220 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



bariums ; and the third, the various species of 

 fruit. On the left of the entrance is another gal- 

 lery divided into two parts, of which that beyond 

 the partition is reserved as a cabinet for study. 



The saloon appropriated to specimens of 

 wood is furnished with glazed cabinets. The 

 three first, nearest the window on the right, 

 contain the specimens more particularly required 

 in a course of botany, consisting of different 

 samples of epidermis, bark, roots, stems, thorns, 

 sap-vessels, pith, grafts, ridges, wounds, ex- 

 crescences, and sections of trunks, exhibiting the 

 organisation of the wood. There are a root of 

 the poly podium barometz, or Scythian lamb(i); 

 some beautiful specimens of the bark of the lace- 

 wood, detached or adhering to the stock ; trunks 

 of the bauhinia anguina, Roxb. whose sinuous 

 form is met with in no other plant (2) ; trunks 

 of the sandbox-tree, hura crepitans, and of the 



(1) The root, or rather the base of the trunk, of this fern rises horizon- 

 tally above the soil, and as it is clothed with a thick coat of silky down, 

 it has the appearance of a lamb ; hence have arisen the numerous 

 fables concerning this tree, which is said to feed on the surrounding 

 plants. The specimens seen in the cabinet are from the north of 

 China. The plant has not yet appeared in our gardens. 



(2) The stocks are flat stems from 1 to 6 inches in breadth, and 

 from 3 lines to i inch in thickness, according to their age, curved into 

 a succession of arcs, so that each portion forms the letter S. The 

 tendrils spring from the convexity of the arcs, and the plant rises to 

 the top of the highest trees. It is the naga-mu-valli of Van Rheede, 

 Hort. Malabar, vol. vni. tab. 5o and 3i. 



