1869.] Botany and Vegetable Physiologij. 527 



Australia ; while the Indian dammar is thought to be produced 

 from Canarium stridum and Shorea rohusta, and Brazilian copal 

 from several species of Hymensea. H. couharil is a well-known 

 tree in the West Indies, Brazil, Guiana, &c., exuding large quan- 

 tities of a clear copal-like resin, and is probably one of the chief 

 sources. The fruit and bark of Trachylobium mossamhicense also 

 contain it in large quantities, and this appears to be the soiu'ce 

 of the Zanzibar copal, and of the half-fossilized resin known in 

 English commerce as anime. The quantity of copal exported from 

 Zanzibar has been known to amount in some years to 800,000 lbs., 

 valued at 60,000/. The fact of insects and other foreign substances 

 being found imbedded in copal, whether recent or fossil, is easily 

 accounted for. The tenacity of the resin when in a semi-fluid state 

 readily entraps all bodies coming in contact with it, and it then 

 rapidly hardens; and considering that the resin flows from the 

 under-side of the principal branches, the fruit, flowers, or twigs of 

 the under-growth or lower vegetation would be likely to be caught 

 by the exuding resin and so preserved, rather than the heavy, glossy 

 foHage of the tree itself. 



Flora of the Sandwich Islands. — The flora of this gi-oup of 

 islands was carefully investigated by the late Mr. Mann. They 

 have a surface of about 4000 square miles, situated just within 

 the tropics, and more than 1000 miles from any other land, except 

 a few rocks lying to the north-west, bare of vegetation, and 

 inhabited only by sea-fowl and seals. On this area, which includes 

 an excessively dry and hot, a very wet and hot, and every other 

 variety to a very dry and cold chmate, is found a flora of 620 

 native species of flowering plants (omitting Graminese, which have 

 not yet been fully studied) and ferns, of which the former comprise 

 485, and the latter 135 species. Of the 554 flowering plants, 

 including 69 species known or supposed to have been introduced, 

 479 belong to Dicotyledonse and 75 to Monocotyledons ; and they 

 are divided among 253 genera and 87 natural orders. Of the 554 

 species 377 are pecuhar to the group, while 42 are of recent and 

 27 of supposed aboriginal introduction. Of the 253 genera 39 are 

 peculiar, and these 39 genera are represented by 151 species, or 

 3*94 species to a genus, while the whole flora has but 2-58 species 

 to each genus, thus showing the important part taken by these 

 genera in constituting the whole phaenagamous flora. 



Flora of Manhhum. — Mr. V. Ball has turned his researches 

 connected with the Geological Survey of India to account for the 

 benefit of botanical science, by investigating the flora of the dis- 

 trict of Manbhiim, no collection having previously been made of 

 the plants found in its southern portion. Instead of meeting with 

 a realization of one's ideal of a tropical jungle, the efiect; produced 

 by the vegetation is, in many parts, not strikingly diflerent from 



