MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 839 



I myself have caught female Mahseer with well-developed roe during 

 several months in the year. 1 have seen fish at different times of the year 

 working themselves over gravel and small stones in tributary streams and 

 in very shallow waters. I imagine they were working out the gravel or 

 small stones for the reception of eggs. Isaac Walton in the Compleat Angler 

 says : " Carps are observed to breed several months in one year which the 

 Pikes and most other fishes do not." 



Possibly several members may have interesting notes on this subject ? 



G. A. NEVILL. 



Balipara p. 0., Assam, July 1916. 



No. 1:1^.— VANESSA XANTROMEL^NA FOUND OCCURRING 

 BELOW 2,000 FEET ALTITUDE. 



Mr. O. C. OUenbach of Dehra Dun found some caterpillars of Vanessa 

 aanthomelcena, in his garden here, about the middle of March last, from 

 which he was fortunate in securing some good butterflies. 



This is I think the first authentic record of these butterflies being found 

 here or at so low an altitude, Dehra being under 2,000 feet. Mr. OUenbach 

 has one of the largest private collections in these parts if not in India, 

 comprising butterflies from all parts of India, Burma and Ceylon. 



W. W. GUMMING. 

 Dehka Dun, U. p., 2^th May 1916. 



No. XX.— SCORPION STING AND GARDEN RUE. 



Some time back Mr. P. S. Patuck, of Narsingpur, C. P., sent a few leaves 

 of a plant to our Society, with the following note: — " The plant is called 

 in vernacular Sitab, These leaves pounded with salt are locally applied 

 for scorpion sting, and I have to-day seen a case in which this remedy seems 

 to have removed the pain in a few minutes." 



The plant in question is the Garden Rue {Rata graveolens, L. Sp. PI. 

 (1753) 383, var. angustifolia Hook. f. in Fl. Brit. Ind., I, 485). I at once 

 started hunting for some information regarding the medical properties 

 of Rue. I found many curious things, in old and new books ; but it was 

 only after a long search that I discovered a reference to its healing pro- 

 perties in cases of scorpion sting, and that in a book which was written in 

 26 A. D. It is impossible to describe the physiological action of the 

 leaves without experiments ; but I trust that a description of the plant, 

 with a short sketch of its medical history, will be welcome to our 

 members. 



Description : Rue is a glaucous, hairless, erect, suftruticose, perennial 

 plant, with branching stems, 2 or 3 feet in height, woody below with a 

 greyish rough bark ; herbaceous and smooth above. The leaves are alter- 

 nate two and three, pinnately divided ; the leaflets are sessile, cuneate, 

 spathulate-oblong or linear-oblong, glaucous or bluish-green, 6-10 lines 

 long, gland-dotted, terminal ones obovate-cuneate. The flowers are 

 yellow, or pale greenish-yellow, in divaricately spreading corymbs ; pedi- 

 cels longer than the capsule ; bracts lanceolate. Sepals triangular, acute. 

 Petals 4, yellow, unguiculate, concave, wavy, a little irregularly toothed. 

 Stamens 8, longer than the petals ; filaments subulate ; anthers ovate, 

 obtuse, yellow. Ovary sessile ; ovules pendulous from the axis of the 



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