Agaricus.

Botanical name: 

AGARICUS. Punk. Many species, growing on decayed trees. All more or less styptic and bitter, useful to make the Agaric, a soft powder for stopping arterial hemorrhage, in amputations of limbs, without ligature. A pleasant bitters may be made with an equal quantity of orange peal infused in wine, &c. Punk is the Indian name for all perennial fungi growing on trees and of a spongy nature: useful to make spunk or touch wood to light easily fire with. Those growing on pines and hickories are commonly deemed best.


Medical Flora, or Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America, Vol. 2, 1830, was written by C. S. Rafinesque.