NOTICES OF BOOKS. 159 
Zeitung, for the 12th January, 1849, under the head of ** Learned 
Societie 
At irs meeting of the Society of Naturforschende Freunde, at 
Berlin, on the 21st of November, Dr. Münter made some observations 
on his researches in regard to a plant of Corchorus capsularis. TT. 
liber serves for the manufacture of Chinese articles known by the name 
of Grass-cloth. The bark-cells descend regularly in thin bundles down 
to the top of the root, while those of the flax terminate below the in- 
sertion of the cotyledons, singly, and producing tumefactions. We 
add that, according to the account given by Mr. C, Bouché, garden- 
director to the Berlin Garden Association, seeds received under the 
name of Yellow Grass-cloth yielded a sort of Cannabis ; while those of 
White Grass-cloth produced Corchorus capsularis," 
With reference to the above article we beg to remark that none of the 
species of Corchorus yield anything like the beautiful fabrie called Grass- 
cloth, of China, which is undoubtedly the produce of an Urtica (or 
Boehmeria) nivea, Willd. The several varieties of the fibre, called in 
Bengal Pat and Jute, are produced by C. capsularis and others: they 
are most extensively used for making bags for holding sugar and rice, 
and the like; and the article has been lately introduced into England 
to the amouut of £300,000 per annum, as stated at page 25 of the 
present volume, 
We shall offer a figure of this plant, which we have raised in the 
Botanic Garden, ere long. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Icones CamroLoarcu, or Figures and Descriptions of Fruits and 
SEEDS; dy THomas SuEgARMAN RaLPH, A.L.S. London, Pamplin, 
1849. 4to. 40 plates. 
* Since the time of Gartner,” says Mr. Ralph in his Introduction, 
* whose memory will last as long as Carpology shall be studied, no work 
illustrative of fruits and seeds having appeared (except some papers 
of Correa de Serra in the Annales du Muséum, vols. 8, 9, 10 and 18), 
and the vast number of genera and species of plants diseovered since his 
time, having opened a very extensive field for observation and study, the 
author has been induced to follow in the footsteps of this great master, 
by bringing out the Zcoues Carpologice, in the hope that this branch 
