432 



Miscellanea. 



[Oct. 



With reference to Dr. Wight's paper at page 300 he writes subsequent- 

 ly, — " A day or two ago I got some interesting notes from Col. Walker 

 on the gamboge plant, and I am by and by to get specimens. I hope 

 ere long to have a sufficiently perfect set to enable me to review the 

 Indian portion of the order." 



Mr. Griffith writes us from Suddiya on the Burrampooter :■— " In No- 

 vember I either start for Ava, and shall in that case be the first Euro- 

 pean who has performed the whole journey, or I shall go into Bootan to 

 the grand Llama, or accompany our Commissioner in a tour through 

 Cooch Puhar. Of the three I should prefer the Bootan expedition, as 

 it. will take me to an elevation of 8 or 10,000 feet. The trip from No- 

 vember to May, in whichever direction it is taken, will supply me 

 with abundant additional materials. I am determined at any rate to 

 visit the Himalayas. There is no knowing how many new mosses, 

 &c. I would get in six months. I obtained a hundred new ones in 

 six weeks on the Khasiya Hills." 



The progress of this enterprizing Botanist through these unexplored 

 regions, is watched with great interest by those attached to the science, 

 and most interesting will be the result to Botany. 



Dr. Benza will, we hope, soon be able to inform us of the hitherto 

 unknown geognostic position and relations of the Corundum in south- 

 ern India, the knowledge of which is a desideratum in geological 

 science. Dr. Benza writes us from Mottipollium, 28th September 

 1836,— "I am going to examine the Corundum locality, and after 

 having visited Permutty (in Mysore) where that mineral is found, we 

 intend to descend the Cauvery, in boats, to Trichinopoly." 



A correspondent, Member of the Madras Literary Sosiety, has sent 

 us a letter from Mr. Hodgson, British Resident at the Court of Nepal, 

 who is engaged on a work on the Natural History of that country, the 

 objects and nature of which we cannot better describe than in the 

 graphic language of the writer himself. 



"I have been a collector and observer since 1822, bent upon accu- 

 mulating continuously, so as to procure materials for something like an 

 adequate portraiture, both of the standard aspect, and of the manners 

 and structure, of species. Neither the one nor the other can be hit 

 by the flying observer, how skilful soever he may be— and we have had 

 heretofore only flying observers. To enable me to make the best use 

 of my materials, I propose to procure the aid of some able men at home, 

 and to describe in co-operation with them, where needful. My draw- 

 ings are nearly complete; and my notes advancing fast to completion. 

 The former consist of about 100 mammals and their similars, and of 



