154 



contains an arrangement of all the plants hitherto found in 

 New Zealand according to their natural families. Further, 

 the observations of J. Backhouse* on the Esculents of Van 

 Diemen's Land, among which, the roots of Pteris esculenta 

 play a chief part ; they are often of the thickness of a man's 

 thumb, and go deep below the surface of the earth. The root 

 tubers of some OrchidecB, as Gastrodia sesamoides, form the 

 potatoes there, &c. The natives eat the heart of Cibotium 

 Billardieri and Alsophila australis. The other edible plants 

 are of no importance, and can only satisfy hunger to a certain 

 degree. 



There is also in Hooker's Companion a memoir of the un- 

 fortunate Douglas, consisting of letters which he had ad- 

 dressed to his friends f. There are numerous very useful 

 communications relating to the geography of plants scattered 

 in it ; the most remarkable of all appears to me to be the no- 

 tice of a gigantic Cactus which Douglas observed on the Gal- 

 lopagos : its stem is from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and 40 to 50 

 in height. It belongs to the genus Opuntia, and has long and 

 large yellow flowers and very long flexible thorns. 



M. Beilschmid J, to whom botany and especially the geo- 

 graphy of plants is indebted, for the greater diffusion of many 

 of the most interesting works, has translated Watson's ( Re- 

 marks on the Geographical Distribution of British Plants, 

 chiefly in connexion with Latitude, Elevation, and Climate,' 

 and appended to it some interesting additions and observa- 

 tions : this work is as it were republished by M. Beilschmid, 

 for hitherto we did not even know of its existence at Berlin. 



We may regard R. Schneider's memoir as a sequel to the 

 publication of the above work ; it contains a very excellent 

 comparison of the vegetation of Silesia with that of Great Bri- 

 tain, and the numerical proportions between the British and 

 Silesian plants, which are arranged in a table side by side, 



* Some remarks on the roots and other indigenous Esculents of Van 

 Diemen's Land. Companion, ii. p. 39. 



f Memoir of the Life of David Douglas, with a portrait. His sketch of 

 of a journey to the North Western parts of America. His letters from the 

 Columbia. His journey across the Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay, &c. 

 Companion, p. 79 178. 



J Bemerkungen iiber die geographische Vertheilung und Verbreitung der 

 Gewachse Grossbritanniens, besonders nach ihrer Abhangigkeit von der 

 geographischen Breite, der Hbhe und dem Klima, Breslau, 1 837. 



Vergleichung der schlesischen Flora mit der britischen nach Watsons 

 Angaben. Flora von 1837. Nos. 33, 34. 



