92 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



Nov. 7. — Amongst the numerous donations presented on this oc- 

 casion were an extensive collection of dried plants from Swan 

 River and King George's Sound, bequeathed to the Society by 

 the late Alexander Collie, Esq., F.L.S., Surgeon R.N., and Sur- 

 geon to the Colony of Western Australia ; and another collection 

 of dried plants, chiefly from Congo Soco, in the province of Minas- 

 Geraes, Brazil, presented by Charles James Fox Bunbury, Esq.^ 

 F.L.S.; a collection of the skins of quadrupeds and birds, pre- 

 sented by the Committee of the Australian Museum at Sydney, 

 New South Wales j another, consisting of skins of quadrupeds, birds, 

 reptiles, fruits of Slrychnos toxifera, Lecythis grandijiora, Curataria 

 guianensis, and other productions from British Guiana, presented 

 by Mr. Robert H, Schomburgk. 



Mr. Pamplin, A.L.S., exhibited a plant of the Cystopteris regia 

 obtained from the original station at Low Layton, Essex, in 1835^ 

 and a specimen and a drawing of a curious variety of Ophrys aranifera^ 

 from the vicinity of Dover. 



A flowering plant of the Azara integrifoUa of Ruiz and Pavon was 

 exhibited from the Chelsea Botanic Garden by Mr. William Anderson, 

 F.L.S. Mr. Gould, F.L.S., exhibited a drawing of the Apteryx australis, 

 a remarkable bird of the family of Struthionidce, from New Zealand. 

 Mr. Newman, F.L.S., exhibited British specimens of the Cantharis 

 vesicatoria) the blister-fly of the Pharmacopoeia j the insect, previously 

 considered extremely rare, and almost doubtful as British, having ap- 

 peared during the past autumn by millions in the neighbourhood of 

 Colchester on the ash trees. 



Read a paper entitled '' Systema Vertebratorum," comprising a 

 systematic arrangement of the vertebrate animals. By Charles Lucien 

 Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, F.M.L.S. 



In this paper the learned author, whose extensive knowledge in zo- 

 ology is universally admitted by naturalists, has subdivided the Ferte- 

 braia into the five following classes, which are thus characterized : — • 

 Classis 

 I. — Mammalia. Sanguis calidus : pulmones liberi : genitalia ab 



ano exterius discreta : mammae. Vivipara. 

 II. — MoNOTREMATA. Sanguis calidus : pulmones liberi : cloaca. 

 Ovipara. 

 III. — AvEs. Sanguis calidus : pulmones affixi : alae. Ovipara. 

 IV. — Amphibia. Sanguis frigidus: pulmones liberi. Ovipara vel 



OvO'Vivipara, 

 V. — Pisces. Sanguis frigidus : pulmones nulli : branchiae. Ovi- 

 para vel Ovo-vivipara. 



Each ofthese classes are divided into sub-classes, which are again sub- 

 fiivided into orders and families, which are successively characterized. 

 The first class, mammalia, for example, is divided into two sub- classes, 

 named Quadrupedia and Ceta ; the first comprising ten orders, ar- 



