392 Scientific Intelligence. 
published in the Nova Acta Physico-medica Acad. Caesar. 
Leopold. Caroiin. Nat. Curios, t. 9., maintains, that the original 
or primitive form of the vegetable cells, is the rhomboidal dode- 
cahedron. 
30. Magnificent Flower. — M. Decandolle lately mentioned to 
one of our correspondents, that a most magnificent and very sin- 
gular flower had been discovered in the Island of Borneo, by the 
botanist who accompanied Sir Stamford Baffles to that island, 
after the cession of Java to the Dutch. The flower seems to rise 
immediately out of the ground, without stem, and without shew- 
ing leaves at the time of flowering. The flower, when expanded, 
is described as being fully a metre (more than a yard) in cir- 
cumference, and in form somewhat similar to a gigantic Sta- 
pelia. It is of a red colour, beautifully veined with white. 
The unexpanded flower was compared to a large cabbage. 
We have heard that specimens of this curious production are 
in the possession of Dr Horsfield in London, and we shall 
doubtless soon be favoured with a correct description of it. 
31. Uses of Cor^ervoe in the economy of Nature. — This tribe 
of plants, one of the most simple in the vegetable kingdom, is 
very generally and abundantly distributed. When they grow 
in water, its putrefaction is said to be prevented, but they are 
principally important in the economy of nature, in forming by 
their decomposition, the first and earliest soil ; and it is worthy 
of remark, that the bottom of the sea is gradually raised by a 
species of this tribe, named Conferva chthonoplastes. This re- 
markable conferva was first discovered by a Danish naturalist, 
who has figured it in No. 1485 of Flora Danica. Its closely 
aggregated fibres form slimy and variously coloured beds, with 
which the bottom of the sea is covered, and its level raised ; 
and by its abundant spreading over rocks on sea-coasts, af- 
fords places of residence to other marine productions. The 
same is observed in springs, rivers and canals, where the soil, 
formed of confervae, affords nourishment to the more perfect 
water-plants. Confervae contribute in an eminent degree to the 
formation of peat, and probably serve as food to many vater 
insects, and even to frogs and fishes. 
32. Dr Theodore Fr id. Lud. Nies on the growth of Musci . — 
Dr Theodore Nies, brother of the well known Nies of Esen- 
