NOTE and COMMENT 



Common Names of Purple Avens. — People in the 

 vicinity of Meriden, New Hempshire, call the purple avens 

 (Gciiiii rivale) the chocolate plant and this seems to be the only 

 name it is known by here. One person said he had often cooked 

 the root and used is for a drink and that it tasted like chocolate. 

 The root is chocolate colored, four to six inches long and 

 covered with fine fibrous roots. Who ever heard of its being 

 used in this way or given this name? — W. M. Biiszuell^ Charles- 

 town, N. H. [In other parts of the United States this plant is 

 sometimes known as Indian chocolate, Evans' root, throatwort, 

 throatroot and cure-all. It is reputed to be aromatis, tonic, and 

 a powerful astringent. Evidently Evans was an early prac- 

 titioner who included this root in his pharmacopeia. The fact 

 that the root is an astringent no doubt accounts for the name 

 of throatwort. It would very likely be used in the ancient 

 days when quinsy frequently threatened to stop the breath of 

 the worthy inhabitants of New England and an astringent was 

 needed. Darlington says that a decoction of the root was taken 

 with cream and sugar, like coffee, but it is probable that it was 

 not used thus as a beverage but rather for its tonic or astringent 

 effects in certain ailments, such as dyspepsia, for which it was 

 regarded as a specific. — Ed.] 



Remedies for Ivy Poisoning. — It begins to look as if there 

 were as many cures for ivy poisoning as there are ways of 

 ciu'ing a cokl. We can now add to the remedies already 

 published in this magazine, tincture of grindelia and also the 

 inner bark of the common elder covered with buttermilk. Alum 



