PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

PRUNUS VIRGINIANA

The Prunus virginiana (wild black cherry), found throughoutthe eastern parts of the United States, has been widely used in do-mestic medicine since the days of the Indian, being perhaps morehighly valued in this direction than by members of the profession, al-though it has been recognized in the Pharmacopeia since the first edi-tion of this work, 1820. No more populär bark of a native tree, ex-cepting Sassafras, is known to home medication. It has a place in allworks on early American domestic medication.

PYRETHRUM

Pellitory, or Spanish chamomile (Anacyclus pyrethrum), is a

widely-distributed plant known in different countries under differentnames. According to Pliny (514) it was the herb used by the Magiansunder the name parthenium against intermittent fevers, and accordingto Dioscorides (194) it is the plant that, under the name anthemis,was used in the same manner. It is mentioned in the "Arabian Nights"(88) under the name ukhowan. It is found throughout EuropeanTurkey, and according to Forskai southward to the mountains ofYemen, where it is called mceniat. According to De Candolle (122)its introduction into Britain was perhaps before the Coming of the Ro-mans. The European colonists carried it, according to Josselyn (345)to Northeast America before 1669, where it is to be found both undercultivation and, having escaped therefrom, as a wild plant. Once apopulär remedy in agues, its use is now practically discontinued, evenin domestic medicine. Physicians as a rule neglect it, but it is em-ployed by them in a few exceptional instances.

QUASSIA

Quassia amara takes its name from a slave of Surinam, namedQuassi (see article Quassia Amara, J. U. Lloyd, Western Druggist,Chicago, Jan., 1897), who used the plant as a secret remedy, with greatsuccess, in the treatment of malignant fevers common to his localityand climate. Daniel Rolander, a Swede, became interested in the drug,and "in consequence of a valuable consideration" purchased from theslave Quassi a knowledge of the drug composing his remedy. Ro-lander returned to Stockholm in 1756, when he introduced the drug toEurope. In 1760 (or according to another reference, 1761) Carol.Gust. Dahlberg, an officer of the Dutch army and an eminent botanist,a pupil of Ljnnseus (385), returned to Sweden from Surinam, wherehe too had become acquainted with the slave Quassi, and through kind-ness to him had so gained his affection that he revealed not only thecomposition of his secret remedy, but even showed to him the treefrom which the drug was derived. Dahlberg procured specimens ofthe root, flowers, and leaves of the tree, preserving them in alcohol,and presented them to Linnasus, who named the wood Lignum quassia,in honor of the slave, and established a new genus for the plant, which

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