Miscellaneous. 
157 
The foliation and female flowers are however very well described, 
and to complete the description I may add, the male flowers are 
pedunculated, but the peduncles are shut, and they might be charac- 
terized as subsessile. The anthers, like those of the female flowers, 
are sessile, depressed or flattened above, and dehisce circularly. The 
ripe fruit is globose, and not furrowed. As I send along with this 
paper specimens of both the male and female flowers, any of your 
botanists will be able to correct me at a glance, if I be in error. 
Neither Wallich, Wight, nor Griffiths appear to have been at all 
aware that this species produces gamboge. Dr. Wight, in a recent 
number of his ‘ Neilgherry Plants,’ says, “ Two species of the genus 
Garcinia are known to produce gamboge ; most of the others yield a 
yellow juice, but not gamboge, as it will not mix with water.” The 
species which he has described as producing gamboge, and to which 
I suppose he refers, are G. gutta or H. cambogioides (Graham) and 
G.pictoria (Roxburgh). That others may be enabled to judge of the 
character of the gamboge produced by this tree, I have the pleasure to 
send specimens of its exudation. In its appearance to the eye, and 
in its properties as a pigment, I have failed to discover the slightest 
difference between it and the gamboge of commerce. It serves equally 
well to colour drawings ; the Burmese priests often use it to colour 
their garments, and the Karens to dye their thread. It is also used 
by the native doctors in medicine, but I think not extensively. Dr. 
Bindley, in his new work the ‘ Vegetable Kingdom," says, “ The best 
gamboge comes in the form of pipes from Siam, and this is conjectured 
to be the produce of Garcinia cochinchinensis As G.elliptica is spread 
all over the province of Mergui, is it not probable that it extends 
into Siam, and that the Siamese gamboge is the produce, a part at 
least, of this tree ? 
There are several other species of Garcinia indigenous to the 
Provinces, but I know’ of no others producing anything resembling 
gamboge, except G. Camhogia ; the exudation of wffiich, though it 
W’ill not dissolve in water, dissolves in spirits of turpentine, and forms 
a very beautiful yellow’ varnish for tin and other metallic surfaces. — 
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for July 1847. 
ON THE FOSSIL VEGETATION OF ANTHRACITE COAL. 
Mr. J. E. Teschemacher, at the recent meeting of the American 
Association of Geologists and Naturalists, read a paper on this sub- 
ject, confining his observations to the remains of vegetation found 
in the body of the coal, apart from that in the accompanying shales. 
The principal points of the memoir were, that the remains of the 
larger forms of the coal epoch, as well as of the smaller plants, were 
abundant in the coal, contrary to the usual opinion. Specimens 
were exhibited from the interior of the coal, show’ing the external 
and internal parts of plants — the vessels, the leaves, the seeds, &c. 
Since the meeting, Mr. Teschemacher has continued his investi- 
gations, and has communicated in a letter to one of the editors the 
follow’ing results : — 
