432 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



outwards across the broad, flat margin to the periphery, are 

 gradually changed into rounded ribs, some of them half a-line 

 wide. The body of the fossil, as shown in several weathered and 

 silicified specimens is composed of numerous irregular infun- 

 dibuliform layers which are, in some places, in contact, and else- 

 where, separated, sometimes three lines apart. Surface, unknown, 

 This species shows that Chonopliyllum and Ptychophyllum are 

 closely related genera. East side of the village in the bight of 

 West Bay, Manitoulin Island ; Clinton formation. Prof. R. Bell, 

 H. Gr. Vennor. Dedicated to the former. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SANGUINARIA 

 CANADENSIS, OR CANADA BLOODROOT. 



By George Duncan Gibb, M.A., M.D., LL.D., F.G.S.: Member of the 

 Royal College of Physicians in London ; Assistant Physician and 

 Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at Westminster Hospital. 



In January, 1860, I had the honor to read before the Medical 

 Society of London, a lengthy paper upon the Natural History, Pro- 

 perties, and Medical Uses of the Sanguinaria Canadensis, with the 

 chief object of making the medical profession in Britain acquainted 

 with a plant which I had employed for some years, with decided 

 advantage, in many affections of the chest and windpipe. My ob- 

 servations were the result of many years study of the plant in 

 Canada, where I had made myself familiar with everything con- 

 cerning its growth and natural history. 



That part of the paper comprising the description, composition, 

 and preparations of the Sanguinaria was published in the Pharma- 

 ceutical Journal for March, 1860; the account of its physiological 

 effects, properties, and medical uses appeared in the Glasgow Medi- 

 cal Journal for July, 1860 ; whilst that portion relating to its natural 

 history has not yet been published. Having carefully revised this 

 last, it has occurred to me that the most suitable place for its con- 

 sideration would be the Natural History Society of Montreal, a 

 body on whose behalf I zealously laboured as curator for some years, 

 before taking up my residence in London. 



As far as traditional evidence can be traced, this plant has been 

 used for hundreds of years by the various Indian tribes of North 



