53 
of Cape Town. A plant with thick corpulent fleshy ramuli will, 
in culture, make a perfect fool of itself on starting growth after a 
year’s stay in Cape Town, and, instead of keeping to the old 
chubby pattern, slims off, which z distinctly unfair to = 
u horticultural father who has maintaine im. Som 
figures of E. Caput-Meduse in En lish works, and ii whats 
are vitiated thus; they make us Capensians lau 
hope you will e ep to rea wes Mem is > written erg an 
aged pen, which s to hav n years of s the 
Karoo, and ink dde burg of etd var of tmt lead and 
sour beer 
Now I must give over; the pen is restive. 
Faithfully, 
(Signed) Y. MACOWAN. 
Medallion of Sir wee Hooker.—An addition "né da large 
collection of portraits of eminent botanists and travellers has 
recently been made he kind consideration of sie President 
o of the Linnean Society of London, who e 
presented a framed cast in bronze of the original model of 
Sir Joseph Hooker, G.C.S.I., C.B., P.-P.R.S., executed by Mr. Frank 
Bowcher. It is an excellent portrait of Sir Joseph at the age 
of 80, and records the completion of the “ Flora of British India” 
and of a period of sixty years service to science. It has been 
placed in the Museum. 
A gold medal, specially Struck for the occasion for which the 
medallion was 'des signed, was presented to Sir Joseph Hooker 
at the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean Society on May 24, 
1898. 
“Congo Sticks.”—We are indebted to Messrs. Henry Howell 
and Co., of 180, Old Street, for a further contribution to the 
series of umbrella sticks and walking canes which have from 
time to time been presented by them to the Museums of the Royal 
Gardens. The specimens now received are the rough and finished 
sticks known in the trade as Congo sticks. The word “ Congo” 
is a purely commercial name, the sticks being saplings of the 
Chestnut Sentit me um which apparently offers advantages 
over other woods for manipulation while growing. The 
sticks are valued are produced by lacerating the bark through to 
the wood while growing. They were formerly obtained from the 
north of mde but are no w almot exclusively produced in 
Austria-Hungary, the m eia district being near Carlstadt, in 
roatia, 
Karité Tree.—Messrs. uem Irvine and Co. wrote from 
Liverpool, 25th August, 1897 
“Some months ago I iot to you about a bean which Felix 
Dubois referred to in his book on *Timbuctoo, and you then 
stated your conviction that it was the Shea Butter NU ded 
permum Parkii, Kotschy). 
