160  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  {AmMa^h,iP897.rm' 
mer  to  dig  the  root  and  to  hunt  the  deer  and  elk,  which  roamed 
by  the  thousand  in  the  surrounding  forest,  and  to  catch  the  trout 
with  which  the  streams  teemed.  Every  meadow  was  a  camass  field. 
The  plant  was  so  plentiful  in  many  places  that  it  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  in  the  upper  St.  Mary  basin  more  than  one-half  of 
the  total  herbaceous  vegetation  in  the  lowlands  was  composed  of 
this  one  species.  With  the  advance  of  settlements  came  the  utili- 
zation of  the  camass  fields  as  hay  meadows.  This  ended  the  exist- 
ence of  the  plant,  except  as  a  weed  in  the  farmers'  fields,  and  the 
camass  digging  in  the  Coeur  d'Alene  basins,  like  the  game,  is 
now  a  thing  of  the  past.  Strangely  enough,  the  plant  seems  to 
have  been  entirely  absent  from  the  North  Fork  areas,  at  least  I  do 
not  know  of  a  single  locality  where  it  occurs. 
Two  species  of  lichens,  Alectoria  fremontii  and  Alectoria  ochro- 
leuca,  principally  the  form  sarmentosa  of  the  latter  species,  were 
eaten  by  the  Coeur  d'Alene  tribe.  Both  are  extremely  plentiful  at 
all  elevations.  Boiled,  or  rather  baked,  in  which  latter  condition 
they  were  mainly  used,  together  with  venison,  they  become  some- 
what gelatinous  in  their  consistency,  and  lose  the  bitter  taste  which 
they  possess  in  a  fresh  state. 
Of  fruits,  they  had  huckleberries  (Vaccinium  myrtilloides  princi- 
pally), raspberries  (Rubus  leucodermis  and  R.  strigosus),  black- 
berries (Rubus  ursinus  or  vitifolius)  and  service  berries  (Amelanchier 
alnifolia).  These  fruits  are  gathered  and  used  at  the  present  time 
by  the  white  settlers,  but  none  are  abundant  in  the  region  except 
the  huckleberries  and  service  berries,  and  these  not  every  year. 
The  Coeur  d'Alene  Indians  draw  no  more  native  plant  foods  from 
these  mountains.  They  are  now  mostly  farmers,  have  large  and 
fairly  well-cultivated  ranches,  and  find  in  the  raising  of  the  cereals 
and  vegetables  of  civilization  a  far  more  bountiful  supply  of  food, 
and  much  more  palatable  withal,  than  they  ever  obtained  from  the 
laboriously  gathered  camass  of  their  mountain  meadows.  § 
Professor  Dr.  R.  Robert  has  left  Dorpat,  Russia,  and  will,  in  future,  be 
located  at  the  Brehmenschen  Lungenheilanstalt  in  Gorbersdorf,  Germany, 
where  he  will  occupy  the  position  of  director.  Dr.  Robert's  ten  years  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Pharmacology  at  the  University  of  Dorpat  have  been  eminently  success- 
ful ones,  and  many  expressions  of  regret  have  been  heard  from  those  with  whom 
he  was  associated. 
Dr.  Hans  Hermann  Julius  Hager  recently  died  at  Neuruppin,  Germany,  at 
the  advanced  age  of  eighty-nine  years.  We  hope  to  furnish  a  suitable  sketch 
of  this  eminent  pharmacist  in  our  next  issue,  written  by  one  of  his  friends. 
