100 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
BOOKS AND WRITERS. 
The Gardening World, of London, has issued two more 
numbers in its series of "Handbooks," these latter 
treating: of "Dahlias" and "Annuals and Biennials." These 
handbooks are apparently most useful to British growers, 
and a similar departure by some of the gardening publica- 
tions on this side ought to take. 
The number of our wild plants that have medicinal 
properties is truly surprising. A list of these compiled by 
Alice Henkel has recently been issued by the United States 
Department of Agriculture. They are'arranged alphabet- 
ically under the generic names accepted by radical botanists 
and the best-known common names are also given. The 
parts of the plant used are noted, and the distribution of 
each species is recorded. Not all the plants are officinal, 
but the officinal are carefully distinguished from the non- 
officinal. It is to be regretted that the nomenclature of this 
list, like the nomenclature of the latest edition of the United 
States Pharmacopoeia, follows the Hepatica Hepatica, 
Ben::am Bemoin, foolishness showing how much dam- 
age an ill-advised scientist can do when unhampered. 
:Maxdrake in Demand.— It is believed that nearly 
2,000.000 pounds of mandrake (Podaphyllum peltafum) 
rootstock comes to market each year, most of it likely to ap- 
pear again later in the guise of liver pills. Where the vast 
anrount of the drug comes from is a myster>^ The dried 
rootstock brings less than 10 cents a pound, and the price 
is not much of a temptation to dig it up. 
