IS* Various Indications of Plants tchen burnt. — Fossil Remains. 



ed, as between wheat cut eai-ly and tliat suffered to stand till 

 it is ripe. It is but fair, however, to observe, in conclusion, 

 that hooded wheat from tlie sun being excluded ripens slower, 

 and of course requires more time before it is carted than where 

 the sheaves are inicovered. — S. T. 



VARIOUS INDICATIONS OF PLANTS WHEN BURNT. 



In a treatise on the instinct of plants, or their capability of 

 attracting from the most different mixtures of earth precisely 

 those substances which are proper and necessary to them, 

 Hermbstadt communicates the interesting observation, that 

 the saline contents of a plant may with some experience be 

 guessed at by circumstances attending their burning; viz. in 

 vegetables burning quietly their kali is merely combined with 

 vegetable acids, whilst those burning with a hissing noise, like 

 beet roots, leaves of Anethwn graveolens, Borrago officinalis, 

 Achillea Millefolimn, and the stalks and leaves of Helianthus 

 annmis, and Datura Sframoriium), contain nitre; and those 

 burning with a crackling noise (like Rzimex Acetosa, Artemisia 

 Atjsinthium, Lactuca virosa, and Leontodon Taraxacum) coi>- 

 tain muriate of potash. 



NUMBER OF THE KNOWN SPECIES OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. 



From the collections in the Paris Museums, M. Humboldt 

 estimates {Ann. de Chimie, xvi.) the known species of plants 

 at 56,000, and those of animals at 51,700, among which 44,000 

 insects, 4,000 birds, 700 reptiles, and 500 mammalia. In 

 Europe live about 400 species of birds, 80 mammalia, and 

 30 reptiles, and in the opposite southern zone on the Cape, 

 we find likewise almost five times more birds than mammalia. 

 Towards the equator, the proportion of birds, and particularly 

 of reptiles, increases considerably. However, according to 

 Cuvier's enumeration of fossil animals, it appears that in an- 

 cient periods the globe was inhabited much more by mam- 

 malia than birds. 



FOSSIL REMAINS. 



A discovery of fossil remains was recently made at Atwick, 

 near Hornsea (Yorkshire) ; the portion of a tusk, about thirty- 

 eight inches in length, twenty inches in circumference at the 

 lower end, and weighing four stone two pounds, was dug up. 

 It is of fine ivory, except where slightly decomposed. 



ON PYROLIGNEOUS ACID CONTAINING ALCOHOL. 



On examining different samples of pyroligneous acid, M. DiJ- 

 bereiner lately found alcohol in two of them obtained from 



birchwood. 



