3 
BOTANICAL FRAGMENTS. 
probably 2500, rings must bave existed. According to tbe theory of annual rings, this tree would 
appear to bave been from 2200 to 2500 years old ; but, unfortunately, tbe annual ring theory is not 
always trustworthy. — (Bot. Gaz., iii. 13). 
The Diamba plant of tropical western Africa, called also Congo tobacco, is smoked by the native 
Africans to produce the pleasing excitement of intoxication ! It is smoked from a large wooden pipe or 
reed called condo, or from a small calabash, or sometimes from common clay pipes. The liberated 
Africans and Creoles frequently meet at each other's houses ; and on these occasions the pipe is handed 
about from mouth to mouth, and soon produces the desired effects — agreeable sensations, laughter, &c. ; 
a continuance, however, causes temporary frenzy, and intense and maddening headache, accompanied 
by stupor. The plant is the Cannabis sativa, or common Hemp, which on fertile soils, at Sierra Leone, 
grows twelve or thirteen feet high, and twenty feet in circumference. The flowers slowly dried, and 
mixed with the seeds, are the parts preferred, and in this state the drug is called maconie. The leaflets 
are sometimes used ; they are called makiah. A small plant in flower and seed will yield its owner 
ten shillings' worth of Maconie. — (Hooker's Journ. Bot., iii. 9). The Hemp is a plant of most powerful 
properties, as is evident from the numerous preparations of it employed in India ; but no stronger 
evidence is needed to prove the influence of climate on vegetable productions than the fact that Hemp 
grown in our cool and moist climate scarcely at all developes these properties. 
The annual Branching Larkspurs are no longer to be called Delphinium, that is, if botanists and 
cultivators so will it. Dr. Lindley proposes (Paxt. Fl. Gard., i. 168) to re-establish Bauhin's old genus 
Consolida, the grounds of separation from Delphinium being thus stated : " its petals being reduced to 
two, and these completely combined into one, remove it from Delphinium. That the petaline body is 
really composed of two parts only, seems to be proved by its origin, which looks as if opposite the 
back sepal, in consequence of the union of the two contiguous edges of the lateral petals. But it is 
completely separated from the front sepals, with which it does not in any degree alternate. These 
considerations lead to the conclusion that the old genus Consolida should be re-established." 
The Brayera . anthelm intica, or Kooso, a rosaceous tree of the tribe Dryadea?, has proved beyond 
doubt a specific for tape-worm. It is an Abyssinian tree, and its virtues were first brought into notice 
by the traveller Bruce, who states that the Abyssiuians of both sexes, and of all ages, evacuate once a 
month a large number of worms of the sort called Ascarides, to promote which an infusion of the 
Casso flowers is employed, and proves to be at once gentle, safe, and efficacious. " It is an instance," 
remarks Bruce, " of the wisdom of Providence, that the range of this tree does not extend beyond the 
limits of that disease of which it seems designed to be the cure." — (Hook. Journ. Bot., ii. 349). 
The Cedron of the Magdalena Hirer, Simaba Cedron of Planchon, has long been celebrated in New 
Grenada for its powerful medicinal properties. It is a small tree with an erect stem, crowned by an 
umbellate mass of branches with large handsome pinnated foliage. The seeds are considered an 
invaluable specific for the bites of snakes, for intermittents, and for stomach complaints generally. 
They are so highly prized as to sell for a sum equal to one shilling each. The bark and wood of the 
free abound in a high degree with the bitter principle, which occurs in the order to which the Cedron 
belongs, namely Simarubaceai. Some French physicians who have made experiments on different 
animals hope by means of the Cedron seed to arrive at the cure of mental disorders and epilepsy. Dr. 
Pereira doubts that the seeds will prove to be an antidote against snake poison, as they are confidently 
held to be by the Panama doctors ; but as possessing an intensely bitter principle, the plant will rank 
with its near botanical allies, Quassia and Simaruba — (Hook. Journ. Sot., ii. 377). 
At a meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (Nov. 14, 1850), Dr. Balfour exhibited the 
following specimens illustrating the production of Vinegar: — 1. The so-called Vinegar plant, with 
Vinegar produced by it. 2. Syrup, into which the plant had not been introduced, but which had been 
left for four months undisturbed ; in it a peculiar fungus-like growth similar to the Vinegar plant was 
found, and the fluid had become Vinegar. 3. A specimen of Vinegar produced by the Vinegar plant, 
which had been filtered, and then allowed to stand for several months, and in which a fungus similar 
to that called the Vinegar plant had been formed. Dr. Balfour thought the so-called Vinegar plant 
must be considered the mycelium of some fungus produced in a peculiar fluid, and which acted as a 
ferment. The addition of any ferment would probably cause a similar production of Vinegar. The 
Rev. M. J. Berkeley has deter min ed the Vinegar plant to be the mycelium of the PenicilHum glaucum 
of Greville ; this mycelium forms a close tough crust-like or leathery web, and rapidly augments the 
acetous fermentation of saccharine fluids. Some four or five years since we made some experiments 
with this Vinegar plant ; but in our experience the saccharine fluid without the plant became fetid, 
whilst, under the same conditions but with the plant placed in it, it was converted into very good 
vinegar. — M. 
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