AmAu°g",i877arm'}        Medicinal  Plants  at  Banbury.  409 
age  of  the  root,  which  was  less  than  two  years  old.  It  yet  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  the  root  differs  when  older,  or  whether  some  portions 
present  a  different  aspect  to  others.  These  points  I  hope  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  investigating  a  little  latter  on,  when  Mr.  Usher  will 
dig  up  some  larger  roots.  Towards  the  close  of  the  year  he  will 
probably  have  sufficient  of  the  dried  root  of  this  species  to  be  available 
for  therapeutic  purposes,  and  it  will  then  only  remain  to  ascertain 
whether  its  purgative  properties  are  equal  to  those  of  the  foreign  rhu- 
barb, which  after  all  will  be  the  test  of  its  acceptance  with  the  medical 
profession.  A  chemist  at  Banbury  has  prepared  some  simple  tincture 
from  the  trimmings  of  the  root,  in  the  proportion  of  two  ounces  to  the 
pint  of  proof  spirit,  and  has  found  it  an  effectual  purgative  in  ounce 
doses. 
Henbane. — Doubtless  many  of  the  readers  of  this  Journal  have 
often  wondered  at  the  high  price  of  biennial  henbane.  The  informa- 
tion which  Mr.  Usher  has  kindly  furnished  will  probably  throw  consid- 
erable light  upon  this  point. 
The  biennial  plant  is  the  only  one  cultivated  at  Banbury,  it  being 
found  that  the  presence  of  the  annual  plant  tends  to  deteriorate  the 
biennial  variety.  With  regard  to  the  difference  between  the  two  plants, 
Hanbury  says  there  is  scarcely  any  distinctive  character,  except  that  the 
one  is  annual  and  the  other  perennial.  There  is,  however,  something 
very  distinctive  in  habit.  The  biennial  plant  grows  to  the  height  of 
two  or  three  feet,  and  is  abuandantly  branched,  and  the  stem  is  often 
nearly  an  inch  thick  at  the  base.  At  a  distance,  a  field  of  biennial 
henbane  looks  like  a  field  full  of  thistles,  so  much  so,  that  Mr.  Usher 
has  occasionally  heard  the  remark  from  farmers  passing  by,  "  That 
is  bad  farming,  look  at  those  thistles."  This  curious  appearance  is 
owing  to  the  leaves  being  deeply  cut,  in  fact  almost  pinnatifid.  The 
chief  difference  in  the  leaves  of  the  two  varieties  is,  that  in  the  biennial 
plant  the  leaves  are  about  twice  as  long  as  in  the  annual  one,  and 
deeply  cut,  and  the  terminal  lobe  of  the  leaf  is  long  and  rather  narrow. 
The  leaves  of  the  upper  branches,  however,  resemble  when  young 
those  of  the  annual  variety,  being  shorter  and  having  the  top  of  the 
leaf  much  broader,  and  more  triangular,  not  lanceolate  as  in  the  stem 
leaves. 
The  seed  of  the  biennial  plant  is  sown  in  May  or  June,  and  either 
appears  in  a  few  days  or  not  for  several  years.    Mr.  Usher  informed 
