50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
of the false Solomon's-seal {Sinilacina raccmosa) for instance. 
All the books from Britton to Dana, including Gray, Wood, 
Lounsberry and no one knows how many more, speak of the berry 
as being pale red speckled with purple. F. Schuyler Mathews 
seems to be the only one who has really described the berry as it 
is. He says "The berries, smaller than peas, are at first green- 
ish, then yellowish white, speckled with madder brown and finally 
in late September, a dull ruby-red of translucent character." This 
is exactly the case. AA^hen the berries are really ripe they are un- 
spotted. Those who have described them as speckled have seen 
only unripe fruit ! 
A Poisonous HoRSETAiL.~The V'ermont Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station has published as Bulletin No. 95 (June, 1902) an 
interesting report by F. A. Rich and L. R. Jones, on the reputed 
poisonous properties of the common meadow^ horsetail (Eqiiise- 
tum arvense) , often known among Vermont farmers as foxtail . 
Facts personally gathered during several years and the results of 
experiments conducted at the State Station at Burlington lead the 
authors to aver that this common plaiit when dried, as in hay, is 
dangerously poisonous to horses, causing death if its use is persist- 
ed in. An odd fact, w^hich the report mentions, is that horses will 
develop a depraved appetite for the equisetum and eat it in prefer- 
ence to good timothy or even grain. There is no evidence that 
the green plant eaten in pasture affects them injuriously. Cows 
eat the horsetail hay with apparent impunity, but the testimony 
with regard to sheep is contradictory. 
The "Ornithologist and BoTANiST."~Ten years ago, there 
w-as published in Binghamton, a monthly journal devoted to birds 
and flowers called the Ornithologist and Botanist. The combin- 
ed ages of editor and publisher were less than forty years, and 
one year of that particular brand of "the strenuous life" was 
enough to satisfy. There still remain several sets of this volume 
complete except the first three numbers, and the contents are still 
of interest. The publication was the first "official organ" of the 
Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter. On this account it is possi- 
ble some of our readers would like a set since most of the chapter 
members are on our subscription lists. We therefore ofTer to 
send a set of the journal (72 pages) to anyone w^ho will send us 
