Receptaculum 2-3 seriale, squamis lineari-lanceolatis herbaceis. planum, paleis hyalinis oblongis achænia semi-amplectentibus deciduis onustum. Ligulæ cuneiformes, basi pilosa: corolla disci fauce dilatato-cylindrica e tubo brevi villoso, 5-dentata. Styli rami in appendicem lineari-filiformem hispidam longe producti. Achænia oblongocuneiformia, plano-compressa, marginata, pilis argenteis prælongis (ad margines præsertim) villosissima. Pappus bisquamellatus, squamellis ex marginibus achænii ortis lineari-aristiformibus basi villosissimis corallam adæquantibus. Herba annua ? hirsuto-cana; caulibus basi foliatis (foliis obovatis rhombeisve alternis) superne nudis subpaniculatis pedunculos paucos 1-2-cephalos gerentibus. Involucrum cano-villosum. Flores radii discique flavi. "G. CANESCENS. California, Fremont, Coulter. Nomen e yegaιós ob capitulum canum necnon comam achænii argenteam sumptum, ut contrarium generi analogo Agarista, DC. (quæ mythologice nympha erat venustissima). “AGASSIZIA, Gray & Engelm., Pl. Lindh. ined. (non Chavan., nec Spach.) Capitulum globosum, multiflorum, radiatum; ligulis fœminiis nunc difformibus. Involucrum disco brevius circa biseriale; squamis exterioribus lineari-oblongis, appendicula spathulata vel obtusa foliacea patente, intimis lineari-acuminatis. Receptaculum globosum alveolatum, alveolis valde dentatis fimbrilliferis. Ligulæ cuneatæ, palmato-3-4-fidæ, sæpe irregulares, tubuloso-difformes, vestigia staminum gerentes. Corolla disci Gaillardiæ, dentibus triangulari-lanceolatis. Styli rami ligularum lineares, subulato-apiculati; fl. disci ad basin appendicis brevissimæ nudæ clavato-obtusæ penicellati! Achænia turbinata, sericeo-villosissima. Pappus radii et disci conformis, e paleis 9 hyalinis ovatis uninerviis constans, nervo in aristam capillarem corollam adæquantem longe producto. Herba biennis, acaulis; radice fusiformi; foliis varie 1-2-pinnatifidis, nunc sinuatis lyratisve; scapo 1-2pedali, toto nudo, monocephalo. Capitulum Gaillardiæ, speciosum. Flores suaveolentes, disci flavi et purpurei, radii rubescentes. "A. SUAVIS. In campis Texanis prope Bexar et New Braunfels, Lindheimer.Genus eximium Gaillardia proximum, at ligulis fœminiis, receptaculo globoso vere alveolato, habitu styloque proprio diversum, diximus in honorem celeberrimi amicissimique Agassiz. Agassizia, Chavan., est Galvesia, Domb. Agassizia, Spach., est Sphærostigma, Ser., et Holostigma, Spach., subgenus merum Enotheræ." Two hundred and ninetieth Meeting. January 27, 1847. QUARTERLY MEETING. The PRESIDENT in the chair. Mr. Bond communicated the following OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLANET NEPTUNE, 1846-47. Cambridge Observatory. Long. 4h. 44m. 32. "From Oct. 21st to Jan. 12th the star of comparison was 7648 B. A. C.; its mean place for Jan. 1st, 1846, is A. R. 21h 50m 05".94, Dec. -13° 23′ 55′′.5, being a mean of six recent determinations by Professor Challis of Cambridge, England. On Jan. 19th and 25th the planet was compared with a star of the ninth magnitude, the mean place of which, for Jan. 1st, 1846, taken from Bessel's Zone observations, is A. R. 22. 02. 01.25. Dec. -13° 05′ 22′′.5. "The following Circular Elements have been computed by Mr. G. P. Bond, assistant at this Observatory. "Long. of Asc. Node, 129° 18'. Inclination, 1° 42′ 26". Radius Vector, 30.000. Daily motion, 21".709. Long. at the Opposition, 326° 44' 31". Mean Eq., Jan. 1st, 1846. Gr. M. S. T. of Opposition, Aug. 19th, 706-1847. "Supposing the orbit nearly circular, the time of revolution would be about 164 years." Dr. Hale read a memorandum on the meteorology of the past season, and especially of the present month, as compared with former years. John Bacon, Jr., M. D., was elected a Fellow of the Academy. Two hundred and ninety-first Meeting. February 2, 1847. - The PRESIDENT in the chair. MONTHLY MEETING. Mr. S. P. Andrews exhibited several large charts or diagrams of Chinese syllabic words, and others of Chinese written characters, which he explained. He regretted the absence of several Fellows of the Academy who had expressed an interest in his investigations, and especially of Professor Agassiz, who at a previous meeting wished to know in what the views put forth by Mr. A. differed from those of the distinguished French sinalogue, M. Callery, author of Systema Phoneticum Scriptura Sinica. Mr. Andrews said, that he ventured to dissent entirely from the main feature of M. Callery's system in the theoretical point of view. "The Chinese language consists of no more than 450 words, all of which are regarded as monosyllables, though a few of them are not strictly so. These we may designate, for convenience of reference, syllabic words. By the use of different tones in the utterance of these words, a greater circle of effective and distinct words is gained, amounting by the estimate of Abel Rémusat to 1203; the syllable, as to its vocal and consonantal elements, remaining the same. Words thus distinguished from the same syllables uttered by a different inflexion of the voice we may designate as tone-words. But the varying ideas which the Chinese people have occasion to communicate are as numerous as those of other people in the same stage of advancement. Their spoken language is subjected to considerable ambiguities by its meagreness. This deficiency is, however, remedied in a very great degree in the written system; for while the number of spoken words is so very small, there are not less than 30,000 written characters or words, which express shades of thought with about the same minuteness of distinction as the vocabularies of Western languages. Each of these written words, which we may call sign-words, has then from one to perhaps twenty distinguishable meanings, like the words of the Latin or English. "It is obvious from this statement, that for each syllabic word of the Chinese language, there is an average of sixty or seventy written or sign-words. Otherwise stated, the reader of Chinese meets with this large number of written words having different significations, which he pronounces precisely alike, in the same manner as we pronounce wright, right, rite, and write alike, though written differently and signifying differently. Hence these sign-words are called homophonous. To some extent, there is a similarity in form between the signwords which thus correspond to a single syllabic word, while beyond a certain limit they are entirely diverse. The sign-words of the Chinese language consist of single lines, or of complex assemblages of lines or strokes, numbering from the single one up to fifty-two. The attempt to discover the original principles of representation, according to which these complex characters were composed, has been the source of much perplexity to the learned, and the Chinese scholars themselves seem to have little more than a few unsatisfactory fancies upon the subject. "The conclusion upon which the investigation seems now to rest is, that such changes have taken place in the mode of tracing the lines, and such modifications of the general shape of the characters, that it has become impossible to do more than catch a few very unsatisfactory intimations of the existence of any original design. This conclusion is deemed erroneous, and other views will be offered by Mr. A. upon the subject. One important fact, however, in relation to their composition was early observed by the Chinese themselves, and advantage taken of it to aid them in arranging their sign-words in dictionaries; namely, that there is a small number of characters, reckoned at 214, of very frequent occurrence, and that either alone, or as a component part of a larger character, some one of these frequent signs occurs in every sign-word of the language. Hence they have arranged their sign-words under these frequent signs as heads of groups, and denominate these last the keys of the language. "Mr. Marshman observed that so much as remains of a compound sign-word, after the key is removed, is likewise a substantive character or sign-word of the language, occurring both by itself and in combination with different keys, so as to furnish another and distinct mode of grouping or classifying the characters. This remaining part of the character after removing the key was called by Mr. Marshman the primitive. The key is then the modifier. (It is also badly denominated the radical.) Mr. Marshman supposed that the primitive represents the meaning of the whole character in a general way, and that the modifier then renders it definite, much in the same way as the primitive or root word of a Latin or Greek compound verb is modified by the several prepositions prefixed to it, and he adduced a moderate amount of examples to sustain this theory. His observance of related meanings extended only to those few obvious ones which appear at a casual glance, and offered no clew to an integral development of the scheme. No successor of Mr. Marshman has therefore had more success than himself in demonstrating his theory, and M. Callery comes forward to throw discredit upon it altogether, by asserting one quite different from it, and, as he evidently thinks, incompatible with it. "It has just been shown that the compound sign-words consist each of two parts, one of which is called the primitive, and the other the modifier. The modifiers are not so numerous as the syllabic words of the spoken language, while the primitives are much more so, being by M. Callery's computation 1040. It has been observed by the Chinese themselves, that, as the general rule, all the sign-words which have the same primitive are homophonous, or, in other words, signify the same syllabic word, while those having the same modifier have no such established relationship of sound, but generally differ from each other throughout. This fact M. Callery has brought out into a much clearer light, and has made it the basis of his arrangement of the sign-words of the language. He advances and contends for the theory, that the primitive as previously called, which is usually |