PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

UVA URSI

Bearberry, Uva ursi (Arctostaphylos uva ursi) (Linne), whichtakes its name from the fact that its berries are eaten by bears andother animals, is a low evergreen shrub common to the Northern coun-tries of Europe and America. The leaves, which are used in medicine,are an article of commerce in the northern sections of Europe, Amer-ica, and some parts of Asia. Being used in tanning, in Sweden andRussia, according to Rafinesque (535), they established the well-known Russia leather. The astringent leaves were once highly valuedin Europe, but have since fallen into disuse. The domestic employ-ment of the drug introduced it to American medicine, Drs. Wistar,Barton (43), and Bigelow (69) recommending a decoction of it asa wash for leucorrhea and as an injection in gonorrhea and catarrhof the bladder. For these purposes, as based on its domestic employ-ment, the plant has its professional record, but has never been veryimportant in any school of medicine.

VALERIANA

The herbaceous perennial Valeriana officinalis is found through-out Europe from Spain to Iceland, extending also from the Crimsea,over Northern Asia, into China. It not only grows wild, but in Eng-land especially is cultivated as a drug plant. It was known to theGreeks and Romans, and the wild nard described by Dioscorides (194)and Pliny (514) is supposed to be a species of valerian, of which, inaddition to the Valeriana officinalis, nine species are found in AsiaMinor. The name valerian, however, was not used by the classicalwriters, occurring first in the ninth and tenth centuries. It is foundin the Anglo-Saxon names of home remedies, and in domestic books asearly as the eleventh Century. Saladinus (570) of Ascoli, 1450, di-rected that the root be collected in the month of August. In medi-ffival days in England the flavor of valerian was considered by thecommon people a delightful addition to broths and pottages, Gerarde(262) in his Herball, 1567, remarking that the poorer classes of peoplein the north of England did not consider such forms of food worthanything without it. Strangely enough also the odor of valerian, nowconsidered exceedingly disagreeable, was in the sixteenth Century ac-cepted as a perfume, and as a perfume it is still used in the Orient.In this connection we will add that we have known valerian to be aconstituent of a perfume very populär with some ladies, but exceed-ingly unpleasant to some other people. In domestic medicine a teafrom the root of valerian has been employed as a stimulant andantispasmodic in nervous diseases peculiar to females.

VANILLA

The conquering Spaniards found vanilla in use as a flavor forcacao among the Aztecs of Mexico, and naturally made this plantknown to Europe. It was then described and illustrated by Hernandez(314), the "Pliny of the Spaniards," in his history of Mexico, who de-

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