70 DEPAETMENTAL REPOETS. 



greatly reduced in the best-managed plantations, and the third show- 

 ing that none of the coffee varieties is eqnal to the parent type in 

 j)roductiveness, with reasons for believing that this deficiency is due 

 to close breeding. The culture of the Central American rubber tree 

 (Castilloa) has received special attention, and some interesting data 

 have been secured which -will be used in developing this industry in 

 the future. 



DRUG AND MEDICINAL PLANT INVESTIGATIONS. 



Under the direction of the Botanist, Dr. Rodney H. True has con- 

 ducted work on drug and medicinal plants. The work was not organ- 

 ized until late; consequently there is little to report in the way of 

 results. There is an increasing interest in this work owing to the fact 

 that a considerable ijortion of the j)lants now used as drugs are imported. 

 The amount of monej^ annually sent abroad for j)lants of this kind will 

 probably aggregate $8,000,000, and there is no reason whj^a consider- 

 able portion of this should not be secured to our own people by the 

 growing of such plants in this country. With a view to encouraging 

 this work, cooperative experiments on the culture of belladonna, digi- 

 talis, stramonium, hyoscyamus, aconite, arnica, licorice, and the opium 

 poppy have been arranged and inaugurated Avitli a number of experi- 

 ment stations, as already set forth in the early part of this report. 

 Small plats of drug plants are being grown in the hope of learning the 

 influence of climate, latitude, etc., on the development of the plants 

 in question, and on the production of their characteristic active prin- 

 ciples. A similar experiment is being carried on at Madison, Wis., 

 by Mr, Albert Ovenden. At Dover, Mass., Mr. George H. Woodhull 

 has planted one-half acre of drug-producing plants, for the purpose of 

 giving the culture of these plants for the market a practical test. At 

 Washington, experiments on a small scale have been undertaken at the 

 Arlington Farm and on the Potomac Flats. On the Arlington Farm, 

 plats aggregating one-half acre have been seeded with the kinds of 

 plants already enumerated, and a like area on the Potomac Flats has 

 been similarly treated. Small sej)arate cultures of aconite, valerian, 

 golden seal, and Seneca snakeroot, under special conditions, are also 

 located here. 



POISONOUS PLANT INVESTIGATIONS. 



This work, conducted by Dr. V. K. Chesnut, was carried on almost 

 exclusively in the ofi&ce; but the month of July, 1001, was devoted to 

 laboratory and field investigations in Montana, and from July to 

 February special laboratory studies were made at Bozeman, Mont., 

 and the Johns Hopkins Medical School. The laboratorj^ work resulted 

 in the discovery, first, that the effect of at least two of the loco weeds 

 of Montana is unquestionably due to some chemical compound which 

 they contain; second, that the poisonous principle of Zygadenus 

 venenosus is an alkaloid closely related to veratrine, the physiological 

 effect of which can be offset by the use of diuretics. During the fiscal 

 year ended June 30, 1902, 35 cases of plant poisoning were investi- 

 gated. These do not include cases investigated in the field, and the 

 number unquestionably falls very far short of the number of cases 

 which actually occurred during that time. 



