NEW AND HAKE PLANTS. 
to the sun and wind, retains a great deal of moisture, and is highly nutritious. I never saw a plant 
more deceptive. Often and often, when halting for the mid-day meal, or the siesta which my Nor- 
wegian companion would never omit, have I heen tempted by its dry, soft exterior, to throw myself on 
a bed of this moss, and as regularly have I arisen from it wet to the skin, as if I had been lying in a 
marsh ; neither did the experience bought by such discomfiture avail to warn me from making the 
attempt again and again, so inviting does this moss look, and so much does its dry appearance belie the 
reality of its nature. — Mev. A. C. Smith, in Zoologist. 
Mr. Quekett recently mentioned to the Microscopical Society a new fact in vegetable physiology, 
viz., the unrolling (in a spiral manner) of the membranous wall of an elongated vegetable cell. The 
specimens used in illustration were hairs taken from the fruit of Cycas revoluta, from China. Upon 
detaching some of these hairs, which are situated on two opposite parts of the fruit, and examining 
them with a power of 250 diameters, two varieties were distinctly visible, viz., perfect hairs, having 
both extremities more or less pointed, and others, in which the extremity attaching them to the seed 
was abruptly broken off; when these last were carefully examined, the broken ends were, in most 
cases, found unrolled, in a spiral direction ; the spiral being in the form of a band, the breadth of which 
gradually increases from below upwards. In these hairs there was no trace whatever of a spiral fibre, 
the membrane forming the wall being quite transparent and free from structure. In most of the 
works on botany, no mention is made of the manner in which vegetable membrane is capable of being 
torn. Dr. Lindley, however, in the last edition of his Introduction, states that it generally tears irre- 
gularly, but that in Bromelia nudicaulis the torn edges are curiously toothed ; but no instance is given 
in which the fractured portion is always in a spiral form. 
Bryanthus erectus is the name under which a beautiful dwarf hardy shrub is now cultivated in 
British gardens. The plant flowers abundantly in the months of May and June, producing delicate 
rose-coloured flowers resembling miniature Kalmias. The original plant was produced in 1841 by 
Mr. James Cunningham, of the Comely-bank Nursery, from seed of Phyllodoce (Menziesia) einpetri- 
formis fertilised with pollen of Rhododendron (Khodothamnus) ehamrecistus. It is, therefore, a true 
bi-generie hybrid, very few instances of which occur. It is obviously not at all entitled to the generic 
name of Bryanthus, and would be better called phyllodoce chanisecistus. — M. 
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Ekythexna erythrostachya, Morren. Coral-stalked Erythrina. {Ann. de Gand., v., t. 291). — Nat. Ord., 
Fabaces \ Papilionaeeaa-Phaseoleae. — A very handsome stove shrub, having the stems, petioles, and under side of 
the leaves furnished with prickles. The leaves are trifoliolate, with deltoid-acuminate smooth leaflets. The 
flowers form terminal racemes six inches long, the blossoms being about two inches long, arranged in fascicles of 
three together, and very numerous. The colour is a brilliant scarlet, and the calyx also as well as the rachis is 
coloured red. Its origin is unknown. It was purchased in 1832, by M. Cachet, of Angers, from M. Verleuwen, 
of Ghent, under the name of E. speciosa ; aud was published by M. Morren, a year or two since, in the Ghent 
Annals. It flowers during summer. 
Skimmia japonica, Tkunberg. Japanese Skimmia. (Paxt. Fl. Gard., ii., 56). — Nat. Ord., Aurantiaceae. — 
Syn., Limonia laureola, Wattich. — An interesting evergreen half-hardy shrub, growing in its wild state from 
three to four feet high, but taller when cultivated. The leaves are elliptic, bright green, and have an aromatic 
acrid flavour. The flowers grow in terminal panicles, and are greenish white ; they are small, five petalled, and 
are said to be deliciously fragrant, with a perfume not unlike that of Daphne odora, and particularly strong in 
the evening. It will associate well with Camellias, Oranges, Daphnes, &e. To us the scent of the flowers 
resembled that of privet blossoms. From China, Japan, and the Himalayan Mountains. Introduced about 1S50. 
Flowers in the early spring months. Messrs. Standish and Noble, of Bagshot. 
Acacia cyanophylla, Lindley. Black Wattle {Paxt. Fl. Gard., ii., 56). — Nat. Ord., Fabacese § Mimosese- 
Acaciese. — A handsome evergreen small tree, with drooping branches, loaded with long lanceolate phyllodes, often 
a foot long, of a glaucous green, almost blue, from the axils of which proceed long spikes, of a dozen or more globular 
heads of deep yellow flowers. It is one of the handsomest of the Acacias, for a conservatory. From Swan River, 
occurring in wet sandy flats. Introduced in 1838. Flowers in February and March. 
Pitcairnia exscapa, Soolccr. Stcmless Pitcaimia (Bot. Mag., t. 4591). — Nat. Ord., Bromeliacese. — A 
curious stove epiphytal herb, forming a kind of pseudo-bulb, from whence grow the linear carinated leaves, many 
of them three feet long, and resembling those of a coarse carex. The flowers, amongst a crowded head of imbri- 
cating bracts, are seated close down in the heart of the leaves ; they are scarlet, several together in an ovate head. R? 
From New Grenada. Introduced accidentally among some orchidaceous plants in 1S50. Flowers ? Messrs, 
Jackson of Kingston. 
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