627 



do. The definition of the order, number of species, &c., are rich. 

 We proceed : — 



" To the Legurainos£e belong Cylista albiflora, an ornamental ever- 

 green twiner, six feet high ; flowers white, and appear in April and 

 May, corymb larger than calyx. The Crotalaria are a numerous ge- 

 nus : Crotalaria verrucosa is found near St. Louis ; sericea exists in 

 the same locality, and flowers in March ; striata, an ornamental ever- 

 green, three feet high, flowers yellow ; angulosa, leaves hastato-lan- 

 ceolate ; arborescens, an ornamental shrub, resembling the cytisus, 

 and rises to the height of the common bagne nandier (four or five feet), 

 whose name it bears at the Mauritius, and is charged for many months 

 of the year with numerous bouquets of flowers very agreeable to the 

 eye ; it is especially remarkable by its stipules, which fall off" as soon 

 as the flower withers ; it is distinguished by many shades of diffe- 

 rence from the preceding ; the flowers are beautiful, but it bears no 

 fruit ; purpurascens, is from one to three feet high ; pentaphylloides ; 

 this flower has entirely the aspect of a lutin, flowers of a yellow co- 

 lour, and disposed in clusters. Acacia a fruit aile, or Mimosa ptero- 

 carpa : the wood of this tree is of a yellowish-white, fruit is in a shell, 

 and is remarkable by a longitudinal wing. Aspalat soyeux (Aspala'- 

 thus sericea), leaves silky ; this flower resembles an Absinthe ; it 

 grows several feet high. 



" Courbrail verruqueux (Hymensea verrucosa), found in the Isle of 

 France by M. Smeathman. Indigotier des Indes (Indigofera Indica), 

 the pendules of this plant are subteretal. There is another species 

 with shorter legumes." — p. 358. 



What can the man here mean by saying that the corymb of Cylista 

 albiflora is "larger than the calyx V What is the hagne nandier to 

 which the Crotalaria arborescens is compared ? And the description 

 of the latter plant is in itself somewhat novel, particularly where 

 it is stated to be " especially remarkable by its stipules, which 

 fall off as soon as the jiower withers^ Most extraordinary plants 

 these ! But one of the most extraordinary, perhaps, of all the novel- 

 ties is the new position given to the genus Grammitis, in the midst of 

 the Compositae. Thus : — 



" Lactuc de ITsle Maurice (Lactuca Mauritiana), found in the 

 woods; Eperviere filiforme (Hieracium filiforme), stem filiform, leaves 

 spathulated. . . . Grammite naine (Grammitis pumila) resem- 

 bles the Pteris cheilanthoides, fironds sub-bipinnate, resembles the 

 cheilanthus; Gnaphale feuille (Gnaphalium foliosum), fruticose, 

 found by Labillardiere ; proteoides, flowers subglobular, found on the 



