673 



inhabitants of that distant part of the world, and to the missionaries 

 themselves, if such medicinal plants as are most likely to succeed 

 under a tropical sun, and to be of most service in the diseases there 

 common, could be introduced among them. With them it would be 

 advisable to send a statement of their properties, and some directions 

 as to soil and culture. They would then have remedies within their 

 reach, and the missionaries might be furnished with more accessible 

 means of relieving the bodily as well as the spiritual necessities of 

 those for whom they labour. I trust I shall be pardoned in making 

 these remarks ; for surely one great end of botanical science is its 

 practical application, and if two or three cases of medicinal plants 

 may be the means of relieving the sufferings of a distant, recently ci- 

 vilized, and interesting people, it will be an important and valuable 

 service rendered by science to the welfare of mankind at very small 

 cost. 



I may state that Mr. Stair has brought home with him a collection 

 of lithographic impressions of the leaves, &c., of a considerable num- 

 ber of the plants indigenous to the islands, fronds of the native ferns, 

 sections of stems, &c., which he intends depositing in the Missionary 

 Museum, Blomfield St., Finsbury, where any botanist can inspect 

 them free of charge. There may probably be some interesting plants 

 among them. 



Achillea serrata. Now to pass to a different subject more con- 

 nected with British Botany. There appears to be some confusion or 

 error in the published description of Achillea serrata, to which J. wish 

 to draw attention. Two specimens which I possess, through the 

 kindness of J. Hardy, Esq., of Sheffield, have their leaves pinnatifid^ 

 with the divisions serrate, and the corymb compound. In the ' Hor- 

 tus Kewensis ' the character is as follows : — 



" Achillea serrata, foliis tomentosis lineari-lanceolatis pinnatijidis : 

 laciniis basi profundioribus." 



Tn Babiugton's Manual these points in the character are thus no- 

 ticed : "Leaves linear-lanceolate, bluntish, downy coarse- 

 ly and doubly serrate, with spreading serratures, laciniated and ra- 

 diating at the base corymb nearly simple." From this I think 



any one would infer that the leaves ai-e not pinnatifid. In my sjDeci- 

 mens they are truly pinnatifid for at least f to 4^ of their length, the 

 pinniform lobes of the leaf being |^ to f of an inch long and about -^ 

 inch in breadth. The length of the leaves is from three to four inches 

 in my specimens. The corymb is repeatedly branched, quite as 

 much as, or more so than in A. Millefolium. The locality of my speci- 



