346 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



a depth of more than a meter by a yellow, soft, insipid, ino- 

 dorous substance, which crumbles under the lingers to an 

 impalpable powder. The dry powder burns without flame 

 or odor, but when moistened gives off during combustion 

 much smoke and odor of a burning plant. By exclusion they 

 have decided that this matter consists of the spores of species 

 of ferns, probably Polypodiacece. The spores are not those 

 of Lycopodiacecv, according to the writers ; but they have 

 the shape, markings, and color of the spores of the Polypo- 

 dlacece, with large fronds now occurring on the island (Nat- 

 uralist, May, 1877). 



Vegetable Poisons of Samoa. 



The vegetable poisons used by the Samoa-Islanders to coat 

 their spears and arrows formed the subject of a paper by the 

 Rev. Thomas Powell, read at the Linnaean Society, March 

 15. It is stated that human thigh-bones are used to tip the 

 weapons. These latter are dipped into a composite material 

 the chief poisonous ingredient of which is a milky juice from 

 several trees, among others Calophyllum inophyllum. To this 

 is added a substance got from wasps' nests, and also the fluid 

 derived from putrescent sea-cucumbers (IlolotJinria). After 

 dipping, the arrows are smoked in a kind of kiln, and stuck 

 into the flower-stalk of a species of Tacca. Thus preserved 

 from damp, they are laid aside ready for use as occasion may 

 arise. The poison, it is said, brings on convulsions and teta- 

 nus, and death follows; though occasionally only irritating 

 wounds arise. Berthold Seemann, in his " Flora Vitiensis," 

 has already described certain trees said to yield poisonous 

 extracts, and these somewhat agree with this later account. 

 There are others, however, that are dubious as to the viru- 

 lent effects that may arise from the said poisoned weapons 

 (Gardeners' Chron., March, 24, 1877). 



Sarracenia Yariolaris. 



In 1874 I prepared notes on S. variolaris, in which it was 

 stated, as one of the conclusions reached, that the sweet 

 secretion at the mouth of the tubes was simply a lure to in- 

 sects, and not stupefying or intoxicating, as had been sup- 

 posed. Last year, having read an interesting article on this 

 subject, in which the writer arrived at conclusions directly 



