1. G. Menziesii.

Anadyomene Menziesii, Harvey, Boreali-Amer. iii. 52.

HAB. Gulf of Mexico, Archibald Menzies, Esq., 1802, in B. Mus.

(To be concluded in our next.)

A FEW CRITICAL, LITTLE KNOWN, OR OTHERWISE INTERESTING PLANTS.

1. Capsella pauciflora, Koch.-This exceedingly rare little thing was first distinguished by the late Professor Koch, who considered it as very different from E. elliptica, C.A.M., by its abbreviated few-flowered subumbellate racemes, with a much more slender rachis, its longer fruit-pedicels, and its more branching stem, with the branches bearing from their base leaf-opposed partial racemes. Bertoloni, who belonged to the old school of botanists, and was very cautious in admitting species except on well-marked characters, nevertheless considered this as one, though there is little in his distinguishing phrase (Fl. Ital. vi. 572), to support the opinion. I have not access to Hausmann's Tyrolese Flora, and do not therefore know what are his views with regard to this plant; but I am not aware that, since it was first characterized, any botanist has contested its claim to specific rank, except my friend Dr. Ferdinand Mueller, who writes (Plants Indig. to Victoria, p. 44, sub Capsella elliptica), C. pauciflora, Koch, seems merely a few-flowered "variety of this species." A careful examination of excellent specimens from the Val Vestina, in the Italian Tyrol, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Parlatore, certainly inclines me to agree with Dr. Mueller; indeed, I can find nothing noteworthy to separate the two so-called species. It is true that C. elliptica is usually taller and less branched from the base, but Heldreich's specimens from the Phaleron, near Athens, are quite as ramose from the very column. With regard to the tenuity of the rachis, and the length of the fruit-pedicels, I can detect no difference whatever between the Tyrolese plant and authentic German specimens of C. elliptica, y. integrifolia, given me by Professor Mettenius. The fewflowered racemes, upon which stress is chiefly laid, certainly cannot

be depended on; for, while the lower axillary ones are usually abbreviated and 3-4-flowered, the upper, terminating the branches, have frequently as many as 12 flowers, and are not in the least umbelliform. In fact, many of Dr. Thomson's Western Tibetan specimens of C. elliptica, which are referable to the var. integrifolia, are quite as depauperate in regard to inflorescence as the most marked examples of C. pauciflora. The main difference seems to me to be the usually leafless leaf-opposed (or axillary?) lower racemes; but they are not always absolutely leafless, and this character may reasonably be attributed to their abbreviation. From the above considerations, I believe the plant in question must be regarded as a modification of C. elliptica, var. integrifolia, which has acquired a peculiar, often pendulous habit, from growing in shaded, humid, alpine localities.

2. Camellia Hongkongensis, Seem. Of this plant an excellent plate has been published by Dr. Seemann (Linn. Trans. xxii. t. 60), but I infer from his paper, and from Mr. Bentham's description in the 'Flora Hongkongensis,' that neither of these authors has seen the ripe fruit, which Colonel Champion vaguely described as glabrous. I have recently had an opportunity of examining five or six fresh ripe capsules, and find them to be spherical, about 2 inches in circumference, cinnamon-coloured, and densely furfuraceo-scabrous on the surface; the seeds are a little larger than those of the Tea-plant. quite agree with Mr. Bentham and Dr. Hooker in reducing Thea, even as amended by Seemann, to Camellia.

I

3. Sterculia lanceolata, Cav. The seeds of this shrub are occasionally, though rarely, met with, still enclosed in the brilliant scarlet. follicles, in the Hongkong markets. They are eaten, roasted or boiled, exactly in the manner of the common Chestnut.

4. Trifolium flavescens, Tineo. This species, which was described by Presl under the name of T. villosum, was afterwards correctly referred by him, and also by Savi, to the T. pallidum, W. and K. Gussone, however, is unwilling to admit their identity, and writes (Flor. Sic. Synops. vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 331), "Differt a T. pallido, W. et K., habitu magis diffuso, capitulis omnibus sessilibus, corollis semper ochroleucis, leguminibus 1-spermis, non 2-spermis, tubi calycini fauce non prominula." I have made a very careful comparative examination of excellent specimens of T. pallidum, from Istria and the Banat, the latter gathered by Heufell, and Sicilian ones of the so-called

T. flavescens, and am constrained to remark that the differences mentioned are purely imaginary. Any botanist might be safely challenged to separate correctly Sicilian and Hungarian specimens which had been mixed together, with private marks attached, to distinguish them; and MM. Grenier and Godron, whilst admitting C. flavescens (Fl. de France, i. 407), give the "calice à tube dépourvu d'anneau calleux à la gorge as the sole distinction. It is possible that in Sicily the plant has always yellow flowers, but this is a character. of little value, for T. pallidum has always been recognized as variable in this respect. Koch says, "flores albi vel colore roseo suffusi;" Visiani, "flores albidi vel colore roseo suffusi ;" and from albidus to flavescens, or luteolus, as Bertoloni describes it, the transition is very slight. Besides which, a precisely identical variation is met with in T. incarnatum, L., wild British specimens of which are always yellow-flowered; and the blossoms of the common T. pratense, L., vary from rosy-purple to white or yellow. As to the callous ring, which appears to be mainly relied on as a ground of discrimination, I have been quite unable to find such in either. The calyx-tube has a dense annulus of fulvous hairs inside, but I do not see any callosity, properly so called, even after careful softening in boiling water, and with the aid of a powerful lens; but it is very probable that the line where the ring originates does become more or less thickened in the advanced fruit-calyx, which I have not had the opportunity of examining. The flowering calyx-tubes of both the Hungarian and Sicilian plants certainly appear quite similar. Hence, I quite concur in Bertoloni's judicious observation (Fl. Ital. viii. 166), "Conlatis pluribus exemplaribus T. pallidi, Fl. Hung. (sphalmate typog. pallescentis) et T. flavescentis, Tin., nullam essentialem differentiam inter ea inveni. Color corollæ et annulus callosus in fauce tubi calycini idem habetur in utroque, sed annulus est visibilior in calyce fructifero. Recte igitur Preslius conjunxit has plantas." I do not, indeed, see how they are to be regarded even as distinct varieties.

5. Trifolium ovatifolium, Bory et Chaubard. Bertoloni, I believe, is the only one who has asserted the identity of this plant with T. alatum, Biv. (=T. Cupani, Tin.), and I do not know that any writer has confirmed his statement. I have carefully compared Sicilian specimens with others of T. ovatifolium, gathered in Caria by Pinard, and am quite satisfied Bertoloni's opinion is correct.

6. Mentha Javanica, Bl. Chinese oil of peppermint has a great reputation in the East; and certainly, in my judgment, it is quite equal, if not superior, in the strength and diffusiveness of its odour, and in flavour and pungency, to the best European samples I have ever seen. It is extensively employed in all manner of complaints by the native practitioners; for instance, in colic and tympanitis a little is rubbed round the umbilicus, with, in most cases, marked advantage, and in some kinds of headache, friction with it on the forehead and temples affords speedy relief. A particular kind, sold in the Canton shops, contains such a great excess of stearoptine that, except in very high temperatures, it is absolutely solid, consisting exclusively of acicular crystals. The cultivated plant which was brought to me as the source of the oil, and which, on my expressing some doubt on the matter, I was assured here (at Whampoa) was undoubtedly the genuine herb, proves on examination to be Mentha Javanica, Bl., a plant which, as noted in the Flora Hongkongensis,' I had some years ago found growing in ditches at Saiwan, certainly truly wild. I have no means of verifying the asserted origin of the Chinese oil, but apart from the question of the specific distinctness of this from M. arvensis, L., it would be interesting to know whether in Europe any attempt has been made, and with what success, to extract peppermint-oil from the latter species. Endlicher (Enchir. Bot. 309) does not include it in the list of his officinal and "usual" Mints, nor is it alluded to in Professor Lindley's Medical and Economical Botany;' and Dr. R. E. Griffith, at page 504 of his 'Medical Botany,' published at Philadelphia in 1847, says, “the species peculiar to the United States" (including therefore the very closely-allied M. Canadensis reduced to M. arvensis by Bentham)," are seldom employed, as both their odour and taste are not as aromatic and pleasant as the naturalized.”

7. Ficus stipulata, Thbg., and F. pumila, Thbg. These two species appear to be very little known to European botanists, for Professor Miquel, when publishing his Prodromus Monographia Ficuum,' in 1848 (Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 439), merely quotes Kæmpfer and Thunberg as authorities for F. pumila, which he had then apparently never seen; and even as late as 1861, Mr. Bentham states, in the 'Flora Hongkongensis,' that the Hookerian herbarium contained no amphanthia of F. stipulata. This plant is by no means uncommon in Southern China, [I collected it on the walls of Canton-- B. SEEMANN,]

though I do not remember ever seeing it in Hongkong. But though not unfrequent, it is certainly rare to find other than barren specimens. It adheres to the faces of rocks, and the sides of the Q-shaped Chinese tombs, but scarcely any flowers, because, apparently, there is not in - such localities sufficient space for its development. Hence, I had for years been tantalized by the fruitless search for receptacles, though the plant itself was not difficult to find. The sterile branches invariably produce only small leaves (6–12 lin. long), for both the plants under consideration have "folia dimorpha;" but when it secures sufficient space, the flowering branches with their large leaves (3-4 poll. long) are plentifully developed, and the plant produces figs in abundance. These are of a roundish-turbinate form, about 24 in. long, quite flattened and sericeous at the top, with a protuberant umbo. I have at Macao seen old walls covered with this plant, climbing upwards of 30 feet high, and extending indefinitely in a lateral direction, the branches adhering to the stone like our Ivy in Europe, and so loaded with figs that I could easily gather forty or fifty good specimens in a few minutes, with the help of a ladder. I have had the pleasure of sending specimens to different European herbaria. [It has frequently flowered in the garden of Herrenhausen, Hanover.-EDITOR.] The Fig, I should add, is not edible, or at least, so far as I can discover, not eaten, but is sold in the Chinese herbalists' shops, amongst the very indiscriminate constituents of the Celestial Materia Medica Vegetabilis,' and is used as an external emollient application to painful hæmorrhoidal tumours.

F. pumila I have never seen alive, but I possess a specimen of Japanese origin, which I may undoubtedly consider authentic, since it was given me by Professor Miquel from the Leyden herbarium. This species is apparently quite undistinguishable in foliage from F. stipulata, but may be at once known by its ovoid fruit, scarcely more than an inch long, strikingly different, therefore, in size and shape. Mr. Swinhoe has sent me a plant which I cannot but refer to this species, gathered at Takow, in the island of Formosa, which differs only, in the dried state, from that of Professor Miquel by its rather more elliptic syconus. Mr. Swinhoe informs me that the Fig is called by the Chinese in Formosa Aw-keo-tsang, and is eaten with sugar after being soaked in water. Endlicher also (Enchir. Bot. 166) enumerates F. pumila amongst the esculent species; whilst, on the other hand, Thun