The root of Eupatorium purpureum, Linné.
Nat. Ord.—Compositæ.
Common Names: Queen of the meadow, Joe Pye weed, Trumpet-weed, Gravel-weed, Gravel-root, Joe-pie, Purple boneset.
Botanical Source.—This plant is herbaceous, with a perennial, horizontal, woody caudex, with many long, dark-brown fibers, which send up one or more solid, glabrous, green, sometimes purplish stems, 5 or 6 feet in height, with a purple band at the joints, about an inch broad. The leaves are from 3 to 6 in a whorl about 6 inches apart, oblong-ovate, or lanceolate, pointed, rugosely or feather-veined, coarsely serrate, slightly scabrous, with a soft pubescence beneath along the mid-vein and veinlets, thin, soft, borne on petioles an inch long, and from 8 to 12 inches long, by 3 or 4 inches wide. The flowers are all tubular, purple or pinkish-purple, varying to whitish, and consist of numerous florets included in an 8-leaved calyx. The heads are in lax, very dense and compound corymbs of a cylindrical form, and from 5 to 10-flowered (W.—G.).
History and Description.—Queen of the meadow grows in low places, dry woods or meadows, in the northern, western, and middle states, flowering in August and September. Its trivial name, Joe Pye weed, is said to have become attached to it through an Indian of that name, who lived in New England, and employed it as a diaphoretic in low fevers. The root is the medicinal part. As found in commerce, it consists of a blackish, woody caudex, from which proceed numerous long fibers, from 1 to 3 lines in diameter; externally they are covered with a dark-brown, longitudinally-furrowed cortex, beneath which the internal portion is white, or whitish-yellow, according to its age, the last color being the oldest. It has an odor somewhat resembling old hay; and a slightly bitter, aromatic, and faintly astringent, but not unpleasant taste, and yields its properties to water by decoction, or to spirits.
Only the opening of the article is transcribed; Chemical Composition and Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage follow.