015 



abolish the distinctions of sexual and asexual, for all that we can 

 now safely assume with regard to the sexes of mosses, fungi, lichens, 

 or seeds, is not that they are absent, but that they are undiscovered. 



K. 



Notice of 'The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya. By Joseph 

 Dalton Hooker, M.D., &c. With Drawings and Descrip- 

 tions made on the spot. Edited by Sir W. J. Hooker, K.H., 

 &c. Second Edition. London : Reeve, Benham and Reeve. 

 1849.' 



Although our journal is for the most part confined to notices of 

 subjects connected solely with British Botany, yet we feel assured 

 our subscribers will peruse with interest the following extract from 

 a splendid work, the title of which we have given above. Dr. Hooker 

 has in an almost incredibly short space of time reached the Himalaya 

 range from Calcutta, and in the course of his explorations of some of 

 the recesses of those stupendous mountains discovered a number of 

 new plants. In the plates to the magnificent work before us, are de- 

 picted ten new species of Rhododendron, met with in what may truly 

 be termed " the head-quarters of the genus in the Old World." This 

 locality and the plants seen in company with the Rhododendrons are 

 thus described : — 



" It was on the ascent of Tonglo, a mountain on the Nepalese fron- 

 tier, that I beheld the Rhododendrons in all their magnificence and 

 luxuriance. At 7,000 feet, where the woods were still dense and sub- 

 tropical, mingling with ferns, Pothos, peppers and figs, the ground 

 was strewed with the large lily-like flowers of Rhododendron Dalhou- 

 siae, dropping from the epiphytal plants on the enormous oaks over- 

 head, and mixed with the egg-like flowers of a new Magnoliaceous 

 tree, which fall before expanding, and diffuse a powerful aromatic 

 odour, more strong, but far less sweet, than that of the Rhododendron. 

 So conspicuous were these two blossoms, that my rude guide called 

 out, — ' Here are lilies and eggs, sir, growing out of the ground !' No 

 bad comparison. Passing the region of tree-ferns, walnut and ches- 

 nut, yet still in that of the alder, birch, large-leaved oak (whose leaves 

 are often eighteen inches long), we enter that of the broad-spathed 

 Arum (which raises a crested head like that of the Cobra de Capel), 

 the Kadsura, Stauntonia, Convallaria, and many Rosacea?. The 

 paths are here much steeper, carried along narrow ridges or over 



