526 BOTANICAL. INFORMATION. 



many. I was to have spent the morning yesterday, in looking 

 over portions of it, but he was suddenly taken ill, and unable 

 to leave his bed. The two previous days he showed us over 

 the gardens and natural history collections. In the Botanic 

 Garden a new stove has been built, where are a great many 

 of the plants he brought from Mexico, especially an extensive 

 collection of Cycadea, including several new species. Dr Vahl, 

 the son of the celebrated botanist, is now here, librarian of the 

 Botanic Garden, having the charge of an extensive library of 

 old botanical works, and a considerable herbarium, including 

 that of his father. I have looked over the Mimosas, and 

 found authentic specimens of most of his species, as well as 

 of Thonning's, published by Schumacker. Amongst these, 

 Mimosa adiantifolia is a Zygia, apparently distinct from 

 either of those I previously knew. M. adstringens is an Acacia, 

 of the series of Gummifera. M. pentagona, an Acacia, near 

 the American A. paniculata ; and M. Guineensis is Calliandra 

 PortoricenstSy which is probably cultivated there, as in several 

 other parts of Africa and the Mediterranean region, for 

 ornament. It is a great pity that the great mass of matter, 

 (about thirty folio volumes), ready for his Enumeration, which 

 Vahl left at his premature death, was never published. His 

 descriptions are amongst the most accurate I know amongst 

 descriptions of species, so much better than descriptions of 

 individuals, which botanists, accurate in minutiae, are so apt to 

 give us. The present Dr. Vahl lived many years in Green- 

 land, and was with the French expedition to Spitzbergen. 



July Jth. — Dr. Liebmann being better, I was able, before 

 starting, to glance at one or two of his bundles. For Tere- 

 binthacea and other trees with very large pinnate leaves 

 that cannot be divided, he has some paper of very large 

 dimensions ; but in general, his specimens appear to be well 

 selected, of a moderate size, with that attention to flower and 

 fruit, when practicable, which might be expected from one who 

 is a botanist, not a mere collector. In the few bundles I 

 looked over, (as yet unsorted), I saw many species unknown 

 to me, amongst them a beautiful shrub, apparently belon- 



