Xxiv- PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



by Colla, Visiaui, and Delponte, and miscellaneous papers on 

 Animal and Vegetable Physiology by Bellingeri, Studiati, Savi, and 

 Targioni-Tozzetti. 



The Academy of Sciences of Bologna commenced their quarto 

 Commentarii in 1731, the old series in nine volumes closing in 

 1783. The Novi Commentarii form ten volumes to 1850, in which 

 the principal Natural-History papers are the Botanical ones by 

 the two Bertolonis, father and son, and those by B,anzoni on fish 

 and reptiles. In 1850 the title was adopted of Memorie della 

 Accademia delle Scienze dell' Istituto di Bologna, of which we 

 have twelve volumes to 1861, and two volumes dated 1862 and 

 1863 of a second series. These are heavy volumes, of a large 

 quarto size, well printed ; but the illustrations, chiefly lithographic, 

 are not so satisfactory as the Turinese. . The scientific subjects 

 treated of are very various. Natural History rarely extends 

 beyond one or two each in Zoology and Botany in each volume : 

 descriptions by Ale&sandri or Calori of skeletons or other animal 

 preparations in the Museum of Bologna, obtained chiefly by ex- 

 change from Amsterdam ; a series of papers, zoological by Bian- 

 coni, botanical and zoological by the younger Bertoloni, on the 

 natural productions of Mossambique transmitted to Bologna by 

 Fornasini, an Italian residing there ; one by Centre on a fly afi"ect- 

 ing wheat; by Bianconi on the development of tendrUs in Cucur- 

 bitaceae, and in each volume a number of the elder Bertoloni's 

 Miscellanea Botanica, which we might almost characterize as an 

 infliction on science analogous to that of Turczaninow above al- 

 luded to. Notwithstanding the numerous valuable physiological 

 experiments and observations for which we are indebted to Italian 

 investigators of the past century, they appear, with few exceptions, 

 to have cared little in the present era for making or preserving 

 any collections not immediabely connected with the productions 

 of their own country, or for otherwise extending their knowledge 

 of exotic animals and plants. The consequence is, that when 

 zealous naturalists like the two Bertolonis have received sets o± 

 specimens from distant lands, everything is new to them, and, 

 they are but too apt to conclude, new also to science at large. I 

 know not how it may be with the Mossambique animals ; but it 

 will be found but a very low estimate if we say that above hal 

 the plants here described as new from Texas, East India, Mossam- 

 bique, and Gruatemala are well-known species ; and a fair proper 

 tion are placed in wrong genera, or even in natural orders with 

 which they are quite unconnected. 



