458 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Jun e, 



M. Menzies. M. Hooker's work bears the title of " Musci 

 Exotici." 



M. Beaiivois continues with the same perseverance the publi- 

 cation of the plants he collected in his travels ; and this year 

 there has appeared the 17th number of his " Flore d'Oware et 

 de Benin," which we have already mentioned several times. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Count de Lacepede, having had the use of some very 

 highly finished paintings, brought from Japan by the late M. 

 Titsing, representing many subjects of natural history, of which 

 those which were known to us are given with great exactness, 

 thought he might regard these paintings as documents sufficiently 

 authentic to establish even the species which are not known in 

 any other way. In consequence of this, he composed from them 

 a description of several cetaceous species which have not yet 

 been observed by European naturahsts. These consist of two 

 whales, properly so called ; that is to say, without a dorsal fin, 

 four balsenoti, or whales, provided with such a fin, one physeter, 

 or cachelot, with a dorsal fin, and one dolphin. 



The author gives a detailed accoimt of the distinctive charac- 

 ters of these eight animals, forming a considerable addition to 

 the catalogue of known cetaceous animals, which, in the last 

 work of M. de Lacepede on this class, did not exceed 34. 



M. Cuvier has presented the head of an orang-outang, of 

 middle age, sent from Calcutta by M. Wallich, Director of the 

 Garden of the Hon. East India Company. He remarks that 

 the heads of orangf-outano-s hitherto described were all taken 

 from very young subjects, which had not yet changed their first 

 teeth, that which he placed before the Academy, being of 

 maturer age, has a more prominent snout, and more receding 

 forehead ; some traces of temporal or occipital crests, may be 

 perceived in it, which occasion a resemblance to the head of the 

 large monkey, known by the name of the pongo of Wurmb. 

 The latter having, besides all the sutures, forms, proportions, 

 foramina, and cavities, characteristic of the orang-outang, it is 

 not impossible that the large monkey of Wurmb may be nothing 

 more than a common full-grown orang-outang. At all events it 

 is certainly a species of orang, although M. Cuvier himself has, 

 from the comparative smallness of the scull, been led into the 

 error of placing it among the mandrills, and other long snouted 

 monkeys. The same member has exhibited the figure of a tapir, 

 a native of Sumatra, and now alive in the menagerie of the 

 Governor-General of the English East Indies, the Marquis of 

 Hastings, it differs from the American tapir, in respect to the 

 whitish colour of part of its back, while the rest of its body is of 

 a very dark brown. It appears from a memoir which accompa- 

 niefl this drawing, and which was sent to M. Cuvier, by M. 



