LETTERS FROM JAMES MOTLEY, ESQ. 39 
cratium near the seashore, but the specimen is insufficient for determi- 
nation. 
The Lit1ace# and allied families include Lilium longiflorum, Thunb., 
common on the summits of the Hongkong hills among grass, and of 
which a yellow-flowered variety is said to grow on Mount Parker, al- 
though not seen by Major Champion; Barnardia scilloides, Lindl., in 
ravines near Chukchow ; Dianella ensifolia, Ait., Asparagus falcatus, 
Linn., Ophiopogon gracilis, Kunth, and Smilax glabra, in -ravines over 
various parts of Hongkong; and several other Liliacee are said to ap- 
pear in spring on the Chukchow side of the island. ; 
A Dioscorea, apparently the true D. Japonica, Thunb., was gathered ; 
on Victoria Peak. ; 
Several CoMMELYNE# were seen, but no specimens were preserved. 
Philydrum lanuginosum, Banks, and Eriocaulon Wallichianum, Mart. 
CE. Cantoniense, Mook. et Aru.) were gathered in the marshes at 
Saywan. 
There are only five CYPERACEX in the collection: Eleocharis, a small 
specimen, apparently a variety of E. acicularis, Br.; a leafy variety of 
Rhynchospora Wallichiana, Kunth; Scleria Chinensis, Kunth; Carex 
Indica, Retz, and another Carex allied to C. setigera, Don, possibly new, 
but, in so complicated a genus, I am unwilling to describe it from a 
single specimen. 
The GRAMINE are but six :—Se/aria glauca, Reem. et Sch.; Arundo = 
Reynaudiana, Kunth, a mere variety, according to Col. Munro, of 4. r 
Madagascariensis, Kunth; Erianthus Japonicus, Beauv. ; Imperata Kæ- 
nigii, Beauv.; a Spodiopogon, near S. obliquivalvis ; d Andropogon — 
(Cymbopogon) Martini, Roxb,—Nees, Pl. Meyen. p. 191. 
(To be continued.) 
Extracts of Letters from the Malayan Islands, addressed to Sir W. J. : 
Hooker and to W. Mitten, Esq.; dy James MorLEY, Esq.  — 
TO SIR W. J. HOOKER. a 
Singapore, March, 1854. 
Into this very uninteresting letter, written chiefly to apologize for 
my shortcomings, I can find room to put one little grain of information 
relative to Gutta Percha. Of the original article very small quantities 
