NOTICES OF BOOKS. 285 
with the surrounding desolation of that season.” An admirable coloured 
vignette represents a landscape, with the object just noticed. Tab. 20, 
Quercus lamellosa, a glorious Oak, with leaves like a Spanish-chestnut 
but tomentose beneath, and spikes of acorns with cups as big as apricots, 
and lamellated with concentric rings. These acorns are so abundantly 
strewed on the ground about Darjeeling, and so large and hard, as to 
render the roads dangerous, by causing the horses to stumble. Tab. 
21, Larix Grifithii ; first discovered by Griffith, but only now pub- 
lished; remarkable for its graceful, slender habit, and very long, lithe, 
cord-like, pendulous branchlets, that are set in motion by the slightest 
breeze. The erect cones are much larger than those of any other Larch, 
and are peculiar for the long, reflexed points of all the persistent bracts. 
Here too a small Jandscape represents the appearance of this tree and 
of the adjacent snowy regions of the Himalaya. “ It delights to grow in 
deep valleys, but it prefers the dry, rocky, ancient moraines formed by 
glaciers that have centuries ago retired to higher levels in the moun- ` 
tains.” Hence it appears that a cool bottom for the roots is desirable ; 
and though it is quite true, as Dr. Hooker says, that the Kew plants 
abundantly raised from his seeds, and abundantly distributed, attained 
a height of 3 or 4 feet, and that “some have withstood the late severe 
winter of 1854—5 with no protection, whilst others have been quite 
killed,"— yet our experience tends to the conviction that the very severe 
losses of this plant have been occasioned by the heats of summer, and 
the action of too dry a soil upon the roots. The two best plants that 
have survived at Kew are in a shaded situation, with a cool bottom. 
Most of those that have perished, have done so after being planted out 
from the nursery-beds, and in the summer, when the leaves were almost 
fully developed. They seemed to be struck as with a blight, and gra- 
dually withered. Tab. 22, Cyrtosia (Erythrorchis) Lindleyana, “the 
most remarkable Orchid in all India;” a noble terrestrial, if not para- — 
sitic, leafless Orchid, 3 feet high, yet allied to, and bearing fruit in size — 
and shape like that of, Vanilla. Tab. 23, Vanda Cathcarti. Tab. 24, T 
Paris polyphylla (Sm.), a remarkable species, but allied to the Dahurian — 
- P. verticillata of Bieberstein. Sa A 
A spirited nurseryman has but to make a selection from this work 
(though it is difficult to say what should be rejected), and send a 
competent collector to Himalaya, with instructions to gather seeds -— 
roots, and it could not fail to answer his purpose, and to enrich our 
