80 LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



stated that for ordinary detergent purposes, an impure earthy soda 

 and a lye made from ashes are employed. The leaves of llibiscus 

 syridcHs and Giiujko biloha are occasionally used for cleansing the 

 head. The most favourite substance, however, seems to be the 

 fruit of certain Lei/uminosa, chiefly what the Chinese call " fei- 

 tsao-tow " (fat black beans). Breitschneider has no doubt that this 

 belongs to the Gymnocladns chincnsis, a plant originally described 

 by Baillon only from pods received from Shanghai, and of which 

 the leaves and flowers were for a long time unknown. There is 

 now a specimen at Kew, from Foochow in the province of Fokien, 

 with fruit and flowers, but only young leaves, which have been 

 lately figured in the ' Icones Plantarum.' The specimens were 

 exhibited with fruits and fully developed leaves, from Ningpo in 

 Cheidang, and Wa-hu in Au-whei province. The pods of Gle- 

 ditschia sinensis of Lamarck, called by the Chinese " tsao-chio," are 

 used for the same purposes as those of the Gi/nmocladiis. The 

 specimens now exhibited are fi'om Peking and the Shanghai 

 district. One of them, which Mr. Forbes had always supposed to 

 be Gleditschia sinensis, appears to come from the same tree as the 

 type specimen of G. xylocarpa Hance. A tree common in South 

 China was referred by Mr. Bentham, in the ' Flora Hongkongensis,' 

 to G. sinensis, but the flowers and fruits of this specimen, lately 

 examined at Kew and the British Museum, seem to differ from the 

 northern ones. Lamarck founded his species on a tree growing in 

 the Jardin des Plantes, from seeds sent from Peking by Pere Incar- 

 ville 200 years ago ; and further inquiry seems needed as to the 

 identity of the northern and southern plants. The Gymnocladus ' 

 pods are said by Dr. Porter Smith to be roasted and kneaded into 

 balls as large as childrens' marbles, when they are used in washing 

 clothes and in bathing, but on account of their unpleasant smell 

 they are not allowed in the public baths. The seeds are used in 

 Peking by women in washing the head and hair. In Shanghai the 

 Gleditschia pods are broken in small bits and soaked in boiling 

 water, until a considerable amount of oily substance is floated, 

 when the water is ready for use. The specimen exhibited of 

 Sapindus niakwinsi, Gaert., was received from Mr. Clement Allen, 

 British Consul at Ningpo, who stated that the Chinese there used 

 the fruit as soap. This is doubtless the " Soap tree," or " Frei- 

 chu-tszo," mentioned by Dr. Porter Smith. — Mr. H. Groves 

 exhibited specimens of — (1) Cham connicens, collected at Slapton, 

 S. Devon, the only known British slation, for no trace of the plant is 

 now to be found at Stokes Bay ; (2) Chara canescens (with the syno- 

 nym C. crinita), from a pool between Helston and the Lizard, and 

 from Little Sea, Studland, Dorset. — Mr. Geo. Murray exhibited 

 specimens, both dried and moistened, of a species of Glceocapsa 

 found by Mr. Pryer, in bird's nest caves in North Borneo ; Mr. Murray 

 also mentioned that he himself had found somewhat similar dried 

 patches of Algae [Glaocapsa''- in leaves in Scotland, inhabited by 

 pigeons. — Mr. W. T. T. Dyer showed and made remarks on some 

 sterile runners of Mentha piperita, and the remains of flowers of 

 Epiluhium hirsutum, taken from a wreath found by Prof. Maspero 



