436 Zoological Society. 



Botany. — M. A. Steinheil (the late) on opposite leaves which 

 become alternate by union. — Arendt on the capillary action of hairs 

 (from the * Flora '). — M. Desmazieres on Cryptogamia new to 

 France. — M. Tulasne on French Ly coper dacece. 



July. — Zoology. — M. Serres on the human allantoic!. — M. d'Or- 

 bigny on the Gasteropoda of the Cretaceous system. Of 325 spe- 

 cies found in the cretaceous strata of France, 250 are new. Out 

 of the total, 81 species belong to the Neocomian (the lowest portion 

 of the Lower Greensand) and 9 to the " Aptien," which two divi- 

 sions form together the " Etage Neocomien" of D'Orbigny, a name 

 equivalent to the Lower Greensand of Dr. Fitton. To the "Albien," 

 i. e. the Gault, belong 77 species; to the " Turonien," i. e. Upper 

 Greensand, 134; and to the " Senonien," i. e. white chalk, 24. Each 

 geological group is marked by an assemblage of peculiar species. 

 The new names given by M. d'Orbigny to the groups will appear to 

 most geologists useless and inconvenient : it is a relic of an old, but 

 very bad habit of French naturalists. — Experimental researches on 

 Inanition, by Dr. Chossat. 



Botany. — M. Mirbel on the anatomy of the Date-Palm. — M. Gau- 

 dichaud's reply to M. Mirbel. — M. A. Meyer on the Daphnacece 

 (from the * Bulletin ' of the Moscow Academy). — M. Bojer on new 

 plants from the South African Islands. — M. Schrenk on new Cheno- 

 podiacecB and Statices (from the * Bulletin' of the Moscow Academy). 



Aug.— Zoology. — M. Matteucci on muscular electricity, 2nd part. 

 — M. Bischoff on the detachment and fecundation of the human 

 egg and of the eggs of Mammalia. — Physiological studies on men- 

 struation, by M. Raciborsky. — M. LerebouUet on the Ligidium Per- 

 soonii of Brandt. With plates. 



Botany. — Note on the distinctive characters which separate vege- 

 tables from animals, and on mineral secretions in plants, by M. Payen. 

 The author, by chemical analysis, comes to the same conclusions which 

 M. Decaisne arrived at by organographical research, viz. that Coral- 

 Una officinalis, Halimeda, Opuntia and their allies are vegetables and 

 true Algse. — Dr. Montague on the tribe of PodaxinecB, and on Gyro- 

 ■phragmium, a new genus of that tribe. — Conspectus generis Gaillo- 

 nia, by Count Jaubert and M. E. Spach. — On some new plants of 

 Abyssinia, by M. Raffineau Delile. — M. Bojer's descriptions of rare 

 plants from the islands of Southern Africa. — Prof. Bernhardi on the 

 metamorphosis of plants (from the 'Flora' of 1843). 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 Dec. ^1,\M2 {continued). — Richard Owen, Esq., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 

 Mr. Eraser exhibited a specimen of the Galago Senegalensis, pro- 

 cured at Cape Coast, Western Africa, and a new species of Shrew 

 from Fernando Po, which he characterized as follows : — 



SoEEX (Crocidura) Poensis. Sor. obscur^fuscus, corpore subtUs 



