ON THE TANGHINIA VENENIFLUA. 303 
chotomous. Leaves all ternate, petiolate, those near the root with 
long stalks; leaflets oblong, acutely serrated, beset with spreading 
pili. Petals obovate, shorter than the calyx. Flowers numerous, 
small, yellow. Height 4 to 8 inches. It is deseribed as annual or 
biennial, but has more the appearance of a perennial plant. It is 
found in various parts of Northern Europe, also in Siberia and North 
America. 
ON THE TANGHINIA VENENIFLUA, THE ORDEAL 
POISON-NUT OF MADAGASCAR. 
By Groner BrxwzrT, M.D., F.L.S. 
This elegant tree is now naturalized in New South Wales, and is 
readily propagated. There is a noble specimen of it in the Sydney 
Botanical Gardens, which attracts attention from its bright green 
foliage, delicate and fragrant blossoms, and pendulous egg-shaped 
fruit. The label, close to the tree, inscribed “ Madagascar Ordeal 
Poison-tree,” occasions it to be treated with some respect by visitors 
to the gardens, for while other flowering trees and shrubs suffer from 
their depredations, it has been remarked that this is the best pre- 
served tree in the collection, as none of its fragrant flowers have been 
plucked, and the fruit, whether strewing the ground or hanging from 
the tree in tempting clusters, has never been purloined. It is of the 
Natural Order Apocynacee, and derives its generic name from its na- 
tive appellation in Madagascar, Tanghin. The largest and finest tree 
in the Sydney Botanic Gardens is twenty feet in height, with a cir- 
cumference of the branches full fifty feet. It flowers in the months of 
November and December, and is often observed at the same time 
covered with fruit in different stages of maturity, produced from the 
blossoms of the preceding year. The flower-buds are of a beautiful 
crimson colour, and, when expanded, the corolla is white, with the 
edges and under surface tinged with crimson; the flowers are very 
fragrant and their odour is retained for some time after they are 
withered. The fruit is oviform and about the size of a hen’s egg; it 
contains a hard stone or nut, enveloped in a dense fibrous substance. 
On this fibrous part being removed, there is seen a dark brown shell, 
which, on being opened, is found to contain awhite kernel, in size and 
appearance like an almond, and of a slightly bitter flavour. The tree 
