Linnean Society. 345 
the validity of these new observations, unless the Professor was pre- 
pared to show that his former ones were less worthy of confidence, 
In reply to this, Professor Parrot, in his Appendix, admits that the 
barometrical instruments used in 1811 were imperfect, and that his 
former calculations also were in some respects inaccurate. 
It appears tome perfectly natural that Baron Humboldt, M. Arago, 
and others, should have willingly admitted the supposed fact of a con- 
siderable variation between the levels of the Caspian and Black Seas. 
It is well known that the Mediterranean sustains its level at nearly 
the same height as the ocean, by drawing largely from the Atlantic 
on one side and from the Black Sea on the other. But if these 
constant supplies of water were cut off, if the Straits of Gibraltar 
and Constantinople were closed, and the Mediterranean became an 
inland lake isolated like the Caspian, its level must immediately fall. 
Its loss, by evaporation, would not be counterbalanced by the influx 
of river water, and there would then exist around its borders a tract 
of dry land lower than the ocean. It is true that we have no data 
for deciding to what extent this depression of level would reach; but 
it would present, at least on a small scale, a phzenomenon analogous 
to that supposed to have been established in the case of the Cas- 
pian. 
With every inclination to acknowledge and duly to appreciate the 
honest zeal with which Professor Parrot has laboured to correct his 
first error, 1 may remark that it does not yet appear why three or 
four years were lost after 1829 in putting the scientific world on 
their guard, and above all why the author of the Asiatic Fragments, 
published in 1831, was allowed to remain in ignorance of results 
previously obtained. 
Gentlemen, I have now endeavoured to lay before you a brief 
sketch of the principal subjects referred to in the papers and in the 
discussions which have engaged the attention of the Society during 
the last year. I have confined myself exclusively to our own Pro- 
ceedings ; for the limits of this address would not allow me to give an 
analysis even of all the English works on Geology which have ap- 
peared since our last Anniversary, still less of all those which have 
been published on the Continent. A brief notice of these last would 
indeed require a volume, and this fact alone should inspire us with a 
feeling of strength and confidence in the future progress of Geology, 
which although it had scarcely obtained a recognised place among 
the sciences towards the close of the last century, has already risen 
into such importance as to excite a general interest in every nation 
throughout the world where the works of nature are studied. 
LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
Dec. 15, 1835.—A communication from Charles C. Babington, 
Esq., M.A., F.L.S., on several new or imperfectly understood 
British and European Plants, was read. 
Among the species whose history is elucidated in this paper are 
the following, viz. 
Third Series. Vol. 8. No.47. April 1836. 2M 
