388 Scientific Intelligence — Botany, 



in remote ages. He referred to the recently-discovered foot-prints 

 of a bird, similar to this gigantic wingless bird of New Zealand (to 

 which he has given the name Dinornis), in the sandstone of Con- 

 necticut. With respect to the country from which these bones have 

 been received, it appears to abound with ferns, whose roots are rich 

 in farinaceous substance, well calculated for the support of the kind 

 of bird to which they are ascribed. When it is remembered that the 

 only animal found in New Zealand, at the time of its discovery by 

 the Europeans, was a small species of rat, it seems extremely pro- 

 bable that this vast bird, having inhabited these islands, as it inha- 

 bited other remote countries, before they were occupied by man, was 

 destroyed by the first settlers, who then, as may be conjectured, 

 having acquired a taste for animal food, and finding no other, took 

 to eating one another. Mr Owen illustrated his discourse by a con- 

 jectural diagram of the figure of the Dinornis. Its height (which he 

 supposes fourteen or fifteen feet from head to foot) was contrasted 

 with that of the birds most nearly resembling it — the cassowary and 

 the ostrich. — Athenceum, No. 850, p. 138. 



BOTANY. 

 6. Flowers and Fruits of Australia. — Many fruits grow and 

 flourish in these colonies which can be reared in England only when 

 they are housed, when means are taken to temper the keenness of the 

 winter's blast, and when the temperature of the air is increased by 

 artificial contrivances. It is a matter of doubt, however, whether 

 anything is gained by the inhabitants of New Holland in this par- 

 ticular ; for many fruits which are admirably adapted to the tem- 

 perature and moist climate of Great Britain, either do not come to 

 perfection, or will not grow at all, in the dry hot atmosphere of 

 New Holland. A decision on the relative advantages and dis- 

 advantages will depend, in this instance, on the tastes of the indivi- 

 dual ; and, in arriving at a conclusion on this point, the native of 

 Great Britain must not forget to bear in mind, that every one is apt 

 to attach somewhat more than its intrinsic value to that which is 

 beyond his reach. For example, the Englishman will be in danger 

 of forming a highly favourable opinion of the capabilities of that 

 country for the growth of fruit, where the orange and the grape 

 flourish and yield abundantly in the open air ; but it will do him no 

 harm to remember, that if the Australian colonist gain the orange 

 and the grape, they lose the apple, the currant, the gooseberry, and 

 tliat most delicious of all fruits, the strawberry. As it is with fruits, 

 80 it is with flowers. The native flowers are many of them exceed- 



