Sue Professor E. Forbes on the Distribution of 
cines.” The evidence of the learned Chalmers is adduced 
to show, that in the thirteenth and fourteenth century every 
house in the Border towns and villages had a garden “ for 
raising culinary herbs;” and we most cordially agree with 
our author, that a good history of monkish botany would 
prove invaluable for settling disputes about certain indige- 
nous and naturalized plants. 
The Borders had been originally covered with noble forests, 
which gradually disappeared before the improvident waster 
in peace, but, above all, by the havock of contending armies 
to prevent the frequent ambuscade of foes. Thus, in course 
of time, the whole country was bared to the sweep of the 
winter’s blast ; bogs filled up the valleys, gendering unwhole- 
some exhalations; the crops were scanty and late; severe 
famine for both man and beast were of frequent occurrence. 
The Reformation swept away all monkish establishments. 
In the day of distress there were no well-stored granaries 
for the famished, no medicines for the afflicted; yet some 
knowledge of medical botany lingered amongst the people, 
and was cherished in simple faith down to these latter days, 
and even yet it lingers amongst the unlearned in retired places. 
(To be continued in the next number of Jameson's Journal.) 
On the Manifestation of Polarity in the Distribution of Or- 
ganized Beings in Time. By Professor E. Forsus. 
Of the four relations among organized beings, viz.: Affinity (or 
relation through homology), Analogy, Representation, and Polarity, 
the three first have been recognized in the distribution of beings in 
Geological Time; the fourth has never been observed nor sought 
for. ‘The term itself is one not familiar in the language of Natural 
History, although proposed many years ago by the Swedish botanist 
Fries, and systematically employed by several] naturalists for some 
time past. The word Polarity seems objectionable, since it has been 
appropriated with a peculiar signification by Physical philosophers, 
The sense in which it is employed by Naturalists, that of a manifes- 
tation of force of development at opposite poles of an ideal sphere, 
cannot, however, be indicated by any other word at present invented, 
implying as it does something very different from divergence and 
from antagonism, words which have been suggested as substitutes. 
