The principal use of the American mandrake is medicinal. It is a very efficient cathartic, due to the presence of a resinous principle known as podophyllin, which has been given the name "vegetable calomel." It is no doubt true that this drug is in no small measure responsible for the decrease in the use of the old-time mineral drug calomel. Both rhizomes and leaves may be employed, but the former contain more of the active principle. The drug is rarely given alone because of the griping it produces; it is combined with hyoscyamus and belladonna, also with aloes and colocynth. In large doses it usually acts as an emetic, which would tend to prevent poisoning from an overdose. Podophyllin has been used in dropsy, scrofula and rheumatic affections. Applied externally it acts as a powerful irritant, similar to capsicum and mustard plaster. Albert Schneider. * * * * * I opened the eyes of my soul. And behold, A white river-lily: a lily awake, and aware-- For she set her face upward--aware how in scarlet and gold A long wrinkled cloud, left behind of the wandering air, Lay over with fold upon fold, With fold upon fold. And the blushing sweet shame of the cloud made her also ashamed, The white river-lily, that suddenly knew she was fair; And over the far-away mountains that no man hath named, And that no foot hath trod, Flung down out of heavenly places, then fell, as it were, A rose-bloom, a token of love, that should make them endure, Withdrawn in snow silence forever, who keep themselves pure, And look up to God. --Jean Ingelow, "A Lily and a Lute." INDEX. Volume VIII--June, 1900, to December, 1900, inclusive. Almond, The (Illustration) (Albert Schneider), 188 Ant, An Hour With An (Harriet Woodbridge), 156 Antelope, The Prong-Horned (Illustration), 179 Aster, The Late Purple (Illustration), 62 Aster, The New England (Illustration), 62 Asters, The (Charles S. Raddin), 62 Autumn [Poem] (Frederick William Faber), 149 Autumn [Poem] (William Cullen Bryant), 145 Autumn [Sonnet] (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), 98 Banana, The [Illustration] (William Kerr Higley), 95 Bantams, The Ways of Some (May H. Prentice), 152 Bass, The Calico [Illustration], 82 Bee Balm or Oswego Tea [Illustration], 117 Bird Family, A Few of the [Poem] (James Whitcomb Riley), 125 Birds and Poets [Selection] (John Burroughs), 128 Birds, Natural Rights of (Lynds Jones), 8 Bird Study (Olive Thorne Miller), 78 Bird, To the Vesper [Poem] (Frank English), 73 Birds, What Do We Owe the? (Lynds Jones), 72 Black-Eyed Susan or Ox-Eye Daisy [Illustration], 111 Bob White [Poem] (Effie L. Hallett), 128 Bob White, A True Story of a Wayward (Charles Thompson), 113