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MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES — HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
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SfikEllttDEntts $Mim. 
Climate of Siklcim, India. — Sikkim is more rainy 
than Bhootan and Nepal, or, at least, more humid. 
Encircled by hiUs, it is sheltered from other winds ; and 
the superabundant moistm'e is not carried off in vapour 
by the sun, but clogs the valleys, and is again deposited 
at night, equally intercepting the solar rays and noctur- 
nal radiation ; diminishing, in short, the day's heat and 
night's cold, and producing a climate which all the 
world over, in the Western Highlands and Wales near 
home, or on the remote shores of South ChUi and Fuegia, 
is eminently prejudicial to cultivation, whether of grain 
or fruits. It, moreover, causes the dispersion of the 
human popiUatlon, for few parts of a coimtiy, so imiform 
in features, are more favoiired than the rest ; warmth 
and comparative di-yness are sought in the narrow val- 
leys and their southern exposed slopes, above which the 
heated vapoiu's are raised by the moi-ning sun, to be 
condensed on the cooler mountain forests, whose murky 
atmosphere, and dark dripping vegetation, the poor 
Lepcha peoples with the had spirits of his demonology. 
I do not think that the similarity of these featiu-es in 
the Himalaya of Sikkim, with those of the other far- 
distant countries mentioned, and theu' mutual effects 
upon organized life in both, exist in my own fancy ; it 
is farther traceable in the native vegetation, and is emi- 
nently conspicuous in the paucity of animal life, espe- 
cially quadrupeds and birds. Mj' attention was in'esistibly 
called to the subject before I had ascended 6,000 feet 
of my road to Darjeeling ; and, to the present hour, I 
am more sti-uck by this fact than by the many grander 
and more novel phenomena which these mountains 
present. I am everywhere reminded of the damp west 
coast of Tasmania, of the New Zealand islands, of the 
humid portion of extra-tropical South America, of the 
Hebi-idian Islands, the north- western coast of Scotland, 
and some parts of Wales. A scattered population, rude 
cultivation, a damp atmosphere, and di'ipping sky ; no 
summer's warmth nor winter's cold, no genial ray of 
spring, no dog-star nor summer's sun, no harvest moon, 
crisp frost, or sparkling Christmas. The ground never 
chirps beneath the tread ; the falling leaves decay, but 
do not rustle imder foot. All animate nature is 
deadened ; the forests ai'e quiet, or the few birds that 
cry utter a mom-nfiil note. Magnificent as is the ve- 
getation, exuberant in species, rich in colouring, profuse 
in the rarest and mast delicate forms, of temperate and 
tropical climes combined, these productions are not the 
children of a joyous spring ; or, if of spring at all, siuely 
the niegitimate progeny of a churlish season ; they are 
smuggled into existence unacknowledged by blue sky 
and bright sim, heralded by no bii-ds, cropped by no 
beasts ; they bud, and flower, and fruit, heedless of the 
dashing rain and oppressing fogs. — Dr. Hooker, in 
Journal of Botany. 
Calochortus. — This is a genus of liliaceous plants be- 
longing to the north-western portion of South America, 
and extending over all the Mexican plains. They are 
of a simple bulbous structure, having ensiform sheathing 
leaves. The flowers, which are handsome and pretty, 
grow in the manner of a simple umbel or raceme ; they 
(W5 = 
are generally of a purple, yellowish- white, or violet 
colour. The genus is composed of two divisions, %'iz., 
Calochortus (Pm'sh), characterised by the perigonium 
having suh-calycinal, linear, beardless, external leaflets ; 
those in the interior, petaloid, somewhat unguiculate, 
much broader than the outer ones, and hairj' in the in- 
terior ; and Cyclohothra (Don) in wluch the perigonium 
has the leaflets sessUe, nearly equal ; those of the in- 
terior being shorter and hairy. These divisions have 
been disregai-ded by some botanists. The name Calo- 
chortus is derived from two Greek words — kciKoq, kalos, 
beautiful, and xoproc, ehortm, herb, which signify 
literally, beautiful herb. Baron Karwinski, travelling 
in Mexico, collected the species of this genus ; and the 
dried specimens, transmitted to M. Von Martins and 
the late Zuccarini, were sent to Dr. Schultes, at Land- 
shut, (Lower Bavaria,) who described eight species, in 
a paper inserted in the fourth volume of the Bijdragen 
tot dc Naturlamdige TVetenschappen, an excellent scien- 
tific Dutch join-nal. The Calochoi-tuses require a peaty, 
sandy soil, which should he used at the re-potting in 
February or March. Plenty of drainage is indispensable. 
They may be gro^vn in a cold fi-ame, or even in the open 
ground. In a state of rest they should not be watered, 
but, when they begin to grow, watering must be fre- 
quently attended to ; care must be obsei-ved not to 
subject them to excess of moistm'e ; and they must be 
kept from frost in the winter. — Ghent Annales . 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
March 19. — The most interesting of the subjects of 
exhibition was a plant of the cinious Cypripediiun can- 
datum, from Mrs. La"m:ence, of Ealuag Park. This 
plant had much the habit of the Clivea nobilis, in the 
disposition of its two-ranked strap-shaped leaves, a foot 
or more in length. The flowers, which grow upon sim- 
ple stalks as high as the leaves, are not attractive in their 
colom', the sepals being a kind of dull cream colom-, 
green towards the tips, the petals, a dull pirrple greenish 
at the base, and the lip also a dull pale purjjle, with 
deeper veins ; the most curious feature in the flowers is 
the length of the narrow tail-like petals, wliieh, in this 
instance, were nearly a foot long, and were stated to 
have attained this length gradually after the first de- 
velopment of the blossoms. A large silver mepal was 
awarded to it. Messrs. Henderson, of the Pine-apple 
Nursery, sent a lar'ge admirably flowered plant of Acacia 
diffusa, trained without formality into a conical form ; 
and with it a small plant of an Epacris, called hyacinthi- 
flora candidissima, the largest and best of the white- 
flowered kinds of the impressa habit ; Boronia triphylla, 
one of the prettiest of the Boronias ; and a red-stained 
variety of Eriostemon caspidatum, called rubrum. 
Messrs. Henderson of the Wellington Eoad Nursery had 
a handsome dwarf Gesnera called maorantha pm-purea, 
with rich scarlet flowers, said to be a hybrid between 
Cooperi and macrantha. They had also a plant of the 
Conoclinium ianthinum, an ageratum-like plant, which 
from its free-flowering habit, will probably be a useful 
