Sept. L—Rain at last! too strong for many seedlings perhaps; but nevertheless, very wel-Come: many trees and shrubs were beginning io suffer from the drought, even the foliage of the humble forsythia was drooping in many places. We shall have to watch our seedbeds carefully for a time though, for the precautions we took to protect the tender seedlings from the sun may now have a harmful effect: the grass cuttings we placed on the beds may now cause many seedlings to "damp oft." We noticed dozens of old aloe plants in a garden the other day and were told that they had been grown especially for medicinal purposes. Many of these plants are to be seen in small and large gardens along the highways and they are highly esteemed by some people for the medicinal properties of their leaves. We believe that it is customary in Russia to peel off the outer skin of the leaf and pass the remainder through a mincing machine together with a number of apples. The juice is then mixed with honey and sugar and simmered over a slow fire for a few hours. This concoct tion is said to be excellent for.consumptives. The leaves are also used for dressing wounds; in this case, the leaf is cut into two and placed on the wound where it is kept in position by a bandage. Aloe Perryi is the plant from which the purgative so well known as Socotrine or "bitter aloes" is produced: this plant originally czme from the island near to the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, but it is now grown exten-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.