Miscellaneous. 283 



island of Java, whence an extraordinary quantity is annually ex- 

 ported. 



'J he cubebs, the dried ripe fruit of this species, are globular, with 

 a stalk (which is more properly the contracted base of the berry) 

 thicker at the upper part, and exceeding them in length. Their 

 colour is a sometimes brighter, sometimes duller, dark brownish-gray, 

 with a grayish ring. Their surface is wrinkled as their succulent 

 flesh shrinks into folds in drying, which form 20 or 30 regular 5-, 6- 

 or more angled planes. The largest are about 5 millimet. in diameter ; 

 length of the stalks 5-8 millim., more rarely 1 centim. The seed 

 adheres firmly to the dried flesh of the berry ; its outer membrane 

 (testa) is grayish-white ; the inner {Endopleura) is shining, some- 

 times grayish or dull yellow, sometimes reddish. The nucleus is ex- 

 ternally brownish or yellowish, internally whitish and comes into 

 view on fracture, as the seed-membranes adhere closely to the fruit- 

 membrane. 



This cubeb-plant has very often been confounded with an allied 

 species, namely — 



Cubeba canina, Miq. = Piper caninum, Rumph., Blurae ; Piper 

 Cubeba, Vahl; Nees, Plan t. Med., tab. xxii. fig. 1. This is distinguished 

 by its flexible, rooting stem, by its leaves being hairy beneath, the 

 lower 5-nerved and somewhat unequally cordiform, while the upper 

 or younger are 7-nerved and regularly cordate. The berries are 

 more ovate than the genuine cubebs, somewhat pointed, and a little 

 longer than their stalk. 



This species grows in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas. The 

 figures 2, 4 and 5 of Nees's plate xxii. represent another species, 

 erroneously taken for the plant yielding genuine cubebs ; this Mi- 

 quel calls Cubeba costulata. It is a native of the Mascarenhas 

 Islands, and is easily distinguished by its lower, distant, soft- haired 

 leaves, the midribs of which send off 10 nervures; by the stalks 

 of the catkins, which are twice as long as the leaf-stalks, and lastly 

 by the elongate-ovate fruit. 



Cubeba borboniensisy Miq. = Piper Cubeba^ Linn., is also an 

 allied species. Cubebs have also been obtained lately from the Cape 

 of Good Hope and Guinea. Miquel, however, holds that the plants 

 furnishing both are specifically different from Cubeba officinalis^ and 

 calls the former Cubeba capensis^ the latter Cubeba Clusii (=■ Piper 

 e Guinea, Clusius). He believes that, besides the fruit of Cubeba 

 officinalis, the very similar one of Cubeba sumatrana, and occa- 

 sionally the two Indian species, named C Neesii and C. Wallichii, 

 are met with in commerce. — From Miquel's Systema Piperacearum, 



OBITUARY. 



Professor Graham of Edinburgh. — It is with sincere sorrow that we 

 announce the death of this distinguished individual. The mournful 

 event took place at Coldoch, in Perthshire, on the 7th of August, 

 after a painful and protracted illness, which he bore with calmness 

 and Christian fortitude. 



Robert Graham, M.D.,F.R.S.E., Professor of Botany and Medicine 



X2 



