Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, Knight of Pratz was a French writer and politician, instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. Lamartine was born in Mâcon, Burgundy, on 21 October 1790, his family were members of the French provincial nobility, he spent his youth at the family estate. Lamartine is famous for his autobiographical poem, "Le lac", which describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. Lamartine was masterly in his use of French poetic forms. Raised a devout Catholic, Lamartine became a pantheist, writing La Chute d'un ange, he wrote Histoire des Girondins in 1847 in praise of the Girondists. Lamartine made his entrance into the field of poetry with a masterpiece, Les Méditations Poétiques, awoke to find himself famous, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825. He worked for the French embassy in Italy from 1825 to 1828. In 1829, he was elected a member of the Académie française.

He was elected a deputy in 1833. In 1835 he published the "Voyage en Orient", a brilliant and bold account of the journey he had just made, in royal luxury, to the countries of the Orient, in the course of which he had lost his only daughter. From on he confined himself to prose. Around 1830, Lamartine's opinions shifted in the direction of liberalism; when elected in 1833 to the National Assembly, he founded his own "Social Party" with some influence from Saint-Simonian ideas and established himself as a prominent critic of the July Monarchy, becoming more and more of a republican in the monarchy's last years. He was in charge of the government during the turbulence of 1848, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 24 February 1848 to 11 May 1848. Due to his great age, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, Chairman of the Provisional Government delegated many of his duties to Lamartine, he was a member of the Executive Commission, the political body which served as France's joint Head of State. Lamartine was instrumental in the founding of the Second Republic of France, having met with Republican Deputies and journalists in the Hôtel de Ville to agree on the makeup of its provisional government.

Lamartine himself was chosen to declare the Republic in traditional form in the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville, ensured the continuation of the Tricouleur as the flag of the nation. On 25 February 1848 Lamartine said about the Tricolored Flag: "I spoke as a citizen earlier, well! Now listen to me, your Foreign Minister. If I remove the tricolor, know it, you will remove half the external force of France! Because Europe knows the flag of his defeats and of our victories in the flag of the Republic and of the Empire. By seeing the red flag, they'll see the flag of a party! This is the flag of France, it is the flag of our victorious armies, it is the flag of our triumphs that must be addressed before Europe. France and the tricolor is the same thought, the same prestige terror, if necessary, for our enemies! Consider how much blood you would have to make for another flag fame! Citizens, for me, the red flag, I am not adopting it, I'll tell you why I'm against with all the strength of my patriotism.

It's that the tricolor has toured the world with the Republic and the Empire with your freedoms and your glory, the red flag was that around the Champ-de-Mars, dragged into the people's blood."During his term as a politician in the Second Republic, he led efforts that culminated in the abolition of slavery and the death penalty, as well as the enshrinement of the right to work and the short-lived national workshop programs. A political idealist who supported democracy and pacifism, his moderate stance on most issues caused many of his followers to desert him, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the presidential election of 10 December 1848, receiving fewer than 19,000 votes. He subsequently dedicated himself to literature, he published volumes on the most varied subjects during the Empire, having retired to private life and having become the prey of his creditors, he condemned himself to what he calls "literary hard-labor to exist and pay his debts". Lamartine ended his life in poverty, publishing monthly installments of the Cours familier de littérature to support himself.

He died in Paris in 1869. Nobel prize winner Frédéric Mistral's fame was in part due to the praise of Alphonse de Lamartine in the fortieth edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature, following the publication of Mistral's long poem Mirèio. Mistral is the most revered writer in modern Occitan literature. Lamartine is considered to be the first French romantic poet, was acknowledged by Paul Verlaine and the Symbolists as an important influence. Alphonse de Lamartine was an Orientalist with a particular interest in Lebanon and the Middle East, he travelled to Lebanon and the Holy Land in 1832–33. During that trip, while he was in Beirut, on 7 December 1832, he lost his only remaining child, Julia. During his trip to Lebanon he had met prince Bashir Shihab II and prince Simon Karam, who were enthusiasts of poetry. A valley in Lebanon is still called the Valley of Lamartine as a commemoration of that visit, the Lebanon cedar forest still harbors the "Lamartine Cedar", said to be the cedar under which Lamartine had sat 200 years ago.

Lamartine was so influenced by his trip that he staged his 1838 epic poem La Chute d'un ange in Lebanon. Rais

Planuncus tingitanus s.l. is a working title for any of the species belonging to the Planuncus tingitanus species group, of the cockroach genus Planuncus. As the exact status of some the species in this group can not be determined without more research, the whole species complex is referred to by the name of the oldest species in the group sensu lato; as such, Planuncus tingitanus s.l. refers to an adventive species, or a complex of cryptic species, that has expanded its range over the southern parts of Northwestern Europe in a short period of time during the first decades of the 21st century. The animals swarming over Europe are related, or even synonymous to Ectobius perspicillaris tingitanus Bolivar, 1914 described from the most northern part of Morocco. Furthermore, they cannot be distinguished on any constant morphological traits from Ectobius finoti Chopard 1943, described from Algeria. A third name was added to the mix, when Ectobius vinzi Maurel 2012 was described from France as a new species, after the invaders had become prominently omnipresent in that country.

Until more genetic and morphological research is done it cannot be determined with any certainty if all or some of these species should be synonymized or if maybe more cryptic species need to be identified. Therefore, Bohn et al. prefer to identify the animals adventively spreading over Northwestern Europe, as well as the North African specimen as "belonging to the tingitanus-complex". As such, the various species names refer to the respective type specimen exclusively. Meanwhile, they erected a new genus Planuncus to group these species with some other related species in Ectobius and Phyllodromica. A subgenus was created to hold the species of this tingitanus-group: Planuncus tingitanus Planuncus finoti Planuncus vinzi Animals of this species had been known from Spain and southern France at least since the 80s/90s of the 20th century and at least as early as 2005 they have been expanding north, with first records from Germany dating back to 2007 and records from Great Britain and Belgium since 2011 and 2012 respectively.

This was being monitored by cockroach researcher Horst Bohn and others, but nothing had been published on the matter yet, as there was some doubt on the exact identification, in part due to lack of recent material for genetic analysis from the type locations of Ectobius tingitanus and Ectobius finoti. Meanwhile, these animals had become hard to miss in France, were being misidentified as Ectobius eckerleini or other species, but published as a new species: Ectobius vinzi Maurel, 2012. Maurel only considered known European species and not the North African species that are a close match. Now, Bohn et al. were prompted to publish the results of their studies "as is", without conclusive evidence for the status of the species concerned. Resulting in the new genus Planuncus Bohn, 2013. Specimen from different locations in the newly inhabited range sometimes seem to show slight morphological differences, but not clearly more than individual variability. Given the sudden, notable range expansion a speciation process might be considered.

Quite similar to Ectobius vittiventris, another species of Ectobiinae moving north in Europe, the animals seem to be more or less dependent on human activity, both for their range expansion and for survival. Being of southern origin, it is not surprising that they seem to thrive best in the warm and sheltered environments provided by buildings and parks or gardens in towns. In this respect they will live much closer to humans than what would be normal for the native species of Ectobiinae and can be found on the walls of buildings and may stray inside. Contrary to similar looking cockroaches such as the German cockroach they will however not procreate inside and as such need not be considered to be a household pest. Bohn, Horst. O.. - Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, vol.71: 139-168. Pdf Bolívar I. 1914: Dermápteros y Ortópteros de Marruecos. – Memorias de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural, vol.8, pp.157-238. Chopard L. 1943: Orthoptéroides de l’Afrique du Nord. Dictyoptères. - Faune de l’Empire Français, vol.1.

Paris: Librairie Larose. 450pp. Maurel J.-P. 2012: Une nouvelle espèce de blatte découverte dans le departement du Lot: Ectobius vinzi nov. sp.. – Revue de l’Association Roussillonnaise d’Entomologie, vol.21, pp.109-119. Cockroach Species File Planuncus tingitanus s.l. @observation.org

Season 1959–60 was the 76th football season in which Dumbarton competed at a Scottish national level, entering the Scottish Football League for the 54th time, the Scottish Cup for the 65th time and the Scottish League Cup for the 13th time. A perfect start of 4 wins from the first four games was followed by a run of 13 games with only a single win, meaning that Dumbarton fell away and were never serious challengers for the Division 2 title, finishing in 6th place with 43 points, 10 behind champions St Johnstone. In the Scottish Cup, Dumbarton were to fall at the first hurdle. In the League Cup, with only a single win and a draw from their 6 games, Dumbarton again failed to progress to the knock out stages. Locally Dumbarton lost out to Falkirk in the semi final of the Stirlingshire Cup, after a drawn game. A number of friendlies were played during the season, including home and away fixtures against English Midland League opponents, North Shields, a benefit match against Clyde for long serving player, Hughie Gallacher.

Win Draw Loss Willie McCulloch earned his first and second caps playing for Scotland Amateurs against England on 26 March and Northern Ireland on 25 April respectively. Amongst those players joining and leaving the club were the following: Dumbarton played only one competitive'reserve' match in the Scottish Second XI Cup, losing to Clyde in the second round; the League match against East Stirling on 5 December marked Andy Jardine's 100th appearance for Dumbarton in all national competitions - the 48th Dumbarton player to reach this milestone. The League match against Queen's Park on 1 January marked Hugh Gallacher's 200th appearance for Dumbarton in all national competitions - the 7th Dumbarton player to break the'double century'. 1959–60 in Scottish football Donald Hamilton James Woodburn George Boyle Jack McDade Jim McGrogan Charlie Cunningham Dougan Jim McCormack Willie Robinson Jimmy Anderson John Christie Bobby Crum Willie McCulloch Finlay McDonald Gerry McGinlay John Rowley Scottish Football Historical Archive