it had not been made. It treats of the corollæ of this family of plants.

In this last memoir the author shows that every corolla of a synantherea which is not accompanied by stamina, is monstrous or deformed, so as not to afford any character for the definition of the family or tribe. It follows from this that the semi-flowerets of the semi-flosculous plants, and those of the radiated, have only an apparent analogy, which is not capable of undergoing a severe examination.

He assigns to the corolla of the synanthereæ three principal characters, one of which is very remarkable. It is that each of the five petals, of which he supposes the corolla composed, is furnished with two very simple nerves, which run along its edge from one end to the other on each side, and consequently meet at the bottom ; and he attaches to this character so much importance that he proposes to distinguish the family by the name of neuramphipetala. Mr. Robert Brown has described this structure in a book published at London in 1814. But M. Cassini had pointed it out before him in unequivocal terms in the second of the memoirs to which we have alluded.

Combining these observations on the corolla with those which he had before made on the style and stigma, and on the stamina, the author divides the family of the synantheres into 17 natural tribes, namely, lactuce, labiatiflora (which he admits with hesitation), carduacea, xeranthemeæ, echinopside, arctotidice, calendulaceæ, helianthea, ambrosiaceae, anthemidea, inulea, astereæ, senecioneæ, tussilaginea, eupatoriæ, vernoniæ. He disposes these 17 tribes, not in a straight line, but in a circular series, which brings the vernoniæ near the lactuceæ.

An unexpected and very curious result of this interesting memoir is, that by the inspection of a single floweret we can almost always determine to what tribe and genus the species which has produced it belongs.

It is to be wished that M. Henri Cassini would speedily publish his researches on the ovarium of the synanthereæ. This will complete the most profound and original examination to which this family has ever been subjected.

M. le Baron la Peyrouse, Professor of Botany at Thoulouse, and Correspondent of the Institute, has given a memoir on four plants of the Pyrenees belonging to the genus orobus, of the family of papilionaceous plants. The first of these species had been collected by Tournefort, and called by him orobus pyrenaicus latifolius nervosus. It has not again been found alive, and is only known by Tournefort's herbarium, and by those of the botanists of his time. The second, engraved by Plukenet, under the same name, but very different, has always been confounded with that of Tournefort. It is very common in the Pyrenees. After having accurately distinguished these two species by comparative descriptions, M. de la VOL. VII. N° V. 2 C

Peyrouse describes two others quite new, which he found in the same mountains.

M. Desvaux, a botanist of Paris, has endeavoured to subdivide the genera of plants called cerastium and arenaria, now very nume rous, into species. It is chiefly in the greater or less depth of the divisions of the capsule, in the greater or less dilatation of the bases of the stamina, and in some other analogous circumstances, that he thinks he has found characters sufficient to establish the division which he proposes.

Another more general undertaking of the same botanist had for its object the large class of cruciform plants, so remarkable for the uniformity of its structure, and for the great utility of many of its species. In the division of siliculosa he has already established 12 new genera.

M. Kuhnt, a Prussian botanist, has undertaken a new classification of gramina, according to the recent labours of Messrs. de Beauvois and Robert Brown. He makes 12 tribes of them, each founded on a great many characters, such as the number of the styles and stamina, the disposition of the epillets, the number of flowers of each, the consistence and the structure of the glumes and vaginæ.

It is easy to see that such distributions must be studied in the works themselves, and that the most copious analysis would only give an imperfect notion of them. We shall, therefore, satisfy ourselves with having pointed them out.

It has long been supposed by cultivators that the neighbourhood of the barberry is injurious to wheat, and communicates, or at least favours, that species of disease called rust. Philosophers have been in the habit of deriding this opinion of cultivators.

M. Yvard, our associate, at once a farmer and philosopher, has rather chosen to determine the fact by experiment than to embrace blindly the one or the other opinion; and his observations, though not yet decisive, rather incline him to the opinion hitherto considered as a prejudice. Wheat planted round a barberry bush was rusted, while the rest of the grain in the same enclosure remained untouched; nor could M. Yvard find any other cause for this difference than the presence of the suspected plant.

Unfortunately, it may be objected that whole districts exist without barberry, which, however, are not exempt from this disease.

Another troublesome disease of corn is the cockspur (ergot), or that long and pointed production which often comes in place of the grain of rye, and other species of corn, M. Decandolle, Professor at Montpellier, and Correspondent, has presented to the Class a memoir, in which he endeavours to prove that the cockspur is a fungus of the genus sclerotium, which assumes nearly the form of the grain, because at first it is moulded in the envelope of the grain. Its substance is analogous to that of the other sclerotiums. Its growth, like that of all the fungi, is favoured by humidity. Its

chemical nature is more similar to that of the fungi than to the seeds of corn. Its smell, likewise, its taste, and its poisonous properties, agree with its fungous nature. It is known that bread made from blighted wheat occasions serious diseases; among others, the dry gangrene, so well known in Sologne, is ascribed to it. M. Decandolle, aware of the importance of destroying so dangerous a production, or at least of diminishing its propagation, conceives that this object would be, attained by obliging the proprietors in countries subject to the disease to furnish annually a measure agreed upon which should be burnt upon the spot.

This skilful botanist, who has already derived so much advantage from the study of the aberrations of ordinary forms to elucidate the theory of botany, has employed himself, under this point of view, with those brilliant monstrosities called double flowers. Their production is usually ascribed to the transformation of stamina into petals; but M. Decandolle shows that the transformation or multiplication of different other parts of the flower may equally contribute to it. The pistils, for example, change into petals in certain varieties of anemonies. The stamina themselves may be transformed either by their threads or their antheræ ; and it is thus that aquilegia furnishes florists with two sorts of double flowers quite different : and as these two ways of doubling take place only in flowers which have two kinds of petals in the natural state, the author draws from thence a new proof of his assertion that the petals of plants are not specious organs, but only a certain state of the stamina. He points out another kind of double flower, produced by the organs transforming themselves, not into plain petals, but into bundles of petals. This happens most frequently in the families in which the corollæ in the natural state show marks of doubling, as in the pinks. He next examines those flowers in which the alteration of the organs does not amount to a complete transformation, but greatly increases the bulk of certain coloured parts, as happens in hortensia and guelder rose (viburnum opalus). Applying to these different metamorphoses names analogous to those which M. Haüy gives to the different varieties of crystals, he brings them, notwithstanding their apparent irregularity, under certain laws, and a precise nomenclature.

M. de Beauvois, wishing to prevent the fatal accidents so often occasioned by the ignorance of the common people of the qualities of different fungi, has composed a manual for the use of those who are fond of mushrooms, in which he describes, in a language intelligible to every one, the species of this plant which may be eaten without danger, and points out the necessary precautions even with the most innocent of them to prevent them from occasioning any inconvenience; but the most certain rule is only to eat mushrooms raised in beds, and not to eat too many of them.

M. de Mirbel has published the Elements of Vegetable Physiology and of Botany, in two volumes, with a volume of plates. All the important facts respecting the anatomy of plants, their func

tions, their products, and the difference in the structure of their different parts, is explained with clearness, and elucidated by a great number of fine figures, drawn by the author himself with that skill which he is known to possess. The very copious botanical nomenclature is there explained, and the explanations illustrated by examples. We find, likewise, an interesting history of the science, and of those who have most advanced it. The work is terminated by tables of the principal systems, and particularly by a new exposition of the characters of the natural families of plants.

ARTICLE XI.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE; AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS
CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE.

I. Lectures.

The Summer Course of Lectures at the Theatre of Anatomy, Medicine, &c., Blenheim-street, Great Marlborough-street, will begin on Monday, June 3, 1816. Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery by Mr. Brookes, daily at seven in the morning. Dissections as usual. Chemistry and Materia Medica daily at eight in the morning. Theory and Practice of Physic at nine; with examinations by Dr. Ager, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. Three courses are given every year, each occupying nearly four months. Further particulars may be known from Mr. Brookes at the Theatre, or Dr. Ager, 69, Margaret-street, Cavendish-square. Dr. Clutterbuck will begin his Summer Course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic, Materia Medica, and Chemistry, early in June.

11. Cure of Hydrophobia.

Many of my readers are probably aware that bleeding was successfully employed in a case of hydrophobia in India. It was carried (if we recollect right) the length of producing syncope. Professor Hufeland has lately announced that the same remedy has been tried in different instances in Germany, and that it has been equally successful. He promises to publish some of the cases.

III. Extraordinary Preservation of Animal Life without Food. The following very extraordinary fact is published in the Linnæan Transactions, vol. xi. p. 419, on the authority of Thomas Mantell, Esq. A hog was buried in its stye by a fall of part of the chalk cliff under Dover Castle, Dec. 14, 1810. On the 23d of May, or 160 days after the accident, Mr. Mantell was told that some of the workmen employed in removing the fallen chalk had heard the whining of a pig. He encouraged them, in consequence, to clear away the chalk from the stye under the direction of the owner, Mr.

Poole, who was present. He was soon afterwards surprised to see the pig alive extricated from its confinement. Its figure was extremely emaciated, having scarcely any muscles discernible; and its bristles were erect, though not stiff, but soft, clean, and white. The animal was lively, walked well, and took food eagerly. At the time of the accident it was fat, and supposed to have weighed about 160 lbs; but it now weighed only 40 lbs. Mr. Mantell was assured that at the time of the fall there was neither food nor water in the stye, which is a cave about six feet square, dug in the rock, and boarded in the front; and the whole was covered about 30 feet deep in the fallen chalk. The door and other wood in front of the stye had been much nibbled, and the sides of the cave were very smooth, having apparently been constantly licked for obtaining the moisture exuding through the rock. There was no doubt that some of the loose chalk in front had been eaten; and from the appearance of the excrement, it may be conjectured that it had passed more than once through the intestines.

IV. French Academy of Sciences,

By a Royal Edict, dated the 26th of March, 1816, the First Class of the French Institute resumes the name of the Royal Academy of Sciences. It preserves the organisation and distribution in sections of the First Class of the Institute. It is composed as follows:

Sect. 1. Geometry.-MM. le Comte Laplace, le Chevalier Legendre, Lacroix, Biot, Poinsot, Ampere.

Sect. 2. Mechanics.-MM. Perier, de Prony, le Baron Sané, Molard, Cauchy, Breguet,

Sect. 3. Astronomy.-MM. Messier, Cassini, Lefrançais-Lalande, Bouvard, Burckhardt, Arago.

Sect. 4. Geography and Navigation.MM. Buache, Beautemps-Beaupré, Rossel.

Sect. 5. General Physics.-MM. Rochon, Charles, LefevreGineau, Gay-Lussac, Poisson, Girard.

Sect. 6. Chemistry.-MM. le Comte Berthollet, Vauquelin, Deyeux, le Comte Chaptal, Thenard, Thenard.

Sect. 7. Mineralogy.-MM. Sage, Haüy, Duhamel, Lelievre, le Baron Ramond, Brogniard.

Sect. 8. Botany.-MM. de Jussieu, de Lamarck, Desfontaines, Labillardiere, Palissot-Beauvois, Mirbel.

Sect. 9. Rural Economy.-MM. Tessier, Thouin, Huzard, Silvestre, Bosc, Yvart.

Sect. 10. Anatomy and Zoology.-MM. le Comte Lacepède, Richard, Pinel, le Chevalier Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Latreille, Dumenil.

Sect. 11. Medicine and Surgery.-MM. le Chevalier Portal, le Chevalier Halle, le Chevalier Pelletan, le Baron Percy, le Baron Corvisart, Deschamps; le Chevalier Delambre, Perpetual Secretary