SMO THERING OF E I 'ERG REE NS B V USNEA . 1 69 



growing on waste ground. They would probably have been passed 

 by as some sort of rank weeds, but that the handsome digitate leaves, 

 with gracefully drooping segments like fingers, caught the eye and 

 seemed to denote a plant worth studying. On breaking the tip of a 

 stalk for transfer to the vasculum, the fibres proved to be so strong 

 and ropy that a knife had to be used to secure the specimen. A short 

 search in Gray's Manual at home developed the fact that this tough 

 customer was Cannabis sativa, or, in common language, hemp. It 

 was interesting thereafter, when noting this plant on the city's vacant 

 lots, of which it is a not infrequent inhabitant, to be able to call it by 

 name; but the literature to which its name was an introduction proved 

 much more interesting, for hemp has been so long and intimately 

 associated with the human family that it has quite a story to tell. 

 From the dawn of history to the present day it has served man, and 

 in many ways — in his economy, his vices and his pleasures. It sup- 

 plied cordage for the vessels of King Hiero of Syracuse, two and a 

 half centuries before Christ; it yielded to the assassins of the middle 

 ages the powerful intoxicant and narcotic, hasliisli, which gave to 

 them their name ; its seed have been a favorite diet for canary birds 

 from time immemorial, to Russians a choice condiment, and to doctors 

 everywhere a useful anodyne. Mystic properties have long been 

 attributed to the plant by the superstitious, who used to make love 

 charms of the seeds for use on St. Valentine's day. This and much 

 more the books relate of the hemp plant. 



As with hemp so also with multitudes of other plants, particularly 

 those of the Old World. They have a place, not only in botanical 

 works, but in general literature as well, and some knowledge of the 

 parts they have played on the world's stage will add much to the 

 student's pleasure in his excursions afield. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



ON THE SUPPOSED SMOTHERING OF EVERGREENS 



BY USNEA. 



By Theodore G. White. 



I SHOULD like information from as many sources as possible, 

 regarding the effect of the growth of lichens of the genus Usnca 

 upon evergreen trees, and suggestions for stopping the spread of 

 the growth of the same. A friend of mine, who owns a small 

 island on the Maine coast, has had the value of his property seriously 

 diminished by the growth and spread of this lichen. When I first vis- 

 ited the island, ten years ago, the lichen was chiefly confined to a few 

 trees along the borders of the island. The island is thickly wooded, 



