28 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Musa textiuis ; Fibre of the Manilla Hemp. 
We again direct attention to this fibre, because of the prevailing 
error, repeated by almost every one, that the beautiful kind of muslin, 
* Manilla handkerchiefs” and * Manilla scarfs,” is made of 
“ Pine-apple fibre,” (by the term Pine-apple, is here meant plants of 
the Bromelia family,) whereas it is unquestionably made of the far 
more delicate thread of a species of Banana, common in the Philippine 
islands, and first clearly defined by Don Luis Nee, in the Annales de 
Ciencias Naturales, vol. iv. p. 123, as Musa teztilis. The inner por- 
tion of the plant yields, perhaps, the most delicate of all vegetable 
fibres; and beautiful samples may be seen in the museum, as well as 
a valuable scarf made from it, presented by Mrs. Bates. 
Besides the account of the preparation of this, given in our London 
Journal of Botany, we may refer to the Annals of Botany by Konig 
and Sims, vol. i. p. 200, and p. 551, for further particulars. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Dn. Hooxzu's Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya. 
Messrs. Reeve, Benham and Reeve, have announced the appearance of 
a work under the above title, in a handsome folio, with descriptions, 
hotanical and geographical, and ten highly finished coloured plates, 
executed from coloured drawings made on the spot by the author. 
The extraordinary success that has attended Dr. Hooker's researches 
at Darjeeling in Sikkim-Himalaya, in the genus Rhododendron alone, 
suggests the propriety of having the results laid before the public at as 
early a period as possible. Eleven species rewarded his exertions, of 
which one was not in a sufficiently good state to make a satisfactory 
drawing, and another proved to be the R. arboreum. One is the rare 
R. barbatum, Don, of which no coloured figure has ever been given; 
and one is so fine a plant, and of so remarkable a character, that it 
requires two plates for its illustration :—we mean Dr. Hooker's R. Dal- 
housie, an epiphytal species, growing to a height of six feet on the 
mossy trunks of trees, with beautiful foliage, and bearing flowers, of 
