History.—This shrub grows in damp woods, along streams and shaded places, in the United States and Canada, bearing greenish-yellow flowers in March and April, before the leaves are unfolded, and maturing its fruit, which consists of bright, crimson-colored, ovoid berries, growing in small bunches, in the middle of autumn. The whole plant has a pleasant, aromatic taste, owing chiefly to a volatile oil, and yields its virtues to boiling water or alcohol. The dried berries were used during the American Revolution, and in the South during the late Rebellion, as a substitute for allspice.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Aromatic, tonic, and stimulant. An infusion or decoction has been successfully used in the treatment of ague and typhoid forms of fever; also as an anthelmintic. The berries afford a stimulant oil much esteemed as an application to bruises, chronic rheumatism, itch, etc., and has some reputation as a carminative in flatulence, flatulent colic, etc. The bark, in decoction, is said to be refrigerant and exhilarating, and exceedingly useful in all kinds of fever, for allaying excessive heat and uneasiness; a warm decoction is employed to produce diaphoresis. The decoction may be drank freely.