JVatural History Society of Mtiuritius. 139 



jfifteen days of tempest, five in February, four in March, three 

 in December, and one in each of the months of April, May 

 and July. Of 120 days of rain there were 19 in the month of 

 July, and 18 in March ; in June it rained only three times, and 

 twice in October. It was, however, in April that the greatest 

 quantity of moisture fell, during 15 days of it, in Avhich there 

 was rain. This amounted to 116. 7. lines. The whole quantity 

 during the year was 5/5 lines, or in round numbers, 4 French 

 feet. The maximum of atmospheric pressure was on the 8th 

 July, at two o'clock, P.M., and amounted to 28 inches, 5. 7- 

 lines. The minimum was 27 inches, 11. 11. lineS on the 30th 

 December at mid-day. The centigrade thermometer reached 

 32° 5, on the 9th January, and on the 31st August in the 

 morning, it was 16° 2. The air hygrometer attained it*: 

 maximum of 100° 1, on the 2d April, at five in the morning; 

 and its minimum of 75°, on the 4th February, towards the 

 middle of the day. On the lOth April the monsoon changed, 

 and the south-east wind returned again on the 14th October, 

 No hurricane occurred at the Mauritius during that year ; but 

 its neighbouring island of Bourbon was not so fortunate. 



Aghiculture. 

 Mr. Geneve, senior, communicated a Memoir on the intro- 

 duction of the Vanilla (Epidendrum Vanilla) into the Mauritius 

 and Bourbon, of which several sets were received in 1817 and 

 1818, from the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. Several pods of 

 It were gathered in August and September, 1831. Damp and 

 fehady grounds suit this plant best ; and the trees on which it is 

 most favorably raised are .the Erythrina Indica, the Laurus 

 Persea, the Spoudeas Dulcis, and the Hyperanthera Moringa. 

 The introduction of this plant into these islands is, as the 

 Report proceeds to remark, another proof of the advantages to 

 be derived from botanical establishments. It was from the 

 Jardin des Plantes also that the coffee tree was transmitted to 

 the West Indies, and dispersed thence over America, and from 

 thence was the Bread-fruit tree of the Friendly Islands intro- 

 duced into Cayenne. 



Botany. 

 Mr. L, Boutons announced that many of the plants which he 

 had described, and transmitted to Europe, had been ascertained 

 to be new to science. 



Ornitiiologv. 

 Mr. J. Desjardins gave a detailed description of a specimen 

 of Chevalier (^Totanus Cuv. R.A.) the Scolopax glottis, Lin., 

 which was shot in the quarter De Flacq in December 1830. It 

 is not known to have before occurred at the Mauritius. 



Ichthyology. 

 Mr. Lienard, senior, read a discussion of a new species of 



