Radix lignosa, cylindrisa, parum ramosa. Caulis nullus. Folia è radice numerosa; stipula magna, petiolo adhærentes, villis longis hirsuta, acuta. Petiolus teres, hirsutus, 7-8 centim. longus. Foliola verticillata, 4-6 in quoque verticillo, sessilia, elliptico-acuminata, villoso sericea, 10-12 mill. longa, 4-5 lata. Scapi radicales, erecti, folio longiores, hirsuti. Flores sessiles, capitati, demum spicati. Bractea lanceolato-lineares, villosa, calyci aquales. Calyx cylindricus, villosus, quinquefidus; laciniis acutis, aqualibus. Corolla purpurea, calyce duplo longior. Vexillum oblongo-ovatum, obtusum, alas superans. Ala stipitate, limbo oblongo hinc basi profundè auriculato. Carina basi vix bipes, apice intentiùs violacea, desinens in mucrone lineare, erecta, alas adequans. Ovarium ovatum, villosum. Stilus in medio incurvus. Stigma capitatum. Legumina erecta, ovata, acuminata, stilosa, compressa, parcè villosa, calyce supernè fisso duplò longiora, vix semibilocularia; semina perpauca, rotundato-reniformia. (V. S.) Habitat in Siberia. Affinis oxytropidis lanate. Differt quod non sit caulescens, et quod foliola sint multò pauciora. Ab oxytropide microphylla Pall. differt foliolis majoribus, paucioribus, x utraque parte villoso-sericeis." We merely announce the following novelties as proofs of the author's successful industry; referring the curious reader to the work itself for more particular information :-Phaca triflora, Oxytropis squammulosa, O. longirostra, O. brevirostra, O. glabra, Astragalus cracca, A. microcarpus, A. hispidulus, A. nanus, A. hirsutissimus, A. secundus, A. megalanthus, A. albicaulis, A. tuberculosus, A. macrocarpus, A. cephalanthus, A. pubiflorus, A. eriocarpus, A. brevicarinatus, and A. uniflorus. In every case in which the specific description has been. taken from an inspection of the living plant, it is traced by the hand of a master; leaving scarcely any circumstance unnoticed, which the most scrupulous observer would wish to know. A catalogue of doubtful species, and a copious index, are subjoined. The beauty of the paper, of the engravings, and of the junior Didot's type, will gratify the taste of those who delight in splendid volumes. For the accommodation of those botanists, however, whose finances may happen to be in a poetical state, we should be glad to hear of a more humble impression. Muir. ART. XIII. Histoire Naturelle des Raincues, &c.; i. e. The Natural History of Tree-Frogs, Frogs, and Toads. Dedicated to B.G.E. L. Lacepède, by F. M. DAUDIN, Member of the Society of Natural History, and of the Philomatic Society of Paris. Embellished with 38 Plates, representing 54 Species, painted from Nature. 4to. pp. 108. Paris. 1802. Imported by De Boffe. Price 11. IS. Boards. * THIS HIS volume commences with a summary, but very distinct statement of the characters which belong to the Batracian family of reptiles; or, in plain English, to the three genera of oviparous quadrupeds announced in the title. troduction are subjoined the following notices: To this in Though the author has endeavoured to render his work complete, he cannot flatter himself that he has altogether succeeded; because several of the individuals from which he copied must have undergone some change in spirits of wine. He, therefore, invites foreign naturalists and travellers to paint or describe the animals in their living state, or, at least, before they are discoloured. 6 All the Batracians, of which I gave abridged descriptions in the Natural History of Reptiles, by Latreille, will be marked in this new work by an asterisk, at the end of the Latin specific name. I should observe, however, that the descriptions, in their present form, inelude many additions, and some corrections. Of the drawings executed by Barraband, some were lent to M. Desève; who has merely reduced them, and published them, by mistake, in his own name, in the small edition of the Natural History of Reptiles, to which I contributed, along with my friend Latreille, for Deterville the bookseller.' Each of the three genera is introduced by its distinctive marks; and its species, with their subordinate varieties, follow in order. The references prefixed to the specific articles are less multiplied and less circumstantial than we could desire: but 26 hylæ, 17 rane, and 31 bufones are duly exhibited, and described, for the most part, with laudable accuracy. The technical specific definitions are set down in Latin, and, usually, in the compass of one or two lines. To these succeed the details of physical appearance and habit, under the twofold title of Caractère Physique and Caractère Habituel.-Marginal notes, chiefly of a critical complexion, are sometimes added. A short article will suffice for a specimen : 6 XIV. MILK-COLOURED TREE-FROG. HYLA LACTEA. Hyla lactea, cum lineá fuscescente à naribus usque ad oculos ductá?' The quarto edition, with coloured plates, sells at Paris for 50 livres, and the folio for 75.. < CARACT. Head small, CARACT. PHYS. Length, an inch and four lines. triangular, and not obtuse; skin smooth, and quite of the colour of cream, with a small light brownish line proceeding from the nostrils, along the sides of the head, to the eyes; thighs and abdomen granulated. Fore feet with four half-webbed toes, the hind ones with five webbed; viscous knobs, somewhat large.' CARACT. HAB. It exists in America. That of the Parisian museum is taken from the Dutch collection. Its body is very fat. Note. This new species is not to be confounded with Linné's Rana boans, which is the lacteous tree-frog of Daubenton and of Lacepède.' We might quote passages of greater length: but a rigid scientific brevity constitutes a distinguishing feature of M. DAUDIN'S performance, and recalls, by contrast, the moré rhetorical and varied pages of the celebrated naturalist to whom he inscribes his volume. Indeed, the present author's merit seems to consist in the concentration of scattered materials already published, rather than in frequency of discovery or ingenuity of remark: though we meet occasionally with a new species, and with a singular felicity of extricating an esta blished confusion of nomenclature. We are pleased also with the writer's simplicity and correctness of description: but he seldom makes us truly acquainted with the economy and disposition of the creatures which he undertakes to delineate. The work, however, is not destitue of useful and interesting observation. Thus, under Rana Paradoxa, we find the following: This frog, which is frequently found in Surinam and various other parts of South America, presents a striking singularity of transformation, which misled MM. Merian and Seba. These two authors have asserted that the jacky passes from the frog state to that of tad-pole, and is then changed into a fish: but the facts which gave rise to this erroneous opinion are simply these: 1. Tadpoles of the jacky are found rather larger than the perfect animal, and furnished with only two hind legs. 2. Others are found of a size somewhat smaller, and with four legs. 3. These tad-poles have some resemblance to a species of American fish, from the peculiar form of their tail.' These particulars are discussed more at large in the text, and are aptly illustrated by plates. An opinion more generally received, but equally untrue with the former, is thus shortly exposed: It has been alleged that the pustules of toads are filled with a dangerous, nay mortal poison.. This poison, however, is only acrid pus; by no means cleanly, I allow, but which at most may cause pimples, or a slight inflammation on the skin.' M m. 3 In In opposition to the assertions of respectable naturalists, M. DAUDIN assures us, from his own observation, that the common toad shuns water, and deposits its spawn in a deep hole, which it digs in the earth :-but this retreat is always in the neighbourhood of a subterraneous source. Differences of aspect and habit, we apprehend, will completely justify the author's distinctions relative to Rana pipiens, -ocellata,-grunniens,— clamata, and-halecina; as well as his lines of separation between Bufo vulgaris,-cinereus,-Roeselii, and-obstetricans.Of the cinereous, two varieties are quoted. A. Edge of the lips and extremity of the toes somewhat brownish. Inhabits the Jura mountains,'-' B. Has its dorsal warts and the glands behind the ears of a slight copper colour, I found it on a hill near Beauvais.' For those professed naturalists who have taste and judgment to appreciate the present performance, we should be happy to select more copious extracts, did we not presume that they will have recourse to the book itself. From complaisance to our readers of a more general description, we are unwilling to add much to the liberal allowance of Batracians already served up to them in our reports of the works of Shaw and Lacépide. Mui ART. XIV. Essai sur l'Etude de la Minéralogie, &c.; i. e. An Essay WITHOUT the aid of M. Rozin's avant-propos, we should scarcely have conjectured that he meant to present us with a condensed view of his course of public lectures, delivered in the central school of Brussels. His title holds out no specific plan, his first pages exhibit no table of contents, and his text acknowleges no methodical pauses, vulgarly called parts, books, chapters, or sections. This affected contempt of visible and marked arrangement may give zest to a trim philosophic sermon, but must be regarded as a serious objection to an elementary treatise of any science, or of any portion of a science, of which classification forms a leading feature. A double index, of 36 pages, has its peculiar advantages: but it does not remove what we consider to be the principal defect in this manual. It is, however, intitled to no ordinary com❤ mendation; for it presents to the young student plain and comprehensive descriptions of most of the known mineral sub substances, without alluring him into the maze of theory; while it is calculated to convey useful local information to the more experienced observer. If it should not readily enable the mere beginner to designate with precision such fossil specimens as chance may throw in his way, the reason is to be sought rather in the nature of the subject than in any want of ability in the author. The principles of the mineral kingdom, when compared with the known species of plants and animals, are few indeed: but they exist not in nature in their simple state; and their combinations present a countless and perplexing variety of appearances, with such minute and almost imperceptible shadings, that external characters cannot always be safely assumed as a basis of distinct classification; while a knowlege of their component parts is, in many cases, to be acquired only by troublesome and delicate processes, and by modes of investigation not exempt from fallacy, With respect to a notion which had long prevailed, that Belgium is destitute of mineral riches, it is properly observed that, independently of gold, silver, lead, and zinc ores, it contains porphyry equal to that of the antients, sand-stones of a peculiar conformation, and a blue marble, with white spots, excellently adapted to the purposes of building and sculpture. Various other important articles are pointed out in the course. of the present volume: but, for the requisite information relative to the fossil shells, which are ranged in extensive beds in certain districts of the Low Countries, the learned professor refers to the curious details and plates in Burtin's Oryctographie Belgique. We have been particularly pleased with the short but per spicuous explanation of Lowitz's portable apparatus, and with the definitions of the ordinary tests and re-agents; which form a very suitable introduction to every system of mineralogy. Aware of the prevailing influence of the Wernerian school in Germany and the north, M. RozIN has judiciously annexed, in the margin, the Linnéin names of the articles which he describes. Though he manifests a preference for the ingenious arrangement of Hay, he candidly observes that they who are: able to appreciate the labours of the celebrated Werner need not to be informed that Gmelin, who ranks among the first of our mineralogists, availed himself of all the discoveries of the former, and of his principal pupils; and that he differs from them only in the adoption of a more simple arrangement, namely, that of Linné.'-Hence the latter may be advanta geously used as a key to synonymy by the partisans of different systems. For want of some such contrivance, till the late work of Brochant appeared, (which we mean shortly to notice,) M m 4 the |