THE TKANSACTIONS OF THE LINKEAN SOCIETY. 191 



Of the papers devoted to descriptions of plisenogamic plants, 

 that hj Grustav Mann and Hermann AVendland, " on the Pahns of 

 AVestern tropical Africa," is the most striking. From this exten- 

 sive region only five species of Palms had previously been recorded. 

 Twelve new Palms are here described, besides one other collected 

 by Dr. "Welwitsch. " The group of ArecinecB have, up to the present 

 " time, been quite unknown on the mainland of Africa ; now, however, 

 •' two species have been discovered, they constitute two new genera, 

 " viz. JPodococcus and Sclerosperma.'''' Of the remaining species, old and 

 new, to which the memoir refers, five belong to Baphla and eight to 

 Calamus. The others are I^hoenix spinosa, Borassus jEtliiopum and 

 Wodis Guineensis, the palm-oil plant, the economic importance of 

 which may be inferred from the statement " that during the last 

 *' three years 130,381 tons of palm oil, of the value of ^5,605,913, 

 ** have been imported into Great Britain." 



Mr. ITanbury has two papers, both on medicinal plants. In his 

 ' Note on Cassia moscliata^ he shows that this species, closely 

 allied to ^ C. hrasiliensis, yields pods which have been confounded 

 with those of the true C.fititula. C. moscliata had previously been 

 noticed by Kunth, and Humboldt and Bonpland, though now for the 

 first time adequately described and figured. 



All the gamboge " found in European commerce is produced in 

 " Siam or in regions contiguous to that country," and it would seem, 

 by a single species, Garcinia morella, Desrousseaux ; of which G, 

 elliptica, "Wallich, G. gutta, Wight, and Hebradendron Camhogioides, 

 Graham, are synonyms. Other species of the same genus yield, 

 however, a similar substance. Mr. Hanbury describes a variety of 

 G. morella, with pedicellate male-flowers, from specimens supplied 

 him by the Messrs. D' Almeida of Singapore, who have long culti- 

 vated on their estate several examples of "the real gamboge-tree," 

 originally transported from Siam. Messrs. D' Almeida state " that 

 *' the trees, of which they have twenty-eight (but which might have 

 " been increased to thousands had any pains been taken to do so), 

 " are from 35 to 50 feet in height, the largest with a circumference 

 *' of about 3 feet ; and that they grow very luxuriantly, without any 

 " attention, on the slope of a low hillock." Mr. Thwaites of Ceylon 

 where G. morella is indigenous, aided in the determination of these 

 plants, and the sam^e specimens afforded Mr. Oliver an opportunity of 

 investigating anew the peculiar circumscissile anthers of Hebraden- 

 dron, the structure of which he explains in an addendum to Mr. 

 Hanbury's paper. 



