1692] Briefer Articles. 193 
grams, or 69.02 per cent. of the original amount. This may be regard- 
ed as representing the solids of the nectar. It was transparent and 
non-crystalline. On being dissolved in water it showed a strongly 
reducing action toward Fehling’s solution, indicating the presence of 
glucose sugars. In the polariscope a specific rotation of +13.7° was 
noted, which after inversion became —10.8° showing the presence of 
cane sugar. From the polariscope data were calculated 11.23 per cent. 
cane sugar and 57.7 per cent. glucose. 
he small amount of material prevented a more extended exami- 
nation. The composition is expressed very closely by these percentages: 
Water, 30.98; cane sugar, 11.23; glucose, 57:79. 
Tn this connection a late paper by P. C. Plugge (Archiv der Pharma- 
' CE 220, 554) is of interest. Searching for the cause for Xenophon’s 
teference to poisonous honey, he examined the nectar of Rhododendron 
Pontica and found that it had a poisonous effect upon small animals. 
It was not ascertained if bees were harmed by it or not. The poison- 
ous principle was isolated and called andrometoxin; it was also found 
in the nectar of several other. Ericacez, the honey from which would 
Se tedly be poisonous.—W. E. Stone, Purdue University, La 
id ette, Lhd. 
Slaucescens was described and figured in Nov. Gen. et Spec. vol. 111. 
5 *99, t. 223, from plants collected between Acapulco and La Venta 
*pMfoxonera. Dr. Gray, in Syn. Flora vol. 11. 92, refers the A. 
United s e Bot. Mex. Bound. p. 162, to this species. The 
and tates species, however, is clearly distinct from A, glaucescens 
ve should be referred to A. elata Benth. Dr. Gray, however, in the 
“arias Suppl. P. 401, considered the two the same species, but in 
= a Sht of this new material I am convinced we have two good 
though closely related. A. elata has oblong or oval leaves, 
at the apex very like A. obtusifolia. A. glaucescens has 
Ser and narrower leaves, oblong to linear-oblong and acute. 
ex) fe pare much larger in A. elata and the hoods are spreading; 
Posing the Synastegium; in .A. glaucescens the hoods are longer 1n- 
han the gynostegium and erect and connivent; there 
