Myrica Gale, fern., rare in the New Forest. 605 



some others, had been presented to the owner of the herbarium, 

 who was ignorant of its localities. I may here remark that Co- 

 ronilla varia is a plant whose range embraces the same paral- 

 lels of latitude as the southern and midland parts of England 

 lie under; being dispersed over most parts of Germany, Silesia, 

 and South Russia. It occurs more sparingly in Flanders and 

 Holland, and may well be expected in Britain. Like Cytisus, 

 however, Coronilla is rather an eastern than a western genus; 

 and is therefore likely to prove very local and rare, should 

 its claim to a place in our flora be in the end established. 

 — Id. j 



'Myrica Gale, singular Disproportion between the Sexes of, 

 in the New Forest. — Amongst the many thousand plants of 

 this species in that part of the New Forest contiguous to 

 Lymington and Bold re, and occupying large tracts of bog 

 land, to the exclusion of nearly every other shrub, it is hardly 

 possible to find a female specimen ; and, though I have care- 

 fully sought, for two years past, and at various times, over 

 some hundreds of acres colonised (if I may so say) by this 

 superabundant male population, it was not till the other day 

 that I met with a few stunted berry-bearing plants, not ex- 

 ceeding half a dozen in all, and as sparingly producing fruit. 

 So rare, indeed, are individuals of the softer sex in that part of 

 the world, that the forest people do not appear to know of 

 their existence. The male plants attain a luxuriance rarely 

 equalled in the north of England, and apparently act a most 

 beneficial part in consolidating, by their creeping and inter- 

 woven roots, the treacherous soil on which they vegetate ; as 

 may be best seen in the extensive morass below the church of 

 Boldre, whose cemetery contains the ashes of the author of 

 Forest Scenery. Although abounding in resinous matter, and, 

 consequently, extremely combustible, I do not find that the 

 bog myrtle is in request for fuel amongst the poorer classes 

 in the forest, or that they ever extract the wax from the 

 leaves, as is reported to be done in the Highlands of Scotland, 

 and the more northern parts of Europe. — Id. 



Beet-root Sugar. — The beet-root has become an object of 

 cultivation at Wandsworth, and other places in the vicinity 

 of the metropolis. At Thames- Bank, Chelsea, a sugar re- 

 finery is now erecting. After the juice of the beet- root has 

 undergone the process of decolorisation, the sugar will be 

 produced from it by evaporation. As the different varieties of 

 beet are indigenous to the northern parts of Europe, agricul- 

 turists are alive to the profits of such a produce in England, 

 which is now a source of great advantage in France. 



Should government not interfere, there is no doubt but 



