Curtis' s Botanical Matyazifie. 301 



^b 



tables. Nevertheless, if it were absolutely desirable to give it a station in 

 a linear series, it ought, perhaps, to be referred to the neighbourhood of the 

 Z/rticeas." 



Almost all the species of Carica are natives of South America, but it has 

 been doubted whether the present species be not indigenous in India. On 

 this subject a passage is quoted from Mr. Brown's Botany vf the Congo, 

 which shows the value of the study of botanical geography. " Mr. Brown 

 justly argues, that a careful investigation of the geographical distribution of 

 genera, might often lead to a determination of the native country of plants 

 now generally dispersed : for example, that in doubtful cases, where other 

 arguments were equal, it would appear more probable that the plant in 

 question should belong to that country in which all the other species of the 

 same genus were found decidedly indigenous, than to that, where it was 

 the only species of the genus known to exist. Hence that learned bota- 

 nist and philosopher infers that the Papaw tree is a native of America, 

 there being several other decidedly distinct species natives of that conti- 

 nent, while no species, except the cultivated Papaw, nor any plant nearly 

 related to this singular genus, is known to exist either in Asia or in Africa." 



The medicinal properties of the Papaw tree are various, and it is even 

 eaten boiled and baked as turnips or apples. Dr. Hooker, having tasted that 

 ripened in the Glasgow stove, " cannot recommend it as at all agreeable." 

 The juice of the pulp is said to remove freckles, and to serve as a substitute 

 for soap ; it is also spoken of as a vermifuge- But the most remarkable pro- 

 perty of this juice is, that when mixed with water it has the property of mak- 

 ing meat tender which has been steeped in the mixture for eight or ten 

 minutes. This property has been confirmed to Dr. Hooker, by gentlemen 

 long resident in the West Indies. In a paper by Dr. Holder, in the Trails. 

 IVernerian Societi/, vol. iii., it is said that the juice causes a separation of 

 the muscular fibres ; that the very vapour of the tree serves the same pur- 

 pose, and that, accordingly, joints of recent butcher's meat and newly killed 

 fowls are suspended among the leaves to render them tender. Even the 

 flesh of hogs which feed upon the fruit will not keep by salting. The only 

 peculiar property which chemists have found in the juice of the Papaw 

 is fibrine or animal matter ; but whether or not its power of hastening the 

 decay of meat be attributable to this animal matter, does not appear to 

 be determined. 



Begonk inslgnis. A beautiful species from the Botanic Garden, Berlin, 

 to the Edinburgh Botanic Garden ; but Professor Graham cannot state its 

 native country. — Azalea /edifolia. An erect much-branching, but rather 

 stunted, shrub, 2 or 3 ft. high, with white odoriferous flowers. Introduced 

 from China in 1819, by Mr. Brookes of the Ball's Pond Nursery. — Euphor- 

 bia splendens. From a drawing by Mrs. Telfair of the Mauritius. The plant 

 was found by Professor Bojer, oh the borders of fields in the province of 

 Emirne, in Madagascar, and it is hoped will soon be introduced into our 

 stoves. — Pentstemon ovatus. " Perhaps the most beautiful of all the 

 numerous species of this genus lately detected in N. W. America by Mr. 

 Douglas, and equally hardy with the rest." Flowers of a rich ultramarine 

 colour. — Podolepis gracilis. From Mr. Fraser, of New South Wales. 

 Pretty, and may be treated as a hardy annual. 



iVb. XXIX. for May, contains 

 2905 to 2910. — Dorabeya angulata ; B iittnerfa cfce. A shrub from the 

 Mauritius, with somewhat of the habit of Astrapae^a, raised in the stove of 

 the Glasgow Botanic Garden. — Dendrobium ^'mulum ; Orchideae. — 

 ikfentha verticillata, Cnnurn plicatum, Erythrolae'na conspicua (figured in 

 Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 298.), Ferbena bracteosa. Two of these plants are 

 on 4 to plates, and the whole are engraved from beautifiil drawings by Dr. 

 Hooker himself. 



