1895. ] Bricfer Articies. 325 
The materials of the collection, which were gathered during the last 
ten or twelve years of Miss Gilbreth’s life, for her own use as a stu- 
dent and teacher, are of three kinds: 1. Pressed specimens for an 
herbarium; 2. Material preserved in alcohol for microscopic study; 3. 
Dried specimens of fruits and seeds preserved in boxes to illustrate the 
dissemination of plants. . . . 
The collection to illustrate the dissemination of plants is of special 
importance and, in fact, is thought to be unique in its design and ex- 
tent among American botanical collections. The specimens of this 
collection have been placed in boxes of multiple sizes, arranged in 
trays of standard herbarium size and have been classified with refer- 
ence to the agencies of dissemination as devised for: 1. Dissemina- 
tion by gravitation; 2. Dissemination by water; 3. Dissemination by 
wind; 4. Dissemination by animals; and 5. Mechanical expulsion. 
Under each of these heads specimens are classified with reference to 
the device employed—as edible berry, hooked appendage, wing-like 
expansion, etc. Under each of these headings the special morphology 
of the part which serves the purpose is briefly stated, explaining what 
part of the plant is modified and in what way, to form the wing, hook 
or whatever the device may be.—Condensed from Boston Zranscript, 
May 22, 1895. 
Poisoning by shepherd’s purse.—A case was reported to me recently 
by acompetent and reliable physician, of severe poisoning of two child- 
ren by eating the tops of shepherd’s purse (Bursa bursapastoris). The 
effects were noticeable within half an hour and were so severe that the 
physician was called within two hours. He found the patients pale 
and exhausted; vomiting was frequent, the pulse very rapid and too 
feeble to be counted, breathing difficult; blood was vomited and one 
of the patients passed bloody urine. 
Calcined magnesia and olive oil were administered, also whisky and 
digitalis. The symptoms continued severe for fifteen hours. Re- 
covery followed. The children had been strong and healthy, and 
took nothing apparently that could have produced these symptoms 
except the shepherd’s purse which they ate while going across the field 
to the place where their father was plowing. 
I visited the locality on learning of the case and searched in the 
vicinity and over the immediate neighborhood for other plants that 
might have been taken by the children but could find nothing sus- 
Picious except very small quantities of Rhus radicans. I think it 
highly improbable that the children partook of this and besides they 
aver that they ate only the shepherd’s purse. 
A very few plants were found affected with albugose but the fungus 
