031 



North-west America ; their collections will be offered to subscribers 

 in sets as they come to hand. Mr. Geyer was undecided as to his 

 course and the particular field of his researches when he left St. Louis. 

 Mr. Liiders expects to spend next winter and perhaps the following 

 summer at a Roman-Catholic missionary station on the upper waters 

 of Great Snake river. And Dr. Lindheimer will devote a few years 

 to the exploration of Texas. The former collections of these bota- 

 nists are stated by Dr. Gray to be " well selected, very complete and 

 finely prepared." 



The second article in the number is a " Description and Figure 

 of a new Species of Oxalis from Columbia, by W. J. H." This new 

 species, named O. Lindsoesefolia, was gathered by Mr. Wm. Lobb. It 

 is said to be allied to O. (Biophytum) sensitiva, X., but distinct from 

 any hitherto published. 



" Description, with a Figure, of Hyobanclie sanguinea, Thunb., hy 

 W. H. Harvey, Esq." This is a curious, fleshy, parasitical plant, the 

 only species of the genus, and found on roots of various plants in the 

 flats at the Cape of Good Hope, in September and October. The 

 author's figure and description were taken from recent examples. He 

 observes that " the genus is usually placed in Orobanchese, but the 

 structure of the ovary is so completely analogous to that of Harveya, 

 which Sir W. J. Hooker has referred to the Scrophularina?, that 1 do 

 not see how they can be separated." The author further remarks that 

 though the placentas, strictly speaking, are formed from the introflex- 

 ed margins of the valves, yet they meet in the centre of the capsule, 

 and are there firmly united into a central piece, a line at right angles 

 with the dissepiment showing where the surfaces coalesce. The dis- 

 tinctions between parietal and central placentae appear but trifling, 

 since, theoretically, all have the same origin ; a central differing from 

 a parietal placenta only in the greater degree of inflexion of the mar- 

 gins of the carpel. In the explanation of the plate the plant is called 

 H. coccinea. 



" Description, with a Figure, of a new species o/" Thuja, the Alerse 

 of Chili, by W. J. H." The tree producing the timber imported from 

 the south of Chili, in the form of shingles or planks, under the name 

 of Alerse or Alerze, appears to have been hitherto unknown to bota- 

 nists. The author has in his herbarium "a specimen of a Thuja with 

 immature fruit, gathered by Captain King in the Straits of Magel- 

 haens." On this being shown to Mr. Bridges after his return from 

 Chiloe, that gentleman pronounced it to be the true Alerse ; and sub- 

 sequently forwarded to the author a barren specimen of the same 



