494 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



Boleti, Hydnay Clavarioe, Tkelephone, Pistillarice ; the other of 

 the HelvellcSy Morellce, PezizcPy Spathularice, Geoglossa, &c. The 

 characters of these two classes have been developed enough in the 

 foregoing, and it will not be necessary to repeat them. 



By making an application of this new division, the genera Sole- 

 rophyllum and Craterellus will be seen to belong to the first class by 

 their spores ; the Asterophora of Dittmar belongs to the Birsoidese, 

 and determines by its presence the abortion of a species o\' Agaricus, 

 M. Leveille has often found perfectly distinct organs of fructifica- 

 tion on its hymenium ; the genus Solenia and the Peziza perula of 

 Persoon must also be referred to this class. It will be necessary to 

 bring back to the Tliecospori the genera Spathularia, Geoglossiim, 

 Miirula, and perhaps Sparassis, which have been placed by the side 

 of the Clavarice more on account of their form than their fructifica- 

 tion. Finally, the genera Sclerotiuniy Acrospermum, Sclereglossum y 

 and Spermocdiay whose fructification is not yet known, must be se- 

 parated from both the classes. The author thinks that the Cantha- 

 rellusDutrochetiiy which, according to the drawings of M, Turpin, 

 presents the fructification of the Lycoperdacece or of the Sporotri- 

 chum, if examined again would come into the first class. 



He concludes by observing that he adduces a proof in favour of 

 the opinion which M. Turpin has started in the Memoires du Mu- 

 seum d'Histoire Naturellcy and which consists in regarding the 

 number two as the multiple of the Acotyledons, three and five those 

 of the Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. LInstituty No. 203. 



ASCENT OF THE SAP. 



M. Dutrochet communicated the following observations on the 

 ascent of the sap to the Academy of Sciences of Paris. When a 

 branch with leaves is immersed with its basis into water, we know, by 

 the experiments of Hales and Sennebier, that light exercises a great 

 influence on the ascent of the sap from the attraction of the 

 leaves, and that this ascension diminishes considerably in the dark. 

 Sennebier remarked that this influence varied in different species 

 of plants, but he deduced from his experiments no general fact. 

 M. Dutrochet thinks he is able to confirm the following, viz. that 

 those plants which attract the most water in light are those which 

 in the dark attract the least; and, on the contrary, those which in 

 the light attract least, attract the most in the dark. 



Linsiituty No. ^i03. 



MAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE AURORA OF FEB. 1 8TH. 



The following article may supply the deficiency of magnetic ob- 

 servations regretted by Mr. Htinektn at p. 266 of our present 

 volume. 



A letter from M. Matteucci, dated from Forli, in the states of the 

 Church, to M. Donne, announces that the Aurora Borealis of the 

 18th of Feb. exhibited in that neighbourhood a magnificent spec- 

 tacle in tlie north and west of the heavens, from nine in the evening 



