Note 37 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The plant which throughout Canada bears the name of Herba capillaris is likewise one of those with which a great trade is carried on in Canada. The English in their plantations call it Maiden-hair; it grows in all their North-American colonies, which I travelled through, and likewise in the southern parts of Canada; but I never found it near Quebec. It grows in the woods in shady places and in a good soil37. Several people in Albany and Canada, assured me that its leaves were very much used instead of tea, in consumptions, coughs, and all kinds of pectoral diseases. This they have learnt from the Indians, who have made use of this plant for these purposes since times immemorial. This American maiden-hair is reckoned preferable in surgery to that which we have in Europe38; and therefore they send a great quantity of it to France, every year. The price is different, and regulated according to the goodness of the plant, the care in preparing it, and the quantity which is to be got. For if it be brought to Quebec in great abundance, the price falls; and on the contrary it rises, when the quantity gathered is but small. Commonly the price at Quebec is between five and fifteen sols a pound. The Indians went into the woods about this time, and travelled far above Montreal in quest of this plant.