that have four stigmata, and in which the fruit is evidently quadrangular, at least in some of its parts. Such in particular are the schoenus mariscus, the gahnia psittacorum of M. de la Billardiere, and a very remarkable new genus brought from the Cape by M. du Petit Thouars, and which M. de Beauvois calls tetraria, on account of the repetition of a quaternary number in the different parts of its flower.

M. de Beauvois concludes from his observations that the number of stigmata has an importance more than sufficient to furnish the generic characters. This will be so much the more advantageous, as some genera of cypereæ have very numerous species, very difficult to distinguish.

M. de Beauvois has likewise made new observations, which in his opinion more and more confirm a notion which he has long entertained and supported, respecting the fructification of mosses; namely, that the green powder which fills the urns, and which Hedwig considers as the seed, is nothing else than the pollen; and that the true seed is contained in what botanists term the columella of the urn.

M. de Beauvois has remarked, that at first this green powder, like the pollen, is nothing else than a compact, shapeless mass, which gradually acquires consistence, and at last divides into powder, the grains of which are united by small filaments, and composed each of two or three small compartments, full of a humor comparable to the aura seminalis of ordinary pollen; and mixed with other smaller grains which are opaque and ovoid. This successive division holds equally with the powder contained in the reniform bodies of the lycopodiæ, and in the interior of the mushrooms called lycoperdons. The little central body regarded hitherto as a columella, which varies in form in different genera, but preserves nearly the same shape in the same genera, and to which in all cases the green powder is attached, terminates in an appendix, which is prolonged in the opercula of the urn, and which falls off with that opercula; so that the pretended columella is then open, doubtless to facilitate the escape of the little grains which M. de Beauvois has observed there, and which he considers as seeds.

This skilful botanist has observed that in the polytricha and other mosses the small filaments which Hedwig considers as antheræ are still perfect at a period when the powder in the urn has acquired its full developement. But the contrary ought to be the case if these filaments were male organs. They ought to have performed their function and to be decayed, before the green powder, considered as the seed, has come to a state of maturity. Hence M. de Beauvois concludes that the filaments in question are rather female organs. The mosses, then, belong to the class of polygamia; for M. de Beauvois shows that the small opaque grains which he has seen in the columella were also seen and represented by Hedwig, at least in the bryum striatum. The urns of mosses, then, according to M. de Beauvois, are incontestably hermaphrodite flowers.

M. du Petit-Thouars has made the Class acquainted with some interesting observations in vegetable philosophy. One among others shows very well the connexion of the leaves with the woody layer of the same year. When a leaf falls, we see at the base of its pedicle a number of points, variable according to the form of the leaf, and the number of leaflets of which it is composed. These are sections of as many filaments, which are vessels, or rather bundles of the fibres of the leaf. If we examine the place from which the leaf fell, we discover the same points, and we may follow the filaments into the interior of the wood; but if we make the same observation in the spring, upon a leaf newly developed, the filaments will be found to extend only to the surface of the wood. Two or three months after a new layer of wood being formed envelopes them in its thickness.

The same botanist has made curious remarks respecting the relation of the number of stamina with that of the other parts of the flower, and has found that in several genera, as the polygonum, rheum, &c. in which this relation seems very irregular and inconstant, the number of stamina is equal to the sum of the divisions of the calix and pistils taken together. This is a singular fact, the connexion of which with the general structure of the flower is not easily seen.

M. Desvaux has presented a memoir on a family of plants the fructification of which is concealed, namely, the algae, comprehending, among others, all the sea plants called fucus. He has proposed to establish in them several new genera, and has made experiments to ascertain if the filaments by which the fuci adhere to the rocks, and to the bottom of the sea, be true roots. For that purpose, after having detached several feet of their natural adhesions, he fixed them to stones by means of cords, or other artificial methods, and plunged them again into the sea. Having visited them some time after, he found that they had increased very sensibly. It was known, likewise, that some species, as the fucus natans, live and increase very well without being attached to any thing.

M. Lamouroux, Professor at Caen, has sent several memoirs to the Class on the same plants, which his nearness to the sea has enabled him to observe, and to which he gives the name of thalassiophytes. After having pointed out all the divisions of which they are susceptible, he has considered them as furnishing food to man and the inferior animals, as useful in rural and domestic economy, and in the arts. One is astonished to learn how many useful and agreeable purposes they are applied to by different nations. Some eat them directly, or form them into a nourishing and agreeable jelly others employ them for feeding their cattle. They are all capable of furnishing soda, and they constitute an excellent manure. Some furnish sugar, others dye stuffs. Of some mats are made, and drinking vessels, and even musical instruments. What is called Corsican moss constitutes a valuable remedy, &c.

(To be continued.)

ARTICLE XI.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE; AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS
CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE.

I. Lectures.

The following lectures, which were formerly delivered in the Theatre of Anatomy, will in future be delivered in the Medical Theatre, No. 42, Great Windmill-street:

1. On the Laws of the Animal Economy, and the Theory and Practice of Physic: by George Pearson, M. D. F. R. S. senior physician to St. George's Hospital, &c. &c. *

2. On Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Medical Jurisprudence: by Richard Harrison, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and Physician to the Northern Dispensary.

3. On Chemistry: by Granville, M. D.

4. On the Theory and Practice of Surgery: by B. C. Brodie, F.R.S. Assistant Surgeon to St. George's Hospital.

Sir Everard Home's gratuitous lectures to the pupils of St. George's Hospital will also be given in this theatre.

II. Yttro-Cerite.

There has been lately found at Finbo, near Fahlun, in Sweden, a new substance, containing

Messrs. Gahn and Berzelius have given it the name of yttrocerite. It has been found in the form of a powder, of a violet colour, or pale blue, covering pyrophysalite.

III. Steinheilite.

This mineral has been long valued in collections, on account of its blue colour, but has been merely considered as quartz. Count Steinheil, Governor General of Finland, having, however, from the angles of some crystals, considered it as something different from quartz, requested Professor Gadolin to examine it; and he has found it to contain a large quantity of alumina. It appears to be something between quartz and sapphire.

* Some of Dr. Pearson's lectures are delivered at his theatre, in George-street, Hanover-square.

IV. Fluo-Arseniate of Lime.

This is a yellowish substance, which accompanies the oxide of tin at Finbo, near Fahlun. It is seldom got in large masses; but is spread on the quartz or felspar. It is a combination of fluoric and arsenic acids and lime.

V. Gadolinite.

Mr. Berzelius has found that all the gadolinites contain cerium, and that the yttria hitherto obtained from gadolinite has not been pure, but contained cerium. He has lately discovered a method of separating the cerium from the yttria.

VI. New Mass of Native Iron discovered-Blumenbach's Arrangement of the Human Species.

If you can make any use of the following notices for the miscellaneous articles of the next number of your Journal, I beg you will insert them in any manner you think proper. Being again in correspondence with Germany, I may be enabled in future to furnish you with other materials for that part of your publication.

Baron Moll, of Munich, writes to me that towards the end of October, 1814, a mass of native iron, weighing about 200 lbs., has been discovered by a shepherd at Lenarto, in the comitate of Sarosh, on the declivity of a small range subordinate to the Carpathian mountains. Internally it is light steel-grey, approaching to silverwhite; externally it is covered by a slight coat of a dark drown rust; its surface is rough, uneven, and marked with impressions; only three cavities are observed, which may be called cells; but they are without any of the olivine-like substance which has been found within those of the Siberian native iron. The form of this mass is irregular and flat, as if compressed. It is of a very close grain, and takes an excellent polish; its fracture is hackly in a high degree; it is perfectly malleable in the cold; its solution in nitric acid is of a light emerald-green colour. A complete account of it will be given by Professor Sennowitz, at Eperies; and a chemical analysis by Dr. Schuster, of Pesth.

In the New Annual Register for 1813, the following notice has been taken of the Physionomies Nationales, published at Paris :-"This tract is drawn up agreeably to the system of Mr. Blumenbach, who, in truth, has derived his classification from Gemlin (sic), with a mere variation of the names: for the five divisions under which the human species is enumerated by the former, we mean the Caucasian, Mongul, American, Ethiopian, and Malay, are only the white man, brown man, red man, black man, and tawny man of the latter." Whoever is in the least acquainted with the respective merits of the two Professors confronted in this passage, will probably not be disposed to believe that the celebrated

author of so many original works, especially relative to the history of the human species, should have condescended to commit plagiarism on a writer, who, whatever merit his laborious works may be allowed to possess, cannot possibly lay claim to a single original idea relative to the subject in question. The fact is, that Blumenbach published his classification of the human species as early as 1779, in the first edition of his Manual of Natural History; and afterwards (1781) in a new edition of his work De Generis Humani Varietate, &c. In 1788 the same division was adopted by Gmelin in his edition of Linnæus's Systema Naturæ, t. i. p. 23, seq. where, without mentioning the source from which he has derived them, he substitutes five names perfectly improper for designating the varieties of the human species.-Suum cuique !

Believe me, my dear Sir,

British Museum, June 24, 1815.

DEAR SIR,

Your very obedient servant,

CHARLES KONIG

VII. Orthoceratite in a Marble.

(To Dr. Thomson.)

Those of your readers who feel interested in Dr. Fleming's ingenious paper on orthoceratites will find in the Philosophical Transactions for 1757, article 104th, a valuable description of a shell of the same species, discovered in a marble table at an inn in Ghent. The marble was of a coarse grain, and dusky brown colour, interspersed with streaks of white. It was 2 feet 4 inches long-a concamerated tube, of a slender conical figure, and consisted of 66 partitions or concamerations, all filled with the stalactical matter of the marble. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Aberdeen, 1815.

་;

M. W.

VIII. On the Extraction of the Cube Roots of Binomials.
By Mr. Lockhart.

SIR,

(To Dr. Thomson.)

The utility of a method for extracting the cube roots of binomials being well known to your algebraical correspondents, I am anxious that the one which I have given should, if correct, be established past all doubt..

Your correspondent, Mr. Atkinson, supposes that I have made a mistake in respect of the root relating to t. Let it be tried by the proper test of an equation.

252 x = 1296

Where x 18, t = 12, v = 6

Then

648

t = √ 648 + √ 172800 + The cube root of the first number is 6√48, as corrected by Mr. Atkinson.

172800.

6 + √ - 48, not