Companion to Botanical Magazine, 87 



cal Arrangement of fossiliferous Deposits, by a reference to their 

 organic contents, p. 122. 



II- Botany. 



Letter from Golding Bird, Esq. in Reply to some observations 

 published in the " Edinburgh Journal of Natural History" upon the 

 cause of Vegetable Divergence, p. 180. 



The SHORT COMMUNICATIONS relate to — (1.) Preservation of Zoo- 

 logical Specimens. (2.) Variation in the Plumage of Birds. (3.) The 

 Cross-bill. (4.) The Robin. (5.) Sphinx atropos. (6.) Helix virgata. 



Companion to Botanical Magazine. By Sir W. J. Hooker, Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. (Continued from 

 page 578 of Vol. i.) 



The number for February last contains an interesting paper by 

 Dr Graham, Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, on 

 " the Gamboge tree of Ceylon." Specimens of the tree have been 

 forwarded to Dr Graham and other scientific persons in Scotland, 

 together with the pure gamboge, by their invaluable correspondent, 

 Mrs Colonel Walker. The result has been, that the tree of Ceylon 

 producing the gamboge is different in species and genus from any of 

 those which were supposed to produce the drug. The gamboge yield- 

 ed by it is equal in quality to that imported from Siam, but regard- 

 ing this there seems to exist no authentic record from what plant it 

 is produced. Dr Graham has formed a new genus from the Ceylon 

 plant, Hebradendron. He refers it to the class and order Moncecia 

 (or Dioecia) Monadelphia, and places in it two species ; 1. H. cam- 

 hogioides, having for synonyms Garcinea morella, Slalagmitis cam- 

 bogioides, Morris, Cat. — 2. H. ellipticum, Garcinia elliptica,W-dllich. 

 The paper will be found worthy of perusal. 



Notes upon some genera and species of Orchidias in the collection 

 formed by M. Drege at the Cape of Good Hope, by J. Lindlej?^, 



Ph. D. F. R. S. &c A brief Biographical Sketch of the late 



Richard Cunningham, Colonial Botanist in New South Wales. This 

 botanist, whose untimely end we had to record in an early number 

 of this Magazine, succeeded as Colonial Botanist to the late Mr 

 Frazer in 1832, on the recommendation of Mr Brown. His career 

 has been a short one, and we can now only hope that the discoveries 

 he had so successfully commenced will be wrought out by his 

 brother, who has been appointed to the vacant office. The next 

 paper will be now read with interest — Flora Insularum Novae Ze- 

 landise precursor, or a specimen of the botany of the islands of New 



