1889.] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 229 



many diseases. These remedies are all to be found in the varied flora of 

 that great region. I have been shown recently specimens of " Indian 

 snuff," much used by the Indians of the Eocky Mountain regions for 

 nasal and related forms of catarrh. Two plants here go by the appella- 

 tion of "Indian snuff." One is Anemone cylindrica and the other is An- 

 emone multifida. The leaves of the plants are the part used. These are 

 gathered before the seeds are quite ripe. They are dried and reduced to 

 a fine powder. This powder is used just as the snuff of commerce. It 

 produces quite a stinging sensation, makes the eyes water, and taken in 

 sufficient quantity induces violent fits of sneezing. When these unpleas- 

 ant effects have subsided, the throat and nostrils of affected persons be- 

 come free and have a u comfortable feeling." The leaves are also broken 

 small and smoked, as cubebs,and the smoke is expelled through the nos- 

 trils for the same purpose. The juice of fresh leaves is hot to the taste, 

 and is sometimes rubbed into the nostrils instead of "snuffing." — F. W. 

 Anderson, Great Falls, Montana. 



* * 



EDITORIAL. 



The Gazette has again and again spoken of the importance of an 

 investigator consulting the literature of the subject that he is at work 

 upon. There is still such a crying need of this sort of application that at 

 the risk of being tiresome we propose to speak of it again. 



The establishment of the agricultural experiment stations has put 

 upon many the necessity of performing some kind of experimental work 

 who have either had little previous training in such work, or are mentally 

 not adapted to it, Profe >or Sanborn says truly: 1 " I may say, speaking 

 of the experiment stations, that many of us will always be more or less 

 imitators. There are but very few original thinkers and workers. 

 * * The majority of men take some problem partly solved and work 

 along that line. There are very few men in this country that lay out 

 original lines, but these few have plenty of imitators." Now it behooves 

 those who are following some line suggested by another's work, and 

 especially those who are taking the partly solved problems and working 

 at them, to know accurately what has been done before. For the failure to 

 find this out two excuses are given; first, that the literature is not access- 

 ible; second, that the busy experimenter has not time. The first is 

 somewhat of a justification ; the second is utterly puerile. The difl&culty 

 caused by the inaccessibility of literature is to be overcome in two ways. 

 In equipping the stations the library should be considered as indispensa- 

 ble as the laboratory. " Jahresberichts " and similar summaries mud be 



Experiment 



Proceedings, p. 59 



