Scientific Intelligenct, 435 



4. Botanical. 



Dr. Romer of Zurich, has begun, since 181 o, to publish h 

 oew edition of the Systema V^egetabilium of LinniEus ; he pro- 

 ceeds in its publication ; it will form several volumes. 



Robert Brown of London, is endeavouring to group the na- 

 tural orders of plants into natural classes, or rather into larger 

 natural orders, with determinate characters : he has communi- 

 cated some parts of his labour to the botanists of Paris. He 

 has been the first to employ as a new character in the distinc- 

 tion of natural orders, the estivation of flowers, or the manner 

 in which they are folded in the buds. 



C. S. Rafinesque, in his Analysis of Nature, has adopted a 

 new practice, that of giving single substantive Latin names to 

 the natural orders and families of plants. 



Mirbel has proposed a new nomenclature of fruits in his' 

 Elements of Botany. 



Decandolle, after publishing the principles of the science in 

 his Theory of Botany, has begun to undertake a general spe- 

 cies plantarum, according to the natural classification. 



Three splendid Floras of the south of Europe have been 

 undertaken. 1. Flora Graeca, by Sibthorp and Smith in 

 England. 2. Flora Lusitanica, by Link and Hoffmansegg in 

 Germany. 3. Flora Nepolitana, by Tenore in Naples. They 

 are very expensive works, and are not yet terminated. Re- 

 ceivedin J(inuary, 1819. 



5. Stauroiidc. 



X tract of a letter to the Editor, from John Torrey, M.D., of New- York. 



" Mr. Pierce and myself lately found staurotide on the 

 island of New- York. It occurs in considerable quantity in a 

 rock of mica slate, on the banks of the Hudson, about three 

 and a half miles from the city. The crj'stals very seldom form 

 the perfect cross, though many were found, intersecting each 

 other imperfectly at angles of 60"^. Several single crystals 

 were obtained exceedingly perfect. They were short 4-sided 

 prisms, with the acute, lateral edges truncated at each ex- 



