CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION. 



i55 



fORRESPONDENCE 

 ^ ^r^ and Inform/ 



Ineorm^jton^ 



A Word from California. 



Chico, California. 

 To The Editor: 



The Guide to Nature fills a unique 

 place in current literature. I hope you 

 will not try to make it any less 'child- 

 ish." I do not see how nature study 

 can ever be taught successfully in any 

 other way, and I fear that just here is 

 where so many teachers are making a 

 mistake. Of this I am convinced by 

 years of experience with the teaching 

 of the subject. Success to this most 

 excellent teacher of nature. 

 Very truly yours, 



Riley O. Johnson. 

 Department of Biological Science, 

 State Normal School. 



Remedy for Ivy Poisoning. 



Cincinnati, O. 

 To The Editor: 



Apropos to this being the period 

 of year when a great many seek sur- 

 cease from work and relief from the 

 torridity of cities, by flying to the 

 mountains, the rivers, the lakes and 

 the country, a word of suggestion and 

 advice may not be amiss. I have in 

 mind the dangers from "Poison Ivy." 

 People should be taught to recognize 

 it and thereby minimize the number 

 of cases of poisoning; but even this is 

 not an absolute safe-guard, especially 

 when one is busily engaged in pur- 

 suit of some interesting object of 

 Natural History- 

 Some persons can handle it with 

 perfect safety, even to the extent of 

 chewing the leaves ; while others are 

 affected by the slightest touch, and 

 for them an ounce of prevention is 

 worth far more than a pound of cure. 

 Strange as it may seem, so very few 

 people, even physicians do not know 

 the sovereign remedy for rhus toxi- 

 codendron ; it is Tincture of Grindelia. 



When the poisoning has occurred and 

 the characteristic symptoms are 

 present, it is to be applied on gauze, 

 clothes, or cotton, which have been 

 saturated in a solution of I to 4 or 

 1 to 5. Before the poison has had a 

 chance to act, or where one has come 

 in contact with the poison ivy, it is 

 advisable to sponge the exposed 

 portions of the body with this dilut- 

 ed solution, care to be exercised not 

 to get any of it into the eyes as it 

 smarts rather savagely. I have never 

 known it to fail, even in cases where 

 a number of other remedies have been 

 tried unsuccessfullv. It is almost a 

 specific, or as nearly so as anything 

 we know of. I never take a trip into 

 the country or the woods, nor do I 

 take canoe trips, without a supply of 

 Tr. of Grindelia. 



Yours very truly, 



G. A. Hinnen. 



Observations in Prospect Park. 



234 Willoughby Avenue, 

 Brooklyn, New York. 

 To The Editor : 



While watching the grey squirrels 

 this spring -I fell to wondering if their 

 store of nuts is exhausted before the 

 new crop ripens, and to wondering 

 further what in that case these beast- 

 ies, when far removed from the Dark 

 peanut supply, depend upon for food. 

 Not long after my question was partly 

 answered when I saw a grey squirrel 

 with his "arms" full of green grass 

 which he was industriously eating. 

 Later I saw another squirrel standing 

 by a clump of rather coarse grass, eat- 

 ing it from the plant. All the grass 

 of that kind near by looked as though 

 it had been cropped off in the same 

 way. After that I more than once 

 saw a squirrel busily eating the cat- 

 kins from a hornbeam tree. 



