210 GENEVA SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



to the effect of a series of cold and wet years. The series of meteorological 

 observations conducted at the foot of the Alps, in Switzerland, do not 

 go far enough back to enable us to compare the year 181G and those 

 immediately preceding or following it with the mean temperatures 

 deduced from a great number of years. M. Favrc was only able to in- 

 stitute the comparison by the observations made at the observatory of 

 Paris from the beginning of the century ; these observations show for 

 Paris a series of cold years from 1810 to 1818, in which the lowering 

 of the temperature was more marked in the summer mouths, when the 

 thawing of the ice especially takes place. If we cannot admit a com- 

 plete parallelism between the course of the temperature at Paris and at 

 the foot of the Alps, still the alternations of dry and hot years and cold 

 and wet ones must afford a certain analogy, because they are due to gen- 

 eral phenomena, embracing a considerable part of the surface of the 

 globe. 



M. Ernest Favre presented a summary of the work he is now pub- 

 lishing in the Memoirs of the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, on 

 the geology of the central Caucasian chain ; this work is the result of the 

 exploration recently made of that region, and is accompanied by a geolog- 

 ical chart and numerous cuts. M. Ernest Favre read a memoir on the geo- 

 logical structure of the southern part of the Crimea; among the other con- 

 clusions of this work, M. Favre expresses the idea that the Crimean chain 

 is not, as was thought, a prolongation of the northern chain of the Cau- 

 casus ; the prolongation of the latter to the northwest connects with 

 the granitic zone, which reaches into Poland and into the east of Europe. 

 The Crimea is left, by this prolongation, to the south, and seems rather 

 to belong to the mountains of Turkey and Asia Minor. 



The same member finally communicated the results of an exploration 

 recently made by him, of a mountain of the Yoirons, with the view of 

 verifying the geological section of that mountain, given by his father in 

 his work on the geology of Savoy, He was enabled by this new examina- 

 tion to confirm the perfect accuracy of the section as published. 



Professor Renevier presented to the society geological tables, which 

 are more especially intended for facilitating the teaching of geology and 

 the study of the sedimentary rocks during the organic eras of the globe. 

 These tables contain, under a synoptical form, all the data relating to 

 the succession of the rocks, their geological age, their area, and their 

 most characteristic fossils. 



Professor de Candolle communicated the results of his experiments 

 for studying the manner in which buds receive the impression of the 

 heat that promotes their unfolding; he reaches the conclusion that the 

 beat is collected as well by the wood that bears the bud as by the bud 

 itself 



M. Duby read a memoir on some new, or but little known, mosses, 

 drawn largly from the Delessert collection, and the description of which 

 is illustrated by plates. He discovered among these mosses a new kind, 

 altogether anomalous, to which he gave the name of Hymenoclcision. 



