526 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



plants are clothed with delicate hairs; and the same is generally 

 the case with those fruits or other parts which have a very fine 

 and delicate scent or flavour, these qualities being, the writer 

 believes, greatly developed by the agency of electricity. 



Poisoning by CEnanthe crocata. — Mr. Worthington G. Smith 

 records an instance of poisoning by the water dropwort, CEnanthe 

 crocata, a common Umbelliferous plant in the South of England. 

 A carter, whilst at work, ate some of the roots, supposing them to 

 be wild parsnips; in about an hour he became unconscious and 

 convulsed, and death occurred in another half-hour, before medical 

 assistance could be obtained. The man had fed his horse with roots 

 of the same plant, and the animal also expired about two hours 

 after eating them. The plant belongs to that group of narcotico- 

 acrid poisons comprising the Solanaceae (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, 

 &c), and characterized by producing convulsions with delirium. 

 The juice of the plant was in this instance of a yellow colour; it 

 has been stated that a variety of the plant with colourless juice is 

 a less virulent poison. The taste of the root is said to be inter- 

 mediate between that of celery and turnip. 



Mistletoe on the Oak. — Dr. Bull records, in the ' Transactions 

 of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club,' a very interesting case of 

 this extremely rare occurrence. The tree grows in the hedge-row 

 of a field called the Harps, at Haven Aymestry, in the ancient 

 forest of Deerfold, in Herefordshire. It was discovered in the 

 spring of 1869, but the mistletoe must have been growing on the 

 oak for some years. The oak is of the variety sessiliflora, and may 

 be some fifty or sixty years old. The mistletoe is a female plant, 

 and grows high up on the main stem. It forms a large spreading 

 bunch, with a diameter of 3 feet 6 inches, and springs out from 

 the oak in a single stem, nearly 4 inches in circumference. The 

 mistletoe is also growing on a thorn close by, and has probably 

 sprung from a seed dropped by a bird from above. The great 

 rarity of the growth of mistletoe on the oak is proved by the fact 

 that there are but eight examples which have been well authenti- 

 cated as existing at the present time ; the localities being Eastnor 

 Park, Herefordshire ; Tedstone Delamere, Herefordshire ; Forest of 

 Deerfold, Herefordshire ; Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire ; 

 Sudbury Park, Monmouthshire ; Dunsfold, Surrey ; Hackwood 

 Park, Hants ; and one near Plymouth. 



The Cinchona in the West Indies. — In a recently-issued Colo- 

 nial Blue-Book, Sir James P. Grant, the Governor of Jamaica, 

 states that the cinchona plantation in that island may now be pro- 

 nounced a complete success. Cinchona plants were first received 

 in 1866. By the close of 1867 the number of young plants had 

 so much increased, that it became necessary to provide land for 

 their final establishment on a planter's scale. Six hundred acres of 



