464 Miscellaneous. 



aphis theory raged, was ascribed, in a provincial paper, the blacken- 

 ing of the potato leaves which accompanies the potato disease, and 

 forms its external symptoms. It is a minute insect, about the size 

 of a small pin-head ; the head is small and rounded ; the body, con- 

 sisting of the thorax and abdomen confounded in a single mass, oval 

 or subquadrate, broadest behind, and looking as if the insect wore a 

 cloak. The head, the general colour of the body above, and its apex 

 are light yellow, and there is an orange cloud or some irregular ma- 

 culae of that colour posteriorly ; the body is very pale beneath, as are 

 the legs and antennae ; and there are six white spots (or fewer), three 

 on each side behind the posterior legs ; the head is slightly dusky in 

 front, and the eyes are black. It is furnished beneath with a leaping- 

 fork, of a pellucid white, which is fastened behind, and lies along the 

 belly in a state of repose ; but, by projecting it backwards at will, the 

 insect is propelled forwards with a rapid jerk. It usually falls on its 

 back, and takes some time to recover its upright position, which 

 after a struggle it often does by seizing some adjacent object with 

 its legs. It runs rather quickly. — From the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 Nov. 18. 



The Liquidamber Tree of the Tenasserim Provinces. 

 By the Rev. F. Mason. 



" Did you ever see in this country the tree which produces the 

 balsam of tolu ? " a gentleman once asked the writer. " I never 

 did," was the reply. " I have one in my compound," he continued ; 

 but unfortunately his compound was two hundred miles distant. 

 Years passed away and I found myself beneath this tree in flower, 

 and soon discovered that it was not Myrospermum toluiferum, but 

 Liquidamber altingia ; and that it produced, not balsam of tolu, but 

 liquid storax. 



The tree is indigenous on the coast, and in some sections is quite 

 abundant. A considerable stream in the province of Mergui derives 

 its name from this tree, in consequence of its growing so thick on its 

 banks. It seems to have escaped the notice of Dr. Heifer, for, if I 

 recollect right, it is not once alluded to in any of his reports, nor has 

 it ever been brought to notice by any one ; if we except a Catholic 

 priest, a resident of Rangoon, who has introduced it in a little Bur- 

 mese medical treatise that was lithographed a few years ago by Col. 

 Burney, who took a lithographic press with him into Burmah. 



The Padre seems however to have been ignorant of botany, for he 

 describes it as the tree which produces the balsam of Peru (^Myro- 

 spermum peruiferum^, and which belongs to a different natural family. 

 The medicinal properties of their exudations too are materially differ- 

 ent. Liquid storax, the production of this tree, is described by Lind- 

 ley merely as " a stimulating expectorant substance — influencing the 

 mucous membranes, especially that which lines the air-passages." 

 The writer of the Burmese medical treatise recommends the exude 

 of the tree for the usual purposes to which the balsam of Peru is ap- 

 plied, under the delusion that it is the same substance ! 



Here is a fine illustration of the fallacies of medicine. It is proba- 

 ble that this substance has been used in all the v^arious cases many 



