17 



This can be done by vigorously washing the affected and 

 exposed parts with soap and water and a scrabbiag brush ; that is 

 to say, by mechanically removing the oil. As the active principle 

 is very soluble in alcohol, other processes may be employed to 

 remove the oil. The exposed parts may be washed repeatedly 

 with fresh quantities of alcohol and a scrubbing brush. The 

 poisonous oil may be thus removed in alcoholic solution. Another 

 way of proceeding would be to wash the exposed parts with an 

 alcoholic solution of lead acetate ; in this case the poisonous 

 principle would be first transformed in its insoluble lead 

 compound and then washed away with alcohol. 



The washing must be done thoroughly when alcohol is em- 

 ployed, as otherwise the alcohol might only serve to distribute the 

 oil more widely over the skin. The finger nails should be cut 

 short and also perfectly cleaned with the scrubbing brush. Oily 

 preparations, or anything which dissolves the poisonous oil, if 

 used, should be immediately removed, as they may ouly spread 

 the poison, giving jt a larger area on which to work. 



The treatment above outlined cannot cure the already inflamed 

 parts, which must heal by the usual process of repair, but it does 

 prevent the spreading of the inflammation, and may serve to 

 remove the poison betore it has had time to produce its 

 • characteristic effects upon the skin. 

 Harvard Medical School, Boston. 



V.-STAPELIAS. 



The Asdepiadea' are remarkable amongst Dicotyledons for 

 having, like the Orchidm- amongst Monocotyledons, their pollen 

 coherent into waxy masses called poJUnia. There is no other 

 resemblance between the two families, and the complicated modes 

 of fertilization to which their peculiarity of structure lends 

 itself are essentially different in the two cases. Amongst the 

 Asdepiadece no tribe is marked out ]>y such striking characters as 

 the Stappliece. They were amongst the earliest South African 

 plants to attract the attention of cultivators in P^urope. Francis 

 Masson, " then one of the under-gardeners at Kew, who was sent 

 out in 1792 to collect plants for the establishment, paid particular 

 attention to them, and in 1796 published a folio volume ot 

 coloured figures and description of species of the group which is 



Stapelias are by no means easy to keep alive under horticul- 

 tural conditions. 



The following memorandum drawn up by Mrs. Barber, a well- 

 known African botanist and an accomplished aitist, gives some 

 account of their habits in their native country : - 



In this colony the name Stapelia is given indiscriminately '- 

 all the different species included in the genera 

 Huernia, and Stapelia. They are all commonly 

 " Stapelias " throughout the land. 



Piamnthu 



