348 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Victoria on this side of the Atlantic has been very great, and I am 
- happy to say that no one has affirmed that the glowing accounts of the 
plant were at all exaggerated. Indeed the universal sentiment is, that no 
tongue or pen can exaggerate it. Our worthy friend and accomplished 
botanist, Dr. Darlington, who spent a night with me recently, has 
enjoyed the sight as much as anybody. The pages of our favourite 
periodical, the ‘ Horticulturist,’ will record what has been done, and 
to whom the honour is due of sending so valuable an exotic to our 
shores. 
Since my last letter to you, in which I made some inquiries touching 
the winter treatment of the Victoria, I see the fact stated of all the 
plants in England having died, and the opinion expressed that it is 
an annual. What the plant may do here under milder treatment re- 
mains to be seen.* C. C. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen’s Land. 
Vol. I. 1850. 8vo. Hobart Town, V. D. L. 
In this work, so creditable to the rising colony of Van Diemen's 
Land, and so powerfully fostered by the present Governor, Sir William 
Denison, there is more than one interesting paper relating to botany, 
on the uses and properties of plants. We may particularly mention 
the late lamented Mr. Bicheno's, on * the Potato as an article of food, 
and on the Potato-disease ;” J. Britchell, Esq., on “the export and 
consumption of Wattle Bark, and the process of Tanning ;” Captain 
.. Collinson on ** Timber Trees of New Zealand ;” Dr. Thomas Anderson, 
. on “a new species of Manna, of New South Wales;" Sir William 
Denison, “on the manufacture of Potash from Tasmanian woods" 
(one of many communications from his Excellency). 
