154 Botanical Fetes in France. 



loch's new system of the arrangement of rocks, we should 

 have given it a commendation not much inferior to that we 

 have bestowed on Mr. Conybeare's; and for nearly the same 

 reason — viz. its freedom from hypothesis. And we assure 

 our Wernerian brethren, that we shall not withhold from them 

 our fellowship, nor look with an evil eye upon their produc- 

 tions, if these are clothed in the Freyberg dress, provided they 

 state facts in such a manner that they can easily be separated 

 from hypothesis. We really have not a heart to indulge one 

 unkind feeling in consequence of a difference of opinion 

 about that most uncertain of all things — a geological hypothe- 

 sis. We feel the more disposed to cultivate harmony and 

 peace, as the fate of Mr. Conybeare reminds us how short 

 and transient is human life. Since we perused our notice of 

 his work, intelligence has reached us that he is no more. 

 He is now beyond the reach of censure or applause, and is 

 gone, we trust, to a world where doubt and hypothesis will 

 never trouble him again. Whalever any may think in regard 

 to his peculiar views upon the classification of rocks, none 

 will now deny him the title of an able geologist. 



Art. XXV. — Botanical Fetes in France. By Prof. J. 

 Griscom. 



The Linn^an Society and its ten French and foreign 

 sections, celebrated, on the 27th of June, the Linnaean fete, 

 founded in 1818, atArlac,and fixed on the first Friday after the 

 feast of Saint-John, in honour of Jean Bauchin, the restorer 

 of Botany in France. 



1st. At Bordeaux, the excursion was made to Cypressac, 

 (so called from the number of cypress-trees which grovv there,) 

 a place rich in plants, and in attractions relative to the flora 

 of the Gironde. The session was held near Cenon Labas- 

 tide, in a wood of tufted oaks, and upon benches of green 

 turf. Many ladies, drawn by the novelty of the spectacle, 

 attended this academic session, thus held in the open air. 

 It was opened according to custom, by the reading of the 

 proces-verbal, of the institution of the fete, and that of the 

 last rural session which took place at Pessac in 1821. M, 

 Soulier then presented some important observations, on mildew, 



