H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 341 



ment to the enactment of regulations to prevent the entire 

 destruction of the forests of these trees in Darien, where they 

 are most abundant. Instead of simply treating the trees for 

 the juice, as the maples are managed in the United States, 

 the tree is cut down, and, of course, no further benefit can be 

 derived from it. In illustration of the extent to which this 

 vegetable product is now being collected, the Panama Star 

 and Herald informs us that one hundred and sixty tons had 

 just been brought to that city as the cargo of a single ves- 

 sel, mostly from the vicinity of Guayaquil. Panama Star 

 and Herald^ November 19, 1871. 



CUNDURANGO AGAIN. 



Dr. A. Destruge, a well-known practitioner of Guayaquil, 

 and, we believe, a citizen of the United States, makes a com- 

 munication to Nature in regard to the botanical character of 

 cundurango. He takes exception to the determination of 

 Dr. Buyon and others, and remarks that the plant belongs to 

 the Asclepiadacea?, and to a division comprehending only five 

 known genera, to none of which does the cundurango fall. 

 He therefore concludes that it belongs to a genus which has 

 not yet been characterized. 



The flowers have a calyx of five divisions, obtuse, ovate, 

 and villose in their inferior part, and of quincuncial pra3flo- 

 rescence. The corolla is rotate, of five divisions, lanceolate, 

 hairy at the base on the inside, and somewhat fleshy, with 

 a membranous margin. The stamen has no appendage or 

 corona ; the anthers are terminated by a membrane, and the 

 pollen masses are elongated and suspended. The stigma is 

 pentagonal and conical. The flowers are numerous, and dis- 

 posed in umbelliferous inflorescence. 12 A, January 25, 

 1872,243. 



FLORA OF THE CANARIES. 



According to M. De Candolle, the flora of the Canary Isl- 

 ands, while containing scarcely any plant peculiar to the 

 western coast of Africa, includes a large number found also 

 in Europe. This fact would seem to indicate that these isl- 

 ands were long ago united to Europe by a land connection, 

 while they appear to have always remained separate from 

 Africa. Mem. Soc. Physique de Geneve, XXL, 1870, 353. 



