National 
at the end of a voyage or expedition, of 
the conduét which thofe machines have 
held at fea. 
Prize of Phyfics:—The clafs of mathe- 
matical and phyfical fciences of the Initi- 
tute, charged to propofe for the year 9 the 
fubject of a prize of phyfics, judged that 
it fhould attach itfelf to a queftior, the fo- 
lution of which may accelerate the progrefs 
of an interefting part of natural hiftory. 
The {cience of organized bodies confifts 
particularly im being acquainted with their 
organization, which has been diftinguifhed 
into internal and external. ‘The external’ 
figns, named+charatters, the firft ftudied 
and the firft known, are ufeful to indicate 
the interior organization from which they 
are derived, and which muft always have 
fome influence on their exiftence. Thefe 
two parts of the fcience intimately blended 
together, have a tendency to illuftrate each 
other; in like manner as anatomy fur- 
nifhes to zoology the bafes of its grand 
divifions, it gives it the means of charac- 
terizing with precifion the different claffes 
and families of animals, and to explain the 
caufes of their manners and habits, and of 
their manner of feeding. 
Vegetable phyfics fhouid render the fame 
fervice to botany. Already, by the la- 
bours of Grew, of Malpighi, of Lieuen- 
hoeck, Duhamel, Bonnet, Sennebier, 
and other valuable naturalifts, it has been 
enriched with a great number of ifolated 
obfervations which may ferve to guide in 
new refearches. It has prefented to us, in 
thofe of citizen Desfontaines, the diffe- 
rence that exifts in the difpofition of the 
ligneous and utricular parts of mono-coty- 
ledon plants. This labour, which has 
given a great advancement to the [cience, 
deferves to be: followed up in the-fubdivi- 
fions of thofe two great ciafles, and in the 
plants defigned under the name of acoty- 
ledons, compofing the cryptogamy of the 
fyitem of Limneus. We mutt aflure our- 
felves, by the ftudy of internal organiza- 
tion, whether thefe laft fhould continue to 
form a third divifion, or whether they 
ought to enter into one of the two others. 
Scieuce has yet a great intereft.to deter- 
mine the internal ftruéture of vegetables - 
compofing the great families allowed by 
all the botanifts. It muft verify whether 
each of them has a peculiar internal orga- 
nization, commen to all the plants of its\ 
order, and different from that of other 
_ families. It will endeavour to affure itfelf 
whether their affinity, calculated accord- 
MontTuty Mas. No. 86. 
1802] 
Inftitute. 365° 
ing to the exterior characters, 's corfirmed, 
in the fame degree, by the infpeétion of 
the interior organs. It will enquire what 
caufe determines the union or the fepara- 
tion of the fexes, the exiftence or the non- 
exiftence of the corolla, the unity or the 
plurality of its parts, the number and the 
refpective fituation of the fexual organs; 
in a word, the charatters of the firft line, 
which, drawn from the effential organs, are 
invariable in all the known families. Thefe 
grand exterior differences are only the 
confequence of a concealed compofition, 
which it is proper to develope. The firtt 
difcoveries are an introduction to new ones, 
and they will be employed fucceffively on 
the fecondary differences, when thole of 
the firft order fhall have been eftablithed. 
Agreeably to thefe confiderations, the 
clafs, circum{cribing its views, reduces its 
program to the following quettion: 
To eftablith the general relations which 
exift between the internal and external orga- 
nization of vegetables, principally in the great 
families of plants generally acknowledged by 
all botanifts. 
The authors are invited to join to their 
defcriptions, defigns, which may accurate- 
ly reprefent the organs defcribed, and to 
concenter themfelves in a {mall number of 
. families, by multiplying examples in each. 
They fhould, above all, infift on the rela- 
tions and the differences of the families dif- 
tinguiflied by characters of the firft value, 
and be careful not to reduce their labours 
to compilations from authors who have 
written on the fame fubject. 
Clafs of moral and political Sciences. 
Prize of Geography.—The clafs of moral 
and political fciences had propofed for the 
fubjeét of a prize which was to be decreed 
the 15th Meffidor, year 9, the following 
queftion : 
To determine what are the great changes 
that have taken place upon the globe, and 
which are either indicated or proved by 
hiftory.: 
None+of the memoirs has been judged 
worthy of the prize, and the cla({s, obferv- 
ing that the queftion has been propofed a 
{econd time, has decreed that the fubjeé& 
of the prize fhall be withdrawn. It now 
propofes for the prize of geography, the 
following fubject : 
To compare the geographical knowledge of 
Ptollomy in the interior of ;Africa, With that 
which later*geographers and hiftorians have 
tranfmitted to us, excepting Egypt and the 
coaft of Barbary, from Tunis to Morocco. 
38 VARIETIES, 
