5 
Sa eEe)  — ap  O ae es 
Sy fae cee 
1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 113 
OPEN LETTERS. 
Raising Diatoms. 
Jn reference to your kind words in the April GAZETTE, on my 
3 Raising Diatoms in the Laboratory,” I would have been further grati- 
fied had the fact been noticed of my experiments of passing the spores 
te 
space, my lecture, “The Life of a Diatom.” The audience was chiefly 
composed of the families and friends of the members, but unfortuna‘ely 
of Pleurosigma, was shown to an audience, with lines a third of an inch 
thick and beautifully clear. Besides other nice points, a feature of which 
no mention is made in the printed lecture was the exhibit of lantern 
slides of Mr. Christian’s new and very curious diat As pi 8 
these interested all, but their scientific side could only be seen hy the 
di T nuch seems due from me t uch space was 
generously given in the Journal, and which could only present it as 
popular matter. Ss 
Freehold, N. 
Antidote for Cicuta poisoning. 
unconsciousness for a few seconds, followed by sickening nausea. Upon 
reaching home the mother suspected he had made a mistake in the plan', 
and not daring to wait to send several miles for a physician she procured 
a stalk of city gong perfoliatum, made a tea of it, and gave freely as 
ys 
dangerous symptoms had disappeared. It was discovered that he had 
chewed and swallowed the juice of more than half of a four ounce root of 
Cicuta maculata. The physicians who afterwards saw the amount of the 
root which he had taken were surprised at the _— 
Harmonsburg, Px. E. WHITESIDE. 
On the 18th of last September, while out on a little excursion along 
the B. & M. railroad near here, I found quite a patch of xalis violacea in 
0 be exceedingly vigorous. However, the strangeness of this freak o 
autumnal blooming was perhaps equaled by the fact that there was not a 
