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ON THE NUMBER OF VEGETABLE SPECIES OF THE GLOBE.

BY M. DECANDOLLE.

NOTHING is more remarkable in science than the rapid increase in the number of known vegetable species. In 1793, when Linnæus pubblished the second edition of his Species Plantarum, he reckoned only 7500 species. In 1784, Murray raised them to 9000, which, for this period of twenty years, gives less than a hundred plants discovered in the year. In 1806, M. Persoon (in his Enchiridion) includes 21,000 species, without reckoning cryptogamous plants, which may be estimated at 6000, making in all 27,000. M. Decandolle, who, during the last two years, has made assiduous researches in books, and in the collections of the different cities of Europe, finds the number increased in an extraordinary manner. In six families, taken at random, it is raised from 391 to 827. Supposing all the families to have increased in an equal ratio, this would give 57,000; at least we may consider ourselves safe in supposing, that the whole number included in books and collections exceeds 50,000. Now, it is to be considered that Europe, which is only a thirteenth parts of the globe, is the only region explored with any degree of diligence, (more than a third of the plants in M. Persoon's list being European,) that even there, vast countries, such as Spain, Dalmatia, Russia, and, above all, Turkey, have been examined in a very imperfect manner. In the other parts of the globe, besides that scarcely any have been diligently explored, there are immense tracts that remain entirely unknown. 1. Brazil, which, from its extent and position, ought to contain at least 8000 or 10,000, does not present, in our catalogues, more than 200. 2. The Flora of Mexico even after the labours of Sesse and Mocinois very far from being well known. 3. The north-west coast of America is so entirely unexplored, that we do not know if it shares the vegetation of the United States, 4. The centre of Africa is completely unknown.-5. The centre of New Holland is in the same condition. 6. Thibet, and the interior of China and Cochin-China, are almost entirely unknown. From all these considerations, M. Decandolle, infers, that the total number of vegetable species existing on the globe may be expected very considerably to exceed a hundred thousand.-(Bibliotheque Britannique.)

A DOUBTFUL CASE.

A lady, whose great size and masculine shape re-called the words of Virgil,

Andetque viris concurrere Virgo,

(or rather, if the line had suffered it, Virago) had lately at Paris received from the managers of the masquerade at the opera a lady's ticket of admission. She presented herself accordingly with her ticket, at the door of the house, in a domino and mask, and claimed admittance. Her size and deportment excited suspicion as to her sex, in the mind of the controleur, and, to acertain the point, he required that the domino should take off her glove. She consented, and the exhibition of a masculine band confirmed his suspicions. Thinking that he could obtain a proof so decisive as to shut the mouth of the claimant, he required her to show her foot. Alas! this new display was an evidence against her. Never did a foot form such a contrast with that of Cinderilla. The lady stormed at his suspicions, and, determined to give a decisive proof of her

sex hastily unmasked. "Now, now, gentlemen," cried the controleur, to the crowd whom the discussion had assembled, "I call you to witness if this is not the face of a man." Animated with passion, the voice of the lady furnished new arguments against her, and rushing upon her adversary she would by her masculine strength have produced a complete conviction, if three or four frequenters of the opera had not luckily come up and guaranteed the sex of Madame French Paper

MAMMOTH.

It is well known that numerous remains of quadrupeds occur in alluvial and even in some of the solid strata of the globe. Most of these appear to belong to species that no longer live on the face of the earth. Of these extinct quadrupeds, the most remarkable is the Mammoth, which in general structure resembles the elephant.-It appears former ly to have dwelt in northern regions, and at a period when organic beings, very different from the present tribes occupied the land and waters of our planet.-Fischer, the celebrated Professor of Natural History at Moscow, has lately discovered near that capital, the skull of a mammoth of extraordinary magnitude, measuring in length upwards of five feet.

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Now Sorrow's sceptre rules her hours,
And midnight thunders o'er her roar !--
Night, blackest night around her lowers :-
A night whose dawn shall wake no more !.....

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The following humorous ballad, from the pen of Walter Scott, Esq., is eminently characteristic of the bold leader of a Gipsey tribe.

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Donald Caird can drink a gill
Fast as hostler- wife can fill;
Ilka ane that sells gude liquor
Kens how Donald bends a bicker;
When he's fou he's stout and saucy,
Keeps the cantle of the causey;
Hieland chief and lowland laird
Maun gie room to Donald Caird.
Donald Caird, &e. &c.

Steek the amrie, lock the kist,
Else some gear may weel be mist.
Donald Caird finds orra things
Where Allan Gregor fund the taings;
Dunts of kebbock, taits of woo',
Whiles a hen, and whiles a sow,
Webs or duds frae hedge or yard-
'Ware the woodie Donald Caird!
Donald Caird, &c. &c.

On Donald Caird the doom was stern,
Craig to tether, legs to airn;
But Donald Caird, wi' mickle study,
Caught the gift to cheat the woodie;
Rings of airn, and bots of steel,
Fell like ice frae hand and heel!
Watch the sheep, in fauld and glen,
Donald Caird's Ïoose again!

Donald Caird, &c. &c.

MONTHLY REGISTER,

BRITISH COMPENDIUM.

DOMESTIC.-The Duke of Clarence, who was reported to be about to espouse a Danish Princess, is now paying his addresses elsewhere. The Jady, who is young, it seems, had no taste for an alliance with the mature years of his Grace, and he, perhaps by this refusal having been made sensible that he had no time to lose, immediately sued for the hand of an English heiress, a Miss Wykeham, of whose pecuniary attractions report speaks favourably, though silent in other respects, The lady, it ap pears, was nothing loath, and as soon as certain legal and constitutional formalities are gone through, to which no impediment is expected to be raised, the marriage will be solemnized. We confess we prefer this kind of union to any fresh importation of Continental poverty, and could see no harm although the example were followed by the other unmarried branches of the royal family.

FRANCE. An atrocious attempt was made to assassinate the Duke of of Wellington at Paris on the night of the 10th inst. It appears that his Grace's carriage was entering the gate of his hotel near the Champs

Elysees, when some wretch, who seems to have slipped from behind one of the sentry-boxes, standing on the gateway, fired a pistol at the Duke, though with so bad an aim, that the bullet, according to most accounts, did not even strike the carriage. The sentries gave the alarm, and the guard turned out, when the villain was pursued by the soldiers, and by servants of the Duke's household, but being favoured by the darkness of the night, got clear away.

No discovery has yet been made of the person who attempted the assassination of the Duke of Wellington, and the affair, for want of any new light being thrown upon it, is sinking into forgetfulness. From France, we are without any other intelligence of interest. The trial of the pretended Dauphin which has, of late, occupied a considerable space in the French Journals, has terminated in his condemnation to seven years imprisonment, besides which he is liable to further punishment, as a deserter from the army.-The knavery of this impostor being so much exceeded by his folly, we might wonder that he should have been deemed worthy of the elaborate procedure which has been gone into against him, but this feeling is diminished when we consider that, fool and madman as he was, he yet found people credulous enough to believe in the legitimacy of his pretensions, and to employ their purses in its support.

SWEDEN. The demise of Charles XIII. of Sweden is announced. He died on the 5th inst., and on the following day the Crown Prince was proclaimed King. There is not the slightest appearance of any thing to disturb the tranquillity of his succession at present. The Swedish people appear satisfied with his government, and there is no foreign power which can, with any appearance of feasibility, attempt to unsettle his dominion. We have always considered Bernadotte as one of the most crafty politicians of the age, and, should he live to number the years of his predecessor and yet die a King, his life will form one of the most extraordinary on record. In saying this we do not anticipate that it will happen otherwise, but we have strong doubts of the prolongation of his dynasty in the persons of his descendants.

SPANISH AMERICA.-The latest accounts are far from being flattering to the cause of Independence. Bolivar, whose successes and reverses have been so equally balanced, as neither to afford him the assurance of an early termination to his vicissitudes, nor yet altogether to destroy his hopes, has had his prospects of triumph again baffled by the defeat of one of his Generals, prior to a meditated union of their forces, which, had it taken place, would, in all probability, have turned the tide of victory the other way. The Royalists, as usual, boast of much their prowess and its success in this engagement, which was fought on the 3d December, between the King's forces under Colonel Latorre, and the Patriots commanded by General Zaraza; but the accounts of the opposite party, which are just as much entitled to credit, represent the battle as well contested, and rate the loss at about 300 men, while the former describe it as a total annihilation. Bolivar, it is said, however, is still able to take the field with a force superior to that of the Royalists, and does not despair of quickly retrieving this discomfiture, to aid in doing which he had been fortunate enough about that time to receive a fresh importation of arms, gunpowder, &c. The province of Guyana, is stated in private letters to be enjoying the utmost tranquillity under the Independent government; those who had favoured the cause of royalty having acquiesced in the new order of things.

The most recent intelligence from Buenos Ayres speaks of Artigas,

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