3 ?° Miscellanies 



Griscom 



CHEMISTRY. 



L Salicine. — Dr. Julius Guerin communicated to the French 

 Academy, on the 12th of April, a letter on the discovery of Salicine, a 

 substance extracted from the bark of the Willow, (Salix alba). When 

 M. Leroux, pharmacien at Vitry le-Francais, informed the Academy 

 of the discovery he had made of Salicine, some persons claimed the 

 honor of it for M. Buchner, a German Chemist. The memoir of 

 this gentleman which is just published in the Journal of Pharmacy, 

 proves most clearly, that the two substances are not the same ; and 

 that there is as much difference between the salicine of Buchner and 

 that of Leroux, as between the extract of quinquine, and quinine. 

 Salicine has been employed with much success at La Charite, in the 

 cure of intermittent fevers. — Rev. Encyc. A similar, but not identi- 

 cal notice, was inserted in our last. — Ed. 



2. Milk Tree. — M. Delessert communicated two letteis which he 

 had received from Scotland. The first, relative to a new tree which 

 furnishes milk fit to drink. Humboldt had discovered in the prov- 

 ince of Venzuela this curious tree, called the Cow Tree, (palo de 

 Vaca,) which is of the family of the Urticae, and which furnish- 

 es a very good milk. Since that time, Mr. Lockhart, conductor of 

 the Botanic garden of La Trinite, has discovered several individuals 

 of them in the province of Carraccas, the milk of which is used by the 

 inhabitants. He has sent several specimens to Europe. Mr. James 

 Smith has recently found on the borders of the River Demcrary, a tree, 

 called hya-hya by the natives, which furnishes a very rich milk, thick- 

 er than that of the Cow, free from bitterness, and but slightly viscid. 



The second letter of Mr. Delessert is relative to the germination of 

 the dioecious plant, long known by the name of Nepenthes, and re- 

 markable for the urns which placed at the extremities of its leaves, be- 

 come filled with drinkable water, and then close by an operculum. A 

 female plant having been brought into contact with a male individual at 

 Edinburgh, mature grains were obtained, which being sown, furnish- 

 ed several small plants. Dr. Wallich, director of the garden at Cal- 

 cutta, has sent M. Delessert a new species of this plant, whose urns 

 are spherical. The East India Company has placed at the disposal of 

 Dr. Wallich the beautiful and numerous collections, obtained at great 

 expense by the botanists whom they had sent throughout India, and 

 the neighboring countries, and has charged this gentleman to furnish 



duplicates to the Botanists of France, and other countries.— Idem- 

 April, 1830. 



