Bibliographical Notices. 225 



especially attacked. I cannot however agree with M. Dassen ; for 

 all the valuable observations which Meyer had enumerated respect- 

 ing this phenomenon may be explained in a different sense, and in 

 fact more in accordance with nature, if we start from the general 

 point of view, by the periodical occurrence of sleep, which appears to 

 be common to all animated beings. M. Dassen placed a pot containing 

 Impatiens noli tang ere during the night in a dark place, and the re- 

 sult was, that the leaves even during the following day retained 

 the same direction. Another plant was placed during the daytime 

 in a dark place, and for two entire days the leaves retained the usual 

 direction which is proper to them in the daytime. From these 

 and other experiments M. D. concludes that the motions of plants 

 without swellings are caused solely by the process of vegetation, and 

 that this is rendered evident as soon as the leaves are exposed to un- 

 natural external influences. 



I ask then, whether from the examples cited, the phenomenon 

 of vegetable sleep can be denied ? On the contrary, phenomena 

 exactly similar may be proved to exist in animals. 



The second paper in the present part, by Prof. B. Fries on the genus 

 Syngnathus, will be found translated in No. VIII. of this Journal. 



3. Metamorphosis observed in Syngnathus lumbriciformis, by Prof. 

 B. Fries. This interesting paper, which will find its place in one of 

 our following numbers, contains a most curious fact hitherto unob- 

 served in the class of fish ; namely, that the young of this beautiful 

 species at their development from the egg have the entire tail covered 

 with a fin -like membrane and possess pectoral fins. These at a sub- 

 sequent unknown period are thrown off in a way similar to that of 

 the larvae of frogs rejecting their tails. 



4. Considerations on the Dentition of the Carnivora (First Part 

 Ferce) by Prof. Wiegmann. The great length of this memoir and its 

 not being concluded in the present part obliges us to reserve the no- 

 tice of it till the next part. 



We now come to Prof. Meyen's Annual Report of the Results of 

 the labours in the field of Physiological Botany during the year 1837. 

 We mentioned in our first notice of this work, vol. i. p. 23 1 . the nature 

 and value of these elaborate reports, and expressed our sorrow at not 

 being able from want of space to give translations of those on Botany 

 and Zoology. The perusal of the present report has increased our 

 regret, as it contains detailed analyses and reviews of most of the 

 important memoirs and works on physiological botany published du- 

 ring the past year. Among others we may mention some by Mirbel, 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 2. No. 9. Nov. 1838. q 



