Wealden groups," and those of Wyoming, in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, near Smith's Fork, Henry's Fork and Dry Creek. The species embrace Mammals, Reptiles and Fishes. One of the plates represents a magnificent specimen of the skull of a new species of Uintatherium, named U. Leidianum; and a second species of the genus is named U. princeps. A paper on the geological work of the expedition will appear in another number of this Journal.

3. The Ancient Life-History of the Earth; a comprehensive outline of the principles and leading facts of Paleontological Science; by Professor H. ALLEYNE NICHOLSON, M.D., etc. 407 pp. 8vo. New York, 1878. (D. Appleton & Co.)-A very convenient text-book for the geological student.

4. Manual of Mineralogy and Lithology; containing the elements of the science of minerals and rocks, for the use of the practical mineralogist and geologist, and for instruction in schools and colleges; by JAMES D. DANA. Third edition rearranged and rewritten. 474 pp. 12mo, with many wood cuts. New York. 1878. (John Wiley & Sons.)-The second edition of this manual appeared more than twenty years since. The new edition now published is a new work in nearly all respects, and yet retains the popular feature of the former in its elementary character, and its arrangement of the ores under the head of the prominent metal they contain. In addition, the chapter on rocks has been expanded into a general but brief treatise on the subject containing descriptions of the kinds and their prominent varieties.*

III. BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.

1. Shortia galacifolia re-discovered.-A hundred years ago the elder Michaux collected, somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina, a specimen of a Pyrolaceous-looking plant, out of flower, or rather with corolla and stamens fallen, a dehiscent capsule enclosed in a persistent imbricated calyx and surmounted by a persistent style. It was not noticed in the Flora Boreali-Americana, which was prepared by L. C. Richard from Michaux's collections. Early in the year 1839, I found and examined this specimen in Michaux's herbarium, and I received from the hand of M. Decaisne a drawing and some fragments of it. In a paper treating of the botany of these mountains, contributed to this Journal in January, 1842, I ventured to found a genus upon this plant, under the above name, trusting that the diligent search prosecuted by myself and by all botanists visiting the region would duly bring it to light. The protracted failure of these endeavors has thrown an air of doubt over the minds of my associates in the search, as to the actual existence of any such plant. In 1868, I had the pleasure of announcing in this Journal (Ser. II, xi, 402) the discovery of this genus, not indeed where we were

*That students may not be led astray, it is proper here to say that copies of the old edition have been printed by the former publisher of the work, Mr. H. H. Peck, bearing a recent date on the title page, although unrevised since 1857.

looking for it, but where experience had led me to expect that any or every peculiar Atlantic States type might recur, namely in Japan. That is, I identified the genus with the Schizocodon uniflorus of Maximowicz, which, singularly enough, was known only by specimens in the same condition, i. e. with calyx and gynoecium, but neither corolla nor stamens. The patent relationship of these specimens to Schizocodon soldanelloides of Zuccarini gave ground for a conjectural restoration of the missing organs; and I ventured the opinion that Shortia (of 1842) and Schizocodon (1843), whether of one genus or two, were most related to Diapensia. In the year 1870 (in Proc. Am. Acad., viii, 243) I reconstructed the order Diapensiacea, referred to a separate tribe, Galacineæ, the genera Galax and Shortia, and adopted the idea of a probable identity of Schizocodon with the latter. The next year Maximowicz decided that the two genera should be distinct, founding this conclusion upon the close seed-coat (confirmed in the Japanese Shortia uniflora) and the campanulate corolla, with lobes undulate-crenate instead of fimbriate, and upon some characters in the stamens, all these taken from a rude figure in the Japanese Soo Bokf., iv, fol. 8, which is supposed to represent S. uniflora, although the leaves would (as Maximowicz rightly observes) refer it rather to S. galicifolia, these being all represented as acute or in one dubious case subcordate at base, instead of reniform-cordate. The identification as to genus is doubtless correct; but the analysis of the flower is too rude for reliance as to all relating to the stamens and the squamulæ. Happily I can now give the characters from an actual blossom.

For I have now received, at first indirectly from Mr. J. W. Congdon, and at length directly from Mr. M. E. Hyams, of Statesville, North Carolina, a flowering specimen of the long-sought Shortia galacifolia. Mr. Hyams, or more strictly his son, George McQueen Hyams, collected it on a hill-side in McDowell County, North Carolina, in the district I had indicated as the most probable locality, viz: east of the Black Mountain. It was collected in May, 1877, but, as its remarkable interest was unknown, it has only now been communicated to me. I will only state here, that the distinction between the two genera is probably definite, that our plant is perhaps identical in species with the one figured in the Japanese books (rather than with S. uniflora), although the corolla in ours is seemingly white, and the crenulation of the border of the lobes is stronger than in the description and often double; that the anther, though not agreeing with Maximowicz's character, probably may agree with this Japanese representative, and may be generically distinguished from that of Schizocodon, unless other species afford transitions; and that the squamulæ are like those of Schizocodon and fully as large, but broader, narrowed or almost unguiculate at base, and attached to the very base of the corolla, while the filaments (said by Maximowicz to be "libera," probably in the sense of free from the corolla, as they are represented in the Japanese figure) are adnate to the corolla for most of their length. That is, the phrase "filamentis

tubo corollæ adnatis," in Benth. and Hook. Gen. Pl. is correct, but I know no then extant authority for it, except the analogy with its relatives. Less fortunate are the characters: "Antheræ erectæ, didymæ . . . loculis oblique dehiscentibus," derived by Maximowicz from the Japanese figures, and the "antheræ breves

. loculis divergentibus" of the Genera Plantarum; the anthers being longer than in any other genus of the order, and the cells in a just sense longitudinally dehiscent. But the anther is, as in all its relatives except the anomalous Galax,-inflexed or incumbent on the apex of the filament, in this genus about horizontal, as are consequently the marginal sutures which run the whole length of the elongated-oblong cells. The pollen is simple and obscurely trigonous as seen on the field of the microscope. The style and stigma are as in Schizocodon, but the latter more capitate.

A. G.

2. On the Amount of Sugar contained in the Nectar of various Flowers; by A. S. WILSON. A paper read before the Dublin meeting of the British Association, August, 1878.-The interest of this paper lies in the determination of the very small amount of saccharine matter secreted by the nectaries of certain flowers commonly visited by honey bees, and therefore the extraordinary industry of insects in their work of collection; or in other words the vast number of blossoms they must visit (and aid to fertilize) in order to lay up the quantity of honey they do. Mr. Wilson estimates from his data that, to obtain one kilo of sugar from red clover, 7,500,000 flowers must be sucked. There are about sixty flowers in a head; and 2,500,000 visits must be made to collect a pound of honey. (Abstr. from Jour. Botany, London, Oct., 1878.)

A. G.

3. Absorption compared with transpiration.-In closing a recent article in Ann. d. Sci. Nat., ser. 6, vi, Vesque presents the following abstract of his views.

(1.) Of all the theories advanced to explain the movement of water in plants, that of Boehm is most nearly in harmony with observed facts. [According to Boehm, "the water-movement caused by transpiration is a function of the elasticity of cell-walls, and of atmospheric pressure.]

(2.) Although transpiration is the most potent cause of absorption, these two functions are not necessarily proportional.

(3.) Absorption is equal to transpiration when the plant grows under nearly constant and mean conditions, for instance in diffused light, and in air moderately moist.

(4.) When a plant taken from mean conditions is exposed to dry air, transpiration is more rapid than absorption. It can reach a point at which the plant becomes irreparably injured.

(5.) When a plant taken from mean conditions is exposed to a saturated atmosphere, absorption is more rapid than transpiration, but in proportion as the want of water in the plant is supplied, the transpiration diminishes, and at last the plant is filled to repletion.

(6.) When a plant lacks water, the suction caused by transpira

tion is not lost; it accumulates to act at once on the roots when water can be had. Then there is observed an absorption more energetic than the transpiration; the absorption diminishes as the want of water is supplied, and finally is governed wholly by the transpiration.

G. L. G.

4. On the causes of the abnormal shapes of plants grown in the dark. When deprived of light for a few days, growing plants which contain chlorophyll become etiolated, and undergo changes in form which are often very noticeable. The internodes extend to a greater length than when they grow in light, while the leaves develop only slightly and are often mis-shapen. From the fact that many plants provided beforehand with a store of nourishment, as in the case of corms and bulbs, produce in darkness, flowers of normal color and shape, but at the same time distorted and blanched leaves, the cause of the abnormal growth has been attributed by some to the disturbance in assimilation. Kraus has attributed the abnormal extension of internodes grown in the dark, to an excessive development of the pith and an imperfect development of fibrovascular tissue. He has also observed that the epidermal cells under such conditions have thinner walls than usual. Rauwenhoff, in Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 6, 5, v. and vi. has reviewed the studies of Kraus and others, and comes to the following conclusions: The longer internodes have, in most instances a longer pith than the others, but that the growth of this cannot be the sole cause of the abnormal extension appears from the case of Impatiens, etc., where the pith is wanting. In darkness, the plants experimented upon developed in all parts an unusual amount of fundamental tissue, the tissue to which pith belongs. This abnormal development is attributed to the absence of the retarding influence of light, and to the action of negative geotropism.

G. L. G.

5. Cryptogamic Flora of Silesia: Alga, by Dr. OSCAR KIRCHNER, Breslau, 1878.-This forms the first portion of the second volume of the Cryptogamic Flora of Silesia, published under the direction of Professor Ferdinand Cohn, of which the first volume has already been noticed in this Journal. The description of species is preceded by an account of the different works on the algae of Silesia, and by an article on the general structure of algae, especially of those growing in fresh water. The first notice of alge in Silesia appears to be the description by Kundmann in 1736, of an "Oderhaut" or leathery mass growing on the Oder which was found by Goeppert, who examined Kundmann's specimens in 1840, to be formed of Cladophora fracta. Flotow, Geppert, Ehrenberg, Cohn and Hilse have successively contributed to a knowledge of the flora and many of the original species were distributed in Rabenhorst's Algen Europas. On the whole, Dr. Kirchner thinks that less is known about the algae than about the other cryptogamic groups of Silesia. The descriptive part of the work, embracing more than 250 pages, is well done, the author having been assisted by the notes of his instructor Professor Cohn. The Florideæ are treated first, and finally the

Schizosporea, the Diatomes preceding the latter order, contrary to the usual mode of arrangement. In classifying the Diatomes the author has followed Grunow and in the Nostocs he has adopted Thuret's classification. It is refreshing to see how the species of Kuetzing and others are united into more rational and comprehensible species. The second part of vol. ii, including the Lichens by Stein and the third volume including the Fungi by Dr. Schroeter, are announced for 1879.

W. G. F.

6. New York State Museum of Natural History, for the year 1876: Report of the Botanist, CHARLES H. PECK; made to the Regents of the University, Jan., 1877. Published in Sept., 1878, in advance of the Report, pp. 78, and two plates of new Fungi.-This 30th annual report follows the 28th, the 29th being still in abeyance on account of some delay in the preparation of the plates. It appears that 168 species have during the year been added to the State Herbarium, of which 129 are Fungi, and 69 of these either new or previously undescribed. At the close of the report Mr. Peck adduces reasons for the opinion that Lenzites Cookei Berkl., L. Crataegi, L. proxima, possibly L. Klotzschii, Dædalea confragosa, and Trametes rubescens, are all forms of one species. A sad account is given of the ravages of a beetle, Hylurgus rufipennis, among the Spruces in the Adirondack region.

W. G. F.

7. Professor Eaton's Ferns of North America, parts 8 and 9.-Aspidium Lonchitis and Woodwardia angustifolia make up an effective plate. Equally handsome and well executed is the next plate containing Aspidium fragrans and Phegopteris alpestris. The latter is one of the few subalpine species which are wanting in eastern North America and in the Rocky Mountains, but extend on the western side far down the Sierra Nevada, California. Among others, Sir J. D. Hooker collected it on Mt. Shasta. One would hope that its "fugitive indusium" might be fixed and the plant associated with Athyrium Filix-femina, which it resembles in habit. The next plate is devoted to delicate or pygmy subjects, Trichomanes radicans of Alabama, etc. (said to accord well with the original West Indian species even though the larger Irish 7. speciosum may be different), and the lilliputian T. Petersii. The latter would have made a good show if a fair tuft had been depicted, in addition to the three or four frondlets. Schizoa pusilla (misspelled on the plate) is added, in a good figure, with faint and obscure analyses. An entire plate is well given to the Californian Aspidium munitum, of which the first figure represents a small form, and the second and third, varieties so peculiar that they would pass for distinct species. Three marked species of Polypodium fill the next plate, on which the noble P. Scouleri takes by an oversight the name of P. vulgare. It must be that the plate-proofs are not revised by the editor before lettering; as he would not let such slips pass. The last plate creditably represents two species of Pellea, P. andromedafolia of the western, and P. flexuosa of the southeastern portions of the United States, both extending into South America.

A. G.