204 
Another fruit which requires special mention is the Garambulla, 
among the smallest of the edible cactus fruits, but growing upon 
one of the largest of its trees, Myrtidlocactus geometrizans (Mart.) 
Console. This tree grows in the form ofa candelabra, the crown 
consisting of a dense mass of ao four- or five-angled branches, 
as thick as the arm or leg. e flowers and fruits occupy the 
edges of the angles, usually oe touching one another through- 
out. The fruits are as large as small gooseberries, and of an ex- 
tremely deep purple. They bear the flower remains upon the tip 
and, unlike most other cactus fruits, are entirely smooth. They 
are collected sometimes by shaking, by waiting until they fall 
from their own ripeness, by scraping the angles with the end ofa 
pole or, oftenest of all, by hand-picking. Thousands of bushels 
of them are sold annually in the market places in the fresh con- 
dition and other thousands are dried for winter use. They are 
sweet and delicious, of a flavor very hard to describe, that of a 
combination of various fruits, perhaps resembling the mulberry 
more than any other one frui 
Altogether, while we cannot — the Cactaceae as among 
the most useful of the families of plants, their aggregate impor- 
tance must be rated as great and their possibilities even greater. 
Russy. 
MUSHROOM POISONING. 
The recent epidemic of mushroom poisoning, during which 
about thirty persons lost their lives within a few weeks in the 
vicinity of New York City alone, was undoubtedly due to the 
ni 
g angel,” in the groves and woodlands of this region. After 
i: heavy and continued rains of the last week in August, fol- 
lowing a prolonged drought, mushrooms of many kinds sprang 
up in great quantity, the white form of the deadly amanita being 
conspicuous because of its color and large size, as well as because 
of its abundan 
The pete. were mainly among the ignorant and foreign- 
born, who, to my personal knowledge, often collect everything 
