Missouri Botanical Garden PETER H. RAVEN LIBRARY Pagination Note: Since many of the items lack a specific page number, the page number dispiayed oniine refers to the sequentiaily created number each item was given upon cataloging the materials. — - Cactuses. — One of the nicest gardens near* Paris is that at Poissy, on the river Seine, belonging to M. Lorenzo Courant, a real amateur of plants, who has been very successful in the hyridising of Cactuses and Gladioli. His place is on the site of an old Com- manderie des Templiers, destroyed under Philippe le Bel, and made by him into an abbey. In the garden are still to be seen the remains of the “oubliettes,” or dungeons, which seem in olden times to have been mdis^sa^e in any whether a cas tle, ■ * ecemb3« 1 prison, or even a monastery. With this exception t there is very little left of the old buildings. Attached 1“ to the house is a conservatory of good size, with some ! good specimens of Tree Ferns, Palms, Adiantums, &c. The conservatory unfortunately is completely ‘ bare of climbing plants or hanging baskets, so that it i looks a little bare. Facing the conservatory is a good sized “jardin Anglais,” with some fine trees, an I Abies Pinsapo i8 metres high, a Cedar of Lebanon, only thirty-five years old, planted by the proprietor , himself. This tree is of a very large size, and looks a great deal older. There is a good collection of Conifers, all in good health. -From this we pass into the kitchen and flower garden, where are the houses. Here are several large beds of splendid Gladioli : most of them very good. Fine bushes of Tritoma Uvaria, ten to fifteen fine plants of Bambusa aurea, some good tuberous Begonias, a collection of Vines, comprising forty varieties, several houses containing Camellias, Azaleas, &c. ; and last ^ a lean-to house, with a collection of about a hundred Cactuses. They are planted out in this house and trained against the wall ; they seemed very vigorous, and we w;ere told they bloomed very freely. M. Courant began by crossing speciosissimus grandi- florus with Hookerii, and kept on crossing the off- spring from these. The flowers are most magni- ficent, and of a very large size. The following are the best amongst the lot Amabilis perfecta, good shaped flower, flesh-pink, with the interior of the corolla cherry-coloured. Aurantiaca superba, very brilliant, dark orange. Aurore boreale, brilliant yellow sepals, corolla cherry coloured. Boule de Feu. globular-shaped flower, yellow sepals, violet corolla. Marguerite Bock, very dark pearly lilac. Claire Courant, flesh-coloured. Courantii, pure white, outside petals of lemon-yellow. Eblouissant, very fine, purple-tinted violet. Ganymede, open flower, pinkish pearly lilac ; corolla of a brilliant cherry colour. Hannah Wilson, perfect flower, pearly light lilac. Madame Lemarchand, velvety pink ; corolla white. Rosea splendidissima, velvety pink ; corolla white. Miss Richardson, perfect shape, bright lilac. Alice Rosciand, red-orange. Jules Simon, dark orange, edged with velvety-purple lilac. Madame Simon, middle-sized flower, light carmine- lake, inside of corolla white. Triomphe de Poissy, tips of petals bright orange, edged with violet, pearly white. Thiers, middle-sized flower of perfect shape, numerous, petals red-orange, edged with dark violet. Madame Courant, large flower, velvety pink. These are really worth growing, and M. Courant offers cuttings to any one who may wish them. They are grafted very easily, and have been grown in several places in France with success. xiiey must have been packed in the most careful manner, as they are as fresh-looking and whole as if just cut from the plant. There are many decorative purposes peculiar to the Christmas season to which th^e fine plumes could be put, and their cost is not so high as might have been expected, seeing they have come from a far distant country, SCUTICARIA Steelii.-A well-grown plant of this beautiful Orchid is now in flower in the col- ^ CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA (see p. 557).— Some ^ time since we gave a woodcut of the stem and seed- vessels of a plant under the above name. We have been reminded that the plant represented was C. americana and not C, racemosa. We were led into Missouri Botanical Gardett 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Missouri Botanical cm copyright reserved garden Botanical cm copyright reserved garden /'a J .77 _ ^ /a '4 ^rf.w -9 y^ rwt^x y^r ' \ / / U-* / — OTTjrf?^.' - 4-:. " /^ Y iW»-^ / /Vi-./ :| '/ ■ 7 ■ --^ii 21 G 2 .v:-:- ' ■ ' ■:, j- 'z 7JI 'f. 9' , Botanical cm copyright reserved garden Missouri BO'iAKiCA-. GEORGE ENGELMANU PAPERS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Missouri Botanical cm copyright reserved garden - *1 274 Extracts from Ctirrent gressive failure of the heart’s action in inanition, than of hoping for a permanent good result, I injected the two-hundred-and-fortieth of a grain of sulphate of atropia into the arm of an infant ten weeks old, at a time when, excepting a few beats now and then, the pulse was imperceptible at the wrist, and the cardiac systoles only 80. Within four minutes, the pulse rose to 100, and each beat was quite perceptible at the wrist. In eight minutes, it had increased to one hundred and ten, and was quite regular and distinct. The stimulant continued for the next three hours; and at the end of this time the pulse was too, of good volume, and of sufficient force to bear compression without obliteration. The respiration remained unaltered, and the pupils dilated from one-twelfth to one- seventh of an inch. The stimulant effect upon the pulse continued to within half an hour of the death of the child, five hours and a half after the injection of the atropia. As a diuretic^ belladonna may be used in cases of supj)ression of urhie^ whether accompanied by urgemic symptoms or not. As both the sluggish circulation and the torpid kidney are simultaneously aroused by the medicine, there is ground for expecting a restoration of the renal secretion. In acute neEi^ritis^ we may hope for beneficial results from the use of belladonna, which, coming in contact with the irritated and congested organ, will doubtless calm the nervous irritation, -^and at the same time contract the dilated bloodvessels. I am at the present time busily em- ployed in determining tlie efib'^' of its operation in congested and ifiammatory ' Iney; and, so far as my experience Botanical cm copyright reserved garden Medical Litei'ahu'C. m given, there will be superadded a fluttering sensation in the cardiac region ; slight delirium, manifested by picking and other motions of the hands and fingers in the air, as if they were in contact with real objects ; muttering and smiling; staggering, or complete inability to walk. The same symptoms, including acceleratio7i of the pulse, follow the administration of belladonna or its active principle by the alimentary canal. . . . It is clear, first, that belladonna has no action on the vagus nerve ; and secondly, that its effects are precisely the same, whether it be administered by the skin or by the stomach. . . . Thie kidneys are active in the elimination of atropia from the minute when it enters the blood until it is entirely removed from the system. In the case of a full medicinal dose, about two hours arc required for this purpose. Availing myself of its dilating action upon the eye, I have repeatedly demonstrated the presence of atropia in the urines of different individuals, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty minutes after the subcutaneous injection of the forty-eighth and even the ninety- sixth of a grain of sulphate of atropia. ... In ten patients, the urines secreted immediately before and during the operation of the medi- cine were analyzed. The result was uniform. During the action of the belladonna, the urea and the sulphates and phosphates were increased; and, as a rule, the chlorine was proportionately diminished. The increase of the urea was dispiiop^rtionate to, and considerably less than, that of the phosphates and sulphatesT'N^ . . . 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