BOTANICAL INFORMATION. .59 
As M. Planchon has not named any of the Asclepiadeous plants, I 
may soon take another opportunity of communicating to you the result 
of my examination of those I have seen in this collection. 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
CEDRON. - 
We are glad to find that our friend Mr. Purdie, of the Botanic 
Garden, Trinidad, has seen in the French papers the notice that was - 
taken of the Cedron, as mentioned in our last number of the *Kew Garden 
Miscellany,’ p. 378; and he has just sent us some further particulars, — — 
which he had published in the ‘Port of Spain Gazette,’ and which - 
we here give.— 
* During my travels in New Granada (South America), I had often 
heard of the virtues of the Cedron, long before I had the pleasure of — 
meeting with the tree. It is rare to find a Peon or Ariero without a 
seed, although they are expensive. I have, myself, paid a dollar a 
seed at San Pablo, where the tree is indigenous, even within the 
precincts of the village. Its use is not confined to the eure of serpent- 7 
bites alone, but has the reputation “of superseding sulphate of quinine — 
in cases of fever, and that in the country of the Cinchona barks, 
“Now, about eight years ago, the Government of New Granada 
sent a commission of several medical men and students, accompanied - 
by Dr. Cespides (Professor of Botany in the University of Bogota), 
to ascertain what plant produced the Cedron, its locality, aud quantity : 
procurable. You now see it in all the apothecaries’ shops in the 
different towns of that Republic ; so that now, in the midst of- forests 
of the Peruvian Bark tree, another remedy at least equally specifi E 
(and that without any chemical preparation) is in process of super- 
seding it. During my stay in Bogota, I was informed of the locality 
of the Cedron (by Dr. Cespides, a gentleman of considerable knowledge _ 
and experience in the plants of New Granada), which I found would — 
be on my route from the province of Antioguia, by way of the Rio | 
Magdalena. Thus, Providence has decreed, that out of the alluvial 
and pestilential plains of this magnificent river, a remedy should come 
for the cure of its own maladies. On my reaching the village of Nari, 
in the great valley of the Magdalena, in re 1846, L foosd a 
