180 -Dr. Forrhhammer on the i [Aug. 



is 6-cut, the lobes blunt, irregular, reddish marbled. A speci- 

 men of the flower, but which arrived in a very bad state, and of 



' two young flowers, unopened, and appearing like cabbages, have 



'been received in this country; the latter have been dissected, and 

 drawings made of them by Mr. Bauer, which drawings, and the 

 remains of the specimens, are deposited in the library of the 

 munificent patron of natural historj^, Sir Joseph Banks, whose 



• recent death we have, in common with every other naturalist 



i throughout the world, reason to deplore. 



On reviewing this hasty sketch of the progress of botany for 

 the last year or two, no one can avoid being struck with the 

 rapid progress made by the natural system, and the continually 

 -increasing neglect of the sexual arrangement of Linnaeus. Even 

 in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society the papers are, with 

 : scarce a single exception, upon the plan, and couched in the Ian 

 guage, of that school which professes to follow nature through al 

 her devious windings, whatever may be the difficulties that occur 

 in the search. This release from the fetters of authority, 

 cannot but augur good to the science ; and we have no doubt, 

 but that in a few years, botany will be able to regain the time 

 which has been lost in the arrangement of plants by the mere 

 number, proportion, and connexion of their sexual organs, 

 to the total neglect of the study of their affinities, and the rising 

 generation of botanists look back with astonishment at the ex- 

 clusive reception of the Linnsean system, and the neglect of the 

 systems of Rivinus, Tournefort, and Ray ; the first of which is 

 certainly more simple, and better adapted for a mere pinax than 

 that of Linnaeus. 



Article II. 



On two Acids of Manganese, the Manganeseous and the Manga- 

 nesic Acid. By Dr. G. Forrhhammer. 



It has been long known that potash or nitre when mixed with 

 black oxide of manganese, and ignited, forms a compound, 

 ■which dissolves in water with a green colour, and which, when 

 exposed to the air, soon changes its colour to a beautiful purple. 

 This compound, well known under the name chamce/eon mineral, 

 has been viewed by chemists in quite a different way. Some 

 persons have considered it as a compound of protoxide of man- 

 ganese and potash ; some even as suboxide united to the 

 alkaUes ; while others are of opinion that it consists of peroxide 

 and potash. Scheele, however, showed long ago that the green 

 body, when heated with arsenic or charcoal, soon lost its colour 



