Red valerian Wild chervil, or cow weed Damask rose Lamb's lettuce, or corn sa- Common parsley Chinese rose Spring crocus [lad Cow parsnip Common raspberry Annual meadow-grass Lauristinus Ditto, fruit ripe Cultivated oat, in bloom Guelder rose Common bramble Ditto, seed ripe Jan. 2d Common chickweed Wild strawberry Fuller's teasel Virginian spider-wort Wood ditto Common snowdrop Chili ditto Baron ditto Goose-grass cinque-foil Goose-grass, or cleavers Orange-flowered Aletris Great flowered ditto Sweet-scented wood-roof Leek Common avens Great celandine Yellow-horned poppy Early dwarf heath Gum cistus Branching larkspur Variegated nionkshood Comtrey-leaved hound's- Hairy (aphne Common fennel-flower Venus navel-wort (tongue Spurge laurel Hepatica Garden anemone Common ditto * Wood ditto Daurian rhododendron Pheasant's eye Box leaved Andromeda Pile-wort Winter hellebore Christmas rose Trumpet honeysuckle Basil-leaved soap-wort Green hellebore Cominon woodbine Sweet Williarii Stinking hellebore or Bear's Mountain jasione Carnation Common columbine [toot Great mullein Chinese pink Clamıny campion Common hyssop Common lavender Pennyroyal Red currant Clammy lychnis Ground ivy, or Gill Black currant Great stitch-wort White archangel Sweet scented mignionette Purple ditto, Hemp leaved dead-nettle Black horehound Pansie Common white ditto Great yellow violet Common myrtle Common mother-wort Common ivy Nectarine Common thyme Wild ditto Common balm Golden flowered fig-mary- Common eye-bright Scarlet ditto [gold Bell-Aowered chelone Scarlet ditto Commun drop-wort Ivy-leaved ditto Wood sage Sun spurge *" I am informed, hy lady Elcho, that she left a profusion of this plant in bloom, on the 15th of January, at lord Elcho's seat at Beanstone, iu East Lolian," Three Sweet pea Three leaved snap-dragon Curled-leaved mallow New England star-wort Late-flowering ditto Woolley-leaved Cineraria Red-leaved ditto Hybrid ditto Common daisy French marygold African ditto Sweet alysson Tuberous-rooted bitter- Red Zinnia Rock ditto [vetch Indian Chrysanthemum Common honesty Garden bean Corn ditto Great-flowered Tutsan Garden ditto Ox-eye ditto Cultivated scorzonera Common feverfew Common chamomile Common sow-thistle Corn chamomile Ten-week stock Common dandelion Stinking ditto Dame's violet Orange-fvwered hawk- Lavender cotton milfoil Tower wall-cress Wall ditto [weed Sweet maudlin ditto Silver-leaved ditto Snecze-wort ditto Common yarrow Charlock Cultivated artichoke Many-flowered sun-flower White mustard Common carline_thistle Purple Rudbeckia Garden raddish Purple-stalked Eupato- Cut-leaved ditto Ilorse-shoe crane's-bill Coinmon tansey [rium Whorl-leaved tick-seeded Scarlet ditto Fan-leav'd ditto sun-flower Hooded ditto Annual Xeranthemum Blue-bottle Cyanus Striped geranium Wave-leaved ditto Scabious ditto Bloody ditto White colts-foot Common marygold Lancashire ditto Common groundsel Common passion-flower Herb)-Robert Purple ditto Common nettle Ilolly-hock Flax-leaved star-wort Nut tree Common marshmallow Savory-leaved ditto Common yew Common mallow Great-flowered ditto Prickley butcher's broom Whorl-flowered ditto New Holland ditto Officinal pellitory. "In the preceding list no plant be found so situated; it may there- . has been inserted which was sheltered fore be necessary to observe, that they in any store, green-house, or frame; were, for the most part, the surplus many were observed in the fields and of an over-stocked green-louse, which, hedges in their native places of growth; had been planted in the borders to but by far the greater part were the take their chance; and as no frosts ornamental inhabitants of the par- of consequence occurred till the first terre : the nectarine and apricot may week in January, they continued to certainly be considered as forced. It flourish and bloon, with unabated may appear singular that so many vigour, till cut off by rather severe natives of the Cape, and of still warmer frost in the early part of the month; climates, which are in this country a great variety of the Cryptogamia usually considered as inhabitants of class, usually blooning at this season, the green-bouse or dry store, should are omitted, as not offering any de 3 H 4 viation be ANNUAL REGISTER, 1807. viation from the usual course of ve- bably not have been a crop at all: getation. The native place of growth and their present numbers promise of each plant, aud its usual tiine of them an abundant harvest next year. blooming in this climate, bas been All insects, as well of the beetle as inserted; and as the blooming of some the butterfly tribe, previous to their of them at this season seems to bor- appearance in the winged state existed der on the marvellous, the place in as caterpillars or grubs. The millions which the observation was made has of ladybirds which lately swarmed on been added, as giving all the addi- the coasts of Kent have previously tional weight to the facts in my power been grubs, or larvæ, for that is the to offer; where no such information most proper name. These larvæ feed is given, the remark was made in my entirely upon the insects, which, unown garden. Two observations only der the name of the fly,” or “plant are recorded which did not fall under lice,” have this year made such havoc my own notice, but for which most among the hops and pease ; and when respectable authority is given." it is considered that each larvæ de stroys some hundreds of these insects a day, for some months, it may easily calculated what an immense Usefulness of Ladybirds. number must bave been destroyed by them, and consequently that, but for The immense fight of ladybirds their services, our crops would have which has recently appeared in Kent, sustained much greater damage than bas excited great curiosity; and the they already have done. The vast phænomenon has cansed some degree number of these ladybirds which have of alarm to the superstitious of both this year appeared, promise that next the great and small vulgar who fre- year their services will be more effecquent the watering-places on that tual; as each female will deposit coast; where, it appears, so multitu- some hundreds, if not thousands of dinous have been the swarms of this eggs, which, when hatched into larvæ, insect, that the streets have literally in the ensuing spring, will probably been covered with them, and the be able completely to destroy so gowns of the ladies, after an evening's many of the plant-lice or aphides , walk, spotted with them from top to (for this is their proper name), as to bottom. Wishing to relieve the minds prevent their doing any serious inof your fair readers at Ramsgate, jury: Margate, South-End, &c. from the In this point of view, the swarms dread that these ladybirds portend a of ladybirds ought to be regarded as pestilence, I shall communicate a few harbingers of joy by the farmer and particulars respecting the natural his- hop-planter; and by the visitants of tory of this insect; from which it will the watering places, as proofs of the appear, that we ought to hail its bat- benevolence of the deity, who has by talions as we should soldiers who are this means provided a remedy for the on their return from a glorious victory destructive voracity of the aphis, whose -at least the lipp-plauters of Kent prolific powers are so immense, that ought so to regard them ; for, tlough from one female, in the course of a their crop may not now be half a crop, summer, many hundreds of millions of but for these defenders it would pro- individuals may be produced ! In their per nomenon. perfect state as beetles also, these information, I set out on my expeladybirds live upon aphides, and thus dition. I had obtained a recommenprobably, the myriads which have dation from an old Malayan priest to lately visited the coasts of Kent, may another priest, who lives on the nearhave saved the hop-planters from the est habitable spot to the tree, which entire loss of their crop. is about fifteen or sixteen miles disa The neglect of the study of Ento- tant. This recommendation proved mology in this country is much to be of great service to me; as the latter regretted. If that most interesting priest is appoivted by the emperor to science were attended to as it ought reside there, in order to prepare for to be, and as it is on the Continent, eternity the souls of those who, for we should not hear of people's fancy- different crimes, are sentenced to aping a flight of ladybirds a sign of pes- proach the tree, and to procure the tilence or offence, or enquiring what poison. can be the meaning of such a phæ- The Bohun Upas is situated in the island of Java, about twenty-seven Yours, &c. ENTOMOLOGUS. leagues from Batavia, fourteen from Aug. 25. Soura Charta, the seat of the emperor, and between eighteen and twen ty leagues from Tinckjoc, the present The Bohun Upas.—The following residence of the sultan of Java. It is Account of the celebrated Poison surrounded on all sides by a circle of Tree of Java, which has been the high hills and mountains, and the Subject of so much dispute among country round it, to the distance of Naturalists, is translated from a ten or twelve miles from the tree, is Memoir written by M. Foeresch, entirely barren. Not a tree, nor a a Man of Letters, and a Surgeon shrub, nor even the least plant or in the Service of the Dutch East grass, is to be seen. I have made India Company the tour all round this dangerous spot, at about eighteen miles distant from In the year 1774, I was stationed the centre, and I found the aspect of at Batavia, as a surgeon, in the ser- the country on all sides equally dreavice of the Dutch East India compa- ry. The easiest ascent of the hills, ny. During my residence there, I is from that part where the old ecclereceived several different accounts of siastic dwells. From his house the a tree, called in the Malayan tongue, criminals are sent for the poison, into the Bohun Upas, and the violent ef- which the points of all warlike instrufects of its poison. They all, then, ments are dipped. It is of high vaseemed incredible to me; but they lue, and produces a considerable reraised my curiosity to such a degree, venue to the emperor. that I resolved to investigate this sub- The poison which is procured from ject thoroughly, and to trust only to this tree is a gum, that issues out bemyown observations. In consequence tween the bark and the tree itself, of this resolution, I applied to the like the camphor. Malefactors, who governor general, M. Petrus Alber- for their crimes are sentenced to die, tus Van der Parra, for a pass to travel are the only persons who fetch the through the country: my request was poison; and this is the only chance granted; and having procured every they have of saving their lives. After sentence sentence is pronounced upon them by the judge, they are asked in court, whether they will die by the hands of the executioner, or whether they will go to the Upas tree for a box of the poison? They commonly prefer the latter proposal, as there is not only some chance of preserving their lives, but also a certainty, in case of their safe return, that a provision will be made for them by the emperor. They are also permitted to ask a favour of the emperor, which is generally a trifle, and commonly granted. They are then provided with a silver or tortoise-shell box, into which they are to put the poisonous gum, and are properly instructed how to proceed while they are upon their dangerous expedition. Among other particulars, they are always told, to attend to the direction of the winds, as they are to go towards the tree before the wind, so that the effluvia from the tree is always blown from them. They are likewise told to travel with the utmost dispatch, as that is the only method of insuring a safe return. They are afterwards sent to the house of the old priest, to which place they are commonly attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain some days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ecclesiastic prepares them for their future fate by prayers and admonitions. When the hour of their departure arrives, the priest puts them on a long leather cap, with two glasses before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breast, and also provides them with a pair of leather gloves. They are then conducted by the priest, and their friends and relations, about two miles on their journey;-here the priest repeats his instructions, and tells them where they are to look for the tree. He shews them a hill, which they are told to ascend, and that on the other side they will find a rivulet, which they are to follow, and which will conduct them directly to the Upas. They now take leave of each other, and, amidst prayers for their success, the delinquents hasten away. The worthy old ecclesiastic assured me, that during his residence there, for upwards of thirty years, he had dismissed above seven hundred criminals, in the manner which I have described; and that scarcely two out of twenty have returned. He shewed me a catalogue of all the unhappy sufferers, with the date of their de parture from his house aunexed; and a list of the offences for which they had been condemned; to which was added, a list of those who had returned in safety. I afterwards saw another list of these culprits, at the jail-keeper's, at Soura Charta, and found that they perfectly corresponded with each other, and with the different informations which I afterwards obtained. I was present at some of these melancholy ceremonies, and desired different delinquents to bring with them some pieces of the wood, or a small branch, or some leaves, of this wonderful tree. I have also given them silk cords, desiring them to measure its thickness. I never could procure more than two dry leaves, that were picked by one of them on his return; and all I could learn of him concerning the tree itself was, that it stood on the border of a rivulet, as described by the old priest; that it was of a middling size; that five or six young trees of the same kind stood close by it; but that no shrub or plant could be seen near it; and that the ground was of a brownish sand, full of stones, almost impracticable for travelling, and covered with dead bodies. The |