the fossil-bones of the province of Liège, and his immense collection of the remains of those animals which the earth supported at the period of which I have just spoken, are incontestable titles to the national gratitude for this indefatigable naturalist. "M. Moren, whose studies have principally for their object physiology, zoology, and botany, has also occupied himself in researches which interest the geologist; he published, in 1832, his observations on the human bones found in the peat-bogs of Flanders, and in 1834, on the fossil-bones of elephants, found in Belgium. "In giving publicity to the numerous observations that he has made upon the lead-mine of Lougively, which he directs, M. Benoit has contributed to extend the circle of our knowledge of the Ardenne, that part of Belgium which is so interesting to the geologist. 66 "M. Nyst has just made a new step in the study of our tertiary lands, in printing his researches upon the fossil-shells of the environs of Antwerp. Many learned foreigners are also joining their efforts to those of the Belgian geologists, and adding some materials to those already collected by them, to serve for a geological description of Belgium. We have much pleasure in noticing the services rendered by MM. Faujas de Saint Fond, Bory de Saint Vincent, Dechen Oeynhausen, Eninghans, Fitton, Lajoukaire, De-ville-neuve, Rozet, and Clère. "Although M. Vandermaelen (Philippe) has not published any original work on that branch of natural science which is the object of this Report, we ought to acknowledge that he has rendered great services to it, in organizing in his establishment, at present known by all those who cultivate the sciences in Belgium, collections which are the greatest help to the naturalist, in instituting courses of lectures, destined to spread, among all classes of society, a taste for the beautiful and the sublime; in drawing towards him to concur in the accomplishment of his generous and philanthropic views young men, whom he afterwards sends to traverse distant countries, there to complete their instruction, and to collect materials of every species, for the construction of the monument which he raises here to the sciences of observation. "The extraordinary and daily increasing developement of industry, during the recent period that we are surveying, has had also a great influence upon the progress of the mineralogical and geological sciences; and these sciences have, in their turn, lent their salutary aid to the branches of that industry which is exercised on mineral substances. To develop this truth, which is not now doubted except by ignorance, would be to insult the understanding of those who listen to me; I shall therefore limit myself to add, that the members of the mining body, principally destined to enlighten with the torch of theory, the arts of working and treating minerals, have seconded by the communication of elements drawn from practice, the efforts of the geologists who have written on the Belgian Provinces in which mines exist. It only remains for me to speak of the geological works which have been composed under the influence or patronage of the academy; but here a new reserve is imposed upon me, for if I have ventured to give an opinion, or rather to recall the judgment already formed by the public, upon those rather ancient, and generally-extended works which I have cited above, I cannot act in the same manner in regard to those with which I am now to be occupied. It is to public opinion that we must exclusively defer, for the confirmation or contradiction of our judgment, for appreciating our works, and for assigning them their suitable place in the archives of human knowledge, the appeal of the Academy has been heard and understood; of nine memoirs which have been remitted to it, in answer to the question of geology, successively applied to the provinces of Hainault, Namur, Luxembourg, Liège, and Brabant, it has adjudged seven prizes to their authors, (five first and two second) whom I feel obliged to name in following the chronological order of their works. They are MM. Drapiez, Cauchy, Steininger, Englespach, Larivière, Dumont, Davreux, and Galéotti. Although I do not permit myself to speak of these writings, I cannot, however, do otherwise than mention here, that the new and ingenious views presented of our ancient lands by M. Dumont in his "Geological Description of the Province of Liège, have just received a striking confirmation, by the verification which the Geological Society of France has made of them this summer; and by the memoirs which the learned Murchison has published upon the northern part of Great Britain. "Besides these very long works, we must also remember that there is in the nine volumes of the New Memoirs of the Academy, the 'Dissertation on the Stratiform Trap-Rocks,' of M. Kickx; the relation of a 'Voyage to the Grotto of Han,' made in 1822 by MM. Kickx and Quetelet; a notice on 'Les Pierres à chaux Hydraulique, of the provinces of Hainault and Namur,' by the Editor of the present Report; Observations on the Divisions of the Lands,' by M. D'Omalins: and in the Bulletin des Séances, published by the Academy since 1832, a great number of isolated observations which we offer to those who will one day come to take a part in the interest for science and art. "We may then consider as nearly terminated tho mineralogical and geological description of the five above named provinces; that is to say, of that part of Belgium which presents the greatest interest under the relation in which we here regard it. "That of the province of Antwerp has been the object of one of the prize questions of 1836; and that of the two united Flanders, is already proposed for the prize of 1837. When it shall have obtained satisfactory answers to these two questions, the academy will doubtless judge it necessary to give its attention to the revision which will probably be needful, at least for the first memoirs that it has received; and to call all the Belgian geologists to a great meeting, whose object will be to dispose and re-unite all these works digested by different authors, and at periods whose extremes are separated by a very long interval. Then Belgium will no longer have cause to envy neighbouring nations, which have made most progress in the study of those lands whose surface she occupies. In the mean while, and wishing at the same time to show the extent of the works executed at this day upon the geological constitution of this country, and to satisfy, as much as is in my power, the natural impatience of persons, who, by taste or necessity, have an interest in knowing its mineral riches, I have undertaken summarily to unite all the mineralogical and geological observations which are found scattered in the numerous writings which have been recently named, and I have the honour to submit to the judgment of the academy, A Synoptical Table of the Minerals and Rocks of Belgium, considered under a Mineralogical, Geological, Geographical, and Technological relation.' · 6 "But it is time to terminate this nomenclature of scientific works, whose barrenness will be, I hope, in part excused by the motives of expediency which have influenced my pen. I hasten also to call the attention of the public for an instant to the Geological Description of the Province of Brabant,' whose author we are about to crown. His memoir will be immediately printed; it will be read with the most lively interest, we cannot for a moment doubt, not only by the friends of science, but by all the educated men of this capital. These wish to know what the country formerly was which they inhabit, they will see that in the place of populous cities, of delicious gardens, and smiling fields which surround them, a vast and deep sea covered rocks which now constitute the soil of Ardenne, and beat with its unconquered waves those which disclose to us the summits in the environs of Hal, of Genappe, and of Jodoigne; they will learn by what a series of revolutions the deep valleys, which furrowed this ancient soil have been overwhelmed, and its high mountains covered by successive deposits, which have at last produced the level soil which we at present tread. “M. Galeotte will not himself be present to receive the only recompense which we are able to grant to his useful and fatiguing labours. Just returned from a scientific excursion in the countries of Germany, where he might make trial of his useful talent, he is gone to Mexico, to exercise it there in a newer and vaster field, that he may gather there a new harvest of knowledge, with which he will return to do homage to Belgium, and to acquire scientific riches, which he will place in the geographical establishment of Brussels, where he has pursued his studies. "It is then upon some steep peak of the Andes, upon the burning crater of some volcano, or in the bottom of some mine in the New World, that he will receive the palm which we are about to decree to him. If it shall too forcibly recall the memory of his absent country, if some regret shall mix its bitterness with the joy which shall fill his heart, may he think that we here apply to him those beautiful verses of the poet Millevoye, "Gloire à l'homme inspiré que la soif de connaître Les tranquilles honneurs, les trésors, l'amitié, Les travaux, les dangers, son zèle les surmonte; The sitting was terminated by the distribution of medals decreed to the competitors of 1834 and 1835. The permanent secretary successively proclaimed the names of the laureates, who received the medals from the hands of the directors. BOTANICAL RAMBLES IN THE VICINITY OF DOVOR. No. II. In this ramble I shall propose taking the reader again over a part of the ground we beat in our last, that is to say, under the Castle-cliffs to the zig-zag path by the Station-house. Here we shall break upon new ground, and proceed under the South-foreland cliffs to St. Margaret's, and thence returning over the downs, by the lighthouse and the castlehill, we will digress a little from the straight road when we reach the latter spot, to examine the fields and lanes about Charlton. As we proceed, a great many of the same plants mentioned in my last will come before us again, but I shall not refer to them excepting in a few instances, where I may have something to observe. My object is to point out the localities of plants I have not before mentioned; it must therefore be expected, that the more we ramble, the fewer we shall have to note. Proceeding then under the Castle-cliffs to the winding path by the Station-house, we will here begin again to make our observations. The first botanizing ground we shall come to is some slopes situated on a ledge of the cliff many feet above the shingle, but still not difficult to be reached if a little more than usual exertion be resorted to in the climbing When once upon the ledge there is plenty of way. and a space, luxuriant bed of vegetation. Here we shall find common Juniper (Juniperus communis), and observe the common Ivy (Hedera Helix), trailing over the slopes and matting itself with the brambles and other shrubs which fall in its way. It does not climb up the surface of the cliff and show itself in that luxuriant manner as on the ruins of Kenilworth Castle, and at other places, where the beauty of the scene is much enhanced by its appearance. The situation here may be too exposed, or more probably, the chalk-cliff is not sufficiently firm for the roots of the ivy to find a holding-ground. The Horse-shoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa), which we have before observed, becomes more plentiful here, and is found in abundance on some of the slopes. The South-foreland cliffs, which we shall soon reach, are very perpendicular, and their height gives an imposing grandeur to this part of the coast. They are free from any kind of vegetation, being one unspotted mass of chalk, which ever looks beautiful, and its pure-white surface is seen from afar, and helped to designate our Island-Albion. Hawks, ravens, and various sea-birds seem to have monopolized the spot, but nestle so high up that they would not be observed, did not discordant screams give notice of their presence, and call the attention of the passer-by. At the foot of these cliffs we shall find a few small bushes of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), on some sloping banks near the tide-mark, and a little further on, the slender-flowered Thistle (Carduus tenuiflorus), shows itself growing at the foot of the cliff*. We shall now advance to St. Margaret's, where, as I have before stated, the cliff sinks to a mere bank, and rises again very soon. Here we shall observe a considerable bed of shingle running in, around which are a few cottages, a station-house, and a clean public-house. A solitary bathingmachine stands on the beach. The bulk of the village of St. Margaret's lies inland—this may be termed the port. On the eastern side of this sequestered spot, on the slopes of the cliffs, large beds of common Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) will be observed, which when in flower, have a beautiful golden appearance. Chalk-cliffs in the vicinity of the sea are the usual locality for this plant, but I have my doubts whether it be truly wild in this spot, it having very probably escaped from some cottage-gardens close at hand, and finding a soil it liked well, has spread itself over the extent of ground it now covers. Some of the stems I noticed to be from five to six feet high, with the umbels unusually large. Returning over the top of the cliff we will first make for the Southforeland lighthouses, in the fields around which we shall find the com *For the use of those who add the study of Entomology to that of Botany, I may here remark, that under these cliffs I have taken four species of the blue butterfly, known scientifically as belonging to the genus Polyommatus, as well as the rare clouded-yellow butterfly, Colias Hyale. Four species of the genus Vanessa abound, the Io, Atalanta, Urtica, and Cardui, besides several other butterflies. Licinus depressus, and Sylphoides, two very local beetles, will be found under flints and pieces of chalk in August and September, and the rare hemipterous insect, Coreus scapha, is far from uncommon. mon Basil Thyme (Acinos vulgaris), growing in extraordinary abundance, the surface of the soil in some places receiving a tint of blue when the plants are in flower. The rare, round rough-headed Poppy (Papaver hybridum), grows in the neighbourhood of the lighthouses, particularly in a field between them and the cliff. Our road will now lead us to the station-house above the zig-zag path, frequently referred to before, and as we pass along we shall observe short-awned annual Darnel (Lolium arvense), and narrow-leaved pale Flax (Linum angustifolium). The way from this station-house to the castle-hill having been pointed out in a former ramble, we will proceed at once to the latter spot, and here I hope the reader will excuse me, if instead of going home direct, we make a little excursion over the fields to the right, to the rivulet near Charlton, and thence into the town through the lanes. We shall first pass over a series of cultivated fields, where an opportunity will offer of observing the smooth narrow-fruited CornSalad (Fedia dentata), Common Nipple-wort (Lapsana communis), and dwarf Spurge (Euphorbia exigua). Some of these fields have grassyborders, where the small Woodruff (Asperula cynanchica) grows, a favourite plant, common in chalky districts, but rare elsewhere. About Charlton are some shady lanes with high banks, where the following plants grow-Greater Plantain (Plantago major), great Bindweed (Convolvulus sepium), sweet Violet (Viola odorata), Silver-weed (Potentilla anserina), common Avens (Geum urbanum), common Mallow (Malva sylvestris), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), and Dove's-foot Crane'sbill (Geranium molle). The common Traveller's-joy (Clematis vitalba) abounds here, as in most calcareous soils. This plant is provincially termed Honesty or Old-man's beard, and in some of our inland counties is a favourite with the poor boys, who cut the stem into pieces about six inches long, and setting fire to one end, smoke them when dry, in the manner of a pipe. The wood being very porous, allows the air to pass through with ease, and the mimic smoking of a piece of honesty often leads, I am inclined to think, to the higher accomplishment, that of the tobacco-pipe: many of the old mothers who act as village doctors, affirm that the smoke from the Traveller's-joy, when properly inhaled, is an excellent remedy in cases of Asthma. Near the rivulet, and in damp places along the lanes as we pass home, we shall meet with spotted Persicaria (Polygonum persicaria), pale-flowered Persicaria, (Polygonum lapithifolium), common Meadow-sweet (Spiræa ulmaria), Water Betony (Scrophularia aquatica), and square-stalked St. John'swort (Hypericum quadrangulum). On the right of the lane leading from Charlton to Dover, a little before we reach the town, is an old wall, on which the crooked yellow Stonecrop (Sedum reflexum) grows, one of those plants so peculiarly constituted, that it will bear the greatest droughts and heats, although exposed to the scorching rays of the sun with but little or no earth for its roots. In Oxfordshire, the cottagers gather this plant, and suspend pieces of it in their rooms by a string, calling it the air-plant, from its shooting and growing for a short period even when thus severed from its roots. We shall now soon reach the town, and I shall conclude this second ramble, as I am sure the reader will not wish to proceed any further at present. W. W. S. |