Cayenne type. A variety of types of small pep pers from various geographical and botanical sources, characterized by a high degree of pun gency, come on the market as cayenne pepper. The culture method depends on the geographic source of the sorts used ; some are from tropical and subtropical situations, others from temperate regions. Some forms resembling the Japanese chil lies (Fig. 691) and Japanese capsicum of the market are grown on a small commercial scale in the southern and southeastern states. The methods of propagation and cultivation here are similar to those used in growing paprika peppers. These peppers are often perennials in a warm climate and produce during a long season, hence localities which offer these conditions are preferable. The so-called "bird peppers" belong to the general class of fruits used in producing the "cayenne" pepper of the market.
Sassafras (Sassafras offleinale, Nees.). Lauracew. Fig. 2256, Cyclopedia of American Horticul ture.
A tree of moderate size (fifty to ninety feet); bark rather finely checked longitudinally and ridged, dark grayish brown ; twigs greenish yel low ; leaves with moderately long petioles, smooth when mature, ovate in form, entire to three-cleft, with smooth margin ; flowers greenish yellow, in clusters, appearing with the leaves ; buds and twigs mucilaginous ; bark spicy and aromatic, especially the bark of the root. The bark and wood of the root are distilled for the oil of sassafras used in perfuming soaps and for flavoring purposes. The bark of the root and the pith are used in medicine. The distillation has been practiced in the mountains of eastern United States.
The bark and wood of the root, after being chopped up and split, are distilled by steam in an apparatus not differing in principle from the usual sorts of apparatus used for distilling volatile oils. [See general introduction.] Sassafras is a well known common tree, interesting in its habit and very marked characteristics of bark, branding and foliage. It is partial to sandy lands.
Seneca snakeroot (Polygala Senega, Linn.). Poly galacern. (S. C. Hood.) A native herb with a rather thick, perennial branching, light-colored root supporting a rather extensive crown, from which a large number of erect, nnbranched stems are given off, bearing numerous, alternate, oblong or lanceolate-ovate, very short-petioled leaves. The stem terminates in a close spike of small white flowers, in general ap pearance suggesting the papilionaceous type seen in the legumes. The plant is found in rocky woods of New England, to the plains of Manitoba, and northward and southward. It is much in demand for medicinal purposes both for domestic and for eign use. In view of its commercial value and threatened scarcity, its cultivation is receiving attention from the United States Department of Agriculture and other experimenters.
Since the commercial supply of Seneca snake root has been derived wholly from wild root, the plant cannot as yet be called an agricultural crop. Its cultivation, although not difficult, has so far been confined to certain experimental gardens. The soil should be light and well drained, and should be made rich with leaf-mold well worked in ; stable manure is not advisable. The plant is propagated from seed, which must be gathered in the early summer as soon as ripe. Care must be taken not to let the seeds dry. They should be mixed with moist sand, placed in earthen pots and buried two to three feet deep in the ground. They should be dug up the following spring and planted in the field in drills eighteen inches apart, and the seed covered very lightly. Seedlings should appear in two to three weeks. Cultivation consists simply in keeping clean of weeds. The first year the plants are not more than two to three inches high and are not matured for gathering for perhaps years. Plants will begin to seed when three years old. No winter covering is needed if the soil is well drained. Plants may be harvested in about four or five years from the seed.
The native range of this plant is chiefly the northern half of the United States as far west as the Rocky mountains and northward throughout Canada.
Tansy (Tanacetum rulgare, Linn.). Compositre. (G. P. Klugh.) Figs. 2463, 2464, Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.
A common perennial-rooted herb of waste places, kitchen-gardens and waysides, sending up from a strong crown a clump of upright stems, one to three feet high, bearing smooth, dark green, pin nately compound leaves made up of sharply toothed leaflets, the blade of the leaf running down from the petioles; yellow flowers, reaching a diameter of one-half inch, occur in terminal, branched, flat topped clusters. It is a rank-smelling herb, used in a dry condition in medicine. It contains a volatile oil.
It likes a rather heavy soil, doing best on a clay loam, but after having become established on a heavy clay it makes a good growth. It may be propagated either from seeds or by dividing the crowns in early spring. The plants are grown in the seed-bed or in the field, the seed being sown in March. The plants are set in three-foot rows, eighteen inches apart in the row; if seeds are used instead of plants, they are sown at the rate of two to four pounds per acre and thinned to eighteen inches when the plants are established. Seed sown in the field should be barely covered with soil. Cultivation is as for ordinary garden crops. The dried flowering tops and leaves are used in medicine. An acre should yield about 2,000 pounds of tops.