of this herb lies 
the chief effect. 
WILD CHERRY BARK (Prounvs Virerintana). 
Old botanical books recommend the gum asa good remedy 
in coughs and chest disorders, but recently the bark only is 
used. The tree grows throughout the United States, flourishing 
in those parts where the soil is fertile and the climate 
temperate. The leaves have been found by Prof. Proctor 
to yield volatile oil and hydrocyanic acid on distillation, and 
in such proportion that a water distilled from them might with 
propriety be substituted for the cherry-laurel water. The 
fruit has a sweetish, astringent, bitter taste, and is used to 
impart flavour to spirituous liquors. The bark is obtained 
indiscriminately from all parts of the tree, but that off the roots 
is thought to be the most active; uniting with a tonic power 
the property of calming irritation and diminishing nervous 
excitability. This bark is adapted to the treatment of diseases 
in which debility of the stomach or of the system is united 
with general or local irritation; and when largely taken it 
diminishes the action of the heart. It has been employed in 
the hectic fever of scrofula and consumption. It may be used 
in the form of powder, infusion, fluid extract, or syrup. The 
dose of powder is from thirty grains to a drachm; of the 
infusion, which is properly directed in the pharmacopceia to 
