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Azalia is a minute reddish coloured plant belonging' to 
the order Rhisocarpeae . There are live species recorded 
of which one, Azollo pinna t a R. Br. is by no means an 
uncommon plant in ditches and especially in the ponds in 
which the Chinese cultivate Pistia Stratiotes L. (Kiamban) 
and Colocasia antiquomm the Keledi to feed their pigs. 
In general appearance and growth it resembles a Duckweed, 
but instead of having one round leaf, it is rather finely cut 
up into small Jobes, the whole pond being usually about 
half an inch long. According to Peckholt, the plant forms 
a thick mat nearly six inches thick on the water, but Azalia 
pinnata forms with us a thin broken up layer, hardly cal- 
culated to check any mosquito from laying its eggs in the 
water or the larvae from living happily beneath the shade. 
As a matter of fact it does not cover the pond as thick- 
ly as Duckweed, (Lenina) and is very fugacious, that is to 
say it has a habit of altogether disappearing from its pond. 
I have not found it at all an easy plant to cultivate for any 
length of time. Further more the difficulty in dealing with 
Anopheles or other mosquitoes does not lie in excluding 
them from ponds in which only Azalia thrives. Any pond 
big enough to carry Azalia, will in this part of the world 
soon become stocked with fish, or if by any chance fish have 
not found their way in can easily be introduced, and fish 
are more useful in killing mosquitoes than anything else. 
Puddles, cut bamboos, potted milk tins, and such like 
small lots of water are responsible for most of the objec- 
tionable mosquitoes. 
Some time ago a good deal was written about the little 
West Indian fish which was called “Millions” and which 
was introduced successfully into some of the islands in 
which such fish were scarce or absent, and it was proposed 
even to introduce it into the Peninsula, which would be a 
good case of carrying coals to Newcastle, for the Malay 
Peninsula abounds in fish of every size and there are few 
ponds are places large enough for a fish to exist in which 
does not contain one or many, in every way as suitable as 
the West Indian fish. 
Ed. 
REMEDIES FOR SNAKE BITE. 
A note in the Kew bulletin, No. 3, 1909, deals with two 
remedies for snake-bite sent from Siam by Mr. E. St. J. 
Lawson, and Dr. A. Lawson, as very efficacious in cases of 
