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Azolla is a minute reddish coloured plant belonging to 

 the order Bhizocarpeae. There are five species recorded 

 of which one, Azollo pinnata R. Br. is by no means an 

 uncommon plant in ditches and especially in the ponds in 

 which the Chinese cultivate Pistia Stratiotes L. (Kiamban) 

 and Colocasia antiquorum the Keledi to feed their pigs. 

 In general appearance and growth it resembles a Duckweed, 

 but instead of having one round leaf, it is rather finely cut 

 up into small lobes, the whole pond being usually about 

 half an inch long. According to Peckholt, the plant forms 

 a thick mat nearly six inches thick on the water, but Azolla 

 pinnata forms with us a thin broken up layer, hardly cal- 

 culated to check any mosquito from laying its eggs in the 

 water or the larvae from living happily beneath the shade. 



As a matter of fact it does not cover the pond as thick- 

 ly as Duckweed, (Lemna) and is very fugacious, that is to 

 say it has a habit of altogether disappearing from its pond. 

 I have not found it at all an easy plant to cultivate for any 

 length of time. Further more the difficulty in dealing with 

 Anopheles or other mosquitoes does not lie in excluding 

 them from ponds in which only Azolla thrives. Any pond 

 big enough to carry Azolla, will in this part of the world 

 soon become stocked with fish, or if by any chance fish have 

 not found their way in can easily be introduced, and fish 

 are more useful in killing mosquitoes than anything else. 



Puddles, cut bamboos, potted milk tins, and such like 

 small lots of water are responsible for most of the objec- 

 tionable mosquitoes. 



Some time ago a good deal was written about the little 

 West Indian fish which was called " Millions' ' and which 

 was introduced successfully into some of the islands in 

 which such fish were scarce or absent, and it was proposed 

 even to introduce it into the Peninsula, which would be a 

 good case of carrying coals to Newcastle, for the Malay 

 Peninsula abounds in fish of every size and there are few 

 ponds are places large enough for a fish to exist in which 

 does not contain one or many, in every way as suitable as 

 the West Indian fish. 



Ed. 



REMEDIES FOR SNAKE-BITE. 



A note in the Kew bulletin, No. 3, 1909, deals with two 

 remedies for snake-bite sent from Siam by Mr. E. St. J. 

 Lawson, and Dr. A. Lawson, as very efficaeious in cases of 



