100 Mr. C. C. Babington on the British Violets. from the union of the indigenae with the settlers of Asiatic origin, the companions of Manco Capac of traditionary fame. Accordingly in the former we observe the receding forehead, the elongated cranium, and the horizontally-placed occipital bone ; and in the latter a modified form, in which, combined with the receding forehead and elongated cranium, there is an elevated vertex and flattened occiput, formed principally by an altered position of the occipital bone ; which, instead of lying on a plane with the horizon, rises in a sloping direction upwards and backwards to meet the parietal bones. Note. — After the reading of this paper, Prof. Owen stated that he entertained an opinion that their peculiar form was given to them by pressure, such as might be applied by a bandage passed round the head; and he suggested that a short fillet (about 16 inches long) found with the younger of the two mummies might have been em-ployed for this purpose. This bandage, however, I consider was used to secure the lower extremities to the trunk, and on consideration I am disposed to maintain the same opinion as I have stated above : 1st, because this fillet is but 1^ inch wide, whereas the flattened por-tion of the skull is more than 3 inches, extending over the os frontis from immediately above the superciliary ridges to an inch beyond the coronal suture, so as to involve the anterior portion of the pa-rietal bones ; 2nd, the line of depression in these skulls has a direc-tion over the middle of the os occipitis, and then over the anterior third of the parietal bones, first where the angle dips down between the frontal temporal bones, and then immediately behind the coronal suture, and not at all over the os frontis ; 3rd, because, if pressure had been used in this direction, it would have contracted the great fontanelle, of which there is no mark whatever ; indeed in the elder of the two, in which the depressed line is most visible, the fontanelle is most open ; and lastly, if a circular bandage had been applied, it would have given a circular form to that portion at least compressed by it ; whereas however a transverse section, taken by measurement, shows that the skulls have a compressed pyriform figure, the larger extremity representing the flattened and upper surface, and the smaller corresponding with the contracted aspect of the occipital bone. XVII. — On the characters of the British Violets. By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. [With a Plate.] The remarkable difference which exists between the value of characters in different orders of plants, and sometimes even in genera, — the form or structure of any particular organ being of generic value in one order, specific in another, and some-times not even sufficiently constant to distinguish varieties in a third, — must always give considerable interest to an investi-
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