1835.] Transactions of the Luinean Society of London. 307 



copalliferusy because it afforded the gum copal. Dr. Roxburgh alleges 

 also that the resin of the Paenoe is called East India copal. Mr. 

 Turnbull of Mirzapour informed Dr. Hamilton that some which he 

 sent home for trial would not sell for copal, although it was allowed 

 to be anime, /* The real copal and anime," he adds, " are American 

 productions." The resin of the Paenoe, or Dupa (Vatena Indica) 

 was probably used by the Brahmans of Malabar as an incense. The 

 Paenoe is one of the finest ornamental trees in India ; and in the 

 province of Canara it is usually planted in rows by the sides of 

 highways, making remarkably fine avenues. The statement of Mr. 

 Turnbull is not conclusive, because he does not state that its rejection 

 was the consequence of chemical examination. 



The paper of Dr. Daubeny, who is professor of both the very 

 extensive sciences of chemistry and botany, is devoted to an account 

 of some researches carried on in prosecution of the curious facts 

 pointed out by Schrader and others, who found that there was some 

 reason to conclude that plants, in their assimilating processes, pro- 

 duced silica. 



Their method of proceeding was first to burn the seeds and ascer- 

 tain the quantity and nature of the residual earthy matter ; then to 

 sow a given portion of similar seeds in sulphur : and then to ascertain 

 the nature of the earths contained in the ashes of the plant. Dr. 

 Daubeny employed different soils, and instituted a comparison be- 

 tween the effects of each. The materials of the soils were sulphate 

 of strontian, Carara marble, sea sand, and mould. The results do not 

 appear to lead to any new inference. The author, however, con- 

 cludes '' that the roots of plants do, to a certain extent at least, pos- 

 sess a power of selection, and that the earthy constituents which form 

 the basis of their solid parts, are determined as to quality by some 

 primary law of nature, although their amount may depend upon the 

 more or less abundant supply of the principles presented to them 

 from without." 



The order Hydrophylleae was first pointed out by Mr. Brown, 

 in his Prodromus Flor. Nov. Holl. under which he included the 

 genera Hydrophyllum, Phacelia et Elluia, and afterwards added 

 Nemophila and Eutoca. Mr. Bentham, in the present paper, describes 

 forty species belonging to these five genera, and a new one which he 

 terms Emmenanthe, They all differ from their nearest allies, the 

 Borragineae, in the capsular point, and copious albumen, and the 

 structure of the ovaium. In the Hydrophyllum^ Nemophila, and 

 Ellisia, the placentae are broad, fleshy, line the whole ovarium, ad- 

 here at the top and basis only, being free from the parietes, and bear 

 on their inner surface, each of them, from two to sixteen ovulae, 

 placed in two vertical rows, one on each side of the central line. 



In Eutoca, Phacelia and Emmenanthe the placentae are linear, 

 or slightly dilated, and adhere more or less to the parietes along, their 

 central line, bearing on their inner surface from two to fifty or sixty 

 ovulae. 



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