Odontopteris Brardii,

Sphenopteris has twice or thrice pinnatifid leaves; the leaflets are narrowest at the base, and the veins generally arranged as if they radiated from the base; the leaflets are more frequently wedge-shaped than any other figure.

Cyclopteris orbicularis.

Schizopteris is like the last, except that the leaf is deeply divided into numerous unequal segments, which are usually lobed and taperpointed.

Under the name of Caulopteris are comprehended all the kinds of stems of tree-ferns. They are found in the form of short, round, or compressed truncheons, marked externally by oblong scars of considerable size, much wider than the spaces that separate them, and Such appearances are owing to the manner in which the woody parts having their surface irregularly interrupted by projecting points. of the leaf when fresh were connected with the stem. The fragments to which this name is given no doubt belong to leaves bearing other names; but as the stems and leaves are never found united, it is impossible to identify them. Remains of tree-fern stems are of such rare occurrence that up to the present time not more than two or three specimens have been found in the rich coal-fields of Great Britain.

Dr. Joseph Hooker observes, with regard to the species of fossil ferns, that the characters on which many of them have been founded are quite insufficient to prove them distinct. He shows that amongst recent ferns the presence of the fructification is alone sufficient to show the identity of forms that, according to the method of procedure amongst fossil ferns, would be widely distinct.

3. Coal Plants with which no existing Analogy has been satisfactorily traced.

Calamites are fossils found in short, jointed, cylindrical, or compressed fragments, with channels furrowed in their sides, and some. times partially surrounded by a bituminous coating, the remains of a cortical integument.

Calamites dubius.

They were originally hollow, but the cavity is usually filled up with the substance into which they themselves are converted. They were separable at their articulations, and, when broken across at that part, show a number of striæ originating in the furrows of the sides, and turning inwards towards the centre of the stem, which however they do not reach. It is not known whether this structure was connected with an imperfect diaphragm stretched across the hollow of the stem at each joint, or whether it merely represents the ends of woody plates of which the solid part of the stem was composed. Their

D.

extremities have been discovered either to taper gradually to a point, or to end abruptly, the intervals becoming shorter and smaller. The latter are believed to have been the root-ends of these plants, the others the extremity of their branches. Various speculations upon the nature of these plants are to be found in M. Adolphe Brongniart's works, and in Lindley and Hutton's 'Fossil Flora.' The former botanist concludes that they were plants allied to Equisetum, only of a more gigantic stature. Later botanists, on the contrary, adduce what they consider ample evidence to show the supposition that Calamites were analogous to Equiseta to be unfounded; and that they more probably were a race of plants which have now become extinct. It is particularly urged that the presence of bark in Calamites, the existence of which M. Adolphe Brongniart admits, is quite conclusive against these plants being related to the Equisetaceae. Dr. Hooker also points out the absence of siliceous matter in the Calamites, a substance always found to be present in recent Equisetacea.

Stigmaria is one of the most common vegetable forms in the coal formation; not a mine is opened, nor a heap of shale thrown out, but there occur fragments of an irregularly-compressed roundish form, apparently portions of a stem, marked externally with small cavities in the centre of slight tubercles arranged irregularly, but somewhat in a quincuncial manner. The axis of these fragments is often hollow, or different in texture from the surrounding part. From the tubercles arise long ribbon-shaped bodies, said to have been traced to the length of twenty feet. Although for a long time regarded as an independent plant, there is now no longer any doubt that Stigmaria is the root of Sigillaria. In various places specimens of Sigillaria have been found standing upright in situ, with the Stigmaria proceeding from it as roots.

tions of a relationship with any individual group higher in the series, or with Cycadece in particular, appear to me far too feeble to justify our considering it as tending to unite these two natural orders." It is a plant which must be considered as belonging to the great family of Ferns, displaying a relationship, though only of analogy, to Cycadece in one point and to Euphorbiacea and Cactaceae in others."

Asterophyllites are very common plants, with narrow pointed whorled leaves, which vary in figure and in size, but which, together with the slenderness of the stem to which they belong, give the plants much the appearance of the modern genus Galium. They present however no further affinity to Exogenous Plants than this analogy of form. Sphenophyllum, with many of the characters of the last genus, has broad wedge-shaped leaves, the veins of which are forked. That circumstance has led to the notion that it was related to Ferns, especially to the genus Marsilea.

Stigmaria ficoides.

Sigillaria comprehends all those columnar gigantic stems which occur commonly in the sandstone of the coal in an erect or nearly erect position, but which are prostrate and crushed flat in the coalshale, and which are marked by flutings with a single row of small scars between them. In diameter they vary from 6 to 36 inches, and they must have sometimes been full 40 or 50 feet high.

It is believed, from the very compressed state of many specimens, that these plants must have been of a soft nature, and, from the general absence of scars of large size, that they must have been very little branched.

Of the foliage of Sigillaria little or nothing is known. The scars, especially in the larger species, are much too broad to be regarded as the point of attachment of leaves such as may be supposed to have been the case in Lepidodendron. The great mass of the stems of Sigil laria seems to have been of a soft and succulent character, but the remains of a central column of a denser texture are sufficiently obvious in many of the upright stems. These have been called Endogenites. "That this slender column," says Dr. Hooker, "represented all the vascular tissue of this plant, I cannot doubt from examination of Stigmaria, whose vascular column often assumes the same appearance." The affinities of these plants have been variously estimated. Artis, Lindley, Hutton, and Corda, have referred them to Euphorbiacea; Schlotheim to Palms; Von Martius to Cactaceae; Sternberg to Ferns; Brongniart to Cycadacea. Dr. Hooker, regarding Sigillaria elegans as their type, places them not far from Lycopodiacea, and near to Lepidodendron. "That it was," he says, "of much completer structure and higher organisation than either, is incontestable; but the indica

Sphenophyllum Schlotheimii. Asterophyllites foliosus. Such are the more common of the plants whose remains are traced in the coal-measures. One of the first things which strikes us in casting the eye on the list is the little variety of form apparent in the old flora. Instead of the infinite diversity of plants which are contained in a modern forest, nothing here presents itself except fir-trees, ferns, and a small number of species whose nature is unknown. Not a trace is found of grasses, or the numerous herbs and shrubs that are now met with in all regions clothed with vegetation; and of the vast class of Exogens not one authentic instance occurs. Ferns, too, would seem to have constituted in themselves one-half of the entire Flora, and yet it is only in a few rare cases that they have been met with in a state of fructification. These circumstances have led to the hasty inference that in the beginning nature was in reality but little diversified; that a few forms of organisation of the lower kind only were all that clothed the face of the earth; and that it was only in after-ages that nature assumed her many-coloured ever-varying robe. And yet it has been at the same time admitted that in those early days vegetation was more luxuriant and vigorous than at the present hour. It is not a little singular that the true explanation of this circumstance should not have been hit upon without any direct experiment having

been instituted for the purpose of demonstrating how it is really to be explained; for, considering that all geologists are of accord in the opinion that the plants which formed coal were for a period of some duration floating in water, a partial destruction of them might easily have been supposed to be the result. Professor Lindley has proved that plants are capable of enduring suspension in water in very different degrees, some resisting a long suspension almost without change, others rapidly decomposing and disappearing. One hundred and seventy-seven plants were thrown into a vessel containing fresh water; among them were species belonging to the natural orders of which the flora of the coal-measures consists, and also to the common orders, which, from their general dispersion over the globe at the present day, it might have been expected should be found there. In two years one hundred and twenty-one species had entirely disappeared; and of the fifty-six which still remained, the most perfect specimens were those of Coniferous Plants, Palms, Lycopodiaceae, and the like; thus showing in the clearest manner that the meagre character of the Coal Flora may be owing to the different capabilities of different plants of resisting destruction in water. The same experiment accounts for the want of fructification in fossil ferns; for it showed that one of the consequences of long immersion in water is a destruction of the fructification of those plants.

A much more important fact is the presence of certain tropical forms of vegetation, such as tree-ferns, in the coal; and the quasitropical character of other species, as Araucaria-like Coniferæ. This is the more startling when connected with another fact, that the coalmeasures of Newcastle are of the same age as those of Newfoundland, and even of Melville Island, in 75° N. lat.

From this it has been inferred that the northern parts of the world enjoyed in remote ages a climate where frost and snow, and the inclement seasons of arctic regions were unknown; that they were at least as hot as equinoctial countries now are; and that the inhospitable hyperborean plains of Melville Island at one time displayed the noble scene of a luxuriant and stately vegetation. Palms, it has been said, were there, and they are the especial and princely denizens of the tropics; tree-ferns occur, and they now only exist in the primeval forests of the torrid zone, haunting their deepest recesses, breathing a damp and equable atmosphere, and living, like vegetable eremites, without even a parasite to fix itself upon their trunks and keep them company. Stigmaria, Sigillaria, and even Calamites have been enlisted in the cause of this theory, notwithstanding that no one can say what they may have been. And in confirmation of all this, the preponderance of ferns has been appealed to as having its parallel nowhere except in the hottest and dampest islands of Polynesia. In opposition to this view it has been asserted that the presence of these tropical forms of vegetation in northern latitudes is no proof of what the climate in which they were deposited formerly was, because they may have been drifted to their present situations by currents. The perfect state of many of the remains offers however great difficulties in the way of this supposition; for although they are very much broken, yet the angles of most fossil plants are by no means water-worn, and in Sigillariæ, &c. are as sharp as they ever were. Nor is the state of those tropical stems and fruits, which in modern times reach the coasts of Ireland and Norway, at all like that of the buried plants of the coal-measures.

Another difficulty in the way of admitting a high temperature in northern regions in former days is suggested by considering the duration of the days. Without a diurnal change of light and darkness plants cannot exist; absence of light blanches them, by the accumulation of undecomposed carbonic acid; absence of darkness destroys or dwarfs and deforms them, by the incessant decomposition of their carbonic acid. Now, however this may be reconciled with a country like England, in which the winter days are of moderate length, it is less reconcilable with the northern parts of North America, and not at all with Melville Island, in which there are 94 days when the sun is never above the horizon, and 104 days that he never sets. With regard to the transportation of the coal, the absence of indications of washing, and the frequent occurrence of upright stems, seem to lead to the conclusion that in most instances the plants which formed coal have grown at the most within a few hundred miles of the places where they are now deposited, and probably in their very vicinity. From this statement we must at present except the coal of Melville Island; for although the vegetable impressions in the English coalmeasures are by no means water-worn, yet those in the British Museum from Melville Island are so rubbed and damaged that there is no doubt they have travelled long distances before they were deposited.

The opinion that the plants of the coal-measures afford evidence that the climate where they grew must have been tropical, has been founded upon three classes of facts, each of which requires separate examination; the one, the excessive development of certain forms of vegetation; another, the presence of the remains of palms and treeferns, which are usually considered incapable of existing unless in a tropical atmosphere; the third, the excessive disproportion of ferns to other plants.

With regard to the first argument it may be answered, that we know too little of the real nature of the Sigillaria, Lepidodendra, Calamites, and other plants, to form a correct opinion. It is almost

certain that all these plants are in reality destitute of living analogies; and therefore as we do not know what they were, we have no means of judging what kind of climate they required. Supposing that some of the Lepidodendra were closely allied to the modern genus Araucaria, as is highly probable, yet that fact does not afford any proof of a tropical climate; for Araucaria Dombeyi now inhabits the cold mountains of southern Chili, and is at this day uninjured in the severest of our English winters; while Cunninghamia Sinensis, and species of Callitris or Dacrydium, with which other remains of Lepidodendra may be compared, although not European, are by no means of tropical habits, but are found on the mountains of New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land, where they are exposed to a far from temperate climate. Moreover, Salisburia adiantifolia, which would certainly be considered a tropical form of Coniferæ, if found in an extinct state only, is one of the hardiest of trees, and a native of the rigorous climate of Japan. But even supposing Sigillariæ could be found to have been succulent plants, allied to Cactaceae or Euphorbiacea, as some think, still no real evidence of their having required a tropical climate for their development would be afforded by them, because there is nothing in the mere organisation of succulent plants which unfits them for cold climates. A capability of enduring cold is something immaterial and independent of organisation, about which nothing can be judged! à priori; for turnips, cabbages, Jerusalem artichokes, house-leek, and many other hardy plants are in parts as succulent as Cactaceae. All arguments therefore to prove that the north of Europe was formerly tropical, deduced from the presence of such plants as those now mentioned, are inadmissible.

Nor is the argument derived from the presence of palms and treeferns of much greater force. In the first place, we have seen that there is really no grounds for believing that palms existed; and as for tree-ferns, we have them in New Zealand, and especially on the south side of Van Diemen's Land, where the mean temperature probably does not exceed 54° Fahrenheit. So that, all things considered, it is by no means safe to take the remains of these plants as good evidence of a tropical climate, or of a climate materially unlike that which we now experience.

The only remaining argument to be considered is that derived from the great preponderance of ferns in the Coal Flora. It is said by Adolphe Brongniart, that as it is only in damp tropical regions that we now find ferns equal in the number of their species to all the species of other plants, and as this same proportion is found in the Coal Flora, that therefore the climate under which the Coal Flora was produced must have been damp and tropical. But as, by the experiment already mentioned, it was shown that when a given number of plants of entirely different habits are plunged into the same vessel of water, by far the greater part is decomposed before ferns begin to be affected, it is obvious that no estimate of what the proportion of ferns to other plants really was, can now be formed; and consequently this argument also falls to the ground.

From these facts it appears then that we may safely adopt the following conclusions:

1. That coal is of vegetable origin.

2. That at the period of its deposit, the earth was covered with a rich vegetation, of which only a small portion has been preserved; and that of this portion all the species and several of the races are totally unknown at the present day.

3. That the climate may possibly have been something milder than it now is, but that there is no evidence in the vegetable kingdom to show that it was materially different from that of the present day. The following is a list of the species of plants that have been found in the coal-measures of Great Britain, as given by Professor Tennant in his 'Stratigraphical List of British Fossils.' Very few species indeed appear to have been found in other parts of the world that are not found in Great Britain :

Alethoptheris Cistii, Gopp.
A. heterophylla, Gopp.
A. Lindleyana, Presl.
A. lonchitidis, Sternb.
A. Mantelli, Gopp.
A. nervosa, Gopp.
A. Sauverii, Gopp.
A. Serra, Gopp.
A. Serlii, Gopp.

A. urophylla, Gopp.
A. vulgatior, Sternb.
Anabathra pulcherrima, Lindley.
Annularia fertilis, Sternb.
A. longifolia, Brong.
Antholithes anomalus, Morris.
A. Pitcairnia, Lindley.
Aphlebia adnascens, Presl.
Artisia approximata, Brong.
A. distans, Brong.
A. transversa, Presl.
Aspidiaria Anglica, Presl.
A. confluens, Presl.
A. cristata, Presl.

A. quadrangularis, Presl.
A. undulata, Presl.
Asterophyllites comosus, Lindley.

A. foliosus, Lindley.

A. galioides, Lindley.

A. jubatus, Lindley.

A. rigidus, Lindley.

Bechera charaformis, Sternb.
B. grandis, Sternb.

Bornia equisetiformis, Sternb.
Bruckmannia grandis, Lindley.
B. longifolia, Sternb..
B. rigida, Sternb.

B. tenuifolia, Sternb.
B. tuberculata, Sternb.
Calamites approximatus, Brong.
C. cannaformis, Schlot.
C. Cistii, Brong.
C. decoratus, Brong.
C. dubius, Brong.
C. inæqualis, Brong.
C. Lindleyi, Sternb.
C. nodosus Schlot,

C. pachyderma, Brong.
C. ramosus, Brong.
C. Steinhaueri, Brong.
C. Suckowii, Brong.
C. undulatus, Brong.
C. varians, Sternb.

H. tortuosa, Lindley.

H. tuberculosa, Lindley.

Lepidodendron Bucklandi, Brong. S. leioderma, Brong.

S. lævigata, Brong.

S. Murchisoni, Lindley.

S. oculata, Lindley.

S. notata, Brong.

S. ornatum, Brong.

More recent investigations have enlarged this list at the same time it should be remembered, that there is considerable doubt as to whether all these forms should be regarded as species. The following table drawn up by Mr. Pattison in his chapters on Fossil Botany will give an idea of the comparative abundance and diversity of the plants of the Coal period in Great Britain as compared with that of any other geological period

COASSUS. [CERVIDE.]

COBÆA'CEÆ, a small natural order of Plants, separated by D. Don from Polemoniacea. It has a leafy 5-cleft -equal calyx; an inferior campanulate regular 5-lobed corolla, imbricate in æstivation; 5 unequal stamens rising from the base of the corolla, with 2-celled compressed anthers; superior 3-celled ovary, surrounded by a fleshy annular hypogynous disc; the ovules several, ascending; simple style; trifid stigma; the fruit capsular, 3-celled, 3-valved, with a septicidal dehiscence; the placenta very large, 3-cornered in the axis, its angles touching the line of dehiscence of the pericarpium; the seeds flat, winged, imbricated in a double row, their integument mucilaginous, fleshy albumen, and a straight embryo; the cotyledons foliaceous; the radicle inferior. The species are climbing shrubs, with alternate pinnated leaves, the common petiole being converted into a tendril. G. Don observes that this order is readily distinguished from Bignoniacea and Pedalinea by the flowers being regular and pentandrous, and in the presence of albumen in the seeds; and from Polemoniacea by habit and its winged seeds. Lindley places the genus Cobaea, which is the only one of the order, in Polemoniaceæ, and says, "The differences of importance between the one and the other appear to consist in the former having an unusually large lobed disc, a septicidal dehiscence, and climbing habit; distinctions, I fear, of too little moment to be admitted as of ordinal value."

There are two species of Cobaea, C. scandens and C. lutea: the former has large campanulate flowers, with a short tube of a dark dirty purple colour; the latter has yellowish flowers, about half the size of those of C. scandens. The C. scandens is a great favourite in our gardens, and is a rapid-growing and abundant-flowering climber. It will grow in the open air in summer, and should be trained against a south wall, or against a house, when it flowers profusely. It is adapted for conservatories and greenhouses. It may be propagated by seeds or cuttings.

(Don, Dichlamydeous Plants; Lindley, Natural System.)

COBALT ORES. Cobalt is not found in the native state, and its ores, though not numerous, require a more minute examination than they have hitherto received. We shall notice those which are best known.

Bright White Cobalt or White Cobalt occurs crystalline and massive; the primary form is a cube, the planes of which are usually striated; colour silver-white; streak grayish-black; lustre metallic; hardness 5.5, yielding with difficulty to the knife, and not very frangible; specific gravity 6-3 to 65; fracture uneven; cleavage parallel to the faces of the cube; before the blowpipe on charcoal gives arsenical fumes, and tinges borax of a deep blue.

It is found in fine crystals at Tunaberg in Sweden, in Norway, Silesia, and Cornwall.

It is met with also amorphous, arborescent, botryoidal, and stalactitic. The following is the analysis of the crystals from Tunaberg by Klaproth and Stromeyer :

Tin-White Cobalt or Hard White Cobalt occurs massive and crystallised in cubes and octahedrons; colour tin-white, but sometimes externally tarnished; fracture fine-grained and uneven; lustre metallic; it yields with difficulty to the knife, and is hard and brittle; specific gravity variously stated, from 674 to 77; yields arsenical vapour when heated with the blowpipe, and tinges borax deep blue.

The massive is amorphous, arborescent, botryoidal, &c. The amorphous occurs in Cornwall, and the crystallised at Skutterud in Norway. Analysis of the crystals by Stromeyer :—

Cobalt Arsenic.

Iron Sulphur.

33.10

43.46

3.23

20.00

99.79

Gray Cobalt occurs massive and crystallised; primary form a cube; colour grayish tin-white; streak grayish-black; lustre metallic; hardness 5.5; specific gravity 6:466; fracture uneven; cleavage indistinct. The massive occurs amorphous and reticulated. It is found principally at Schneeberg in Saxony, and is used in the manufacture of smalt.

Earthy Cobalt occurs massive, amorphous, botryoidal, pulverulent, &c.; colour yellowish-brown and bluish-black; specific gravity 2 to 2.4; the fracture of the massive is earthy and dull, but polished by friction, and yields to the knife readily; when heated on charcoal gives an arsenical odour, and a deep blue colour with borax: it is found in Hesse, Saxony, Bohemia, and also in Cheshire and Cornwall. Sulphuret of Cobalt occurs yellowish-white and steel-gray; streak gray; it is amorphous or botryoidal, and externally brilliant; fracture uneven. According to Hisinger it consists of

Cobalt Copper Iron Sulphur

Earthy Matter

43.2

14.4

3.53

38.50

⚫33

Sulphate of Cobalt-Red Vitriol-is of a pale rose-red colour, and occurs investing other minerals, in small masses and in stalactites; the masses are semi-transparent and crystalline; it is soluble in water; translucent; lustre vitreous, often dull externally: it occurs among the mining heaps near Hanau and in Salzburg.

COBALTINE, an Arsenical Ore of Cobalt containing sulphur. It is of a silver-white colour inclining to red. It is also called white cobalt. [COBALT ORES.]

COBI'TIS, a genus of Fishes belonging to the Abdominal Mala copterygii and family Cyprinida. This genus includes the Loaches, fishes generally of diminutive size, which may be distinguished by their having the head small; mouth but slightly cleft, without teeth, and furnished with barbules on the upper lip; body elongated, covered with small scales, and invested with a mucous secretion; ventral fins situated far back, dorsal fin placed above them; gillopenings small; branchiostegous rays three in number. C. barbatula, the Loach, Loche, or Beardie, is common in most of our running waters. It is about 4 inches in length, and of a dirty pale-yellow colour, mottled with brown; its upper lip is furnished with six barbules, one of which springs from each corner of the mouth, and the others are situated on the fore part. Like fishes in general which have barbules, the Loaches feed at the bottom of the water. The species above described spawns in March or early in April, and is very prolific.

C. tania (Linn.), the Spined Loach, or Groundling, is a far less common species than the above; its form is more compressed; the barbules are very short, and consequently less conspicuous: the principal character however consists in its having two spines, one before each eye. From this character and some other differences of minor importance, this fish, and several others having the same structure, have been separated from the true loaches, and now constitute the genus Botia of Mr. Gray.

The Loaches are extremely restless during stormy weather, when they generally rise to the surface of the water, which from their restlessness is kept in constant agitation.

COB-NUT or HOG-NUT, a name given in the West Indies to the fruit of a species of Omphalea. [OMPHALEA.] It is also applied to the larger forms of the cultivated Hazel-Nut. [FILBERT. A. & S. Div.] COBRA. [NALA]

COCA, the dried leaf of Erythroxylon Coca, is one of those stimulating narcotics which belong to the same class with tobacco and opium, but is more remarkable than either of them in its effects upon the human system. The plant is found wild in Peru, according to Pöppig, in the environs of Cuchero, and on the stony summit of the Cerro de San Cristobal. It is cultivated extensively in the mild but very moist climate of the Andes of Peru, at from 2000 to 5000 feet above the sea: in colder situations it is apt to be killed, and in warmer districts the leaf loses its flavour.

A detailed account of it is given by Pöppig and Sir William Hooker in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine,' whence we extract the following information. It forms a shrub from 4 to 8 feet high, the stem covered with whitish tubercles, which appear to be

Erythroxylon Coca.

The effects of this drug are said to be of the most pernicious nature, exceeding even opium in the destruction of mental and bodily powers. The coca leaf is chewed by the Peruvians, mixed with finely-powdered chalk, and brings on a state of apathy and indifference to all surrounding objects, the desire for which increases so much with indulgence in it, that a confirmed Coca-chewer is said never to have been reclaimed. Pöppig describes such a person in his usual graphic manner :

"Useless for every active pursuit in life, and the slave of his passions, even more than the drunkard, he exposes himself to the greatest dangers for the sake of gratifying this propensity. As the stimulus of the coca is most fully developed when the body is exhausted with toil, or the mind with conversation, the poor victim then hastens to some retreat in a gloomy native wood, and flinging himself under a tree, remains stretched out there, heedless of night or of storms, unprotected by covering or by fire, unconscious of the floods of rain and of the tremendous winds which sweep the forest; and after yielding himself, for two or three entire days, to the occupation of chewing coca, returns home to his abode, with trembling limbs and a pallid countenance, the miserable spectacle of unnatural enjoyment. Whoever accidentally meets the Coquero under such circumstances, and by speaking interrupts the effect of this intoxication, is sure to draw upon himself the hatred of the half-maddened creature. The man who is once seized with the passion for this practice, if placed in circumstances which favour its indulgence, is a ruined being. Many instances were related to us in Peru, where young people of the best families, by occasionally visiting the forests, have begun using the coca for the sake of passing the time away, and, acquiring a relish for it, have, from that period, been lost to civilisation; as if seized by some malevolent instinct, they refuse to return to their homes; and, resisting the entreaties of their friends, who occasionally discover the haunts of these unhappy fugitives, either retire to some more distant solitude, or take the first opportunity of escaping when they have been brought back to the towns."

The immoderate addiction of the Peruvians to the use of this drug is such that their forests have long since ceased to be able to supply their wants; and the cultivation of the plant has been carried to a very great extent, not only under the Incas, but beneath the local government of the Spaniards, who seem to have been no more able to resist the temptation of a large revenue from the monopoly of this article than European nations from the consumption of ardent spirits. It is said that in the year 1583 the government of Potosi derived a sum of not less than 500,000 dollars from the consumption of 90,000 to 100,000 baskets of the leaf. The cultivation of Coca is therefore an important feature in Peruvian husbandry, and, it is added, so lucrative, that a coca plantation, whose original cost and current expenses amounted to 2500 dollars during the first 20 months, will, at the end of 10 months more, bring a clear income of 1700 dollars. Pöppig states that Coca has now become a sort of necessary evil; that thousands of persons would b