272 NEW PUBLICATION. 
other scented flowers, the remnants of recent religious processions. . The 
houses of Leon are nearly = but one story high, and built of sun- -dried bricks, 
of adobes, and somewhat in the Moorish style, there being a large square yard 
in the centre of the homes, surroun y a broad verandah, on to which all 
the rooms open out. . . . The yards, or aset are, in some instances, neatly 
kept as gardens, where one finds a few d Orange, Pomegranate, Sour- 
sop, and Mango-trees, as w well as Ros ones, Cockscombs, Gom phrenes, eid ta 
ears and Polianthes tuberosa A cee kaei seemin 
hose most cultivated. During tl ly season these plants require Pr ie 
Branton, the walik being tnad. from deep wells, b: pues there is gene- 
rally one in every yard." 
In the woods of the neighbourhood— 
* we bai rd perceived a most offensive, carrion-like smell, which at first 
was er imde come from some dead animal matter, but was pats il ced 
rs of a sniddlesined tree, in habit not unlike the Caoutchoue (Cas- 
filloa elastica, Cerv.). This tree our men alanca,’ its d being 
used, amongst other things, for levers or palan The leaves were oblong 
and velvety, and from the E E in ranches Brod flowers not unlike in 
shape and size those of Tulip e most remarkable thing was that these 
flowers on first opening were a n een, and free from — but they gradu- 
ally ber gn into a dark purple,a almost black, and then emitted a most power- 
, quite as, or me more Simei, than that of some Stapelias, 
A PEE ja ae " Aroide ee, and, in a less degree, the fruit of St. John’s Bread. 
e m 
m k brown or dark blue colour, and it w: e worth while 
endeavour to asc e eal princi re at work. the base of 
each of the six petals, the popis has a pus and I fancied that the smell 
principally procee = nec its secretions. To my delight I found that the 
mel d Vota distin ingaisied by having the I. em 
known petals s n aun Order to which it belongs. Afterwards I n 
with it in abundance between Leon and Granada, and colle em good inem digi 
of it for our herbaria, At the s "e of Mr. J. J. Bennett, F.R.S., of Mis 
British Mir na I gave it the name of Sapranthus ponte Robe Ta 
sorry to d, howev ver, that my travelling companions who afterwards saw m 
aeei edd "with the plant would not adopt this c shih ate and ien 
e Greek name, but insisted upon dubbing it * Stéakado: 
After remarking on the so-called mimicry of Nature, Dr. Seemann 
describes his departure from Leon for the little-known districts of New 
Segovia and Matagalpa. This happened on the 4th of April, the fag- 
end of the dry season. 
wards five o'clock we reached a place — Valle de Zapata, a mere 
RUM a of huts, where a little Indian-corn ni on was grown, the latter 
bei peu. oe moss ssy-seede variety. The people were nde disappointed that the 
ces had gone down so much, and thought it a -— eas M Bens the 
United tutes should hav oea their fratricidal war j time 
when Nicaragua was feras ready to send a few hundred biles of cotton tot the 
y eon Cotton cultivation in this country has not been successful, 
a worm entering the s just when the ok beo e md 
dur génie the erops. 1f it were not for this, the Nicaraguans delude 
