202 Scientific Intelligence. — Ethnography. 



have had a large family, who are alone reported to attain to old 

 age. It ought to be ascertained if this feebleness of constitution 

 is the result of their diet, or of their habits of life. It is the 

 practice of the Iceland mothers to suckle their children only for 

 three days, and then to stuff them with indigestible meats. In- 

 quiry will be made as to ihe consequences of this, and concern- . 

 ing the common diseases of infancy among them. In the Wes- 

 terman Islands, great numbers are destroyed by tetanus. The 

 population is rapidly diminishing. — Finally, it will be investi- 

 gated whether it is true, as certain travellers have stated, that 

 the ices are increasing round the island ; and that the ste- 

 rility of the soil is augmenting ; that the fish themselves are di- 

 minishing, and all the means of subsistence are decreasing, so 

 that, sooner or later, man, thus banished by nature, will cease 

 to leave his foot-print on the desert soil, and, in his absence, the 

 ice and volcanic fires will dispute for the mastery. — Such is an 

 epitome of the instructions which the Commission proposed to 

 put into the hands of Dr Gaymard. Several additional inqui- 

 ries were subsequently suggested : if the Greenland dogs were 

 subject to hydrophobia ; if cretinism was known in the country ; 

 what modifications the climate had induced in the manners, and 

 perhaps even in the organization of the men and animals, who 

 had originally sprung from an European origin ; what is the 

 cause of the intellectual and moral inferiority of the Green- 

 lander in comparison of the European ; whether owing to some 

 defect in physical organization, or the result of ignorance and 

 sheer misery. 



Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately 

 Flowered in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, chiefly in the 

 Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr Graham, Prof of Botany. 



Dyckia. 



Gexeric Character — Calyx 3-partitus, subcarnosii.s, rectus, adpres- 

 sus. Corolla 3-ficla ; segmenta subaequalia, spathulato-rhoniboidea, 

 erecta, nunquara spiralia. Stamina 6; filamenta lanceolata, tubo corol- 

 IjE inserta; antherije sagittate- oblongoe. Germen superum, pj'ramidali- 

 obloiigum. 

 D. rarijiora ; foliis liniari-subulatis, recurvo-patentibus ; spica rariflora ; 

 bracteis membranaceis, adpressis, calyce acutiusculo demidio brevioribus. 



Dyckia rariflora, Shidtcsfil. in System. "Veget. 7- 1 193. 



