1 66 
plants have grown sufficiently to give a supply of young plants for 
distribution it is hoped to be able to distribute it to various parts 
of the Peninsula to test its beneficial qualities. The following let- 
ter from Captain LARYMORE appeared in the Times Weekly of 
May, 2nd. 
The Mosquito Plant. 
To the Editor of the- Ti mes. 
Sir, — A growing specimen of the £< mosquito plant ( ocimurn 
viride), which I have just succeeded in bringing home alive from 
Northern Nigeria, Iqis been accepted by the • authorities at kew, 
where it can now be seen. 
I can personally testify to the extraordinary effect which is pro- 
duced on mosquitos by the pleasant odour of its fresh leaves, and, 
by placing two or three growing pots of the plant in each room 
and along the windward verandah, a house can be kept practically 
free from these insects. 
One of the malaria-giving specimens which 1 caught alive and 
tenderly enclosed within a leaf of the plant lost consciousness in a 
few seconds. 
The scent of the bruised leaf partly resembles wild thyme and 
eucalyptus. The ordinary wild mint, the leaves of which are some- 
what similar, should not be confounded with it. The natives where 
the plant is found prefer an infusion of its leaves to quinine in 
cases of malarial fever when they themselves or their children 
are attacked, and declare that, at any rate for them, the infusion 
invariably proves more efficacious than our antidote. 
The schools of medicine which follow the modern mosquito- 
malaria theory might therefore give the matter some attention in 
the way of experiments on fever patients. 
In India alone, where soldiers in barrack rooms are not supplied 
with mosquito nets, the use of the plant would prove an undoubted 
comfort, even if found wanting as a complete protection against 
malaria. 
I am, &c., 
H. D. LARYMORE, Capt. R.A., 
Northern Nigeria. 
Christ's College , Cambridge , April, 26. 
HISTORY OF THE SERINGUEIROS. 
In the January number of the Bulletin, l published a translation 
of Chapter I of a pamphlet entitled the “ Heveas or Seringueiras 
by the Director of the Botanic Gardens of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 
This chapter gives a short history of the Para Rubber industry 
from the remote past to the present day. 
Professor A. H. Keane, F. R. G. S. our most eminent ethnolo- 
gist, and author of innumerable works on ethnology, philology and 
