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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[April 1, 1867. 



BOTANY. 



Poison and Antidote. — Eor the first time I 

 gathered the poison-oak {Rhus toxicodendron), a 

 pretty plant, that climbs by rootlets like the ivy, and 

 trails gracefully over both rocks and trees. Some 

 persons are most seriously affected by it, especially 

 such as are of fair complexion, if they only venture 

 near where it grows. It produces swelling about the 

 eyes, dizziness, and fever ; the poisonous effects are 

 most virulent when the plant is bursting into leaf. 

 I picked, examined, and walked amidst the trees 

 over which it twined thickly, but experienced not 

 the slightest symptoms of inconvenience. Still I 

 know others that suffer whenever they come near 

 it. Where the poison-oak thrives, there, too, grows 

 a tuber known to the settlers as Bouncing Bet, to 

 the botanist as Saponaria officinalis, the common 

 soap-wort. The tuber is filled with a mucilaginous 

 juice, which, having the property of entangling air 

 when whisked up, makes a lather like soap. This 

 lather is said to be an unfailing specific against the 

 effects of the poison-oak — the poison and its anti- 

 dote growing side by side. — /. K. Lord's " Natu- 

 ralist in Vancouver Island." 



The Larch-Tree. — Amongst the timber which 

 was brought to Rome for the purpose' of building 

 the bridge called Naumachiaria, about the 20th year 

 a.d., was a Larch that measured two feet square in 

 thickness throughout, from end to end, and was of 

 the extraordinary length of 120 feet ; the tree must, 

 therefore, have been not less than from 130 tol50 feet 

 in height. Tiberius Caesar would not allow this won- 

 derful trunk to be used in the erecting of the bridge 

 then building, but commanded it to be placed where 

 all persons might see it as a curiosity, and where it 

 remained for about thirty years, until Nero em- 

 ployed it in building his vast amphitheatre. Dr. 

 Pallas, in his survey of the Russian dominions in 

 Asia, observed several tumuli in Kamtschatka, reared 

 at a period so remote that none of the present in- 

 habitants had any tradition respecting their origin. 

 The platform was covered by larch-wood, over which 

 the mound of earth was raised, and the wood was 

 found to be incorrupted. — Syha Florifera. 



Ancient Names of Plants.— Much informa- 

 tion about them will be found in the " Cruydt 

 boek, or Herbarium " of the Belgian botanist, R. 

 Dodonasus, of which there are existing five Elemish, 

 one French, two Latin, and five English editions ; 

 the latter, 1st ed. 1578, under the name of " A new 

 Herball," translated by Henry Lyte, printed by 

 Van Der Loe at Antwerp, and "to be sold at 

 London in Powels Churchyarde, by Gerard Dewes/' 

 the second English edition (158G), and the 3rd 

 (1595), only have plates ; 1st, 4th (1000) and 5th 

 (1619) have none. The edition of 1595 was " im- 



prented at London by Edmund Bollifant." In 1850, 

 Dr. Alavoine, of Malines, and Prof. Charles Morren, 

 of Liege, published a concordance of the names 

 given by Dodonseus, with the Linnaean denomina- 

 tions.— i?., Melle. 



The Birch.— Christopher the Third, King of 

 Denmark, in 1450, received the unjust surname of 

 Berka Earning, which signifies King of Bark, 

 because in his reign there was such a scarcity that 

 the peasants were obliged to mix the bark of this 

 tree with their flour. — Syha Florifera. 



Patthur-ke-phul. — Under this name two lichens 

 found in Britain, Parmelia perlata and Parmelia 

 perforata, are sold in the bazaars of India, and are 

 employed medicinally by the Hakeems, or native 

 doctors. 



Pith. — The economic uses of pith have not been 

 numerous, but amongst them must be mentioned 

 the rice-paper used in China, and prepared by 

 Kieung ; the pith of the JEschynomene, and the 

 Aralia papyrifera, cut in a circular manner, so as 

 to obtain large thin and evenly-cut sheets. It is 

 used for drawing, and for writing. The cellular 

 pith-like stems of the JEschynomene aspera, called 

 " shola," have been forwarded to this country, from 

 India, and have been made into various ornaments, 

 models of buildings, hats, boxes, and life-buoys. 

 Its lightness and non-conducting property of heat, 

 render it very fitted for the manufacture of hats. — 

 Dr. Edward Smith. 



Babeer. — In the February number there is a 

 notice of the true papyrus having been discovered in 

 the marshes of the Huleh, by the Bev. H. B. Tris- 

 tram. Dr. Thomson, in his " Land and the Book," 

 speaking of the same locality, says, — " It is an im- 

 penetrable jungle of ordinary cane, mingled with that 

 peculiar kind called ' babeer,' from whose stems the 

 Arabs make coarse mats for the walls and roofs of 

 their huts. This cane is the prominent and distinc- 

 tive production of these marshes, both at the north 

 and south end of the lake. I have seen it also on 

 the banks of brooks on the plain of Sharon, north of 

 Jaffa. The stalk is not round, but triangular. It 

 grows eight or ten feet high, and ends above in a 

 wide-spreading tuft of stems like broom-corn, shoot- 

 ing out in every direction with surprising regularity 

 and beauty. It imparts a singular appearance to 

 the whole marsh, as if ten thousand thoua nd 

 brooms were waving over it." Is this "babeer 

 cane " another, or merely local, name for the true 

 papyrus? If so, it would appear to be more 

 widely distributed in Palestine. Du Chaillu, I 

 believe, mentions the papyrus in Western Equa- 

 torial Africa, as also Speke, in one of the lakes near 

 the source of the Nile.— E. D. C. 



