536 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



LASIOPETALE^, OF HOLLAND. 



Allgemtine Gartenzeitung, Jan. 185(3. 



This beautiful group of Australian plants is not yet found in 

 many collections. When cultivated, they form very handsome 

 shrubs, always green and full of Howers. The flower bracts are 

 of a rose-red as well as the flowers, and give an elegant appear- 

 ance. They are very easily cultivated. 



Jfote by H. Meigs. — Lindley, in his Vegetable Kingdom, places 

 this plant among the Byttneriacece. This family is wholly tropi- 

 cal, or of temperate climates. The Lasiopetalese are Australian, 

 the Hermannese are of Southern Africa, the Dombeyese African 

 and Asiatic, the Eriolanese exclusively Asiatic, and the Philippo- 

 dendresB from New- Zealand, (not Nepal, as Mr. Poiteau says,) are 

 both African and American. Cocoa, from which Ave have our 

 chocolate, is of this order, and the most remarkable one. Theo- 

 broma cocoa, a small tree, makes some forests in Demerara ; an 

 ardent spirit is distilled from ils fruit. One of this family, the 

 Gauzuma-Ulmifolia, is filled with a sweet and agreeable mucilage, 

 which Brazilians are fond of smoking. In Martiidque, the young 

 bark is used to clarify sugar, for which the copious mucilage it 

 yields when macerate 1, qualifies it. 



Extracts translated by the Secretary, Jlpril, 1856. 



From Maison Rustiquo, (the farm-house of France,) Vattemare's Exchange. 



MEZEMBFJANTHUM, 



A name formed of the Greek w^ords, meaning Moon-day Flower. 

 Although there are many of this class of flowers which bloom 

 only in the evening and others during night, gardeners have called 

 them generally by the name of Ficoides, (like figs,) because tlie 

 fruit of many of them resemble figs. In the vicinity of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, the Hottentots eat this fruit; it is rather unsavory, 

 not very agreeabl «, but it does them no harm. 



Some of these flowers are annual, some two year flowers, others 

 perennial. They sometimes thrive among rocks where there is 

 hardly any soil. Their stalks and leaves are fleshy. They resist 

 drought and heat very well. 



FAT STOCK IN OLD TIMES. 



Dec. 1800. — Christmas market at Smithfield, London, a prize 

 ox by Mr. Westcar, of Buckinghamshire, weighed 3,374 lbs. A 

 round of it sold for twenty-five-cents per pound. 



Mr. Edmonds' prize ox weighed 2,730 lbs., and was sold for 

 about ^300. Two years ago he w-as bought by Edmonds for 

 about $100. This is a Herefordshii"e ox. 



