St Louis College of Pharmacy - Prescripto Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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-----at D IQ li S 13 D I DTC :Q-a -QQ Cacti Mr. John Kessler and Associate Professor E. Clark have started a Cactus garden in the growing room of the Advanced Pharmacognosy Department. They are outlining plans for a three-year project dealing with an extensive study of soil and atmospheric conditions favorable to Cacti. They intend to compare the growth from clippings with the growth from seeds and their growth outdoors with their growth indoors. VX7hen the cacti have grown sufficiently large grafting of different ones will be attempted. It will result in a rather unique plant if the grafting is successfully performed. Growing Cacti in this way will aid in obtaining a great amount of informa- tion about the cultivation and reproduction of the plants. A great help in carrying out this experiment will be the wonderful collection of Cacti at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Their library also will help because of the amount of reading matter on the subject which may be found there. The project will, no doubt, prove ve1'y interesting because of the group of plants chosen. The Cacti are very unusual plants. They are dicotyledonous plants having modined stems which carry on the functions of a leaf such as photosynthesis C manufacture of plant food from raw materialj transpiration floss of water in the form of vaporj and assimilation fchanging of plant food into living material or protoplasmj. This group of plants is a wonderful example of what Mother Nature will do to aid her children to live in case they are by chance subjected to abnormal conditions. As stated the stem has been modified to take the place of the leaves which otherwise could not exist because of the intense heat of the sun. The whole plant has been covered with a wax-like secretion, which protects it from excess loss of water, and thorny projections which protect it from being devoured by hungry animals. The plants are capable of absorbing and storing up large amounts of water which enables them to withstand long droughts. An interesting example of this is the Barrel Cactus which has saved the lives of many people stranded in the desert because of its quality of storing water. At the present seeds are being planted and a careful study of their germination is being made. The seeds require from three days to a month to germinate. From the time they germinate until the end of the first year they grow very slowly. The second year they grow about twice as much and increase in rate of growth in proportion to their age. The young plants must be carefully handled because of their delicate struc- ture. They may not be transplanted because of this fact as the first roots are like tiny threads running deep down into the soil for moisture. The number of plants in the growing room at present is small but it will be increased from time to time until all the plants from which seeds are obtainable will be in the collection. It is hoped that by next year a large enough number of plants will have been collected so that a display of them may be given in con- nection with the annual drug exhibit at the College. N I9 is 3 2 Page Eighty-Eight

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Pug: Ninety Dnfscmnro Detroit and Parke, Davis of Co. The word date may bring to the mind of different individuals different ideas. To the persons in their late 'teens and early twenties it may bring thoughts of a pleasant evening spent with a boy or girl as the case may be. To the grocer or the fruit merchant it may bring thoughts of something which they sell that is good to eat. To the historian it will bring to mind a variety of numbers as 1492- 1776-18l2, etc., all of which have their own signihcance. A Taking the latter mentioned type of date into consideration, who is there of the Seniors of 1930-31 and the Juniors of the same year that cannot mention a variety of things of importance that happened in May, 1931? First and fore- most for the higher tories of Parke, Davis K Co. occupy six city blocks and cover fifteen acres. C1355 will be TCIDC111- bered the date of their graduation. Surpassed only by this, is that journey of intermingled education and fun-namely, the trip to Detroit. Located on the Detroit Riverfront. the Research and Manufacturing Labora- It was on May 11, 1931, that a group of students from St. Louis College of Pharmacy, relaxing from the strain of final examinations gathered at Union Station to depart at 11 :55 p. m. Everyone was in a jovial mood and prepared for a good time. After the lights of good ole! St. Louis were left behind, everyone looked for some type of amuse- ment. No one was disappointed. The Omega Phi Society did its part in supplying decks of cards, cigarettes and candy. Throughout the night and the next day up to the time we arrived in Detroit, there was not a dull moment. Decatur, Illinois, will not be forgotten by one certain party who was trying to help a friend in distress. As Amos or Andy would say, 1 disremember the exact time of our arrival but I believe it was between two and three in the afternoon, Detroit time. Upon arrival, we were immediately escorted to the Fort Shelby Hotel, one of the best in Detroit. The finest part of the Parke, Davis program was a banquet in the dining room of the hotel. It was not really a banquet in the true sense of the word, but merely a meal and a very fine one. Only one or two speeches were made. One strange incident happened that evening. YV hen asked who wanted to go to a show, no one stated that such was his or her intentions. However, a canvass of theatres that evening would have accounted for every member of our party with few exceptions. Early on Wfednesday morning we were taken to the Parke, Davis Cafeteria for breakfast. After doing justice to what was placed before us, the inspection of the laboratories and manufacturing equipment of Parke, Davis 8: Co., one of the world's largest manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, began. Crude drugs are re- ceived from all parts of the world and the finished products are exported to all nations. fs -no 32? X