COMMON NAME. Beech Drops.
    MEDICINAL PART. The plant.
    Description. -- This is a parasitic plant, with a smooth, leafless stem from a foot to a foot and a half in height, with slender branches given off the whole length of it. The root is scaly and tuberous.
    History. -- This plant is native to North America, and generally a parasite upon the roots of beech trees, flowering in August and September. The whole plant is of a dull red color, without any verdure. It has a disagreeable, astringent taste. It yields its virtues to water and alcohol.
    Properties and Uses. -- An eminent astringent. Used with benefit in fluxes and in diarrhoea, but possesses no property of curing cancer. It can be used with advantage in erysipelas. Locally applied to wounds, it prevents or arrests the process of mortification. It is also useful as an application to obstinate ulcers, aphthous ulcerations, etc., etc. It exerts the same influence upon the capillary system as the mineral drug tincture of iron.