39 



cephalus of Willdcnow, of which I have seen no specimen, 

 but if the character given by that author or by DcCandolle 

 are to be relied upon, it must be different. By the latter it is 

 only separated fi'om A. Barba Jovis, at the instance of Steven ; 

 but if Mr. Brant's species were intended it could never have 

 been joined with the latter, whose pods are described as 

 smooth. Willdenow speaks of the teeth of the calyx being 

 short, whereas in Mr. Brant's plant they are unusually long, 

 and almost hide the corolla. Finally, the term mucronate 

 applied by these Botanists to the leaflets by no means ex- 

 presses the long rigid spine by which they are terminated. 

 It must therefore be regarded as a new species, of which 

 the characters are subjoined under the name of A. strobili- 

 Jems. 



Hence it appears that the best Tragacanth is really fur- 

 nished by A. gummifer, as Labillardiere affirmed ; that no 

 additional evidence as to the accuracy of Olivier's statement 

 concerning A. verus has been obtained ; but that the exist- 

 ence of a third Tragacanth plant has been clearly ascertained. 

 The specific character of A. strobiliferus may be stated thus : 



71. ASTRAGALUS strobiliferus; floribus in strobilum ovatum sessilem axil- 

 larem capitatis, bracteis imbricatis apiculatis tomentosis, calycibus plu- 

 mosis 5-fidis: laciniis coroUse pequalibus, foliolis 3-jugis lanatis ovalibus 

 apice aristatis glabris, basi angustatis. 



OAKS OF KOORDISTAN. 



The same intelligent traveller, to whose collections we 

 owe the preceding evidence concerning the origin of Traga- 

 canth, has sent home some most interesting specimens of the 

 Oaks of Koordistan ; and it is not a little remarkable that 

 out of six or perhaps seven species in his herbarium, one 

 should be almost unknown to Botanists, and at least three 

 others not only quite new but of singular beauty as forest- 

 trees. As means have now been taken by Mr. Strangways 

 to procure the acorns of these valuable plants, we may expect 

 to see them in a year or two in our gardens, and therefore a 

 short account of them may be admitted into this work. 



Quercus infectoria, producing the nut galls of the Levant, 

 from which ink is made ; another plant that may be a deeply 

 pinnatifid state of Q. sessiliflora, but probably quite distinct, 

 indeterminable, however, for want of acorns ; and the Q. 



