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(FIG. 29.) THE NORTH AMERICAN PLAINS, WITH CHARACTERISTIC MAMMALIA.

importance in the origin of species than Darwinians as such seem willing to admit.

The errors of detail in the chapters we have read seem very few, and the wonder is that there should not be more. We notice that Phrynosomæ, or horned toads, are stated on one page to exist in New York and on another in Florida. We are not aware that the genus occurs east of the Mississippi River. Siredon is referred to the family Proteidæ, when it has been shown by Dumeril and Marsh to be simply a larval Amblystoma. An attractive feature of the work are the twenty fullpage illustrations, showing the chief forms of land vertebrates characterizing the subregions. They are drawn with skill and evident fidelity, though the skunk on Plate XX. is not well sketched. Through the courtesy of the American publishers our readers can judge of the excellence of the plates by a glance at the two accompanying illustrations (Figs. 28 and 29). The colored hypsometrical maps add greatly to the value of the work. In that of North America the author colors yellow supposed desert tracts east of the Rocky Mountains, which farmers in Wyoming and Colorado would consider as reflecting on their possessions, and over which herds of buffalo a few years ago must have grazed with satisfaction.

In conclusion it may be said that while our author has shown that life has probably originated in northern lands, the question still remains to be answered, and the problem will probably not be solved for generations. What caused the radical differences in the life of the several continents? The united efforts of future palæontologists and biologists will be concentrated on this task, and centuries hence, if we mistake not, Alfred R. Wallace will be regarded as the pioneer in the work.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. The Naturalist's Guide in collecting and preserving Objects of Natural History, with a Complete Catalogue of the Birds of Eastern Massachusetts. By C. J. Maynard. With Illustrations by E. L. Weeks. Salem: The Naturalists' Agency. 1877. 12mo, pp. 170. $2.00.

The Naturalist's Directory, containing the Names of Naturalists, Chemists, Physicists, and Meteorologists, arranged alphabetically, with an Index arranged according to Departments. By Samuel E. Cassino. Salem, Mass: The Naturalists' Agency. 1877. 8vo, pp. 20. Interleaved.

Materials towards a Knowledge of the Postembryonal Development of Insects. By Prof. M. Ganin. Warsaw. 1876. 4to, with plates.

Biologische Studien. Von Prof. Ernst Haeckel. Zweites Heft: Studien zur Gastræa-Theorie. Mit 14 tafeln. Jena. 1877. 8vo, pp. 99.

Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Daphnoiden. Von Prof. August Weismann. Parts II-IV. Leipzig. 1877. 8vo, pp. 161.

On the Structure and Relations of the Alcyonarian Heliopora cærulea, with some Account of the Anatomy of a Species of Sarcophyton, Notes on the Structure of Species of the Genera Millepora, Pocillopora, and Stylaster, and Remarks on the Affinities of Certain Palæozoic Corals. By H. N. Mosely. (From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.) London. 1876. 4to, pp. 38.

Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science of Halifax, Nova Scotia. IV. part 2. 1875-76. 8vo.

The Valorous Expedition. Reports by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys and Dr. Carpenter. (From the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. xxv. No. 173.) With chart and Sections. London. 1876. 8vo, pp. 60.

Check List of the Fishes of the Fresh Waters of North America. By David S. Jordan and Herbert E. Copeland. (From the Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.) 1877. 8vo, pp. 31.

The Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. 1876. 8vo, pp. 38.

Catalogue of the publications of the U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. F. V. Hayden, Geologist-in-Charge. Second Edition. (Revised to December 31, 1876.) Washington, D. C. 1877. 8vo, pp. 38.

Remarks on some Algæ found on the Water Supplies of the City of Boston. By W. G. Farlow. (Extracted from the Bulletin of the Bussey Institution. January, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 80.

Geological Survey of New Jersey. Annual Report of the State Geologist, for the year 1876. Trenton, New Jersey. 1876. 8vo, pp. 56.

New York Aquarium Journal and Guide. Illustrated. New York.

GENERAL NOTES.

BOTANY.1

ON THE PASSAGE OF PLASMA THROUGH LIVING UNPERFORATED MEMBRANES, BY M. CORNU. The transfer of elaborated matters in cells presents many difficulties; in many cases osmosis alone is an inadequate explanation; it has been thought necessary to assume solution and recomposition of the substance, as in the case of starch. That the transfer of starch takes place in this way has been apparently admitted as the result of Mer's researches. Does plasma pass in the same way through the cell wall, having become first dissolved? Cornu thinks that it is transferred without solution, and bases his conclusion on his study of the germination of the spores of one of the Mucedineæ. In this case the plasma passes directly through the wall without rupturing it. The details of this most interesting observation are given in Comptes Rendus, January 15, 1877.

PHELLODENDRON. - The list of exotic trees capable of withstanding the severities of the New England climate is not a long one, and any addition to it is a cause for congratulation, especially when, as in the case of Phellodendron Amurense, the new-comer is extremely ornamental, and of rapid growth. Two plants of this Phellodendron, raised from seed in the Harvard Botanic Garden many years ago, are now some fifteen feet high, and have flowered the past summer for the first time; and as they have been fully exposed during ten or fifteen years, their hardiness in our climate would seem to be beyond doubt. The flowers of Phellodendron are dioecious, but by a piece of remarkable good fortune the two plants bore flowers of the two sexes, and an 1 Conducted by PROF. G. L. Goodale. 2 Rupurt and Maxim., Fl. Amus. t. 4.

abundant supply of seed has been secured. Phellodendron Amurense is a native of Manchuria, where, according to Maximonicz, it becomes a handsome, thick-leaved tree, fifty feet high, and with a trunk a foot in diameter. It occurs also in Japan, where a second species has been detected.

Phellodendron can be characterized by its corky bark; opposite, unequally pinnate leaves; oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, sharply serrate leaflets; small, green, diœcious flowers, borne at the extremity of the branches in loose corymbs; and by its five seeders, black, odoriferous, pea-shaped drupes, with flattened seeds, which in our species are two lines long, and covered with a shining black testa.

Its nearest North American allies are Ptelea and Xanthoxylum. C. S. SARGENT.

MODIFICATION OF THE GLUMES OF GRASSES DEPENDING ON THE SEX OF THE FLOWERS. Fournier gives as the result of his study of the grasses of Mexico the following statement: Among grasses with separated sexes, the female flowers differ very little, if at all, as regards the situation or form of the floral envelopes, when the sexes are borne on different plants; but when the plant is monoecious the glumes of the two sexes are widely different. These differences are most

marked in certain genera of Chlorideæ, normally dioecious and accidentally monoecious. The grass described by Engelmann under the name Buchlöe dactyloides is a curious example in point. Beside this is now placed Opizia stolonifera, of which Presl had seen only the female plant. Although the female flowers of these plants differ very widely, their male plants resemble each other so much that they have been put in the same genus. Casiostega humilis is the male form of Buchlöe,

and C. anomala is the male form of Opizia.

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LIVING AND FOSSIL OAKS OF EUROPE COMPARED BY DE SAPORTA. - Before the end of the Miocene, Europe possessed oaks which closely resembled Quercus Cerris. They had cupules of the same kind as the one now living, and the fruit matured in the second year. Three species in Auvergne belonged to the type of Quercus Robur, and "did not differ from the forms of this group more than these forms differ from one anQuercus pedunculata, sessiliflora, and pubescens are relatively recent. In the middle of France, at least, these races have been preceded by other oaks, which have since partly disappeared and partly have been confined to a region farther south. On the other hand, species which now occupy only limited stations where they are threatened with extinction, like Quercus Cerris in France, appear to have had direct representatives there at an epoch relatively remote.

ABSORPTION OF CARBONIC ACID BY THE VEGetable Cell Wall, BY PROFESSOR ВоHм, of Vienna. Carbonic acid is atmospheric air, absorbed not only by the contents of green cells but by the cell walls themselves. Branches dried at 100° C. absorb more carbonic acid than

fresh twigs. But while in the latter the absorbed gas can be driven off tolerably rapidly by oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen, this happens in the first just as in the case of carbon, only more slowly."

BOTANICAL NOTES FROM RECENT PERIODICALS. Flora. Batalin, Mechanism of the Movements in Insect-Eating Plants (not yet finished). Dr. Celakovsky, On the Morphological Structure of Vincetoxicum and Asclepias. A. Poulsen, The Occurrence of Crystals surrounded by Cellulose (Rosanoff's crystals detected in the leaf stalks of many Leguminosa).

Botanische Zeitung. 1877, No. 1. Dr. DeVries, On the Extension of Growing Vegetable Cells by Turgescence. V. Waldheim, A Fungus on Rumex. Nos. 2 and 3, Beyerinck, On Galls. No. 4, Jack, On European Hepaticæ. Continued in No. 5. Dingler, On Lathrœa rhodopea.

ZOOLOGY.

THE COMMON CRAB (CARCINUS MŒNAS) AT THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. -I desire to direct attention to the crustacean genus Carcinus, of which there is but a single species, mænas. In 1873 the writer obtained a specimen from the Hawaiian Islands. This is the first well-authenticated instance, to his knowledge, where the species is recorded as coming from Pacific regions. In the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia there is a specimen labeled from Australia, with an interrogation mark. It is found along the whole coast of Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean; it is equally common and as widely distributed along our Atlantic coast. Heller reports having found the species on the eastern coast of South America, and it has likewise been obtained from the Red Sea; and now the Pacific Islands are added as a habitat. In the latter region, however, it cannot be very common, as it has eluded research up to the time mentioned, notwithstanding the fact that these islands have been pretty thoroughly ransacked for this kind of life. It may, however, be considered as cosmopolitan, as having a wider range than any other known species of crab. What is particularly interesting in connection with its wide distribution is the identity of the species wherever found. Very slight differences can be observed in the specimens coming from these widely separated localities. The differences are not sufficient to constitute distinct species; at the most they would only form varieties. Carcinologists have agreed, however, to ignore the slight geographical variations and to designate them all by the same name.

The difference consists principally in the extent of the granulations on the surface of the carapace, and in the prominence of the front. Our Atlantic-coast crab differs from the European in having the surface more granular, and the teeth of the front somewhat more prominent; in the Pacific specimen the granulations are larger, and the front more projecting when compared with the former. It will be observed that

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