Scientific Travellers, 439 



long, li broad, spongy, hooked at end ; seed l£ inch long, 

 egg-shaped, compressed, free from the scale, apparently not 

 winged ; whether dioecious or not, not known. Ripens seed 

 in January, when the natives collect from great distances to 

 feed on it. It is said there is also another species, but I have 

 not seen it. — H. Bidwill. 



Note on Nuytsia floribunda. 



In the government garden at Sidney is a single plant of 

 Nuytsia, which flowers every year, but does not ripen many 

 seeds. I this year picked up several and sowed them, but they 

 have not come up. As I was particularly anxious to preserve 

 the plant, I invariably looked around it for seedlings when- 

 ever I entered the garden, and a few days since discovered 

 two just breaking the ground. I then found that this curious 

 plant has three (!) cotyledons, which are awl-shaped and per- 

 fectly equal in size and appearance. As I never recollect to 

 have heard of a plant with three cotyledons before, I thought 

 it worth mentioning, in order to compare it, if possible, with 

 Scheepfia, Gaiadendron, Aucuba, &c, the other terrestrial ge- 

 nera of (so-called) Loranthacece. I should like to know if it 

 is to be found in English collections*. — H. B. 



Sidney, July 5, 1841. 



LV. — Information respecting Scientific Travellers, 



Some account of the Natural History of the Island of Che- 

 dooba, from the Report o/ Edward P. Halstead, Esq., 

 Commander of Her Majesty's Sloop Childersf. 

 The island of Chedooba measures 15| miles in length, viz. from 

 18° 40' to 18° 55' 30" N. latitude, and 17 miles in width, viz. 

 from 93° 30' to 93° 47' E. longitude, and shows on the map as a 

 square the S.W. angle of wnich has been reduced. With its de- 

 pendency of Flat Island on the south coast, it covers an area of about 

 200 square miles. Its general appearance and character is that of a 

 fertile, well-wooded island of moderate height and irregular outline. 

 A band of level plain, but little raised above the sea, extends around 

 its coasts, of far greater width on the east than on the west; within this 

 he irregular, low, undulating hills, varying in height from 50 to 

 500 feet, enclosing several higher detached mounds, of steep, well- 

 wooded sides, the loftiest of which, near the south part of the island, 

 rises nearly 1400 feet. 



The view from the top of these higher summits presents, imme- 



* On reference to Mr. Loudon's ' Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum/ 

 it appears not to have been as yet introduced. — Ed. 



f From the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. cxiii. 



