Xll PROCEEDIKGS OF THE 



but in 1790 was commenced a series of Transactions, either of the 

 Natural History Society or of the Natural History and Mathema- 

 tical Branch of the Eoyal Danish Society of Science, which, under 

 various titles, has been continued to the present day, comprising 

 many important papers whicb we have frequently to consult, 

 chiefly on plants, insects, and the lower orders of animals. The 

 first set was in 8vo, and appears to have been the work of a body 

 distinct from the Eoyal Danish Society, being entitled Skrivter af 

 Naturhistorie Selskabet. Five volumes were regularly published 

 up to 1799, after which it was much interrupted. The last part 

 of the fifth volume appeared in 1802, and in 1810 it was closed 

 with a thin volume and general index. The chief writers 

 in the six volumes were the great Danish Naturalists of the 

 day — Vahl, Abildgaard, Spongier, Fabricius, Lund, B,athke, Schu- 

 macher, Schousboe, and Holten — besides Thunberg, who distri- 

 buted his papers to most of the Societies of Northern Europe. As 

 this Society expired, a few papers of the kind were laid before the 

 Eoyal Danish Society, in whose second series of Transactions, en- 

 titled Det Kongelige Danske Yidenskabernes Selskabs Skrivter, six 

 vols. 4to, from 1800 to 1818, we have various papers by Fabricius 

 on G-reenland Zoology, by Schousboe on the Zoology and Botany 

 of Morocco, and Eafn's Researches on the Vital Powers in Or- 

 ganic Nature, mixed in with a great variety of other sciences. 

 In 1824 they separated Physical, Mathematical, and Natural 

 Science from History and Literature ; and in the 12 volumes from 

 that year to 1846, entitled Det Kongelige Danske Yidenskabernes 

 Selskabs Naturvidenskabelige og Mathematiske Afhandlingar,- 

 are contained Schumacher's description of Thonning's Guinea 

 plants, occupying the half of two volumes, and some zoological 

 papers by Fabricius, Hornemann, Eeinhardt, Kroyer, ffirsted, &c., 

 including much relating to Grreenland Zoology, besides Eschricht's 

 contributions to Zoological Anatomy and Lund's series of papers 

 on the Zoology, and Yegetation of Brazil. A new series, under 

 the title of Det Kongelige Danske Yidenskabernes Selskabs 

 Skriffcer, femte rsekke (5th series), was commenced in 1849, and is, 

 I believe, still carried on, although the last volume received (the 

 fifth) is dated as far back as 1861. The principal zoological con- 

 tributions are from Eschricht, Steenstrup, Prosch, Bergh, Kroyer, 

 J. Eeinhardt, Luetken, and Meinert. In Botany we have only 

 Schouw's geographical distribution of Italian Oaks and Birches ; 

 Liebmann's Mexican Ferns, Cyperaceae, Phileteria, and Urti- 

 eacese, and CErsted's Central American Gesneriaceae. This last 



