78 



185. SARCANTHUS j^allidus ; foliis distichis cariaceis ligulatis apice ob- 

 lique retusis panicula miiltiflora ramosa multo brevioribus, labelli lobo 

 medio solido tereti incurvo. 



Brought to His Grace the Duke of Devonshire from 

 India by Mr. Gibson. It is a plant with the foliage of 

 Aerides odoratum, or some such plant ; but its flowers are 

 small, pale, and by no means beautiful, although they are 

 extremely numerous, and arranged in a panicle a foot and a 

 half long. They are about the size of S. teretifoiius, of a 

 dirty greenish white, with a faint purple streak through the 

 middle of each sepal and petal, and with the intermediate 

 lobe of the lip dull yellow. 



186. COMPARETTIA rosea; foliis subsessilibus, racemo pendulo laxo pau- 

 cifloro, labelli lamina subrotuudo-oblonga calcare subulato breviore. 



A delicate little Orchidaceous plant from the Spanish 

 Main, with a slender drooping stem, bearing four or five 

 flowers of a bright rich rose colour near its apex. I am in- 

 debted for it to Messrs. Loddiges, (no. 752). 



CheTiopodearum Monographica enumeratio, auctore A Moquin Tandon. 

 Paris, 1840. 8vo. 



An important contribution to the progress of syste- 

 matical Botany, which, if it bears but little upon Garden 

 plants, has at least a material connection with our Domestic 

 Flora. 



The Chenopodiaceous order is universally ugly, and 

 generally useless ; there is hardly a species that deserves a 

 better place than a heap of rubbish, where indeed they are 

 generally found, as if they really possessed the virtue of hu- 

 mility and knew their station. That kind of afi^ection which 

 leads a man to spend years of his life in contemplating such 

 things, can only be compared to the tender care with which a 

 reptile or a monkey is sometimes caressed. But as such 

 plants must be put in order by some one, in order that all 

 things may find their fitting place in the scheme of classifica- 

 tion, the world is much indebted to those who undertake the 

 uninviting office. M. Moquin Tandon appears to have ex- 

 ecuted it with care. He refers Chenopodium Botrys and its 

 allies to a genus called Ambrina; Ch. Bonus Henricus, for- 

 merly regarded by him as a peculiar genus (Agathophyton) 

 is now a Blitum ; and Atriplex pedunculata goes to the genus 



