French Prize Qiieslin?!s. 6.1 



dolle has made a moderate and iiipenious use of tliem. His 

 work must be of great service, by ii.itroducing more of a philo- 

 sophic spirit into a branch of natural history too much aban- 

 doned to routine, and which still reckons among its followers too 

 manv servile imitators. 



M. de la Peyrouse, of Toulouse, has published an abridged 

 account of the plants of the Pyrenees, in one vol. 8vo. This 

 work, which wa"^ a desideratum in botany, is chiefl^" gathered from 

 the numerous journeys made by the author in this interesting 

 chain of mountains, and comprehends the abridged descriptions 

 of all the species which have been observed there, either by 

 himself or by his predecessors, arranged according to the system 

 of Linnseus, with the names of the places where tiiey grow, and 

 the best drawings of them wliich were to be procured. The 

 work is, upon the whole, an important addition to the French 

 Flora, and an excellent guide for those who wish to visit the 

 interesting mountains of tlie Pyrenees. 

 [ lo be continued.] 



XIII. IntetUgence and Miscellaneous Arlicles. 



\)n Monday the 3d of .lanuarv 1814 the Class of Physical and 

 Mathematical Sciences of France held their first annual meeting. 

 Chevalier Halle presided, and the following was the order of 

 their proceedings : 



After the announcement of the prizes for the year 1814, 

 M. Biot read A discourse on the spirit of invention and inquiry, 

 as connected with the sciences. 



M. Delambre read a notice on the life and WTitings of 

 M. Malus, chief director of the Polylechnic School, and of Count 

 Lagrange, both deceased. 



M. Palissot de Beauvois read a paper on the way in which 

 trees lose their leaves in autumn. 



The meeting was terminated by a notice of the life and writ- 

 ings of M. de Sausure, bv M. Cuvier. 



The Class proposes as the mathematical prize question to be 

 decided in .January 1816, the following subject : The theory of 

 the propagation of waves on the surface of a ponderous fluid of 

 an indefinite depth. The prize will be a gold medal, value 3000 

 francs. The papers to be transmitted before the Ist of October 

 181.5. The result will be announced on the first Monday of 

 January 1816. 



The Class had for the second time proposed as the subject of 

 an extraordinary prize, " The theory of the oscillations of elas- 

 tic ianiinae/' which was to have been decided at the present 



meetiu''. 



