291 
I have said nothing in my letter —— recent events in China, 
but they are very important. It is impossible to believe that 
China will remain hopelessly aii, ‘and that she will ma 
effort to cope with these disastrous times. The Chinese are just 
as clever as the Japanese ; they are wonderfully homogeneous ; 
there are no class or race hatreds as in India. Waking up is slow, 
very slow, but it must co 
In such places as this letters are esteemed more than gold, more : 
than tobacco—they a are m seré little joys we have. It is very 
hard to live in such places as this, and we only go through it by 
the aid of letters and a boim: doggedness — is acquired by 
practice. verso officers in similar stations in Siberia commit 
suicide at the rate of 5 per cent. — I Nave been told. 
My kind an to all, and best 
Yours wy pe ils 
(Signed) AUGUSTINE HENRY. 
DCXXVIIL—INSECT POWDERS. 
Recent inquiry has been made as to certain vegetable powders 
known as Persian and Dalmatian Insect Powders. As references 
to these are Bonkceren through works not usually accessible, a brief 
summary is giv 
There are ak plants employed. What is known as Caucasian 
r Persian insect powder is obtained from the flower-heads of 
Chr ysanthemum roseum, Adam (Pyrethrum roseum, Bieb.), with 
rosy flowers, a native of oe Caucasus, where it grows on mountain 
= ata high elevatio 
matian insect pow Mem , usually regarded as the more oe 
is cad from Cr, ysanthemum cinerariefolium, Visiani ( 
thrum cinerariefolium, ie ‘ev.), Bot. Mag., t. 6781, with white 
flowers, a pit of Dalm 
A full account of os plants (where, however, they ar 
referred to E species of Pyrethrum), = cultivation and silks 
is given the Fourth Report of t U.S. Entomological 
Cominision, 1885, pp. 164-180. From thie Report the following 
extracts are taken : 
HISTORY. 
“ There are very few data at hand concerning epu E - 
the poii properties of Pyrethrum. The powder has bee 
use for many years in Asiatic countries south of the Casini 
Mountains, di was sold ata high price by the inhabitants, who 
th nin 
in the mountain region of what is now cae as the Russian 
province of Transcaucasia. The son of Mr. Jum ntikoff began the 
manufacture of the article on a large scale in "1828, after which 
year the Pyrethrum industry steadily -grew, until to-day the 
export of the dried qe represents an important item in 
the revenue of those countrie 
