WINTERGREEN FLAVOR, or EXTRACT

employed in confectionery and medicinally, owes its title to its original source, the Wintergreen shrub or plant-known botanically as Gaultheria procumbens, a member of the Heath family, and locally in some sections as "Checkerberry," "Tea-berry," etc.-whose leaves yield the true Wintergreen Oil or Oil of Gaultheria.

The principal present source of natural so-called wintergreen oil is the Black Birch, Betula Lenta, from the twigs and leaves of which is produced Oil of Betula, which is chemically identical with Oil of Gaultheria.

Wintergreen Extract is made by dissolving the oil in alcohol.

There is a shrub of the Madder family botanically classed as Mitchella repens, which is also known in some parts of the country as the "Checkerberry," and in others as the "Wintergreen," but it contains no oil and has no relation to the Wintergreen of the Heath family. It, however, supplies edible berries which, though dry and tasteless to the palate, are said to possess considerable medicinal virtue, being both tonic and soothing.