412  Early  Botanical  and  Herb  Gardens.     { ^pimbefS' 
mixture  of  several  tannin  containing  bodies,  and  not  a  pure  substance. 
On  adding-  a  ferment,  preferably  an  oxidase,  to  kolatine,  this  decom- 
poses and  precipitates  the  well-known  kola- red  as  an  amorphous 
red  powder.  This  all  indicates  that  kolatine  is  a  body  closely  allied 
to  the  tannins  and  much  resembles  pyro-catechin  in  its  reactions. 
It  is  unstable  and  hard  to  do  much  with  in  the  research  way.  What 
is  of  moment,  however,  is  that  physiologically  kolatine  is  the  opposite 
of  caffeine;  both  act  on  the  heart  and  on  the  systolic  energy  of  the 
same,  but  while  caffeine  accelerates  the  cardiac  movements,  kolatine 
diminishes  them.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  fresh  kola  nuts 
act  so  differently  from  dried  or  cured  kola  nuts,  which  do  not  con- 
tain any  kolatine,  and  from  which  we  obtain,  hence,  the  full  effect  of 
the  caffeine,  whereas  in  fresh  kola  nuts  the  kolatine  prevents  the 
caffeine  from  producing  its  effect.  Hence  the  use  of  fresh  kola  nuts 
and  preparations  of  same  is  to  be  avoided,  and  preparations  made 
from  dried  kola  used  in  their  place. 
Baltimore,  August,  1908. 
SOME  EARLY  BOTANICAL  AND  HERB  GARDENS. 
By  M.  I.  WlLBERT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital. 
Our  ancestors  of  several  centuries  ago  were  much  more  dependent 
on  the  use  of  medicinal  herbs,  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  than  we 
are,  and  it  is  therefore  reasonable  to  presume  that  the  earliest  experi- 
ments in  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  in  North  America  were 
made  in  connection  with  the  kitchen  gardens  of  the  first  settlers. 
While  the  herbs  used  in  cooking  were  probably  tbe  first  that  wTere 
introduced,  it  is  well  known  that  early  in  the  seventeenth  century 
the  cultivation  of  hops  had  been  experimented  with  in  the  James- 
town Colony. 
In  Massachusetts  the  cultivation  of  hops  is  said  to  have  been  wrell 
established  as  early  as  1667,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  other  Eu- 
ropean plants,  furnishing  useful  drugs,  wrere  under  cultivation  even 
before  this  date. 
That  a  number  of  the  gardens  of  these  early  settlers  were  quite 
extensive,  and  could  well  lay  claim  to  being  more  than  kitchen  gar- 
dens, would  appear  from  the  "  History  of  West  New  Jersey,"  by 
