obituary. 165 



Comparative Estimate of the Meteorological Circumstances 



UNDER WHICH CoRN, MaiZE, AND POTATOES, VEGETATE AT THE EaUA- 



TOR AND UNDER THE TEMPERATE ZoNE. — In comparing the results which 

 he has collected, M. Boussingault* arrives at this conclusion : The number 

 of days which separates the commencement of the vegetation of an annual 

 plant is, in each climate, in inverse ratio to the mean temperature under the 

 influence of which the vegetation takes place; so that the product of this 

 number of daj-s by the temperature is constant. This result, says M. B., is 

 not only important as proving that the same ainiual plant receives through- 

 out, during its existence, an equal quantity of heat, but it may also enable us 

 to foresee the possibility of acclimating a plant in any country of which the 

 mean temperature of the months is known. — Compte rendu de VAcademie des 

 Sciences, January 30, 1837. 



OBITUARY. 



Mr. Edward Donovan, F.L.S., author of works on British Birds, British 

 Insects, British Fishes, and on the Insects of India and New Holland, all 

 splendidly illustrated, died February 1, 1837, leaving behind him a large fa- 

 mily in destitute circumstances. 



Henry Adolph Schrader, Professor of Botany at Gottingen, author of Spi- 

 cilegium Florae Germanicts, 1794, and Flora Germanica, vol. 1st, 1806, and of 

 various essays on exotic plants, has recently departed for another world.f 

 His Flora Germanica has a high reputation, but it only extends through the 

 class Triandria. There is an elaborate and very useful list of the botanical 

 writers of Germany at the commencement. The Flora Britannica of Smith 

 is spoken of in Germany as inferior only to the Flora Germanica of Schrader- 



Adam Afzaleus, Professor of Botany at Upsal, and the Nestor of scientific 

 men in Sweden, died January 30, 1837, aged 86. He was the last pupil of 

 liinneus, and distinguished, like all the pupils of that great man, for his ex- 

 act botanical knowledge. He is . orated for his travels in Asia and Africa, 

 and contributed two papers to l-.e Transactions of the Linnean Society, " On 

 the Botanical History of Tri/olium alpestre, T. medium, and T. pratense, in 

 1798. Professor Afzaleus resided in Sierra Leone for several years, and 

 published his principal work. Genera Plantarum Guincensium, in 1804. He 

 also wrote several dissertations on the medicinal plants of Sierra Leone, be- 

 sides some other works. His African herbarium is now in the British Mu- 

 seum. His younger brothers, John and Peter— the former devoted to Che- 

 mistry, the latter to Medicine — are both distinguished for their talents, and 

 have, for nearly half a century, occupied chairs in the University of Upsal. 



* In the Bibliotheque Univertelle de Geneve — an excellent monthly miscellany — an inte- 

 resting table of the results obtained by M. B. are given, to which we refer our reatlers for 

 further particulars. — Eds. An. 



+ We should be glad if any correspondent could favour us with the exact date of the 

 demise of Schrader. — Eds. .Jh. 



