VARIETIES. 
563 
immediate  destruction.  These  padang  trees,  however,  after  all,  are  destined 
to  perish  by  fire.  A  bit  of  bark  is  killed  or  knocked  off,  perhaps  a  dead 
stick  has  rested  against  it,  and  given  the  fire  time  to  kill  the  bark,  or  a 
buffalo  rubs  his  horn,  or  a  pig  whets  his  tusk  there.  Then  the  verdict  has 
gone  forth;  next  year  the  bit  of  bare  dead  surface  burns  long  enough  to 
kill  further  the  edges  of  the  wound,  which  is  next  year,  and  every  year, 
more  and  more  extended,  till  the  tree  stands  up,  as  upon  a  stick,  which 
gives  way  to  the  first  storm,  generally  however  alive  to  the  last  moment, 
Wherever  a  group  of  trees,  other  than  of  these  few  species,  is  seen  on  the 
padangs,  it  is  a  pretty  sure  sign  of  nearly  bare  rock,  or  gravel,  too  barren 
to  carry  Alalang  (Imperata  Koenigii)  sufficiently  thick  to  conduct  the  fire. 
The  changes  in  the  appearance  of  these  vast  grassy  plains  within  a  few 
days  is  indeed  singular.  After  the  long  dry  weather  they  are  a  light 
greenish-yellow  ;  the  fire  passes,  and  leaves  them  black  ;  in  three  days  more 
they  are  the  lightest  and  freshest  of  green  again  ;  and  in  ten  days  after  the 
fire  they  are  white ;  as  if  a  snow  storm  had  fallen  upon  them,  with  the  wav- 
ing plumes  of  flowers,  which  never  appear  except  after  fire,  though  it  be 
delayed  several  years. 
Of  course  these  fires  destroy  all  that  is  above  ground  of  thousands  of 
sapling  trees,  but  the  roots  remaining  alive  throw  up  fresh  shoots  ;  these  in 
their  turn  are  burnt  off  year  after  year,  fresh  shoots  are  thrown  out  from 
the  edges  of  the  stool,  which  becomes  at  last  a  thin  distorted  disc  of  wood, 
fixed  to  the  ground  by  innumerable  perpendicular  fibres,  and  burnt  per- 
fectly smooth  on  the  upper  surface.  These  bare  stools,  sometimes  eighteen 
inches  in  diameter,  have  a  strange  appearance  immediately  after  the  fire, 
but  are  soon  again  hidden  by  the  grass. 
On  Chinese  Botany  and  Pharmacology,  and  the  Latest  Russian  Researches 
Thereon.  By  Dr.  Lotskt.  It  is  necessary  to  premise,  on  the  present  oc- 
casion, that  the  Russian  Government  is  the  only  one  which,  since  the  last 
century,  entertains  an  especial  Diplomatic  Mission  at  Pekin,  located  in 
buildings  of  great  extent.  Amongst  the  staff  of  the  mission  is  also  a  Medi- 
cal Officer,  whose  term  of  residence  in  China  was  formerly  fourteen  years, 
but  has  been  lately  shortened  to  seven.  Several  of  them  have  occupied  their 
leisure  in  researches  on  the  different  departments  of  Chinese  medical 
science. 
It  was  thus  that  Dr.  Kiriloff  had  collected,  so  far  back  as  the  year  1841, 
127  different  Chinese  drugs,  which  he  brought  with  him  to  Russia,  and 
where  they  were  first  deposited  in  the  Foreign  Office  of  St.  Petersburg.  In 
the  year  1847  these  specimens  were  transferred  to  the  Museum  of  the 
Medical  and  Surgical  Society  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  Mr.  A.  Horaninoff, 
member  of  the  Academy,  and  Actual  Privy  Councillor,  was  commissioned, 
by  an  especial  order  of  Nicholas  I.,  to  study  them  and  to  make  a  clinical 
examination  thereof.  As  a  preliminary,  Dr.  Kiriloff  had  made  extensive 
researches  into  a  large  number  of  Chinese  medical  works, — a  kind  of 
