28 
the land is adequately Eee from fire. This is not the case 
below 4,500 feet; for here the strongly-contrasted re and dry 
periods have 80 acted that ‘with the destruction of the forest there 
has gone on such a complete removal of the Ah: pU that 
uos reafforestation is no longer possible. 
aper closes with some account of the geb characters 
of ilis vegetation aud a list of the species which com : 
ssrs. I. H. Burkill and C. H. Wright in their pacer: “On 
some African Labiate with alternate Leaves " (Journ. Linn. Soc., 
xxxiv., pp. 268-276) call attention to several interesting specimens 
belonging to this order which have been received at the Royal 
Gardens from tropieal Africa. Except as an obvious abnormality, 
Labiatz with alternate leaves were unknown until two years ago, 
when a French botanist, Monsieur H. Hua, detected one in a 
To the 
Icomwm are now added three other species, all from British. 
Central Africa, and alternation of the leaves is shown also to occur 
. ina member of the genus Plectranthus from Angola. 
Metford' s Lemon.—The large fruits vx ee were: re us have 
attracted much attention in the Mexican House ew. The 
following article, which is ei: from ‘adn 8 
Chronicle for m T ru p. 267 (see also May 5, p. 288), gives 
an account of its 
In January, xm a apes Metford Badeock, Fons George, 
Taunton, forwarded to Kew a lemon fruit which had been grown 
in the garden of Mrs. Tucker at Leigh Court, Angers Leigh, 
Wellington, Somerset. Miss Badcock wrote :—"*The history of 
the big lemon is this : the original plant was grown from seed by 
my great aunt, Rss Metford, at Hook House, Taunton, in the 
very early years of this century, à and was kept there till 1868, 
when the Slee was sold at my Alert e s death, and the plant 
n to a friend, who let it die. The present and only plant 
as grown from a cutting of that tree hos by my grandfather, 
Dr. Metford, to Mrs. Tucker seal now owned by Miss Tucker, 
who sometimes ives us à leia n from p I wil ask her to 
forward a few cuttings from the Me to you. My people were so 
roud of this tree that I should be glad if you could name it 
* Metford's Lemon. Shortly en ig Tucker, when 
forwarding two cuttings from her tre : *It had so many 
fruits in the past two years that it Nur Au “thrown much young 
wood. For want of space it had to be pruned.’ ’ 
The Kew plant is about 10 feet high, s it bears only two 
fruits, which are each 8 inches long : and 6 inches wide. The 
at aves are equally "Mite for a lemon, | being 8 inches by 4 inches ; 
e flowers are white, tinged with rose. Botanically, the plant 
s ‘gushed a form of the true lemon, Citrus Medica var. 
limonum, but we have not been able to find any form erdt 
answering to it cen d les many described and 
botanical works. The nearest is one figured in Dr. ie 
illustrated work on the Citrus family in India, under the name 
xe * Kumaon" or *Gulgul" lemon, which he calls the 
uc “elephant T Risen! of the lemon group. That, however, differs 
