492 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



to come up, I made a note of it in 

 my register. 1 observed that the 

 old seeds, which ought to have 

 germinated within the year, took 

 less time to do so than the new 

 ones ; and that two old species, 

 the paliurus and the ceanothus, 

 which germinate only during the 

 second and third years in the sow- 

 ings annually maile at the Mu- 

 seum, I'ose at the end of a few 

 days. Does not this prove, that 

 many perennials, like the paliurus, 

 ceanothus, &c. do not come up 

 until the second or third year, be- 

 cause the embryo has not yet at- 

 tained its necessary degree of ma- 

 turity ? or that the juices contained 

 in the cotyledons are not suffi- 

 ciently elaborated — rather than ad- 

 mit, as has been done generally, 

 that the envelopes of the seeds are 

 too hard, and cannot be pierced by 



.the embryo until two or three 

 years expire? This opinion appears 

 to me so much the more erroneous, 

 as, in most fruits or seeds the valves 

 or envelope open naturally, and 

 without any effort: it can only be 

 admitted in a very small number 

 of circumstances ; and I shall add 

 in favour of mine, a fact which was 

 related to me by M. Thouin the 



. elder, the accuracy of which is 

 well known, namely, that garden- 

 ers always prefer for melon beds, 



- such seeds as have been two or 

 three years gathered, to those of 

 the preceding year. 



THE CHAMELION. 



From Forbes's Oriental Memoirs. 



The greatest curiosity is the 

 chamelion(lacertachamaeUon,Lin.) 

 found in every thicket. I kept one 



for several weeks, of which, as it 

 differed in many respects from 

 those described in Arabia, and 

 other places, I shall mention a 

 i'ew particulars. The chamelion of 

 the Concan, including the tail, is 

 about nine inches long ; the body 

 only half that length, varying in 

 circumference, as it is more or less 

 inflated; the head, like that of a 

 fish, is immoveably fixed to the 

 shoulders, but every inconvenience 

 is removed, by the structure of the 

 eyes, which, like spheres rolling 

 on an invisible axis, are placed in 

 deep cavities, projecting from the 

 head: through a small perforation 

 in the exterior convexity, appears 

 a bright pupil, surrounded by a 

 yellow iris, which, by the singular 

 formation and motion of the eye, 

 enables the animal to see what 

 passes before, behind, or on either 

 side ; and it can give one eye all 

 these motions, while the other re- 

 mains perfectly still: a hard rising 

 protects these delicate organs ; 

 another extends from the forehead 

 to the nostrils : the mouth is large, 

 and furnished with teeth, with a 

 tongue half the length of the body, 

 and hollow like an elephant's 

 trunk ; it darts nimbly at flies and 

 other insects, which it seems to 

 prefer to the aerial food generally 

 supposed to be its sustenance. The 

 legs are longer than usual in the 

 lacerta genus ; on the forefeet are 

 three toes nearest the body, and 

 two without; the hinder exactly 

 the reverse; with these claws it 

 clings fast to the branches, to 

 which it sometimes entwines itself 

 by the tail, and remains suspended : 

 the skin is granulated like sha- 

 green, except a range of hard ex- 

 crescences, or denticulations, on the 

 ridge of the back, which are al- 



