66 
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 
[upper 
to the roots or stems of species of vines. The buds, of which there 
are three dried specimens on the shelf, are like small cabbages ; they 
take three months to expand. There are several other species of this 
genus with smaller flowers. On the second shelf will be seen some 
branches of a spiny Astragalus from Persia, attacked by a species of 
Pilostyles, another genus of Rafflesiace^, consisting also only of 
small fleshy flowers rising from the stem of the supporting plant. 
Another species (P. (sthiopica), from tropical Africa, is preserved in 
spirit. A very large number of Fungi are parasites on other plants, 
on animals, and even on man. Examples of some of these will be 
found in their systematic position in Table Case A. 
Case 20 is ; occupied in the upper part with the leafless, spine- 
covered, fleshy stems of the Cactace^, natives of tropical America. 
In the centre is a specimen of Cactus senilis. A fine flowering 
head of this stem is placed under a glass cover over the oppo- 
site Table Case. The under part of the Case presents some 
remarkable illustrations of the eff'ect produced by incisions through 
the bark and into the wood of living trees, in portions of trunks of 
the tree furnishing the Winter's Bark (Wintera aromatica), from the 
Straits of Magellan, which exhibit inscriptions made during the voyages 
of Bougainville (1T67) and Cordoba (1786), and having been cut down 
by Captain P. P. King, R.N., in the year 1832, the number of con- 
centric layers was found exactly to coincide with the number of 
intervening years. 
An interesting set of specimens occupy the Table Case (28) oppo- 
site, showing the attempts made to repair injuries done to the stems 
of trees. In the two adjoining Table Cases (29, 30), small specimens 
are exhibited, showing remarkable forms of pith, bark, wood, and 
other structures in the stems. 
On the back of Case 21 are placed several of the Lianas of tropical 
forests. They belong to different natural orders. Hanging perpen- 
dicularly or obliquely from the trees, they make the forest almost im- 
passable to man, but are specially adapted to the arboreal habits of the 
monkeys, tiger-cats, and other inhabitants of the forests. Their 
weight, increasing as they grow, becomes at length too great for the 
supporting trees, and these yielding, give to the lianas the most extra- 
ordinary contortions. On the shelves at the base of the case are 
placed a large menispermous root, which supplies tapioca, the creeping 
rhizome of the yellow Water-lily, and seeds of Nelumbium speciosiim 
which germinated in 1850, after they had been 150 years in the 
collection of Sir Hans Sloane. Also specimens of the Rose of 
Jericho {Anastatica), a small annual growing in arid places in 
Palestine and nei^riibouring countries. When it has seeded, the 
branches curl inwards, forming a ball, which when loosened from the 
boil, is driven about by the wind. It is remarkably hygrometric, the 
whole plant expanding when placed in water, no matter how dry it has 
become. 
Case 22 contains further examples of noteworthy Dicotyledonous 
