2G5 



and surrounded hy numerous soshile or subsessile aborted authorK, 

 and by a persistent calyx of four ventricose fleshy sepals. The male 

 flowers consist of a calyx of the same structure, a corolla of four ven- 

 tricose fleshy petals, and a club-shaped mass of about forty subsessilo 

 anthers, closely appressed, connected only at the mere base, one- 

 celled, flattened at the top, and opening by a circular lid along a line 

 of lateral depressions ; and there is no appearance of an aborted 

 ovary amidst them. These are the characters of the three species 

 presently known. These three species very closely resemble one 

 another in general appearance and special characters. The new 

 species presents the same close resemblance to them all ; and, in 

 particular, its foliage is undistinguishable from that oi Garcinia ellip- 

 tica, the leaves being elliptic, acuminate, and leathery, exactly as 

 described and delineated by Wight. But it differs from them all in 

 the male flowers and fruit being peduncled. The male flowers are 

 fascicled, and have a slender peduncle three-tenths of an inch in 

 length. The single young fruit attached to one of the specimens has a 

 thick fleshy peduncle, like an elongated receptacle, half as long as the 

 male peduncle. All the other species hitherto described have both 

 male and female flowers sessile or subsessile. As this difference 

 cannot arise from a mere variation in the same species, the plant 

 must be a new one. The evidence however that it produces Gam- 

 boge, and more especially the commercial Gamboge of Siam, is not 

 yet complete ; and, until further information on this point be obtained, 

 which the author expects to receive in the course of the year, it ap- 

 pears advisable not to attach to it a specific name. A question 

 may even arise whether the male flowers and the fruit here de- 

 scribed may not belong to two species instead of one ; but this is far 

 from probable. 



2. Notice respecting a Deposit of Shells near Borrowstoun- 

 ness. By Charles Maclaren, Esq. 



This deposit of shells is situated about a mile and a half west 

 from Borrowstounness, where the Carse of Falkirk terminates in a 

 strip of flat land a furlong in breadth. The shells are exposed in 

 two openings, each about 300 feet long, made in the soil to procure 

 limestone for Mr Wilson's iron-works. The bed can be traced in 

 these openings along lines having an aggregate length of 1000 

 feet. Ovci' all that space the shells form an unbroken stratum of 



