100 Mr. C. C. Babington on the British Violets. 



from the union of the indigenae with the settlers of Asiatic 

 origin, the companions of Manco Capac of traditionary fame. 

 Accordingly in the former we observe the receding forehead, 

 the elongated cranium, and the horizontally-placed occipital 

 bone ; and in the latter a modified form, in which, combined 

 with the receding forehead and elongated cranium, there is an 

 elevated vertex and flattened occiput, formed principally by 

 an altered position of the occipital bone ; which, instead of 

 lying on a plane with the horizon, rises in a sloping direction 

 upwards and backwards to meet the parietal bones. 



Note. — After the reading of this paper, Prof. Owen stated that he 

 entertained an opinion that their peculiar form was given to them by 

 pressure, such as might be applied by a bandage passed round the 

 head; and he suggested that a short fillet (about 16 inches long) 

 found with the younger of the two mummies might have been em- 

 ployed for this purpose. This bandage, however, I consider was used 

 to secure the lower extremities to the trunk, and on consideration I 

 am disposed to maintain the same opinion as I have stated above : 

 1st, because this fillet is but 1^ inch wide, whereas the flattened por- 

 tion of the skull is more than 3 inches, extending over the os frontis 

 from immediately above the superciliary ridges to an inch beyond 

 the coronal suture, so as to involve the anterior portion of the pa- 

 rietal bones ; 2nd, the line of depression in these skulls has a direc- 

 tion over the middle of the os occipitis, and then over the anterior 

 third of the parietal bones, first where the angle dips down between 

 the frontal temporal bones, and then immediately behind the coronal 

 suture, and not at all over the os frontis ; 3rd, because, if pressure 

 had been used in this direction, it would have contracted the great 

 fontanelle, of which there is no mark whatever ; indeed in the elder 

 of the two, in which the depressed line is most visible, the fontanelle 

 is most open ; and lastly, if a circular bandage had been applied, it 

 would have given a circular form to that portion at least compressed 

 by it ; whereas however a transverse section, taken by measurement, 

 shows that the skulls have a compressed pyriform figure, the larger 

 extremity representing the flattened and upper surface, and the 

 smaller corresponding with the contracted aspect of the occipital 

 bone. 



XVII. — On the characters of the British Violets. By Charles 

 C. Babington, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



[With a Plate.] 



The remarkable difference which exists between the value of 

 characters in different orders of plants, and sometimes even in 

 genera, — the form or structure of any particular organ being 

 of generic value in one order, specific in another, and some- 

 times not even sufficiently constant to distinguish varieties in 

 a third, — must always give considerable interest to an investi- 



