tropics tin- Melon Pear may prove useful. It probably requires similar 

 conditions to such sub-tropical plants as the Tree Tomato {Cyphomandra 

 betacea), the Chocho (Sechium edule), and the Cherimoyer {Anona 

 Cherimolia) described in the K>,r Bull, tin iV. r August 1887. 



Attar of Roses. — It is well known that the great centre of the pro- 

 eduction of Attar, or Otto, of roses O&rupies the northern portion of the 

 old Turkish province of Eastern Ronmelia. The cultivation of roses 

 for this purpose is, however, limited to the southern slopes of the Great 

 Balkans, as the flowers are nowhere produced successfully on the north. 

 The distillation of the petals is carried on in a very primitive manner 

 whh a copper still of m. The first runnings are 



returned to the still and the second are received into glass flasks, where 

 they are kept for a day or two at a cool temperature to allow the oil to 

 rise to the surface. From the latter it is skimmed by a small tin pipette 

 or funnel, with a long slender handle attached to the top and a very 

 small aperture at the lower pointed end. This funnel is not more 

 than f-ineh diameter at the widest part, so that it is easily inserted into 

 the flask, and plunged below between the oily layer and the water. It 

 is then at once brought up. and tion of the oily 



stratum Vv it li a small quantity of water. The water escapes through 

 the small hole at the bottom, while the oil or otto is emptied into the 

 collecting flasks. For exportation the commercial attar is transferred to 

 flat circular zinc receptacles known as " coppers," which are carefully 

 sewn up in white felt and sealed with the exporter's stamp, the brand 

 being also stencilled on the felt outside. Two of these "coppers," one 

 covered with the felt, and the other without, are contained in the 

 Museums of Economic Botany at Kew, and to these Messrs. Piesse and 

 Lubin have now courteously added a specimen of the pipette or funnel 

 for the purpose of making tin rolled inn more complete. As regards 

 the identification of the plants cultivated for Attar of Roses, it may 

 be useful to mention that in 1S74 the late Mr. Daniel Hanbury, 

 F.R.S., presented to the Kew Herbarium specimens of " Roses culti- 

 " vated on the slopes of th<- Balkan for the production of Attar of 

 " Roses," received from Mr. Vice-Consul Dupuis of Adrianople. These 

 contained specimens of two species, a red rose (7?. damascene!. Miller). 

 and a white rose (7?. alba, L. ). Neither of these is known in a wild state, 

 and there can be little doubt that both are hybrids between E. galtica and 

 B. canina. The subject is more fully discussed in Pharmacographia 

 (1879), p. 262. 



Gift of rare and valuable Books.— Mr. Thomas Hanbury, F.L.S., 

 of La Mortela. Italy, has presented to Kew a selection of about 30 

 volumes, in memory of his brother, the late Daniel Hanbury, F.R.S. 

 {part of whose library they formed ;,n accomplished lmtanist, who suc- 

 cessfully devoted himself to the investigation of the sources of vegetable 

 drugs. He pul 1 -la I, - ".n mi tion with l'i r'liiel iger, of Strass- 

 burg, u Pharmacographia," which will long remain the standard and 

 classical authority on the history of drugs. The portion of his library 

 now acquired h\ Kew i- of e-peeial interest as having been used by him 

 in the preparation of his book. Most of the books treat of economic or 

 medical botany, and several of them are of very early date. A fifteenth 

 ■century translation of an Arabian author (Serapion) on medicinal plants 



