A System of Chemical Philosophy. Part 2d. By John Dalton, 8vo. Bickerstaff. Dissertation on Insanity; Illustrated with tables, and extracted from between two and three thousand cases in Bedlam. By William Black, M. D. 8vo.. MONTHLY BOTANICAL REPORT. HAVING for some Months past made no mention of English Botany, we shall now resume our usual account of such phonogamic plants as occur from the 1st of July to the end of the year; of the cryptogamic plants, except those of the order of filices, we shall not take any notice. Galium verrucosum, the Valantia Aparine of Linnæus. Dr. Smith has very properly swerved from his great masters in this instance: indeed the small importance of some of the flowers being defective in part of the sexual organs, is now much better understood than for. merly. The true Valantias are distinguished by much more important characters in the seed. The figure of this plant as given by Mr. Sowerby is strikingly different from that of Vaillant, in the greater length and straightness of the peduncles; found by Mr. G. Don in corn-fields in the carse of Gowrie. Juncus gracilis, supposed to be a non-descript species, also found by Mr. Don, among the mountains of Angus-shire, but very rarely It approaches to J. bufonias. Caltha radicans; first described by T. F. Forster, esq. in the eighth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society. Pinguicula grandiflora, of Decandolle and Lamarck; sent from Ireland by the Rev. Mr. Hincks, Secretary to the Cork Institution; found plentifully in the western parts of the county of Cork, by Mr. Drummond. Carex pallescens; common in most groves and pastures. Salex tenuifolia; native of Westmoreland and Scotland, drawn from a specimen in the garden of Mr. T. F. Forster, at ClapThe name is derived from the thinness of the substance of the ton. leaf. Brassica rapa, the common turnip. A valuable observation of Mr. J. A. Knight's, the celebrated vegetable physiologist, is inserted, proving that the Swedish turnip is a variety of this, and not of the cabbage, as has been supposed. Sagina maritima; a minute plant, much resembling Sagina aperata, found on the sea-coast of Scotland and Ireland, and on the summit of Ben Nevis. Rosa bibernica. Some patrons of Botany at Dublin offered a premium of fifty pounds for the discovery of a new Irish plant, which reward was claimed by J. Templeton, esq. in consequence of his dis covery of this supposed non-descript species. Its character is "fruit nearly globose, (red) smooth as well as the flower-stalks. Prickles of the stem slightly hooked. Leaflets elliptical, smooth, with hairy Tibs." Fragaria Fragaria elatior; the hautboy strawberry; found in a wood on the west side of Tring in Hertfordshire, and in Charlton Forest, Sussex. This species bearing male and female flowers on different: roots is very apt to be unproductive even in a cultivated state. It should be the business of gardeners to take care that some barren or: male plants are intermixed with the fruit-bearing ones, which would probably insure a plentitul crop. Betula alba; the birch. Every admirer of picturesque beauty is acquainted with the elegance, as every schoolboy is with the disci.) plinarian virtues of this beautiful and useful tree. Aspidium irriguum; supposed to be a new species of fern, disco vered by Mr. J. F. Foster, about the margins of clear springs, near Tunbridge Wells. The drawing was taken from a garden specimen. -Galium witheringii; mistaken by Withering for the G. montanum of Linnæus. ·Cistus surrejanus. This species is become a very dubious one, no wild specimen having been found since the time, of Dillenius; the drawing was of course necessarily taken from a garden specimen. Cistus tomentosas; of Scopoli. Dr Smith has received this from different botanists, gathered in Scotland, and discovers it to be the same as Scopoli's plant from a comparison of it with a specimen from that excellent botanist himself. Judging from the figures of e above two plants, they appear to us to differ only in the form of the petals and the nature of the pubescence on the under surface of the' leaves; the difference of the former apparently arise from their be ing defective in surrejanus, and the latter, perhaps, solely from, cul tivation. Scrophularia Scorodonia, a rare native of Jersey, and found also by Mr. E. Llwyd, about St. Ives, in Cornwall; not yet observed in any other part of Great Britain; drawn from a garden specimen. Hieracium molle, found by Mr. Dickson in woods in the south of Scotland. It agrees with authentic specimens from Jacquin. in the Linnæan Herbarium. Senecia saracenicus; one of the rarest of British plants, found in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmorland. Amaranthus Blitum; found in Battersea-field and elsewhere in the neighbourhood of London, on dunghills. Dr Smith remarks, that it resembles Atriplex in habit more nearly than such of it's more specious congeners as decorate our gardens. Avena fataa; a pernicious weed, especially infesting barley. Frankenia palverulenta; a very doubtful British, pecies, drawn from a garden specimen, said to have been found on the coast of Sussex in the time of Dillinius; and Hudson professed to have gathered it himself between Bogner and Brighthelmstone. Atriplex erecta; this species, at first rightly defined by Hudson, but afterwards improperly joined by him with patula, has not been of late found by any botanist, and hence has necessarily been figured from a dried specimen in Mr. Rose's herbarium, named under the inspection of Mr. Hudson, Polypodium Polypodium Phegopteris; a beautiful, delicate fern, growing ini rather moist places, on mountains in the south of Scotland and north of England. Of the Botanist's Repository we have received only one number since our last account of this work. The contents are, Ipomea pendula; native of New Holland, about Port Jackson as well as the tropical parts. It appears to be a very beautiful species, corollas large, flesh-coloured. The drawing was taken at the Comptesse de Vandes collection at Bayswater. Fumaria nobilis; communicated by Mr. Donn, from the Botanic gaden at Cambridge, at present one of the first collections in Europe. Globba purpurea. The mantisia saltatoria of the Botanical Ma gazine; drawn at Sir Abraham Hume's, from whence Mr. Leo's collection was supplied with it. Euphorbia pythymoides; communicated by Mr. Donn, from the Cambridge garden. Native of Austria. The herbaceous euphorbia look so differently at different periods of their growth, that it is often difficult to determine the species, but from the very entire edges of involucre and the roundness of the leaves, we are inclined to doubt if this be the same as has been described and figured by Jacquin in the Flora Austriaea. Euphorbia meloformis. A much better figure of this plant, though uncoloured, is to be seen in the Annales du Museum d'Histoiré Natu relle, and copied from thence in the first volume of Annals of Botany, pl. 2. It is a diacions plant, and we believe the male only has been as yet seen in this country. The Botanical Magazine for last month contains Alöe rigida of Decandolle, the expansa of Haworth. Anthericum longiscapum of Jacquin; from Mr. Haworth's col lection. This, according to Mr. Ker, is the asphodeloides of the late edition of the Hortus Kewensis, as is proved by the specimen preserved in the Banksian Herbarium. It is not, however, the as. phodeloides of Linnæus, Miller, &c. Tradescantia erecta, an annual plant; native of Mexico. Fothergilla alnifolia, var. obtusa, and var. major. Dr. Sims describes another variety under the name of serotina. This genus was named in honor of Dr. John Fothergill, by the late Dr. Garden of Charlestown, South Carolina. For an interesting life of the last mentioned author, by Dr. Smith, See Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia, arti. cle, Garden. Arctolis glutinosa, a new species, as appears, though Dr. Sims is not certain with respect to the genus to which it ought to be refer. red; drawn at Lee and Kennedy's Museum, Hammersmith. ''Phlox Carolina; an old inhabitant of our gardens, but probably for some time lost, and now recovered by Mr. Fraser, of Sloane square. The smooth leaves and rough stem united seem to be suf, ficient to distinguish this from every other known species. METEO. 13. Heavy fall of rain in the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th, with a gale of wind from N,W. 14. Stormy wind N.W. and quick evaporation. 16. Dry fog passing in large masses, with intervals of sun. 21. Stormy wina from N. W. the whole day. Hygrometer rises rapidly to the dry point: quick evaporation in the night. 25. Serene lightning from eleven to twelve at night. Prince-Street, Cavendish-Square, Nov. 29, 1810. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. From the account of the Society for the Relief of the Widows and · Orphans of Medical men, in the last number of our Journal, Mr. Chamberlain will find that the plan of that philanthropic institution, with which he has favoured us, need not now be inserted. · We have been obliged to defer till onr next number, the conclusion of the interesting paper of Medicus upon Tobacco; also amongst other articles, coramunications from H. R. from Dr. Hamilton of Ipswich, Dr. Cookson, Dr. Merriman, and Mr. Bailey, &c. &c. The following notices came to hand too late to be inserted in their proper places. Mr. Stevenson, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury, (author of "a Practical Treatise on the Morbid Sensibility of the Eye, commonly called Weakness of Sight,") purposes delivering a Course of Lectures on the Anatomy, Physiology, and Diseases of the Eye and Ear, early in the ensuing spring. Dr. Beid will commence his Spring course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, on Wednesday the 24th of January. Joseph Reade, M. D. of Cork, has in the press, a treatise entitled, Critical and Practical Observations on the Diseases of the inner corner of the Human Eyes, comprising the epiphora, the tumor sacculi lachrymalis, and the fistula lachrymalis, with a new arrangement and method of Cure. Mr. Parkinson is about to publish Observations on the Act for Regulating Madhouses, with remarks addressed to the friends of the Insane; and a correction of the mistatements of the case of Benjamin Elliot, sentenced to six Months imprisonment for illegally depriving Mary Daintree of her liberty. Surgical Observations on Injuries of the Head, and on Miscellaneous Subjects. By John Abernethy. F. R. S. 8vo, boards 78. Longman and Co. Printed by E. Hemsted, Great New Street, Fetter Lan. |