THE GEOLOGIST. 
NOVEMBER 1862. 
THE "DEAGON-TREE" OF THE KENTISH EAG. 
Me. Bensted, in liis ' Notes on the Geology of Maidstone ' (p. 336) 
has referred to certain vegetable remains from the Kentish rag-beds 
of his quarry, under the title of Draccena Benstedii ; and under this 
name the specimen stands recorded in Professor Morris's Catalogue. 
The entry there is " Draccena (Linn.) Benstedii^ Konig, Mus. Brit., 
L. G. S., Maidstone," but the name of the class is not given, whether by 
omission or from some special reason we are not aware. The recent 
DraccdncB are referred by botanists to the Liliacese, and the best- 
known species is that which supplies the fine pigment used by house- 
grainers, and commonly known as " Dragon's blood." 
The Dragon-trees form a most extraordinary and celebrated genus 
of monocotyledonous vegetables. They belong to the Asparagus 
family; and with the appearance and interior organization of the 
Palms, they are said to approach them still nearer in their fructifi- 
cation. 
All the kinds are said to delight in arid soils, and to flourish on 
the shoi-es by the sea, ranging from that level to eight hundred or a 
thousand yards on the mountains. 
Twenty to twenty-five species are recorded as natural to inter- 
tropical regions — India, China, the islands of the Pacific, Cape of 
Good Hope, and the coast and islands of South Africa. One only 
exists in the northern part of the American continent, in the far 
north of Canada, or on the borders of the icy regions of Hudson 
Bay. 
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