128 



EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



case it will be found rather speculative to tiace out the sources of these characters of 

 our climate, and which it is requisite to do, because these sources will be found in the 

 other physical conditions of the country, and themselves influential on the geography 

 of animals, provinp;, as before said, that these secondary causes do not act independ- 

 ently of each other. — (To he continued.) 



The Sparrowhawk. — Every person who attends to the habits of birds, must have 

 seen this Hawk pursued by a troop of Swallows or other small birds, which hover over 

 and behind it, for what purpose is not well known. One fine evening last month, 

 just after sunset, we observed one flying at a moderate rate over the fields, with a 

 Pied Wagtail close upon it, and loudly utterring cries of alarm. It is probable that 

 the Hawk had carried off \ii companion, although we did not perceive any thing in its 

 talons. It is commonly said, that small birds venture to pursue these marauders only 

 in bands, which, by flitting about, distract their attention, and thus prevent them from 

 singling out an individual ; and we do not remember to have ever before seen a single 

 bird have the audacity to follow its dreaded enemy. 



BOTANY. 



THE CINNAMON TREE LAURUS CINNAMOMUM, 



The natural family LanrinecB contains many highly interesting plants, which are strik- 

 ingly similar in their properties, and perhaps none is more important than the present 

 species, which grows in great abundance in the island of Ceylon. It has also been intro- 

 duced into several parts of South America, and many of the West India islands. The 

 tree grows to the height of 20 or 30 feet, and the diameter varies from 12 to 18 inches. 

 The bark of the trunic is ash-coloured and scabrous, while the inner bark, which is of 

 a reddish colour, is the cinnamon of commerce. The bark of the young shoots is 

 smooth, and often beautifully variegated. The leaves are opposite, elliptical, pointed 

 at both ends, entire, three-nerved, and of a bright green colour. The flowers are ar- 

 ranged in the form of a paniculated umbel, and are of a greenish white colour ; corolla 

 of six acute, oval, and spreading petals, of which the three outer are broader than the 

 others; stamens nine in number, thus referring it to the Linnean class Enneandr'ia^ 

 while the single pistil indicates the order Monogynia ; filaments .flattened, and arranged 

 in three sets, shorter than the corolla, and at the base of each inner petal two small round 

 glands are situated ; the germen is oblong ; stigma angular and depressed. The fruit 

 is of a deep blue colour, being a pulpy pericarp containing an oblong nut, and the 

 whole somewhat resembles a small olive. The cinnamon of commerce is the inner 

 bark ; camphor may be obtained from the root ; a highly flavored oil is distilled from 

 the leaves ; the cassia buds of the shops are supposed to be the receptacle of the seed ; 

 and in Ceylon, candles are made from the kernel. The cinnamon generally arrives at per- 

 fection when the tree has pttained the age of about six years, and only the small shoots 

 are stripped of their bark, which, being made into bundles, is sent to Europe. Inde- 

 pendently of its well known use as a condiment, it is also employed in medicine. The 

 fragrant smell, the pungent and glowing taste, as well as all its properties, depend on 

 an essential oil, of a whitish yellow colour, which is obtained by distillation from the 

 bark. Cinnamon, being a most grateful aromatic, is stimulating, stomachic, and tonic, 

 but is seldom used alone, being commonly exhibited along with other remedies which 

 are more powerful. The oil has a very pungent taste, and is a powerful stimulant, 

 being sometimes employed in cramp of the stomach, paralysis of the tongue, and in 

 toothache. But its principal use is to cover the taste of other disagreeable drugs. 

 A watery infusion of the bark is often advantageously given to check vomiting, and 

 relieve nausea. Cinnamon, however, is more prized by the cook than by the phy- 

 sician. 



Victoria Regina. — Mr R. H. Schomburgh has recently communicated to the 

 Botanical and Geographical Societies of London, an account of a remarkable species of 

 plant belonging to the natural family of NympheeaceEe, which he discovered on the 1st 

 January 1837, on the river Berbice, in British Guiana. The leaves are from five to six 

 feet in diameter, orbicular, flat, with a raised margin from three to five inches high ; 

 their upper surface bright green, the lower crimson, with eight principal nerves, nearly 

 an inch high, and numerous subordinate branches, and beset with prickles. The 



young leaf is convolute, and expands but slowly, rising at first above the surface, but 

 when expanded falling upon it. The stem of the flower is an inch thick near the 

 calyx, and, like the leaf-stalk, is covered with prickles. The calyx has four sepals, each 

 upwards of seven inches in length, and three in breadth, reddish-brown, and prickly ex- 

 ternally, white on the inner side. The petals are very numerous, those next to the sepals 

 larger, fleshy, and of a white colour, their general form oblong ; the inner petals gra- 

 dually smaller, bright red, and passing into the stamens. The flowers measure from 

 twelve inches to nearly two feet in diameter, and finally assume a pink colour all over. 

 The fruit is globular, prickly, many-celled, with numerous seeds. It appears, however, 

 from a note by Dr Weissenborn, in Loudon's Magazine, that it is the Euryale Ama- 

 zonica of Dr Poppig ; and even if it were new, its name, if it is necessarily to confer 

 honour on our Queen, or to be honoured by her, ought to be Victoriana at least, 

 agreeably to all precedent. A coloured figure will be seen in the Number for De- 

 cember 1837 of the Magazine of Zoology and Botany. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Remarkable Caverns in Brazil. — Dr Lund, a Danish traveller, now in 

 Brazil, has discovered in the mountain chains between the Rio Francisco and the Rio 

 das Valhas, a great number of caverns, among which, Sappa nova de Marquine, in 

 the Sierra rie Marquine, is one of the most remarkable. The mountain consists of 

 clay-slate, flinty-slate, and transition-limestone, in which last is the cavern described. 

 Its total length, from north to south, is 1440 feet, the height being from 30 to 40 feet, 

 and the breadth from 50 to 60. It is separated by masses of stalactite into twelve 

 divisions, of which only three were known before Dr Lund explored them. The others, 

 especially the innermost, were of such extraordinary beauty, that his attendants fell 

 on their knees, and expressed the greatest astonishment. On the river Valhas, the 

 banks of which the traveller afterwards traversed, the vegetation assumes a peculiar 

 character. The inhabitants call the forests catuigas, or v^hlte forests. They form a 

 thicket of thorny trees and bushes, interwoven with parasitical plants of the same 

 nature. The leaves fall in August, and, from the beginning of September till the 

 rainy season, the catuigas are as bare as European forests in winter. On this excur- 

 sion Dr Lund had an opportunhy of examining nmeteen caverns, all of which con- 

 firmed his opinion of their geological formation. He has collected many remarkable 

 particulars respecting the circumstances which must have taken place in a great inun- 

 dation, as well as respecting its effects, and convinced himself, by several indications, 

 that its course in South America was from north to south. In three of the nineteen 

 caverns which he explored, he found petrifactions of quadrupeds, which he had not 

 discovered in the l/arquine cavern, viz. Cervits rvfus^ Ccdogenys paca, Cavia aperia, 

 six Bats, four Mice, Lepns Braziliensis, and an Owl. In the first mentioned cavern 

 he found two species of ruminating animals, far larger than those now living in 

 Brazil, and a Megatherium, of the size of an Elephant. — Literary Gazette. 



Earthquake in Croatia. — The following is an extract from a letter, dated 

 Agram, October 15. — '^ We have lately witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon. 

 Since the 1st of October, loud rumblings have been heard, proceeding as if from under 

 our feet ; the affrighted cattle were hurrying in all directions, the wild animals entered 

 even into the very streets of the city, and the birds of prey settled on our roofs, and 

 allowed themselves to be taken without resistance. The would-be-wise and fortune- 

 tellers, of whom we have an overabundance, predicted the end of the world, or, at the 

 very least, some great revolution of nature. On the 6lh of October, about three 

 o'clock, a loud noise similar to a discharge of artillery was heard, and the earth 

 trembled. The alarm was now general, and people quitted their houses, and fled to 

 the open country. The bells rung of their own accord, and many houses were over- 

 turned. These reports continued at intervals of half an hour, or an hour, till the 

 evening ; during the night they occurred at longer intervals, and the trembling of the 

 earth was less powerful. On the morning of the 7th, two reports were heard, and 

 the motion of the earth then ceased altogether. The air became cooler, and a north 

 wind began to blow. The barometer was at 28'^ 4' 10", and the thermometer at 7^ 

 above zero. Fortunately no lives were lost by the falling of the houses, but three 

 women and two children have died from fright, and more than sixty persons are suf- 

 fering seriously from fear and exposure to the weather. Letters from difi'erent parts 

 of the country announce that the noise was heard and the shocks felt throughout the 

 extent of Croatia, and that much damage has been done and many lives lost." — 

 AthentEum. 



Corrosive Quality of Earthy Substances. — M. C. Moritz, a German, who 

 is now travelling in the north of South America, and whose letters are successively 

 publishing in the Berlinische Nachrichten, passed near Guigue, over tracts from which 

 the lake has retired, — the former extent of it being indicated by strata of little petrified 

 fresh-wa^er shells of the same species, which are still living in the lake. The dust 

 which arises from the pulverization of these shell-beds has a corrosive quality, and, 

 when brought into contact with the human skin, causes a very disagreeable burn- 

 ino- sensation, from which M. Moritz had much to suffer, and which he ascribes to 

 the remains of the helicites. The inhabitants of the district use to say, El arena dt 

 la laguna pica. It appears, however, that this quality of the dust is to be accounted 

 for by the admixture of saline particles, as M. Michel ChevaHer was annoyed in the 

 same manner in 1835, when travelling in Mexico over those beds of ancient lakes, 

 which, by the laceration of their high banks through earthquakes, have been changed 

 into dry savannahs. These lakes appear to have been salt, as there are many exten- 

 sive deposits of rock-salt, and as the ground is in many places so impregnated with 

 muriate of soda, that it is altogether unfit for cultivation. — W, Wdsenhom, in Lou- 

 dons Magazine. 



Edinei]r.gh: Published for the Proprietob., at the Office, No. 13, Hill Street. 

 London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Glasgow and the West of 

 Scotland: John Smith and Son; and John Macleod. Dublin: George 

 Young. Paris : J. B. Balliere, Ruede I'Ecole de Medecine, No. 13 bis. 



THE EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY. 



