97 
sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other, so that 
the pith soon becomes eccentric. The pith is generally in 
the form of a small Maltese cross, formed of two unequal 
arms, the longest of which lies in the direction of the largest 
diameter of the stem. 
There are many other forms of Bauhinia, many of which 
will be found figured in the standard works of Bindley, 
Schleiden, Richard, Duchartre, &c. 
Aristolochiacece. 
It is very likely that this natural order has representa- 
tives amongst these ropes; at least to it I refer for the 
present two species remarkable for their very striking 
medullary rays. 
In both species these rays proceed from the pith to the 
bark, increasing in breadth and volume as they recede from 
the pith, so that by the time they reach the bark they 
become of considerable thickness. 
In one species, whose wood has a reddish tinge, there 
are about nineteen or twenty of these magnificent rays in a 
stem exceeding half an inch in diameter ; the intermediate 
spaces are filled up with woody fibres in which occur large 
vessels. In this species secondary medullary rays rarely 
make their appearance. But in the other species, which 
has a beautiful cream-coloured wood of the shade of our 
common holly, secondary and tertiary medullary rays make 
their appearance, so that in a stem three quarters of an 
inch in diameter there will be as many as thirty primary 
rays, and as many more secondary rays. In this, the 
commoner species of the two, the cortical system is much 
thicker than in the first-mentioned species. Both bear 
much resemblance to a wood-section in my cabinet which is 
called “ New Zealand Pepper,” a plant of which I am quite 
ignorant, 
