o 



6 Transactions of the [Sess. 



amination of the nature and venation of the leaf, to be a Fern. On 

 comparing some of the weird - looking American Cacti with the 

 African Euphorbias, they are found to be wonderfully alike. The 

 curious thing here is, that both the columnar or branched and the 

 globular forms of Cacti have their representatives in the Euphor- 

 biacefe. But let us take a few illustrations from plants nearer 

 liome. One example is the rare Menziesia ca^rulea, which is so 

 like the Crowberry {Empetrum nigrum) that the one may easily 

 be mistaken for the other. The Equiseta, or Horse-tails, it has 

 been remarked, find their echoes in the Hippuris, which is a flower- 

 ing-plant. Dr M. C. Cooke, in his ' Freaks and Marvels of Plant- 

 Life,' figures a composite plant {Azorella Selago) which is extremely 

 like a Lycopod. A similar example is Thujopsis la^tevirens, a 

 Conifer, compared with such a Lycopod as Selaginella Lyallii. 

 Two Rosaceous plants — Alchemilla alpina and Potentilla alche- 

 milloides — have their foliage identical ; as have also Eumex san- 

 guisorbfefolia, belonging to the Polygonea?, and Sanguisorba offic- 

 inalis, one of the Rosacea. Many familiar names, suggesting like 

 similarities, will readily recur to memory — as Polygonum Convolv- 

 ulus, Solanum jasminoides, Arenaria serpyllifolia, and so on. 

 A curious Veronica (F. salicornioides) has lately been introduced 

 from New Zealand by Isaac Anderson Henry, Esq. of Woodend. 

 The plant — of which tliere are several specimens in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden— has never yet flowered in this country, and there- 

 fore doubts have been entertained as to its really being a Veronica, 

 though on that point competent judges are quite satisfied. Its 

 striking similarity to a Conifer may be easily seen on comparing it 

 with Cupressus Lambertiana or Dacrydium Franklinii, both belong- 

 ing to the Coniferae. Again, we saw above two forms of Cacti repro- 

 duced in two Euphorbias; but a still more striking example of mimet- 

 ism is furnished by three shrubs, two of them possessing a varie- 

 gated form, and all three, in the normal type, nearly identical, though 

 presumably with no genetic relationship. One is Osmanthus illici- 

 folius, a member of the Oleaceae or Olive family ; the second is 

 Desfontainea spinosa, belonging to the Loganiaceaa ; and the third is 

 the Common Holly [Ilex aqidfoliiis) — N. 0. Ilicinefe. To give but one 

 illustration more : there are two plants which are so like dwarf 

 Palms, that in nearly every nurseryman's catalogue — and indeed 

 in some works of much greater pretensions — they are classed under 

 that heading. Yet neither is connected with the Palmje. One is 

 Carludovica palmata, belonging to the Pandanaceee or Screw Pines ; 

 and the other is Curculigo sumatrana, a Hypoxidaceous plant, allied 

 to the Amaryllids. Let us place each of these plants alongside of 

 a Palm leaf. Carludovica palmata may be paired with Livistona 

 chinensis, the one seeming to be a variety of the other, and each as 

 decidedly Palm-like in habit as its neighbour. Curculigo sumatrana 



