77 



lower down the rider at San Pablo. I was glad to find that it was 

 the season of its having ripe fruit. The villagers had already collected 

 each their little hoard of Cedron, although they would not show me 

 more than a few seeds, unless I would purchase some. The mode of 

 preparation is simple and easy : the fruits are gathered, which 

 resemble in appearance a large peach ; the outer rind or covering is 

 thick, fleshy, and excessively bitter, and its large seed is immediately 

 suiTounded by a not very compact fibrous substance, which answers 

 the purpose of the stone in stone-fruits ; this is all removed, and the 

 seed taken out, separated into two pieces at the natural fissure (which 

 are called by botanists the cotyledons), and dried in the sun ; beyond 

 a limited quantity of these, it was no object to me to obtain ; what I 

 particularly wanted was a knowledge of the tree, and ripe vegetating 

 seeds : those dried in the sun will never vegetate. I was told that it 

 would be useless for me to go to the woods, as the trees had already 

 been pillaged in all directions ; this, however, did not deter me from 

 trying; and after three days search, at some distance from the village, 

 I obtained about thirty fruits, each containing one seed and the germ 

 of a plant. A few I preserved entire in spirits, the rest I planted in a 

 box of earth at once, to prevent their perishing, as is the case with 

 most large seeds, if not kept constantly excited. Those I sent to the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, grew well, and at the present time 

 plants of Cedron would be more easily obtained at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, than in its native country. Those I brought to the 

 Botanic Garden, St. Ann's, are thriving well ; some of the trees are 

 now seven feet in height." 



Dr. Link was Professor of Botany in the University of Berlin, and 

 Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of that city, and is well known 

 by several valuable contributions to botanical science, of which the 

 earliest is dated as early as 1795, and the most useful his ' Elementa 

 Philosophise Botanicae,' 1824. He graduated at Gottingen in 1789, 

 and shortly afterwards was appointed Professor of Botany at Ros- 

 tock ; he was in England in 1841, and attended the meetings of the 

 British Association held that year in Glasgow, his striking and vene- 

 rable appearance at which gathering will long be remembered. 



Notice of the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History^ No. 39, 



February, 1851. 



This number contains but three papers that have any bearing on 

 botany : they are intituled — 



