158 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
If the reader should wish to see the plant alluded 
to above, it is in the garden of Mr. Anderson, of 
Bull's Cross, near Cheshunt, growing Avithin a few 
feet of the road. When I inspected his Moss Eoses 
last winter, some of the shoots of the previous 
year's growth were above six feet long, and ex- 
tremely robust, and the main stems had swelled 
to a considerable size. The mossy calyces were 
still hanging on the tree, showing there had been 
an abundance of flowers. There were several other 
plants of the Moss Kose formed as pillars, two or 
three of which were nearly equal in height to the 
one above mentioned. 
Now, to what circumstances is this uncommon case 
due 1 for uncommon I admit it to be. Is it owing to 
situation, soil, the age of the trees, or the fostering 
care of the cultivator 1 Partly, I should say, to all. 
The garden lies open to the sun ; the situation is 
airy ; the soil is a brownish loam, not exactly light, 
but friable, and containing a good share of vege- 
table matter ; a soil in which Wall-flowers and 
Fuchsias vie with Roses in vigour. The ages of the 
largest Rose-trees are probably from twelve to 
twenty years. 
Vegetation in Kamtsohatka. The soil in the 
Bay of Awatscha consists everywhere of the richest 
vegetable mould ; but, in spite of this advantage, 
agriculture is still in its infancy. The inhabitants 
live almost entirely on wild berries and fish, espe- 
cially herrings and salmon. It is only around their 
houses that little patches, cultivated with potatoes, 
cabbage, radish, lettuce, and turnips are met with. 
The cabbage and turnips are excellent, but the 
potatoes are very watery, probably the soil is too 
rich. 
All the plants collected in Awatscha Bay amount 
to one hundred and thirty ; but I do not think 
there are many, if any, new species amongst them. 
There is, however, a considerable number different 
from those enumerated in the Botany of Beechy's 
Voyage, which certainly, considering they were 
gathered in such a hurry, leads to the conclusion 
that there still exist many unknown to us. But if 
the coast affords such riches, what must not the 
interior of the peninsula produce 1 
There is a striking difference between the vege- 
tation of Awatscha Bay, and that of Kotzebue 
Sound. Trees no longer adorn the soil ; all lig- 
neous species are low and dwarfy. The Betula 
incana of Kamtschatka, there a noble tree, is here 
transformed into a low bush. The Salices have 
sought shelter on the slope of hills having a 
southern asj^ect, where also the greater part of the 
herbaceous vegetation abounds. There is nothing 
interesting in such a landscape, nothing to arrest 
the eye, nothing to interrupt the monotony of the 
scene ; a grey peaty surface covers hill and dale. 
Betula nana, Sedum palustre, Ardostapliylos 
alpina, Andromeda polifolia, and Vaccinium uli- 
ginosum, hardly raise their heads above the sur- 
rounding lichens and mosses. The numerous little 
lakes and pools, peopled by flocks of wild geese, 
have their margins lined with beds of Carex and 
Eriophorum, while the sea-shore abounds in several 
Algse, and heaps of drift wood. This drift wood, 
consisting of fir and beech, is probably carried 
down Buckland river, and must have grown far 
inland. Some of the largest stems of fir I mea- 
sured, and found them forty feet long, and two feet 
in diameter. 
The lagoons^ and mangrove swamps that sur- 
round the port of Mazatlare, the abominable smell 
they diffuse, and the unheal tliiness they spread over 
the adjacent country, rendered the first five leagues 
of our journey very unpleasant, but when we 
reached more solid ground, all was well. The 
Tecomate of the Mexicans {Grescentia alata, H. B. 
et K), Avas here very plentiful. It is a tree about 
thirty feet high, whose fruit, resembling very much 
an unripe orange, contains a pulp of a sourish 
bitter taste, which is boiled with sugar, and taken 
against complaints of the chest. All Crescentise, I 
am of opinion, are naturally littoral plants ; for, 
although they are not so closely confined to the 
sea-coast as the Avicennias, and Rhizophoras, yet 
they are, like many other maritime plants, the 
Hibiscus arhoreus, Cocos nucifera, and Piiliecolo- 
bium macrostachymn, for instance, capable of 
growing, under cultivation, far inland, but do not 
spontaneously extend their range beyond the limits 
of the sea-breeze. — Hooh. Jour, of Bot., p. 145. 
