OF THE 
Detroit Academy of Medicine. 
}vLedicir|al Plkqt^ 
INDIGENOUS IN MICHIGAN, 
SUj A. S. laous, m. D." 
Read before the Detroit A cad<Mt/io/tM*Hlir:ine 
Nov. 27th, 1877. 
Reprinted from the Detroit Lancet, February and March, 1878. The Indigenous Medicinal Plants of Michigan. 
BY A. B. LYONS, M. D., READ BEFORE THE DETROIT ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. 
The list of our materia medica, which is every year becoming 
extended, notwithstanding the growing distrust in the health-restor- 
ing efficacy of drugs, embraces a bewildering variety of substances 
from every conceivable source. The mineral kingdom is laid under 
contribution, and the skill of the chemist is called into requisition 
to devise such combinations as shall produce most certainly and 
most agreeably the effects desired. The animal kingdom is 
invaded, not alone for such exceptionally active substances as are 
furnished in the secretions of the musk deer or the beaver, but 
for those essential constituents of the natural fluids of the body 
(e. g., pepsin in the gastric fluid) which in certain conditions of the 
system are produced in insufficient amount. Yet it is to the vege- 
table world that we are most largely indebted for the properly 
remedial agents we employ. 
“ The age culls simples ”—as former ones have done—the poet 
adds “with its broad clown’s back turned broadly to the sun”— 
a censure of the materialistic spirit of our scientific studies that is 
I fear too just even in this nineteenth century. 
But our simples are culled for us often by people of strange 
speech—the South American Indian, the Hottentot, the Australian, 
and the Mongolian, and come from nearly every country on the 
face of the earth. Having easy access thus to the treasures of all the 
world, we are rather apt to neglect our own undeveloped resources, 
and indeed are ignorant perhaps ourselves of the extent and value 
of those resources. 
Our own State is almost wholly dependent upon foreign sources 
for its supply of crude drugs. We go abroad even for those herbs 
which grow most abundantly in our own fields and woodlands. In 
fact the flora of our State is an unusually rich one, and it contains 
not a few of the most important medicinal plants used in the 
so-called “ regular” practice. The object of the present paper is to 
enumerate and comment briefly upon the more interesting of these 
indigenous medicinal plants of Michigan. Viewing the subject 
primarily from the stand-point of the botanist, I shall take up the 2 
plants first as they group themselves in natural orders, although to 
the medical man a classification of drugs based upon their thera- 
peutic action might seem more truly natural. 
The first natural order in the arrangement commonly adopted, 
is the Ranunculacese—the family of the butter-cups—a large one, 
including many plants prized for the fantastic form and rich 
coloring of their flowers, and not a few of the most potent drugs. 
I need only instance as illustrations of the former the larkspur, 
monk’s-hood, and columbine, of the latter aconite, the most 
active of all poisons, a favorite remedy therefore of our homeo- 
pathic brethren who “ wish to avoid the disturbing effect upon the 
system of such powerful agents as the ‘allopaths’ use.” 
Many of the Ranunculus family contain an acrid principle which 
has made them of occasional service as rubefacients or epispastics. 
This is especially true of the various species of the typical genus 
from which the order takes its name, the “butter-cups” and “crow- 
foots” (Ranunculus). Our familiar field butter-cups (Ranunculus 
acris) is not indigenous, having been imported to us from Europe, 
but the common butter cup of meadows and low grounds (R. repens) 
that resembles it very closely is a native, and so are most of the 
other species, a dozen or so, that are more or less abundant, through- 
out the State. 
Much more important to the physician is the golden seal (Hyd- 
rastis Canadensis), a plant nowhere very abundant, and found 
only somewhat sparingly in rich woodlands in the southern por- 
tions of our State. With its large veiny leaves, a solitary one 
springing from the root, and a single pair borne at the summit of 
the stem, its greenish flower destitute of petals, its raspberry-like 
fruit consisting of a cluster of scarlet berries, and its yellow, 
knotty root, the plant is one that attracts the attention of the least 
curious, while its medicinal properties, that are as yet only imper- 
fectly understood, are not less remarkable than are its peculiarities 
of aspect. Its virtues, like those of the Aconite, are due at least in 
part to alkaloids of which it contains two, hydrastia, peculiar to 
this plant, and berberina, found also in many other plants of this 
and other (mostly allied) orders. 
In deep, wet woods, throughout the northern part of the State 3 
one meets frequently with a delicate trailing plant whose shining 
three-parted leaves remind one of the dew berry or creeping black- 
berry with which we in more southern latitudes are familiar. 
This plant however grows not in sand, but more commonly among 
the mosses in bogs or on the trunks of fallen trees. On tearing it 
from its slender hold, we notice that its long thread-like root is of a 
bright yellow color, and at once the name “ gold thread ” comes to 
us, and we recognize its aptness. Yes, this is the Coptis whose 
efficiency as a “simple bitter tonic” warrants the estimation in 
which it is held in domestic practice. 
In the delicate, pretty, slender-pointed white stars that form its 
blossom it is the sepals which constitute the conspicuous portion, 
the star, while the petals are reduced to insignificant club-shaped 
appendages. The star-like flower gives place to a star-like dry fruit. 
As in the golden seal, the yellow color of the root is associated 
with the presence of the alkaloid berberina, to which the active 
properties of the plant are doubtless in part to be ascribed. 
Among the rarer plants of our Michigan woods, is one commonly 
known in medicine by a name unpleasantly suggestive, Cimicifuga, 
called variously by botanists Actsea, Macrotys, Cimicifuga, and 
popularly known as black snake-root. This is Pierce’s Golden 
Discovery (or his favorite prescription, I really forget which), and 
is doubtless a valuable medicine. Hardly any of our summer 
wild flowers are more worthy of note for their beauty than this 
stately herb whose slender, erect, wand-like racemes have given to 
it its specific name, racemosa. 
The well-known Hepatica or liver leaf whose delicate purple- 
blue or white flowers are among the first in this latitude to herald 
the advent of spring, maintains a position in the secondary list of 
the U. S. P. probably more as a relic of the old absurd doctrine 
of signatures, than from any real merit. Among the members of 
this family of which I find mention in the United States Dispen- 
satory, but of doubtful efficacy in medicine, is the wind-flower 
(Anemone nemorosa), abundant everywhere, whose blossoms, too 
shy ever to expand wholly, yet too eager to meet the first warming 
rays of the returning sun to be discouraged by the rude blasts of 
April gales, are medicine indeed to those of us who after six months 4 
of continuous winter grow sick with longing for the life and beauty 
and abounding joy of the summer season. 
Resembling the wind-flower in aspect, but still more strongly the 
rue anemone is the Isopyrum biternatum, which is however a rare 
plant in Michigan. 
The white cohosh (Actcea spicata), known by its waxy white, 
mealy berries, borne on short thickened stems in an erect spike 
(two inches in length), is common in woodlands. 
The wild larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum), familiar enough in 
cultivation, is occasionally met with in Michigan, but belongs 
rather to the south, and is chiefly interesting from its close relation- 
ship to the more active aconite. 
The virgin’s-bower ( Clematis virginiana), a climber, prized rather 
for the beauty of its abundant white flowers and still more for that 
of the cloud of down which it exhibits in fruit, than for its utility 
in medicine, is widely distributed in the State. 
The magnolia family has but a single representative in Michigan, 
the stately, luxuriant growing tulip tree (liriodendron tulipifera), 
alone among our forest trees in following the tropical fashion in 
its conspicuous, gaudily colored, tulip-like blossoms. It belongs in 
fact to a milder climate than ours, and is not found much further 
north than Detroit. It is enumerated, however, by C. F. Wheeler 
among the plants of Ionia county. In medicinal properties it 
seems to resemble the willows, and perhaps has been, like them, 
heretofore too much neglected. 
The custard-apple family is represented also by a single species, 
the papaw (Asimina triloba), whose seeds are said to be an active 
emetic. 
The moon-seed family, which like the last two belongs chiefly to 
the tropics, and furnishes to the materia medica the poisonous coc- 
culus as well as the mild bitter calumba, has its representative with 
us in the Menispermum Canadense, the bitter yellow root of which, 
like calumba, contains berberina, and has been sold under the 
name of Texas sarsaparilla. 
The barberry family is a small one, but it furnishes us one of the 
most valuable of all the remedies drawn from the vegetable king- 
dom. Among the plants that attract our attention in the early 5 
spring is one that unfolds rapidly from the summit of a short stem 
(1° high), two large peltate leaves, round in general outline, but 
deeply lobed. At their base appears a bud which promises to open 
speedily, but we watch it for weeks with unsatisfied curiosity. At 
length, when the ample leaves have nearly attained their growth, 
the tardy bud expands, and at last bursts into a blossom of sur- 
prising beauty; j)etals of purest white, forming a symmetrical chalice 
to contain the numerous pale-yellow filaments and a curiously 
twisted body, the unformed future fruit in the center. The flower 
is succeeded by a fruit of the size and shape of a greengage plum, 
which when ripe is fragrant and edible. This is the May-apple or 
mandrake {Podophyllum peltatum), from the root of which is 
prepared the powerful resinoid, podophyllin, the basis of the “pleas- 
ant purgative pellets,” “ mandrake pills,” and numerous other 
popular laxative and “anti-bilious” remedies. 
It is interesting to note, again, in this plant the presence of the 
alkaloid berberina—named from the Barbary in which it was first 
discovered—which gives to much of the podophyllin in the mar- 
ket its golden-yellow color. 
A rare and curious plant is the twin-leaf Jeffersonia diphylla, 
which has some repute as an expectorant and emetic. 
Remarkable for its bluish, glaucous foliage, is the more common 
blue cohosh, Caulophyllum, believed to exert a special influence 
over the functions of the uterus. 
The water-lilies, forming a family by themselves, Nelumbiacse, 
need only be mentioned for the possible virtues which their fleshy, 
astringent, bitter roots may possess. 
Among the curiosities of the vegetable kingdom are the trum- 
pet-shaped insect-traps which constitute the leaves of the pitcher- 
plants (Sarraceniacie). Not less curious, though less obvious in 
design, is the umbrella-shaped expansion of the style, which, in 
these plants, covers the flower like a lid. The single species which 
is common in bogs throughout our state, S. pupurea, has heen 
lauded as a specific in the treatment of small-pox; another 
instance, perhaps, of the influence of that obsolete doctrine of 
signatures. 
The importance of the poppy family in medicine leads us to 6 
expect much from the few representatives it has in our State, and 
we are not disappointed, for here we find the familiar name of 
sanguinaria—blood root. Growing abundantly in rich woodlands, 
the plant might readily be overlooked were it not for the conspicu- 
ous beauty of its pure white, solitary blossoms, which appear with 
the hepaticas and anemones, as forerunners of summer’s pro- 
fusion of flowers. 
Like most of the plants of this family, this one exudes when 
wounded a thick, colored juice, the red color of which suggests the 
Latin as well as the popular name of the plant. 
This, in fact, is the only plant of the poppy family that fairly 
belongs to our State. The prickly poppy, Argemone Mexieana 
coming from further south, has established itself in the southern 
part of the State, and like the wild celandine, a stranger from over 
the water, possesses active medicinal properties, although rarely 
used among us. 
The mustard family contains no plants that are properly poison- 
ous, but numbers several, like the horse-radish, water-cress, that 
are esteemed anti-scorbutic, and a few which contain an acrid vola- 
tile oil, rendering them useful as rubefacients and revulsives. 
Most important of all is the common black mustard which, though 
not indigenous, has become thoroughly naturalized. I merely 
mention, besides this, the marsh-cress (Nasturtium palustre), pepper- 
root (dentaria), of which we have two species, the rather rare 
cuckoo-flower (Cardamine pratensis), the hedge mustard (Sisym- 
brium officinale), the pepper-grass (Lepidium virginicum) and the 
shepherd’s-purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)—the commonest of weeds 
—naming those only which are mentioned in the U. S. Dispensa- 
tory, and so dismissing a family that is more perplexing than 
interesting to the botanist. 
The rock-rose family (Cistacm) also furnishes one plant that is 
thought worthy of a place in the U. S. P. secondary list—the frost- 
weed (Helianthemum Canadense). 
Violets have formerly been used largely in medicine, and so I 
must include in my enumeration the dozen or so of species that 
belong to our State. 
The sun-dew family has recently been the subject of many inter- 7 
esting observations on the carnivorous properties of plants, and 
this has, perhaps, led to a study of the medicinal virtues of the 
most common species of the family—Drosera rotundifolia. 
St. Jolm’s-wort, which gives the name to the next natural order, 
is known to us only as a pernicious weed, introduced into this 
country from Europe ; it formerly enjoyed a high repute, not only 
as a vulnerary, but in the treatment of a great variety of diseases; 
but it is now omitted from the list of the U. S. P. We have, 
besides, half a dozen indigenous species, some of which probably 
have the virtues, if there be any, that belong to the naturalized 
plant. 
The large family of the pinks (Caryophyllacese), furnishes us no 
indigenous plants at all noticeable for beauty, or useful medicin- 
ally. The naturalized soap-wort (Saponaria officinalis), is an 
exception to the rule in this family, in that it contains a poisonous 
principle, saponine. 
The mallow family furnishes no indigenous plants of any inter- 
est, although two species of malva—the high and the low mallow 
—have become naturalized among us, and are sometimes used as 
demulcents. 
The allied purslane family contains no plant of greater interest 
than the very troublesome weed from which it takes its name ; a 
plant commonly eaten in many countries “ for greens,” and 
esteemed anti-scorbutic. 
In the wild crane’s-bill (Geranium maculatum), representing 
the geranium family, we come to a useful astringent which is not 
seldom prescribed by our physicians. It is found abundantly in 
wild lands everywhere, and might come into more general use 
were it not for the troublesome propensity its preparations have to 
gelatinize with age. The rank smelling herb Robert is also a 
species of geranium, but quite different in its properties from G. 
maculatum. 
The touch-me-nots (Impatiens fulva and I. pallida), are succu- 
lent, pale-foliaged plants, common everywhere in moist, shady 
places—reputed useful in the treatment‘of piles. 
The rue family is a large and important one, including the well- 
known genus citrus, to which belong the orange, lime, lemon, citron, 8 
etc.; our own flora includes but two plants in this order; both of 
them, however, worthy of note. 
One is the American hop-tree, or wafer ash; the latter name 
applied to it from the appearance of its thin, round, dry fruit, 
clustered in globular heads, the former because this fruit has been 
used as a substitute for hops. It is undoubtedly a valuable medi- 
cine, possessing tonic properties without the intense disagreeable 
bitterness of gentian or quassia. 
The other representative of this family is the American prickly 
ash, the fiery qualities of whose aromatic, dry red berries most of 
us have had experience of in our younger days. No one certainly 
can ramble much in southern Michigan without learning to respect 
the territory guarded by the sharp, hooked prickles of the shrub. 
Entomologists recognize it as the feeding plant of a caterpillar, 
from which comes one of our handsomest butterflies (Papillio 
cresphontes). The bark, like that of the wafer-ash, contains ber- 
berina, and is tonic, resembling mezereuin or guaiac. 
Another tropical family, the Anacardiaceie, to which belongs 
the cashew nut, is represented with us by a single genus, but that 
the important one, Rhus. 
Three of the species are harmless plants enough, the familiar 
sumacs, known especially for the brilliant scarlet of their autumnal 
foliage, and still more for the dense pointed (flame-shaped) clusters 
of their red, woolly, acid berries. The plants are throughout 
strongly astringent, the berries combining with the tannic a flavor- 
ing of citric acid, whence their use medicinally as refrigerants. 
Rhus venenata, an erect shrub, resembling somewhat in aspect 
and foliage the foregoing species, is the justly dreaded poison 
sumac, or poison dog-wood of our swamps, while a more common 
and almost equally poisonous plant of the same genus, the poison 
ivy, or poison oak (R. toxicodendron), is a climber; most of us, if 
we have lived in the country, have made its acquaintance unpleas- 
antly at some time in our lives. Poisoning the skin by contact, 
these plants reveal active and possibly medicinal properties that 
have not been thoroughly investigated, but undoubtedly entitle 
them to the place they hold in our materia medica. 9 
In the buck-thorn family we find also one plant of reputed 
value, the New Jersey tea, or red-root (Ceanothus Americana). 
The vine family furnishes but one plant of known medicinal 
virtue—the Virginian creeper, or American ivy, with which we 
are all familiar. 
The Celastracese are represented by two species of euonymus— 
one a large shrub, the walioo, one of the few plants that are com- 
monly gathered in our State for export, the other a trailing plant, 
the strawberry-bush—both characterized by the scarlet inner cover- 
ing of the seed, which is disclosed on the ripening of the fruit by 
the splitting of its outer integument. Another representative of 
the order, exhibiting the same peculiarity in a still more striking 
manner, since the fruit itself, before bursting, is of a rich orange 
color, is the highly ornamental shrubby bitter-sweet, Cclastrus 
scandens, not to be confounded with the true bitter-sweet, Solanum 
dulcamara. 
The small family of Polygalacese affords one important drug— 
senega, a herbaceous plant, having nothing very characteristic in 
its appearance. Five other species of the genus Polygala are 
found in the State, two of which, at least, are reputed medicinal. 
The extensive family of Leguminosae—the bean family—in these 
high latitudes at least, is one in which we do not look for very 
active medicinal properties. The wild indigo (Baptisia tinctoria), 
a low, shrubby plant, very abundant in unreclaimed lands, is men- 
tioned as laxative and vulnerary, and the rather ornamental 
Tephrosia Virginiana (goat’s-rue), has obtained a place in the U. S. 
Dispensatory, more on the merits of its foreign congeners perhaps 
than on its own. The P. piscatoria, for example, is employed 
frequently by the Pacific Islanders for poisoning fish, and has been 
used even for criminal purposes. 
Scarcely belonging, properly, to the Leguminosse, yet included by 
botanists in that natural order, is one really valuable medicinal 
plant, the wild senna, Cassia Marilandica, corresponding closely in 
sensible and medicinal properties with the senna of commerce. 
The rose family is one of unusual interest. It is not enough 
that it gives us, under a hundred forms that vie with one another 
in queenly beauty, the flower whose title to pre-eminence among 10 
all that grace our gardens none dare dispute; it makes a flower 
garden once a year at least of the very orchards, and as cherry, 
and plum, and peach, and pear, and apple, and quince come suc- 
cessively into bloom, we know not whether most to admire the 
lavishness of coloring in the general effect, or the delicacy of shad- 
ing, and the perfection of form and finish in each individual blos- 
som, and it reserves still its more substantial gifts of the ripened 
fruit to distribute them through the long season from strawberries 
and cherries to peaches and apples. What fruits worth having, 
indeed, would remain to us dwellers in the temperate zone, were 
we deprived of all we owe to this one family ? Grapes, indeed, 
and huckleberries, cranberries, currants, gooseberries—little else 
worth mentioning. Is the order less generous to the physician ? 
Ask him whether he finds any astringent more useful than black- 
berry root—whether any other tonic can exactly replace wild 
cherry bark—what better substitute he can find for ipecac than 
our own gillenia, and he will, perhaps, himself mention, in addi- 
tion, the cherry laurel. He might add to the list, from our indi- 
genous plants, the astringents, Spiraea tomentosa (hardhack), 
agrimony (A. Eupatoria) and water avens geum rivale, and he 
would not have exhausted the subject. 
Recent price lists of fluid extracts mention Penthorum sedoides, 
one of the stone-crop family, as a drug newly on trial—a common 
semi-aquatic weed which has heretofore concealed its merits very 
carefully. 
The American alum root,Heuchera Americana, another astringent, 
represents a more important, but closely allied family, the Saxifra- 
gacese, to which belongs the hydrangea, as also the “ syringa ” or 
mock-orange of our gardens, and perhaps likewise the genus ribes, 
including the currants and gooseberries. 
A tree which blossoms in October, just as it is losing its leaves 
for the winter, perfecting its seed the succeeding season, is an 
anomaly for which natural selection should be called upon to give 
some plausible account. Such a tree is the witch-hazel, Hamamelis 
Virginica, the only representative in our State of its family—a 
small one. Although not included in the list of the U. S. P., the 
witch-hazel has undoubtedly important medicinal virtues, and the 11 
proprietary preparation, known as Pond’s extract, has an immense 
sale throughout the country. 
The family of the evening primrose is not noted for any remark- 
able activity of medicinal properties. I only mention as of possi- 
ble interest from this cause two of our native plants, the wild 
evening primrose of the fields, conspicuous in summer and fall by 
the pure yellow of its large spiked flowers, and the greater willow 
herb, Epilobium angustifolium—the “fire weed” of northern 
Michigan, whose profusion of purple blossoms covers over with a 
mantle of rich coloring the black nakedness of the newly cleared 
land. 
Umbelliferous plants are more often useful than ornamental— 
although when I call to mind the delicately cut foliage of even 
such common plants in the family as the parsley, carrot and giant 
fennel, I repent already of having made a statement so sweepingly 
invidious. Plants of this order are generally recognized at a 
glance by their peculiar form of inflorescence, but they are not 
so easily discriminated one from another, and as many of them are 
fatal and rapid poisons, all should be looked upon alike with sus- 
picion until their harmlessness is certified by a proficient. Acci- 
dental poisoning is very frequent from mistakes with regard to 
these plants. 
Many umbelliferous plants are simply aromatic, the fruit gener- 
ally yielding some characteristic essential oil. Such are the 
several species of Angelica and Heracleum (cow-parsnip), the sweet 
cicely (Osmorrhiza), of which we have two species, and sanicle or 
black snake-root (Sanicula Marilandica). 
Among the poisonous plants of the family indigenous to Michi- 
gan are the cow-bane, Arehemora rigida, and closely resem- 
bling this in appearance, the water parsnip, Sium lineare (and S. 
angustifolium), the water-hemlocks, Cicuta maculata and C. bulbi- 
fera, fool’s-parsley, Conioselinum Canadense. These are not com- 
monly used medicinally, although two of them, the Sium lin. and 
Cicuta mac., are among the components of Kerr’s dysentery 
“ specific.” 
Sparingly introduced among us is the officinal hemlock, the 
conium of the pharmacopoeia—a medicine that would be more 12 
valuable were its effects more uniform, and its preparations less 
liable to deterioration. 
Very closely allied to the umbelliferse are the aralias, which 
are also aromatic and reputed otherwise medicinal. Four of them 
are native, A. nudicaulis, wild sarsaparilla, A. racemosa, spike- 
nard, A. hispida, wild elder, and A. quinquefolia, called also panax, 
the ginseng which holds so important a place in the materia 
medica of the Chinese. 
The dogwoods, Cornaceae, are valuable tonics and antiperiodics; 
one of them distinguished as the flowering dogwood is placed, 
indeed, upon the primary lists of the U. S. P. Its flowers are in 
reality no more conspicuous than those of its congeners, but the 
compact clusters, which appear in early spring, are surrounded by 
an ample four-leaved involucre, creamy-white, which has all the 
appearance of an ordinary flower. The C. sericea is the kinni- 
kinik of the aborigines, used as a substitute for tobacco. 
The large natural order, Kubiaceje, which in the tropics produces 
Peruvian bark and madder and coffee, is represented in our lati- 
tude by a few plants only, and those of comparatively little inter- 
est. 
Besides the galiums, of which we have a long list—we may 
mention the button-ball, Cephalanthus occidentalis, as a tonic, and 
the pretty creeping partridge-berry, Mitchella repens, one of the 
ingredients of the mother’s cordial, by which labors are believed 
to be made less difficult. 
A few plants of the honeysuckle family must be just mentioned 
—the familiar elder, Sambucus Canadensis, the horse gentian, Trios- 
teum perfoliatuin, the bush honeysuckle, Diervilla trifida, and the 
high bush cranberry, Viburnum Opulus, in cultivation known as 
the snow-ball bush. Viburnum prunifolium, of greater value, 
probably, than all the rest, I think is not found in Michigan, 
although it must come close to our southern border. 
When fields that in earlier summer were yellow with butter- 
cups or white with daisies, or purple with fragrant clover blossoms, 
have grown sere and brown, or yielded their treasures to scythe 
and mower—when already there are seen here and there flecks of 13 
scarlet amid the rich green of the yet nourishing foliage of 
maple, and pepperidge, and sumac, wild flowers of a state- 
lier growth and more gorgeous coloring begin to adorn fence 
rows, and fallow fields, and meadows. The golden rods, 
“heavy with sunlight;” the purer gold of sunflowers, and of 
coreopsis, and helenium, to name a few only out of the mul- 
titude ; asters, which dare to put on the royal purple or to 
copy the cerulean hue of heaven, blazing stars, with light ruddier 
than that of the planet Mars; “everlastings,” whitening all the 
fields with the pure luster of their satin blossoms; fringed gentians, 
a flower that so blends, in the mingled azure and and white of its 
exquisitely cut petals, modesty, and beauty, and purity, that it appeals 
irresistibly to the least susceptible heart; but the gentian alone of 
all this glorious company of the fall wild flowers claims no near 
kindred with its neighbors. They are all of the great family of 
Compositse, to which our flower gardens also are indebted for some 
of their most effective masses of rich coloring; e. g., in the China 
asters, zinias, marigolds, cinerarias, chrysanthemums, sun-flowers, 
dahlias. 
Not less than one hundred and fifty representatives of this great 
order are reckoned among our indigenous plants, but a few only of 
these deserve especial mention as useful medicines. 
Thoroughwort or boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, of course 
must be included in the list—a tonic, with whose virtues, and dis- 
agreeable qualities too, we some of us made a compulsory acquaint- 
ance in our childhood. The dandelion, Taraxacum, is another 
plant much used both in domestic and regular practice. Tansy, an 
introduced plant, is likewise well known, rather for its abuse than 
its use. 
Elecampane and chicory are also naturalized plants, the former 
having a recognized place in the materia medica. 
The Canada flea-bane, Erigeron Canadense, known also as 
horse-weed and fire-weed, yields a volatile oil that is said to control 
hemorrhages, and is used in the treatment of piles. Another fire- 
weed, Erechthites hieracifolia, has similar properties, and yields also 
a volatile oil. 
The commonest of wayside weeds, the May-weed, Maruta cotula, 14 
its yellow-eyed white blossoms familiar to every one, is our repre- 
sentative of the European chamomile, Authemis nobilis ; its place 
in the secondary list of the U. S. P. seems to be accorded it rather 
out of courtesy to the European plant, which, however, it resembles 
in properties. 
Yarrow, Achillea millefolia, holds a similar position, out of 
regard, perhaps, to the high esteem in which it was formerly held. 
One species of everlasting, Gnaphalium polycephalum, appears 
to have mild anodyne properties, and is reputed a valuable remedy 
for gastralgia. 
Colt’s-foot, Tussilago farfara, maintains its popular reputation as 
a cough remedy. 
Besides these, I only mention the various species of Liatris 
(blazing-star, button snakeroot), the very inaptly named Ambro- 
sia (rag-weed), the Senecio (squaw-weed), Polynmia uvedalia 
(leaf-cup), one of the remedies just now on trial; Hieracium (hawk- 
weed), Rudbeckia (corn-flower), and the asters and golden rods as 
embraced in the list of plants employed occasionally in medicine. 
Helenium autumnale, distinguished by its globose yellow heads, 
which have a conspicuous aureola of pure yellow rays, has per- 
haps more active properties than any of these; one of its southern 
congeners, H. tenuifolium, is said to be very poisonous, frequently 
causing the death of stock. 
The lobelia family is a small one, but one which frequently 
unites with conspicuous beauty in its flowrers, active poisonous prop- 
erties. None of our wild flowers rivals in brilliancy of color- 
ing the dazzling scarlet of the cardinal flower, and everyone has sin- 
gled out for notice and admiration the thick, densely flowered, pur- 
ple-blue spikes of the greater Lobelia, L. syphilitica. It is a more 
modest plant, however, which figured so largely in the Thompso- 
nian practice, and constitutes the officinal Lobelia of the pharmaco- 
poeia. Known to the Indians even as a narcotic, and used by them as 
a substitute for tobacco, this plant, L. inflata, undoubtedly deserves 
to rank among our more important indigenous drugs. In Michigan 
it appears to be comparatively scarce, although a very common 
weed elsewhere in the northern States. 
The heath family, Ericaceae, delighting especially in high lati- 15 
tudes and in mountainous regions, is' represented much more fully 
in the northern peninsula than in our own immediate vicinity. It 
embraces many interesting plants, and not a few remarkable for 
their beauty, e. g., rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel; or their 
usefulness, as the cranberry, huckleberry, and blue-berry. 
The evergreen checker-berry, or tea berry, better known among 
us as winter-green (Gaultheria procumbens), whose bright red 
berries persist with the leaves through the season of snows, yields a 
volatile oil largely employed as a flavor, and interesting as contain- 
ing salicylic acid. The white berries of the delicate trailing snow- 
berry of northern bogs, Chiogenes hispidula, contain also this com- 
pound, which likewise exists in the aromatic bark of the black birch, 
and in some other plants. Somewhat similar in general aspect to the 
Gaultheria, and evergreen likewise, and called also winter-green, 
are the species of Pipsissewa—Chimaphila—of which we have two ; 
and these agree again in therapeutic use with that other trailing 
evergreen, the uva ursi, or bear-berry, which belongs to another 
genus of the same family, Arctostaphylos. To mention the trailing 
arbutus, Epigsea repens, among medicinal plants, seems a species 
of profanity—so sacred are the tender and poetic associations that 
cluster about this loveliest and most fragrant of all our wild flowers. 
Through the long summer days it is busy hoarding up sweetness 
and light, not as a niggard or a miser, but only that when others 
have spent all, it may have treasure of enhanced value to dispense 
at last with lavish liberality. 
The Kalmias are known as poisonous plants; even the flesh of 
partridges that have fed on the buds of these plants in winter, is 
said to have imbibed their poisonous qualities ; but the nature of 
the poisonous principle, or its action on the system, has not yet 
been carefully studied. 
One plant only of the holly family is indigenous in southern 
Michigan, the winter-berry, Prinos verticillata ; and this, although 
esteemed medicinal, is best known from the ornamental character 
of its scarlet berries, familiar in Christmas decorations. 
Mentioning only in passing the two species of Plantain that repre- 
sent sufficiently their small family, and the insignificant Pimpernel 
of the more important primrose order; also the curious Epiphegus 16 
(beech-drops, cancer-root), belonging to the Orobanchaeese, plants 
without leaves, we pause on reaching so important a family as that 
which has given to the florist the snapdragon, and collinsia, and 
calceolaria, and maurandia; and to the physician, if nothing else, 
Digitalis, expecting to find among our indigenous species, of which 
the list is a long one, something of unusual interest. 
Linaria vulgaris, butter-and-eggs, a pretty plant enough, with 
its dense spikes of yellow and orange blossoms ; but a vile weed, and 
of a vile odor, not much used, and after all a naturalized plant. 
Verbascum thapsus, common mullein, another naturalized plant, 
too familiar to need a word of description ; but known again only 
as an imposing weed, not as a medicine. 
Chelone glabra, turtle-head, snake-head, the name suggested by 
the strange shape of its white, closely clustered flowers; and per- 
haps this is the thing most noteworthy about the plant. 
Veronica, speedwell, a large genus, and containing several names 
that have a place in the Dispensatory; here at last, in V. virginica, 
Culver’s physic, better known as Leptandra, we find a drug prob- 
ably of real merit. The tall, erect, sparingly-branched stem, whorled 
leaves, and slender, pointed spikes of small white flowers, sufficiently 
distinguish the plant which is frequently met with in woodlands 
throughout the southern part of the State. 
The verbena family, as represented among us, is quite devoid of 
interest, although V. hastata and V. urticifolia are set down as 
medicinal; but the closely allied order of Labiatse (mints) yields 
a large number of useful plants. Peppermint and spearmint are 
cultivated largely in our State, for the sake of the essential oils 
they yield. 
Other plants, rich in volatile oils, are Hedeoma pulegioides, 
pennyroyal, Monarda punctata, horse-balm, and that favorite 
household remedy of the olden time, catnip (Nepeta cataria); also 
Collinsonia Canadensis, called likewise horse-balm. The bugle 
weeds, Lycopus, have a bitterness that is unusual in plants of this 
order, and probably deserve the reputation they enjoy locally as 
tonic and anti-periodic remedies. 
Two species of Scutellaria, scull-cap, are met with in the State, 
plants having in their aspect or sensible properties nothing to indi- 17 
cate an active medicinal character—mints evidently; one recognizes 
that in their square stems, opposite leaves and the cut of their foliage, 
even before the flowers—with thin, characteristic, two-lipped calyx 
and corolla—make their appearance ; but destitute of the aromatic 
smell and taste that so generally accompany useful properties in 
the mints, and yet pronounced on high authority among our best 
nervines. 
Very closely allied to the skull-caps is the common weed, Bru- 
nella vulgaris, whose popular name, heal-all, is evidence of the 
esteem in which it has formerly been held by the laity, but almost 
unknown to the faculty. 
Hoarhound, Marrubium vulgare, is a foreigner, scarcely yet 
naturalized, but familiar in name and properties. 
The Borrage family furnishes no native plants of special interest, 
although two or three naturalized weeds, belonging to it, may be 
mentioned—the hound’s-tongue, Cynoglossum, troublesome along 
road sides with its sticky burrs; comfrey, Symphytum, and gromwell, 
Lithospermum, all three rejoicing in the inappropriate specific name 
of “officinale.” 
Mentioning only among the Convolvulace®, an Ipomsea, whose 
gigantic tubers cannot be compared in value with those of its 
congeners—the sweet potato and the jalap—we pass on to the 
interesting but dangerous family of the nightshades. Remembering 
how many of our common esculents, as well as our most showy 
flowers and most potent drugs, come from this source—for to the 
solanacfe we are indebted for the potato, egg-plant, tomato, ground- 
cherry ; the garden petunias, daturas, and brugmansias; the 
deadly nightshade, the stramonium and henbane, and tobacco, 
we are a little disappointed to find that the order is represented 
in our section of country by but three indigenous species, and these 
all of a single rather unimportant genus, Physalis. 
Several, however, of the officinal plants already mentioned have 
become thoroughly naturalized among us. The rank-growing 
stramonium, with its large, uncanny-looking leaves, its showy, 
trumpet-shaped, white flowers, looking strangely out of place amid 
the coarse foliage of the plant; and its spiny fruit, a veritable thorn- 
apple, is familiar to all. 18 
The henbane, Hyosciamus, has established itself only in a few 
places, a plant occasionally met with in the vicinity of Detroit, but 
in late years singled’out as a feeding plant by the unerring instincts 
of the poison-loving potato bug, and so likely to be exterminated. 
The same insect attacks also the stramonium, as well as the night- 
shade, and even the tomato; but does not appear to thrive well 
on any of them. 
The black night shade, Solanum nigrum, is a common road side 
weed, not as poisonous probably as it is commonly reputed—for 
children often eat the ripe berries with impunity, and the leaves 
are freely used in some countries for greens. 
The true bitter-sweet, met with frequently in woodlands, is also a 
solanum; but its crimson berries,however attractive to the eye, are 
too bitter and acrid to the palate to be dangerous. 
The Gentian family is represented in our State by several valua- 
ble medicinal plants. Of the gentians proper, we have no less than 
eight—plants with showy blue or yellowish-white flowers appearing 
late in the season. All of them probably agree in properties with 
the officinal gentian; but one only, G. quinqueflora, is collected 
for medicinal use. 
American Columbo, Frasera Carolinensis, belongs also to the 
gentian family, but is a rare plant in Michigan. The same is true 
of another of our native tonics, the American centaury, Sabbatia 
angularis, one of the prettiest of our wild flowers. From its gen- 
eral aspect one would be inclined to refer it to the pink family ; the 
flowers are large and fragrant, the corolla of a delicate rose pink, 
so deeply parted that it seems at first sight to be made of five dis- 
tinct petals. Other species of the genus are also well known in 
cultivation for the beauty of their regular white or pink flowers. 
In bogs and wet grounds we meet with another of the gentianacese 
in the pretty and curious buck-bean, the spiked white flowers 
recognized at once by the heavy fringe-like beard that covers the 
upper surface of the corolla. The whole plant is bitter, and unites 
cathartic with tonic properties. 
The dog-bane family, Apocynecase, belongs again chiefly to warm 
climates, and is distinguished on the one hand by the grace of form, 
the delicacy of texture, the richness of coloring, and the intoxicat- 19 
ing fragrance of the blossoms of many of its species ; on the other, 
by the poisonous character that pervades the whole order. 
But two plants are natives of the State, both of them esteemed 
valuable medicinally, Apocyonum androssemifolium, dog-bane; and 
A. cannabinum, American Indian hemp. The former especially 
illustrates the manner in which plants of this order conceal under 
an attractive exterior, dangerous properties. One would scarcely 
look for harm in the dainty pink and white bells of its fragrant 
blossoms; but then it gives a warning after all in the suspicious 
milky juice that flows whenever the plant is wounded. 
Fantastic in form and generally gaudy in coloring are the umbel- 
clustered flowers of the milkweeds (Asclepiadacese). In them again 
a milky juice is associated with active properties which have given 
to two of our species a place in the list of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. 
The most valuable, probably, as it is the most showy, is the butter- 
fly v?eed, called also pleurisy-root (Asclepias tuberosa), displaying 
its bright orange flowers on hill sides, or sandy or gravely soils; 
while its more modest cousin, A. incarnata, delights in wet rich 
grounds along the margins of streams. 
Among the Oleacese we must mention one important medicinal 
plant, the black ash (Fraxinus sambueifolius), which certainly 
holds no mean rank among our indigenous drugs. 
The curious family of the pipe-vine (Aristolochiaceae), is repre- 
sented in our State only by the aromatic wild ginger, Asarum 
Canadense. 
We have also the typical plant of another small family in the 
poke-weed, Phytolacca decandra, whose luxuriant leafage and 
compact racemes of dark purple berries render it one of the most 
striking of our native plants. 
The Chenopodiacese are mostly plebeian plants, and so are many 
of the Amaranth family. 
Among the Polygonacete wre find the several species of Dock, too 
well known to require more than a bare mention; the sheep-sorrel, 
also a Rumex; and the acrid smart weeds (Polygonum), some of 
which are largely employed in domestic medicine. 
The laurel family is represented in the aromatic spice bush, 20 
Lindera Benzoin; and in the well-known sassafras, Laurus 
Sassafras. 
Nearly allied to this is the natural order of Thymeleaceaj, to 
which is referred the medicinal Mezereum, represented among us 
by the tough-barked leather-wood or moose-wood, Direa palustris. 
Another small family closely related to that which produces black 
pepper, furnishes for this enumeration a single plant, Saururus 
cernuus, the semi-aquatic lizard’s-tail. 
Especially rich in useful plants, and by no means destitute of 
ornamental ones is the large order of spurge-worts. Although 
technically apetalous, many of them are cultivated for the beauty 
of their flowers, brightly colored bracts supplying the place and 
fulfilling the functions of a corolla. A conspicuous instance of this 
is seen in the poinsettias, as also in our own wild flowering spurge. 
Among useful plants of the order, some are food plants—as the 
manihot and cassava; others yield valuable timber, as the teak ; 
others furnish caoutchouc (Siphonia); several yield fixed oils, as 
the castor oil, the candle-nut (Aleurites), and the Chinese tallow- 
tree. The majority of these are poisonous, some, as the manchineel, 
dangerously so; while others are found potent medicines, e.g., 
croton oil, stillingia, and the unpopular castor oil. The order, 
however, is very sparingly represented in a climate so cold as ours, 
and we can only enumerate a few species of Euphorbium, E. cor- 
ollata, E. maculata, and E. hypericifolia, as plants entitled to a 
place in the materia medica. 
The nettle family, which resembles the last in the number and 
variety of its useful products, including breadfruit, mulberry, fig, 
hemp, haschish, hop, elm, sycamore, banyan, and the india-rubber 
tree, yields among us nothing more important than slippery elm 
bark. The hop, Humulus lupulus, is also indigenous, but the 
market, of course, is supplied always from the cultivated plant. 
Trees of the walnut family, hickory, butternut, and black-walnut, 
besides furnishing us their invaluable timber, and the nuts which 
give school-boys healthful occupation for their holiday afternoons, 
and squirrels their winter’s sffpply of provisions, yield in their bark 
a medicine of no mean value. Juglans cinerea has a place indeed 
in the primary list of the U. S. P. 21 
Still among the forest trees, we note the oaks, Cupuliferse, as 
furnishing our principal supply of tannic acid; and in the same 
family the chestnut, Castanea vesca, whose reputation in the treat- 
ment of whooping-cough is probably .not without foundation. 
Among the Myricacese, the aromatic bay-berrv, Myrica cerifera; 
the sweet-gale, M. Gale; and the sweet-fern, Comptonia aspleni- 
folia, must be noted. And of the closely allied birch family, three 
species of Betula (birch), B. lenta, B. alba, and B. lutea ; and two 
at least of Alnus (alder), A. incana,and A. serrulata, are mentioned 
in the U. S. Dispensatory. 
The long list of willows—we have about a dozen indigenous 
species—with the allied poplars, included all in the order of Sali- 
caceae, may be disposed of in a sentence by stating that they agree 
in containing salicin, an agent that bids fair to assume a place near 
quinia itself in the variety and importance of its therapeutic uses. 
Celebrated in the poetic literature of every language, from the 
days of Homer and of the Hebrew poet-king, to those of our own 
Lowell and Whittier, the evergreen conifer se are acknowledged 
among all the trees of northern forests the royal family. Their 
distinguished pedigree goes back, indeed, as chi’onicled in the 
imperishable record of geology to the time when they held joint 
empire in a flora of more than tropical magnificence with palms 
and tree ferns, which now maintain their sway only within the 
torrid zone. 
The stately spruce and pine that defy the winters of hyporboreal 
climes, the cypress of southern everglades, the classic cedar of 
Lebanon, and the giant Sequoias of California, ranked as among 
the wonders of the world, are some of the nobler scions of this royal 
house. In a State whose most important products are those obtained 
from her “ pine lands,” it is needless to enlarge on the importance 
from the utilitarian stand-point of our own representatives of the 
pine family. We only note therefore, incidentally, the influence 
which the balsamic exhalations from these trees are believed to 
have in warding off malaria, possibly by promoting the formation 
of ozone in the air, and the stimulating medicinal quality that 
belongs generally to their resinous exudations. We may particu- 
larize from our own northern forests the balsam fir, Abies balsamea, 22 
as furnishing the Canada balsam, and Pinus rigida as among the 
species yielding tar, pitch, and turpentine; obtained, however, 
more largely from the pines of the south. 
Hemlock, A. Canadensis, is valued for the astringent properties 
of its bark, used so largely in tanning hides. 
The Tamarack, or American larch, Larix Americana—unlike 
most of the conifers, a deciduous tree—abounding in swampy land 
throughout the State, must not be omitted from the list of our useful 
medicinal plants. 
Savine, Juniperus sabina, grows in the northern peninsula. The 
medicinal juniper, J. communis, is also common in various parts of 
the State, delighting especially in rocky sterile soils. 
Red cedar, J. Virginiana, less hardy than the last, must be men- 
tioned as akin in properties to the true savine. The white cedar, 
Thuja also, which forms the cedar swamps of the 
northern portion of the State, has useful medicinal properties; and 
the same may be true of the certainly poisonous ground-hemlock, 
or American yew, Taxus baccata, whose wax-like, coral-red berries 
form a singular contrast with the spruce-like foliage of the plant. 
Coming to monocotyledenous (endogenous) plants, we find the 
Arum family an interesting one. Familiar to the gatherer of wild 
flowers are the singular hooded spathes of the Indian turnip 
or Jack-in-the-pulpit, Aristema triphyllum, green, variegated 
generally with stripes and. blotches of dark purple, and not less 
conspicuous in the fall are its clusters of orange, red, or scarlet 
berries. Most boys, too, have a vivid rcollection of some occasion, 
when their confidence was abused by some older companion who 
induced them to “ take a little taste ” of the turnip-shaped root 
whence the plant has its name. The insupportable biting, burning 
sensation which endures for hours, forms a lesson that generally 
lasts a life time—crede experto. This acridity is common to plants 
of this and allied genera (e. g., the Callas), being present even in 
the roots of the esculent tanya of the south, A. esculentum ; but 
dissipated by heat, in cooking; and it is believed that it is to their 
acrid principle that the medicinal virtues popularly ascribed to 
these plants are due. A. dracontium is in our State a rarer plant, 
identical in properties with that described. 23 
Not to be confounded with this is the officinal Dracontium, skunk- 
cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, the large, round, radical leaves of 
which are seen everywhere in low wet grounds throughout the 
early part of the season. This again is one of the few medicinal 
plants collected for the drug market in our State. 
The swTeet flag, Acorus Calamus, aromatic instead of acrid, 
abounds at least in our own immediate vicinity; too well known to 
need more than bare mention. 
In the water-plantain family, Alisma plantago may be noted as 
“medicinal.” 
Two large orders embrace most of the ornamental endogens— 
those of the orchis and of the lily—both remarkable for the richness 
and variety of coloring, and often for the marvelous delicacy of 
texture of their conspicuous flowers ; but the former continually 
surprising us with some wholly original new conceit of fantastic yet 
always graceful form ; the latter relying almost always for its 
effects on the graceful outline of some symmetrical design. As 
instances of the first, we cite, among our wild flowers, the handsome 
swamp-pinks of our bogs—Calopogon, and the rare Arethusa; or, 
as still more characteristic, the moccasin-flowers or lady’s-slippers, 
Cypripedium, of our woodlands. Of the last there is no better 
example than that of our common spotted meadow lilies. 
In our severe climate, however, we look in vain for the lavishness 
of beauty that we find in exotic plants of these families to which 
the greenhouse and the flower garden are indebted for their choicest 
ornaments. 
Among our native orchids, two genera only are of interest to the 
medical man — Corollorhiza, which furnishes the coral root 
exported from Michigan; and Cypripedium, a most valuable 
medicine, if its virtues can be judged by its disgusting flavor. 
Besides the officinal C. pubescens, we have four or five species 
that probably agree closely in medicinal characters—C.parvifloruxn, 
yellow-flowered like the first, which it very much resembles in 
general appearance ; C. spectabile, very handsome, with its large 
purple and white corolla; C. acaule, like the last, but less leafy ; 
and C. candidum, a rarer, white-flowered plant. 
In the lily family we find but one plant of primary importance, 24 
the green hellebore, Veratrum viride, probably found in our state, 
but which I have never met with. Its tall stem, large plaited 
leaves, and spreading racemes of inconspicuous flowers make it an 
easy matter to single it out among all the plants of the swamp. 
Here belong too the wild garlics, Allium Canadense, A.tricoccum 
and A. cernuum, which have doubtless the same medicinal prop- 
erties (as they have the same intolerable odor), as those which 
belong to the cultivated garlic and onion. 
The “wake robins” (Trillium), appropriately named as among 
the earliest harbingers of spring, are reputed medicinal; and so are 
the Solomon’s-seal Polygonatum giganteum, the Indian cucumber 
root Medieola Virginica, and the adder’s-tongue, Erythronium. 
Among the Dioscoreacese, we must mention the wild yam, D. 
villosa, a pretty climbing plant, with heart-shaped, veiny leaves. 
The wild blue-flag, Iris versicolor, abundant in wet grounds 
everywhere, is a representative of the ornamental Flower de luce 
family, and a potent medicine. 
Of the small family of Haemadoracese, our single representative, 
colic root or star-grass, Aletris farinosa, is also officinal. 
The immense family of sedges is totally devoid of interest to the 
physician; and even the grasses, although fairly rivaling more 
ambitious plants in utility and even in beauty, furnish little to the 
materia medica. 
Couch grass, Triticum repens, is employed to some extent medi- 
cinally, but could well be spared from our list—so the farmers and 
gardeners might be spared the endless labor of fighting a foe so 
tenacious of life. 
The poisonous darnel, Lolium temulentum, too, must be named 
as a grass having exceptionally active properties. 
Ferns, attractive as they always are to those who have an eye 
for beauty and grace of form, possess comparatively little interest 
to the utilitarian. A few of them have edible, although not very 
nutritious roots or stems—as for example the familiar brake, Pteris 
aquilina; and several species are reckoned medicinal. Among these 
is the beautiful maiden’s-hair fern, Adiantum pedatum; the rock- 
brake, Polypodium vulgare; the flowering fern, Osmunda regalis ; 
the female fern, Asplcnium filix foemina; and the common brake 25 
already mentioned as an esculent. More important, probably, than 
any of these is the male fern, Aspidium filix mas, which is among 
the rare plants of our northern peninsula. 
Of the half dozen species of that curious genus, Equisetum, 
scouring rushes, one, E. hyemale, is singled out for mention in the 
Dispensatory, probably not from any peculiar virtues which its 
congeners do not share. 
Lycopodium is the name given to the spores of the various 
species of club-moss, or ground-pine, Lycopodium, which we need 
not further particularize by name. 
A single representative of the moss family is recognized as 
medicinal, the hair-cap moss, Polytrichium juniperinum. 
Finally, the family of the Fungi furnishes us with one or two of 
our most useful medicinal agents—ergot of rye, produced by the 
growth of Claviceps purpurea; and corn-smut, probably very 
similar in properties, occasioned by another fungus, Ustilago 
maidis.