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ABATIA, Ruiz et Pavon.

Syst. Linn. POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Ord. Nat. SALICARIÆ, Nobis.

Calyx monophyllus: tubus brevissimus, subturbinatus: faux pilis muticis filamentosis numerosissimis (vix tamen stamina sterilia) munita: limbus 4-partitus: laciniis lanceolatis, æstivatione valvatis. Petala nulla. Stamina definitè numerosa (20) simplici ordine! prope tubi calycis basin inserta: filamenta complanata, glabra: antheræ obtusæ, introrsæ, biloculares, basi insertæ: loculis parallelis, longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium liberum, globosum, uniloculare, villosissimum. Stylus teres, glaber. Stigma parvum, truncatum, pruinosum. Capsula unilocularis, bivalvis, polysperma, apice dehiscens: valvis sublignosis, concavis, medio placentiferis. Placenta nunc demùm solutæ, basi connata. Semina parva, angulata, atrofusca, adscendentia, hinc convexa, inde planiuscula, apice alâ exiguâ cristata, basi umbilico prominenti instructa; testa exterior crustacea, superficie reticulatâ ; interior membranacea, pallidior: albumen nullum. Embryo erectus, teres, lacteus: radiculâ cotyledonibus semicylindricis parùm longiore, obtusâ, centrifugâ.

Frutices (Peruviani) pubescentiâ fasciculatâ cinereo-tomentosi. Folia opposita, petiolata, exstipulata, simplicia, crenata. Flores racemosi. Pedicelli uniflori, bractea suffulti, solitarii v. fasciculati.

1. rugosa, foliis suprà rugosis, antheris oblongis : connectivo dilatato! Abatia rugosa, Ruiz et Pavon Syst. Veg. Fl. Peruv. et Chil. 1. p. 136. Gen. t. 14. Fl. Peruv. et. Chil. tom. 5. ined. t. 463.

Hab. in Peruviæ collibus frigidis ad Rondos, Pillao, et Nauyan.-
Ruiz et Pavon. h. Floret a Maio ad Octobrem. Vulgò in Pillao
Taucca-Taucca, id est, Acervus-Acervus. (V. s. sp. in Herb.
Lamb.)

2. A parviflora, foliis suprà planis, antheris subrotundis : connectivo angustissimo.

Abatia parviflora, Ruiz et Pavon 1. c. 1. p. 136. Fl. Peruv. et Chil. tom. 5. ined. t. 464.

Hab. in Peruviæ runcationibus circa Muna vicum.-Ruiz et Pavon. h. Floret a Maio ad Augustum. Vulgò Taucca-Taucca. (V. s. sp. in Herb. Lam.)

Folia magis canescentia, suprà planiora. Flores duplò minores. Lacinia calycine ovato-oblongæ. Situs racemorum in utraque idem. Species Bogotensis ab amicissimo Kunthio descripta videtur dis

tincta.

OBS. Stamina quadruplum laciniarum calycinarum efficiunt, sed modo unusitato in simplici ordine disposita. Pili faucis ob formæ structuræque differentiam vix pro staminibus sterilibus desumpti.

There is another genus, which M. De Candolle has placed in Homalina, namely Aristotelea, on which I beg to offer a few observations. The comparison of this genus with Tricuspidaria leaves no doubt of its being a legitimate member of the family Elaocarpeæ. In both genera the calyx is fivelobed; the petals five, and alternating with the lobes of the ca

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lyx; the stamens are inserted in the calyx; the anthers long, and opening at the top by two fissures; the leaves in both are generally opposite, of precisely the same structure, serrated at the margin, and furnished with innumerable minute pellucid dots; the stipules are small and deciduous; the fruit in both is three-celled; and the flowers are white and pendulous. The structure of the seeds in both genera is precisely similar, having a flat embryo placed in the centre of very copious fleshy albumen. The stigmata in Tricuspidaria are distinct, but united in Aristotelea, which has been hitherto considered as possessing a simple stigma. The leaves may more correctly be regarded as approximated in pairs than as decidedly opposite, and they are found often alternate, as might be expected, in both genera.

(To be concluded in our next.)

New Observations on the Blood-like Phenomena observed in Egypt, Arabia, and Siberia, with a View and Critique of the Early Accounts of Similar Appearances. By Mr C. G. EHRENBERG.

THE blood-red colour of waters, and the scattered bloodcoloured spots which have sometimes appeared so suddenly as to excite the wonder, and often the alarm, of the people of all ages, however much the scientific investigations of these things may have been gradually refined and confirmed, are still objects of much ambiguity; and, even among learned men, the knowledge of the causes of this phenomenon is capable of farther extension, and of stricter demonstration. In my travels, I have had an opportunity of collecting many facts regarding these appearances, that is, on the red colour of the Red Sea, on the blood spots in Egypt; and, during the last journey which I, in company with Baron Humboldt, made to Siberia, on a very intense blood colour in a lake of the Steppe of Platow. I shall attempt to arrange these facts along with the appearances already known, so as to counteract the present disposition, created by Chladni, to refer all the historical accounts of blood-coloured masses to meteoric and cosmical appearances. As it is of consequence to

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distinguish, by the most accurate investigation, the appearances of this kind, which are indisputably meteoric; so, on the other hand, for the sake of comparison, it must be of consequence to know the genuine characteristics of such appearances as are not meteoric; and, although Chladni was so much inclined to enlarge his catalogue of meteoric masses by including in it bloodlike appearances on the earth's surface, it is no easy matter to prove that even a single one of his examples are really meteoric.

The explanation of the appearances of blood is historically divided into four periods, which may be called, 1st, The theocratic or period of miracles; 2d, The period of the Hippocratic school; 3d, The physical or natural-historical; and, 4th, The atmospherical or cosmical.

The first period extends from the commencement of history till the time of Cicero. In the second, the admissibility of miracles was questioned, and a belief in a crude and boiled condition of atmospherical and terrestrial moisture was prevalent. Peiresc of Aix commenced the third period; and Chladni, who strongly reprehended the encroachments of natural historians in these matters, established the fourth.

We have the most ancient account of blood-coloured water from Egypt, in the books of Moses. That was an immediate operation of the Almighty, and one of the miracles which Moses performed in the presence of Pharaoh. The Nile was red, and stank; the fishes died, and all the water in Egypt was changed in the same manner *.

After this, the poems of Homer mention the earliest appearance of a similar kind, or the poet took advantage of, at least repeated, the natural appearance of blood rain, known at that

Exodus, chap vii. ver. 19.-And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. Verse 20. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded: and he lift up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. Verse 21. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

time, for the purpose of enlivening his poetical representations, and considered it as a direct encroachment of the gods on the established laws of nature.

If the Red Sea really has its name from the colour, this would be the third historical notice, and is to be placed after that of Homer; but the old Jewish records do not call the Arabian Gulf the Red Sea; and it is called so only by the later translators of them from the Alexandrian. I have myself observed and examined the periodical appearance of blood-red seawater in the Red Sea, and shall here briefly explain myself, but in another place more circumstantially.

This appearance is also frequently mentioned in the Greek and Roman classics; and, till those times, these phenomena were generally considered as immediate operations of supernatural power, and violations of the established laws of nature. Cicero was perhaps historically the first who expressed his doubts regarding the preternaturality of the appearances of blood at that time, and attempted to connect these appearances with physical phenomena, by directing his attention to the error of confounding the expresss traces of blood, and of the bloody colouring of moisture; and he found the latter to depend on a mixture of coloured earthy ingredients.

From this time till the commencement of the seventeenth century, historians have recorded many such natural phenomena, though we cannot discover that any one has taken the trouble of comprehensively and accurately investigating cases of this kind. The Hippocratic school gave an absurd explanation; thus the physician Garcæus, in 1568, says, blood-rain is rain boiled by the sun, and compared it with red urine in fever.

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To introduce into this article Chladni's important aim of advancing the knowledge of truly cosmical and atmospherical bodies, it may be of advantage to bring together the notices he collected of appearances of blood, previous to the commencement of the seventeenth century, according to the following scheme, in which I take advantage not only of the work of Chladni, but also of the spirited labours of Nees von Esenbeck, to which I make some additions of my own.

I. Rivers flowed suddenly with red or bloody water, without any previous rain of that colour.

In 323 A. C. in Picenum; in 787 P. C. in Italy.

As no account is given of the locality of these rivers, it is doubtful whether both these instances may not be referred to the third rubric. Similar doubts exist regarding modern instances of this kind. Accurate investigations are every where awanting.

II. Lakes and stagnant waters were suddenly or gradually coloured, without previous blood-rain. Two such cases are found among the notices of early periods, collected by Chladni.

The bloody colour of the Volsinian Lake, in 208 A. C., recorded by Livy.

The similar colour of a Venetian lake, in summer of the year 586 A. C. I find in Pliny, that there was a lake near Babylon, which had a red colour during eleven days of summer.

The colouring of Lake Wan, in A. D. 1110, may perhaps belong to this department, though it was considered to be caused by a fiery meteor falling into it.

Every appearance of this kind requires rigid examination, in regard to the very small cryptogamous plants, which, singly, are imperceptible to the naked eye, and whose colouring is visible only when a great many of them are together, and also in regard to equally minute water animalcula. As the foregoing instances were not examined in these respects, they cannot with certainty, nay even with probability, be considered as atmospherical productions.

III. Meteoric substances, which are usually colourless, dew, rain, snow, hail, and what are called shot stars, fall from the air red coloured, as blood-dew, blood-rain, and clotted blood, without the atmosphere being obscured by red dust.

(a) Blood-dew.

To this belong the two passages of Homer, which, however

poetical, are still applicable to rain, and some accounts of bloody sweat on the statues of the gods, and on warlike armour, which I find mentioned in Livy.

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