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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 23, 1871. 
extent at tlie Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and 
Edinburgh, and at Trinity College, Dublin; and a 
hope is expressed that the necessity of maintaining 
•and extending them will be recognized by those great 
educational bodies. 
The herbarium at Melbourne, Australia, founded 
by Ferdinand Mueller, has, through his indefa¬ 
tigable exertions, attained very large proportions; 
while that of the Botanical Garden of Calcutta, 
under the successive administrations of Dr. Thom¬ 
son and the late Dr. T. Anderson, has recovered in 
a great measure its proper position. In the United 
States the herbarium of Asa Gray, recently secured 
to the Harvard University, now occupies a first 
xanh. 
On the Continent, of the many important private 
herbaria formerly existing in Paris, two only, those 
of Jussieu and A. de Saint-ITilaire, had, previously 
to the late disastrous events, been seemed for the 
national collection. Webb’s had gone to Florence; 
J. Gay’s, which would have been of special value at 
the Jardin, was purchased by Hooker, and presented 
by him to Ivew. The celebrated herbarium of De- 
lessert is removed to Geneva, whilst his botanical 
library, one of the richest in existence, is locked up 
within the walls of the Institut. These are but 
partially replaced by M. Cosson’s herbarium, which 
has much increased of late years, and to which 
he added last spring the late Schultz-Bipontinus’s 
.collection, rich in Composites. The national lierba- 
vium of the Jardin des Plantes is still one of the 
richest, but no longer the richest of all. The limited 
funds at the disposal of the administration have 
allowed of their making but few acquisitions, and 
the staff is so small and so limited in the hours of 
attendance that the increase of the last twenty years 
remains for the most part unarranged; the library, 
loo, is very scanty. 
At Geneva the Delesserian herbarium has been 
adequately accommodated in a building near to the 
natural history museum now being erected. While 
in Paris, it had been for some time comparatively 
useless, owing to an attempt to class it according to 
Sprengel’s ‘ Linnaeusbut now an active amateur 
committee—Messrs. J. Mueller, Reuter, Rapin, 
and others—have already made great progress in 
distributing the specimens under their Natural Or¬ 
ders ; and Geneva, already containing the important 
typical collection of De Candolle, and Boissier’s 
stores, rich especially in Mediterranean and Oriental 
plants, has become one of the great centres where 
real botanical work can be satisfactorily carried on. 
.At Munich, the Bavarian Government having failed 
to come to terms with the family of the late Yon 
Martius, his botanical library has been dispersed, 
and his herbarium removed to Brussels, where it is 
to form the nucleus of a national Belgian collection. 
At Vienna, the Imperial collection is admirably 
housed in the Botanical Garden in good order, with 
the advantage of a rich botanical library in the same 
rooms. At Berlin, where the Royal Herbarium has 
always been kept in excellent order, want of space is 
greatly complained of since it has been transported 
to the buildings of the University. At Florence, tie 
difficulties with regard to the funds left by Mr. 
Webb for the maintenance of his herbarium have 
been overcome, and it is hoped that the intentions 
of the testator, who made this splendid bequest for 
the benefit of science, will no longer remain so shame¬ 
fully unfulfilled. To the above may be added Ley¬ 
den, Petersburg, Stockholm, Upsala and Copen¬ 
hagen, as towns possessing herbaria sufficiently 
important for the pursuit of systematic botany; but 
at the time of Mr. Bentham’s visit, some years ago, 
they were all in arrears of arrangement, though in 
this respect they may have improved since. 
Though poisonous properties prevail to a great 
extent throughout the Euphorbiaccce, many of the 
plants are highly valuable both for food and me¬ 
dicine; the seeds of many of them abound in oil 
more or less acrid and purging, as Ricinus communis 
and Cureas purgans for instance; some have the dis¬ 
agreeable habit of their relatives, the nettles, and 
are armed with powerful stings. An interesting 
genus on this account is C/iicloscolus, two species of 
which are formidable enemies to come in contact with. 
C. quinquelobus, better known perhaps as Jatropha 
urens, is one of these. It is a native of South 
America and has been in cultivation in liot-houses 
in this country, but the effects of its sting are so 
dreadful that collectors and gardeners have a whole¬ 
some dislike to it. The first sensation of a sting 
from this plant is a numbness, often accompanied 
by swelling of the lips, it frequently impedes the 
circulation, and in some persons produces uncon¬ 
sciousness for a length of time. The pain is very 
severe and lasts for some days; it is said that the 
part touched by the sting remains swollen for a 
length of time accompanied by a constant itching. 
Another species (61 stimulans), a native of the 
Southern States of North America, has palmately 
lobed leaves from four to six or eight inches long, 
covered with long, stinging hairs. The plant has 
received the name of “ Tread-softly,” on account of 
the stinging hairs causing much pain to the bare 
feet of negroes who walk inadvertently amongst the 
plants. The roots are said to be nutritious and 
used for food. 
At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts College 
of Pharmacy, the following gentlemen were elected 
honorary members :—Professor T. Redwood, Pli.D., 
Professor J. Attfield, Pli.D., Daniel Hanbury and 
Henry Deane, of London ; H. B. Brady, Newcastle- 
on-Tyne; Dr. H. Hager, Berlin; Professor F. 
Mohr, Bonn; Dr. G. C. Wittstein, Munich; Pro¬ 
fessor F. A. FlIIckiger, Bern; Professor Dragen- 
dorff, Dorpat. 
