Scientific Intelligence. 



a of difficultie 



tion and synonymy of species. My thus grouping names must not be regard- 

 not to be held as distinct species. * * * My main object is to show the affioi- 

 ties of the polar plants, and I can best do this by keeping- the specific idea 

 comprehensive." And further : "I wish it then to be clearly understood, that 

 the catalogue here appended is intended to include every species hitiierto 

 found within the arctic circle, together with those most closely allied forms 

 which I believe to have branched off from one common parent within a com- 

 paratively recent geological epoch, and that immediately previous to tiie 

 glacial period or since then" (p. 279). All we could ask more would be so; le 

 distinction (typographical or other), to mark 1, undoubted and complete syno- 



ties; 3, such as, theory apart, would claim to be regarded as distinct but 

 closely related species. For example : to take one order, while Rhinanthvi 

 minor may well be considered as " not a Bufficiently constant form to rank as 

 a race even," while Limosdla tenuifolia could rank for no more than a race, 

 and while CastUhia septentnonalis and C. pallida, we arc now convinced, 

 however distinct in this single character, differ only (and inconstantly) in the 

 relative development of the galea, we think it likely that Pcdicularis latud^h 

 Willd., does not rightfully merge in P. hirsuta this side of the glacial period, 

 although it perhaps may into P. Langsdorffii, and that into P. Sudetica. But 

 this is no place for criticisms upon the limitation of species, upon wliich the 



and upon which the best considered opinions must be subject to frequent re- 

 visal. Nor does the value of the present memoir at all depend upon the settle- 

 ment of such points. To the philosophical naturalist, as to the archeologist» 

 ■■■ ■ ^ t epoch of the world's natural his- 



nresent. that near nast from whicn 



idering is a very valuable 



This paper, reprinted from the Natural History Review for January, 1^' 

 (with 3 plates,) is one of the results of a visit to Mount Lebanon, in the auturaj 

 of 1860, upon the invitation of Capt. Washington, Hydrographer to tJie BritisD 

 Navy, for the purpose, among other things, of examining the famous Cedar 

 Grove, — of which we have all heard so much and know so little. An interesting 

 account is given of the grove and of the position it occupies, upon the floor « 

 a basin, " crossed abruptly and transversely by a confused range of anc'^/^ 

 moraines .... perhaps 80 to 100 feet high .... which have been deposited by 

 glaciers that, under very different conditions of climate, once filled the has 

 above them, and communicated with the perpetual snow with which the whoi 

 summit of Lebanon was, at that time, deeply covered," 



"The number of trees is about 400, and they are disposed in nine grouFj. 

 corresponding with as many hummocks of the range of moraines ; they are o 

 )ut 18 inches to upwards of 40 feet in girth ; but ^^ 

 significant fact connected with their size, and 9°".gg 



girth, and that we found no young trees, bushes, nor even seedlings o^ * ^ 

 cond years growth. We had no means of esthnating accurately the ages 

 the youngest or oldest tree : nor shall we have, till the specimens of the forin«J 

 arrive. It may be remarked, however, that the wood of the branch of the oi^ 



