1869.] BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 99 



Composita), in wliich he pointed out that in this, the hirgest 

 of all phanerogamous orders, the habit of almost every other 

 order of the vegetable kingdom cropped up again. In 

 Euphorbiacea3, and other large orders, similar instances are 

 noted. Sometimes this outer resemblance is perfectly startling. I 

 remember finding a Sandwich Island plant, which looked for all the 

 world like Thomasia solanacea of New Holland, and well-known 

 Buettneriacea of our gardens, but which on closer examination 

 turned out to be a variety of Solanum Nelsoni ; the resemblance 

 between these two widely separated plants being quite as 

 striking as that pointed out in Bates's Travels on the Amazon, 

 between a certain moth and a humming-bird. This outer 

 resemblance between plants of different genera and orders 

 has played us botanists many a trick, and is one of the 

 many causes of the existence of some almost incomprehensible 

 synonyms in our systematic works. Wendland in his monograph 

 on Acacia described many good species, and thought he knew an 

 Acacia when he saw one ; yet one of his new ones {A. 

 dolahrlformis) which he referred to the genus from habit 

 alone, turned out to be a Daviesia. Few men had a better 

 knowledge of Ferns than Kunze, yet 'mimicry,' Puck-like, 

 played him a trick when, relying on the nature of the leaf 

 and venation, he referred Stangeria paradoxa, a Cyead, to 

 true Ferns ; and Sir W. J. Hooker, good botanist as he 

 was, would never have figured a Veronica as a Conifer, if 

 'mimicry,' — using the term for the last time — had not been at 

 play. At present I have no theory to propose on this subject, but 

 whoever has, ought to both bear in mind that it must apply with 

 equal force to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and to say that 

 these resemblances are merely accidental, counts for nothing until 

 it shall have been proved that there are such things as 

 " accidents in nature." — Seemann, in Gardener's Chronicle. 



The ordeal poison-nut. — In a recent number of the Journal 

 of Botany Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, says that " this elegant tree 

 is now naturalized in New South Wales, and is readily propagated. 

 There is a noble specimen of it in the Sydney Botanical Gardens, 

 which attracts attention from its bright green foliage, delicate and 

 fragrant blossoms and pendulous, egg-shaped fruit. The label, 

 close to the tree, inscribed ' Madagascar Ordeal Poison Tree,' oc- 

 casions it to be treated with some respect by visitors to the gar- 



