248 



ble to the unincumbered European, without injuring liis weapon. It 

 is said by Humboldt that " a hunter preserves the same sarbacan dur- 

 ing his whole life," and boasts of its precision and lightness as we do 

 of the good qualities of our fire-arms. 



The young reeds only are used in the manufacture of the blowpipe ; 

 these are cut into the proper lengths, turned slowly over a moderate 

 coal fire to prevent their warping, exposed to the sun until they have 

 acquired a deep yellow colour, and are then encased for protection in 

 the trunk of a slender palm. "This case is called by the Macusi In- 

 dians Yurua-Cura-pong." 



Mr. J. J. Bennett has determined this reed to be a distinct species 

 of Arundinaria, near to the Arund. verticillata of Nees von Esenbeck 

 and Kunth ; he has named it Schomhurgkii, and gives the following 

 characters. 



Arundinaria Sehomhurgkii. Leaves linear, acuminate, smooth ; mouth of the 

 sheaths bristly on each side : spike simple, few-flowered ; spiielets sessile ; hypogynous 

 scales lanceolate, acute. 



Art. XXXVII. — On Cuscuta epilinum and halophyta. By Charles 

 C. Babington, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



In a paper ' On the Stracture of Cuscuta europaea,' (Linn. Trans, 

 xviii. 213), Mr. Babington confirms the accuracy of Mr. Brown's 

 observations, on the existence of scales in the tube of the corolla 

 of that species, in opposition to Sir J. E. Smith's opinion, that its 

 flowers are, " in all the British specimens, as well as in Ehrhart's 

 German ones, destitute of scales in the throat of the tube," (' English 

 Flora,' ii. 25). Mr. Babington, on examining fresh specimens of Cus- 

 cuta europsea from Sompting, in Sussex, gathered in company with 

 Mr. Borrer, found the scales lying quite close to the corolla, being 

 perfectly transparent and very minute; and these circumstances would 

 seem to account for their having been overlooked by Smith and Hook- 

 er, as well as by some of the continental botanists. Mr. Babington 

 remarks : — 



" They are, indeed, so difficult of detection as not to have been at first noticed by 

 Mr. Borrer and myself, even when examining fresh specimens, and it is scarcely pos- 

 sible to discover them in flowers that have been dried." — p. 213. 



Reichenbach, in his * Icones Plantarum,' pi. v. fig. 690, represents 

 " each scale exactly under its corresponding stamen,* yet at p. 62 of 

 the same volume he calls the corolla a calyx, and appears to have 



* See our fig. 2, which, with the other figures are copied from the Linn. Trans. 



