542 
Editorial. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm.. 
Oct.,  1887. 
"  From  the  likeness  of  the  tree  to  the  Acacia  stenocarpa,  Dr.  Seward  who 
made  a  chemical  examination  of  the  leaves  dubbed  the  new  alkaloid  steno- 
carpin.  It  would  have  been  better,  however,  to  withhold  the  naming  of  the 
alkaloid  until  the  botanical  name  of  the  tree  had  been  known." 
The  criticism  in  the  last  sentence  quoted  is  unquestionably  proper.  But 
in  carefully  reading  these  accounts,  several  other  points  assume  a  rather 
mysterious  appearance.  In  the  first  place,  the  name  "tear  blanket  tree" 
cannot  be  found  in  any  of  the  southern  floras  which  we  have  consulted,  nor 
in  the  Catologue  of  the  Forest  Trees  of  North  America,  by  Prof.  E.  S.  Sargent, 
or  in  the  same  author's  excellent  and  comprehensive  Report  on  the  Forests 
of  North  America,  issued  as  a  part  of  the  publications  in  connection  with 
the  tenth  census  of  the  United  States.  In  the  latter  work  the  vernacular 
names  have  been  carefully  collected;  the  absence  of  the  one  quoted  above, 
however,  cannot  be  regarded  as  proving  that  it  is  not  used  in  certain  locali- 
ties. If  the  leaves  of  the  mysterious  tree  really  possess  valuable  medicinal 
or  other  properties,  the  identification  of  the  tree  itself  would  seem  to  be  an 
easy  matter  for  one  of  the  numerous  botanists  who  are  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  flora  of  the  southern  and  southwestern  States.  Instead  of  con- 
sulting a  botanist,  the  tree  is  simply  stated  to  resemble  the  Acacia  steno- 
carpa. But  has  this  tree  been  selected  on  account  of  its  being  familiar  to 
the  public  or  to  pharmacists  or  to  physicians  ?  In  answer  to  this  we  must 
state  that  Acacia  stenocarpa  is  indigeneous  to  Abyssinia  and  Nubia,  where 
it  is  known  as  talha,  talch  or  kakul,  and"  where  a  limited  quantity  of  colored 
gum  is  collected  from  it.  The  habit  of  this  tree  is  therefore  not  generally 
known,  and  to  liken  to  its  appearance  that  of  an  American  tree  is  a  simile 
of  very  questionable  utility  or  propriety. 
But  this  comparison  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  enigmatic  tree  be- 
longs to  the  mimosas,  or  is  closely  related  to  them.  By  consulting  Prof. 
Sargent's  Report  it  will  be  found  that  twenty-seven  trees  of  the  leguminosae 
are  found  on  North  American  soil,  nine  of  which  belong  to  the  sub-order 
mimosas,  but  do  not  grow  wild  in  Louisiana,  since  the  eastern  limit  of  seven 
lies  in  some  parts  of  Texas,  and  two  belonging  to  the  W est  Indian  flora 
merely  reach  northward  into  the  semi-tropical  parts  of  Florida. 
Of  the  ten  papilionaceous  trees  not  one  is  mentioned  as  growing  in 
Louisiana;  but  two  out  of  the  eight  caesalpiniaceous  trees  grow  in  that  State,  - 
namely,  Cercis  canadensis,  Lin.,  the  well  known  red  bud  or  Judas  tree,  and 
Gleditschia  monosperma,  Walter,  known  in  the  southern  States  as  water- 
locust,  and  occasionally  as  water-honey-locust.  Only  the  latter  is  thorny,  and. 
in  this  respect  resembles  the  above  named  acacia.  The  water-locust 
grows  from  South  Carolina  to  Matanzas  Inlet  and  Tampa  Bay,  Florida, 
through  the  Gulf  States  to  the  valley  of  the  Brazos  River,  Texas,  and  through 
Arkansas  to  Middle  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  Southern  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois.   The  "  Report  on  the  Forests  "  gives  the  following  particulars  : 
"A  tree  12  to  18  meters  in  height,  with  a  trunk  sometimes  0.60  or,  ex- 
ceptionally, 0.90  meter  in  diameter;  deep  swamps;  rare  in  the  South  Atlan- 
tic and  Gulf  States;  common  and  reaching  its  greatest  development  in  the 
bottom  lands  of  southern  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  eastern  Texas,  here- 
