File:American medical botany, being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and (14764631135).jpg

Identifier: americanmedicalb02bige (find matches)
Title: American medical botany, being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts, with coloured engravings
Year: 1817 (1810s)
Authors: Bigelow, Jacob, 1786-1879
Subjects: Botany, Medical Botany
Publisher: Boston, Cummings and Hilliard
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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g. 1. Branch of Spocijmim androsainiifolium. Fig. 2. Fair of follicles. Fig. 3. Cone formed of the united stamens. Fig. 4. Stamen detached. Fig. 5. Side view of the calyx, nectaries and germs^t Fig. 6. Front view of the same. Fig. 7. <M seed. 20 DIRCA PALUSTRIS. Leather Wood, FLdTE XXXVn. A HE diversity of climate in different latitudesof the United States does not prevent this shrubfrom appearing in the most rigorously cold aswell as in the warmest sections of the country.I have seen it grooving plentifully on the hanksof the Kennehec, in Maine, and Mr. Bartramfound it in great vigour on the Savannah river inGeorgia. It is a marshy shrub frequenting loww oods and the vicinity of water, flowering in Apriland May. It is commonly of humble growth,though Mr. Bartram found specimens six orseven feet in height. It is remarkable for theflexibility of its wood and toughness of its bark,which are so great that it cannot be broken with-out great difliculty. The Aborigines employed //../■-
Text Appearing After Image:
_::_/vvr/7 //a///.^/^^^ Auim.k Smuk Sr- LEATHER WOOD. ioo it for their cordage, and from its great tenacitythe name of Leather wood has been applied to itin most parts of the United States. The CanadianFrench called it Bois de Fiomb or Leaden woodfrom its flexibility. The generic character of Dirca consists in atubular corolla without calya?, having its borderobsoletely toothed. Stamens longer than the corol-la. Berry one-seeded. The genus contains but a single species. Class Octandria, order Monogynia. Naturalorders Fepreculce, Lin. Thymelww, Juss. The Dirca is an uTcgular shrub somewhatdistinguished by the horizontal tendency of itsbranches and leaves. The branches have an in-terrupted or jointed mode of growth. The leavesare scattered or alternate, with very short petioles.They are oval, entire, subacute, downy, whenyoung, smooth and membranous when fullygrown, and pale on the under side. The flowersappear long before the leaves. Previously totheir emerging they exist in miniature

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