Imperial institute of France. 397 



ha.'] long existed in Europe, but which, from its not havins: 

 flowered, could not having been arranged in the system oT 

 vegetables; 



The leguminous plants are not less important, as furnishing 

 a number of nutritious articles of food for rhen and animals, 

 various pharmaceutical substances, several jfums employed 

 in the arts, and some precious wo;)ds : but. Tike all the very 

 natural families, it is difficult to subdivide them with pre- 

 cision ; which is nevertheless the more important, as the 

 number of the vegetables which it contains is already very 

 considerable, and more are discovered every day. 



M. Jaume Saint Hiiaire has presented to the Class a 

 memoir accompanied by several drawings made by himself, 

 in which he claims new characters for the leguminous 

 plants, founded chiefly upon the form of the fruit, and 

 which appear to this botanist more constant and more easy 

 to seize than those formerly employed. He adds besides 

 several new genera to those which are already admitted. 



There is a family much less important in its uses, but 

 much more singular in its characters, and which is only to 

 be found on the sea-shore: this is the family of the fuel 

 and analogous marine plants. M. Lamouroux, professor 

 of natural history at Caen, has made them one of the chief 

 objects of his study. He gives them the common name of 

 Tlialusslo-phytes, and divides them into several tribes, the 

 characters of which he was obliged to take, from all the 

 parts of the vegetable, for want of finding a sufficiency iii, 

 the organs of fructification, which generally serve as a basis 

 to these kinds of distributions, but whigh are too little 

 kn'.>vvn in most of the fuci to enable us to have recourse to 

 them solely. 



We regret that wc cannot enter more fullv into thi^ 

 valuable paper, and have to add our wishes for its speedy 

 publication. 



Zoology, Anatomy, and Animal Fhysiolog;y. 

 M. (jcoflTroy Saint Hiiaire, who has repeatedly directed 

 his researches to the natural history of the bat, and has 

 made us acquainted with so many interesting species, pur- 

 poses to give a general view of aH the species. As a 

 prelude to this work, he has written a dissertation upon the 

 rank which these singular animals ought to occupy amoni^ 

 the mnmniit<*j-2e. They have been long regarded as an in- 

 tcrmeduiic ueiuis between quadrupeds and birds, and it is 

 at least equally true that thev hold a kind of middle place 

 between quadrumanous and carnivorous auimaU. In short, 

 ii b 2 amid 



