CONTEMPORA RY W111T1N G S. 
-" The pretended rose of Jericho," says Eloy, 
in his Dictionnaire Ilistorique de la Mrdc- 
cine Ancienne et Moderne, " is a sort of 
Thlaspi that grows in the deserts of Arabia : 
it is not a rose, and there is none of it to be 
found round Jericho. During the time that 
this plant is still in vigour in the ground, it 
appears in the form of a bouquet ; but in 
proportion as it dries (itself), its branches 
interlace each other, and the extremities fold 
inwards, meeting or joining at a common 
centre, forming a kind of little globe, which 
the quack doctors make the people believe 
will only open at Christmas. They extol its 
merits also to the pregnant women, in pre- 
dicting to them that if they put this rose to 
steep a certain time in water during travail, 
they shall see its branches gradually unfold, 
and its flowers blow, which circumstances 
will materially lessen their pains. But the 
fact is, at whatever time this plant is put in 
steep, whether by man or woman, the rose of 
Jericho will produce the same phenomenon, 
while as soon as it is taken out of the water, 
it becomes dry and curls up as before. This 
plant serves better to indicate the variations 
of the atmosphere than announce the termi- 
nation of the pains of labour — it is, indeed, a 
true hygrometer. When the weather is dry, 
the pretended (or supposed) rose contracts, 
and at the approach of rain it swells and 
develops." M. D'Avoine states in his me- 
moir of Storms, that M. Rigouts, Professor 
of Medicine, and Secretary of the Horticul- 
tural Society of Anvers, had sown seeds of 
Anastatica without obtaining plants from 
them. Storms does not state that he culti- 
vated this plant, but it is certain that he had 
seen it in a living state. His only mistake is 
having classed it with violets, to which it has 
no relation. I may also add, that in the her- 
barium of the brother "VYynhouts, formed at 
the Abbey of Dilighem in 16S3, the Ana- 
statica was included as among the culinary 
plants grown in the garden belonging to the 
Abbey. For some years the catalogues of 
disposable seeds of the different botau>ie gai 1 - 
dens of central Europe have contained Ana- 
statica hierochuntina, and in the borders of 
most of these establishments the plant may 
be seen in its living state, grown among the 
cruciferous kinds. 
Seeing that the most remarkable property 
of this plant is its hygroscopicity, and that 
this disposition to imbibe the aqueous fluid of 
the atmosphere lengthens the internal side of 
the branches only, it is, we think, somewhat 
singular, that no phytologist has ever dis- 
sected the stalks and demonstrated the cause 
of this effect. The Rose of Jericho is but 
seldom found among our dealers in curiosi- 
ties ; at the present day it has become still 
more rare ; and it is useless to consider our 
Anastaticas, cultivated in the manner of a 
ligneous Rose of Jericho, as answering the 
description of those originally browght from 
the East. Under our sky the stems do not 
assume a woody character. — Prof. Morrcn 
in Ghent Annates. 
Phenomena of Tropical Vegetation : 
Forests, Plants, and Flowers along 
the Banks oe the Amazon, the Xingui, 
and in Brazil. — Amid the varied objects in 
Nature so magnificently developed beneath 
the tropics, the wonders of vegetation there 
displayed form a no less remarkable than in- 
teresting feature. Colossal proportions, per- 
fection of formation, and brilliancy of hue, 
combine in bestowing, as it were, a sublimity 
of beauty upon foliage and flower in these 
regions. On the lovely islands which lie be- 
fore the entrance of the Bay of Rio, the rich- 
ness of tropical vegetation is disclosed to us 
in forms unknown to the European. Over- 
topping the plants and shrubs which cover 
the hill sides, are seen trees with full gigantic 
crowns, or shooting lightly upwards, and 
stretching their fantastic boughs high into 
the air. Mountains and rocks clothed with 
thick foliage, above the outline of which rise 
magnificent palm trees, form a labyrinth of 
loveliness which seems to discover a new 
Fairy land to us. 
The immense crowns of the cocoa-palms, 
and the gigantic leaves of the bananas, with 
the dark mango and cypress trees, in their 
solemn magnificence, ornament the villas and 
gardens of the city of Rio, while the fan- 
tastic branches of the North American pines,* 
looking like inverted fans of the palm tree, 
wave high in the air. In the delightful en- 
virons of this city we meet with the Nissolia 
of crimson leaves, and thousands of flowers 
resembling the violet blossoms : but, perhaps, 
the greatest ornament is the high arched 
crown of an immense tree, resembling a 
colossal flowei - , of a splendid red or violet, 
almost crimson colour, a prominent object in 
the landscape. The Mamceira (Carica Pa- 
paya} is also seen. 
On the edge of the primeval forests of the 
Corcovado appear here and there brilliant 
silvery foliage intermingled with the green, 
which involuntarily reminds the beholder of 
the "patriarch with the silver beard," that 
venerable trunk with its silvery roof of foliage 
and beard floating in the wind. An excur- 
sion to the heights commanding a charming 
prospect of the beautiful Bay of Rio discloses 
to us innumerable species of trees, and a 
variety of foliage such as is never found toge- 
* This tree is said to have been introduced within 
a few yeara into the gardens around Eio. 
