Am,jan.?i89hiarm'}      Vegetable  Drugs  Used  in  Mexico.  3 
late  from  complete  or  interrupted  wrinkles,  brown,  the  liber  and 
meditullium  of  a  reddish  color,  the  latter  compact  and  upon  trans- 
verse section  appearing  porous  from  the  ducts,  of  a  peculiar  odor 
and  a  somewhat  astringent  taste.  Professor  Guzman  showed  the 
presence  of  resins  soluble  and  insoluble  in  alcohol,  orange  yellow 
coloring  matter,  volatile  acrid  principle  and  tannin.  The  root  is 
used  for  dyeing  hides  of  a  light  brown  color. 
The  testa  of  the  seeds  is  blackish  brown,  glossy,  fragile,  at  the 
base  provided  with  a  yellowish  fleshy  arillus  cleft  in  the  anterior 
part ;  the  tegmen  is  whitish,  membranous,  and  is  intimately  united 
with  the  oily  cotyledons,  which  are  convex  upon  the  back  and  con- 
cave upon  the  face.  Fats,  neutral  and  acid  resins,  volatile  oil, 
tannin,  glucose,  pectin  compounds  and  a  volatile  acrid  principle, 
identioal  with  that  of  the  root,  were  found  in  the  seeds  by  Prof. 
Guzman.  The  seeds  appear  to  possess  tetanic  properties,  and  are 
used  against  itch  and  various  skin  diseases,  also,  like  the  roots,  for 
poisoning  prairie  wolves  {coyotes).  It  is  asserted  by  the  rural 
inhabitants  that  dogs  eating  the  bones  of  the  cojolite  {Penelope  pur- 
purascens)  and  of  other  gallinaceae  having  fed  upon  the  fruit  of  the 
chilillo,  die  with  symptoms  of  poisoning,  but  that  men  may  eat  with 
impunity  the  flesh  of  the  same  birds. 
Composite?. — This  order  furnishes  a  much  larger  number  of  addi- 
tions than  any  other  order. 
Ambrosia  artemisiaefolia,  Linne,  grows  throughout  North  America 
to  the  central  part  of  Mexico,  and  according  to  Professor  F.  Barra- 
das,  contains  fat,  volatile  oil,  neutral  resin,  gum,  tannin,  starch  (?), 
etc.  It  is  stimulant,  emmenagogue,  and  febrifuge,  and  appears  to 
act  as  a  good  anthelmintic.  In  the  same  manner  is  used  Ambrosia 
elatior,  Linn'e,  which  is  also  indigenous  to  Mexico,  and  has  leaves 
attaining  a  length  of  16  cm.  and  a  width  of  10  cm.,  less  deeply 
divided,  and  provided  with  ciliate  petioles  ;  it  is  destitute  of  the 
bitter  taste  of  the  former  species. 
Baccharis  conferta,  Kunth,  yerba  del  carbonero,  is  a  dioecious 
woody  plant ;  leaves  alternate,  nearly  sessile,  obovate,  cuneate  at 
the  base,  with  few  teeth,  the  upper  ones  entire,  rough,  glossy,  glan- 
dular, and  coriaceous ;  involucre  imbricate,  the  outer  scales  small 
and  oval-lanceolate,  the  inner  ones  larger  and  linear,  all  with  a 
whitish  margin ;  receptacle  flat,  pitted  ;  akenes  compressed,  striate, 
the  pappus  in  several  series;  aromatic  and  bitter.    According  to 
