110 Mr Don's Account of a New Species ofQu'illaja, ^c. 



and sometimes, in old birds, the edges are almost entirely bro- 

 ken. Supposing these fractures or incisions to take place in 

 consequence of the action of the beak, as is the case in the gan- 

 net and tern, it is difficult to conceive how that action should 

 produce it. The fishes on which these birds prey are caught 

 by plunging after them, and are swallowed entire, so that the 

 edges of the beak do not come in contact with bone. But the 

 determination of the question must be left to observation, which 

 alone can elicit truth, conjectures as to the uses of organs, and 

 the reasons of facts, being merely useful in leading to experi- 

 ment, and having a claim upon our credence only in propor- 

 tion to the general knowledge and correct judgment of their au- 

 thor. 



Descriptions of some new Species of Malesherbia, Kagenechia^ 

 Quillaja, and of a new Genus of the order Salicarice. By 

 Mr DxWiD Don, Librarian to the Linnean Society ; Mem- 

 ber of the Imperial Academy Naturae Curiosorum ; of the 

 Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow ; of the Royal 

 Botanical Society of Ratisbon ; and of the Wernerian So- 

 ciety of Edinburgh, &c. 



Having already given detailed descriptions of the three genera 

 above mentioned, in two preceding numbers of this Journal, and 

 also of the species then known to me, I shall confine myself in 

 this place to the description of the new species, the numbers of 

 which, for the sake of connexion, are continued from those al- 

 ready described by me. 



QUILLAJA, No. 20. p. 229 



3. Q. peHolaris, foliis longe petiolatis ovalibus dentaiis subserratis. 



Hab. In Chili. D. Cuming, f^ (V. s. sp. in Herb. Lamb.) 



Folia ovalia, dentata, subserrata, glabra, nitida, sesqui v. bipollicaria. Petioli 

 fere unciale?. Stipults parvae, caducae. Flores nondum vidi. 



Obs. Maxime affinis Q. saponariae, sed abunde diversa petiolis 6-plb Ion. 

 gioribus. 



