621 



liad been received from Naples, as the cover of an orange-box. From 

 Dr. Hay, 74, Queen Street : — Specimens of " Tappa," or Sandwich- 

 Island cloth, said to be made from the leaves of Pandanus. It is 

 " made by hammering the leaves so as to run the fibrous matter toge- 

 ther. The specimens were made in the district of Kan, in Owhyhee. 

 The dye of the coloured specimen is also native." Also a piece of 

 silicified wood from California. From John Watson, Esq., Calcutta: 

 — Handkerchief made from pine-apple fibre. From Mr. Maclean, 

 Braidwood : — Specimen of paper made from flax, grown upon his 

 farm at Braidwood, in the season of 1851. " The one sample is 

 mixed with a little refuse from the flax-mills, Dundee ; the other is 

 entirely from the flax- straw. The one specimen is pressed, the other 

 is not." From Michael Connal, Esq., Glasgow : — Specimens of the 

 following plants, from the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, preserved in py- 

 roligneous acid : — Fruit of Borassus flabelliformis, papaw [Carica 

 Papaya), netted custard apple [Aiiona reticulata), three species of 

 Dolichos — D. gladiatus, tuberosus, and Lablab, — and Spondias man- 

 gifera. From George Graham, Esq., through Humphrey Graham, Esq. : 

 — Specimen of Kauri resin, accompanied with the following observa- 

 tions : — " From the Dammara australis, or the Pinus Kaui*i of New Zea- 

 land, according to Mr. Yate, who describes the tree as running from 

 eighty-five to ninety feet high, without a branch, and sometimes twelve 

 feet in diameter, yielding a log of heart-timber eleven feet in diameter. 

 In 1838 it appears that some cargoes of this timber were received at 

 Plymouth dock-yard, and that the wood was found of admirable 

 quality for masts and spars of ships. Mr. Prideaux, of Plymouth, sent 

 a paper on the Kauri resin to the ' Philosophical Magazine,' in 1838, 

 in which he pointed out its valuable qualities for varnish -making. It 

 appears that Captain Cook first noticed the tree in New Zealand." 



The following papers were read : — 



1. 'Notice of Chinese Vegetable Products;' by Robert Fortune, 

 Esq. Mr. Fortune, in transmitting specimens for the Museum of 

 Economic Botany, sent the following remarks in regard to them : — 



" 1st. Eight samples of curious kinds of tea, some made up in 

 buiidles, or balls, others in cakes of diflerent sorts. With reference to 

 the two large cakes, I have the following memorandum from the Rev. 

 Dr. Bridgeman, of Shanghae, from whom I received them: — 'They 

 are from the province of Yunnan. It is called " dragon conglomerate 

 tea ;" and it is considered valuable for its medicinal qualities, being 

 used for fever and ague, and other similar diseases. A piece as large 



