[A large number of the Cedron seeds have lately been received in New York, probably from a section of the country where they are cheaper than upon the Isthmus. As a remedy for the bites of venomous reptiles, like all others of the same class, it is of little value, but from its intense bitterness, it may be expected to possess great tonic powers, and if, in addition to these, further experience shall confirm the report of its virtues as an antiperiodic, it will prove a remedy of great value.]—ED. NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY.
COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE.—In the December number of the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science, Dr. J. McGrigor Maclagan, has published an article on Colchicum Autumnale, which contains little that is new, but is of interest as confirming the statements of other observers. The ordinary mode of propagation of the plant by the formation of a single new bulb is thus described. In June, “the bulb is as large as an apricot, firm, amylaceous, and extremely bitter, and having attached to it the shrivelled remains of the old bulb, and the leaves now yellow and decayed. At the end of June or commencement of July, a small bulb will be observed to have become developed upon the side of the corm at its lower part. At this time it is a little larger than a grain of wheat, and lies in a little fissure on the side of the parent bulb, a little above the origin of the radicles. It increases slowly and gradually in size till the beginning of August, when it appears as a dilatation of the flower stalk, which it then commences to put up.
In September the flower is in full perfection, the long tube of the perianth of which has raised the six partite limb to the height of from six to eight inches above the ground. The flower remains for two or three weeks, and then dies down; and nothing of the plant is seen above the surface till the beginning of February, when the leaf stalk commences to rise. If at this time the plant be taken up, the old and new bulb will still be found to be united, but the new one will be observed to have increased little in size since autumn, being still hardly larger in diameter than the leaf stalk. The bulb thus grows little during the autumn, but in winter it increases rapidly in size; in April it is like a large hazel nut, and from that time it increases still more till the end of June or the beginning of July, when it is, as Dr. Christison states, as large as an apricot.