80 THE AMERICAN BOTANrST". 



AscuEPiAS CuRASSAViCA MEDICINAL.— A recently sug-- 

 gested remedy for consumption is derived from Asclepias 

 curassavica a milkweed with bright scarlet flowers found' 

 wild in many tropical lands and often cultivated for orna- 

 ment in our Southern States. The plant is variouslv 

 known as red-head, blood flower, false ipecac, Jamaica 

 wild liquorice and swallot-wort and is a common weed irt 

 the West Indies. According to Indian Gardening a tinc- 

 ture of the leaves is said to be very beneficial in the first 

 stages of consumption and further investigations of its re- 

 puted properties are likely to be made. In this connection, 

 it will be recalled that similar powers have been ascribed 

 to Asclepias tuherosa one of its common names being 

 pleurisy root. 



Insecticides for Herbarium Pests.— The herbarium, 

 beetle {Sitodrepa panicea) and the book louse {Atropos 

 diviniatoria) are a pair of pests that unite in making 

 things interesting for curators. It is to guard against 

 their depredations that plants are poisoned, fumigated 

 and kept in close cases. The little brown herbarium beetle 

 is the greatest of these pests. It devours not only the ten- 

 der parts of plants but even woody stems. Long associa- 

 tion with plants has perhaps given it some botanical, 

 knowledge, at least it knows how to distinguish between, 

 families and genera. It leaves the sedges, grasses and 

 ferns decidedly alone, but has an overweening fondness for 

 composites, lily-worts and plants of the bean family. Sap- 

 rophytes and plants with milky juice are also in great 

 favor. The commonest method ot preventing its depreda- 

 tions is by poisoning the plants with corrosive sublimate,, 

 the specimens being dipped in the solution.. This is objec- 

 tionable because it discolors the specimens besides causing 

 thin leaves to curl. It also appears to fail to protect after 

 the lapse of years. Solutions of arsenic are objectional for 

 similar reasons. In view of these facts plants are no- 

 longer poisoned in most large herbariums, but instead 

 they are fumigated with carbon bi-sulphide. At the Gray 

 Herbarium of Harvard University, the mounted plants are 



