80 BALSAM-BOG. 



instead of black berries), a tuft a foot in length ; and from the very 

 summit of the Bolax rises another specimen of Empetrum^ forming a 

 crest to the hummock* 



The specimen is accompanied by a bottle filled with the gum-resin, 

 in its present state of a dirty amber-colour, odorous, firm, but mode- 

 rately soft, and very adhesive, becoming fluid with heat. 



We should do injustice to Mr. Eennie did we not also acknowledge his 



r 



attempts to bring home young living specimens of this rarity. Several 

 were placed in a Wardian case and carefully attended to on the deck 

 of the vessel, and conveyed safely as far as the latitude of Portugal ; 

 when such a storm came on as swept the decks of every movable ob- 

 ject, and compelled the Captain to put, in distress, into Lisbon, whence 

 the Governor, with the remainder of his treasures, soon proceeded 

 in the mail-steamer to England. Mr, Eennie has set a good example 

 for his successors to follow ; and as the Eoyal Gardens now possess 

 living plants of the Tussac Grass and the Atitarctic Beeches from the 



Afi 



Wax-Pahh 

 fenestralis 



gascar, etc., — plants almost despaired of in former years, — so we are 

 sure some kind friend will ere long supply us with vegetating speci- 

 mens of Bolax glebaria. 



A box separate from the one above mentioned, brought to us also 

 by Mr. Eennie, contains museum specimens of the following rare and 

 very remarkable Seaweeds, peculiar to those southern latitudes :— 1. 

 B'Urvillcea Harveyi, Hook. fil. (M, Antarct. vol. ii. p. 456, tab. 165 and 

 166); 2. Lessonia fuscescenSy Bory (Hook. Fl. Antarct. vol, ii. p. 457, tab. 

 167, 168, and 171); our stems below branching at the top, measure 

 12 feet in length ; this seaweed grows upright and forms submarine 

 forests with its copious floating foliage. Sections of the stems are 

 used for knife-handles by the Gauchos, and become hard and transpa- 

 rent like horn. 3, 4. Zessonia nigrescens, Bory, and i. ovata. Hook, fil. 



and 



fuscescens, 5. Macrocystis pyrift 



Ag., whose stems are said to attain, at a moderate computation, a 

 length of seven hundred feet ! — the longest of any known plant. 



