beautiful heartfelt song which is touching to people in all corners of the globe. It will be Kalina or Kalinushka, well known to North American Indians as Cramp bark.
Russians like Kalina so much they plant it in parks as well as for home garden decoration and medicinal use. They feel that the beauty and tenderness of its creation is only one of its merits, as a deeper meaning is known to them as a shrub for health. Ukraine, White Russia and Siberia supply the country commercially, but it is grown throughout the land. Folk Medicine: White Russia especially has a very impressive list of uses. Berries are rich in vitamins, especially C and K, and minerals. They are used alone, fresh or dried, with honey for high blood pressure, heart conditions( recommended with the seeds), Cough, Cold, Tubercular lungs, Shortness of breath, Kidney; Bladder and Stomach conditions, Bleeding, Stomach ulcers. A decoction of the flowers for Coughs, Cold, Fever, Sclerosis, Lung tuberculosis, Stomach sickness( including stomach cancer). Externally: Children and adults are bathed with a strong decoction of the flowers for Tubercular skin, Eczema and various other skin conditions. For Scrofula a decoction of both berries and flowers in 1 – 10 parts, used as a tea. Clinically: Prescribed in doses of 20 – 30 drops, two to three times a day, in cases of female bleeding, hysteria, cramps, etc. Industry: Supplied by commercial farms to the food industry which uses an extract and the berries for candy, fillers, pastry, marmalade and aromatics. Pharmacy uses the bark, Folk Medicine, every part of Kalina.
CRANESBILL Geranium maculatum, L.( N. O.: Geraniaceae)
Common Names: Dovesfoot, Crowfoot, Alum Root, Spotted Geranium, Wild Geranium. Features: Native to the United States, the Spotted Cranesbill is a very familiar species in the eastern and northern areas. Geranium grows in nearly all parts of the low grounds, open woods, etc., of North America. The dark green palmately-lobed leaves stem from up to 3 ft. high plants; with swollen joints, and freely branched. Flowers, blossoming in June, are five-lobed ovary terminated by a long thick beak( hence the common name Cranesbill) and five stigmas; coming to maturity the carpels separate from the base and become resolute or spirale. The root is the official part. Geranium is its active principle. The so-called Geranium of gardens are mostly species of Pelargonium, and are native to southern Africa.