86 
an extract of which is used in India under the name Hasheesh 
The extent and character of the agreeable visions and sensations 
experienced by its subject are truly remarkable, and almost ex- 
belief. But, in accordance with well-known laws of re- 
action “for every hill there must be a hollow” a correspondingly 
painful state follows; a period during which death would bea 
most welcome relief, when imaginary and ill-defined terrors are 
in control, and when a homicidal mania commonly developes. 
ong the Indians of the southwestern United States the upper 
part of the stems of several species of cactus (Lophophorus) is 
used for a somewhat similar purpose. The evidence regarding 
its effects is inconsistent and it would appear that the different 
species act quite differently. Perhaps, also, other substances are 
sometimes adde Several days are usually devoted to the orgy, 
a large number of persons taking part. The drug is commonly 
chewed, and the juice swallowed. The result is a condition of 
pleasant delirium, often lasting many hours, after which there is 
stupor which may continue one or two days, or even more, and 
from which, occasionally, the subject never recovers. 
We thus see that the vegetable kingdom is capable of supply- 
ing every form of beverage, properly and improperly so called, 
from practically pure water to the most powerfully narcotic, 
even deadly substances. While the abuse of any of them is 
reprehensible, the properly controlled use of any is capable of 
producing very beneficial results, if only in medicinal forms. 
After all, the development of character is the greatest of all 
objects, and that character is the strongest and best that is capable 
of keeping within close and judicious control all the agencies of 
nature, or of art, which are capable of proper utilization 
 wRY H. Russy. 
THE PIKE COLLECTION OF ALGAE. 
The Garden has recently secured by purchase the algal her- 
barium of Colonel Nicolas Pike, which constitutes an important 
addition to the collections of algae now in the possession of this 
institution. This collection contains a little more than 3,000 
