XXIX.-List of Coleopterous Insects collected in the County of Lincoln, C. W; by D. W. Beadle..... XXX.-On the recent discoveries of Gold in Nova Scotia; by J. W. Dawson, L.L.D., G.G.S., &c.... XXXI.-On the origin of the name 'Canada;' by Rev. B. Davies, LL.D., Member of the Council of the Philological XXXII.-An account of the Animals useful in an economic point of view to the various Chippewyan Tribes; by B. R. XXXIII.-On the unity of Geological Phenomena in the Solar XXXIV.-On the Land and Fresh Water Mollusca of Lower Canada, with thoughts on the general geographical The limits of exact science; by Rev. C. Kingsley.. The Romance of Natural History; by P. H. Gosse,.. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. Notes on Chemical Analysis by the aid of the Spectrum,. Note on Indian Beads presented to the Nat. Hist. Society.. Prof. Lawson on Botany, and on the Chemistry of Plants,... Steeps for Seeds... The Ancient Vegetation of North America,. ARTICLE I.-On the Cornus florida of the United States. By George S. Blackie, A. M., M. D., and Professor of Botany and Natural History, University of Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., Honorary Member of the Botanical Society of Canada. [Read before the Botanical Society by Professor Williamson, LL.D., Kingston, 11th January, 1861.] Common throughout all our forests, conspicuous in spring time by its festoons of large white blossoms, and equally so during the fall months from its clusters of scarlet berries, a handsome little tree usually about 15 to 30 feet high, is the Cornus florida L. of the United States. I have brought this plant to your notice for no particular reason, but that it this morning attracted my attention, as I walked in the neighbourhood of my home, and I conceive that much service may be done to the existing state of the botanical knowledge of our country, should each member of the society take up, meeting after meeting, some individual plant, no matter how common, and state all that he knows of that plant, whether such information be gleaned from his own studies or from those of others. On my first visit to the United States, one of the first objects which attracted my attention on travelling down the Mississippi, from the snows of Canada to the balmy spring of Louisiana, was this plant, and its extreme beauty, conCAN. NAT. VOL. VI. 1 trasted with the gloominess of the scenery from which I had just emerged, made so strong an impression on me, that I have ever since regarded the plant with a peculiar interest. Cornus florida is probably the most generally distributed species of its genus in our country. In this genus, which is one of the family of Cornacea, there are about twenty species, of which America has, north of Mexico, eleven; two are peculiar to Mexico; three are found in Nepaul; two in Japan; two are found in both Europe and Asia, and one is found in the north of both hemispheres. They are all shrubs, with entire, deciduous leaves, covered with adpressed hairs, the calyx four toothed, minute, adhering to the ovary; the petals four, distinct, oblong, inserted with the calyx into an epigynous disk, drupes baccate, flowers in cymes. In this State (Tennessee) we have at least five species; C. paniculata, C. stricta, C. asperifolia, C. sericea, and the subject of my present paper. In addition to these, in the north there are the species C. Canadensis, C. circinnata, C. alba, C. alternifolia, and C. sanguinea. The property of the bark of all these is very bitter and tonic. Some of them have underground stems, which send up branches dying annually down, others again have true permanent stems, the wood of which is excessively hard, a fact which has given rise to the name, from the Latin Cornu, a horn, the wood being believed to be as hard and as durable as horn. Hence the ancient Romans constructed spear-shafts and other warlike instruments from it, and Virgil alluded to it as bona belli cornus. The wood of C. florida is not only remarkable for its hardness, but for its extremely fine texture. Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, is the most beautiful and showy plant of its genus. It is a round-headed small tree, usually fifteen or twenty feet high, but often reaching a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and its stem a diameter of eight or nine inches. The new shoots are of grayish green, covered with down, those of the previous year are purple with slight rings, afterwards changing to gray and streaked with brown. The stem is rough, with short broken ridges, between which the bark is often divided into regular plates. The branches are numerous, spreading, and disposed with regularity, sometimes opposite, sometimes arising by fours. The leaves are three inches long, opposite, oval, entire, acuminated, and, at the base, abruptly tapering to a short channelled footstalk. Smooth on their upper surface, their low er is whitish, with hairs along the mid-ribs and veins, and a few scattered ones between, the upper surfaces having also numerous conspicuous ridges. The flowers are placed on the ends of the branches, supported by a club-shaped footstalk. They are ex tremely small, and aggregated together in numbers of twelve or more in a head, surrounded by a showy involucre, three or four inches in length, and which is supposed by the non-scientific to be the flower. The flowers themselves are of a greenish yellow colour, but the four large obcordate leaves of the involucre are white, and sometimes tinged with violet. The outer extremity of each is notched as if from injury and this notch is purple or rose coloured. The calyx is extremely small. The petals and stamens are each four in number. There is one pistil with a filiform style nearly as long as the corolla. The fruit is a group of oblong, oval, shining, bright scarlet berries, crowned with the remnant of the calyx. They appear placed in the fork of two brauches, which arises from the fact that while the flowers are terminal, yet ere the fruit is perfected, the two branchlets for the flowers of the succeeding year are developed and grow up on each side. These berries ripen here about July or August, and are eagerly devoured, despite their bitterness, by birds in the winter season. In Louisiana, the C. florida flowers in February, in our vicinity in April and May, and farther north in June and July. It is in bloom for a fortnight, during which time the Indian farmers say, Indian corn should be planted. The plant is of slow growth, and has a hard, heavy, solid wood, of a close texture, and susceptible of a high polish. It is often called Boxwood, and used as a substi tute for it in the manufacture of handles of chisels, hammers, and such tools, for the cogs of wheels, teeth of harrows, spoons, &c. Soon after the fruit commences to ripen the leaves begin to change their colour, turning to a purple and then to a rich crimson or purple colour, and a bright russet beneath, forming one of the most beautiful objects of our forests during the fall months. It is fig ured in Botanical Magazine, t. 526. Chemical analysis shows that the bark of the root, stem, and branches, which are bitter, astringent, and aromatic, contain in different proportions, the same substances as are found in Cinchona, except that there is more gum, mucilage, gallic acid, and extractive matter, and less resin, quinine and tannin. The principle obtained from it is called Cornine, and its salts have all the properties of these of quinine, though not so strongly marked. The principle is also difficult to obtain in any quantity. The extract of Dog wood, while inferior and less stringent than the best cinchona, is yet superior to the inferior kinds. This extract contains all the tonic properties, while the simple resin is merely a stimulant. Professor Barton says "that it may be asserted with entire safety that as yet there has not been discovered within the limits of the United States any vegetable so effectually to answer the purpose of Peruvian bark, in the management of intermittent fevers as the Cornus florida." It may be looked upon as our best native tonic. In some respects, however, it differs from quinine, as the powdered bark quickens the pulse, and sometimes produces violent pain in the bowels. On this account the preparations employed are the sulphate of cornine and the extract. Dr. O'Keefe of Augusta, Georgia, has prepared a valuable alcoholic and watery extract of the bark, which seems to possess all its medicinal properties. (See Trans. of Amer. Med. Association, vol. II., p. 671.) This may be used in intermittent and remittent fevers, also in typhus and all febrile disorders. In cases of debility, Dogwood is a valuable corroborant, for which purpose it may be combined with Colombo, Gentian, Chamomile, or Seneca root. Country people often use it as a decoction, or chew the twigs as a prophylactic against fevers. Drunkards sometimes employ a tincture of the berries to restore the tone of the stomach, and combat the pains of dyspepsia. Many have recommended a decoction of equal parts of Dogwood and Wild Cherry barks, as a remedy in dyspepsia, and the debility in convalescence from fever. The flowers have similar properties, and a warm infusion of them was often employed by the Indians in cases of chills and indigestion. They named the plant Mon-ha-can-ni-min-schi. The powdered. bark of the plant makes one of the best tooth powders with which I am acquainted, as it preserves the gums hard and sound, and at the same time, renders the teeth extremely white. Rubbing the fresh twigs on the teeth has this effect, and the Creoles of the West Indies, the pearly whiteness of whose teeth is universally acknowledged, use another species in this way. There are yet other uses to which Dogwood has been put. A sort of inferior ink may be made with the bark, using it instead of galls. A warm decoction of the bark with sassafras is a valuable wash for foul ulcers, and in veterinary medicine a decoction of the bark has been used with very good effect in a malignant disease called yellow water, Canada distemper, &c., very fatal among horses. |