4G2 "French Royal Academy of ScienceL 



li On the best Method of pitting and planting Trees on bare 

 moorish Ground ; by Mr. John Young, of Perth. 



5. On the Advantages of removing the hard and scaly outer 

 Bark of Fruit Trees, &c. ; by Mr. Thomas Thomson. 



Mr. Jardine, one of the Vice-Presidents, announced, that he 

 had received from Dr. David Whyte, of Bombay, a packet con- 

 taining seeds of some curious and rare plants to be presented 

 to the Society. It was agreed that the seeds should be trans- 

 mitted to the Royal Botanic Garden, and the thanks of the 

 Society communicated to Dr. Whyte. 



FRENCH ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Sitting of2ith March 1817. 



M. Desfontaines read a very ample Report upon a memoir of 

 M. Desvaux, intituled Dispositio methodica Generum Lycopo- 

 diorum et Filicum. 



The work of M. Desvaux furnishes us with S^ome new genera, 

 and one hundred and ten species of ferns not hitherto described. 

 Their characters are exposed with exactness, and accompanied 

 with designs. The author adds some observations upon many 

 other ferns already known, and critical notes on their synonyms. 



MM. Ampere and Cauchy made a Report upon a memoir of 

 M. de Maugold, "On the PJanner of calculating Interest." 



It is known that when vrtt take the interest of 5 per cent, at 

 the end of a year as the product of a compound interest, the 

 capitals increase not in arithmetical but in geometrical pro- 

 gression ; so that, for example, to obtain the sum of capital at 

 the end of six month«i, it is necessary, not to add to the original 

 capital 2| per cent, but to multiply that capital by the square- 

 root of l-|-I-20th;, which gives a result somewhat less than by 

 the other process, the geometric mean between two quantities 

 being always less than the arithmetic mean. The tables which 

 M, Maugold has constructed are intended to facilitate the cal- 

 culation of compound interest for any given number of days, 

 and in the opinion of the reporters fliey will Be found of great 

 utility. 



March 31. — M. Burckardt made a Report upon the New Or- 

 reries of M. JamboB, 



The one which has been presented to the Academy is very 

 complete. It represents the motions both of the old and the 

 new planets — the diurnal movement of the earth — the parallelism 

 of its axis of rotation — and the nodes of the lunar orbit. The 

 reporters expressed themselves highly satisfied with it. 



SOCIETY 



