152 



Bola7iical Masiazinc. 



flowered perennial, allied to the geniis Sibbaldirt. — ^lichrj^sum incanum ; 

 Compositas. A herbaceous plant, bearing large terminal solitary flowers, 

 from Van Dieman's Land, and flowering in May. — Vesicaria arctica ; 

 Cruciferae. A most desirable plant for rockwork, with bright vivid yellow 

 flowers in August and September ; it was first discovered at Omenak in 

 Greenland, by Professor Gieseke. — Gili« inconspicua; Polemoniaceae. 

 An annunl branching plant, with solitary white flowers, in the early part of 

 summer, when cultivated in sandy peat. 



Ho. XXVI. for February, contams 



2884 to 2890. — Poinci«?2a regia ; Decan. Monog. and Leguminosae 

 Csesalpfncff. {fig. 27.) " A magnificent tree 50 or 40 ft, high, having an 

 erect trunk, three feet in 

 diameter, for half its 

 lieight unbranched, co- 

 vered with a grey smooth 

 bark ; the wood white ; 

 above forming a vast 

 cyme of alternate patent 

 branches, the younger 

 ones green spotted with 



white, and glabrous 



No less remarkable for 

 its extreme beauty than 

 for its rarity, having been 

 found only in Madagas- 

 car Plants have been 



raised by Mr. Barclay, at 

 Bury Hill, from seeds sent by Mr. Telfair ; and there is every reason 

 to think they will be brought to great perfection in that well managed 

 establishment." — Portulaca grandiflora. — /Vis tripetala. — Eschscholt- 

 vAa californica; Polyan. Tetrag., and Papaveraceas. The following 

 rote, appended by Dr. Hooker to the description of this genus, shows 

 the influence of accident in botanical matters, and may guard young 

 botanists against confounding the names of two genera very much alike in 

 sound. " Named by Chamisso in honour of Dr. Eschscholtz, an excellent 

 botanist and entomologist, who accompanied him as a fellow-naturalist in 

 the voyage round the world, under the command of Kotzebue. It is not, 

 perhaps, generally known, that this gentleman is a descendant of the John 

 Sigismund Elsholtz, a Prussian botanist, author of a Flora Marcliica, and 

 after whom Willdenow named the Elsh61tziff cristata. The Russians, into 

 whose service the present Elsholtz went, wrote his name Eschscholtz, by mis- 

 take. 'J'he genus is now so well established, that the alteration to another 

 generic name might create unnecessary confusion." We have now, in 

 consequence, Elsholtzia and Eschscboltzza. — Paeonia albiflora v. ?osea. 

 — ffinothera decumbens. An annual from dry soils and mountain val- 

 leys in South California, by Mr. David Douglas, in 1827, to the Horti- 

 cultural Society. — Escallonia rubra; Pentan. Monog., and Escallone^e. A 

 shrub from Chile, with numerous twiggy, rounded, red branches, more or 

 less pubescent, and sprinkled with pedicellated glands, and terminal pe- 

 duncles of deep red flowers. Raised in the botanic garden of Liverpool, 

 where it flowered in September last, and supposed to be hardy. 



We are happy to find that Dr. Hooker has at last thought it worth while 

 to follow Mr. Lindley, Mr. Sweet, and ourselves, in giving the derivation 

 of the generic names ; his next step is to give the accentuations ; and a 

 third step, which we hope the public will induce all our three friends to 

 take, is the adoption of our mode of designating classical, aboriginal, and 

 commemorative names by Italic letters. We had the pleasure of pointing 

 o it this imjjrovement in September last, in Paris, to Professors Decan- 

 dolie, Mirbei, Desfontaines, and others, and we have reason to believe 



