320 ANNUAL UF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



not reach full maturity of size all opened, yielding cotton of appar- 

 ently as good quality, but not of the same amount, as the earlier bolls. 

 The bolls open freely, and the cotton adheres well to the boll, which 

 renders it Jess liable to be beaten out by the weather than ordinary 

 cotton. The limbs, from which and not from the joints or forks, 

 as in other cotton the stem of the bolls shoots, being short, the 

 plant can be more closely cultivated than any other. It is thought 

 that four plants of this species can be accommodated on the space 

 ordinarily occupied by two. The plant is hardy, and produces a 

 short staple cotton of remarkable fineness. De Bow's Commercial Re- 

 view, Jan. 



THE GAMBOGE TREE. 



DR. CHRISTISON has communicated to the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh a paper on the "gamboge tree of Siam." He states that, 

 although gamboge has been known in European commerce for nearly 

 two centuries and a half, the tree which produces it is still unknown 

 to botanists. Since 1836 three species of Gercinia have been de- 

 scribed, respectively found in Ceylon, Western Mysore and Birmah, 

 and in Northeastern Bengal, and all producing varieties of gamboge 

 differing slightly in chemical composition from each other and from 

 that of Siam. Recent information renders it probable that some spe- 

 cimens taken from two trees cultivated at Singapore by Dr. Almeida, 

 and by him stated to have been obtained " direct from Siam," do in 

 reality belong to the gamboge tree of that country. The specimens do 

 not allow of a complete description, but, in common with the species 

 previously described, the fruit is round, not grooved, crowned by a 

 four-lobed knotty stigma, and surrounded by numerous sessile or sub- 

 sessile aborted anthers, and by a persistent calyx of four ventricose 

 fleshy sepals. It differs from the previously known species in having 

 all the male flowers and fruit peduncled, and in other respects, so that 

 there can be no doubt of its being a distinct species. Measures have 

 been taken to procure further information concerning it. 



TRANSPLANTING OF EVERGREENS. 



AN interesting paper on the best season of the year in which to 

 transplant evergreens, furnished by Mr. Glendinning, has been pub- 

 lished in the fourth volume of the Journal of the Horticultural Society, 

 in London. In opposition to the opinion and practice of many per- 

 sons, Mr. Glendinning prefers the month of August to any other, and 

 facts would seem to substantiate the correctness of his opinion. He 

 says, " It would be travelling over a beaten track to enter into any 

 general detail respecting the ascent and descent of the fluids in plants, 

 and the formation and deposition annually of new wood in all ligneous 

 vegetation. It will be sufficient for my purpose to state that this ex- 

 tension and formation takes place chiefly after midsummer, and prin- 

 cipally in evergreens during autumn, when the young shoots begin to 

 attain a certain degree of consistency. It is during this downward 



