308 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
There has been some mistake* made with regard to the 
Laurel mentioned by Sir Wm. Hooker (Botanical Journal, 
vol. iv.) It is the Laurus bullata, the Stinkwood of this 
colony; but it is not correct that I ever called it, or its tim- 
ber, African Oak, for I perfectly knew the genus to which it 
belonged; and when, in 1823, I carried a plant of it home, 
I had the honour of pointing itoutto His Royal Highness the 
Duke of Clarence (afterwards His Majesty King William the 
Fourth) as the Ship Timber of the Cape, and which Sir 
Jahleel Brenton particularly recommended for the construc- 
tion of ships. The transports which brought out the settlers, 
loaded with this wood on their return to England, at the now 
neglected Knysna. The specific name of Laurus bullata was 
given by Burchell. 
Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle, de l'Ile de Cuba. 
artie Botanique. Par A. Ricuarp. Paris. 
We have lately received several of the first Numbers of the 
botanical part (by M. A. Richard) of the History of the Island 
of Cuba, of M. Ramon dela Sagra. "The letter-press is in 
8vo; the plates extremely well executed in line engraving. 
from drawings by Vautier, in 4to. 
The general nature of this important work will be best 
understood by the following extracts from the introductory 
es. From them, indeed, we learn that the botanical 
riches of this fine island have yet been very imperfectly ex- 
plored; and more than ever do we regret that it was the 
ve of Thomas Drummond, who, had he lived, would, by 
his indefatigable researches, have added greatly to the extent 
of the Flora, especially of the mountain ranges. 
* The Isle of Cuba, though placed by its geographical posi- 
tion, its great extent, the richness of its cultivation and extent 
of its commerce, in the first rank among the Antilles, has 
* This mistake had been corrected in the list of errata, appended to vol. 4 of 
the Journal of Botany. 
