70 General iN'otices. 



a single tree has been fount! to contain twelve thonsnnd superficial feet, 

 and these to produce uj)war(ls of one thousand pounds sterling! The 

 shippiuir of mahogany to Europe, however, especially during the late 

 war with France, was seldom found to be advantageous, except to a 

 few individuals who had succeeded in establishin? a preference in the 

 London market. Its exportation to the American States would be high- 

 ly beneficial to the settlers, were there less restriction as to the dimen- 

 sions of those pieces which are permitted to l)e carried thither; the 

 same not being permitted to exceed twenty inches in the widest parts. 

 Those American vessels, however, which import such mahojxany into 

 the States, are allowed, for every ten thousand feet, the privilege of 

 taking three tons of log or other dye-wood." (Hort. Jour.) 



Victbriii regulis. — We noticed the discovery of this splendid lily, in 

 our III. p. 426. Mr. Schomburgh has given the following account of 

 his surprise, when he first beheld it. "A vegetable wonder! All ca- 

 lamities were forgotten; I felt as a botanist, and felt myself rewarded; a 

 gigantic leaf, from five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, and with a 

 broad rim, of a light green above, and a vivid crimson below, resting 

 upon the water^ Quite in character with the wonderful leaf was the 

 luxuriant flower, consisting of many hundred petals, passing, in alternate 

 tints, from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was cover- 

 ed with them, and I rowed from one to another, and observed always 

 something new to admire. The leaf on its surface is of a bright green; in 

 form orbiculate, with this exception — opposite to its axis, where it is slight- 

 ly bent in, its diameter measured from five to six feet. Around the margin 

 extended a rim about three to five inches hiiih; on the inside light green, 

 like the surface of the leaf; on the outside like the leaf's lower part, of a 

 bright crimson. The stem is an inch thick near the calyx, and is studded 

 with sharp elastic prickles, about three quarters of an inch in length. 

 The calyx is four leaved, each upwards of seven inches in length and 

 three in breadth at the base; they are thick, white inside, reddish brown 

 and prickly outside. The diameter of the calyx is twelve to thirteen 

 inches; on it rests the magnificent flower, which, Avhen fully developed, 

 covers completply the calyx with its hundred ])etals. When it first 

 opens, it is white with pink in the middle, w hich spi*eads over the w hole 

 flower the more it advances in age, and it is generally found the next 

 day of pink color. As if to enhance its beauty, it is sweet scented. 

 Like others of its tribe, possesses a fleshy disc, and petals and stamens 

 pass gradually into each other, and many petaloid leaves may be ob- 

 served, which have vestiges of an anther. We met them afterwards 

 frequently; and the higher we advanced the more gigantic they became. 

 We measured a leaf which was six feet five inches in diameter, its rim 

 five and a half inches high, an<l the flower across fifteen inches. The 

 flower is much injured by a beetle, Thrincia species, which destroys com- 

 pletely the inner part. We have counted from twenty to thirty in 

 one flower." (Gard. Gaz.) 



Impregnating plants ivith strong or peculiar odors. — The daj^ has 

 pone by for believing the impositions practised by a few^ gardeners to 

 deceive the multitude; but by attentively studying the ])rocess of vege- 

 tation, certain ])henomeiia will appear which are not so easy to explain, 

 even with the assistance of ))l]ysiology; and it is still more diflicult to 

 give a decided opinion on the subject. For example: at first sight the 

 assertion of Mr. John Murray, of giving the smell of the onion to the 

 rose, ])y beinij fdanted near it, aj)pears ridiculous; and yet, even the cel- 

 ebrated De Candolle, in his Pliysiologie Vegetale, omits giving an opin- 

 ion on the subject — a proof that there is room for improvement in veg- 

 etable physiology, and particularly as it regards smell and taste. For 

 my part 1 can tell you, as a fact, and a well established one, that all the 

 "wine merchants abstain from going to a particular part of the province 



