1805.] 
The Commiffion compofed of Meffis. 
Monge, Berthollet, Fourier, Caftaz, Def- 
genettes, Conte, Girard, and Laucret, 
have prefented to the French Minifter of 
the Interior a Report on the progrefs of 
the work on Egypt, with the execution 
and publication of which they are efpeci- 
_ ally charged. One hundred engravings 
are already finifhed; of thefe, forty-feven 
eprefent fome of the ancient Egyptian 
monuments, feventeen reprefent modern 
monuments, eight relate to the arts known 
in Egypt, and twenty-eight reprefent dif- 
ferent objeéis of natural hiltory. Befides 
thefe, 160 other plates have been begun. 
The defigns of temples, palaces, and 
tombs, are not confined to thofe of an- 
cient conftruétion: engravings have been 
made of a great number of idols, ftatues, 
amulets, and lkewile of the papyrus 
found in the tombs, under the coverings 
of the mummies. The. fmall number cf 
architectural engravers at Paris has pre- 
vented the editors from procuring many 
engravings of modern edifices. They 
have, however, prefented to the Minifier 
two of the gates of Cairo, fuppoled to 
have been erected by Saladin, and two 
mofques, one of which is highly vene- 
rated by the Muffulmans, and appears to 
date as ‘tar back as the foundation of the 
city. 
It was lately announced that Baron 
ARErin had difcovered, in the Eleétoral 
Library at Munich, a Latin manulcript, 
containing a defcription of the method of 
preparing the Greek fire. Since that time, 
two manufcript copies have been found 
in the French National Library, at Paris, 
of a work entitled, Liber ignium ad com- 
burendos hoftes, autore Marco Greco— 
Treatife on Fires proper for deftroying 
Enemies. ‘This treatife has been printed, 
and formseighteen pages in quarto. The 
hbrarians of the inititution have given a 
faithful copy from the two manulcripts, 
without remark or commentary. Some 
of the paff: ges in this performance do not, 
at the prefent day, poflefs even the merit 
of novelty; as they may be found ina 
little work entitled, De mirabihbus Mun- 
di, and attributed to Albert the Great. 
It is likewife prefumed, from various 
paflages in the werks both of Jerome Car- 
dan, and his antagonift, Julius Czfar. 
Scaliger, that both thofe writers were ac- 
quajnted with the piece afcribed to Mar- 
cus Grecus. The editors obferye, that 
the writing of the oldeft of thefe manu- 
{cripts cannot date farther back than the 
Jatter half of the fourteenth century, and 
that the other is not anterior to the con- 
clufion of the fifteenth, | 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
61 
M. WILbENOW, profeffor of botany — 
at Berlin, has, fince 1807, been employed 
in making judicious alterations and ar- 
tangements in the botanic garden belong. 
ing to the King of Pruffa. All the 
hedges, bufhes, ,and other objects indica. 
tive of the French manner, have been re- 
moved. The garden, which, with the 
court and builaings, occapies twenty- 
feven acres, has, in the centre, an. oval 
pond ; another, of an oblong form, has 
been made in the back part ; on each fide 
of the garden, ditches have been dug to 
take off the water; and thefe ponds and 
ditches are devoted to the cultivation of 
aquatic plants. Seven green-houfes have 
been erected, and they are already full of 
plants; each of them c.nta:ns a therme- 
meter, to indicate the prover degree of 
heat. Ose of thefe green hou‘es is re- | 
markakie for its cenftruCtion, tor it may 
be removed in fummer. The plants of 
the fouth of Europe, the north of Africa, 
the temperate regions of Alia, and thofe 
ef Carolina and Fiorida, are here culti- 
vated in the ground without pots. . This 
green-houle is embellifhed with a lofty 
palm-tree, a magnolia grandifisra, twenty- 
two feetin height, and other trees equally 
rare! It alfo contains feveral: hot-beds for 
other exotic plants. The whole garden 
has been laid out inthe Englith tate, and _ 
to each plant has been affigned a fol, ex- 
pofure, and fituation, fuitable to its na- 
ture. The number of fpecies cultivated 
in this carden exceed 5000, among which 
are the Strelitzia regine, farracenia pur- 
purea, bedyfarum gyrans, rhododendron 
caucaficum, azalea pontica, parkin{onia 
aculeaia, and many {pecies of erica, pra-. 
tea, and other vegetable productions 
equally rare. 
A correfpendent of the Magazin Ency- 
clopedique has communicated fome obfer- 
vations, tending to elucidate the name and 
fituation of a place which is mentioned in 
Crefar’s Commentaries. Inthe 31 chap- 
ter of the firft book Le Bello Gallzco, he 
fays that Arioviitus defeated the Gauls at 
at Admagetobria. The words of the 
text are: Ariovifium autem, ul femel Gal- 
lorum copias vicerit, quod praclium facium 
at Admagetobria, fuperbe et crudeltier im- 
perare. In the ditterent manuicripts of 
Cefar this town is written in various 
ways: Admagetobrigze, Admagetrobiey 
Admagetobriz, and the Greek tranflator 
Zivesit Auayeroeese. In-confidering the 
pofition of this town, it fhould be recol- 
lected, that it was the Sequani, fituated 
between the Rhine and the Rhone, who 
had called the Germans to their affiftance 
againtt the /Bdui, whofe territories lay 
beiween 
