1514.] Llnncean Sociely. jTi 



toes upon each foot, and five fingers upon each hand. An addi- 

 tional little finger growing out of the metacarpal bone of the little 

 finger of each hand, and an additional little toe from tlie meta- 

 tarsal bone of the little toe of each foot. His father has the same 

 peculiarity. Zerah Colburn has five brothers and two sisters. The 

 two sisters and two of the brothers have the natural number of the 

 fingers and toes ; three of the brothers are in the same predicament 

 as Zerah, The peculiarity was brought into the family by Zerah's 

 grandmother. 



The Society, on account of the approaching holidays, adjourned 

 for three Thursdays. 



linn;ean societv. 



On Tuesday, the 7th of December, the remainder of Mr. Keith's 

 paper on the direction of the radicle and plumula of plants was 

 read. He next considered the opinion of Mr. Knight, that the 

 direction of the radicle was owing to gravitation. This opinion is 

 inadequate to account for the phenomena, because it assigns no 

 reason for the upright direction of the stem, which, according to 

 the laws of gravitation, ought to proceed in the same direction as 

 the root. Mr, Keith conceives that the root increases chiefly at the 

 extremity, and that the additional matter is at first fluid. Hence 

 would appear a reason why the root points downwards. The stem, 

 on the other hand, increases by introsusception, which seems best 

 calculated for an upward direction. But this explanation Mr. Keith 

 tliinks unsatisfactory, because the root of the misseltoe first ascends 

 and then descends ; and no theory can account for these opposite 

 directions. Mr. Keith conceives that the direction of the plunmla 

 and radicle of plants must be resolved into vegetable instinct, pre- 

 cisely analogous, and equally inexplicable, with animal instinct. 



On Tuesday, the 21st of December, part of a paper by M. 

 Marschall Von Biberstein was read, on the genus serrattda. It is 

 well known tliat tlie genera serratula, cardiius, and some neigh- 

 bouring genera of Liniiceus, are very imperfect ; and that the 

 species have by succeeding botanists been referred sometimes to one 

 genus, and sometimes to another, according as they derived their 

 character from one part of the flower or the other. Tlie author 

 conceives that the serratula of Linnteus ought to be divided into 

 two genera, to one of which he applies the name serratula, while 

 he distinguishes the other by a different name. He informs us that 

 ill part of his arrangement he had been anticipated by Decandolle, 

 bjit not in the whole. He then gives a technical description of tlie 

 diifercut species of serratula. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



At a meeting on the 3d of December a paper entitled *' Memo- 

 randa relative to the Porpliyrltic veins of St. Agnes in Cornwall" 

 was read. 



The veius described in this paper occur on the coast between St. 



