BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 313 
has recently presented to our Museum of Economie Botany at Kew, 
together with many other valuable articles, specimens of paper pre- 
pared by Professor Joannes Brignoli v. Brunhoff, of the University of 
Modena, accompanied by the following note, addressed to Dr. Wallich 
in 1839 :—* Je ne sais pas si vous avez connaissance que j'ai suivi en 
Europe le procédé de Kamaon pour obtenir de papier inattaquable 
des tignes avec la Daphne Laureola, au lieu de la Daphne cannabina. 
Je vous en remets deux petits échantillons.” This paper exactly re- 
sembles, in its colour, texture, and strength, the Indian paper above 
mentioned. 
GYNERIUM SACCHAROIDES. 
Even in our own gardens, we are now familiar with an exceedingly 
beautiful species of Gynerium, a Grass or Reed, native of South Brazil, 
but capable of bearing the winter unharmed with us, the Gynerium 
argenteum of Nees von Esenbeck (Arundo Sellona, Schultes). Our 
flowering plants are at this moment (October 18th) eleven feet high ; 
the foliage six feet long; the flower-stalks, with their large silvery pani- 
cles, many from the same root, waving with every breath of wind, four 
to six feet above the leaves.—A still more remarkable Reed, especially as 
regards the large size of the panicle, though wanting the silvery hue of 
the argenteum, is the Gynerium saccharoides of Humboldt and Bonpland, 
who figured and described it in the *Plantes Equinoxiales, vol. ii. 
p. 112, t. 215, from specimens gathered in Cumana: “ Cette Graminée 
(they say) se trouve abondamment sur les rives du Manzanarès, près 
de Cumana, dans la province de la Nouvelle-Andalousie, et qui, par 
son port, est un des plus beaux ornemens de la végétation des Tro- 
piques. La panicule a une forme trés-élégante: elle est surtout d'un 
effet singulièrement pittoresque quand elle est agitée par les vents.” 
Messrs. Richard and Poiteau found the same plant in the lesser An- 
tilles and in St. Domingo, where the colonists eut the stems annually, — 
and they are used as lathes (Jattes) to support the tiles (¢uiles) with 
which the dwellings are covered. There can be little doubt that this 
is the same plant that is described by Aublet (Plantes de la Guiane 
Françoise, vol. i. p. 50), under the name of Saccharum sagittatum 
(Kou-rou-mary, or Roseau & fléches of Barrére, Fr. Equinox. p. 19), 
VOL. IV. 2s 
