mployed for
the same purpose.

The _Luffa purgans_ grows spontaneously in the suburbs of Recieffe,
the capital of the province of Pernambuco, and flowers in November and
December. The fruit is a drastic purgative, and an infusion of it is
used either internally or in the form of clyster. The tincture is
prepared by macerating, for twenty-eight hours or more, four of the
fruit deprived of the seeds in a bottle of spirit 21 degrees. The dose
is three or four ounces daily, which occasions much sickness.

* * * * *

Poisons.--The vegetable kingdom (observes Mr. Simple), to which man is
largely indebted for the materials of food, clothing, and shelter,
produces also some of the most deadly poisons with which science,
experience, or accident, has made him acquainted. In examining the
poisonous productions of the vegetable kingdom, we find that their
properties are generally due to the presence of some acid or alkali
contained in the plant from which they are derived. Oil of bitter
almonds and cherry laurel water are poisonous in consequence of
containing prussic acid. Opium owes its activity to the alkaloid
morphia. The Upas-tiente derives its energetic powers from the
alkaloid strychnia; conia is the active principle of hemlock; veratria
of hellebore; aconita of monk's hood; and although there are several
poisonous plants in which the active principle has not yet been
detected, there can be little doubt that such a principle exists,
although it has hitherto eluded the researches of the
chemist.--("Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. 2, p. 17.)

The bark taken from the roots of the Jamaica dogwood (_Piscidia
erythrina_), which is extensively distributed throughout the
Archipelago of the Antilles, is used for stupefying fish. The pounded
root is mixed with slaked lime and the low wines or lees of the
distillery, and the mixture is put into small baskets or sacks, and so
suffered to wash out gradually, coloring the water to a reddish hue.
The fish rise to the surface in a few minutes, when they float as if
dead.

The expressed juice of the root of _Maranta Arundinacea_ is stated to
be a valuable antidote to some vegetable poisons, and also serviceable
in cases of bites or stings of venomous insects or reptiles. One of
the most popular remedies for the bites of snakes is a decoction of
the leaves of the Guaco, or snake plant, of South America, a species
of willow which flourishes along the banks o