Am.  Jour.  Pnarni.  \ 
December.  1903.  j 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
585 
and  eastward,  but  that  now  the  drug  is  one  of  the  rarest  and  that 
the  plant  is  threatened  with  extermination. 
Polygala  senega  was  mentioned  as  another  example  of  this  kind, 
and  it  was  stated  that  Cascara  sagrada  which  was  formerly  abun- 
dant in  Northern  California  and  Oregon  is  becoming  less  abundant, 
and  a  shortage  in  the  supply  is  threatened.  With  this  condition  in 
view  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  has  recently  procured  a  small 
quantity  of  seeds  of  Cascara  sagrada  which  are  to  be  germinated  and 
the  seedlings  distributed  in  the  West  and  some  in  the  East,  also. 
The  Bureau  has  also  a  small  patch  of  hydrastis  under  cultivation 
and  it  is  hoped  ere  long  to  give  out  some  information  in  regard  to 
this  drug  which  will  be  useful  to  cultivators.  Experiments  on  the 
cultivation  of  Polygala  senega  are  being  carried  on  at  the  Burlington 
station,  where  pollination  and  seed  production  are  being  studied. 
Dr.  True  said  that  the  United  States  Treasury  Reports  at  Wash- 
ington furnish  some  rather  interesting  data.  It  is  there  recorded 
that  the  United  States  imports  $15,000,000  worth  of  crude  drugs 
annually  and  $1,800,000  worth  of  other  products,  including  plant 
principles.  He  further  stated  that  about  one-half  of  those  plants  and 
plant  products  which  are  different  from  any  of  our  own  could  be 
produced  here.  Among  the  reasons  advanced  for  our  not  cultivat- 
ing these  plants  here  were :  natural  inertia,  ignorance  of  the  sub- 
ject, especially  on  the  part  of  agricultural  communities,  a  doubt  as 
to  whether  such  industries  would  pay  financially,  the  price  of  labor, 
and  the  high  price  of  land  near  the  large  cities  or  centers  of  market. 
These  are  questions  which  are  comparatively  new  and  a  certain 
amount  of  unprofitable  experimenting  will  have  to  be  done  in  order 
to  work  out  methods  which  will  yield  profitable  returns.  The 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  taken  up  this  line  of 
investigation  with  the  object  of  putting  the  question  on  a  practical 
basis,  and  a  careful  account  of  the  cost  involved  in  the  experiments 
is  being  kept. 
In  conclusion,  Dr.  True  stated  that  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry 
is  now  working  with  about  twenty-five  medicinal  plants,  and  a  re- 
port on  these  will  be  published  in  the  forthcoming  year-book  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
In  discussing  the  address,  Prof.  Clement  B.  Lowe  referred  to  the 
fact  that  during  the  Civil  War  opium  was  produced  in  New  Eng- 
land, but  that  the  gross  adulteration  of  the  product  led  to  its  disuse. 
