1883] Achenial Hairs and Fibers of Composite. 3I 
quently to get them to bite or to find their fangs, but have never succeeded, although 
I did not examine very closely.” 
Mr. Shindler informs me that he tried a similar experiment 
with the snake which wounded him, with a like result. 
Mr. Swartz, of Washington, related to me another case which 
occurred in Crescent City, Florida, in which the poison did not 
seems of a very virulent nature, the bad effects yielding readily 
to such remedies as the person bitten was able to apply. 
5. That coral snake bites are of quite rare occurrence seems 
due (1) to the lack of abundance of these serpents, especially 
about towns; (2) to their sluggish disposition, and (3), as Duméril 
- has remarked, to the small size of the mouth, which prevents 
them from fastening upon any but a sharply curved surface. Elap- 
soid serpents are not so little obnoxious in all countries as in 
North America. They are the scourge of India. 
_ 6. Numerous writers of the first half of the present century, and 
later authors as well, refer to the habits and characteristics of the 
North American and smaller South American coral snakes. The 
majority, while alluding to their close relations to the very ven- 
omous sections of the family E/apide, regard them as the inno- 
cent members of the group. 
7. I am indebted to Mr. Shindler for permission to publish the 
case in which he was the principal; to Dr. Taylor for the medital 
summary of the same; and to Dr. Kearney, Dr. J. Herff and Mr. 
Schwartz for information of the other cases cited. Also in an 
especial manner to Professor Baird, and indirectly to Mr. Bell, for 
the use of the communication of the latter observer. 
Ta t 
ACHENIAL HAIRS AND FIBERS OF COMPOSITÆ. 
BY PROFESSOR G. MACLOSKIE. 
HE large order of Composite plants has so much unity of struc- 
ture, that characters scarcely of specific value elsewhere, are 
here used for the separation of genera and for limiting sub-orders. 
Any attempt towards the discovery of additional tribal character- 
istics is therefore excusable. I have been examining the surface 
of the achenes, the hairs growing from them and their internal 
structure, and have found characters scarcely noticed by previous 
1 Duméril and Bibron : Erpétologie générale. Holbrook: North American Her- 
petology, iii, 1842, pp. 50-51. Jordan : Manual of the Vertebrates, 1878, p. 183. 
