100 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



sues of the mouth and thereafter for a long time cause a 

 sensation Hke an electric shock whenever the tongue, lips or 

 cheeks are moved. The most interesting thing about this 

 item is that the misstatements got by editor, compositor, and 

 proof-reader. Doesn't the modern New Yorker know any- 

 thing about the woods and fields any more? 



Kkmkdies For Poison Ivy. — It is thought that there are 

 fully as many remedies against ivy poisoning as there are for 

 curing a cold. W. L. McAtee who has made a collection of 

 the i\ )• remedies claims, in the Medical Record, to have found 

 244. Among those of botanical interest recommended to be 

 taken internally are extracts of infusions of sweet fern, 

 snakeroot, pasque flower, aconite, spice bush, coffee, poison 

 sumach, pipsissewa, yellow jasmine, belladonna, and bryony. 

 Poison ivy probably has a reputation for harmfulness all out 

 of proportion to its abilities. A few people are rather severe- 

 1\- poisoned l)y it but the majority seem to be immune or nearly 

 so. The plant is common over at least a million square miles 

 of our country, yet cases of severe poisoning are almost as 

 rare as similar cases of poisoning by lady's slipper and other 

 ])lants not ordinarilv considered harmful. 



Meaning of Pennyroyal. — A correspondent asks for 

 llu' meaning of the name pennyroyal. According to the only 

 iiitorni.'ilion we have at hand, the word is a corruption of 

 puliall roval. in which p}tUaU /s itself a x'ariant of poliol. a 

 diminutive of the Latin Pulciuui or Fulegiuin by which the 

 I-'urojieau penn\roval (Mentha pulcgiuin) is known. It 

 seems (|uitc likeh' tlial pcnn\ro\al may liave been derived from 

 puliall alone, and if not, it would be interesting to know how 

 the term royal became a part of it. If our readers can add 

 anything further in explanation, we shall be glad to hear from 

 them. 



