JANUARY. 9 



cut across the tally; 1, leaning from the point (the left hand); 2, 

 square across; 3, leaning from the right hand; then a notch upon 

 the upper end of either of these increases their vakie by 3, making 

 1 into 4, 2 into 5, and 3 into 6; then a notch on the lower end 

 (without any on the upper end) increases the value by 6, making 

 1 into 7, 2 into 8, and 3 into 9, the notch alone standing for 0. This 

 plan is also applicable to tallies of zinc, the straight figures being 

 made by a small bhmt chisel, and a small punch for the notches. 

 The numbers should be cut and read from the point of the tally ; 

 or, in the case of its being tied to a plant, the end attached to the 

 plant must be held in the left hand to cut and read the numbers. 



Indicator. 



ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA AND LAPAGERIA ROSEA. 



At this season of the year, when nature is taking her annual repose, 

 and there is little to report of horticultural transactions, it may inte- 

 rest your readers to see the account given of the Araucaria and La- 

 pageria by that distinguished German botanist. Dr. Poeppig, as he 

 saw them in their native habitats in South Chili. 



After having spent the summer in Northern Chili, chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of Valparaiso, where the soil is for the most part dry 

 and rocky, he sailed in the autumn for the southern and cooler divi- 

 sion of that country, and landed at Talcahuano, in the Bay of Con- 

 cepcion, where he first met with the Lapageria. As his notice of 

 this plant is but short, I shall transcribe his description of the gene- 

 ral aspect of the scenery around Talcahuano. 



" The neighbourhood of Talcahuano presents much that is highly 

 interesting to the botanist, even in autumn. It does the eye good, 

 after being so long unaccustomed to it, to see once more a country 

 whose hills are clothed with green forests. Even those heights 

 which are destitute of trees never entirely lose their verdure ; and 

 the autumnal season, though less abundant in this respect than 

 North America, is marked by the flowering of many plants. We are 

 reminded of the northern hemisphere by an Aster and a Solidago, 

 which, as yet, seem to be the only representatives in Chili of these 

 widely-extended genera. The Proustia, with its violet-coloured pap- 

 puo, overruns the higher trees, on whose bark handsome Loranthi 

 have fixed themselves. Small Oxahdes and various Grasses, the 

 Mollugo, Salsola, &c. grow mingled together along the course of the 

 river Biobio. Following the shores of the bay, you meet with many 

 difficulties from fragments of rock and other obstructions; but the 

 trouble is well repaid. Many sea-weeds — Ulvas, Confervte, and 

 Tangle — are left by the retiring tide among the stones, and invite 

 the industrious collector; while the steep precipice on the left hand 

 presents many before imseen, and occasionally very beautiful plants. 

 The Tetragonia; commence at the bottom, followed by Eupatoriffi. 

 Under the overhanging rock the Chihan Alsophila spreads its blue- 

 grey foliage, amidst wiiich blooms the nearly stemless Bromelia of 



