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13. Serotinus. Desf. Fl. atl. t. 182. 14. Poeticus, English 1299. 12. Jonquilla. Ib. No. 15. Botany, té 275; of which the angustifolius of Curtis, Botanical Magazine, No. 193, is considered as a variety. 15 Te nuior. Ib. No. 379, (not 373,) with a doubt of its being a genuine spe cies, 16 Biflorus Ib. No. 197, (not 179.) 17. Trewianus. Ib. No. 940, and in the Emende da to No 1298. In the latter place, Mr. Gawler considers this species, which he before thought was the original one of orientalis, to be distinct from that, and he now believes it to be the stock from which biflorus, No. 197, has degenerated, and be very much doubts the truth of it being indigenous to this country, as has been supposed. He remarks, that in all the specimens of biflorus which he has examine, the anthers were white and devoid of pollen; whence the plant (he says) never perfects its fruit. This circumstance, however, would lead us rather to suspect a hybrid, than a degenerated species. 18. Orientalis. Ib. 19. Italicus. Ib. 1188. 20. Papyraceus. Ib. No. 947, No 946, 1011, 1026, and 1299. (not 949.) 21. Dubius. Willd. sp. ol. 2.40,

Best es the five varieties of Narcissus, above quoted, this Number contains also a drawing of Pekosantligs teta, the Teta viridi flora of Dr. Roxburgh's MSS., a new genus from Chittagong, on the coast of Bengal.

In Dr Sims's department we find an excellent figure of the coffee tree, which is more than usually complete, conta ning both flowers and fruit, and the dissection of the latter. In the account of this celebrated vegetable, the author recommends coffee to be taken in the Turkish manner, without the admixture of sugar and cream.

Fabricia levigata, a New Holland shrub, which has not, as it is supposed, ever flowered in this garden. The drawing was taken from a living specimen sent by Dr. Walter Wade, from the botanic garden belonging to the Dublin society.

Euphorb a mellifera, a native of Madeira,

METEOROLOGICAL REPORT.

(bservations on the State of the Weather, from the 24th of June 1810, to the 24th of July 1810, inclusive, Four Miles N.N.W. of St. Paul's.

Barometer.

Highest, 29.96. June 25.
Lowest, 29.10. July 4.

Wind E.

N. W.

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Thermometer.

Higheft, 80°. June 25. Wind E.
Lowest, 50°. several mornings.

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THE quaintity of rain fallen since our last report of it, is equal to rather more than six inches in depth. We have at length has some most beneficial rains, and from the various reports which we have had from many of the counties of England, there is every prospect of more The dread, therefore, of a threatened scarcity is now happily than average crops of corn. removed, and we may hope for the blessings of Plenty. On fifteen days out of the thirty, there has been rain, and on some of them the storms have been violent, and the quantity of rain very

mischiederable. In some parts the thunder and lightning have been productive of much

; on the 14th the thunder was louder at this place than was ever remembered to have been heard. On St. Swithin, we had rain in plenty, but the vulgar notion has not been realized, having had several brilliant days since, on which there has not been a single drop

The hottest day, as is seen above, was on the 25th of June, the thermometer then stood at 80°; besides that day, the mercury has stood once at 78°, and three at 76°, or what is denominated summer heat. The average degree of heat for the whole month is 61°, or nearly the same as it was for the last month. The average height of the barometer is 29-572. The wind has been chiefly in the westerly points. For the last fortnight the mornings and evenings have been very cold.

Our friend at the Isle of Wight, has sent us his Observations for April, May, and June; these are as follows,

The average heat for April

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The quantity of rain fallen in April

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May

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N. B. In the 3 per Cent. Consols the highest and lowest Prices are given; in the other Stocks, the highest only.

Stock and Exchange Broker. No a St. Michael's Alley. Cornhill.

THE

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. 203.]

SEPTEMBER 1, 1810.

[2 of VOL. 30.

As long as thofe who write are ambitions of making Converts, and of giving their Opinions a Maximum of
Influence and Celebrity, the most extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the greatest Effet the
Curiosity of those who read either for Amufement or Instruction.JOHNSON.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

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(Continued from page 525, vol. 29).
(Second Room).

No. 1.

A

COLOSSAL head of Minerva Sospita. It is restored below. The neck and face are very fine. Juno Sospita is usual, but Minerva Sospita does not occur, however obvious the allusion, in any great author of Musea, or lists of the appellations of Add Minerva, as this writer can find. too, that Hygica, Salus, and Minerva Medica, are represented sometimes alike; witness the two candelabra of the Barberini palace, &c. Minerva Medica, Salutifera, Hygiea, is common in Winc. klemann, &c. &c. &c. The term Sospita is limited to Juno, who, under the title, had a famous temple at Danuvium; and if the term Minerva Sospita is vindicated by any particular instance, (there are none upon the silver coins of Geta) it is so obscure and local, as not to exculpate the application to a general figure of Minerva Salutaris, &c.

monuments as

No. 2. A funeral urn, ornamented with equestrian and pedestrian combatants. This custom of combats at funerals, was, as far as concerns gladiators at least, introduced to supersede the barbarous practice of sacrificing prisoners of war, at the pile of those who had died in battle. Our chief antiquaries note, that the laws of Solon only allowed such works to be bestowed upon sepulchral one man could do in three days; and therefore there is a striking inferiority in execution to the bas-reliefs on friezes aud pediments, so far at least as relates to Greek works (D'Hancarville); tombs and urns being Governor made by common sculptors. Pownali (Provincia Romana, p. 69, 70) says, that sarcophagi, &c. were sold ready-made by statuaries; and the pattern fixed upon at option. But this was MONTHLY MAG. No. 203.

certainly not a general rule; for of the bas-relief of the tomb of Livilla Har. monia in Boissard, whom the epitaph styles, incomparabilis pudicitiæ et modestia singularis, the subject is a rape. Besides, inany figures are portraits of the deceased. This funeral urn evidently belonged to a person of rank or note.

No. 3. One of the feet, or supports, of an ancient Tripod table. The toes and nails are very fine. The learned will recollect the insane expense of the Romans in tables, (Plin. xiii. 15.) The term Tripod-table, is quite objectionable. It the should be one of the feet of the stand of a Monopodium, or table of one prop, three feet being conjunct. They were, as appears by Horace, Martial, Juvenal, Pliny, and Seneca, the most expensive. tables, and used for meals. The monofirst introduced by Cn. podia were Manlius, in his triumph on account of the conquest of Asia, (whence their origin). A. U. C. 567. Plin. 34, 3.

No. 4. A Canephora. This statue is universally admired, and it seems that the first sculptors worked upon Canephora, (Plin. xxxvi. 5. Cic. in Verr. iv). viz. Scopas and Polycletus. This canephora was one of the Caryatides which supported a temple of Bacchus. Montfaucon (i. p. 2. b. 2. c. 10), confines the Canephora to the worship of Ceres, which is wrong; but as the union of worship in Ceres and Bacchus, especially in Sicily, is alluded to by Virgil and Cicero, and this was a column of a temple of Bacchus,. it should rather be called a Canephora [of Ceres] one of the Caryatides which supported the portico of a small temple dedicated [to the united worship of Ceres. and] Bacchus. The frequency of this united worship was quite common. See Montfaucon. The drapery of this canephora is quite different from those in the last author, i. p. i. b. 2, c. 10, and i. p. i. b. 3. c. 13. The ancients were in the habits of plaiting their clothes, and then putting them in a press (Winckelm. Art. iv. 5), and though strait folds are deemed a test of antiquity, I apprehend

that

that about the time of Hadrian, the Egyptian imitations introduced, forin exceptions to this rule.

No. 5. A Condelabrum. It is not equal to the exquisite specimens in the Radcliffe library at Oxford.

No. 7. The triangular base of a candelabrum, on the sides of which three Genii with wings, hold each a part of the armour of Mars, viz. his helmet, his shield, and his sword. This is usual: in a gem of the Florentine Cabinet, (t. ii. pl. 77, n. 4), we have the Genius of Jupiter, with a long sceptre and an eagle, &c.

No. 7. A vase, with Bacchanalian figures. The famous vase of S. Dennis, with the Bacchanalian mysteries, will occur to mind.

No. 8- A Venus, naked to the waist, and covered with drapery from thence downwards. It should be styled, Venus issuing from the Buth, for so Lessing, who has especially studied the subject of Venuses from the Giustiniani Gallery, i. 44, 43, 40, and other sources, has determined these Venuses, half-draped, to

be.

Count Caylus, (Rec. iii. 328) thinks, a similar Venus at Versailles (engr. Thomassin, Fig. Vers. t. 3, and Versailles immortaliseè i. p. 400), to be merely a pretty woman coming out of the bath. Another similar Venus, but holding a child in her lap, is given in the Mus. Florent. t. 32; but Lessing doubts its antiquity: if ancient, it is justly called a Venus Genitrix, either so represented in honour of accouchemens of the empresses, or in play with Love, or Cupid, as we inelegantly call him, with all its train of coarse associations and terminations, Cupido, Libido, &c. The waist of this Venus is too long; the outline, in parts, stiff. After all, there is still a doubt about the propriety of the appellation of these half-draped Venuses; Sea-Venuses, in La Chausse and Maffei, being halfdraped.

No. 9. A vase, with double handles, springing from swans. The beauty of the handles of vases, is worth the notice of modern artists. They are often supremely beautiful, and the Hamilton Collection is composed of exquisite specimens. The necks of swans and geese were favourite subjects, as the Cheniscus* shows; by the way, copied into Norman ships (Bayeux Tapestry). The finest handles of a vase known, are those

* The bird's neck at the sterns of ancient 1

ships.

on a gem in Stosch. They are formed by two Ledas, embraced by two swans.

No. 10. A fountain, &c. These were very fine and artificial. See Montfaucon, Caylus, &c.

ous.

No. 11. A colossal head of Hercules. The prominent cheek-bone is conspicuThe heads and necks of Hercules are fashioned to assimilate a bull, the strongest animal in Europe. The young Hercules is a very different portrait, (see Pierr. grav. Pal. Roy. i. pl. lxxx.) but in the same collection, (i. pl. 82), is ano ther Hercules, which has so much of the bull's head, as to be quite a caricature, has a very high double forehead, and would pass for a Silenus, or a Pan. The young Hercules has not the ears flattened, as upon the most famous heads of Hercules, because he was then unacquainted with the combats of the Cestus. Hercules is one of what the French call Têtes données, that is, all the faces portraits, one after another, and therefore the ages should be distinguished; for there is no resemblance other. wise between them. Heads occur of all ages, but they are known by the thickness of the neck, and the curls over the forehead, like those between the horns of a bull. A juvenile Hercules occurs in the Bronzi, Ercol. tav. 49, 50, taken for a Marcellus, and a virile Hercules, taken for a Ptolemy Philadelphus, Ibid. tav. 661, 62. Hercules deified has no nerves nor muscles. The torso of the Belvidere Hercules, is the hero a God; the Parnesian statue, is Hercules Hu man.*

No. 12. Another colossal head of Hercules. The thick bull's neck is here very conspicuous.

No. 13, A fragment of a support of a Tripod bason, composed of the head and neck of a lion; on the forehead are the horns of a goat. I do not know whether this is a Capricorn; but it is known, that the lions of the ancients have something ideal, which distinguishes them from real lions; and from a horoscope in Stosch, it possible that this figure may refer to a Consttion.

No. 14. Capital of a votive Cippus,

* Representations of various figures of Hercules, occur upon the imperial coins. Those of Posthumus abound with them, and from Commodus to Galerius Maximian, they are more frequent than at other periods. It may be doubted, whether any thing complete has been published upon the various Herculeses.

&c. No.

&c. No. 15. Support of a table, with a Victory hollowed out between the volutes.

No. 16. A colossal head of Minerva ; a specimen of very early Greek work. This head is very fine. Artists should recollect, that Minerva's portrait is one of the Têtes données. The finest portrait, supposed to be a copy of the Pallas of Phidias, is in the Pierres de l'Empereur, pl. xviii. As to statues of Pallas, Mr. Dallaway (Arts, 216) notes, that she is distinguished by the straight plait of the inner vest in the centre.

T. D. FOSBROOKE.

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Report of G. GRANGER, presented to the House of Representatives of the United States, 29th of April, 1810, exhibiting a view of the Post-Office Establishment, from the commencement of the year 1789 to the 1st of October, 1809.

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5,305,093 00

2,866,764, 97

Remarks. The blanks are, in consequence of the imperfect state of the books arising from the infancy of the establishment.

The nett revenue of the post-office establishment from its commencement, D.8765,521

84cts.

A reduction of revenue took place, in consequence of the depression and suspension of commerce, and the expenses of this office for the year 1808; and the three first quarters of 1809, exceeded the amount of postage due to the United States; the sum of D.86,706 33cts. which was defrayed out of the funds arising from previous years.

The increased expenditure beyond the mileage, has arisen from the increased number and speed of the mails.

More than 100 Postoffices have been established since October, 1809, and by a late law of congress, the extent of post roads is increased more than 4000 miles; I doubt not, but by the 1st of next January, the number of post-offiecs in the United States, will amounts to near 2,500.

For

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