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,