152 
THE  SUGAR  OF  THE  FUTURE. 
Hebradendron  cambogioides,  Graham,  in  Hooker's  Companion  to 
Bot.  Mag.  ii.  (1836,'l93,  tab.  27). 
Var.  p.  pedicellata  ;  fioribus  masculis  pedicellatis  (pedicelli  ad 
3  lin.  longi.) 
Messrs.  D'Almeida  informed  me  that  the  number  of  gamboge- 
trees  cultivated  on  their  plantation  is  twenty-eight,  but  that  it 
might  have  been  increased  to  thousands  had  any  pains  been 
taken  to  do  so.  The  trees  are  from  thirty-five  to  fifty  feet  in 
height,  the  largest  having  a  circumference  of  three  feet.  They 
grow  very  luxuriantly,  without  any  attention,  on  the  slope  of 
a  low  hillock.  Gamboge  has  at .  various  times  been  extracted 
from  them,  but  rather,  it  would  seem,  as  an  object  of  curiosity 
than  for  the  purposes  of  commerce. — Pharm,  Joum.,  Jan.,  1865, 
GROWTH  OF  THE  BALSAM  OF  PERU  TREE. 
Seeds  of  the  Balsam  of  Peru  tree  (Myroxylon  Pereiraz,  Kl.) 
transmitted  by  Dr.  Charles  Dorat,  reached  England  in  February, 
1861,  and  young  plants  raised  from  them  in  English  hot-houses 
are  now  from  nine  to  fifteen  inches  high.  Some  of  these  seeds 
were  sent  to  the  Botanic  Garden  of  Peradenia  in  Ceylon,  whence 
Mr.  Thwaites  thus  wrote  in  November  last  respecting  the  plants 
obtained  from  them  : — «  The  largest  plant  I  have  of  Myroxylon 
Pereirce  has  a  trunk  nine  inches  in  circumference  close  to  the 
ground,  and  the  largest  of  several  branches  into  which  it  divides 
at  about  a  foot  from  the  ground  is  11 J  feet  long."  In  Jamaica 
and  Trinidad,  young  plants  derived  from  the  same  source  have 
grown  with  great  vigor.  Those  in  the  latter  island  are  described 
by  Mr.  Prestoe,  Director  of  the  Botanic  Garden  (under  date 
Dec.  8th,  1864)  as  «  nearly  five  feet  high  :  their  aspect  beau- 
tiful in  the  extreme.  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  foliage 
of  a  more  glossy  or  darker  green ;  and  they  will  doubtless 
be,  ere  long,  magnificent  trees.  The  rapidity  of  growth  in 
such  paints  in  this  country  is  something  truly  wonderful." — 
Lond.  Pharm..  Journal,  Feb.  1865. 
THE  SUGAR  OF  THE  FUTURE. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Chemical  News. 
Sir  ; — On  page  299,  vol.  x.,  of  your  valuable  paper  appears, 
under  the  rubric  of  Continental  Science,  a  single  word  about  a 
