BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 271 
by his labours among the Grasses, after much and protracted 
suffering has quitted this world for a better life. His va- 
luable Herbarium, exclusively Graminee, he had presented 
some years ago, to the Imperial Academy of Science; and 
Dr. Ruprecht, (author of a Monograph of the Bambusea), is 
now working upon it. Trinius post at the Academy is not 
yet filled, but will probably be given to Dr. C. A. Meyer, my 
assistant and former fellow labourer with Ledebour ; it will be 
an excellent choice on the part of the Academy ; and if Dr. 
Ruprecht, who is clever and well understands his bu- 
siness, should be nominated as Meyer's assistant, it would 
be well; at present he is only Keeper of the Botanical Mu- 
seum of the Academy. 
Dr. Meyer has begun and nearly completed a Monograph 
of the Brazilian species of Erythrozylon ; he has got the 
Berlin and Vienna collections for examination and I expect 
you will consider the work well done. He is now about to 
finish, with me, the third Enumeratio of Schrank's plants, 
Which you shall receive as soon as complete. We look for 
the return of Schrank to St. Petersburgh towards the end 
of the coming summer. I made him promise to penetrate 
the Trans-Uralian South West Steppes, before leaving Si- 
beria altogether, in order to search for Pugionium cornutum, 
that most interesting and puzzling species, which Bunge 
transforms, at a touch, from a Cruciferous to a Chenopodia- 
ceous plant :—a bold stroke, is it not? If found any where 
in Russia, it must inhabit those parts of the Western. limits 
of Siberia. As soon as Schrank comes back, his plants will 
be distributed, and you may depend upon receiving a good 
Set. The most interesting production which rewarded his 
researches last summer, not far from the borders of Lake 
Dailkhash, was unfortunately so rare that he only found 
four or five specimens: it is a Cynomorium, (probably grow- 
mg on the roots of a Chenopodiaceous plant), and is nearly 
related to Cyn. coccineum, Many of Schrank’s species have 
gathered likewise by M. Karelin, who travelled at the 
*Xpense of the Moscow Naturalists’ Society. I suppose you 
