S^ Botanical Collections. 



on our Alps. In the garden a panicle is protruded much longer than the leaves, 

 and the plant is in almost every respect similar to Potentilla tridentata but dif- 

 fering by the small yellow petals. 



Peruvian Bark Professor De Candolle, in preparing the 4th volume of his 



Prodromusy has had occasion to examine many plants producing this medicine 

 scattered through different herbaria, and has given the general result of his obser- 

 vations to the public. From these we learn that of the genus Cinchona, as li- 

 mited by him, seven species are in use. Buena gives three species, though 

 scarcely known in Europe. Remijia, a new genus, affords three species used in 

 Brazil. Exostemma, a genus from the Antilles, contains fourteen species, most 

 of which are there in use, but the bark, though bitter and tonic, contains appa- 

 rently no quinine. All are, however, excellent emetics. PinTcneya pubens is 

 used as a febrifuge in the United States, of which it is a native. HymenodyC' 

 tyon, a new genus described by Dr. Wallich, contains four species, but one only, 

 known in East India under the name of Bundaroo, is tolerably understood. The 

 Luculia of Sweet from East India contains one species, but the properties of its 

 bark are scarcely known. The genus Danais, from the Mauritius, has been 

 compared with the Cinchonas, but the bark is bitter and astringent, and seetiis 

 to have little in common with those plants yielding the true medicine of com- 

 merce. 



Botanical Tours. — M. Agardh in 1827 undertook a tour to Austria and the 

 north of Italy, for the sake of comparing the Algce of the south with those of the 

 north, and he has published a very interesting account of it. He has added several 

 new species, and cleared up many doubtful ones. In the warmest of the baths 

 of Carlsbad he observed one of this tribe of vegetables, which had been succes- 

 sively described as a Fucus, an Ulva, a Conferva, and a Tremella ; it appears 

 to be an Oscillatoria, species of which genus have been found in the tube of the 

 stove of the old Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, and in various hot springs in 

 France. 



In an excursion made by Dr. Graham with several of his pupils and some 

 friends, to the Scottish Highlands in August last, the following rare cryptogamic 

 plants, among many others, were collected : 



Polytrichum septentrionale, on Ben-y-Bourd, in fine fructification ; Dr. 

 Graham. Shoulder of Ben-na-muic-duich, on the descent towards 

 Loch Aven, in fine fructification ; Dr. Greville. 

 Jungermannia Doniana, in fructification, very abundant among the rocks 

 above Loch Aven ; Dr. Greville. 



r ^ ' >■ same station ; Dr. Greville. 



J. compressa, J ' 



J. trilobata, a small and compact variety, — among the rocks above Loch 



Aven ; Dr. Greville. 

 Cetraria nivalis, on most of the Braemar mountains ; beginning to pre- 

 sent itself at an elevation of about 3000 feet. 

 C. Islandica, not unfrequent in fructification on several mountains. 

 Cornicularia bicolor, on several mountains around Castletou in Braemar, 

 near the summit ; Dr. Greville. 

 There occurred also a moss, on rocks at the head of Glen Callader, with im- 

 mature fructification, having the habit of Trichostomum ellipticum, but with ob- 

 long capsules, an obliquely rostrate lid, and a dimidiate calyptra. It will pro- 

 bably prove to be undescribed, although the genus is at present doubtful. 



Amongst the phasnogamous plants collected, were Carex Vahlii, Saxifraya 

 caspitosa, and perhaps Caltha radicans, but of this last there is some doubt, as the 

 plant was not in flower. Mr. MacgiUivray has already described, from this trip, 

 what he thinks to be a new species of Salix, {S. Macnabiana,) but which, by 



