164 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Mr. Bentham is proceeding with all the speed that is 
consistent with accurate investigation, with his admirable 
Labiatarum Genere et Species," of which 3 Parts have now 
appeared. A fourth is in a state of forwardness, and will 
comprise the Satureinee and the Melissinec. 
The able and laborious* Professor Nees von Esenbeck has 
recently sent us the first volume of his * Naturgeschichte der 
Europäischen Lebermoose,” or History of the European 
Hepaticee, with reference especially to those of Silesia and 
to the localities of the Riesengebirge. The author gives 
a very full account of the structure of the Order, and 
divides the species into the following Tribes. 
Trise I. JUNGERMANNIER. Tuis; II. CEPHALOTHECEE. 
* And no less laborious than useful; as it may truly be said of him, as 
of the great Sir Godfrey Kneller, “ Nihil tetigit quod non [ornavit." 
We have lately had from his pen the^volume of Grasses of Martius; 
another on the Asferee (Genera et Species Asterearum, Wrattislaw, 
1832,) and he has undertaken the task of determining and describing the 
species of many difficult Genera and Orders in Dr. Wallich's and Dr. 
Wight's collections, and those of other eminent Botanists: to these may 
be added his republication of the whole of Mr. Brown's Botanical publica- 
tions, with copious notes, his many valuable Memoirs in the Transactions 
of learned Societies, and particularly in the Nov. Act. Acad. Imp. 
Nature Curiosorum. Many of these are on Cryptogamic subjects; and 
not the least interesting is the account of an esculent Lichen (of which he 
has communicated specimens to us,) the Lecanora esculenta, found by 
Professor Ledebour in the Kirgise Steppes, and in general in Middle 
Asia, frequently on a barren soil or in clefts of rocks, whence it is 
often washed down after sudden and voilent showers of rain so as to 
be collected in considerable quantity and easily gathered for food. The 
same species was found by M. Parrot, who procured it in his journey 
to Ararat, where it is eaten by the natives; and in some districts of 
Persia, in 1828, it covered the ground to a depth of five or six inches, 
in so short a period of time, that, according to the opinion of the people, 
it had been rained down from heaven. May not this be the Manna 
with which the Israelites were miraculously fed in the wilderness? 
