; 
French National Inflitute. 104 
kinds of fpiceries. The leaves, befides other ufes, may be 
employed as tea; the flowers improve the tafte of brandy, 
and give it a flavour hike that of peaches, &c. The mof im- 
portant part, however, is the feeds. The author defcribed 
the method of cultivating this plant, and alfo of preferving it. 
Profeffor Trommfdorf at Erfort tran{mitted a paper entitled, 
“Collections towards a more accurate knowledge ‘of the 
nature of Strontian earth.” 
FRANCE. 
IN the public fitting of the National Inftitute Vende- 
miaire'15, after anaccount had been read, by the fecretary 
of each clais, of the labours of the Inftitute, C. Camus gave 
an account'of the labours undertaken by the Inftitute asa 
body, or executed under its direétion. 
°C. Cuvier read a learned though fimple and clear memoir 
on an animal, bones of which are found in the plaiter ftone 
inthe neighbourhood of Paris. He began by explaining 
how a fingle-bone, efpecially if it belong to the head, or an 
articulation, is: fufficient to make known very nearly the 
whole ftru@ture of an animal, refpeéting which  naturalifis 
have no other knowledge. A tooth, for example, faid:-he, 
indicates whether an animal is carniyorous, or feeds upon 
_vegetables. If it is carnivorous, its ftomach is formed ina 
certain manner; the animal unites with the means of attack 
and defence the agility neceflary to reach its prey: its feet 
mutt have a certain form: in a word, it has all the habits 
‘common to that kind of animals, &c. After explaining 
this principle; C. Cuvier applied it to the bones found in 
the quarries of plafter flone, and which are fo abundant 
that not a decade pafles but the workmen break feveral of 
them in digging out the ftones, He examined a great. many 
of thefe bones, and thinks himfelf authorifed to affert, that 
they belong to a graminivorous animal fimilar to the camel, 
pot now exifling alive in any known country, . 
C, Dé- 
