it should root rather freely in water ... take a 3 inch cutting from the end.. put in fresh water for a week ... and if and when you get it going.. cut more.. make more.. AND THROW THAT OLD THING AWAY .... lol there are plants you can FORCE to winter over.. even though they are NOT houseplants ... but come late winter.. its time to make some new ones.. and let the tortured one pass ... and after potting up your rootlings... harden them off outdoors.. and plant them in mother earth.. where they belong.. and then.. start over again.. next fall ... NEVER FORGET.. rooting a piece is KEEPING THE PLANT ... dont fret over recycling the old one ... its natures way ken

Thanks Rhizo, Phil all ready gave me an ID on it, but you're absolutely right on your ID, so since I forgot to take the pix off of my other plants page (it's on nectar plants) I credited you on the page with the ID too: http://butterflies.heuristron.net/plants/whiteball.html I've spent more time trying to get the site to display properly cross-platform than I have on content lately (grumble). There are several other plants I'm not sure of on my plant pages; care to have a go at those too? Thanks :) Here is a link that might be useful: http://butterflies.heuristron.net/plants/whiteball.html

Hair spray actually used to be dangerous. The propellant used was vinyl chloride. It was hardest on barbers and hairdressers since they were around it all the time. The danger was a significantly increased risk of liver cancer. I think the show I watched was called the Chemical Revolution. There was also something in maybe the hair dye?? that caused a surprisingly high rate of bladder cancer in hairdressers. (Obviously this is not a commonly occurring cancer.) Here is a link that might be useful: PBS link about Hair Spray Propellant

You say that you sense the smell mostly in the air. Is it possible that this particular area is just an area where other household odors accumulate? We have two such areas in our house, where odors will collect and linger- one is in a central area in the entryway, the other is in a bathroom that is in a back corner. One of those I can see having limited air circulation, but the first seems like odors would move through quickly, yet they don't and odors from other parts of the house will essentially leave those parts of the house and collect in these. I was just wondering if it was possible that the smell is coming from elsewhere (say a nearby bathroom or laundry room?) and is hanging there? What happens if you put a small fan in that area later in the day? Would the smell still be in that area with the fan on or off? The other thing that comes to my mind is bed linens- particularly any down or feather product. I've had issues on occasion with these getting funny/smelly odors that come and go, and it's very hard to pinpoint the issue, even when smelling the comforter or pillow directly. It's only by removing the item from the area/house for a little while, that we were able to pinpoint exactly what it was. I've noticed this problem more when the humidity is higher and it was worse later in the day when temperatures in the house had increased, and like I said, it smells fine some of the time and then other times there is a weird funk. I hope you can find the source. It sounds very annoying.