Mi Botanical Collections, 



the provinces of Goyaz and Para. I have found but few Barhacenece ; but 

 the Vellosicdy their nearest relations, cover whole plains, in different latitudes 

 in the interior ; never in the forests. They give a singular and strange 

 character to the landscape, not to be represented but by the pencil ; they 

 resemble some Dracence. The Melastouiacese are found every where, and 

 in every situation. The Vochysiaceae are numerous, and many are most 

 beautiful tlovvering trees, and afford excellent timber. They also afford vari- 

 ous localities, as likewise do the Myrtacta;. The Laurineae are numerous, 

 particularly to the southward ; but in Para are species producing the finest 

 cinnamon, and a kind of nutmeg is also found there. — Burchell in ^of. 

 Miscell. vol. ii. p. 131. 



Eriophorum. In E. polystachion the stalks of the spikes are smooth, 

 and evidently compressed. Except in the broader leaver, it hardly differs 

 from E. angusiifolium. It is very doubtful whether any real difference 

 exists between E. poh/stachion, angustifulium, and gracile. I saw them all 

 growing together in Wales, and sought carefully, but in vain, for characters. 

 Assuredly none exists in the fructification, for they agree most exactly in 

 every respect but the length of the seed-down. It is true that in E. polysta- 

 chion, the root does not seem to creep as in the two others, but this is with 

 difficulty determined, since the plant grows to a great depth in the bogs, 

 and no ordinary methods will extract the root in a ])erfect state : it is not 

 improbable that E. polystachion, if planted in a different soil, would throw 

 out creeping shoots like the others. E. pubescens is often taller than 

 E. palystachiony and the leaves always much l)roader in proportion, so as to 

 be nearly lanceolate, with a very short triangular point. Staik of the spikes 

 furrowed, rough, but not downy, with the setulae pointing forwards ; glumes, 

 very acute, with a strong mid-rib, reaching nearly to the summit, entire, and 



scarcely membranous in the margin W. Wilson, in Bot. Miscell. vol. ii. 



p. 135. [We have no objections to E. angustifolium and E. polystachion being 

 united, but surely E. gracile, if reduced at all, ought to be joined with 

 E. pubescens : the stalks of the spikes are rough in both, though not clothed 

 with fine silky hairs, as Smith states of the latter ; mistaking, as we have 

 ascertained, a species of Mucor for this plant. Of course we allude above to 

 the true E. gracile, that found in Britain being, as has been already noticed 

 in this Journal, (vol. ii. p. 179,) merely E. angustijolium.] 



Papier Vegetale This, by far the best kind of tracing paper, per- 

 mitting either the use of ink or black lead pencil, besides being of a purer 

 colour than any other, is obtained in France from the root of the Alihcea 

 officinalis. 



Morocco Leather. — The Statice coriaria is used for tanning goat's skin, 

 to form wha?; is called Morocco leather. 



Russian Leather. — The tar extracted from the bark of the Betula alba, 

 or common birch, by the common process, is what gives the peculiar smell 

 to Russian leather : the mode of application is kept secret : neat or calf 

 leather is employed. 



Mode of preserving fleshy Fungi With a delicate scimitar-shaped knife, 



or scalpel, such as is found in a surgeon's instrument-case, I make a double 

 vertical section, through the middle, from the top of the pileus to the 

 base of the stipes, so as to remove a slice. This, it will be at once seen, 

 shews the vertical outline of the whole Fungus, the internal nature of its 

 stipes, whether hollow, or spongy, or solid, the thickness of the pileus, and 

 the peculiarities of the gills, whether equal or unequal in length, decurrent 

 upon the stipes, or otherwise, &c. There will then remain the two sides 



