he believes the seeds of the lycoperdon, 
dike those of mosses, are fecundated. 
Such is the system, continues M. Cu- 
vier, according to which, M. de Beauvois 
thinks himself warranted to reject the 
cryptogamia or concealed fructification, 
employed by Linnzus, and retained by 
Hedwig, to designate these different fa- 
milies and to substitute in its stead that 
of Atheogamia, or unusual or extruordi- 
nary fr uctification. 
He has published one part of his Pro- 
dremus of Aiheogamous Plants, in a pam- 
hlet, wherein he announces the distri- 
pitiea he has adopted with respect to the 
eta un the formation of the genera, 
he has separated what Hedwig supposes 
to i the male organs, a precaution 
which is extremely proper, since the fanc- 
Aions of these parts are not yet, fully 
established; and he employs the same 
eaution, though in eppositicn to himself, 
by not giving any account of this colu- 
inella, which he supposes to be the pistil. 
it is, however, according to the sexual 
organs, that he separates the club-moss 
(/ycopodium) from the common mosses; 
but this 1s, because he is of opinion that 
there remains no doubt with respect to 
the former, at least in some of the 
genera. 
In a second ‘part, not yet published, 
but which was read 11 manuscript to the 
elass, he gives his distribution of mush- 
rooms, and of the a/gz. In the former, 
he has, ir some degree, deviated from 
the method of Persoon ; and ke reduces 
the number. of genera from seventy- 
one to sixty, which he divides. Into, SIX 
orders. 
Ina still more recent memoir, he af- 
firms, that he observed, on some young 
plants, grains which appeared to him si- 
milar to the seeds of the parasitical 
mushrooms, which are sometimes evolved 
in the substance of these plants, under- 
neath the epidermis. Hence he con- 
cludes, in opposition to the opinion of 
M. de Candolle, whose memoir on this 
subject we shall afterwards have occasion 
to consider, that these- grains penetrate 
through the epidermis, and lodge them- 
selves below it. He further expatiates 
‘on certain mushrooms, which vegetate 
by layers from above dowuwards, con- 
trary to other vegetables. This obser- 
vation was long ago made by Marsilli 
‘and Bulliard; but M. de Beauvois con- 
siders it in a new point of yiew, and con- 
ceives, that each layer may be regarded 
a3 2 special individual, or, in other words, 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
x 
375 
as a new mushroom proceeding from the 
grains of the anterior layer. 
M. Cuvier concludes his account of 
the labours of this able botanist, by sa- 
forming us, that he has discavercs consi-~ 
derable differences between the flowers 
of the raphia of Oware, and thoSe of the 
sagentier of the Moluccas, so that they 
should no longer be arranged among the 
Fee) pulme, as has hitherto been the 
case. He has also communicated the 
Ge scuipetan of two eladioles, lobelia. 
We are next informed by the reporter, 
that among the unsuccessful candidates, 
Messrs. de. Candolle and Du Petit- 
Thorars alone presented new memoirs 
on the occasion, 
The former of these gentlemen, though 
still very young has already euriched, by 
numerous and interesting discoveries, 
vegetable physics, botany, properly so 
called, and the materia medica. 
In the first of these sciences, may be 
classed his observations on the action of 
artificial light, which, though operating 
at firstin.an insensible manner, proceeds 
t last completely to change the habits of 
vegetables ; his observations on the cor- 
tical pores; upon the productien of oxy- 
gen gas by the green lichens, which had 
been called in question, of which he has 
demonstrated the truth; and lastly, 
those on the vegetation of the misletoe, 
which quickly attracts the sap of the 
apple-tree, while it is incapable of ab- 
sorbing water into which it is suddenly 
plunged; a fact which must tend greatly 
to modify the ideas hitherto entertained 
respecting the ascent of the sap. 
To the second, or deseriptive botany, 
belong his history of unctaoxs plants, of 
the liitacee; the astragult ; the edition of 
his French Fiora, which was published 
under the inspection of our colleague M, 
de la Marck; and various other memeirs, 
by which the catalogue of vegetables hag 
been augmented byt twenty-seven new ge- 
neraand more than three hundred species 
formerly unknown. 
“Lastly, in the materia medica, he was 
the first to di criminate the various vege- 
tables confounded under tlie appellation of 
inecacuanku, as well as those jumbled 
together under the name of Corsican 
mess; and in a treatise, upon the agree- 
ment of the virtues sae with their nu- 
tural fumilies, he has displayed, in con- 
for mity to his own opinion, the rules 
which should be followed in such kind of 
inquiries; rules, the neglect of which has 
often led those into serious errers, who 
were 
