multitudes sought refuge from death at Bombay; but many of them arrived in too exhausted a state to be saved by the utmost exertions of humanity and skill. This calamity began to affect the mortality in 1803; and its effects are visible in the deaths of 1805."

From other data, it appears that the average of the deaths of the Mahometan sects during 1806, 1807, and 1808, were to their whole numbers as 1 to 174, of the Parsees as 1 to 24, and of the Christians in different districts between 1 to 22, and 1 to 16.

With respect to the relative proportion of males to females in Bombay, it appears that the number of males exceed in general that of females throughout all the different sects comprising the population of the island (except the Christians, and for which no cause is assigned)—an insuperable argument against the necessity of polygamy, especially when taken in conjunction with similar well-authenticated facts. Indeed this practice appears to be very limited, and to be confined almost exclusively to the rich; for it is stated that out of 20,000 Mahometans in Bombay, only about 100 have two wives; and only five have three; so inconsiderable, continues the author, "is the immediate practical result of a system, which in its principles and indirect consequences produces more evil than perhaps any other institution." (Abstracted from note to discourse delivered at the opening of the Literary Society of Bombay by Sir J. Mackintosh.)

IX. Gezangabeen, or Persian Manna.

This substance, to which various origins have been assigned, is found chiefly in Persia and Arabia. Capt. E. Frederick, of the Bombay establishment, states, that the gez of which he supposes the gezangabeen is formed, is found on a shrub, resembling the broom, called the gavan, which he describes as growing "from a small root to the height of about two feet and a half, and spreading into a circular form at the top, from three to four feet and a half in circumference. The leaves were small and narrow; and underneath the gez was observed, spread all over the tender branches like white uneven threads, with innumerable little insects creeping slowly about.

"These insects were either of three species, or the same in three different stages of existence. The one was perfectly red, and so small as to be scarcely perceptible; the second dark, and very like a common louse, though not so large; and the third a very small fly. They were all extremely dull and sluggish, and fond of lying or creeping about between the bark of the gavan and the gez." This substance is stated to be collected every third day for 28 days about the month of September.

Capt. F. made the above observations near the town of Khonsar, where, and in Looristan, this substance is chiefly found. He states that the gez is obtained by beating the bushes with a stick., When first separated, it is a white sticky substance, not unlike hoar frost, of a very rich sweet taste. It is purified by boiling,

and then mixed up with rose water, flour, and pistachio nuts, into cakes, and in this form constitutes the sweetmeat called in Persia gezangabeen, and which, by the Persians, is highly valued. Though the gez, when first collected, admits of being sifted, still in its original state it is brittle and adhesive at the same time-qualities for which it is remarkable after its preparation as a sweetmeat. If pressed, it sticks to the fingers; but on being smartly struck, separates easily into small grains, like sugar. It is in this state in cool weather; but above the temperature of 68°, it liquefies, and resembles white honey both in colour and taste.

Besides the above species of manna, other products of a similar nature are stated by the author of the present paper, as well as others, to be found in Persia and the neighbouring countries.-(Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay.)

Meerza Jiäfer Tabeeb, a Persian physician, now in London, gives a different account of this substance. Gez, according to him, is the name of a tree called in Arabic Turfa, and which is supposed to belong to the Tamarisk genus. Of this tree there are two species; one a shrub, which yields the substance in question, called gezangabeen (a term meaning literally juice of the (tree) gex), used only as a sweetmeat; the other, a tree yielding a somewhat similar substance, called in Arabic Athel, and which is employed in medicine as an astringent. Besides these two species of manna, he states they have a third, called in Arabic Terenjubin, which is used as a laxative. This gentleman also states, that it is the universal opinion in Persia that all these varieties are exudations from the trees on which they are found, and not the work of insects.

X. Information respecting the Tree called Lignum Rhodium in Pococke's Travels. By Sir James Edward Smith, M.D.

Pres. L. S.

Pococke in his well-known Description of the East, ii. 230, speaking of Cyprus, has the following passage :

say

it is in

"Most of the trees in the island are evergreen; but it is most famous for the tree called by the natives Xylon Effendi, the Wood of our Lord, and by naturalists Lignum Cyprinum and Lignum Rhodium, because it grows in these two islands. It is called also the Rose Wood, by reason of its smell. Some other parts of the Levant, and also in the isle of Martinico. It grows like the platanus, or plane tree, and bears a seed and mast like that, only the leaf and fruit are rather smaller. The botanists call it the oriental plane tree. The leaves being rubbed have a fine balsamic smell, with an orange flavour. It produces an excellent white turpentine; especially when any incisions are made in the bark. I suppose it is from this that they extract a very fine perfumed oil, which, they say, as well as the wood, has the virtue of fortifying the heart and brain. The common people here cut off the bark and wood together, toast it in the fire, and

suck it, which they esteem a specific remedy in fever, and seem to think that it has a miraculous operation."

Pococke mentions this tree again; and in his 89th plate gives a tolerable, but not precisely botanical figure of it. This figure is cited by Wildenow as a representation of the Liquidambar imberbe, or oriental liquidambar.

Dr. Sibthorp in his visit to Cyprus was anxious to ascertain the tree mentioned by Pococke. He found it still growing, and still venerated by the natives, though not quite so much so as it had been in the time of Pococke. It was the liquidambar styraciflua, or the North American species. No other tree of this species was known in the island of Cyprus, nor probably in the Levant. It remains, therefore, as a problem difficult of solution to account for the first planting of this tree in the island of Cyprus.-(Lin→ nean Transactions, xii. 1.)

XI. Power of the Sarracenia Adunca to entrap Insects. By Dr. James M'Bride.

In the 12th volume of the Linnæan Transactions, p. 48, there is a curious communication from Dr. Macbride, of South Carolina, on the property which the leaves of the Sarracenia flava and adunca have of entrapping insects. These plants grow abundantly in the flat country of South Carolina. The leaves are tubular, and several feet in length. In the months of May, June, or July, when these leaves perform their extraordinary functions in the greatest perfection, if some of them be removed to a house and fixed in an erect position, it will soon be perceived that flies are attracted by them. These insects immediately approach the fauces of the leaves, and leaning over their edges, appear to sip with eagerness something from their internal surfaces. In this position they linger; but at length allured, as it would seem, by the pleasure of taste, they enter the tubes. The fly, which has thus changed its situation, will be seen to stand unsteadily; it totters for a few seconds, slips, and falls to the bottom of the tube, where it is either drowned, or attempts in vain to ascend against the points of the hairs. The fly seldom takes wing in its fall and escapes. But this sometimes happens, especially where the hood has been removed to assist observation. In a house much infested with flies, this entrapment goes on so rapidly that a tube is filled in a few hours, and it becomes necessary to add water, the natural quantity being insufficient to drown the imprisoned insects.

The cause which attracts flies is evidently a sweet viscid substance, resembling honey, secreted by, or exuding from, the internal surface of the tube. On splitting a leaf, it may readily be discovered in front, just below the margin, and in greatest quantity at the termination of the ala ventralis. From the margin where it commences, it does not extend lower than one-fourth of an inch. During the vernal and summer months, it is very

perceptible to the eye and the touch; and although it may be sometimes not discoverable by either, yet the sensation of sweetness is readily perceived on applying the tongue to this portion of surface. In warm and dry weather, it becomes inspissated, resembling a whitish membrane. The falling of the insect as soon as it enters the tube is wholly attributable to the downward or inverted position of the hairs of the internal surface of the leaf. At the bottom of a tube split open, the hairs are plainly discernible pointing downwards; and as the eye ranges upwards, they become gradually shorter and attenuated, till at, or just below, the surface covered with the bait, they are no longer perceptible to the naked eye, nor to the most delicate touch. It is here that the fly cannot take a hold sufficiently strong, but falls. The putrid masses of insects collected in the leaves of these plants, probably serve some purpose beneficial to the growth of the vegetable; but what that purpose is would not be an easy task to conjecture.

XII. British Species of Roses.

It appears from a paper by Mr. Joseph Woods, in the 12th volume of the Linnæan Transactions, p. 159, that the indigenous British species of roses amount to 26. The following are the names of these species as given by Mr. Woods.

1. Rosa cinnamomea. Found near Pontefract.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

rubella. Northumberland and Scotland.
spinosissima.

involuta. Arran and west of Scotland.

doniana. Found by Mr. G. Don on the mountains of Clova.

gracilis. Villosa of English Botany. Darlington. Sabini. Near Dunkeld.

villosa. Mollis of English Botany. Near Edinburgh. scabriuscula. Northumberland and Scotland. heterophylla. Near Edinburgh.

pulchella. Ingleton, Yorkshire.

tomentosa.

nuda. Near Ambleside, Westmoreland.

Eglanteria. Rubiginosa of English Botany. Kent. micrantha.

Borreri. Near Edinburgh.

cæsia. Argyleshire.

sarmentacea.

bractensis. Ulverton, Lancashire

dumetorum.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

collina.

XIII. Effect of Common Salt on the Solubility of Nitre in Water.

A curious set of experiments on this subject has been recently published by M. Longchamp. I shall here state some of the most remarkable facts which he has ascertained.

At the temperature of 39°, the specific gravity of a saturated solution of nitre and common salt is 1-3057. It is composed of

Now 61.74 parts of water, of the temperature 39°, are capable of dissolving only 9.823 parts of nitre; so that the solubility of the nitre was increased by the presence of the common salt in the ratio of 153 to 100. Probably at lower temperatures, the solubility of nitre in water would be doubled by the presence of common salt.

At the temperature of 6410, the sp. gr. of a saturated solution of nitre in distilled water is 1.151. It is composed of

The following table exhibits the effect of the addition of common salt (added in different proportions) upon the power of such a solution to dissolve additional quantities of nitre. The temperature is always supposed to be 64. The first column gives the quantity of solution of nitre employed; the second that of common salt added; the third that of the nitre dissolved, in consequence of the presence of the common salt; the fourth that of the nitre in solution in the liquid employed; the fifth the total of saltpetre in the liquid, including both the original quantity and the new quantity rendered soluble by the common salt. The sixth column gives the specific gravity of this compound liquid, containing both nitre and common salt.

M. Longchamp considers this increased solubility of the nitre