Botany. 67 



Art. III. Botany, 



Tabasheer (the Arabic word for liquor) is a very remarkable substance, 

 occurring only in particular situations and in particular plants, and chiefly 

 in the joints of the bamboo. It is called by the Hindoo physicians bamboo 

 manna, and milk, sugar, or camphor of bamboo, and appears to be a secretion 

 from the joints of the seed in a state of disease, malconformation, or 

 fracture. The secretion is made in the cavity within the reed, and on the 

 upper and under surface of the joints ; the ordinary quantity produced by 

 a disorganised joint or internode, is four or five grains. The chemical 

 composition of tabasheer is undetermined ; it is pure silex, according to 

 some ; and silex 70, and potash 50, according to others. According to an 

 analysis by Dr. Turner, Professor of Chemistry in the University of London, 

 in the April number of Brewster^s Journal, it consists of silica, containing a 

 minute quantity of lime and vegetable matter. The physical properties of 

 tabasheer are remarkable ; its refractive power is lower than that of any 

 other body, when solid or fluid ; with certain oils, which it imbibes, it be- 

 comes as transparent as glass ; it absorbs water, and becomes as white and 

 opaque as if it had been covered with white lead. In India it is used 

 medicinally as a tonic, or chewed with betel, to renovate the constitution. 

 It is also highly prized as an aphrodisiac. Silex, it is well known, exists in 

 wheat straw, and in the stems of other grasses ; physiologists, in general, 

 consider it as a foreign ingredient, " an intruding element which the plant 

 had derived from the peculiar soil in which it vegetated ;" but Dr. Brewster, 

 from certain experiments made with J5^quisetum hiemale, is of opinion that 

 the silex is an integral portion of the plant itself. {Brewster* s Jour., April.) 



Botany in the Mauritius. — Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, the governor, 

 has appointed that indefatigable botanist, Mr. Bojer, Professor of Botany 

 in the Royal College at Port Louis. The 

 governor, as well as Lady Cole, have done 

 every thing in their power to aid the cause of 

 botany; and have encouraged the transmission 

 of plants to Europe to a very great extent. 

 Professor Hooker has lately published in the 

 Botanical Magazine (April, 1828) a beautiful 

 species of Bignonia, named in honour of the 

 governor by Mr. Bojer, in testimony of his re- 

 spect and gratitude. Bignom'a Col^i {fig- 36.) 

 is a shrub reaching to the height of from 10 

 to 15 feet, and bearing red flowers on the 

 main stem remote from the. leaves. The plant 

 itself has not yet been introduced into Britain, 

 but may soon be expected at Bury Hill. 



The Krubut, or Great Flower of Sumatra. — Rafflesi« (in honour of the 

 late Sir Stamford Raffles, governor of Sumatra, and founder of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society) Arnoldii (in memory of Dr. Arnold, the discoverer in 1818), 

 is one of the most extraordinary of vegetable productions. It is a parasite, 

 growing in woods, on the roots and stems of those immense climbers, gene- 

 rally of the genus Fitis, which are attached, like cables, to the largest 

 trees in the forest. The flower constitutes the whole of the plant, there 

 being neither leaves, roots, nor a stem. It is a true parasite, growing out 

 of another plant in the manner of the mistletoe, and not on the decayed 

 surface of plants, as the common fern on the trunks of old oak pollards. 

 In the latter case the proper term is epiphyte {epi, upon, phyton, a 

 plant). The flowers are of one sex, and only the male has yet been sent to 

 • England. The breadth of a full-grown flower {Jig. 37.) exceeds 3 ft. ; the 

 petals (a), which are subrotund, measure 12 in. from the base to the apex, 



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