^>vv Miscellanems. >5s^ft^«8^ 383 



but that is a point which can only be ascertained by diligent search. 

 The importance of the discovery can hardly be over-rated, now that 

 the forests of Singapore have been almost entirely exhausted/* 



5. "On some Plants which have recently flowered in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden," by Professor Balfour. These plants were Tricyrtis 

 jpilosa, Boucerosia MunbT/ana—noticed by Munby in his Flora of 

 Algiers, and Erianthus japonicus. The last had been sent to the 

 garden under the name of Nepal Sugar-cane. Major Madden writes — 

 *' E. japonicus occurs all along the Himalaya from Assam up to 

 Simla, growing on the northern sides of the mountains in damp 

 woods, and generally near rivulets, up to 7000 feet, or perhaps 7500, 

 and is a fine species. It has only recently been identified as the Japan 

 plant, and you will find it frequently noted in Griffith's Journals as 

 Saccharum rubrum. It has, however, no saccharine qualities, and 

 does not merit the name of Nepal Sugar-cane." 



Mr. M'Nab laid before the Meeting a table of observations of the 

 lowest temperatures indicated by the Register Thermometer kept at 

 the Botanic Garden during January and February 1855, from which 

 it appears that the — 



Average lowest temperature for January was 31° Fahr. 

 „ „ for February 23°. 



And the average lowest temperature from the 15th January to the 

 28th February 23°. 



— ^— M 



MISCELLANEOUS. .q 



ORIGIN OF WHEAT. 



The experiments of M. Fabre on the Origin of Wheat, and the con- 

 sequent conclusions adopted by several distinguished naturalists, that 

 most of our cultivated wheats were derived from species of JEgilopSj 

 have excited great interest on the continent of Europe. Botanists, 

 whose ideas on the specific distinction of plants marked by slight 

 difierences have been carried very far, have felt that their principles 

 would be much shaken if it were admitted that two plants in their 

 opinion so totally diiferent had a common origin, and several refuta- 

 tions of M. Dunal's arguments have been attempted, although 

 hitherto without much success. 



M. Godron, of Besan9on, one of the authors of the 'Flore de 

 France,' now in course of publication, has just, however, communicated 

 to the * Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' the result of his observa- 

 tions and experiments, which he considers as removing all weight 

 from the arguments of MM. Fabre and Dunal by accounting other- 

 wise for the phsenomena on which they were founded. 



The jEgilops triticoides, the intermediate form or transitionary 

 state between JE. ovata and wheat, is, according to M. Godron, when 

 growing wild, found on the edges of wheat-fields in a country where 

 jE, ovata is a common weed, and under other circumstances of growth, 

 which suggested to him the idea that it was a natural hybrid between 



