General Notices. 187 



manure man. There is nothing like it, Sir ; and I have tried it quite long enough 

 to pronounce that our farmers are wofully blind to their own interest, not to 

 follow the example set them by their Flemish neighbours in this particular. 

 We are reckoned good farmers ; but, so long as we continue to waste the best 

 part of our yard muck, I cannot exactly agree that we are so good as we 

 might be, and as, perhaps, we fancy ourselves to be. — S. T. Stoke Ferry, 

 Norfolk, March 4. 1839. 



Pots for Orchidaceous Plants are made use of, which have holes all over 

 their sides, from the bottom to the rim, as well as the usual larger hole in the 

 bottom. For some species, the whole of these holes, none of which are less 

 than half an inch in diameter, are left open for the admission of air, and the 

 emission of water and roots; for other species, some of the holes are filled 

 up with loam. These pots were first used, I believe, by Mr. Bateman, at 

 Knypersley, but are now in use among various growers of the Orchidacese. — 

 J. D. Dec. 1838. 



Torreyz, taxifolia. — In the fifth part of Dr. Hooker's Icones Plantarum 

 [see Vol. XIII. p. 507.] are two figures, representing the male and female 

 varieties of a fine taxoid tree, of medium size, named Torrey« /axifolia, by 

 Dr. Arnott, in compliment to a distinguished naturalist, Dr. Torrey, one of 

 the authors of the Flora of North America. [See p. 39.] This is a native of 

 Middle Florida, and is the Taxus montana of Nuttall, in Joarn. Ac. Sc. Phil., 

 vol. vii., but not the Taxus montana of Willdenow, which you give as a syno- 

 nyme to Podocarpus foixifdlius Kiinth, in the Arb. Brit., p. 2100. There is an 

 interesting paper on this tree, by Dr. Arnott, in the first volume of Taylor's 

 Annals of Natural History, p. 130. 



Prepusa conndta Hook. — This most interesting plant, in a gardening point 

 of view, is a gentianeous herbaceous plant, from 1 ft. to 18 in. high, with 

 beautiful large yellowish flowers. It was found by Mr. Gardener " growing 

 gregariously on the nearly bare face of a dry rock in the Organ Mountains, 

 Brazil, at an elevation of 5000 ft." The name of this plant is Prepusa Mart. 

 connatp- Hook. " Few plants among Mr. Gardener's Brazilian discoveries 

 have given me (Dr. Hooker) more pleasure than this." Seeds of this inter- 

 esting plant were received and sown in the Glasgow Botanic Garden, but they 

 had not vegetated when Sir W. J. Hooker called here last February. — D. 

 Beaton. Kingbury Gardens, March, 1839. 



The Cow Tree, or Palo de Vaca. — Sir W. J. Hooker lately received two 

 bottles of the milk, or juice, of Humboldt's cow tree, or Palo de Vaca, from 

 his friend Sir R. P. Ker, Her Majesty's consul at Caraccas, together with 

 specimens of the branches and leaves, without flowers. He intends to make 

 a figure from these, which will soon be published, probably in the Botanical 

 Magazine. He intends, and I think very properly, to discard Humboldt's 

 fanciful name Galactodendron utile, and retain it in the genus Brosimum, till 

 he can procure flowering specimens, from which he will determine what it is. 

 Several plants are cultivated under the name of cow tree in this country. We 

 possess two of those brought over, some years since, by Dr. Fanning I 

 believe, and sold to Colville. I showed these to Dr. Hooker, and he at once 

 pronounced them to be identical with the one of which he received the speci- 

 mens as above. — Id. 



Vicea Pinsapo Boissier. — There is a passage in Mr. Lawson's paper on the 

 Picea Pinsapo (p. 109.), by which I am reminded of a memorandum I made 

 some years since, which bears so closely on the subject of this yet doubtful 

 species, that I shall briefly advert to it here. The passage I allude to says 

 that M. Boissier, " after looking in vain both on the trees and on the ground 

 for its cones, was informed by a peasant that these only began to grow in the end 

 of spring, and that they ripened and fell to pieces in the beginning of winter." 

 From the words I have placed in italics, it appears that a simple Spanish peasant, 

 who probably " knows neither a letter nor a figure," is aware of a circumstance 

 connected with the fanciful genus Picea, which has escaped the notice of all 

 the learned authors who have treated on this highly intsresting family; at least 



o 2 



