The cubeb-yielding plant is not unlike the pepper plant and belongs to the same family (Piperaceae). The two resemble each other in general habits in the form of inflorescence and in the fruiting. Cubebs were known to Arabian physicians as early as the ninth century, who employed them as a diuretic in kidney troubles. It was also known at that time that Java was the home of the plant. At one time it was believed that the Carpesium of ancient writers was cubebs, but this is now generally disbelieved. Edrisi states that cubeb found its way to Aden about 1153. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was employed medicinally in Spain. Originally it was doubtless employed as a spice, similar to pepper. Mariano Sanudo (1306) classed it among the rare and costly spices. Hildegard referred to the soothing properties of cubeb. In the thirteenth century cubeb is mentioned among the import articles of London. About the same time it found its way into other European countries, notably Germany. At the beginning of the nineteenth century cubeb disappeared almost entirely from medical practice. About 1820 English physicians of Java again began to employ it quite extensively. As in the case of black pepper, the fruit is collected before maturity and dried. The fruit is about the size of the pepper, but has a stalk-like prolongation which distinguishes it. The pericarp becomes much shriveled and wrinkled on drying. Cubebs are cultivated in special plantations or with coffee for which they provide shade by spreading from the trees which serve as their support. Their cultivation is said to be easy. Cubebs have a pungent, bitter taste and a characteristic aromatic odor. It cannot readily be confounded with any of the other more common spices. Its use as a spice is almost wholly discontinued. Its use in medicine is also waning, since it evidently has only slight medicinal properties. It is used in nasal and other catarrhal affections. Cubeb cigarettes are used in the treatment of nasal catarrh. It has a marked influence upon the kidneys, causing irritation and increased activity, and as already indicated it is therefore a diuretic. It is, however, harmful, rather than beneficial, in acute inflammatory conditions of these organs. Albert Schneider. A TREE-TOP TOWN. Before the cradled violets awake beneath the grass, Or any but the crocuses and catkins have come back, Always ’tis then the loveliest thing of all things comes to pass,— A twit-twit-twitter on the mild spring breeze, A twit-twit-twitter in the leafing trees, Through which small sky-blue wings flash out a sky-blue track— For blue-birds, first adventurous house-builders of the year, Are at their old, wise tricks again of settling far and near.