Miscellaneous Intelligence. 445 
or set aside. The ema of this character, thus directed, offers a 
direct and sure method, for resolving a multitude of controverted ques- 
tions in rational chemistry, ‘of the kind which Laurent has treated. 
But the employment of this method is as yet but little extended, although 
it has rie been fruitful for those who have “ng i it in their re- 
searches 
“10. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Vol. VI. 1854.—In 
the volumes of able papers which are issued under the Smithsonian 
fund, this Institution is conferring a ad benefit on me cause of 
knowledge through the land and through the civilized wo forks, 
the result of profound research, which would fail of a publisher because 
not fitted tocommand a ready “ cash” return, here find encouragement 
and the means of an honorable introduction to the libraries of the land, 
and directly or indirectly, the views, new principles, and results of re- 
searches and explorations over this and other lands, gradually pass into 
general circulation. The volume just now issued, the sixth of the se- 
ries, contains the following memoirs :— 
lantee Fremontiane, or Descriptions of Plants, collected by Col. J. 
C. Fremont in California; by Jonn Torrey. 24 see and ten plates. 
Observations on the Batis maritima of Linnzus, by Jonn Torrty. 
pp. and one 
On the Darlingtonia Californica, a new Pitcher Plant, from Northern 
California; by Jonn Torrey. 8 pp. and one plate. 
yoopsis of the yviveae [overtebrata of Grand Manan, or the Region 
around the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick ; by Wm. Stimpson. 68 pp. 
and three plates. 
a the Winds of the Northern Hemisphere ; by James H. Corrin, 
Prof. of ary oes and Natural Philosophy in lestaieti College, Pa. 
200 pp. and 13 plate 
The Ancient Pears of Nebraska, or a Description of Remains of 
Extinct Mammalia and Chelonia from the Mauvaises Terres of Ne- 
braska ;_ by see a M.D., Prof. Anat. Univ. of Pennsylvania. 
124 pp- and 25 pla 
» Appendix : 7 sere ten of Planets — Stars by the Moon, during 
the year 1853, computed by Joan Dow 
he long paper by Prof. Corrin oilidiia ‘largely of tables, Lsiaereg 
ing abstracts of observations, bearing on the winds an 
the different zones and regions of the globe. It embodies also ado 
tions from the observations, which are of great interest, although of 
course liable to mod ificati ions in some cases, as facts are further multi- 
plied. The following are some of these conclusions : 
(1.) In the Arctic regions of North America, within the Polar circle, 
a direction of the wind is a about north-northwest, and well de- 
breadth. een the limits which divide this zone fro he Pol lar wi ip on 
north and from the equatorial on the south Seaisalanty the latter) | 
