SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 47 



but all iu vain ; for, on my subsequent removal to Kingston, I found 

 the swelling much increased in her face, legs, and thighs, with a puf- 

 finess in her belly. A planter from above Rocks breakfasted with me ; 

 I called the girl to get some water ; he was alarmed on seeing her con- 

 dition, and advised the use of the cacoon, or antidote, observing that he 

 had made a perfect cure of a girl in the same state. I proceeded according 

 to his directions, and with the like success. It is now eighteen months 

 since, and, thanks be to God, she is now in perfect health. I therefore 

 think myself in duty bound to publish the same for the benefit of my 

 fellow-creatures." Ignorance alone could only raise a doubt. 



This plant could be freely cultivated in this island to any extent. 

 The range of mountain land is very great, and scarcely serviceable for 

 other plants occupied by limited means. 



N. WILSON. 

 The oily seeds of this West Indian shrub are said by Lindley to be 

 intensely bitter, and act virtually both as emetics and purgatives. The 

 seeds of Feuillala triobata yield a fatty oil, used instead of ointment in 

 pains of the joints. The Americans employ the oil of both species for 

 lamps. In Brazil the seeds are considered an effectual remedy against 

 the bites of poisonous serpents, and particularly as an antidote to the 

 poison of Rhus toxicodendron, Mancenilla, and Spigelia, when fresh, and 

 bruised in water. The leaves of F. cordifolia are said to possess the same 

 properties. 



imtttiiir jfntM, 



The Edible Birds' Nests op the East. — The eminent naturalist, 

 M. Moquin-Tandon, lately presented to the Academie des Sciences 

 a carefully written paper by M. P. Bories, of the Island of Reunion, 

 " On the Nests of the ' Salanganes' (Hirundo escidenta) and the Japan 

 Moss." Ornithologists recognise five species of salanganes, nearly 

 all of which are found in the Indian Archipelago. A single species 

 exists in the Island of Reunion, and it is to the study of this bird's 

 nest that M. Bories has given considerable attention. He found 

 it to be composed of a species of lichen (AJectoria luteoki) which grows 

 abundantly on the trees of that island, and of a variable quantity 

 of mucus secreted by the salivary glands of this bird. M. Bories caught 

 one of them carrying in its beak filaments of the Alectoria. This is 

 what, no doubt, gave rise to the circumstance mentioned by Buffon, that 

 it was supposed in the Malayan peninsula that these nests were partly 

 made by the birds from the fry of a certain fish abundant along the 



