Am.  Jour.  Pharm.l 
October,  1898.  J 
Gillenia  Trifoliata. 
501 
and  then  placed  in  boxes  containing  cotton-seed  oil ;  and  it  has 
been  charged  that  of  the  immense  quantity  of  sardines  exported 
from  France  and  other  European  countries,  largely  more  than  three- 
fourths  are  now  treated  with  cotton-seed  oil  instead  of  olive  oil,  as 
was  formerly  the  exclusive  practice.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  oil  could  be  used  in  candle-making  and  for  steel  tempering. 
By  the  time  of  the  next  meeting  of  our  Association,  I  trust  that 
this  abundant  and  interesting  American  product  may  be  fully 
treated  by  some  of  our  members  in  a  paper  from  a  scientific  stand- 
point, in  which  many  new  and  valuable  pharmacal  uses  may  be 
pointed  out. 
^GILLENIA  TRIFOLIATA.1    (INDIAN  PHYSIC.)2 
The  histories  of  plants  are  not  complete  without  an  account  of 
the  personalities  connected  with  them.  Indeed,  the  individuals 
who  have  had  part  in  bringing  to  our  special  notice  a  plant  or  its 
relations  to  humanity,  seem  to  us  as  if  they  were  an  essential  part 
of  the  whole  story.  Very  often  the  generic  or  specific  name  of  a 
plant  is  given  in  honor  of  some  individual,  and  we  naturally  desire 
to  know  in  what  respect  he  deserved  the  honor.  Gillenia  would 
seem,  from  its  construction,  to  be  the  Latinized  form  of  some  one's 
name;  but  no  satisfactory  explanation  has  been  offered.  The  plant, 
itself,  has  been  long  known  to  botanists,  as  it  was  among  those  sent 
to  Europe,  in  1680,  by  the  Reverend  John  Banister;  but  it  was 
classed  with  the  Spircea  family;  at  least,  to  that  section  of  the 
Spircea  family  known,  at  that  time,  as  Ulmaria.  Morison,  who  pub- 
lished  a  history  of  plants,  in  171 5,  before  the  binomial  system  was 
introduced  by  Linnaeus,  described  it  as  Ulmaria  Virginiana  trifolia, 
floribus  candidus  amplis  longis  et  acutis,  and  Linnaeus,  himself,  having 
in  his  earlier  works  united  Ulmaria  and  Spircea,  describes  it  as 
1  Gillenia  Trifoliata,  Moench,  natural  order,  Rosacese. — Leaflets  ovate- 
oblong,  acuminate  ;  stipules  linear-setaceous,  entire  ;  flowers  on  long  pedicels, 
in  pedunculate,  corymbous  panicles.  A  handsome  herb,  two  to  three  feet  high, 
slender  and  nearly  smooth  ;  lower  leaves  petiolate  ;  leaflets  two  to  four  inches 
long,  one-third  as  wide,  pubescent  beneath,  sub-sessile.  Flowers  axillary  and 
terminal.  Petals  rose  color  or  nearly  white,  eight  lines  long  by  two  wide. 
Seeds  brown  and  bitter.  Wood's  Class-Book  of  Botany.  See  also  Gray's 
Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United  States,  and  Chapman's  Flora  of 
the  Southern  United  States. 
2  Meehans'  Monthly,  1898,  p.  127. 
