308 French Nalmial InstUute. 



and in which he distributes those denominated ci/naro- 

 eephaLi, according to the lateral or terminal insertion of the 

 grain. 



In general the present year has shown that botany is cul- 

 tivated in France with more ardour than ever. The me- 

 moir of M. du Petil-Thouars on the family of the orchidece, 

 the forerunner of a large work on the natural families of 

 plants, which this eminent botanist is about to publish, — 

 the memoir of M. Longciianip on the iiarcissi, — themouo- 

 graphy of the eryiigla, by IvJ. de la Roche, — have added 

 greatly to the fame of their respective authors. 



M. du Petit-Thouars in particular has come to the reso- 

 lution of publishing ixis theory of vegetation, founded on 

 the development in two directions, which he admits in the 

 shoots, and of which we have already given an idea in pre- 

 ceding reports. 



M. Ventenat terminated his laborious career by a memoir 

 on the genera sainyda and ccesaria, of which he makes 

 a new family closely allied to the rhamnoide^' : this last 

 effort of his genius was intended for the continuation of 

 the Jardin du Cels, a work which his death inierrupted. 



The history of animals has been enriched by the com- 

 pletion of M. Olivier's work on the coleopterous 'w\s&c\?>, and 

 by his description of all the gelatinous animals brought to- 

 gether. by Linnneus undei: the head of meduscc. M, Peron, 

 who collected a very great number of them in his voyage 

 to the South Seas, adding his own observations to those of 

 his predecessors, makes this family amount to upwards of 

 one hundred and fifty species. It is perhaps necessary to 

 give M. Peron's words on this subject when detailing the 

 singularities of these zoophytes: ^' Their substance seems 

 to be nothing but coagulated water, and nevertheless they 

 exercise the most important functions of life ; their multi- 

 plication is prodigious, and yet we know nothing of their 

 peculiar mode of generation ; they are sometimes several 

 feet in diameter, and 30 or 60 pounds in weight, and their 

 nutritive system escapes our view ; they execute the most 

 rapid motions, and the details of their muscular system are 

 imperceptible; they have a kind of very active respiration, 

 and its actual scat is a mystery ; they appear extremely 

 feeble, and considerable numbers of fishes make them their 

 daily prey: the zoophytes in question fchine in the darkest 

 nights like globes of lire ; some of them burn and render 

 torpid the hand which touches them, — the principles and 

 agents of these two properties rcitiain still to be discovered.'*" 



The 



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