BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 315 
is served of giving moisture below among the roots without caking 
the surface, and aerating the roots and subsoil. The effect has been 
marvellous upon the Amherstia. But just when it was telling most, 
we were visited with a very severe Cyclone storm, which lasted twenty- 
four hours, and battered all the young leaves. So ready is this plant 
to blossom, that this year every Amherstia in the Botanic Garden, and 
even young layers taken last rains, came freely into flower; so much 
so, that the bunches had to be removed before the buds grew much, to 
prevent the exhaustion of the young plants." 
The Victoria will no doubt be a common aquatic in the tanks of 
India, as the Nelumbium is now. “Our new gardener,” continues 
Dr. Falconer, ** Mr. Scott, has just come out, and brought some seeds 
of Victoria Regine with him. It will look very grand in one of our 
out-of-door tanks, surrounded by Nelwmbium speciosum, which we 
grow almost by the acre, and Huryale ferox, and Nymphea rubra, &c. 
—But we have yet to see whether the seed will germinate.” 
Notices of several new species of MossEs and HEPATICÆ from TIERRA 
DEL Furco; dy WILLIAM S. SULLIVANT, Esq.* 
The Mosses and Hepatic# here briefly characterized from the 
vicinity of Orange Harbour, Tierra del Fuego, are a part of the 
botanical collections made bythe “ United States Exploring Expedition,” 
under the command of Captain Charles Wilkes. 
The purpose of these notices, in advance of more extended descrip- 
tions, accompanied by figures, which will appear hereafter, is to secure 
to the Expedition the priority of its discoveries. This seems the more 
proper, as not a few species are now, in accordance with approved 
usage in such cases, credited to other and similar expeditions afloat at 
the same time, whose collections, made at a later period and in the 
same locality, were, without delay, placed into the hands of competent 
persons, and thus made public several years since. 
The number of species, now proposed as new, may be considered 
large ; when it is borne in mind that they are not to be found in the 
* The talented author of ‘ Contributions to the Bryology and Hepaticology of 
North America, and of the ‘ Musei Alleghanienses, both of which are 
in our sixth volume of the ‘ London Journal of Botany." 
92s9 
