the juices. Succulent plants may be left exposed 12 or 24 hours (sometimes several days) before pressing, to render them flaccid and more conformable; and the interior parts of their stems, if bulky, and also all but the outer coats of tunicated bulbs, may be removed by making a longitudinal incision on the side that is to lie next the paper. On the first removal of the moist paper, any irregularities in the disposition and folding of the leaves, &c., may be easily rectified, as they will then be partially flattened and more pliant; and, on every subsequent removal, the plants may remain exposed for half an hour or an hour on a table, and submitted to a gentle current of air. This will carry off much moisture, and hasten the process; but they should be again placed under pressure when the petals begin to curl up or contract. The operation of changing the papers should be repeated morning and evening for the first few days, and afterwards once a day; as a general rule the oftener the better, particularly plants with purple or blue flowers, from which confined moisture very soon discharges the colour. After the drying is completed, it will be well to place the specimens in an oven with a gentle heat and under a very slight pressure, which, in the course of a night, will effectually drive off any remaining moisture that may have lurked in the central parts of thick stems, flower-buds, &c. If the oven be resorted to in the earlier stages of drying, the necessary pressure will confine the moist heated juices, and destroy the colours. I have found great advantage in dry weather in placing my press close to a window, opening the latter only just enough to throw a current of air round the sides of the press to carry off the moisture as it is given out. My presses are of the simplest kind: flat boards, or covers of books, on which I place weights, bricks, or books, to obtain the requisite pressure. Many layers of plants may be put under the same press, weighting it accordingly. These details may appear trifling; but when I recollect how slowly I surmounted one difficulty after another, I feel a pleasure in thinking they may be of service to some of your young readers, who, like myself, at the commencement of their botanical pursuits, may have no experienced friend at hand to direct them.-J. E. Bowman. ART. IV. Geology and Mineralogy. FOSSIL Shells unpublished. — Sir, Extensive as is the catalogue of fossil shells (p. 26.), it might be considerably augmented by unpublished species; and I subjoin a list which you may perhaps think worthy a place in your Miscellany. My cabinet contains entire specimens of all therein enumerated, with the exception of those against which an asterisk is affixed, and of which I as yet possess only imperfect specimens. I have also some other fragments, but they are not perfect enough to determine the genera. Simple Univalves. The above shells are from the Crag formation, and are in addition to those published in Mr. Taylor's article (p. 26.); I am not aware they have hitherto been any where published.-S.V. W. Woodbridge, March, 1829. Geological Hammer. Sir, Having had occasion - for the use of a geological hammer, which should unite the qualities of power and compactness, it occurred to me, that an elastic handle, applied to one of Knight's Trimming Hammers, would effectually answer my purpose. I therefore selected one of that kind which is marked No. 5. in Knight's plate and description of Geological and Mineralogical Instruments and Apparatus (fig. 74.), and, removing the handle of wood, attached it to an elastic handle of leather, and it has answered extremely well, during a long campaign amongst the rocks of Germany, serving every purpose which I wished it to serve. The construction of the handle is as follows: Three narrow slips of soling leather having been selected of the length most convenient, I caused them to be firmly glued together, so as that the grain of the exterior pieces should be in a different direction from that of the enclosed piece. The whole was then rounded, and reduced from the extremity upwards, till it fitted the aperture in the metal, and then by two small wedges of wood driven in between the slips of leather the whole was firmly secured. The handle was then strongly bound with twine, round and round, from the one end to the other. I would certainly recommend this plan in preference to a vine-wood handle, or any other, as it is not liable to break, possesses a nearly perfect elasticity, and preserves its shape. W. B. Clarke. East Bergholt, Suffolk, Nov. 24. 1828. 74 Schorl, dark-coloured mica, slate (except it is very light-coloured), and many other minerals, attract the magnetic needle, after being exposed to the reducing flame. In some cases it is sufficient to attach a fragment of the mineral to be examined to the end of the platina wire, by means of a part of the moistened powder of the same substance; in others, the whole must be reduced to powder, and a little borax added before it is exposed to the flame, to enable it to act upon the needle. This character, which is useful in leading us to a knowledge of one of the component parts of a mineral, as well as enabling us to distinguish it from others, appears for the most part to have escaped the observation of mineralogists, at least it is seldom noticed in their works.-W. H. M. ART. V. Meteorology. ALMANACKS.—In the essay on almanacks, in the Companion to the Almanack for 1829, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, it is stated (p. 7.) that at the present day none of the almanacks of the Continental states contain any misleading matters similar to the astrological predictions of that of Moore. This is a mistake. I have now lying before me an almanack for 1829, professing to be compiled "par Maître Mathieu Laensbergh, Mathématicien," and printed at Liége for nearly a century past; which is in as much repute in the Netherlands as Moore's Almanack is in England, being universally read by the Flemish peasantry and lower classes; and in which not less than twenty-five pages are filled with predictions of the weather, and of political events*, besides an "Extrait des prophéties perpétuelles de Thomas Joseph Moult, natif de Naples; pour l'année 1829;" in which this great astrologer, whose name, I fear, is unknown in England, departing from the wary obscurity of his brother Moore, boldly proclaims that the spring will be fine, the summer wet, and the autumn cold and late. This little volume, of about 150 pages (which include some useful matter on agriculture, gardening, &c.), and of the price of about threepence, conIcludes with an "Almanach des Bergers pour l'année 1829," wholly composed of hieroglyphics (previously explained), as a glove for frost, an awl for strong frost, a fan for heat, &c. &c., and in this the actual weather is predicted for every day of the year: as that on the 1st of January it would freeze, on the 6th it would snow, on the 9th it would rain, and so on. Another line of hieroglyphics indicates what days are suitable for sowing, grafting, &c., and also for cutting the hair, and cutting the nails. It is evident, therefore, that we are not single in absurdity, but in fact outdone by our Flemish neighbours; and, I believe, one astrological almanack is published in France, or more. How the case may be in Germany I am ignorant; but I am inclined to think that the labours of societies, like that in England for the diffusion of useful knowledge, directed to the reformation of the almanacks, are as much wanted throughout Europe as with us. -W. S. Brussels, March 20. 1829. One of the shortest of the "Prédictions pour l'année 1829," will serve both as a specimen of the riddles, over which the Flemings have to ponder during the long winter evenings, and of the tone of political feeling to which they are adapted. The whole series is introduced by this address:"Au Lecteur.-Doutez ou croyez, peu importe; les événemens que je prédis ne s'accompliront pas moins. "JANVIER. Vœux intéresses mais superflus.- Puissant qui tombe, médiocre qui s'élève. — Il fallait un calculateur: ce fut un danseur qu'on choisit. Lutte sanglante et obstinée. — La croix brille à l'orient. - Nazarin faisait chanter ses contribuables: certain ministre fera pleurer les siens.Belle alliance qui se prépare. - Défaite inattendue, résultat inespéré. Quelle leçon pour les rois! Hommes libres, reprenez courage." ["To the Reader. Doubt or believe, it matters little; my predictions will not the less be accomplished. JANUARY. Wishes selfish but vain. -The powerful falls, the weak rises. - An arithmetician was wanted: they chose a dancer. — Strife bloody and obstinate. — The cross shines in the East. Nazarin made his tax-payers sing: a certain minister will make his weep.— A fair alliance is in preparation. Unexpected defeat, unhoped for result. What a lesson for kings! Freemen, take courage."] 249 PART IV. MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. ART. I. Natural History in Foreign Countries. FRANCE. COLLECTION of Natural History from Pondicherry. Messrs. Cuvier, Desfontaines, and Dumeril read a report, at a recent sitting of the Academy of Sciences, on the collections of natural history made by the officers of the Chevrette, during her voyage to Pondicherry. The specimens brought home include 16 species of the mammalia, 256 of birds, 37 of reptiles, 258 of fishes, 271 of mollusca, 16 of the annelides, 132 of crustacea, 590 of insects and spiders, and 161 of zoophytes. Many of these are altogether new to science; and we are indebted for them solely to the enlightened zeal of the officers, as it formed no part of their duty to attend to natural history. (Le Globe.) Ingenuity of a Beaver at Paris. A beaver from the Rhine is now, or was lately, in the royal collection in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, which exhibited as much ingenuity as has ever been ascribed to the species in a wild state, and more than enough to silence the incredulity of sceptics respecting the beavers' dams, and their magazines of winter provisions. This beaver, for instance, we are informed by M. Geoffroi St. Hilaire, was, during the severe weather in winter, furnished with fresh twigs of trees, to give exercise to his propensity to gnawing, and with apples, &c., as a more nutritive food. One night there came on a snow storm, and the snow beat into his domicile in considerable quantity, till he found out a plan of shielding himself from the inconvenience. For this purpose, he cut his supply of twigs into proper lengths, to be wove in the basket fashion, between the bars of his cage; chopped his apples in pieces, to fill up the intervals between the twigs; and, when even this did not appear sufficiently airtight, or (if you will) storm-tight, he kneaded the snow into the intervals. By the morning it appeared that he had laboured hard all night, and had completed a very neat and ingenious barricado against the intrusion of the snow. (Athenæum, Nov. 19.) - The Cuckoo. The Continental naturalists have raised a controversy. respecting the species of the common cuckoo, which is found to vary considerably in the colour of its plumage, one being thence called the red and another the grey cuckoo; the former supposed to be the Cùculus hepáticus of Latham, and the latter the C. canòrus of Linnæus. M. Payrandeau, however, states distinctly, on the authority of a series of specimens, as well as of repeated dissection, that both the male and female young of the Cùculus canòrus, before the first moult, have the same colour: that, after the first moult, the males have a deep olive ash colour, and the red spots have already begun to disappear; in the females, on the contrary, the red spots become brighter and larger: that, at the third moult, the red spots on the male disappear altogether, while in the female they continue to the most VOL. II. No. 8. S advanced age, when it puts on the plumage of an old male, of which change M. Payrandeau possesses a specimen. M. Temminck, again, whose authocuckoo rity is very high, regards the red cuckoo as the young of the grey of one year old; but Vieillot, the father of the French ornithologists, as well as Meyer, Jules, Delamothe, and Baillon of Abbeville, agree with M. Payrandeau. (Bulletin des Sciences.) Submergence of the Continents.-M. Constant Prevost has just published an interesting memoir on the geological question, whether our continents have been submerged oftener than once. He attempts to prove that there do not exist, under alluvial formations, any beds or strata which can be regarded as having formed the surface of an ancient continent, covered for a considerable time with land vegetables, and inhabited by land animals, before it was enveloped in marine deposits. The débris of vegetables and of land animals, sometimes found in vertical positions in sandstone, in diluvial strata, or in caverns, he supposes to be wholly accidental, and originating in the sea invading a country previously inhabited. He thence proceeds to explain the formation of the basins of London, Paris, and the Isle of Wight, according to the following series of epochs : 1. A deep tranquil sea deposited the two varieties of chalk which compose the bottom and the sides of the great tertiary basins. 2. Then, by the ocean becoming shallower, the great basin would be formed into a gulf, in which chalk-breccias and plastic clay would be deposited, and covered by the marine remains of the first coarse limestone. 3. The deposition was next interrupted by some commotion, which sensibly broke and displaced the strata. The basin then became a salt-water lake, traversed by copious streams of water, flowing alternately from the sea and from the continents, and producing a mixture, presenting the second coarse limestone, siliceous limestone, and gypsum. 4. A large volume of fresh water, charged with clay and marl, burst into the basin, still forming in the middle a deposit of marine bivalve shells, the basin becoming a lake of brackish water. 5. The lake now ceased to communicate with the ocean, the level of the waters going on to decrease, and the muddy deposits from the continental waters continuing. 6. The ocean burst in accidentally, whence beds of sand and the upper marine sandstone were deposited; and, soon after, the basin being drained, continued only fresh water, of little depth. There was now much less influx of water; animals and vegetables made their appearance, and millstone grit and fresh-water limestone were deposited. 7. The succession of these different epochs was terminated by the diluvian cataclysm. GERMANY. Natural History in Wurtemberg. — The Society denominated the Naturhistorische Reiseverein (Natural History Travelling Society), " under the direction of the Landwirthschaftliche Verein, last year sent out two travellers, whose researches were highly successful: Fleischer, who made collections of specimens of natural history in the environs of Smyrna; and Müller, who was employed to examine the productions of Sardinia. The latter passed the winter at Cagliari, and will continue there this summer. Both travellers have paid particular attention to botany, and have also collected a considerable number of insects, conchylia, &c. This year the Society have provided for making mineralogical researches, and have sent out to Norway two other travellers: one for botany, especially algology, muscology, and lichnology; the other for oryctognosy and geology. The former is Huber of Hamburg; the latter, Kurr of Wurtemberg, an excellent mineralogist. It is intended that they should extend their researches as far as Lapland. Several friends of the Society at the Cape have under |