Zoological Society. 397 



The Elements of Botany. By A. De Jussieu. Translated by 

 J. H. Wilson, F.L.S. &c. Van Voorst. 



The " Cours elementaire " is so well known that it is unnecessary 

 for us now to speak of the great merits it possesses ; we have here 

 merely to express an opinion on the manner in which Mr. Wilson has 

 executed the task of translating into English. Some few points 

 might be adverted to where there is room for improvement, but on 

 the whole the translation is very well done, and exhibits more than 

 the average amount of care and fidelity. With the help of the ori- 

 ginal woodcuts and the adoption of a similar page and type, the En- 

 glish version, which perhaps retains rather too much of the French 

 idiom, has been made quite a reproduction of the original, and as 

 such will prove of great utility to those who cannot use the French 

 version with facility. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



May 23, 1848.— R. C. Griffith. Esq., in the Chair. 

 Observations relating to some of the Foramina at the base 

 OF THE Skull in Mammalia, and on the Classification of 

 the order Carnivora. By H. N. Turner, Jun. 



Of all those parts of an animal frame to which the zoologist maj'' 

 direct his search for characters truly indicative of the affinities of the 

 species, or of the group to which it obviously belongs, there is per- 

 haps none in which a greater number of such characters are presented 

 at one view than in the lower surface of the skull. Here are seen, — 

 not only the teeth, whose differences of structure always have, and 

 always will be, made considerable use of in assigning characters to 

 zoological divisions, in whatever way our opinions as to the value of 

 the characters derived from these organs may be modified by further 

 researches, — but also the form and development of the zygomatic 

 arch, with the capacity of the temporal fossa, and the mode in which 

 the jaw is articulated ; the form and extent of the bony palate, with 

 its pterygoid appendages, the situation of the occipital foramen, and 

 the structure of the condyles to which the atlas articulates, and many 

 other characters of greater or less apparent consequence, may in the 

 under surface of the cranium be all distinguished at a glance. 



Accordingly we find that such of our more modern naturalists 

 whose endeavour has been to fix classification upon a truly philo- 

 sophic basis, instead of resting satisfied with the arbitrary sub- 

 divisions formerly in use, have directed their observations particularly 

 to this part, so that the more obvious characters which it affords 

 have been well observed, and turned to very useful account in deter- 

 mining the extent and affinities of groups ; but in some cases, where, 

 from the very close alliance existing between the genera, the differ- 

 ences presented in this part are necessarily very minute, their im- 

 portance in a zoological point of view has not as j'et been recognized. 

 As some of the characters of which I propose to avail myself in the 



