An extract of the flowers of the Kousso tree has been used in Abyssinia for several centuries as a specific against tapeworm. This tree (Hagenia Abyssinica Willd. or Brayera AntheIminthica Kunth) grows to a height of about 60 feet and is found over the entire table-land of Abyssinia between 3,000 and 8,000 feet above sea level. It belongs to the family Rosaceae, and the flowers, from which the active anthelmintic extract is prepared, grow in broad panicles of 10-12 inches in length. The stalk of the panicle from which the flowers branch is clothed with hairs and dotted with small glands For the preparation of pharmacologically active extracts, the whole panicle is dried and extracted, although it is known that in the case of Rottlera Tinctoria, which is also used as an anthelmintic, the active principle is concentrated in the hairs an4 glands. No information is, however, available as to the distribution of the active principle in Kousso flowers. Although their medicinal properties had been known for two centuries in the East, Kousso flowers were first introduced into Europe by a Frenchman about 1850. In 1854 an official preparation of Kousso was included in the j British Pharmacopoeia. Chemical investigation of Kousso flowers was first undertaken by Yi/ittstein (1) who, by extraction with various solvents, found the usual constituents, chlorophyll, fat, wax, and also a bitter substance which however he failed to isolate.