i78 
Poly  gala  Alba. 
Am.  Jour.  Pnarm. 
April,  1892. 
and  the  variety  latifolia,  reported  his  views  to  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association  in  1881,  and  exhibited  numerous  specimens 
of  the  root  of  this  supposed  variety,  all  of  which  were  at  once 
declared  to  differ  very  essentially  in  all  physical  properties  from 
those  of  the  false  or  white  senega,  by  those  who  had  paid  some 
attention  to  the  latter  drug  (see  Proceedings,  A.  P.  A.,  1881,  p.  522). 
In  a  paper  published  by  Prof.  Lloyd  in  the  Pharmaccutischc  Rund- 
schau, 1889,  it  is  stated,  p.  88,  that  he  has  met  with  bales  of 
southern  senega  root  of  excellent  quality,  but  entirely  destitute  of 
the  keel.  Not  having  seen  this  root  it  is  impossible  to  speak  with 
certainty  of  its  identity  with  that  of  white  senega;  but  as  figured  in 
the  paper  quoted  (loc.  cit.,  p.  87)  it  certainly  strongly  resembles  the 
latter.  Recently  another  paper  by  Professor  Lloyd  was  published 
in  the  Pharmaccutische  Rundschau,  March,  1892,  in  which  it  is 
stated  that  the  "supposed  substitution  or  adulteration,  believed  to 
have  been  observed  by  Wm.  Saunders  (1876),  J.  M.  Maisch  (1877), 
etc.,  were  shown  to  be  unimportant  or  incorrect  (unwesentlich  oder 
unzutrefTend),"  and  that  this  "obviously  applies  likewise  to  a  senega 
root  received  by  a  New  York  drug  firm,  from  Kansas,  which  Prof. 
Maisch  supposed  to  be  derived  from  Polygala  alba!' 
Regarding  the  first  part  of  this  quotation,  I  may  be  permitted  to 
reiterate  once  more  what  I  have  repeatedly  stated  before,  that  I 
have  never  asserted  senega  root  to  have  been  adulterated  with  white 
senega,  since  I  have  seen  the  latter  on  the  market  only  as  a  substi- 
tute for.  the  former  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  I  have  not  denied  the 
possibility  of  such  intentional  adulteration.  While  recognizing  the 
medicinal  utility  of  white  senega  root,  I  do  not  regard  it  as  equal  to 
that  of  the  officinal  senega,  and  for  this  reason  cannot  agree  that 
such  substitution  is  unimportant.  Ever  since  I  have  first  known 
this  white  senega  root,  in  1876,  I  have  held  it  to  be  procured  from 
a  species  differing  botanically  from  Polygala  Senega,  and  while  I  was 
at  one  time  mistaken  as  to  the  identity  of  the  parent  plant  of  white 
senega,  every  doubt  has,  in  my  opinion,  been  removed  in  1889. 
Professor  Lloyd's  assertion  of  incorrectness  in  this  respect  has  cer- 
tainly not  been  proven  by  him.  Obviously  this  applies  in  like  man- 
ner to  the  second  part  of  the  quotation.  It  is,  however,  perfectly 
correct  that  there  was  a  time  when  I  supposed  the  white  senega  to  be 
derived  from  Polygala  alba  ;  but  when  this  supposition,  based  upon 
the  characters  of  a  botanical  specimen — root  with  flowering  stems 
