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doors during summer. It has never shown signs of flowering before 

 this summer. It has this peculiarity, — that the flower-buds expand 

 immediately after being formed. The seeds were gathered by one of 

 the first British oflScers that travelled in the mountains near Cabul. 

 He was no botanist, but said the flowers attracted his attention, being 

 sweet-scented and of a yellow colour. I think it is about ten or 

 twelve years since I got the seeds." 



Professor Balfour exhibited various donations to the Museum of 

 Economic Botany at the Botanic Garden. Among them the follow- 

 ing are the most interesting : — 



Rye. 



From Mr. James Fulton, Glasgow : — Large specimens of rye, the 

 produce of what has been termed a " stolen " crop. It was produced 

 during the period intervening between the removal of the grain and 

 putting in of the succeeding green crop. It was sown on the 22nd 

 of September, 1851, and cut on the 11th of June, 1852, when it mea- 

 sured six feet six inches in length, and weighed in its green state 

 forty tons per acre, the soil being of an inferior description. 



Attalea compta ? 



From Dr. M'Nab, Kingston, Jamaica : — Two spikes of fruit, three 

 feet long, with five sections of the stem, each four feet in circumfe- 

 rence, of a species of Attalea (probably Attalea compta), from the 

 Ferry Garden, St. Catherines, Jamaica. Regarding this tree Dr. 

 M*Nab says : — " I send two bunches of the fruit, and several sections 

 of the stem, of a magnificent palm, unknown to me, introduced from 

 Africa. It grew in the garden in front of the Ferry here. The one 

 cut down was seventy feet in height. Its history, as far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, is, that it was brought to this country by the 

 celebrated Captain Bligh ; and three were planted by himself in the 

 garden at the Ferry, the other two in the Old Botanic Garden at St. 

 Andrews. All, with the exception of the one cut down for the mu- 

 seum, are still in existence, and all handsome trees, some 100 feet 

 high. I have got a dried spalhe of it ten feet long, which I also 

 intend sending to the museum." In regard to the Attalea, it was ob- 

 served, in a note from Mr. Smith, of Kew :— " The palm of which you 

 sent a fruit has been long known to me. I have heard of the two 

 trees in Jamaica, and have plants of them growing. You are quite 



