470 



Account of the Boring Operiitions 



[ApRif 



I have from Mrs. Walker, dated 1st and 2d May 1837, she mentions A 

 tour she had made through different parts of the island, and adds, 

 " we found the Ceylon gamboge-tree several times in forests distant 

 from the habitation of man, which proves the tree to be indigenous." 

 She afterwards adds, however, " The tree does not abound much.'* 

 In my account of this tree, in the Companion to the Botanical Maga- 

 zine, I could only describe the male flowei* and the fruit, and I stated 

 that Mrs. Walker's account seemed to shew that the plant was monoe- 

 cious. I had no specimen of female blossom. I have now the satis- 

 faction of adding, that Mrs. Walker, in her last letter, assures me she 

 has ascertained the tree to be dioecious, that the infloresence of the fe- 

 male tree is similar to that of the n-.ale, the flower white and a little 

 larger, and she has most kindly sent me a sketch of this, which pre- 

 sents a germen precisely in miniature of the fruit, and surrounded 

 (like it) with several (ten ?) abortive stamens, which seem united at 

 the base.— /6«c?.-;j/>. 229—230. 



4. — Ah account of the Boring Operations carrying on in Fort William 



at Calcutta, 



[The results of these operations being in every way so remarkable, we 

 have extracted from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the 

 following scattered notices of its progress. — Ed. Madras Jour,] 



Note on the Progress of the Boring in Fort William.'-' 

 By Captain Taylor, m. a* s. 



July 6, 1836.— In laying before the Society the accompanying 

 s&ction* and specimens of the strata found in the recent operations 

 carried on in Fort William for the discovery of a spring of pure water, 

 it may be expected that I should give some account of the progress 

 and state of the experiments ; I therefore beg to offer the following 

 observations. 



A detail of the early part of these operations, which commenced in 

 October last, would comprise little besides a narrative of difficulties 

 barren of facts scientifically interesting. It will be sufficient briefly 

 to state, that in the first attempt a depth of 136 feet only was attained 

 by boring ; when the same quicksand which in every case seems to 



* We postpone this until the operations, hitherto so successful, may have beea 

 brought to a close,— Editoe Bengal JouttUiI, 



