Mr D. Don on the Mmtard-Tree. 809 



London for 1749 ; for, in i\\e first edition of the Species Plan" 

 tarum, published at Stockholm in 1753, we find Phytolacca asia- 

 tica for the first time noticed, with the following specific charac- 

 ter, " Phytolacca folus serratis ;" and a reference made to the 

 Kalagu of Rheede, (Hort. Malah. ii. t. 26.), which has a pin- 

 nate leaf, and is evidently nothing else than Leea sambucina, 

 Linnaeus appears to have been soon aware of his error, as in the 

 subsequent editions of the Species Plantarum^ the name is dis- 

 continued. My only object in this communication was to point 

 out precisely the plant noticed by Captains Irby and Mangles. 

 This object, I trust, I have satisfactorily fulfilled ; but, as to at- 

 tempting to ascertain the precise plant mentioned in the Sacred 

 Scriptures, the difficulties that present themselves appear to me 

 not to be lessened. 



Addition to the Botanical Notices^ published in No. XXVI. of 

 the Philosophical Journal, October 1825. 



In my article on the leaves used by the Chinese in lining tea- 

 chests, there is some obscurity in the description of the nerves^ 

 which I think it necessary to remove. It seems as if I denied 

 the existence of a midrib, but this I did not intend .; for I meant 

 to say, that the leaves agreed with the genus Pharus^ and dif- 

 fered from most other GraminecE, in the presence of a midrib, 

 and that their straight parallel nerves, running longitudinally 

 from the base to the apex of the leaf, distinguished them essen- 

 tially from those of Scitaminea^, wherein the nerves arise late- 

 rally from the midrib, traversing the leaf in an obliquely trans- 

 verse direction from the centre to the margin. 



On the Structuix and Characters of the Octopus ventricosus, Gr. 

 (Sepia octopodia. Pent.), a rare species of Octopus from 

 the Firth of Forth. By R. E. Grant, M. D., F. R. S. E., 

 F. L. S., M. W. S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians of Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the Northern In- 

 stitution, &c. Communicated by the Author *. 



X HE species of Octopus, of which I now present two speci* 

 mens from the Firth of Forth, is of rare occurrence on our coasts, 



* Read before the Wernerian Natural History Society 13th January 1827. 

 JANUARY — MARCH 1887. X 



