28 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Astragalus bisulcatus Gray. 



Dalea alopecuroides Willd. — (Somewhat wide ranging, but not common.) 



ErUjeron annuum Nutt. — (Wide ranging, but uncommon.) 



Kochia americana Wats. — (Restricted to saline soils.) 



Lupinus pusillus Ph. — (In sandy districts.) 



Gaillardia simplex Scheele — Quite rare in my experience. 



Oxytroijis monticola Gray — Also rare. 



Psoralea argophylla Ph. 



Dalea lanata Spreng. — (Rather plentiful, only in sandy districts.) 



Petalosternon villosus Nutt. — (In sandy districts.) 



Townsendia sericea Hook. — ( Rather wide ranging, but uncommon.) 



In concluding, I would urge that more attention be .paid, in collecting specimens, 

 to intermediate forms, or even monstrosities. If the main object in the teaching of 

 natural history is to impress upon the mind of the student nature's laws of progres- 

 sive development, and the wonderful adaptation of species to changes of environ- 

 ment, through variation and natural selection, is not this very object defeated by 

 our efforts, usually, to have only perfect or typical representatives of species in our 

 herbaria? Let all forms of different species be represented as nearly as possible. 

 Let it be the effort to do this rather than to avoid it, even though by so doing we 

 may not be able to accumulate so great a number of species. By these means, the 

 student will be brought face to face more with the facts of nature as they are, and 

 be taught by more natural and rational methods. 



THERAPEUTIC VALUE OP SOME RECENTLY-INTRODUCED 

 CHEMICALS. 



BY L. E. 8AYEE, PH. G. 



Within the past few years, considerable attention has been paid to the physio- 

 logical action and chemical constitution of many of the organic and synthetical 

 preparations of the chemist. Many of these have been introduced into medicine 

 under the title of new remedies. The study of the relation of physiological action 

 and chemical constitution, according to a certain class of practitioners, has a prom- 

 ising future before it. 



It will be impossible, in a short paper, to dilate upon the relations above referred 

 to, but a few remarks relating to the benzine series may be at this time in place. It is 

 well known by the chemist that when benzine (C,; Hg) is decomposed by substituting 

 OH for H in that compound, we have a powerful antiseptic and disinfectant, known 

 as carbolic acid. An antiseptic of a very different nature is produced when one 

 equivalent of H is substituted by carbhydroxyl COOH. The name of this compound 

 is well known as benzoic acid. Still another important antiseptic and antipyretic 

 is made by substituting two atoms of H of the benzine, one with OH. and the other 

 with COOH, forming hydroxybenzoic acid or salicylic acid. This remedy, too well 

 known to need description, is one of the most prominent of the therapeutic agents 

 of this kind, used as an external and internal remedy. 



The study of the ortho, meta, and para substitution products of benzine — the 

 manner in which ethyl, methyl, propyl, etc., is combined in the " benzine ring," has 

 occupied, for example — has been of intense interest. As before stated. I cannot do 

 more than refer to these compounds, and in doing so shall select a few which have a 



