364' Proceedings of the 



and downwards by the influence of the leaves. It will be observed 

 that this theory of M. Giroux differs from that of all former physio- 

 logists, although it has a very slight analogy to that of the late 

 M. du Petit-Thouars. The memoir in which the theory is developed, 

 although long, is not sufficiently so for the purpose, as each proposi- 

 tion might have furnished matter for a separate memoir, if supported 

 by such facts and multiplied experiments, and illustrated by such 

 plates as would be necessary to establish its truth. Such a work 

 would have been an entire treatise of vegetable anatomy and physics, 

 and would occupy more time than M. Giroux de Busaringues (whose 

 main attention is devoted to agriculture, and with whom physiological 

 studies are but an occasional recreation) could afford to bestow upon 

 it ; and he has, consequently, rather detailed than proved his opinions, 

 This memoir must, therefore, be considered rather as affording 

 materials for the exercise of the industry of other physiologists, than 

 as establishing any new theory. In this point of view the reporters 

 consider the work to merit the approbation of the Academy. 



African Plants. On the 26th of September, M. Auguste de St. 

 Hilaire read a report on the memoir by M. Vallot, entitled ' Notice 

 sur plusieurs Veg&aux mentionne's par les Voyageurs modernes qui 

 ont parcouru PAfrique Centrale.' The object of this memoir is to 

 refer to their proper places in the scientific nomenclature the dif- 

 ferent plants mentioned under their vulgar names by various modern 

 travellers in Central Africa. The utility of a work of this descrip- 

 tion is self-evident; the gigantic strides made by the science of 

 botany during the last half century, while they have led to a most 

 intimate acquaintance with the minutest properties of plants, have 

 also been greatly instrumental in confining botanists to a technical 

 style of writing, which renders their accounts unintelligible to the 

 mass of readers. At the same time the descriptions given by un- 

 scientific travellers, although more picturesque, and therefore more 

 generally interesting, are necessarily deficient in those particulars 

 which render the discovery of importance to the scientific world. A 

 work, therefore, which, by showing the relation between the two 

 descriptions, enables the reader of the work of amusement, at once 

 to refer to the work of science, must be of immense advantage ; 

 and M. Vallot, in the execution of his task, has proved himself to 

 be possessed both of sagacity and information. M. de St. Hilaire, 

 however, points out a few errors into which he has inadvertently 

 fallen. Thus the Ochrademus is a reseda, and has nothing in com- 

 mon with the Sodaba decidua of Forskal. The white-barked Euphor- 

 bium of Senegal has been already described by M. Adrien de 

 Jussieu, under the name of Anthostema, and it was, therefore, un- 

 necessary to form it into a new genus. M. Vallot is also probably 

 mistaken in supposing the Cauzaof Caille* (which he is right in con- 

 sidering as zSpondia) to be the Monbin of America ; as M. Perottel, 

 who has travelled both in America and in Senegal, found several 



