230 BOTANICAL NEWS. 
^ 
'Lone Giant ;* it -went heavenward some 300 feet. One monster tree that had 
fallen and been burned hollow, has been recently tried, by a party of our 
friends, riding, as they fashionably do, in the saddle, through the tunnel of the 
tree. These friends rode througli this tree, a distance of 153 feet. The tree 
had been long fallen, and measured ere its bark was gone and its sides charred, 
over 100 feet in circumference, and probably 350 feet in height. 
" The mightiest tree that had yet been found, now lies upon the ground, and, 
fallen as it lies, it is a wonder still ; it is charred, and time has stripped it of its 
heayy bark, and yet across the butt of the tree as it lay upturned, it measured 
33 feet without its bark ; there can be no question that in its vigoiu', with its 
bark on, it was 40 feet m diameter, or 120 feet in circumference. Only about 
150 feet of the trunk remains, yet the cavity where it fell is still a large hollow 
beyond the portion burned off ; and, upon pacing it, measuring from the root 
120 paces, and estimating the branches, this tree must have been 400 feet high. 
We believe it to be the largest tree yet discovered. 
"This grove of mammoth trees consists of about six hundred, more or less. 
It must not be supposed that these large tasodiums monopolize the one mile 
by a quarter of a mile of ground over which they are scattered ; as some of the 
tallest, largest, and most graceful of sugar pines and Duglass firs Ave ever saw, 
add their beauty of form and foliage to the group, and contribute much to the 
imposing grandeur of the effect," 
To the south-west of the Mariposa (rrove is the so-called " South 
Grove," and thence due south, and about six miles from the Mariposa 
Grove, is the Frezno Grove, which consists of about 500 trees on about 
as many acres of undulating, forest land. The largest measured eighty- 
two feet in circumference. An extensive grove has also been discovered 
on the head waters of the San Joaquin river, about twelve miles east 
of tbe Frezno Grove; but it has not yet been explored. 
BOTANICAL NEWS. 
Mr. Notcutt has just pubUshed ' A Ilandbook of British Plants.' 
^In a printed notice forwarded to us, Dr. Buchenau, of Bremen, directs 
attention to the poisonous properties of Narthecium ossifragtitn* Cows which 
have eaten the plant have died after a severe attack of dysentery, their milk 
turning as bitter as gall, and cats known to have partaken of this milk have 
died also. The late Professor Walz has found two active principles in 
the plant, viz. Narihecic acid and Narthecine, the latter a resinous body. But 
the analysis is as yet incomplete, and Professor Wohlor, of Gottingen, is going 
to continue the investigation if a sufficient quantity (say twenty to forty 
pounds) of the herb can be got together. 
Besides an investigation of our Cryptogamic flora, Professor Schimper, who 
has recentlv come over to this countrv, is trvinsr to find out whether there is 
