BOTANICAL INFORMATION. : 89 
named by Dioscorides to be the Jnula odora, by Virgil the Asarum Eu- 
ropeum, and by Pliny the Valeriana saliunca. 
An interesting plant has been discovered by Mr. Panizzi on the cal- - 
careous rocks in western Liguria; it is a new species of Mæhringia (M. 
frutescens), remarkable for the excessive quantity of oxalate of lime it 
contains. An account of it has been published by the discoverer. 
The only catalogue of seeds that has reached us is the one from the 
botanical garden of Turin. At the end of it Professor Moris describes 
a new species of Dianthus from Sardinia, under the name of D. cyatho- 
phorus. : n 
Several foreign botanists have towards the close of last year paid a 
visit to Italy; thus we have had the pleasure of seeing successively 
Messrs. Schmidt of Munich, Heufler, Planchon, Ch. Martins, and Webb. 
Before concluding, I must mention a fact of great importance to 
industry in Tuscany, and one which may be productive of benefit to 
botany,—I mean the Horticultural Exhibition that took place in Florence 
in September last. It is the more deserving of mention, as it is the first 
to my knowledge that has ever taken place in Tuscany; it created 
much interest among us; many gardens, both private and public, contri- 
buted to it, especially the botanical garden of the Museum of Florence ; 
a concourse took place, reports were read—which will soon be published 
—and prizes were distributed : in short, everything went off so well that 
those who projected this first exhibition entertain hopes of being able 
to form a Horticultural Society. 
Note on the various Vegetable Substances used in India for the purpose 
of producing Intoxication; communicated by DR. ALEXANDER GIBSON, 
Superintendant of the Hon. East India Company’s Botanie Garden, 
Bombay. 
Adverting to the fact that many notices of Indian and other foreign 
products are scattered through books of science, or shut up in reports. 
having an interest only local, it occurs to me that it might be of some 
use to combine in one short notice a few remarks on the various vege- 
table substances which are used throughout the East for purposes of 
intoxication. 
VOL. V. 
N 
