244 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



and curious Calceolarias. At 14,000 feet we found vast patches of an Echino- 

 cactus, so wrapt up in its own wool, that at a distance we took the patches for 

 sheep. The scenery here was of the grandest kind. We saw some splendid 

 Cacti, Alstroemerias, and Tropaeolums, and on our way down, fields of T. tube- 

 rosum and Oxalis crenata. Very little rain falls in the vicinity of Iiinia ; so 

 that to raise fruit and vegetables recourse must be had to irrigation. The Che- 

 rimolia (Annona tripetala), is here the finest of all fruits I ever tasted. You 

 will, no doubt, have heard of our discovering an Antarctic continent (Ross says 

 it is only a batch of islands). Of this I cannot speak, having been left at Syd- 

 ney, with the other scientific gentlemen. Here we chartered a schooner, and 

 went to New Zealand, where we spent eight weeks. This same New Zealand is 

 not the fine country that the English Government and land speculators crack it 

 up to be. The climate is very wet, and the soil cold and poor — consisting prin- 

 cipally of a stiff yellow loam, on great part of which nothing grows but a species 

 of Pteris, whose roots form the principal food of the natives. The surface of the 

 country round the Bay of Islands is very irregular — high ridges and valleys 

 succeeding each other in rapid succession. In some of these valleys, from eight 

 to ten species of Comiferous trees are found — among them the Courie Pine 

 (Agathis Australis), 1-0 feet high. Leaving New Zealand, we touched at 

 Tongatahoo on our way down to the Fiji Islands — 200 in number — all which we 

 surveyed. In doing this, two of our officers were brutally murdered by the 

 natives. We had also a proof of these islanders being cannibals, as they 

 brought in a canoe, alongside of our ship, part of a human body, which they 

 were eating. We discovered several new islands on the line in passing to the 

 Sandwich Isles. The grandest sight seen during our cruise was the volcano on 

 the Island of Hawaii. After spending six mouths on the north-west coast of 

 America, our voyage lay again by the Sandwich Isles ; and searching for a near 

 passage to the China Sea, we were led among the Sooloo Isles and Straits of 

 Halabae, then down to Singapore, which is a very flourishing place. Here I met 

 a cousin of Sir Walter Scott's, who looks very much like what the old man was. 

 During this voyage we collected and dried upwards of 10,000 (?) species of 

 plants ; sending also a great many live ones and seeds to the National Institute 

 at Washington, to which 1 am at present attached. To me the most interesting 

 of these plants is a species of Nepenthes from Singapore, bearing pitchers much 

 larger every way than those of the distillatoria, and, when perfect, capable of 

 holding a pint of water. There are other two species at Singapore, one with 

 many small pitchers in bunches, on a woody stem, found in pools of water, while 

 the other covers a low sandy island in the Strait, about three miles off the road- 

 stead. At Manilla there is a species distinct from any I have seen elsewhere." 



Piofessor Graham exhibited some very beautiful and interesting exotics, recently 

 brought into flower in the greenhouses and stoves; and afterwards accompanied 

 the members over the garden, which presented a most charming appearance. 

 Every season it is becoming more and more developed, and the late alterations 

 reflect much credit on the learned Professor and his able coadjutor, Mr. M'Nab. 



Mr. James M'Nab exhibited specimens of Laburnum, presenting some 

 remarkable anomalies. He stated that several years ago, a tree was sent from 

 the Epsom Nursery to the Royal Botanic Garden here, as a curiosity, bearing 

 three distinct varieties of Laburnum on the same root, without any further 

 engrafting than that of working the red Laburnum on the yellow. This tree is 

 now to be seen in flower, the yellow and red flowers being predominant. Last 

 spring he observed a tree of the red Laburnum in the Horticultural Garden, 

 bearing several large tufts of Cytisus purpureus, with one small shoot of the 

 yellow. The same tree this year has ten distinct shoots of the yellow, and a 

 quantity of those of C. purpureus. On Monday last, at Dysart House, he 

 observed two trees, one bearing Cytisus purpureus and Cytisus Laburnum cocci- 

 neum.the other Cytisus Laburnum and C. Laburnum eoccineum ; but neither of 

 them having more than two varieties. This afternoon he examined the plants 

 of the red Laburnum in Messrs. Lawson's Nursery, three years grafted, and 

 found several of them producing shouts of the yellow, but only one of them 

 having C. purpureus; and in the nurseiy of Messrs. J. Dickson and Sons, 

 seveial of the plants, two years grafted, have shoots of the yellow, but none of 



