On the Spontaneous Combustion of the Human Body. 169 



and chiefly in women, there exists a particular diathesis, which, 

 conjoined with the asthenia occasioned by age, a hfe of Httle ac- 

 tivity, and the abuse of spirituous Hquors, may give rise to a 

 spontaneous combustion. But we are far from considering as 

 the material cause of this combustion, either alcohol, or hydro- 

 gen, or a superabundance of fat. If alcohol plays a prominent 

 part in this combustion, it is by contributing to its production ; 

 that is to say, it produces, along with the other causes mention- 

 ed, the degeneration of which we have spoken, which gives rise 

 to new products of a highly combustible nature, the reaction of 

 which determines the combustion of the body. 



It is to be regretted that the observations hitherto published 

 are not more complete. We propose to ourselves to collect all 

 that may tend to throw light upon a subject so important in 

 anthropology and medical jurisprudence. 



Description of several New or Rare Plants which have flowered 



in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh^ and chiefly in the Royal 



Botanic Garden, during the last three months. By Dr 



Graham. 



10/A June 1828. 



Begonia dipetala. 



B. dipetala ; fruticosa, erecta ; foliis semicordatls, acutis, subangiilatis, 

 duplicato serrato-dentatis, supra glabriusculis maculatis, infra sangui- 

 neis ad venas subhirsutis ; stipulis semicordatls, subpellucidis, mu- 

 cronulatis, integerrimis ; floribus dipetalis, foemineis inaequalibus, cap- 

 sulae alis subaequalibus, rotundatis. 

 Description — Stem erect, tapering, greyish-brown, with a few small 

 round vermilion spots, scarcely branched in our specimens, which are 

 small. Leaves half heart-shaped, acute, somewhat lobed, without any 

 callosity on the edge, unequally and doubly serrato-dentate, slightly 

 bullate, crisped at the edge when young, above green, with white spots, 

 and having a pellucid short awl-shaped hair rising from the centre of a 

 few of the spots, below blood coloured, but when old blanched, smooth, 

 except at the veins, where there are a few hairs ; veins prominent, espe- 

 cially below ; petioles distichous, at first suberect, afterwards spreading 

 or divaricated, nearly as long as the leaves, round, flattened a little and 

 slightly channelled above. Ci/me axillary, peduncled, drooping, rather 

 longer than the petioles and leaves, dichotomous, peduncles and pedicels 

 flattened, two obsoletenearly opposite bracteoe in the middle|of the female 

 pedicel, none on the male. Flowers pink, dipetalous, handsome, large (fe- 

 male 1 inch broad by | inch long, male J inch in either diameter) ; males 

 in the clefts of the cyme, and on the outside of its subdivisions ; those in 

 the clefts expand first, the others nearly at the same time with the cor- 

 responding females. Petals in the males subrotund, in the females more 

 cordate, in both, but especially the latter, subacuminate. Stamens nu- 

 merous, filaments wedge-shaped at the top, an anther cell being fixed 



