568 



Botanical Miscellany. 



109 



of gibbosity on its lower surface, but the secondary frond is slightly convex 

 below, and the tertiary ones still more so. 



" The scutellum, it must be observed, has always a greater diameter than 

 the orifice of the lower portion of the inner coat of the seed. This puzzled 

 me at first ; and it was only after a very careful dissection thal^I ascertained 

 the fact of the inner coat being formed of three distinct skins {Jig. 108. a b c) y 

 and that the scutellum is formed of different proportions of each ; the 

 inner one («) being the largest, and the middle one (6) 

 the smallest of the three. They are all of a circular 

 figure, and the fissure in each of the skins is differently 

 situated. In one instance I found the scutellum, after 

 the expansion of the embryo, not wholly detached from 

 the lower portion of the inner coat of the seed, and 

 entirely separated from the lip of the cotyledon, except 

 , y(\ perhaps the inner reticulated portion, 



which I have reason to think was carried 

 up with the cotyledon. 



" Fig. 109., the two upper coats, or 

 skins of the scutellum, detached from the 

 lowest one. Fig. 110., the inner or lower 

 coat of the scutellum, showing its reticu- 

 lated structure." 



A species of the genus Colletk, Phamneas; one of Ferbena; and one of 

 the genus Macraa'a (James Macrae, a collector of the Horticultural Society 

 in the Brazils, now curator of the botanic garden at Ceylon), are de- 

 fined or remarked on. in three articles, which do not afford any thing 

 suitable for quotation. — A Sketch of a Journey to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and to the Columbia River, in North America ; by Thomas 

 Drummond, Assistant Naturalist to the second Land Arctic Expedi- 

 tion, under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R. N. This is 

 the longest article in the book j and, to a naturalist, will well repay 

 perusal. It chiefly enumerates the plants and animals which were met with, 

 saying little of minerals or the weather, of general sceneiy, impressions on 

 the mind, or personal adventure. Perhaps, indeed, there is as much of the 

 last as it would be proper to admit in a scientific relation. For the benefit 

 of gardeners who may become collectors, we quote the following : — 



" The plan I pursued for collecting was as follows : — When the boats 

 stopped to breakfast, I immediately went on shore with my vasculum, pro- 

 ceeding along the banks of the river, and making short excursions into the 

 interior ; taking care, however, to join the boats, if possible, at their en- 

 campment for the night. After supper, I commenced laying down the 

 plants gathered in the day's excursion ; changed and dried the papers of 

 those collected previously ; which operation generally occupied me till day- 

 break, when the boats started. I then went on board, and slept till the 

 breakfast hour, when I landed and proceeded as before. Thus I continued 

 daily until we reached Edmonton House, a distance of about 400 miles ; 

 the vegetation having preserved much the same character all the way." 



The woody country between Edmonton House and the Rocky Moun- 

 tains consists of Populus balsamifera and P. trepida, the white spruce 

 fir, the birch with Pinus Banksia?z« in drier situations, and P. nigra and 

 microcarpa in swamps, ^'rbutus alpina and Dryas Drummondw gave the 

 first indications of the mountains. The J'rbutus TJva-ursi, mixed sometimes 

 with Juniperus prostratus, thickly covered the dry arid sides of the low 

 hills. On the Red Deer River a species of Fiscum was found growing on 

 the Pinus Hanksidna, and giving the branches of that tree a most curious 

 appearance. An interesting encounter with a white bear is given, and the 

 important information added, from " subsequent experience," that the best 

 mode for a botanist to get rid of bears, when attacked by them, is to rattle 



