Scientific Intelligence — Miscellaneous. 187 



collection, now in the hands of a nephew of the late Monticelli, the 

 distinguished Italian mineralogist, is offered for sale. It contains 

 4U00 specimens. There are over 400 Vesuvian specimens, con- 

 taining the largest and finest suite of Vesuvian specimens and varie- 

 ties extant, all thoroughly labelled. Besides these, it includes also a 

 beautiful series of Elba and Sicilian minerals, and a general collec- 

 tion rich in the species of the most celebrated European localities. — 

 American Journal, vol. xii., No. 36, p. 301. 



10. Science of Pisa. — Pisa is a fine city, and its university con- 

 tains the best general collection in zoology, geology, mineralogy, and 

 botany, in all Italy. It is justly celebrated at home for the high 

 character of its scientific men, and deserves to be generally applauded 

 for their sakes, — Chas. Matteucci, — the two Savi, sons of the re- 

 nowned G. Savi, professor of botany at Pisa until his death, — Jo- 

 seph Meneghini, professor of mineralogy and geology, — Piria, the 

 chemist, are all names of just celebrity, and we found them most 

 agreeable and enthusiastic men. Professor Meneghini is a young 

 man, and has held his office only two years, in place of his unfortu- 

 nate predecessor Professor Pila, who was shot in one of the repub- 

 lican battles in 1848. He is also a zoologist and botanist, and has 

 edited " Observazione Postume di Zoologia Adriatica del Prof. Ste- 

 fano Andrea Renier, Venezia, 1847," containing 16 plates, in folio, 

 principally occupied with figures of sponges. — American Journal, 

 vol. xii.. No. 35, 2d Series, p. 300. 



11. Nocturnal Forest Sounds. — Various and strange are the 

 sounds which strike the ear of one benighted in the forests of Ja- 

 maica. Some of these are the voices of night birds, the rapid arti- 

 culations of the Piramidig, the monotonous call or startling scream 

 of the White Owl, the shrill wail of the Dusky Owl, the hoot of 

 the Potoo, or the loud and reiterated cries of the Clucking Hen ; 

 and some are insect sounds. But, besides these, there are somo 

 which are certainly produced by reptiles, though it is difficult to 

 identify them. Nearly every night, at certain seasons, there 

 ascends from the woods around Content a continual snoring of 

 various tones, the voices of numberless Tree-frogs, or, as they are 

 here called, Toads. They are said to reside in the large ven- 

 tricose leaves of the greater Wild Pines, especially that fine one 

 Tillandsia lingulata^ which, about the end of July, sends up a 

 magnificent flower, somewhat like a huge carnation, with broad 

 outer petals of a rich crimson hue and polished surface, and a cluster 

 of smaller interior ones of pale yellow. In the coolness and mois- 

 ture of these natural reservoirs, always half full of water collected 

 from rains and dews, the Tree-frogs delight to lie, finding in them 

 circumstances eminently congenial for the maintenance of cutaneous 

 humidity, so essential in these reptiles to respiration. They are 

 very rarely seen, and, but for their vocal powers by night, we should 

 scarcely be aware of their existence ; the number and universality 



