542 - _ General Notes. [June, 
plants, which shoot from under-ground root-stocks, bulbs, tubers 
and rhizomes. Among these are the assafcetida plant (Ferula 
scorodosma), and other Ferulas, one of which yields galbanum, 
and another is taller than a man on horseback. Forests of pis- 
tachio are met with among sand-stone rocks. Manna is collected 
from a Cotoneaster tamarisk, and a thorny pea-shrub called 
taranjabin., 
The earliest spring flowers are three Merenderas, followed by 
a many-colored tulip and several Eremuri (liliaceous). The golden 
flowers of a Delphinium are collected for dyeing silk yellow. 
More ordinary plants are two low Artemisias, two species of Ephe- 
dra, and numerous Astragali. An Asclepias, which sends up an: 
nual stems from an under-ground root-stock, yields a good fiber, 
which is made into cloth. 
Asiatic Notes—The Calcutta Englishman states that Mr. Need- 
ham and Captain Molesworth followed the course of the Brahma- 
putra from Sadiya to Rima, and are able to state authoritatively 
that the Zayal Chu falls into it. The expedition dispatched to 
the Fly river by the Geographical Society of Australasia, im 
November last, has returned. Reports of the massacre of the 
pa were circulated by two natives, who became panic- 
stricken at a time when the steamer was surrounded by hostile 
natives, who threw spears and shot arrows from the banks.—— 
Petroleum appears to abound in Asia. It occurs in Burmah, also 
near Quetta (Hindustan), and the whole country, from the north- 
Schlagintweit’s observations, and insists on Gaurisankar, “ the 
' bright or white bride of Siva,” as the native name for the peak, 
a while Devadunga, “the abode of Deity,” is that of the ie 
_ General J. T. Walker denies that Mount Everest on identical wit 
. Arrica—Mr. Kerr's Journey to Lake Nyassa-—W. Montagu 
cs Kerr gives in the February issue of the Proc. Royal Geographics 
_ society an account of a journey from pe Town to ita 
Nyassa. The traveler passed through Gubuluwayo, the cap i 
a i : he was cordial y 
