201 



vessels appear to derive their origin from the alburnous tubes ; he 

 now thinks it not improbable that the lateral, as well as the terminal 

 orifices of the alburnous tubes, may possess the power of generating 

 central vessels, and that these vessels give existence to the repro- 

 duced buds and leaves. 



Mr. Knight attempted to discover in seeds a similar power to re- 

 generate their buds ; but no experiments he could make were de- 

 cisive, as he was never able to satisfy himself that all the buds could 

 be eradicated without the base of the plumula being destroyed. 



The power of reproducing buds here treated of, is not possessed, 

 Mr. Knight says, by annual or biennial plants ; but he relates that 

 a turnip, from which the greater part of its fruit-stalks had been cut 

 off, and of which all the buds had been destroyed, remained some 

 weeks in an apparently dormant state ; the first seed in each pod 

 then germinated, and, bursting the seed-vessel, seemed to perform 

 the office of a bud and leaves to the parent plant during the short 

 remaining term of its existence. 



Mr. Knight takes this opportunity to correct an inference drawn 

 by him, in a former paper, from an experiment in which, after in- 

 verting a shoot of a vine and removing a portion of its bark, more 

 new wood was generated on the lower lip of the wound, now be- 

 come uppermost, than on the opposite lip. He has there inferred, 

 that this effect was produced by sap which had descended from the 

 leaves above. But as the branch was employed as a layer, the matter 

 which would have accumulated on the opposite lip of the wound had 

 been expended in the formation of roots ; a circumstance which, at 

 that time, escaped Mr. Knight's attention. 



Some Account of two Mummies of the Egyptian Ibis, one of which was 

 in a remarkably perfect State. By John Pearson, Esq. F.R.S. 

 , Read June 13, 1805. [Phil. Trans. 1805,^. 264.] 



After some general observations on the art of embalming, as it was 

 practised by the ancient Egyptians, and on the various kinds of ani- 

 mals embalmed by them, Mr. Pearson proceeds to give a particular 

 description of the very perfect mummy of an Ibis, which forms the 

 chief subject of the present paper. 



This mummy was taken out of the catacombs at Thebes, by the 

 late Major Hayes, in the year 1802 or 1803. It was enveloped in 

 cloth, and contained in an earthen jar, similar to those which are 

 found at Saccara. Upon unrolling the bandage with which the 

 mummy was covered, it was found to consist of strips of cloth, about 

 three inches broad, which were strong and firm. The first circum- 

 volutions of this cloth separated easily ; but as the work proceeded, 

 they were found to adhere more firmly, and at last were so closely 

 united, that it was necessary to divide them by means of a strong 

 knife. Each layer of cloth seemed to have been imbued with some 

 bituminous substance in a liquid state ; and the bandages were further 

 secured by means of thread, in such a manner that the whole mass 



