NOTES. 



719 



like a mosquito - bite where the skin was 

 probed. The wild ganja to which the 

 hasheesh-plant corresponds as a cultivated 

 species has similar intoxicating effects, ex- 

 cept that it is less injurious to the system. 

 The natives chiefly use it spiced for the 

 hookah, or as an infusion for drinking. 

 From long continuance or excess it is a fre- 

 quent cause of insanity ; and this may pass 

 away on discontinuing the use, or result in 

 more or less permanent imbecility. It is 

 used sometimes as a medicine for cattle. 

 The number of herbs considered medicinal 

 by the natives is endless. Hardly a weed 

 grows but they find some virtue in it for 

 some ailment or another. The large leaf of 

 the castor-oil plant, heated and applied ex- 

 ternally, is used for allaying local inflam- 

 mation and pain. The leaf and bark of the 

 neem-tree are similarly applied. A small 

 weed like clover, gathered among the grass, 

 is applied to the temples to allay headaches, 

 or otherwise as a counter-irritant, as we use 

 mustard. The cherita is a well-known tonic 

 and fever preventive ; and the milk of the 

 chutwan-tree is used for stuffing what few 

 Hindoo teeth come to be in need of that 

 process. 



NOTES. 



Professor John S. Newberry has de- 

 scribed, in the " Annals " of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, some peculiar screw- 

 like fossils from the Chemung rocks of 

 Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New 

 York, which at first sight suggest a resem- 

 blance that is not real to the fossil fruit Spi- 

 rangium. Two species are identified, of ono 

 of which only one specimen has been found. 

 They consist of a cylindrical or fusiform 

 body traversed by double spiral revolving 

 ridges, which make them look very much 

 like common screws. The generic name of 

 Spiraxis has a been given to them, with the 

 specific names of major and Randalli. Pro- 

 fessor Newberry regards them as casts of 

 sea-weed stems. 



In a paper on " The First Notice of the 

 Pine-Grove or Forest River Shell-heap," Mr. 

 F. W. Putnam reprints the report made by 

 John Lewis Russell in 1840 to the Essex 

 County Natural History Society. Up to this 

 time it had hardly been doubted that these 

 heaps were of natural origin, and Mr. Rus- 

 sell does not appear to have suggested any 

 other view. 



Helen C. De S. Abbott has published 

 an analysis of the bark of Fouquieria splen- 

 dens, or the ocotilla-tree, a thorny plant, 

 of the order Tamariscinece, native to tho 

 region of the Mexican boundary-line, which 

 grows in the shape of a low fan, from eight 

 to twelve feet high, bearing foot-long scar- 

 let, trumpet-shaped flowers, and which the 

 people find useful for making fences. The 

 bark supplies a wax which differs generally 

 in its properties from known vegetable waxes, 

 and is evidently a new wax peculiar to this 

 plant. Tbe name ocotilla-wax is proposed 

 for it. 



Dr. Giles, of the Indian Government's 

 surveying steamer Investigator, has obtained 

 some animals from the Bay of Bengal which 

 appear to be new, and has proved that " the 

 Swatch," at the mouth of the Hoogly, is a 

 deep, submerged valley, forming part of the 

 original depression of the bay. 



An interesting new feature of this year's 

 May-day celebrations in London was a pro- 

 cession of cart-horses, similar to those which 

 have been regularly held in some of the 

 towns of the United Kingdom. About a 

 hundred teams participated. No prizes were 

 offered, but each driver received an illumi- 

 nated card commemorative of the occasion, 

 and acknowledging the evidences afforded of 

 " care, attention, and kindness to animals." 

 A regular observance of this kind might be 

 made the means of greatly encouraging prop- 

 er treatment of beasts of burden. 



M. Witz states, as the result of observa- 

 tions he has been making for some time on 

 atmospheric ozone, that the proportion of 

 ozone in the air of Paris last year was in- 

 verse to the mortality from cholera. 



According to a Moscow paper, only 21 

 per cent of the children attending school in 

 Russia are girls. The proportion varies with 

 the religion, being greatest among Protes- 

 tants, 45 - 4 per cent ; next among Jews, 34'1 

 per cent; next among Roman Catholics, 

 14 - 4 per cent ; and lowest among Greek 

 Catholics, 12'3 per cent. 



M. Stanislas Meunier has described 

 some silicious pebbles which are quite nu- 

 merous in the quaternary gravels of the val- 

 ley of the Loing, France, that are remark- 

 able for being hollow and inclosing, together 

 frequently with a loose stony nucleus, liquid 

 water. They are about forty-five millime- 

 tres in diameter, and the water may be heard 

 to strike against the walls of the cavity 

 when the stones are shaken. The only way 

 M. Meunier can account for the water get- 

 ting into the pebbles is by its seeping 

 through the pores, for not a sign of a crack 

 can be seen with the eye or by the aid of a 

 strong glass. 



