1809.) Monthly Botanical Report. Gil 
who difcovered it on hjs interefting circumnavigation of New Holland on the weftern coaft, 
it is perfeCtly diftinét.<Smrilacina dorealis is the Dracena borealis of Hortus Kewenfis; Mis 
chaux referred it to Convallaria, and Desfontaines raifed it to the rank ofa diftinét genus, 
in- which he is followed by Mr. G. who obferves that Convallaria racemo/a and fellata of the 
Botanical Magazine are its congeners. ‘hat of Hortus Kewentis is a variety of the one here 
given, and chietly differs in having yellowith flowers and but little pubefcence, while var. 4, 
here figured, has white flowers and a very pubetcent feape; which latter character, how- 
ever, is not well expreffed in the drawing.—Pontederia cordata, an inhabitant of ditches and 
thallow waters. The figure appears lefs rich than that of Redouté’s Wlantes Liliacées, but 
it is full as accurate. I[t isa ative of North America.—Agave Virginica, the figure and 
defcription before us vie with thofe we have of this plant in the Hortus Schonbrunuenfis.—- 
The laft plate reprefents Xyris opercu/aca of Labillardiére’s New-Holland plants. We have 
here four different characters of the genus, fuch as they are given by Vahl, Gertner, La- 
billardigre, and in the Flora Peruviana; fo that every reader has his own choice. 
Will Mr. G. forvive us for adding another word on plates 1141 and 1143? We are de= 
fired there to expubge the Jetter-prefles of No. 774 and again that of 973, and fubttitate. 
thofe printed on the reverfe of the pages belonging to two other plants. Bow can this be 
done? Uniefs feparate leaves be fubftituted in fuch cafes, we think the convenience of the 
reader and the fymmetry of the pages would be much better confulted if long obfervations 
on preceding acceunts, Expungeda, Errata, &c. were kept for the index to a number of 
yolumes, in a fimilar manner as Dr. Sims has incerporated notes in the Index to the firft 
twenty volumes of the Magazine. - 
We now proceed to examine Dr. Sims’s contingent for the laf three numbers. Rhodo- 
dendron Caucafeum, growing at an elevation where only Vacciniuin Myrtillus and Vitigidee 
are feen with it, on the mountain from which its derives its fpecific name, though all moe 
dern botanifts have adopted the adjective caucaficus, we think Dr. S. perfectly right in fol- 
lowing the claflical autherity of Virgil, Ovid, and Propertius, who ufe the word caucaseus? 
more proper, perliaps, it would have been to follow Pliny; a brother naturalift, who has 
caucasits. This {pecies has by fome been confidered asa variety of R. Cdr;santbum (not 
Chrysanthemum as it is here called); but they are probably fufliciently diftinét : fo much we 
know that the Jatter is fold in all the apothecaries shops of the Ruflian empire as a powertul 
narcotic, conlidered as a fpecific again the gout; while Caucasium is never ufed for any 
medicinal purpofes.—Hydropeltis purpurea of Michaux, one of the moft beautiful little wa= 
ter plants lately introduced into this country, and very remarkable on account of the many 
~ peculiarities in its. economy, of which we only mention here the gelatinous fubftance form- 
ing 4 coating over the whole plant, but more efpecially the young thoots and unfolded buds, 
and which is well deferibed by Dr. Sims, but lefs happily expreffed in the figure. ‘The only 
{pecies of this genus (which belongs to Polyandria polyyynia) is an inhabitant of the lakes 
in North America from Upper Canada to South Carolina. Dr. § feems not to be acqnainted, 
with its being a native alfo of New Holland ; and, indeed, we have reafon to believe that 
the very fpecimeiy here figured came from that continent. Mr. Woodford, we fuppofe, is 
the only cultivator in this country who has fucceeded in flowering it.—Boffiaea lanceolata, is 
the B. heterophylla of Ventenat and the Platylobium /anceolatum of Andrews: a very hand- 
fume f{pecies from New Holland. It appeared to us a genuine ipecies of the laft-mentioned 
genus; but Dr. S. obferves that the alternate leaves with their articulated petioles and the 
_remarkable ftipulation, appear to indicate a diftin® genus. -Wildenow,- however, is un- 
doubtediy wrong in placing the two genera at fuch a great diftance from each other.— 
Hetleria pulchella has ali potlible claims to the name it bears: the large yellow flowers with: 
icarlet-coloured calyx, render it the moft fhowy of the genus. We thought it like B. lutea 
of Aublet; but the Doctor, who has carefully compared them, finds a difference iu the quite 
entire leaves and tie long-tubed fuwer of the latter.—Of the famous Chinefe Tree-Peonys: 
Peonia Moutan, which for thefe laft three fprings has been the pride of Mr. Greville’s gar- 
den at Paddington, where it produced a profufiun of flowers, we have an excellent account 
in thé fecond of the numbers under review, accompanied by a folded plate, which, though 
as good as can reafonably be expected, is far trom doing juftice to its original,—Scholia 
Tamarindifolia, is a new Cape fpecies, named by Afzelius in the Bankfian Herbarium, but 
now firft deferibed by Dr. Sims. Itis as beauti*ul as speciosa, and indeed might perhaps 
be confidered as a mere variety of it.—Iigitalis /anata was figured in ho other work but 
Ketaible’s Plante Hangarieg, but Mr. Edwards’s delineation is in every re!pect fuperion—— 
Clematis cylindrica, the Viorua of Bot. Repofitory, which it is not; more affinity it appears 
to have with Clem. crifpa; but its petals are never rolled back, and the arifta of the feeds 
is not naked —Primula.vi/losa, var. nivca, Dr. S. has arranged the varieties of this {pecies 
iceording to the colour of the flower} a. reddifh violet, with whitith centre; &@. crimfon, 
with yellow centre ; 7. {now white, which is here deferibed, and, confidering the difficulty 
attending the reprefenting of fo very white flowers, very well figured: we perceive, howe 
ever, the faux of each of three flowers facing us with six yellow valves, Is this correét ?—~ 
Dienthus discolor, of Dr. Sims, called fo from the under furface of the carmine-coloured 
et being of a greenith fulpbur colour, a circumftance which alone, in our opiniony 
fafficient to keep ig diftinét from Cawcasivs of Bot. Mag. with which it certainly agrees 
ap feveral characters. a Ee 
* Mowgunr Mag, No, 179, 41 NATU. 1’ 
~ 
