158 
poru,’ It is a rare plant. I am sending by this mail the dried 
leaves and twigs of this plant. They are marked A, and are the’ 
twigs with thorns. [Barleria Prionitis. 
Ina separate box are sent leaves and twigs of another plant alleged 
to be more efficacious and still rarer, but of this I have no reliable 
proof. This appears to have no name in any language. [Justicta 
Gendarussa, : 
ai No used ‘ Salate phang poru.’ I can get no reliable data as 
to proportions used.” 
(Signed) Erie Sr. J. Lawson, 
18/10/08 
Tn a subsequent letter to his brother, dated February 22, 1909, 
Mr. E. St. J. Lawson Says :-— : 
“The Siamese say that Justicia is the female of Barleria, and 
the latter never has flowers or fruit, and the former has flowers 
only but no fruit, I suppose this is nonsense, but I cannot get any 
flowers of Barleria or fruit of Justicia. I have gone into the 
more numerous than cobras. This, however, in no wa’ applies to 
the case of Nai No, who most certainly was bitten by a hamadryad. 
V 
here as ‘ Salate phang poru.’ Justicia Gendarussa has no name at 
all in Siam, as far as I can discover.” 
There appears to be no record at Kew, nor has any reference 
been found, as to the use of these plants as antidotes for snake 
bites, and the interest of Mr. Lawson’s communications lies in the 
evidence they afford that a belief in the efficacy of these two plants 
prevails among certain classes of Siamese. 
According to Watt (Dict. Econ, Prod. Ind.) “the seeds of 
| : Linn., are supposed to be an antidote for snake 
bite, and the roots and leaves are used to reduce swellings.” 
Sat 
Green Ginger. —A query was addressed to Kew by Mr. W. Stevenson 
of Alfreton as to the nature of the ginger root “ which was Ks 
by the peasantry in the later middle ages as ‘ or ger. in 
letter on the subject it is mentioned that “In Hull, adjoining what 
was known as the gardens of the Great Manor House the 
ginger, were sometimes imposed with the object of testifying to the 
ord’s seignory,” and in the Warwickshire Hundred Roll is to be 
found “ = Servicium unius radicis gyngibri . . . uniusr : 
tMes Woes, Corbett, Bursar of King’s College, Cambridge, 
- Informs us that rent was. occasionally pai in - ginger. “In the 
