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power to give real information, fhould defpife the filly vanity of making new fyftems or arrangements, merely for the fake of being talked of. An artificial method, like that of Linnæus, may be changed a thousand different ways, and each feem belt to its inventor. If any one, defpairing of getting immortality by any other means, should please to name Cryptogamia the first class, and Monandria the laft, I fhauld rank him but with Christopher Knaut, who made about as wife an attempt upon the method of Ray.'

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The rest of Dr. Smith's Difcourfe' contains a flight sketch of the rife and progrefs of natural hiftory, with remarks on fome of the principal authors and their works. The occañonal incidental obfervations are only new; and, as they are not eafily felected, fo their importance does not render the omiffron a fubject of regret. The Difcourfe is, on the whole, jus dicious and able. The dried plants of Kalm are faid to be mouldering away, in the lumber garret of his wifer heir.'

II. Obfervations on fome extraneous Foffils of Switzerland, by M. Tingry, foreign Member of the Linnean Society, Dethonftrator of Chemistry and Natural History at Geneva, &c. -M. Tingry's Effay relates to the impreffions of feeds and ferns found on fome fofils in Switzerland, and thefe defcriptions are introduced by remarks on cofmogony in general, and the origin of mineral oils in particular. Thefe laft are fuppofed to be owing to the decompofition of animal and vegetable bodies, changed by the vapour of minerals. The great fubject of debate has been, whether the former or the latter have contributed the greatest proportion of that principle, which afterwards forms mineral bitumens. Thofe who ar gue for the animals, draw, it is faid, a confequence too important from the number of fhells, without reflecting on the minuteness of the animals, and have not adverted to the few temains of the larger animals, particularly the cetacea. From the frequent decompofition of vegetables, the various changes, which produce the mineral inflammables, are, in our author's opinion, chiefly owing: the oils are either combined with various minerals, in the bowels of the earth, as in clofe veffels; exhaled by fubterraneous heat; or, by the fame cause, in more compact beds, they are hardened to pitch. In the different mines, which M. Tingry has examined, he has never found any of the animal bodies in the progrefs of the process by which they are to become bitumens. The bodies which he defcribes are taken from a mine of ftone-coal in Savoy. The threads of the coal, he tells us, were perceived a little above Taninge, a city of the province of Faucigni in Savoy. They were opened on the fide of a torrent, which falls from

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the mountains of Abondance, and which, after paffing through the city, is united with the Giffre. Their elevation is 168 toifes above the lake of Geneva. The mountain is chiefly cal

careous.

The firft foffil is the trunk of a reed, four inches in diameter, whofe interior hollows are imprinted on the ftony kernel. It contains four articulations, and their divifions penetrate the stone, which is a mixture of hard clay, of fand, and white glimmer. The fecond is a portion of a large leaf, feemingly belonging to the fame reed, whofe fibres are ftrongly marked. The leaf is fix inches wide, but its length is unknown: the mineralifed part is a foot long, without any apparent decrease in the diameter: the ftone is the killas. There are some other leaves of reed and of ferns, with different footstalks and remains of the equifetum and a fpecies of charas in the lamina of a black fchiftus, mixed with calcareous earth: fome of these leaves are mineralifed by martial pyrites, in fuperficial laminæ, on a matrix of fchiftous grit. In another fpecimen, fome black fchiftous leaves are confounded with reneform leaflets, and well-marked footstalks occasionally appearing to belong to the leaflets, which come very near to thofe of the ofmunda regalis. In one fpecimen they were the leaflets of the afplenium nodofum, the filex latifolia nodofa of Plumier, an American fern. Indeed all these prints are of foreign plants. The last foffil is a piece of petrified wood, found near Annecy in Savoy. The ftony matter is a quartz, and it has not altered the texture of the wood. One part of it is converted into a true, black, fpungy coal, which follows the fibres of the wood, and gradually becomes quartz, fenfibly changing its colour and hardness. At one end of the extremities of the foffil there is a beautiful cryftallization of heavy fpar, in fufficiently transparent rhomboidal laminæ. This author's memoir is in French: it fhould have been tranflated in an Appendix. As M. Tingry promises to fend fpecimens of these foffils, and the Society may perhaps chufe to give plates of them, we would recommend them to try how far they can be accurately represented in aqua tinta.

III. Obfervations on the Phalana Bombyx Lubricipeda of Linnæus, and fome other Moths allied to it. By Tho. Marfham, Efq. Secretary to the Linnean Society. In the titlepage to this volume, it will be remarked, that Linnean is fpelt with a fingle e, though in the prefident's Difcourfe, the Swedish naturalift is always called Linnæus. This feems a little contradiction, but it would not have deferved notice, if Mr. Marsham had not always ftyled him Linneus. In a fociety, which has its name from this refpectable author, fome confiftency of ap

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pellation fhould always be preferved, and we would advise them to avoid the contemptible affectation of fome modern authors who call him Linne, as well as the error of adopting a different latinity from his own, for he always called himself Linnæus, very properly, preferving the long e by the diphthong. Linnæan, an adjective derived from the Latin, fhould certainly keep the diftinction of the Latin termination; but, as one volume is already printed, perhaps it may be thought improper rafhly to alter the title: if a fociety was established in honour of the refpectable Grotius, would it be ftyled the Grootan Society, because his Dutch name was Groot-To return to Mr. Marfham. This effay is introduced very properly, by recommending the attention of the fociety to the English infects, their history, and their characters, in the different periods of their transformation. In the present inftance he endeavours. to fhow, that the fpecies of bombyx, which he ftyles erminea and lubricepeda, are in reality different, though confidered by Linnæus as male and female. He defcribes alfo the bombyx mendica, of which the female was not known to Linnæus; and the male, in his cabinet, appears to have been a bad fpecimen, where the black spots on the wings were obliterated. Another fpecies of the bombyx papyratia is added, and a plate representing each accurately coloured is fubjoined.

IV. Defcriptions of four Species of Cypripedium, by Rich. Anthony Salisbury, Efq. F. R. S. Fellow of the Linnean Society. The effential character of the cyripedia, Mr. Salisbury informs us, does not depend so much on the calceform lowerlip of the corolla, as on the peculiar ftructure of the organs fubfervient to the increafe of the fpecies; a circumftance of the greatest importance in diftinguishing all the orchidea. The fpecies defcribed are, the cyrepedium calceolus (L. Sp. Pl. 1340.), the cyrepedium parviflorum (helleborine calceolus dicta of Plukenet, Mant. p. 101.), cyripedium fpectabile (album of Aiton), and cyripedium humile (acaule of Aiton).

V. Defcriptions of ten Species of Lichen collected in the South of Europe. By James Edward Smith, M. D. F. R. S. President of the Linnean Society. - Thefe are chiefly nondefcripts; two only are defcribed in the third volume of Jacquin's Collectanea, and one, the lichens faturninus, by Dickfon.

VI. Some Obfervations on the Natural Hiftory of the Curculio Lapathi and Silpha grifea. By Mr. William Curtis, Fellow of the Linnean Society. The phalana coffus is a very deftructive enemy of the moft ornamental fpecies of the willow; but the curculio lapathi was found in the wood of a young falix viminalis, and difcovered by its depredations, a quantity of the duft of the wood on the ground, in which the

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larva of the filpha grifea was found feeding, On cutting into the wood, the larva of the curculio lapathi was difcovered, greatly refembling the maggot of the hazel-nut, but twice as large. The eggs were probably laid in a crevice of the bark, or in an accidental wound of the tree,

VII. Defcription of the Stylephorus chordatus, a new Fish, By George Shaw, M. D. F. R.S. Fellow of the Linnean Society.This is a new and very fingular genus, very nearly refembling the nantes, though evidently a fifh. We fhall transcribe its generic character:

OCULI pedunculati (feu cylindro craffo brevi impofiti). ROSTRUM productum, furfum fpectans, verfus caput membrana interjecta retractile,

Os terminale, edentulum?

BRANCHIE trium parium fub jugulo fitæ.

PINNÆ pectorales parvæ; dorfalis longitudine dorfi;
CAUDALIS brevis, radiato-fpinofa.

CORPUS longiffimum, compreffum,'

The caudal thread-like procefs of the tail, which gives it the trivial name, feems more than twice as long as the fish. It is. of a filver colour, without fcales, and was taken between the iflands of Cuba and Martinico.

VIII. Defcription of the Hirudo viridis, a new English leech, by George Shaw, M. D. F. R. S. Fellow of the Linnean Society.-This beautiful little animal is denominated from its colour. It is found in waters that are clear and cold, but not cafily frozen; and, in its general outlines, refembles the hirudo complanata. Its motions are like thofe of the hirudo complanata, ftagnalis, & octacula, but it seems to poffefs a greater contractile power than either. The hirudo viridis feems to

be oviparous, and to poffefs, in a degree fcarcely inferior to the polypus, the powers of reproduction.

IX. The Botanical Hiftory of the Canella alba, by Olof Swartz, M. D. Foreign Member of the Linnean Society.It is well known that the canella and winterana were, for a time. fuppofed to be the fame tree, or very nearly related. Aş we have in the Medical Obfervations, a defcription of the winterana, the diftinction is completely afcertained by this very accurate botanical history and defcription of the canella, which cannot be removed from the dodecandria. All the parts of the tree are more or lefs aromatic, and its feeds are the favour. ite food of the columba Jamaicenfis and leucocephala. It is a proof of the neceflity of the ftimulus of fpice in hot climates, that the bark, with the fruit of the capficum, were common ingredients in the food and drink of the Caribbs, and are equally agreeable to the negroes.

X. Defcription of the Cancer ftagnalis of Linnæus. By George Shaw, M. D. F. R. S. Fellow of the Linnean Soci ety. The cancer ftagnalis is a British fpecies, defcribed and delineated by Scheffer. It is frequently feen in the small shallows of rain-water, fo common in fpring and autumn, and with various fimilar inftances, feems to prove that animal germs are univerfally diffufed, combined with every particle of matter, and requiring only a fuitable nidus. It refembles, at firft fight, the fcilla aquatica, or the larva of the dytifcus; but, when accurately examined, is more beautiful and elegant. The legs are flat and filmy, refembling waving wings of the most delicate ftructure. Scheffer calls it the apus pifciformis, for he mistakes the legs for fins. Dr. Shaw defcribes it particu larly in its growth, and adds an account of its very formidable apparatus for taking its prey, which is found only in the male; we fhall tranfcribe the account.

This apparatus confifts of two very long flat trunks, proceeding from between the long hooked parts or exterior fangs, so confpicuous in the male infect. These trunks are generally rolled up. fide by fide, and carried in the fame manner as the probofcis of a butterfly, fo as not to be externally viable, except by a flight protuberance; but when extended they reach to a very confiderable distance, so as to exceed that of the hooks or exterior fangs.

It should be observed that, from the part whence these trunks proceed, the real mouth of the creature is placed, which confifts of two large concave fcales, placed perpendicularly, and furnished with toothed edges, meeting each other. It is from each fide of this mouth that the trunks proceed. The particular structure of the trunks is as follows. The body of each is a long and moderately broad flat part, extended in a straight line when expanded, and ending in a jagged extremity, befet with very sharp teeth, like thofe of a fish: it is alfo divided, from the root to the extremity, into a very great number of tranfverfe spaces, each of which ter minates in a tooth at the edge; fo that the whole trunk is edged on both fides with a continued row of teeth. Befides the tee.h, each trunk is alfo furnished with three lateral branches, or appendages, fituated at fome distance from each other, on the outward edge of the trunk. These lateral branches are armed near the ends with feveral very ftrong and exceffively fharp teeth, not only on the edge, but on the furface itfelf, and on the tips. Lastly, it must not be omitted that the bases of the fangs themselves are furnished with a double range of extremely fharp teeth, of a much larger fize than any of the others: they are placed in fuch a manner that the points of the teeth of one range look exactly contrary to thofe of the other; and by this means mutt enable the infect to commit

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