BOTANICAL INFOHMATION. 349 



/ 



nurserymen equally fitted for tying up plants, etc. as the Lime-tree 

 bark or Bast from Russia, and has been largely substituted for it ; and 

 it is imported in bundles, and may be often seen at the shop-windows 

 of nursery and seedsmen in London on sale. 



« 



All 



withhold from us, have been recently investigated by a scientific friend 

 of mine, a casual visitor to Cuba, Henry Christy, Esq. Branches with 

 cones of the Pine have been communicated by him during the present 

 year (April, 1855), and prove it to be identical with, or very closely 

 allied to, the North American Pinus resinosa, Soland., of which Cuba 

 may be considered the southern limit, as Lake St. John, Canada, is 

 the northern. Its leaves are longer than in the continental P. rest- 

 nosa, but in other respects they, as well as the cones, seem to be iden- 

 tical. I possess specimens from New Orleans, so that this species has 

 a most extensive range. Specimens of Sabicu, again, sent at the same 

 time, prove that Mr. Bentham's views, expressed in the ' Kew Garden 

 Miscellany,' vol. v. p. 236, are correct (it is Lysiloma Sabicu) ; while 

 specimens and seed-vessels, from which young plants are raised at 

 Kew, show the Cuba Bast to be a Malvaceous plant, the Paritinm ela- 

 turn, Rich. (Hibiscus elatus, Sw.), a tree scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the P. tUiaceum^ St. Hil." 



Hibiscus 



riiium) elatus, is further confirmed by seeds seat to, and reared also at, 

 Kew, from a resident in the Island, Mr. Scharfenberg. It is worthy 

 of note that this Hibiscus elatus (a very near ally of H. tiliaceus, L.) 

 had been, till lately, known as a native of Jamaica only ; but it is cor- 

 ectly introduced, with a very good description, into the ' Flora of Cuba' 

 of Don Ramon de Sagra (vol. i. p. 146), without a word being said 

 relative to the properties or uses of it. Thus the Bast is known as a 

 product of the Island, and the Hibiscus elatus, Sw., is acknowledged 

 to be an inhabitant of the Island ; but the connection between the two 



was unknown. 



Recently (September, 1856), among an interesting series of vegetable 



fibrous substances, collected and prepared by Mr. Wilson,* of the 



Jamaica Collection 

 7if*f»s of Mr. Wilson 



Jamaica and to the commercial world generaUy 

 fibres and by the accurate nomenclature of the ] 



