490 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



body and its slender fore legs ; but in a subject beset with such difficulties nothing 

 very positive can be determined. In estimating the size of Chir other ium we 

 have no means of comparison except those furnished by known genera. The 

 present species of Didelphis are comparatively small, whereas this animal appears 

 to have been of gigantic size. The Virginian Opossum, to which it seems to 

 have approximated most closely in the structure of its feet, is about twelve inches 

 long, and its foot is about one inch in length ; while in the animal before us we 

 find the hind feet nine times that length, and the body was probably of a pro- 

 portionate size. If we take this as our standard, we should have an animal about 

 four feet high, and six or seven feet in length, probably with a long prehensile 

 tail, nearly the length of the body. And this size will agree very closely with 

 all that we know of the gigantic scale on which the inhabitants of the old world 

 were constructed. Pursuing the investigation still further, we find that the 

 opposable thumb of the hind foot is intended to fit the Opossum tribe for scaling 

 trees, in search of food, and to find a place of repose ; and when we conceive an 

 animal of the magnitude laid down possessed of the same habits, it affords us a 

 new evidence of the enormous size of those vegetable productions which must 

 have been necessary to support such a weight on their branches, and which were 

 formerly natives of these regions. 



In the course of the evening a large drawing of the supposed restoration of the 

 animal was exhibited. 



Since the meeting of the Society several new and interesting facts have been 

 discovered; these will be embodied in a report, with illustrative engravings, 

 which the Society is about to publish. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 



July 6. — J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., Pres., in the chair. — The Secretary read a 

 paper from R. H. Schomburgk, Esq. (dated Curassawaka, Lower Prussunung, 

 Feb. 22, 1838), "On Bertholletia excelsa" a tree of the first size. The trunk is 

 straight, the bark deeply furrowed, and of a dark grey colour ; it reaches to the 

 height of from ninety to a hundred feet before it divides into spreading alternate 

 branches. The locuments which the green fruit possesses are only thin mem- 

 branous bodies, scarcely to be recognized when it has come to maturity. The 

 nuts are placed around the quadrangular spermaphorunse, in four rows, one over 

 the other. There are generally from twenty to twenty-four nuts — seldom more. 

 Many are opened by Monkeys, Peccarys, and other animals, who appear to be 

 very fond of them. The bark is easily separable, like all Lecytkidece, and the 

 liber is beaten by the Indians into a mass, which they use in lieu of tinder. The 

 wood is bitter, soft, and inside generally hollow. The Canbees call the fruit and 

 tree Batonka, the Wapishanas Menga, and the Macousis Imprema. The paper 



