382 Natural-Historical Collections. 
plant, although it was discovered by Dr. Greville four years ago. In thé size 
of its flower and habit of growth, it resembles Myosotis versicolor. The Scot- 
tish botanist will find it abundant in the King’s Park, Edinburgh, on the sunny 
bank eastward of the basaltic columns named Sampson’s Ribs. It is the earliest 
British species. 
Naturalization of Insects.—A communication was laid before the Wernerian 
Society on the 9th ultimo, by James Wilson, Esq., on the Saturnia luna, which. 
has been reared by Mr. Sommer of Altona, from eggs imported from North Ame- 
rica. This beautiful moth, greatly admired by collectors, was sent hy Mr. 
Sommer to P. Neill, Esq.; but it is unfortunate that no Lis iout of its habits ac- 
companied the specimens. 
The subject afforded to Mr. Wilson an opportunity of ales some ingenious 
remarks on the distribution and naturalization of insects. ‘‘ Why,” said he, 
‘ should we-not behold the gay butterflies and moths of foreign climes fluttering 
around those exotic plants which shed such a splendour over our parterres ?”’ It 
certainly would afford a new interest to our hot-houses and green-houses, were 
these beautiful insects associated with the plants which constitute their natural 
food. 
Discovery of Human Bones in ancient formations; by M. BouE.—The 
valley of the Rhine is covered with an alluvial deposit, a marl-clay called 
loss, which rises to a height ranging from 200 or 300 feet to 600 feet above the 
level of the sea. This deposit contains terrestrial and fluviatile shells, similar 
to those of animals which still exist in that district, and the bones of quadru- 
peds, belonging principally to extinct species. 
It was in this marl that Mr Boué discovered, in 1823, behind the Aar in. 
Baden, human bones at different elevations, and in places where nothing indi- 
cated that there had ever existed any cemetery. Moreover, the bones were so: 
fast in the rock, that it took much labour to disengage them, and obliged Mr: 
Boué to leave many which were too deep seated in the marl. Their bed appeared. 
never to have been disturbed, and contained some fresh water shells. Further, the 
bones, instead of being united, as they are found in ancient burial-places, were 
scattered in every direction, partly broken, and situated deeper below the surface 
than it is customary for men to deposit the dead. 
As themarl which contained these bones, wasencrusted by tertiary limestoneand- 
variegated sandstone, M. Boué, convinced that all these formations were of the 
same age, and that no human bones could be found in such ancient deposits, 
imagined that those which he had discovered, belonged to some extinct animal, whose 
skeleton bere great resemblances to that of man. 
My astonishment was great, he remarks, when M. Cuvier, to whom I pre- 
sented these relics, declared that they were human bones, and must have belong- 
ed to some ancient sepulchre. 
Since this period, M. Boué has revisited the same places, and withont wish- 
_ ing-to speak decisively, conjectures that the fact may be attributed to an inunda- 
tion of the river behind Aar, or even of the Rhine. Moreover, says he, many 
geologists have already remarked that, by means of pluvial waters, the inclined 
surface of these marls is covered with a true crust, capable of solidification. 
M. Boué, in the conclusion of a communication presented to the Academy of 
Sciences, related another interesting fact connected with this subject,—that of the 
human skulls, which Count de Razon Morosky has found mixed with the bones 
of quadrupeds of extinct or equatorial species, in the calcareous detritus which 
covers the magnesian limestone of the Alps, or which fills irregular cavities of 
dark loam. The form ef these crania is remarkable, presenting a flatness of the 
frontal boneanalogoustothat which exists in those savages who have the custom of 
compressing this part of the head. Similar skulls have, however, been discovered 
in many other parts of Germany. They appear to have belonged to a people, 
who inhabited this country at a period on which history is silent.—Le Globe. 
