282 GENERAL REVIEW. 



Drosera. A genus of very interesting herbaceous plants, 

 represented in this country by D. rotundifolia, which is toler- 

 ably plentiful in northern bogs. Several species are found at 

 the Cape, and they are also abundant in Australasia, having 

 been imported from the Swan river. Their long forked or 

 spoon-shaped leaves are formed of spongy cellular tissue, and 

 furnished with viscid glandular hairs, in which insects often 

 become entangled. Nearly all the species seed freely, even in 

 cultivation ; and seeds germinate readily in a genial bottom- 

 heat if sown like Calceolaria seeds on the surface of a well- 

 drained pan of sandy compost mixed with living sphagnum 

 moss, or even on the surface of a pot covered with sphagnum 

 alone, and covered with a bell-glass. The best way to repro- 

 duce them, however, is by cuttings of the roots. This plan has 

 succeeded with D. binata in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 

 and is thus described by Mr J. M'Nab : " Mr Robert Lindsay, 

 the plant foreman in the Royal Botanic Garden, thought he 

 would try to increase this curious Sundew by root-propagation. 

 The roots for the purpose of propagation are generally taken 

 from strong-growing plants during the process of crown-division. 

 They are of a clear black wiry consistency, and are cut into 

 numerous pieces from half an inch, an inch, or more in length. 

 These are laid on the surface of shallow earthenware pans 

 or flower-pots, prepared with a mixture of sandy peat soil, 

 and are covered about half an inch deep with the same mix- 

 ture. They are then covered with a bell-glass, and are placed 

 in a damp warm propagating house. In the course of a fort- 

 night, swellings begin to appear on the surface of the detached 

 roots, which increase in length till they reach the surface of 

 the soil. This generally takes place about five weeks after 

 they are put in. When the leaves become developed, they 

 are mostly of a binate form, and soon cover the surface of the 

 pan as if they had been a crop of seedlings. When about two 

 inches or so in height, they are separated and put into small 

 pots, in a similar mixture of soil to that in which the roots 

 were originally placed, with the addition of some chopped 

 sphagnum moss freely mixed through it. If carefully attended 

 to, they soon make excellent plants, and are eagerly sought 

 after on account of their peculiar appearance." 



THE DATE PLUM FAMILY (Ebenacece). 



Trees and shrubs the wood of which is remarkably heavy 

 and black in colour, sometimes streaked with red or brown 



