1886.] MISCELLANEOUS. 589 



Miscellaneous. 



In the grounds of Steephill Castle, Veiitnor, a large tree of the 

 Arwiicaria imhncata species, familiarly known as the monkey-puzzle, 

 is in full bloom, an occurrence exceedingl}- rare in this country. The 

 tree, which is about 40 feet high, contains nearly 40 cones of fruit. 

 These cones are twice the size of ordinary cocoa-nuts, and tlie 

 exhibition of one of them at a local flower show excited great interest, 

 neither gardeners nor other visitors having ever heard of the tree 

 blooming in England. At East Dene, near Ventnor, there has been 

 in full bloom the whole season a palm, a native of China, known as 

 Chamccrops Fortunii, which is essentially a native of the tropics. 



Platanus Orientalis. — This plant is used by the Turks as a 

 memorial tree, more particularly on the occasion of the birth of a 

 son. In the court of the Seraglio at Constantinople is or lately was 

 a venerable specimen, which is traditionally believed to have been 

 planted by Mahomet the Second after the taking of Constantinople, 

 to commemorate the birth of his son, Bajazet the Second, the trunk 

 of which is 50 feet in circumference. But there is one spoken of 

 at Buyukdere, on the Bosphorus, which is 45 yards in circumference, 

 but it is not very clear whether this is the measurement of the 

 fourteen large trunks, into which the main stem divides at a certain 

 distance from the ground, or the parent stem itself. 



Causes of the Decay of Australian Forests. — This was the 

 subject of a paper lately read before the Boyal Society of New 

 South Wales, by Mr. P. M'Pherson, M.A. He was first led to 

 investigate this matter by noticing large numbers of gum trees, 

 dying and dead, in the forests about Meredith in Victoria, and his 

 observations extended from 1862 to 1874. A number of reasons 

 had been advanced to account for this decay, including drought, bush 

 fires, sheep manure and white ants. He thought that, though each 

 of these might to some extent be responsible for the death and 

 decay of trees, yet their operations were of too limited a nature to 

 solve the difficulty. An aboriginal had told him what was apparently 

 the true cause of death, viz., the ravages of opossums. From 

 experiments which he had made, he found that an opossum would 

 eat two hundred leaves (gum leaves preferred) in one night. On 

 the trees in the forests were marks whicli shoAved conclusively that 

 opossums were the cause of decay. As in past times the abori- 

 ginals fed on opossums, the animals were kept under ; but now 



