I 



PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, OF GENEVA. 269 



Duby has given to this genus is Snnodontea, and the species has been 

 called Spathoiclea. 



M. de Caudolle has stated to the society that a plant, the Linnea 

 horealis, whose existence in our vicinity has been unknown since De 

 Saussnre found it growing upon the Yoirons, had been discovered b\' 

 M. P. Privat, upon the pass of Oche. 



M. W. Barbey presented to the society an article upon plants of the 

 genus Einlohium. In this genus there are some especial difficulties in 

 the determination of species, concerning which there is great uncer- 

 tainty, notwithstanding numerous investigations. The seed ought to 

 furnish the best characteristics for determination, but the Upilobla mul- 

 tiply readily by suckers, which favors the permanence of the hybrid 

 specimens which abound in this genus. These plants are found in 

 great abundance in New Zealand. 



M. Humbert has presented several very interesting communications 

 upon some publications relative to natural history, particularly upon 

 the work of Hceckel on calcareous sponges. 



I ought also to mention several reviews, presented by different mem- 

 bers, of published works; among others, that of M. Ernest Favre, of 

 the work of M. Barrande upon the Silurian formation of Bohemia, and 

 those of M. Micheli, of the new edition of the treatise on botany of M. 

 Sachs, and of a work of M. Krauss, professor of botany at Erlangen, 

 upon the coloring matter of chlorophyl. 



If I do not dwell upon communications of this kind, it is because, in 

 the reports of the president, as I have said before, it is customary to 

 confine attention principally to original papers; but I cannot terminate 

 this report without special notice of the communication, so fnll of in- 

 terest, made by M. Alphonse de Candolle to the society, in its session of 

 June, 1873, the last at which I had the honor to preside. In announc- 

 ing the publication of the seventeenth and last volume of the Frodromus 

 &ystematis naturaUs regrii vef/etahilis, he gave an historical summary ot 

 this great and important work. I willingly extend this detailed account 

 of what I consider one of the most glorious memorials of the science of 

 Geneva. 



The idea of making a complete revision of the vegetable kingdom 

 was conceived by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, during the last years 

 of his residence in Montpellier, about 1813 or 1814. 



The end he proposed to himself then, especially, was to improve and 

 diffuse the knowledge of the natural system he was the first to make 

 use of, in an important flora, (Flore fran9aise, 1805,) and the principles 

 of which he unfolded in his elementary treatise, (1813.) He began 

 with some monographs of families, very carefully elaborated, which he 

 published in two volumes called Regni v eg etab His sy sterna naturalc, (1818 

 and 1821.) He soon saw that to treat every family in this way would be 

 beyond the powers of one man, and would require a great deal too much 

 time, even supposing, as was then believed, that the number of species 



