Jardin Des Plantes Research Articles

A Third Specimen of the Extinct “Dromaius ater,” Vieillot; found in the R. Zoological Museum, Florence

IN January 1803, a French scientific expedition, under Baudin, visited the coast of South Australia and explored Kangaroo Island, called by them “Isle Decres.” One of the naturalists attached to the expedition was the well-known F. Peron, who wrote an interesting narrative thereof. He noticed that Decres Island was uninhabited by man, but, although poor in water, was rich in kangaroos and emus (Casoars he calls the latter), which in troops came down to the shore at sunset to drink sea-water. Three of these emus were caught alive, and safely reached Paris; we learn from the “Archives du Museum” that one was placed in the Jardin des Plantes, and two were sent to “La Malmaison,” then the residence of the Empress Josephine. We learn later that two of these birds lived to 1822, when one was mounted entire and placed in the ornithological galleries of the “Museum,” the other was prepared as a skeleton and placed in the comparative anatomy collections. No mention is made of the ultimate fate of the third specimen.

La Géologie Expérimentale

IN this work, which has just been added to the “Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale,” Prof. Meunier has aimed at supplying a complete and practical series of experimental illustrations of as many different geological phenomena as possible — in this respect going even farther than did the late M. Daubrée in his classical “Études Synthétiques de Géologie Expérimentale.” The work is founded on a course of lectures given in Natural History Museum of Paris in 1898; and in the Geological Gallery of the Museum in the Jardin desPlantes may be seen the actual apparatus, designed by the author and. others, for carrying on the experiments described in these pages.

The Chair of Darwinism in Paris

ONE of the most interesting evidences of the differing results of municipal organization in foreign countries, as compared with those resulting from such organization in our own, is the news that the Municipal Council of Paris intends to found (in connection with the Sorbonne, or the Jardin des Plantes, or the Collège de France, we do not know which) a Chair of Philosophical Zoology, with a special view to the propagation of the doctrine of evolution as elaborated by Darwin. It appears that the official naturalists in France—those holding the leading professorships and museum appointments—have not hitherto been very friendly to Darwinian doctrine. The Municipal Council of Paris has recognized the fact that there is an undesirable hostility to Darwin's views amongst the official group, and actually proposes to remedy the evil results of this hostility by establishing a new Chair, destined to give fair play and a full hearing to the new philosophy. It is as though the Corporation of London should propose to build and endow a laboratory of physiological experiment or of bacteriology. The imagination recoils before the task of picturing Mr. Alderman Greenfat expounding to his colleagues the importance to the community of scientific research, and carrying with him a large majority in favour of a scientific enterprise hitherto neglected and even penalized by middle-class authority.

The Young Gorilla Of The Jardin Des Plantes

THROUGH the courtesy of the editor of La Nature we are able to give an illustration from an instantaneous photograph of a young male gorilla obtained at the commencement of last winter by the Natural History Museum at Paris. It had been imported from the Gaboon, and it was the first living specimen of this great anthropomorphic ape which had been brought to France. Its study would have presented many points of interest, not alone from the Natural History point of view, but also from the opportunity it would have afforded of studying the development of its intellectual faculties. This young specimen was about three years of age, he had already his full complement of milk-teeth, and the long and sharp canines were decidedly longer than the molars. In disposition he appeared to be very different from either the orang-outan or the chimpanzee. While these in a state of captivity are mostly gentle and sociable, this young gorilla on the other hand was savage, morose, and brutal; he never gave his keeper the least mark of affection; he never allowed himself to be touched without evidencing the greatest aversion, and for the most part he returned caresses by snappings. He never took the least part in the games of the other apes, and he most reluctantly tolerated having them near him. He was but little active, and most generally kept himself crouched up in a corner of the cage, or sitting on a branch with his back up against the wall, and scarcely ever moved but to look about for something to eat. He used his hands with much readiness, and they were extremely well developed. His lips were less mobile than in the chimpanzee, especially the lower lip, which was never pouted out when drinking into a spoon-shaped form. His eyes were extremely mobile, and were crowned with immense superciliary ridges; his nose was flat, with excessively large nostrils, giving him a quite peculiar physiognomy. His intelligence was feebly developed, and was in any case quite below that of the other anthropoid apes, or even of the gibbons. Since the above note was presented by Alph. Milne-Edwards to the Paris Academy of Sciences the young gorilla died at the Jardin des Plantes.

The Deep-Sea Fishes of the “Talisman”

AMONG the many wonderful animal forms collected during the voyage of the Talisman none surpass the fishes in interest. In the exhibition, now open at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, of the various specimens collected during this voyage, the collection of fishes holds a chief place. During the cruises of the Travailleur, owing to the apparatus employed, the capture of a fish was a rare event, but by the employment of a kind of drag-net on board the Talisman the number both of species and individuals taken was quite surprising. Once, on July 29, in 16° 52′ N. lat. and 27° 50′ W. long., in one haul of the dragnet no less than 1031 fishes were taken from a depth of 450 metres. The chief surface fish noted in M. Filhol's very interesting papers, which are in course of publication in our French contemporary La Nature (to the editor of which journal we are indebted for the illustrations accompanying this notice), were the well-known shark (Charcharias glaucus), very common between the Senegal coast and the Cape de Verde Islands; its strange attendant fish, the so-called pilot fish (Naucrates ductor), and the very curious and odd-looking fish of the Sargassum Sea, Antennarius marmoratus. It is noted that not only were the pilot fishes never molested by the sharks but that they constantly swam around them, sometimes even they were seen placing themselves against the shark's sides between their pectoral fins. Many observations were made on the strange Antennarius, the colour of whose body so closely approaches to that of the alga amidst which it lives that it enables these fish to approach almost unseen, and so quite easily take their prey. It is not, however, altogether unworthy of remark that this prey, consisting for the most part of small Crustacea and mollusks, is also of the same general shade of colour as the mass of the weed, so that the assuming of this uniform dull tinge of colour must mean a heightened danger to some of these forms of life.

Joseph Decaisne

BY the somewhat unexpected death of Prof. Decaisne, one of the most familiar names disappears from the scientific world of France. Although so inseparably associated with Paris Decaisne was by birth a Belgian, haying been born in Brussels in 1809. His brother, still living, rose to the position of Inspector-General of the Army Medical Service of Belgium. When quite a young man Joseph Decaisne entered the service of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris in the position of a gardener. The venerable institution with which for the rest of his life he was associated is very different from a mere pleasure-ground, and it would be a mistake to suppose that the starting-point in Decaisne's career implied anything more than rising from the lowest rank in an establishment which in every detail is nothing if not scientific. In 1840 he was attached to the Herbarium as Aide naturaliste, finally returning to the Garden as Professeur de Culture and Director in succession to Mirbel.

Societies and Academies

LONDON Zoological Society, January 4.—Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on a skin of the Southern Merganser (Mergus australis) from the Auckland Islands, belonging to the collection of Baron Anatole von Hügel.—Prof. A. Newton, M.A., F.R.S., exhibited on behalf of Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, F.M.Z.S., an egg of Coriama cristata, laid last summer in the Jardin des Plantes, and possibly the first ever seen of which the parentage was certainly known, though an egg, also exhibited by Prof Newton, had, been for many years in the collection of Mr. H. F Walter.—Dr. Albert Gunther, F. R.S., read an account of.the zoological collections made by Dr. R. W. Coppinger, R.N., during-the survey of H.M.S. Alert in the Straits of Magellar and on the coast of Patagonia, and called attention to the mosi remarkable species represented in the various groups, which hac been worked out by himself and his assistants in the Zoologica Department of the. British Museum. Dr. Günther also called attention to several interesting cases of the similarity of forms in these collections to known forms of the Arctic regions and of. the Australian seas.—A communication was read from Prof. J. O Westwood, containing:the descriptions of some new exotic species of moths of the genera. Castnea and Saturnia.—A seconi paper by Prof. Westwood contained observations on two Indian butterflies—Papilio castor and P. pottux.—Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., described the skull of a very large elephant seal (Macrorhinus lconinus), lately received in the Museum of the College of Surgeons from the Falkland Islands, and discussed the questions of affinities and systematic position of this animal among the Pinnipeds. Prof. Flower arrived at the conclusion from an examination of its dental, cranial, and limb characters, and from some other points in its anatomy, that the elephant seal is the member of the group the farthest removed from the terrestrial carnivora and showing most cetacean analogies. He also considered that at present there is no eviderce of the existence of more than one species of the genus.—Dr. A. Günther read some notes on the species of insectivorous mammals belonging to the genus Rhynchocyon and Petrodromus, and described two new species of the former genus, proposed to be called R. macrurus (from the Rovurna River), and R. chrysopygus (from the Mombaça River).

Terrestrial annelida

The Rev. A. E. Eaton, on his return from the Expedition of the Transit observers to Kerguelen’s Land, placed in my hands for description two small earthworms obtained by him in the island, and preserved in strong spirit. The specimens were small and immature, not exceeding 1½ inch in length; hut by cutting transverse sections of one, and slitting the other up the median dorsal line, staining with carmine, and mounting in Canada balsam, I have succeeded in making out the affinities of the species. The study of the various species of Earthworms (Lumbricidæ proper) has only recently been attempted with due attention to anatomical detail. Their excessively complicated generative glands, ducts, and pouches present the greatest diversity of arrangement, so as to enable us to establish a series of strongly marked genera, which, while differing in the arrangement of these parts, yet present but slight differences in external form, or in the arrangement of their setæ. Professor Edmond Perrier, availing himself of the very fine collection of exotic Lumbricidæ in the Jardin des Plantes, has been the pioneer in this branch of investigation, and in his memoir "Recherches pour servir a l’histoire des Lombriciens terrestres," published in the "Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 1872," he has established a series of genera on the only possible characters in modern zoology— namely those derived from thorough anatomical examination. M. Perrier has studied earthworms from North and South Africa, from the East Indies, from the West Indies, from North and South America, and a number of scattered islands, and has rendered it evident that he has tapped a rich storehouse of zoological facts of first-rate importance. Presenting, as they do, a considerable number of genera, and occurring as they do almost universally on the earth’s surface where there is vegetable soil—being moreover absolutely destitute either of means of transport or of power to resist deleterious agents whilst being passively transported (earthworms and probably their eggs are rapidly killed by sea-water), the Lumbricidœ promise to yield, when fully investigated, a mass of information bearing upon the problems of the causes of geographical distribution and the connections of continents and islands in past epochs—more decisive and indisputable in its character than that presented by any similar small group of the animal kingdom. The essential feature of their organisation which gives to the Lumbricidœ so interesting and important a position, is the possession of a most sensitive generative apparatus— sensitive , that is to say, in the sense of responding by innumerable modifications of its highly-developed male ducts, prostatic glands, seminal reservoirs, penial setæ, copulatory pouches, and other accessory glands, to those slight differences of environment which whilst thus affecting the genitalia so as to create generic distinctions, have yet left the external form and character unaffected.

THE ELASMOTHERIUM

A MONG the extinct animals of the diluvial age, few have left such scanty remains as the elasmotherium. At the beginning of the present century Fischer von Weldheim, when examining the palseontological collections of the University of Moscow, came across the half of the under-jawbone of an unknown animal, to which he assigned a place between the rhinoceros and elephant. The name elasmotherium was given to the new species, on account of the peculiar appearance of the teeth, which seemed to consist of plates of enamel longitudinally folded. Later scattered teeth of this animal were found in Hungary, in Sicily, and in various Russian provinces. A few years since a complete tinder-jawbone was discovered at Petrowski; a fragment of the back part of a skull in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, which was discovered on the banks of the Rhine in the last century, has likewise lately been identified as belonging to the elasmotherium. These remains were altogether too limited, to offer the zoologist any satisfactory clue to the general character of this animal. While the form and size of the jaw showed a strong resemblance to that of the rhinoceros, a close relationship was forbidden by the peculiar characteristics of the teeth.

Contributions to a History of the Accipitres. Notes on Birds of Prey in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes and in the Collection of Mons. A. Bouvier.

Contributions to a History of the Accipitres. Notes on Birds of Prey in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes and in the Collection of Mons. A. Bouvier.

IV.—On the Gault Aporrhaïdæ

Since the appearance of the first part of this paper, I have had, through the kindness of M. Deshayes and Prof. Gaudry, an opportunity of examining the original specimens in D'Orbigny's cabinet in the Jardin des Plantes, and am enabled to add the following to the list of species included in Group 1. They are all in the Prodrome:—

The New Reptile-House in the Jardin Des Plantes

THE new house for Reptiles and Batrachians in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris was opened to the public last week. It contains four divisions: two larger central, and two smaller end compartments, all connected by folding doors. The front larger compartment is fitted up in the middle with large shallow tanks for the Crocodilia, of which there are five examples of Crocodilus vulgaris, C. frontatus, Alligator mississippiensis, and two species of Jacare. In front is a row of glass cages for Snakes—Boas, Pythons, and various Colubrines. The second larger compartment is devoted chiefly to Batrachians, and contains various Salamanders (Triton, &c.), and a large number of Axolotls (Siredon). In one tank are the two celebrated specimens of this most abnormal of creatures which have got rid of their external gills and converted themselves into the Salamandroid form, Amblystoma. In one of the end compartments are the venomous snakes; in the other, Lacertilia of various kinds.

The Edible Frog

YOUR correspondent Mr. Miller (vol. x. p. 483), will find, in Cooke's “British Reptiles,” p. 103, accounts of other endeavours to naturalise Rana esculenta. About ten years ago I imported a basket full from the Parisian fish-market, where they can easily be obtained, and turned them out into a pond at Woburn Abbey, in Bedfordshire. They thrived and multiplied there; but our summers are seldom hot enough to enable the tadpole to attain his full development before the cold autumnal nights set in. Last week, for example, I forwarded to Prof. Huxley a living tadpole of R. esculenta, born in Bedfordshire, who will scarcely complete his evolution before the winter, though his hind legs are fully developed. I have several summers, however, observed a plentiful supply of young esculentæ, and I believe that in our climate the young will pass the winter as tadpoles, and complete their transformation in the following spring. But this would require more accurate observation before I can affirm it with certainty. During the past summer I imported from Berlin a fresh supply of 200 exceedingly fine specimens, as my French frogs had been reduced in numbers after the frequent visits of a heron. R. esculenta is easily imported in the spring, and will travel many days packed in damp moss. These frogs are easily preserved, being more aquatic in their habits than our R. temporariæ, who roam through the woods and meadows in search of food when the breeding season is over, while the edible frog remains on the banks of his native pond, into which he plunges, describing a graceful curve, at the slightest approach of danger. They have been introduced into Ireland quite lately, from France, by the Earl of Granard, at Castle Forbes; with what success I am unable yet to say. In the spring any number can be easily obtained from the Parisian market, or the aquarium shop of M. Carbonier, 20, Quai du Louvre, Paris; or from the keeper of the reptiles in the Jardin des Plantes, who always has a plentiful supply to feed his snakes.

Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique Centrale

THE ill-fated attempt of the Second Empire to estab-Imperialism in Mexico has had at least one good result in the work now before us, in which the labours of a Scientific Mission originally sent out under the shadow of the French Army are given to the world. The materials accumulated by M. Bocourt and his Fellow-Naturalists, were deposited in the National Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, and the elaboration of them entrusted to special workers in the different branches of science. In 1870 three livraisons were issued, each forming the commencement of a separate section of the work, as planned out under the direction of M. Milne-Edwards. These relate to the terrestrial and fluviatile Molluscs, by MM. Fischer and Crosse; to the Orthopterous Insects and Myriapods, by M. Henri de Saussure; and to the Reptiles and Batrachians, by MM. Auguste Duméril and Bocourt. The fall of the Empire and German occupation stopped the immediate progress of the work, but we are glad to see it has now been resumed. A second livraison of the section devoted to the Myriapods, prepared by MM. H. de Saussure and Humbert, has been lately issued, and we believe it is fully intended to bring the work to a conclusion. It will be observed that authors engaged on the various sections are all well-known authorities on the subjects of which they treat, and that the figures and illustrations are of an elaborate character. We are the more glad to call the attention of our readers to the revival of this work, because it does not appear to be very generally known to naturalists, and because it has lately been the subject of a most unjustifiable attack in an English scientific periodical.* After a general condemnation of the work we are there informed that it is “a lamentable exhibition of the very backward state of zoological science in the French capital.” As to the justice of this remark we need only appeal to the recent numbers of the “Annales des Sciences Naturelles” and the “Nouvelles Annales du Musée,” which are replete with zoological memoirs of the highest interest, and to the great work on fossil birds, by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, recently completed, which is alone sufficient to refute such a sweeping accusation. That the spirit of scientific enterprise is still alive in France is, moreover, sufficiently manifest by the grand researches of Pêre David in Chinese Tibet, and of Grandi-didier in Madagascar, while there is certainly no lack of scientific experts to bring their discoveries before the public. A more baseless and unjust attack was certainly never penned against the savants of a sister nation.

XIII.—Notes on specimens of Corbiculadæ in the Cabinet of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and on the authorship of the Encyclopédie Méthodique

Annals of The Lyceum of Natural History of New YorkVolume 10, Issue 1 p. 188-190 XIII.—Notes on specimens of Corbiculadæ in the Cabinet of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and on the authorship of the Encyclopédie Méthodique Temple Prime, Temple PrimeSearch for more papers by this author Temple Prime, Temple PrimeSearch for more papers by this author First published: February 1874 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1874.tb00035.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume10, Issue1February 1874Pages 188-190 RelatedInformation

Notice of William Davidson, M.D. (Gulielmus Davissonus), First Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, afterwards Physician to the King of Poland

Notice of William Davidson, M.D. (Gulielmus Davissonus), First Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, afterwards Physician to the King of Poland

XVIII. Biographical Notice of the late John Scouler, M.D., LL.D., F.L.S., some time President of the Society

Dr. Scouler was born in Glasgow, on the 31st of December, 1804. His early days were spent in the neighbourhood of Kilbarchan, where his father was a calico-printer, and there he received the rudiments of his education. While still at an early age, he entered the University of Glasgow; and, after passing through the literary and philosophical classes, devoted himself to the study of medicine. It was while attending the class of Botany, when the chair of that science was occupied by Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Hooker, and the Botanic Garden of Glasgow was constantly enriched by the introduction of new and exotic plants, which were duly delineated by the accomplished Professor, in the elegant pages of Curtis’s Magazine, that Scouler first gave indication of the bent of his mind towards natural history. Dr. Hooker was not slow to discover and direct the tendency of his youthful pupil, whom he at once marked as being qualified for carrying on original research. In the meantime, Scouler, having completed his medical curriculum in Glasgow, repaired to Paris, where, in the unrivalled collections at the Jardin des Plantes, he enjoyed ample opportunities of extending his knowledge of Comparative Anatomy. A grateful recollection of his obligations to the Museum of Natural History in Paris induced him, at the close of life, to bequeath his ethnological collection to that institution. On his return from France he was, through the influence of Dr. Hooker, appointed surgeon and naturalist to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ship “William and This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

On the importance of the study of palaeontology

On the importance of the study of palaeontology

XXVI.—Comparison of the periods of flowering of certain plants in the early spring of 1846, in the Botanic Garden of Belfast and the Jardin des plantes at Paris

XXVI.—<i>Comparison of the periods of flowering of certain plants in the early spring of</i> 1846, <i>in the Botanic Garden of Belfast and the Jardin des plantes at Paris</i>