SHORT ARTICLES. 



Plants Used for Poisoning Fish. Datisca glomerate 

 Benth. & Hook, has recently been sent to the Herbarium of the 

 California Academy of Sciences by Dr. J. W. Hudson of Ukiah 

 with this note; "This plant grows in stony places along the 

 banks of creeks and is somewhat rare in Mendocino County. It 

 is called Weum Kali by the tribe of the Pomas, known as 

 Yokaia, and is employed by these Indians to poison fish in the 

 same manner as Amole {Chlorogalum Pomeridianum Kunth.) or 

 Turkey-mullein {Eremocarpus setigetus Benth.)" The Spanish 

 name for the latter is Verba del Pescado. The leaves and stems 

 are dried and powdered and the powder is scattered in the 

 streams. The fish are stupified and rise to the surface of the 

 water so that they can be easily captured by the hands. 



According to Mr. C. H. Townsend, who was on the expedition 

 to the South Sea Islands with Professor Alexander Agassiz in 

 U. S. S. Albatross, the natives of the Tonga Islands have a plant 

 which they use in a similar manner to catch the fish in the sea. 

 Padre F. Manuel Blanco in Flora del Filipinas gives an ac- 

 count of the use of Menispermum cocculus E. for the same pur- 

 pose. The seeds of this plant are crushed and rubbed together 

 with any species of cray-fish or mussel which the natives find on 

 the beach. This is strewn in small pieces in the water. After 

 twenty minutes the fish who have eaten of this mixture are either 

 dead or dying and rise to the surface of the water, when they 

 can be taken out with the hands. Fish killed in this way may 

 be eaten without any harm as the old Padre himself proved by 

 eating of the fish so killed. AUCE EASTwoOD . 



Atriplex semibaccatum R. Br. in Marin County. This 

 species of Atriplex has been introduced into cultivation in Cali- 

 fornia through the Agricultural Experiment Stations of the 

 University of California. Professor E. W. Hilgard, the head of 

 the Agricultural College, has for years been trying to find plants 

 that could be used as forage plants and which could be cultivated 

 in the alkaline lands of this State. Through the kindness of Dr 



