234 
False  Belladonna  Boot. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      May,  1882. 
Guibourt's  plant,  iis  will  be  seen  from  its  description  by  Asa  Gray, 
which  is  taken  from  the     Botany  of  California/'  vol  i^  p.  599: 
Sah'ia  Columbaria',  J^onth.  Minutely  tomentose  or  vSoft  pubescent; 
stem  commonly  slender,  branching,  and  leafy  below,  a  span  to  a  foot  or 
two  high  from  an  annual  root,  naked  and  peduncle-like  below,  termi- 
nated by  a  solitary  or  two  proliferous  head-like  false  whorls;  leaves 
deeply  once  or  twice  pinnatifid  or  parted  into  oblong  and  crenately 
toothed  or  incised  divisions,  pointless,  rugose,  etc. 
The  species  is  indigenous  to  California,  more  particularly  the  south- 
ern part  thereof,  where  it  is  common,  likewise  in  Western  Arizona, 
w^hile  in  Nevada  it  appears  to  be  confined  to  the  Truckee  Pass  at  an 
altitude  of  4,000  feet  ("Botany  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  Fortieth 
Parallel,"  by  Sereno  Watson).  I  have  found  no  account  of  its  occur- 
rence throughout  Mexico. 
Descriptions  of  fruits  are  rarely  given  in  systematic  botanical  Avorks, 
an  omission  wdiich  is  frequently  embarrassing  to  the  student  of  materia 
medica.  Most  of  the  fruits  of  the  Labiat^e  do  not  differ  very  greatly  in 
size  and  shaj^e,  and  more  or  less  similarity  must  be  expected  among 
those  of  the  numerous  species  of  Salvia;  how  many  of  these  may  agree 
in  the  color  of  their  epicarp  and  in  the  presence  of  the  mucilaginous 
epithelium  it  is  impossible  at  the  present  time  to  say.  But  from  what 
has  been  stated  above,  I  think  it  must  be  concluded  that  at  least  several 
species  have  fruits  resembling  in  a23])earance  very  small  ricinus  seeds, 
and  that  most  likely  such  of  them  which  are  mucilaginous  have  been 
used  by  the  aborigines  under  the  name  of  ehia,  which  would,  therefore, 
have  to  be  regarded  as  a  generic  term,  applicable  to  all  fruits  of  salvias, 
having  the  characters  indicated. 
FALSE  BELLADONNA  ROOT. 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  F,L.S., 
Curator  of  tho  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain. 
In  a  previous  paper  attention  was  directed  to  the  fact  that  the  root 
of  Scopolio  Japonica  was  being  imported  from  Japan  under  the  name 
of  belladonna  root  (  "  Pharm.  Journ."  [3],  x.,  p.  789),  and  subsequently, 
at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  ( "  Pharm. 
Journ.'^  [3],  xii.,  p.  490),  a  specimen  of  another  substitute  for  bella- 
donna root,  differing  entirely  from  the  Japanese  drug,  was  exhibited. 
A  few  weeks  ago  some  specimens  of  both  these  roots  were  sent  to  me 
