BOTANICAL NEWS. 319 



of the Ocliils, near Tullibody, and by Cruickshanks near Dumfries. — Mr. 

 J. F. Duthie sent living plants of I'olygala anstriaca from Wye Downs, in 

 Kent. — j\Ir. George Gordon presented a specimen of Cocoa-nut in which 

 the three carpels forming the fruit are separate. — Senhor J. Correa de 

 Mello San Paulo, Brazil, sent tubers of Aderodigma Dracontium {Arinn 

 Dracontinm, Velloso, Fl. Flum. ix. t. 103). He states that it prefers to 

 grow in virgin forests under the shade of large trees, in a soil formed of 

 disintegrated granite covered with humus. The plant is known by the 

 naujc of Jararaca, its petiole and scale being spotted like those of trirjo- 

 nocephalus Jarararaca. which is called by the same name. He sent two 

 varieties, viz. (1) Porphyrosticta, with the spots on the petiole, scape and 

 spathe of a purple more or less vivid. (2.) Chlorostlcta, with spots of a 

 dull green hue. — Mr. J. Price presented specimens of a polypetalous form 

 0^ Erica Tdrallx, which he imd collected near Ben Pthydding, in Yorkshire. 

 — Mr. Wm. Evans exhibited specimens of Cotiila corouopifolla, which he 

 collected near Aberdour, Fife. 



Mr. Robert Cross, who has been collecting seeds and plants for the Go- 

 vernment East India plantations, has once more gone to South America, 

 this time, on his own account, to gather Chinchona bark as a commercial 

 speculation. It would seem a pity that the services of so enterprising 

 and daring a traveller should be lost to the East India plantations. 

 iSurely some remunerative situation could be found for one who has 

 gathered, at the peril of his health and life, so much information invalu- 

 able to the cultivator. We are glad to see that the East India Office has 

 published Mr. Cross's "Report on the Collecting of Seeds and Plants of 

 the Chinchonas of Pitayo ; "(printed for H.M. Stationery Office, 1871. 

 8vo. 52 pp., with three plates), from which it appears that the splendid 

 ('hinchona forests of Pitayo are fast disappearing. Little of this bai-k 

 goes to England, the greater quantity to France and Germany, especiallv 

 to France, " whose agents have nearly demolished forests which, if pro- 

 perly managed, would iiave paid off' tiie national debt of New (Jranada." 

 Mr. Cross is of opinion that the bark sold in England as Pitayo, " and 

 for eigliteen-peuce a pound," does not come from the Pitayo district, as 

 genuine Fitayo fetches nearly a shilling per pound on the spot. The 

 three plates accompanying the report represent hieroglyphics, resembling 

 those discovered by Seemann in Veraguas, and showing that the district 

 was inhabited at a very early period. 



On August 20th, at the advanced age of eighty-four, died James De 

 Carle Sowerby, the eldest son of James Sowerby, well-known as the artist 

 of the original figures of ' English Botany,' published in the years from 

 1790-1814. In his earlier years the late Mr. Sowerby was a devoted 

 mineralogist, and especially studied the chemistry of minerals, the results 

 of his investigations being published in his father's ' British Mineralogv ' 

 and ' Exotic Mineralogy.' He afterwards took up the subject of fossil 

 conchology, and contributed various papers to the Royal, Linnciin, and 

 Geological Societies: from the last he received in 1840 the " Wollaston 

 jMind " in aid of his studies. To the general public, however, he was 



