292 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



made on board H. M. ship Beagle at Santa Cruz, the vessel lying at 

 the time a quarter of a mile from the shore. One set was made in 

 the cabin of Captain J. Wickham, R.N., and the other upon the 

 quarter deck in the shade. During the stay of the vessel, v^rhich 

 was only five days, the mean temperature (from these two sets of 

 observations, taken three times a day, and in the unusually warm 

 month of July,) was found to be 76°Fahr., a difference of less than 

 eight degrees, which serves fully to corroborate Dr. Savinon's obser- 

 vations, if we consider that one series of observations was made at 

 an altitude of 1 800 feet, and through an uninterrupted period of 

 eight years, and the other at the level of the sea, and during a pe- 

 riod of only five days. 



The quantity of rain which fell at Teneriife in 1812 was 19*33 

 inches, of which 5*24 inches fell in January in twenty-four hours. 

 In 1813, 25-22 inches. 



In Dr. Savinon's MSS. the following particulars are recorded of 

 a tempest of wind and rain which visited the Canary Islands in the 

 night between the 7th and 8th of November 1826. In the Island 

 of TenerifFe alone (though much damage was done in all the islands) 

 there were 311 houses destroyed and 114 houses ruined, 243 per- 

 sons killed, and 1042 animals destroyed. Thus may be seen the 

 fury with which these storms sometimes rage*. 



XLV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



** In order to. meet any objections which may be made by those who 

 have had no opportunity of examining these subjects more closely, 

 I will just remark, en passant, that Corda's- history of the develop- 

 ment of the Coniferce, \Acta Leop. Carol., xvii. pars 11,) coincides 

 with Nature in the fewest points possible. It has caused me much 

 pain, on account of some eminent men, who, having neither oppor- 

 tunity nor time to examine into the case, and judging of others by 

 their own conscientiousness, have allowed themselves to be led into 

 a precipitate admiration. It is however, in this case, impossible to 

 absolve them from all blame, since the memoir exhibits its character 

 openly enough. For in the first page it is stated ; * Since the appear- 

 ance of Robert Brown's writings, and his journey through Germany, 

 every one is acquainted with the general results of his observations, 

 so that I consider it superfluous to give, in this place, an accurate 

 account of them.' Now it is well known that Mr. Brown had 

 already published, in 1832, his discovery of the entrance of one or 

 more pollen tubes into the micropyle ; and those persons who had 



• Further particulars of this tempest will be found in Mr. Alison's 

 paper on the Peak of Teneriflfe, in Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. viii. 

 p. 26 ; and tables of meteorological observations made in the island at 

 p. 439 — 441 of the same volume; in which also Mr. Alison discusses the 

 decrement of temperature as observed in his ascent of the Peak, p. 248.— 

 Edit. 



