VOL. LXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 203 



Stam. diadelphous, ten, filiform, inserted into calyx, length of wings. Anthers roundish. 



PisT. subulate, filiform. Stigma none. Germ ovate-oblong, compressed. 



Peu. Drupe subovate large. 



Sefd. JVu? subovate, subligneous, with a longitudinal fiirrow on each side, bivalve. 



XXIX. Observations made in Savoy, to Ascertain the Height of Mountains by 

 means of the Barometer ; being an Examination cf Mr. De Lues Rules, de- 

 livered in his Recherches sur les Modifications de f Atmosphere. By Sir George 

 Shuchburgh* Bart. F.R.S. p. 513. 



In the course of his totir into Italy in the years 1775 and 1776, Sir G. made 

 some stay at Geneva ; which heing in the neighbourhood of the Alps, and on 

 that account a convenient home^ induced him to make some observations on 

 those mountains, which have been deservedly objects of attention to the most 

 incurious traveller. He was particularly desirous of verifying the experiments 

 with the barometer, in taking heights of different situations ; a method that has 

 been long known to the ingenious, though but rarely practised, and capable of 

 but little precision till within these few years ; and perhaps at present not so 

 generally known as the convenience and utility of the method seems to require. 



His first series of observations he proposed to be on Mont Saleve, one of the 

 Alps, situated about 2 leagues south of Geneva, and precisely on the same point 

 where Mr. De Luc had made his highest or 15th station. The place where he 

 measured a base was in a field near the villages of Archamp and Neidens, not 



* Sir George A. W. Shuckburgh Evelyn, Bart, died at his seat in Warwickshire, in Sept. 1804, 

 in the 54th year of his age. He had represented that county in 3 successive parliaments ; where his 

 integrity and independent conduct as a British senator, procured him the approbation and respect of 

 all wise and good men. Sir G. was an elegant classical scholar, and had improved his knowledge of 

 men and manners by profitable travels through Europe. He was no mean mathematician and philo- 

 sopher, and was very well skilled in astronomy, both theoretical and practical ; in which sciences 

 his deep and laborious researches gave him a distinguished character in the Royal and Antiquarian 

 Societies, whose publications are adorned with several of his learned and ingenious compositions, of 

 which, however, the present paper, on tlie Barometrical Measurement of Altitudes, is the chief. 

 Sir Geo. carried his mathematical and logical habits into every purpose in life, in every circumstance 

 of which he was one of the most correct and methodical of men ; every part of his household and 

 other concerns being conducted in the most punctual and orderly manner. Of men and motives of 

 action Sir Geo. was a most accurate judge, and was always attentive to guard himself against 

 the impositicns of tlie designing. But his philosophical labours are those on which must chiefly rest 

 the fabric of his intellectual fame. Here no man was more wary of making hasty inferences, or of 

 forming general conclusions fi^om partial or inaccurate observations. Truth was his darling object ; 

 which he endeavoured to discover, and to detect error, by the most patient and unremitted vigilance. 

 Had Sir Geo. devoted more of his time to those pursuits, he would probably have had few superiors 

 in philosophical celebrity. The pains he took to adjust a regular and uniform standard of weights an J 

 measures, the tardy cautiousness of his experiments, the accuracy of his calculations, and the prac- 

 ticability of his schemes, entitle him to the highest praise, among such as have laboured for the 

 public benefit. 



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