BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 87 
will publish, made under a quarter of an inch lens, the small detached 
cells having been separated by boiling in an alkaline solution. In this 
he finds curious fusiform bodies, cells (P), 415 of an inch in length, 
apparently subdivided (transversely) by thick partitions, each compart- 
ment containing a small opaque nucleus. These would seem to break 
up into roundish or oblong or four-sided cells, well defined, filled with 
matter resembling cork, under a low power having a shining satiny 
lustre. This corky substance may render this fibre especially valuable 
for caulking. 
There can be no doubt but the microscope will render great ser- 
viee in detecting the nature and several properties of fibres. Indeed, 
while examining the Brazil-nut fibre, Mr. Archer was led to submit to 
the microscope that of another useful fibrous bark, of the Zauaré, 
employed on the Amazon for making the envelopes of cigars. ** The 
single tree," says Mr. Spruce, “I saw of this, was too large and too 
lofty to admit of procuring its leaves; but from its habit, smooth fis- 
sile bark, and trunk dilated into buttresses (called * sapopemas’), I do 
not hesitate to consider it a Lecythis, though a different species from 
L. ollaria.” Now, Mr. Archer observes, * Even without the information 
afforded by Mr. Spruce, I should have been led to suppose it was a 
species of the same family ; the parenchyma in Zauaré is more stringy 
and firm, and the cork-cells are smaller and more compactly arranged. 
In other respects the structure is the same." It is well known that 
the two trees belong to the same natural family, the Zecy/Aidee. They - 
are of a gigantic size: some of the Castanha-trees, we learn from _ 
Mr. Spruce, “in the forests of Tanau, are the very largest I have any- z 
where seen. I measured one, which was fourteen yards round at the 
base, and at the height of fifty feet the circumference was apparently 
very little less. It must have risen to above one hundred feet before 
putting forth a single branch.” 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
| 
| 
Information respecting the Mona Trex (Mora excelsa, Benth.) in 
Trinidad. xt 
Prominent among the trees which adorn the forests of Guiana, xe 
and which astonish by their profuse verdure and gigantic size, stands — — 
