148 Prize Essays proposed hy the 



ta express or feel any doubt about this being M. ccespitosa ; but, admifcUug it 

 lo be so, the plant is so far interesting, that the species is comparatively a new 

 one ; as it is only a few years since it was introduced into the English Flora, 

 and, up to the present time, it has not been ranked among the Scottish spe- 

 cies of Myosotis. Even in Germany, it appears from Hooker, that the plant 

 had not been noticed at the time of the Scottish Flora being published. Ra- 

 ther before that time, it had occurred to me as being undoubtedly a good spe- 



As this paper is already quite long enough for the Journal, 

 to which it is to be sent, I must conclude, with the intentio» 

 of continuing the subject upon a future occasion. 



Castle Street, Aberdeen, ) 

 5th November 1828. f 



The subjects of' Prize Essays proposed by the Dutch Society of 

 Science of Haarlem. 



(The Answers to be given in before the 1st January 1830.^ 



Seeing the chemical analysis of vegetables has made known a great number 

 of vegetable substances, or immediate principles of plants, and which, to all 

 appearance, will be more and more augmented ; and, as chemists differ in their 

 opinions with respect to the nature of these substances newly discovered, 

 which some think to be only modifications of substances previously known ; 

 while others take them for so many different substances, the Society de- 

 sires an exact exposition, founded on positive characters, as well as an account 

 of the use which may be made of these new substances, or of the plants which 

 contain them. 



Is the Tannin^ so called, which is obtained from different plants, a real 

 principle peculiar to these plants, or has this name been given to different 

 substances derived from plants, which have the common property of being as- 

 tringents, and of tanning leather ? By what means may these substances be 

 extracted purest from different plants ; and by what means may it be known 

 that they are not mixed, and that they do not differ from each other ? What 

 is the surest and quickest manner of producing substances adapted for tan- 

 ning, by treating coal, or indigo, or other vegetable substances, by acids ; and 

 in what does this artificial tannin differ from the natural ? Are they not 

 both similar substances ? In case a more perfect knowledge should be at- 

 tained of the different tanning substances, of what use might it be, as well for 

 the different trades and manufactures, as for the use that might be made of it 

 In medicine ? 



What are in general the advantages and illustrations which, since Mai- 

 ler's time,*physiology, or the physical history of man, has derived from zool- 

 ogy or comparative anatomy ? What are, in particular, the organs of the 



