Floriculiural and Botanical Notices. 169 



Art. IV. Floricultural and Botanical Notices of new Plants, and of 

 old Plants of Interest, supplementary to the latest Editions of the 

 " Encyclopedia of Plants," and of the " Hortus Britannicus." 



Curtis' s Botanical Magazine; each monthly Number containing eight plates ; 



3«. 6d. coloured, 3s. plain. Edited by Dr. Hooker, King's Professor of 



Botany in the University of Glasgow. 

 Edwards's Botanical Register; each monthly Number containing eight plates ; 



4s. coloured, 3s. plain. Edited by Dr. Lindley, F.R.S., Professor of Botany 



in the London University. 

 Sweet's British Floiver-Garden ; each monthly Number containing four plates; 



3s. coloured, 2s. 3d. plain. Edited by David Don, Esq., Librarian to the 



Linnasan Society. 

 Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. Second Series. Vol. I. 



Part V. 4to. Pages 343. to 418. London, 1834. 



Facts and Considerations which have a general Relation to Floncidture. 



Species of Plants, neiv to Britain, received from South America by the London 

 Horticultural Society, from their Collector, Mr. David Douglas, during the Years 

 1831,1832, 1833. — In the recently published part v. of the Society's new 

 series of their Transactions there is a report, by G. Bentham, Esq., the secre- 

 tary, " on some of the more remarkable hardy ornamental " species which 

 have been received within the time stated, and a notice of some of the cir- 

 cumstances which have directed Mr. Douglas's researches. For the latter, 

 see the report in the Transactions. Of the plants enumerated in the report, 

 the following had been previously, from time to time, published in the Bota- 

 nical Register, and have been notified to our readers ; namely, iupinus rivu- 

 laris, Clarkza elegans, Calandrinia speciosa, ffinothera densiflora, Madia 

 elegans, Stenactis speciosa, Nemophila aurita, .Mhnulus roseus, Calochortus 

 luteus, Calliprora lutea, Hesperoscordon lacteum, and several species of 

 Polemoniaceae. For the names of the last, see our IX. 705, 706. In addition 

 to these, the report communicates the characteristics and names of several 

 species not previously described ; figures are added of six of them. Of all 

 of these we have transcribed short notices into our following two-monthly 

 catalogue. A second report, it is stated, of additional species of plants raised 

 from seeds transmitted by Mr. Douglas, will shortly be laid before the Society. 



An Instance of the Economy which is observable in every Part of Nature. — • 

 " Pyrus crenata D. Don is found naturally in the highest of the mountainous 

 parts of Northern India, from an elevation of near 12,000 ft. downward to 

 9000 ft., and lower. Nature seems to have intended it to brave the utmost 

 inclemency of climate ; for, in its own country, in the earliest spring, the 

 leaves, while still delicate and tender, are clothed with a thick white coating 

 of wool ; and the flowers themselves are so deeply immersed in an ample 

 covering of the same material, as to bid defiance to even Tartarian cold. But 

 in proportion as the extent of the distribution of the plant descends towards 

 the plains, or as the season of warm weather advances, it throws off its fleecy 

 coat, and at length becomes as naked and as glittering with green as the trees 

 which have never had such rigour to endure. In England it scarcely acquires 

 any part of its natural woolliness, but is as naked as our common beam tree." 

 (Dr. Lindley, in Bot. Reg., t. 1655., March.) The leaves of the ^E'sculus 

 Hippocastanum, while enfolded in the bud, are plentifully invested with wool, 

 which is absent when the leaves have become expanded. Pubescence is deci- 

 duous off the young leaves of the beech tree and those of man}' plants : it 

 seems also, in exotic pubigerous plants cultivated in Britain, variable, according 

 to the dryness or moistness of the season, in the quantity developed. 



The University Botanic Garden, Gottingen. — From our friend M. C. A. 

 Fischer, the inspector of this garden, we, on March 9., received a packet of 

 seeds; two copies of the Index Scminum Horti Academici Gottingensis, 1S33; 



