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PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Natural History in Foreign Countries, 



FRANCE. 



Electro- Attraction of Leaves. — The influence of electricity on organ- 

 ised nature, both animal and vegetable, appears to be progressively better 

 understood. The state of the atmospheric electricity is well known to exert a 

 very marked influence on man, in respect of health and disease ; and it is a 

 considerable step in the explanation of the sources of this, which has been 

 ascertained, if not discovered, by M. Astier. His experiments have led him to 

 conclude that the leaves, the hairs, the thorns, &c., of plants, tend to main- 

 tain in them the requisite proportion of electricity ; and, by drawing off 

 from the atmosphere what is superabundant, that they also act in some mea- 

 sure as thunder-rods and paragreles. In one of his experiments, M. Astier 

 insulated the thorns of growing plants ; and, upon being exposed to the 

 atmosphere when the electrical equilibrium was disturbed, they distinctly 

 affected the electrometer. {Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles.) 



Evaporation on Mountains. — It has been ascertained by the experiments 

 of M. van Marum, that vapours are more largely exhaled from the summits 

 of lofty mountains than from the plains below, in consequence, it is sup- 

 posed, of the diminution of atmospheric pressure. {Descript. des Apparetls 

 in Bui. Un.) 



Propagation of Oysters, S^c. — M. S. G. Luroth has made some severe 

 remarks on the paper on this subject, in a recent volume of the Philosophical 

 Transactions, by Sir Everard Home, whom he accuses of superficiality, 

 want of novelty, and, worst of all, gross inaccuracy and credulity. In the 

 points upon which he differs from other naturalists. Sir Everard is farther 

 accused by M. Luroth of not having examined the descriptions previously 

 published, contenting himself with his own very incomplete explanation of 

 the excellent figures of Bauer. MM. Bojanus and Blainville would have 

 set him right as to what he erroneously terms the oviduct in the Anodon- 

 ton, had he taken the trouble^ to consult their writings. {Bulletin des 

 Sciences Nat.) 



Australasian Botany. — M. J. B. A. Guillemin is publishing lithographical 

 figures of the rarer plants of Australasia, under the auspices of M. Benj. 

 Delessert. The first two decades contain figures of 20 plants, described, 

 but not figured, by Brown, in his Prodromus Fldrce Novce HoUdndice. The 

 plates are accompanied by Brown's generic and specific characters, and 

 other explanatory letter-press. {Bui. Un.) 



GERMANY. 



Systematic Arrangement of Acarides. — M. Hey den has undertaken the 

 very difficult task of arranging the family of acarides, or mites, a group of 

 animals which are frequently most important to be understood by the rural 

 cultivator as well as by the naturalist. M. Heyden divides them into 69 



Vol. I. — No. 3. u 



