XXU PEOCEEDIIirGB OF THE 



amiable in disposition as he was zealous; and in his later papers-, 

 where his errors have been pointed out to him, he candidly admits 

 them, in some cases plausibly accounting for them, and in one in- 

 stance even suggesting that he must have examined a loose flower 

 that did not belong to the specimen he described. Some other' 

 naturalists might be named who have been equaUy hasty, but who, 

 on discovering their errors, have taken care that no evidence 

 should remain to solve the enigmas they have bequeathed to sci- 

 ence. 



The languages used in the Moscovf Memoires and Bulletin are 

 generally French or Grerman,with Latin technical characters. The 

 few papers in Russian are, with a few unimportant exceptions, on 

 strictly local subjects, 



Next in order we have another Sclavonic language, the use of 

 which in a journal of Natural History cannot be excused even on 

 those pleas which might be urged in favour of the Russian. The 

 Bohemian is at best the language of a very limited region, and 

 there are but few of the educated classes in PsAauE who are not, 

 for other reasons, obliged to be acquainted with Grerman ; and yet 

 from that town we received seven annual volumes in large octavo 

 (1853 to 1859) of the Ziva, a journal of Natural History, Physics, 

 and Mathematics, edited by Dr. Purkinje and written entirely in 

 Bohemian. It is probably still continued, but, being useless to our 

 Fellows, we declined taking it in exchange for our own publica- 

 tions ; and yet there appear to be in it besides local subjects some 

 anatomical and physiological papers, both in Zoology and Botany, 

 which might be of interest — in vegetable anatomy and physiology , 

 by Ladislas Celakovski and Julia Saxa, in osteology by Purkinje 

 himself, on Bohemian fish by Anton Frice, &c. There are a few 

 plates and a considerable number of woodcuts ; but the editor has 

 probably discovered that he must only look for a popular sale at 

 home, as in the later numbers he introduces an appendix for do- 

 mestic medicine and economy. 



IV. HUNGAET. 



Hungarian Academies of Science have also ofiered us their 

 Transactions in exchange for ours, which we have, for the same 

 reason, declined. I am aware that in the quarto Transactions of 

 the Magyar Tudomanyos Akademie some interesting south-east 

 European animals and plants, including the interesting Gesneri- 

 aceous genus Bhodopea, have been first published ; and we learn 

 from a review in the Bulletin of the Academy of St. Petersburg, 



