446 Scientific Intelligence. 
writer ser nenined the genus Ampelopsis, viz.: “disk none.” The sub- 
stance of the whole is, that Mr. Des Moulins admits that no disk is to 
then stating, in effect, that the disk in Ampelidee is nothing more than 
a development of the common receptacle of the flower (to which we have 
no present occasion to object), he insists that this disk equally exists 
“plus ou moins fort,” i re de ti where it is not sata at all. 
veloped it in bh em Such are the facts. If now it be yea that 
pasate disk, Bentham and Hooker fil., we observe, is ysis made 
—a view which we can no more confirm by observation than we can 
that of Des Moulins; hi it has the immense advantage of baiag —_ 
in fewer words than the latter requires of pages. 
7. Vegetable Productions of the Feejee Islands —A “ Blue Book,” 
entitled “ Correspondence relative to the Fiji Islands,” May, 1862, gives 
a full and official account of the arrangement between ~~ British Consul 
Mr. Pritchard, and Ebenezer Thakombau, claiming to be king of t 
Fiji Islands, for the cession of the latter to the British crown, and of the 
appointment of Col. Smythe as a commission to visit these islands and 
to report whether the acquisition would be desirable—whereupon 
commissioner visited the islands, accompanied by Dr. B. Seemann p, who 
was instructed to explore and report upon their vegetable produc uctions 
and secaltais Col. Smythe very sensibly reported that Thakombua, 
although perhaps the most res of the independent chiefs, had no 
elai 
his offer. ioe ea most ae ug is the a ppendix, containing Dr. See- 
manu’s elaborate Report on the Vegetable p roductions and Resources 
the Vitian or Fijian Islands. This treats, 1, of the climate, soil, and = 
in general of these islands, and, 2, of the Colonial Produce, so-called, re 
as sugar, coffee, tamarinds and tobacco, which they may be expected to 
yield, as — certain oils and fats, farinas, and spices. 3. The st oe 
of the le. This “is the same all over Polynesia, — derived, tao the 
upon as a delicacy, from which the pt were aly pred cu 
ae some of the sy Her coral a the inhabitants live almost entirely 
upon cocoa-nuts. The Samoans place the bread-fruit at the head 4 
ig Again, the Fijians ake more of a yam than of the others, pom 
oer rislands in the greatest perfectio on, and in an st 
of cisions” Of edible fruits there is a long list, the bread 
