190 Scientific Intelligence — Botany. 



BOTANY. 



18. On the Plant which furnished the jprecious wood called Ebony, 

 and on the country from which the Hebrevjs exported it. By M. 

 Ant. Bertoloni. — The ebony of Ezekiel and Solomon was a pro- 

 duct of Ethiopia, which agrees perfectly with what Herodotus, Athe- 

 iieus, Strabo, and other authors, have written on the subject. But 

 have we direct proofs that this ebony has been since found grow- 

 ing spontaneously in that country 1 Is the tree which produced it 

 known to botanists ? Theophrastus, in speaking of ebony, says that 

 it is a tree having the appearance of a Cytisus, and by a Cytisus 

 he meant the Cytisus Laburnum, Linn., which has papilionaceous 

 flowers arranged in long clusters, and composite leaves. 



M. C. Fornasini, who has long resided in Inanbane in Mozam- 

 bique, in the neighbourhood of Caflfraria, and near Sofala, sent me, 

 some time ago, says the author, specimens, with leaves and flowers, 

 of a plant which is considered in that country as the true ebony, and 

 stating that the tree was common among the CaflPres and in the 

 surrounding countries. The flowers are papilionaceous, and its 

 leaves composite ; it was thus easy for me to recognise in it the 

 ebony with the appearance of a Cytisus described by Theophrastus : 

 Dendron thammodes Cytisi modo. I also received a piece of the 

 wood of this tree, which enabled me to determine its qualities. On 

 examining the flower and fruit, 1 do not find that it can be referred 

 to any of the known genera of Papilionacise or Leguminosfe, which 

 leads me to suppose that it has hitherto escaped the notice of 

 botanists, and ought to constitute a new genus, which I have thought 

 proper to name Fornasinia, after the discoverer : — Fornasinia 

 ebenifera, Bert. Arbor. Habitat in Ethiopia Caffrorum prope 

 Mozambico. Lingua Caffrorum appellatur Muzzonghe. — This ge- 

 nus is intermediate between Lonchocarpus of Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland, and Neuroscapha of Tulasne. — (^From L'Jnstitut, No. 743, 

 p.. 96.) 



19. Preservation of the Forests in the JV. W. P. of India. — 

 Sometime in the year 1842 we entered at considerable length, in 

 three different issues, on the absolute necessity that existed for the 

 adoption of some immediate steps on the part of Government to pre- 

 vent the gradual deterioration and ultimate extinction of the forests 

 still existing in these provinces, and which were rapidily disappear- 

 ino' before the axe of the woodman, no measures being in the mean- 

 while taken to replace the trees that were felled. We quoted largely 

 the opinions subn itted to Government by Dr Falconer, Capt. Cautley, 

 and Mr Neave, and also adduced the reasonings embodied in a paper 

 drawn up for a similar purpose by the writer of the present article. 

 We moreover took frequent opportunities of recurring to the subject 



