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273 NEW PUBLICATION.
other scented flowers, the remnants of recent religious processions. . . . The
houses of Leon are nearly all but one story high, and built of sun-dried briclfs,
of adobes, and somewhat in the Modrish style, there being a large square yard
in the centre of the houses, surrounded by a broad verandah, on to which all
the rooms open out. . . . The yards, or pateos, are, in some instances, neatly
kept as gardens, where one finds a few Plantain, Orange, Pomegranate, Soursop,
and Mango-trees, as well as Roses, Cockscombs, Gomphrenes, Fraugipanis,
Jessamines, and PoUanthes tuherosa ; highly-scentQd flowers seeming to be
those most cultivated. During tlie dry season these plants require constant
irrigation, the water being obtained from deep wells, of which there is generally
one iu every yard."
In the woods of the neighbourhood
" we frequently perceived a most offensive, carrion-like smell, wliich at first
was thought to come from some dead animal matter, but was speedily traced
to the flowers of a middle-sized tree, in habit not unlike the Caoutchouc {Castilloa
elastiea, Cerv.). This tree our men called ' Palanca,' its wood being
used, amongst other things, for levers or falancas. The leaves were oblong
and velvety, and from the growing branches developed flowers not unlike in
shape and size those of Tuhps. The most remarkable thing was tlaat these
flowers on first opening were quite green, and free from smell, but they gradually
changed into a dark purple, almost black, and then emitted a most powerful
smell, quite as, or rather more disagreeable, than that of some Stapelias,
Aristolochias, and Aroidece, and, iu a less degree, the fruit of St. John's Bread.
It is strange that this carrion-like smell in plants should in so many cases
accompany a dark brown or dark blue colour, and it would be worth while to
endeavour to ascertain the chemical principle here at work. At the base of
each of the six petals, the Palanca has a gland, and I fancied that the smell
principally proceeded from its secretions. To my delight I found that the
plant constituted a new genus of Anonacere, distinguished by having the largest
known petals of the Natural Order to which it belongs. Afterwards I met
with it in abundance between Leon and Gi'anada, and coUected good specimens
of it for our herbaria. At the suggestion of Mr. J. J. Bennett, F.R.S., of the
British Museum, I gave it tlie name of Sap)ranfhus Nicuraf/uensis. I am
sorry to add, however, that my travelling comimnions who afterwards saw me
busy myself with the plant would not adopt this correctly-formed and expressive
Greek name, but insisted upon dubbing it ' Stinkadora."
After remarking on the so-called mimicry of Nature, Dr. Seemann
describes his departure from Leon for the little-known districts of New
Segovia and Matagalpa. \This happened on the 4th of April, the fag-
end of the dry season,
" Towards five o'clock we reached a place called Valle de Zapata, a mere
collection of huts, where a little Indian-corn and cotton was grown, the latter
being the mossy-seeded variety. Tiie people were much disappointed that the
cotton prices hud gone down so much, and thought it a hard case that the
United States should have discontinued their fratricidal war just at a time
when Nicaragua was getting ready to send a few hundred bales of cotton to the
Liverpool market. Cotton cultivation in tliis country has not been successful,
in most seasons a worm entering tlic pods ju?t wlu'ii tliey begin to ripen, and
thus destroying the crops. If it were not for this, the Nicaraguaus delude
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