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divided. Dr. Murchison noticed that many entire clover-fields in the 

 neighbourhood of Turin scarcely contained a single head of flowers, 

 and that the farmers there have this season complained generally of 

 the failure of the clover-seed. The paper was illustrated by drawings 

 and dissections. 



4, ' On the Flora of Bonn, on the Rhine ;' by G. S. Blackie, Esq. 

 The author noticed some of the objects of interest, in a botanical 

 point of view, in the neighbourhood of Bonn, including the Botanic 

 Garden, and the Museum of Natural History at Poppelsdorf, remark- 

 ing particularly upon the geological collection, containing many 

 interesting specimens, some of which were from brown-coal pits at 

 Friesdorf, three miles distant. " The stratum at Friesdorf is, in fact, 

 a forest, buried at an exceedingly remote pei'iod, and now converted 

 into brown coal. The triinks of trees lie in beds of clay and sand, 

 and are found in various stages, from the perfect fossil tree, in which 

 the form and structure are plainly visible, to this coal. The layers of 

 coal alternate with layers of aluminous earth, which furnishes mate- 

 rials for a large alum work, on the same hill. This coal also yields 

 the pigment known by the name of burnt umber, or Cologne earth. 

 At Putzberg, near Friesdorf, trunks of trees ten, and even twelve, feet 

 in diameter have been frequently found.". The author then proceeded 

 to remark : — " Bonn possesses a salubrious climate, severe winter, 

 early spring, and very warm summer. It stands near the head of that 

 immense plain which extends from the seven mountains to Rotter- 

 dam. There are no very high hills in the neighbourhood, except the 

 Drachenfels and its six brothers, eight or nine miles up the river, 

 though between Bonn and these seven mountains the country is gra- 

 dually rising, and below Bonn there is hardly a hillock. Many of 

 the smaller heights, if not covered by vineyards, are clothed with 

 forests of short, stunted trees, and inhabited by deer, roe, and even, 

 though very rarely, by the wild boar. The soil of the country is in 

 general rich, though in many places very stony. The whole country 

 has been formed by volcanic agency, and consists of lava, trachyte, 

 and basalt ; and one or two of the hills are plainly extinct volcanoes, 

 more especially that of Rodeberg, which is opposite the seven moun- 

 tains. This is one of the largest extinct volcanoes on the Rhine. It 

 has a circular crater about a quarter of an English mile in diameter, 

 and 100 feet deep ; and great quantities of tufa and scoriae are found 

 in and around it. The country is under a high state of cultivation, 

 and the hills are drained and cultivated to their summits. Many of 



