Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1892. 
Poly  gala  Alba. 
179 
— was  verified  by  the  verdict  of  the  botanists  mentioned  in  my 
former  (1889)  and  the  present  paper,  all  of  whom  had  either  seen 
the  root  or  were  informed  of  its  dimensions,  it  would  have  been 
more  than  presumptuous  on  my  part  to  doubt  the  identity  of  the 
plant. 
The  main  object  of  Prof.  Lloyd's  paper  is  to  prove  the  great 
scarcity  (?)  of  Poly  gala  alba,  which  he  maintains  cannot  be  taken 
into  consideration,  either  as  an  accidental  or  intentional  admixture 
of,  or  for  being  mistaken  for,  senega,  and  that  reference  to  it  in  text- 
books on  pharmacognosy  should  be  omitted  as  not  supported  by 
facts  ("  gegenstandslos  ").  To  these  conclusions  I  most  decidedly 
object  as  not  being  Warranted  by  the  facts.  As  to  Professor  Lloyd's 
aim  to  prove  that  the  roots  of  the  two  species  of  Poly  gala  cannot 
be  profitably  collected  in  the  same  localities,  that  point  is  conceded 
without  reserve ;  for  as  far  as  I  am  acquainted  with  the  literature  on 
P.  alba,  its  true  home  is  farther  west  and  southwest  than  that  of  P. 
Senega ;  and  because  the  former  species,  as  far  as  known,  does  not 
grow  in  Iowa,  Minnesota  and  Manitoba,  efforts  made  by  him  to 
obtain  specimens  from  those  localities  were,  naturally,  doomed  to 
be  unsuccessful.  The  root  of  P.  alba  has  thus  far  come  into  the 
market  only  from  southwestern  Missouri  and  from  Kansas,  and  not- 
withstanding my  ill  success  in  former  years,  living  plants  could, 
probably,  have  been  procured  more  readily  in  the  localities  named. 
When  Prof.  Lloyd  states  (loc.  cit.,  p.  52)  that  he  had  not  found  a 
botanist  who  had  ever  met  with  the  living  plant,  the  statement  is 
doubtless  intended  to  refer  only  to  those  States  in  which  the  true 
senega  is  collected  for  commercial  purposes,  since  Prof.  S.  M. 
Tracy,  of  Mississippi,  is  quoted  as  having  observed  P.  alba  and  P. 
Senega  never  to  grow  in  the  same  localities,  and  the  former  to  be 
scarce  even  in  its  most  luxurious  stations  in  that  State. 
Among  the  botanists  corresponded  with  is  also  Prof.  Thos. 
Meehan,  of  Philadelphia,  who,  it  is  stated  {loc.  cit.),  "being  in  frequent 
interchange  with  botanists  and  collectors  of  plants  in  the  different 
States,  endeavored  to  procure  specimens  and  information  concern- 
ing the  habitat  of  P.  alba,  but  entirely  without  success."  Now,  Mr. 
Meehan  is  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences,  and  of  its  Botanical  Section,  and  is  very  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  the  Academy's  herbarium  which  contains 
many  specimens  of  the  species  named  from  a  number  of  different 
