Botanical Miscellany. 305 



prime cost of the timber. Each mahogany work forms in itself a small vil- 

 lage on the bank of a river ; the choice of situation being always regulated 

 by the proximity of such river to the mahogany intended as the object of 

 future research." After the habitations are arranged, including the proprie- 

 tor's residence, with store-houses, cattle-sheds, &c., amain road and branch 

 roads are opened, by cutting down the untlerwood and other trees, a labour 

 generally performed by the job, aided by fire when necessar}'. The roads are 

 generally ready by the month of November, when cross-cutting commences. 

 The size of the log is regulated so as to be drawn by the number of oxen 

 in the " work " for that purpose. The largest log ever cut in Honduras 

 was 17 ft. long, 57 in. broad, and 64 inches deep. This work is gene- 

 rally completed by the.month of March, and the logs are drawn out dur- 

 ing April and May, the only months fit for that purpose, as during all the 

 rest of the year the ground is too soft to admit of a heavily laden truck to 

 pass over it without sinking. Owing to the intense heat of the sun, the 

 cattle are unable to work in the daytime, and consequently the operation 

 is performed from about six o'clock in the evening till about eleven o'clock 

 in the morning. "Nothing can present a more extraordinary spectacle than 

 this process of trucking or drawing down the mahogany to the river. 

 Six trucks will occupy an extent of road of a quarter of a mile, — the great 

 number of oxen, the drivers half naked (clothes being inconvenient from the 

 heat of the weather and clouds of dust), and each bearing a lighted torch; 

 the wildness of the forest scenery, the rattling of chains, the sound of the 

 whip echoing through the woods ; then all this activity and exertion, so ill 

 corresponding with the still hour of midnight, make it wear more the ap- 

 pearance of some theatrical exhibition than what it really is, — the pursuit 

 of industry which has fallen to the lot of the Honduras woodcutter." 



" About the end of May the periodical rains again commence. The tor- 

 rents of water discharged from the clouds are so great as to render the 

 roads impracticable in the course of a few hours, when all trucking ceases, 

 the cattle are turned into the pasture, and the trucks, gear, and tools are 

 housed." 



In St. Vincent, where the mahogany does not appear to be indigenous, 

 it seldom grows higher than 50 ft., with a diameter of 18 in. It flowers 

 there in May and June ; the bark is astringent and bitter, and may be used 

 like the Peruvian bark, 



Scoulerk aquatica; J/usci. From the north-west coast of America. — 

 J5ryum Menziesii. From Nootka Sound. — ^. giganteum. — Dicranum 

 /jhascoides; il/usci. — Ricci« natans; Hepatica". — Parnassia fimbriata; 

 Droseraceae. Discovered by Mr. Menzieson the north-west coast of Ame- 

 rica. " Mr. Menzies observed that the stamens, after having performed 

 their office of fertilising the stigmas, which they do by approaching the 

 pistil in succession, each remaining some time in contact with the stigmas, 

 fall back in a horizontal position between the petals, giving an appearance 

 of great regularity to the whole flower." — Menyanthes crista-galli; Gen- 

 tianecB. Another " charming plant," discovered by Mr. Menzies in the 

 north-west coast of America in marshy mountain pastures in Prince Wil- 

 liam's Sound. — VoMria aphylla ancj tenella; GentmnecB. From hill}', 

 humid places in Martinique and St. Vincent. This completes the figures 

 and scientific descriptions of twenty-five plants, on twenty-four plates. 



The miscellaneous part of the work commences with a translation of 

 Schultes'b botanical visit to England, from the Botanische Zeitung for 

 1825. M. Schultes is profuse in his compliments to some individuals, but 

 severe on the rector of the university of Cambridge for prohibiting Sir 

 James E. Smith from delivering lectures on botany there, because he was 

 a dissenter. 



The Botanic Garden at Cambridge " does not present so pleasing an 

 Vol. V. ^ No. 20. x 



