Miscellaneous. 157 



The foliation and female flowers are however very well described, 

 and to complete the description I may add, the male flowers are 

 pedunculated, but the peduncles are shut, and they might be charac- 

 terized as subsessile. 'J^he anthers, like those of the female flowers, 

 are sessile, depressed or flattened above, and dehisce circularly. The 

 ripe fruit is globose, and not furrowed. As I send along with this 

 paper specimens of both the male and female flowers, any of your 

 botanists will be able to correct me at a glance, if I be in error. 



Neither Wallich, Wight, nor Griffiths appear to have been at all 

 aware that this species produces gamboge. Dr. Wight, in a recent 

 number of his ' Neilgherry Plants,' says, " Two species of the genus 

 Garcinia are known to produce gamboge ; most of the others yield a 

 yellow juice, but not gamboge, as it will not mix with water." The 

 species which he has described as producing gamboge, and to which 

 I suppose he refers, are G. gutta or H. cambogioides (Graham) and 

 G.pictoria (Roxburgh). That others may be enabled to judge of the 

 character of the gamboge produced by this tree, I have the pleasure to 

 send sjjecimens of its exudation. In its apjiearance to the eye, and 

 in its properties as a pigment, I have failed to discover the slightest 

 diff'erence between it and the gamboge of commerce. It serves equally 

 well to colour drawings ; the Burmese priests often use it to colour 

 their garments, and the Karens to dye their thread. It is also used 

 by the native doctors in medicine, but I think not extensively. Dr. 

 Lindley, in his new work the ' Vegetable Kingdom,' says, " The best 

 gamboge comes in the form of pipes from Siam, and this is conjectured 

 to be the produce of Garcinia cochinchinensis." As G.elliptica is spread 

 all over the province of Mergui, is it not probable that it extends 

 into Siam, and that the Siamese gamboge is the produce, a part at 

 least, of this tree ? 



There are several other species of Garcinia indigenous to the 

 Provinces, but I know of no others producing anything resembling 

 gamboge, except G. Cumbogia ; the exudation of which, though it 

 will not dissolve in water, dissolves in spirits of turpentine, and forms 

 a very beautiful yellow varnish for tin and other metallic surfaces. — 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for July 1847. 



ON THE FOSSIL VEGETATION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 



I Mr. J. E. Teschemacher, at the recent meeting of the American 

 ssociation of Geologists and Naturalists, read a paper on this sub- 

 let, confining his observations to the remains of vegetation found 

 the body of the coal, apart from that in the accomjjanying shales, 

 e princijjal points of the memoir were, that the remains of the 

 larger forms of the coal epoch, as well as of the smaller ]>Iants, were 

 abundant in the coal, contrary to the usual opinion. Specimens 

 re exhibited from the interior of the coal, showing the external 

 d internal parts of plants — the vessels, the leaves, the seeds, &c. 

 Since the meeting, Mr. Teschemacher has continued his investi- 

 gations, and has communicated in a letter to one of the editors the 

 following results : — 



