Comptonia.

Comptonia. Myrica asplenifolia. (Comptonia peregrina L., Coulter). Sweet Fern. Ferngale. Meadow-fern. (Fam. Myricaceae.)—A shrubby indigenous plant, named from the resemblance of its leaves to the spleenwort fern. It grows in sterile soil, from Nova Scotia to North Carolina and Michigan. All parts of it possess a resinous, spicy odor. R. T. Chiles has found in it tannic and gallic acids, volatile oil, extractive, gum, resin, and a substance resembling saponin. (A. J. P., xlv, 306.) H. K. Bowman found it to contain 8.20 per cent. of tannin. (A. J. P., 1869, 193.) It is said to be tonic and astringent; its decoction is used in diarrhea.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.