FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
113 
the perfect junction of the two surfaces, without pressing or disturbing the 
growing bud. 
The operation being completed, the plant is to be covered closely with a bell- 
glass, to exclude the air completely. The soil is to be kept freely moist, but not 
wet, and the sun is to be warded off by a paper shade. All depends upon the due 
regulation of heat, shade, and protection from the dryiny influence of air. This 
one bud in a state of luxuriance, seated upon a young and active stock, at a point 
where it can receive all the ascending sap, and commanding the entire energies of 
the roots, must possess every advantage ; and we were assured, while inspecting a 
set of plants so raised, that rarely one instance of failure occurred among forty or 
fifty operations. Another great object is gained ; for not only is the success prompt 
and speedy, but from the position of the bud, a fine green plant is formed at once 
from the very surface, and if the knife be from time to time properly used, the 
juncture of the parts becomes so true as scarcely to be observed. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW AND RARE ^PLANTS, FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS FOR 
MAY. 
CLASS I.— PLANTS WITH TWO COTYLEDONS (DICOTYLEDONEiE). 
THE NETTLE TRIBE (Urticacece.) 
Galactodendron utile. The Cow Tree. Figures of the leaves, wood, and 
fruit, the natural size, accompanied by a coloured engraving of the tree on a 
reduced scale, are given in the Botanical Magazine, p. 3723-4. To these is 
appended a long and most interesting account, composed partly of an extract 
from a work by M. de Humboldt, and partly of an original communication from 
Sir Robert Kerr Porter, Consul-General at La Guayra, interspersed with some 
remarks by Sir W. J. Hooker. Of the excellent quality of the milky juice which 
exudes from the bark when punctured, and its admirable adaptation to the 
sustenance of animal life, conclusive evidence has been afforded. It is a native of 
various parts of Caraccas, and grows at an elevation of nearly 3000 feet. The leaves 
are large and handsome, and the bark of the older branches has a peculiar yellow 
colour. It is imagined by the natives of the district in which it is most abundant 
that the tree never flowers ; but Sir W. J. Hooker explains this notion by the 
probable fact of the flowers being exceedingly minute. The following extract from 
the letter of Sir R. Kerr Porter will furnish an idea of the character of this remark- 
able tree : — " The trunk of the Palo de Vaca, from which the drawing was made, 
measured somewhat more than twenty feet in circumference at about five feet from 
the root. This colossal stem ran up to a height of sixty feet, perfectly uninter- 
rupted by either leaf or branch ; when its vast arms and minor branches, most 
luxuriantly clothed with foliage, spread on every side, fully twenty-five or thirty 
vol. vi. — no. lxv. q 
