96 
great class of organized beings are more or less combined. To inquire if external 
circumstances can so modify the organization of animals and plants as to change 
their specific, or even generic, characters. To examine if it is well demonstrated 
that the cellular tissue of plants presents a nervous system analagous to that of 
animals, and to indicate in what that physiological analogy consists. If there is 
any transformation of the cellular tissue of plants into vessels, or have the vessels 
an individual existence from the first instant of their manifestation. Are bota¬ 
nists agreed on the mode of formation of the ligneous strata in dicotyledonous 
vegetables. 
3.—Three new species of South American Pheasants are added to the Parisian 
Menagerie; their familiarity and gentleness are remarkable. The cry of the 
male bird distinctly utters the three syllables ca tra ca ; the name by which they 
are recognised in their native localities, and that now scientifically adopted. 
4 . —M. de PARAVEYhas communicated to the Academy of Sciences a memoir on 
slate found in the primitive formations of the Meuse ; in which it is observed that 
it possesses the property of dividing into plates, according to the given direction of 
the longitudinal fibres, called, by the workmen, longrain , according to whom no 
slate is good not presenting this constant and regular division. Therefore slate 
of a more modern formation, such as that of St. Anger’s, which breaks, like glass, 
into irregular fractures or splinters, never lasts more than about thirty years, while 
that of the Ardennes exist uninjured during a lapse of two centuries; a fact 
proved by inscriptions on the green slates with which the roofs of some ancient 
monuments in Belgium are covered. It is to this peculiar property of separating 
lengthwise, according to the parallel direction of the fibres—which supposes a 
species of crystallization—that M. de Paravey wishes to draw the attention of 
geologists. 
5. —Geologists in France appear to be in a complete state of uncertainty respect¬ 
ing the supposed impressions of bird’s feet in the sandstone of Hildburghausen. Do 
they belong to terrestrial or marine mammals—to reptiles—to saurians—-to birds— 
or are they impressions of vegetables ? The zoologist declares they are not the 
foot-marks of animals or reptiles, the ornithologist assures us he can trace no re¬ 
semblance whatever to the feet of birds, and de Jussieu denies positively that they 
can be vegetable impressions. These and other contradictory opinions on geolo¬ 
gical subjects keep alive that interesting science, and must ultimately produce the 
most satisfactory conclusions, as well as much able discussion in the learned world. 
