THE Ge is 
t A +2 f 
yia 


AMERICAN NATURALIST, 


AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 


NATURAL HISTORY 


EDITED BY 


A. S. PACKARD, Jr., arp EDWARD D. COPE. 


ASSOCIATE EDITORS : 3 
Dr. ELLIOTT COUES, DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALS AND sings 
ProF. O. T. MASON, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 
ELLIS H. YARNALL, Dep. oF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 
Dr. R. H. WARD, DEPARTMENT OF MignoscoPy. 


VOLUME XII. 


MISSOURI 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN. 


ais g en 
ee PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESS OF McCALLA & STAVELY, 
‘ Nos. 237 AND 239 Dock STREET. 


1878. 
“oes 


t a 
$ i 


CONTENTS. 


Social Life among the DaS TPP T sr cW H Dolli yona ae 
The Sewellel or Sho eg ae wee S sS K Dume dry os a ee ae 


The a of Southern Nevada R E < ee D, A TE aa s e e 
The Night Herons and thebe Exodus. ps .. 2. + se wees eee De og Poa e os 27 
Variations i in the Nests of the same e Species Or Binge. 4). <a 2 M BIE Sk 4 res 35 
Movements in Animal Evolution. ..........- CCCP AES T 40 
The Saurians Recently Deorai | in a Dakota Beds of Col- 
Ne ay eee ge ee ay ee Bs DD CO a an an ee 71 
The Discolored Waters of the Gul Bko. aa a H Ss a E h 85 
The Distribution = Tim and Origin of Prairies in lowa: : J S. Todd oo se we os oes 
United States Survey of Ps TEDO aS Ge < siko V eee SG r 
T ransformations afe ie sa Mitte. aa aa " R A TE ere rat 139 
The Home of th E O A . Felix L. Oswald. . „ a uo 
Like aun in as Producing Like Morphological T 
R R E O T o E 
The Transat Of Piste eee ew we a MEE Re oe ee ; 
Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. . . . s ao =o kia Riward = Greene. . +172, 208 
The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake... . .. n on erinu S W Witten 6s ka «7903 
The T mations ~ Habits of the Blister Beetles Se sce Chas V. ee Coie ea 213, 282 
The seaceugeny of Rocks and Fossils for Microscopical Exami- 
(eae Cs Reg ee ee eek parson ee ars 
The S PIRM ADE oo oo) Ss ee ie es Air Brees 1 eee eee 
Traces of Solar Seaway in n AETA 66 655s Sb as eee a Ferier . oo 228 
A New — TRA AVIOPHOTA > ces ke Se ye APENE A a a 232 
ANDA PA a og ee os os a a Joseph Leidy fe ey 
Hairs and Glepdulac A Plants: Their Forms and Uses. . m rA E ke P cae 
ie BE a an Ge e a a rikur E. Brown. s... 21 
An Examination of Prof. Leo Lesquereux’s Theory of the ah ; 
gin and Formation of Prairies Canah OP Hay. assan aaa 299 
Methods of Labelling in pang as Collections E E ~~ W. H. Ballon.. ....- i w6 
, Notes on Indian Manne pe end Custis sag a eS Edward Pal . ud 
F His ae. elo hae a ate K + eriet Sidak Minn = ee 
Rank round S Eb eos oe eee Ses “o 
Phosphorescent Insects; Their Metamorphosis... . + >.. ker ya King.. lereh o 
On the Genealogy of Plants... . . ss. sn a vw os i È. Ward . Laa. -359 


The Mode of Extrication of Silk-worm Moths from their 
Å, S. Packard, Fo 


-an 


E E Bee 8 ey eae as. pat ei Ke tale ees 
Mound Making Ants of ~ an Eor te eee eoi olleery C Mrok ka 431 
The Seen Tuas Kaos. sk cy he ee ew Wikis ewe 
The Robin's Food Oe a |. . David Alexander Lyle... i 
` The Runners of Erythronium Americanum. . . iia ce a eae Te a 
~ The Mode of Extrication of the Moth D. C McLaren. . : 
Moqui Food Preparations. .........--- i is A, Berber... .. 3 
The Ineligi re eke House Sparrow in kine. . Biliatt Comes... ss + 49 
_ Walks sarees Francisco. . .. . Piel nce eee W. N. Lockington . . $05, 786. 
Some Characteristics of the Central Zoö-Geographical 1 Province a 
A E eo Uk as CAS. Packard, Pros = 3 


iv Ci ontents. 


The Report of the Committee of the American Association of 


1876 on Biological aue Glate u u a > eee E o R E he 3. S39 

The Ancient ere: r the Ruins of the rere of he Rio ; 
a A a E We gg eran E S Dee a sails ai wi 25901590, 606 
io, 536 


The New pada Desde. Askren Seopholasa $ 
caged 4 ans, The: Suggestions with a View to > Generali- 

E is Oh nes let eee Sa eee pears e ous PEARCE Dercum i oe SD 
Shack used hy the Indians of the United States .........Hdward Palmer... . .593, 646 
An Interesti ig Case of Natural Selection. ......... „Samuel F, Clarke. . 10 LOS 


REO D MISMOS Ta oie a raed Eo ee ae Cee es Sp EL HS 4) Sia eae es 643 
PENG MAPOS Ar E-1OUSE a Sie Fa ao a ewe es 6 oes . Emily A. art orerar S OSs 
The Fire-flies and their Phosphorescent Pie gee ie a T SS I E A Oe 
eee ADAY bcc ies ehh GeO id et ae eek ce Q: Li Ped E A OBS 
sin spinulosum (Swaites) anid its Varieties. Fe Rah a E « ss eee, Dismiport. EE., 707 

ot Pars as an mecing Mis o o a es one Cn sw ww NON EE O e ik ss tee 717 

a. ee Natural sande of the Dicotyledond LE ak ae ee Lester F. Ward... ghia e oe aha 
A Study of the Popular Names of the M eahadan A og Mant G. Brown Goode... e e: 735 
SIN We ccs E ONE E RSE BENE E A nh eee ot oe S W.W: BO eS oue 740 
The Excurstons of the Geala Society oi of France for 1878. df. D. Copë. iwi 6342 4 e S n TA 
Relic Hunting on the Mo n TO AER SE E E Dee EE a E SLi Fri a E i 
The prea NE Be Pinte oe ess CRM, P E PS C 


Modes of Spreading and Means at Extinguishing t the ‘Maples ge 
Bar k-lous 


RECENT LITERATURE. 
Cook’s Biology, 48; Vaughan’s Osteology and Myology of the Domestic Fowl, 48; The Geo- 
logical Record for 1875, 48; Winchell’s Reconciliation of Science and Religion, 49; Johnson’s 
Syecl D tix 


Geological and Ges ical Survey of the Territories, 179; Momie 
ol m: 


aR 
den’s Geological and Geographical shah . Cinai, 546; The Penn Monthly for June,1878, ii 
 Haeckel’s Protista-kingdom, 549 ; Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1877, 550; Cook 
Manual of the Apiary, 550; TEs para on the Spiders of moe 550; Flögel on a 
Structure of the Brain i of Insects, 616; Barrois’ Denu yo ar of Bryoioa, 617; : 
Frazer’s Reports of Progress in the District of York, Adams, C 
Penna., 620; Fourteen per in Zoölogy, by J. SEES Steele, 622; Brehm’s Animal Life, Cha; $ 
` Gray’s Flora of North America, 686; Gra be s ects, 689; Wallace’s Tropical Nature, 743; 
; Bibliography of North PEREA Invertebra ayaa ontology, 745; Proceedings of the Central 
N Ohio Scientific Assoc., 745 ; Wilson’s Baak of New England, 746; Macalister’s Zoölogy of : 
the Vertebrates, 809; Foster and Langley’s Elementary Practical Physiology, 810; — - 
Piphersi Nerve-system of Vertebrates, 810; The Principal Characters of American Cre T 
i , 811; Meehan’s Native Flowers and Ferns, 812; Taylor’s Flowers, 813; Fiestas 
Geography of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 814. 


GeneraL Nores. a 4 
Botany.—Notes on the Alpine ora of Mt. Shasta, sh Production of Apples in “off ” years, | 
51; Botanical News, 52; Lavalée’s Arboretum Segr m, 121; Researches in 


regard 
ranspiration in Plants, 122 ; Deiana News, 123; Da veok s Notes on Botrychium simplex, 


a 


Diminutive Mounds of Oreg oa ans, 562; ntion called to Papers and separate publications, — 
~ 362; Ancient Olla RDSE on Santa esha Hand, Sa ‘foj; Reerignst Burial, 629 ; An- © 
BEEE News, 630, 696; Forei; ia sh Crania Urns in a Burial Mound 
i "753; ee ; A Vessel oF Glazed Pottery taken from a 

T ites in Florida, 821; An Sian pai wit P R OAE News, 824; Foreign, 827. 
Sauri he Dakota Epoch, 56; paw Lebanon Beg 


Contents. v 


; Movement of an Aquatic Submerged Plant, 181 ; The Eucalyptus in aeaa 5 heeey 
tion ie Acorns; 182; Absorption of Water by Roots, 183; Cleistogamou: owers nthonia, 
f North Ameri i 


tion, 318 i #4f-scars of 
Sigillaria and Lepidodendron, 318; Reinsch’s sg olegniez and Parasites in Desmi Cas ~~ 
Botanical News, 3 319, Cl ORANE TN f Danthonia, 388; Means by w R Plants 
protected from ae etc., 388: My Hepaticas, 390; ‘sarki, sen: 
390; The Mycological Flora of Minnesota, 466; Ligneous Flora of Iowa, 466; On-4,d’Growth of 
Cocculus indicus, 466; Botanical News, 467; Insects needed to Fertilize Utricula’ Pia and Pyxi- 
danthera, 552; Wolf and Hall’s List of the Mossas, piverwerte and Lichens of mage 554; 
Ferns, in their Homes and Ours, 624; A Tree wtanical News, 626; The 
Grasses of Mexico, 691; The Co nnection of Bacilli with Splenic Fever. 692; Anca of Sap in 
Trees, 592; Pe s Musci Appalachiani, 693; Botanical News, 693; New volte of the 


m $ ; Lycopodiu: ori 

749; Botanical Sabr 49; Volvox globator, 815; A Double-flowered Cypripedium cacti, 
816; A new variety o pastas secon | ge rie of a Plant, 818 ; ‘The Struc- 
ture and Affinities of Chara cal New 

Zoology.—Note on the uae: so er eu of Pi Robin on the Ground, 53; Wild Geese 
Nesting in Trees, 54; Rate of Growth of the Barnacle, 54; Peculiar Feathers of the young PE 
Duck, 123; Note on Ranella clathrata (Gray), 124; Sparrows an eewees, 124; The Prairie 
Chicken in California, 124; On the form of the Stapes in Dipodomys, 125; Homologies of vi 
Ear-bones of Mammals, etc., 183; Terrestrial Mollusca of Texas, 184; A strange Fli of 
Hawks, 185; A Texan Cliff Frog, 186; Occurrence of the Ph yilapad Eubtanchipus+ in Winter, 
186; Notes on the Nesting Habits of the English Sparrow, 251; The largest of all Fresh-water 
w Genera of North American Fresh-water i.i 252; A new Genus of 

, Bassa i tod 


, 399; Cha 

Orne of the Fortieth eer 469 ; Notes on Th Rar 

Birds of Minnesota, 470; Mode of Distribution of Fresh- -water ak 472; t iledivg Urina- 
tion of the Frog, 473; ka a upon Albinism in several of our Birds, 474; Mode of Moulting 
of the Lining of the Crop and Stomach in Insects, 476; Ornithological Notes, 477; Intelligence in 
Chimpanzees, 554; Is the Rocky mountain Sheep covered with Wool ? 556; Myriapods in Fair- 
mount Park, Philadelphia, 557; Mode of Caji of the Cocoons of Microgaster, 558; Ar- 
gonauta tuberculosa, 560; Notes on New Jersey ee bee, tas he Sk eaten by 
the Lynx, 628; Carnivorous Tadpole es, 628; Aor headod Snakes, 694 ; Tad- 
poles, 695; Fresh-water mussels vs. Ducks, 695; The Right Whale of the Southern- piee 
Seas, 750; A new Species of Gorilla, ; The Herpetology of New Guinea, 751; A Monstrous © 

= H r 


of Corixa, 820; Snakes and Cold Viciuals, bio: A Skunk eaten by T b ee ge 

Anthropology —The Archeology of the Pacific ar 54; Anthro pologia News, 55; Plio- 
cene Man, 125; Powell’s North American Ethnology, 126, Erratum, 126; Anthr. m a 
mh 13); Aro, 187; preiet — Sie owe tee Foreign, waa eae n Moua Paide 


Language Map of America, 400; avenport Ta am gt pological Ni wa; 400; ladtan Bee 
ustoms, 402 ; Fish-hooks á ibe Mohave indians, 433 Indian PP arte 3; Foreign, 

404; On the Probable Use of T Stones, 478; Tr ifo Stephen Pca. 481; 

Aarona ical News, a On unishment of Prostitution among ia PNE nes, 560; The 


s, 57 : The Genus Tetra- 
conodon, 57; The Affinities of the Dinosauria, 57 ; Triassic Saurians k Pennsylvania, s; 


Contents. 


New Artiodactyles of the Upper Tertiary, 58; A New Mastodon, 128; The Snout Fishes of the 
Kansas Chalk, 128; A new genus of Oreodontidz, 129 ; Palmeotaiogs: of Georgia, 129; Silurian 
saga O es 129; A new Ally of Sivatherium, r29; Extinct Reptiles of India, 130; 
rof. Ga gore 130; Genloky o aa onsin, 130; The Geological Survey 
of New Zealand, 188; ke ew Genus o; ; Anew Deer from Indiana, 
189 ; A Problematical Fossil, 2:7; i tic Clays of New Jersey, 257; Pliocene Vertebrata of the 
Val D’Arno, 257; Surface Geo logy of British Columbia, 257; e Structure of Coryphodon, 
igin of es, 32 


324; The Origi ` ; A new F: 327; isthoccelous Dinosaur, 406; Prof. 
h on Permian Reptil 06 ; sorial Reptiles, 408; Glacial Pheno a in Bri Colum- 
bia, 487; The Species of Rhinoceros of the Fork epoch, ito and Low Water in the 
t e Palzontology of Victoria, 489 ; cies of iceelias, 563 ; 
The Relations of Ancient and modern Crocodiles, 564 ; w | Diadects , 565; Geology of the 
British Arctic Expedition, 565; The Vertebrz of Rachitomus 633 ; The Position of Dipterus, 633 ; 
A i rus di at Portland, Maine, 633; The Reptiles of t p urassic of t 
North of France, 760; uaternary Camel from Roumania, 7 e Fauna of the Lowest 
Tertiary of France, ; The Man of the Pampean Formation, 827; e Theromorphous 
tilia, 829; Discovery of Recent Glaciers in nip ing, 830; Wasatch Group, 831 ; e Devonian 


ta, S, 
and Silurian Formations of Brittany, 832; The Gėology of ee 832; The Southern Boundary 
of the Glacial Drift, 832; Miocene Vertebrata of Oregon, 
Geography and Trave.s.—Narrative E Hall’s North i _Eapediisos , 59; Stanley’s Account 
of the ne Congo, 59; oF ae in Palestine, 60; Orton’s sangeet in South America, 60 ; 
cal New : Geographical We ka f Hayden’s Su The Ameri 
Sa Work of ete s ice. 130; The American Geograp ae Society, 131 ; Geographi- 
cal News ; The British Polar Expedition. Extract from Sir J. D. Hooker’s Address. as 
oe of the Ropa PEA 18; or ical News, 191; The a ographical Work. of the 
» 40 — Horn Cafion, 408; The Isthmus of a 408 ; 
Geographical Not Ai Geog hod Notes, 490; Col. Paer. s Third Journ: 66 : 
Dutc ; The Amaz 


at | 
® 
ia | 
0 
S 8 
z 
Q) 
h 
6 
' 


ary, 764; The Amazon, 8 Arc 
Arctic Expedition, 834; Geographical Ne 


Microscopy.— iatoms, 63 ; ; 
Microscopical Societies, 63 ; Exchanges, 64 ; The Postal Club, 132; ‘Anew Mang Box for cube 


409 ; Microscopical Society sanm S, 410; iroa Congress, 410; Ernst Gundlach, 410 ; 


Exchanges, aa ; bi 5 Sed ; termination of Ro i ope, arga 

rine, 492; A ‘xchange oscopical Section, Troy Scientific Association, 

572; New Microscopie Journal 574; Objectives, 574 : ral 

croscope, 574; Nationa p 2; Microscopical Directory, 704; Exchanges, 
National Mi ical C ; oth $ Eschinges: 766; National Sinrcesepical Congress, 


; New Forms of Menntie, i: 


oe News, 64, 134, 194, 261, 334, 411, 492. 575, 937, 705, 767, 841 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, 67, 137, 200, 268, 337, 414 497, 577, 638, 706, 768, 849. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS, 70, 138, 202, 269, 338, 418, 498, 577, 641, 706, 770, 850 


N hY eas 


Be 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VeL. xu. — JANUARY, 1878. — No. 1. 


SOCIAL LIFE AMONG OUR ABORIGINES. 


BY W. H. DALL. 


5 


« One touch of nature shows the whole world kin.” 


HE materials and the man have not yet come together which 
are to result in any picture of the social life of the American 
Indians or Eskimo equal in fidelity to that which is printed of our 
own social life on the pages of the ordinary “ society” novel. At 
least this is one of the reasons why nothing has ever been pub- 
lished which exhibits to the civilized reader the play of sentiment 
and passion, fear, hope, aspiration and reverence which actuate 
the red or the brown man as much, if in different mode, as” they 
do his paler cotemporary. It is true we have the novel of the 


Cooper class, in which a red man, evolved from the inner con- 


sciousness of the author, is impregnated with the ideas and senti- 
ments of a Chateaubriand. This has, however, become antiquated, 
even with the philanthropist, and seldom furnishes texts for mis- 
sionary meetings in these days. We have numerous graphic 
' accounts of the manners and customs of the Indian tribes as re- 
garded from the white standpoint, but these are wholly defective 
in the region of greatest interest, that of the native mental atmos- 
phere. There are speeches, still to be found in school readers, 
in which Indian chiefs apostrophize the “ Great Father” in lan- 
guage well chosen and eloquent, dignified by its simplicity and 
directness, and only unsatisfactory from the absence of any means 
_ of knowing how much of the reporter or interpreter is combined 
with the original. ` a 
It is hardly to be expected, perhaps, that the “squaw-man” of 


oe west or the keen-witted eae © of the abi would realize the oT 


P Copyright, hes, wi E D. ene 


s 


2 Social Life among our Aborigines. [January, 


value to the world of a faithful picture of the life which he (more 
than any other man) is better situated to observe; even if he were 
competent to delineate it. Where shall be found a Becker who 
- will give us an Indian “ Charicles” ? 

Another and most serious difficulty lies in the way. In the life 
of the average native, especially in the far north, there is little but 
a struggle for existence with a niggardly environment. Their 
festivals are few and consist chiefly of eating and violent motions, 
termed dancing for want of a better and more characteristic word, 
or in donations where the host is the giver. Their shamanistic 
performances, full of excitement and interest, still have little to 
satisfy the love of enjoyment latent in every human being. Hav- 
ing no theatres, no books, no zmprovisatores, no means more 
rational than the above-mentioned examples for exciting pleas- 
urable sensations, there is no reason for wonder when we find 
in the savage mind the physical relations of sex, representing to 
him nearly all that civilization finds in art, literature or philan- 
thropy. Ideas connected with these relations as his sole source 
of unalloyed pleasure, permeate all his social relations, his wit, 
his motives, his tales, traditions, animistic faith and desires. 

Hence, not only would the faithful relation of the mental phases 


a of his life be unsuited to modern taste and modesty, but the mode 


-= of action of other sentiments in his mind and social relations, not 


-in themselves offensive, is so intermingled with the first mentioned 


as to render the representation of them, if dissected separately, 

in most cases only a mangled caricature of savage thought. 

= To the same absence of means for rational pleasure may be 
ascribed the fatal predilection for drunl and gambling uni- 

versal among savages and reappearing among the very poor in 

the slums of great cities, 

Dr. Rink, in his “Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo,” has 
come nearer than any one else toward occupying part of the 
vacant field by a judicious expunging of the erotic element in the 
folk-lore he relates. 

_ The personal experience of the author during several years in 
Northwestern Alaska gave him now and then a glimpse of the 
social thought of the Eskimo and Indians by whom he was sur- 
rounded, and from these reminiscences may be gleaned a few 
items which, without trespassing on the*realm of Cooperian fic-. 


tion, may give a slight insight into the working of the human 


mind under savage conditions. But it must be recollected that 


1878. | Social Life among our Aborigines. 3 


any view of native characteristics which leaves out the erotic 
element, resembles a vine from which the trellis has been re- 
moved. 

The Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska, resemble most of the 
northern savage peoples in a total absence of reticence on all 
subjects, except before strangers. After friendship is assured, a 
matter often a long time postponed after first acquaintance, con- 
versation may be freely indulged in on any subject relating to the 
individual unless it be the shamanic mysteries or superstitions. 

In this way I learned that even Eskimo life has its touches of 
romance. A middle aged woman, employed as a seamstress by 
our party, told me the story of her life. 

Born at Shaktolik, her wanderings had been confined between 
the Indian territory inland, the Yukon mouth on the south, and 
the Polar Ocean. When of marriageable age her parents, being 
old and desiring to settle their daughter in life, took her with 
them to the Kaviiak country. They had heard of an old man 
there, very wealthy, according to their ideas, in deerskin dresses 
and supplies of food, and who, in addition to the two he had 
already, wished to acquire another wife to be the youthful pet of 
his old age. They arrived at his house in the depth of winter, ee 
were hospitably received, and opened negotiations. The wayw 
girl, moved by the contemptuous glances of the elder wives, he 
absence of eye-lashes and presence of sundry wrinkles in her pro- 
posed partner, or by the fact that she would be wholly separated © > 
from her own people, fled in the night with a passing party of 
dog-sledges and natives, leaving her chagrined parents to settle 
as they might with the Kaviiak sage. : 

At Shaktolik she knew a young Eskimo, tall, handsome, a 
good hunter, and unmarried. Friendly glances passed between 
them; in short, she loved him and hoped to be his wife. To 
adorn his deerskin garments, to applaud him at the winter dances, 
to proudly receive the sinew and belly of the deer, wife’s per- 
quisites, when, on his return from hunting, she met him with the a 
smoking dishes of seal meat and fish she knew so well how to = 
prepare—these privileges she lovingly and proudly anticipated. nage 
Alas! “his face was very good but his heart was’ very bad.” ae 
After trifling with her affections for months he left her for a more 
engaging damsel, who, to the vindictive joy of the abeodon ; 
One, also suffered in her turn. - 

oud a long time she refused all popen of marriage; t the 


4 Social Life among our Aborigines. [ January, 


very thought was hateful to her. Then came a misfortune. 
While she was off with a salmon fishing party, preparing the win- 
ter store of dried fish, her parents and entire family went south- 
ward to another village on their way to set their nets elsewhere. 

During the salmon fishery it is against Eskimo ethics to boil 
water inside the house. It is bad for the fishery. The soup-pot 
was set near the beach and while the others were collecting bits 
of driftwood, the youngest child, a few years old, moved thereto 
by sorcery on the part of the Indians of the interior, threw grass 
and poisonous plants into the boiling pot. All ate and died. 
Poor Atleak was thus left an orphan with no means of support; 
the inhabitants of the village where they died claiming the prop- 
erty left by her family, and doubtless converting such of it as was 
not destroyed at the interment to their own use long before the 
news reached Shaktolik. 

She immediately claimed the protection of an only and very 
distant relative by marriage, in whose house she worked and by 
her neat sewing and constant industry kept herself supplied 
(through barter of work for skins) with clothing and other neces- 
saries which were not hers by the communal bond of the tribe. 
_ Shortly afterward winter set in and she went northward with a 


_ party bound for Kotzebue Sound. It was a hard winter, the deer 
-~ retreated to the most inaccessible valleys, the supply of fish failed. 


_ Her party finding that they could not rely on obtaining food at 
their various bivouacs, were obliged through semi-starvation to 
take a short cut to the Sound through the territory of the dreaded 
and hated Indians. 

Traveling as rapidly as possible, one day they came upon a 
little open spot by the bank of a stream where were two Indian 
houses. The few footprints in the snow were of women’s feet, 
and curiosity tempted the boldest to peep into one of the houses. 
The inhabitants were dead or dying of starvation. The men were 
seeking the deer faraway. The women had denied themselves 
to save little bits for a child some two years old, whose thin cheeks 
were rosy compared with the wasted ones of his dying relatives. 
Death was surely coming to them, and after that what but death 
remained for the boy? They begged the shrinking Eskimo to 
take him and keep him, that his life might be saved. But the 
race-hatred was too strong and they had hardly food enough to 
keep their own party alive. One by one refused. ce 

At last the girl who had lost her lover, who was an orphan (as 


ae Se eaion against them, 


1878. | Soctal Life among our Aborigines. 5 


she thought) through Indian sorcery, took pity on him and said, 
“I have no husband to work for, I will take the boy; he shall be 
my brother, and when I am old I shall not be left alone.” 
= Sothe Eskimo left the house of death and took the boy. From 
that time to the time I met her, her hands had been busy for him. 
He was then a lad of fifteen, bright, active and promising, and 
knew only the Eskimo life and tongue. His deerskin dresses 
were as handsome as any in the village and his foster-sister’s ac- 
tivity provided for all his needs. Good was returned for (sup- 
posed) evil by the poor, ignorant Eskimo girl. She became in- 
different to matrimony, since she had an object upon which to 
expend her love, and it is to be hoped that when age enfeebles her 
step and bows her athletic form, her adopted child will not forget 
his obligations. The essential features of this girl’s career, at 
least so far as her love affairs are concerned, are they not dupli- 
cated in a dozen novels? 
Another phase of life, which one might expect almost anywhere 
rather than among the Eskimo, I had occasion to observe there. 
A young woman, really quite fine-looking, and of remarkably 
good physique and mental capacity, was observed to hold herself 
aloof from the young men of the tribe in an unusual manner. In- 


reasons for the eccentricity : : 
strong as any of the young men; no one of them had ever been 
able to conquer her in wrestling or other athletic exercises, though : 
it had more than once been tried, sometimes by surprise and with = 
odds against her. She could shoot and hunt deer as well as any 
of them, and make and set snares and nets. She had her own 
gun, bought from the proceeds of her trapping. She did not de- : 
sire to do the work of a wife, she preferred the work which cus- 
_ tom among the Eskimo allots to men*. She despised marriage; 
held she had the right to bestow favors where, when and to whom 
_ She pleased, as fancy prompted, or not at all. oe 
_ When winter came, having made a convert in a smaller and os 
less athletic damsel, the two set to work with walrus-tusk picks ae 
and dug the excavation in which they erected their own house, _ 
= which was of the usual type of Eskimo houses, walled and roofed _ 


* It must be borne in mind that both sexes work hard, and labor is by custom 
equitably divided; the more severe work all falling to the men. The women of the i 
~ family have often more influence in affairs of trade thas 1 the males, and there is no 


6 Social Life among our Aborigines. [ January, 


with driftwood covered with turf. It was, however, as additional . 
defence against unwished-for prowling males, divided into two 
rooms with a very small and narrow door between them, next 
which lay some handy billets of wood to crack the sconce of a 
possible intruder. Here our two Amazons lived, traded and car- 
ried on their affairs in defiance of communal bonds and public 
sentiment. 

The latter seemed to be composed half of disapprobation and 
half of envious admiration; while all the young fellows in the 
village busied themselves in concocting plans against the enter- 
prising pair. These were too fully on the alert to be surprised, 
and all efforts against their peace were fruitless. They did not 
issue a “ Weekly,” dabble in stock or propose to run for office, 
but in other respects their conduct formed a tolerably close par- 
allel with some that has been observed nearer home. 

When the deer-hunting season came, the ladies were off to the 
mountains, and no sooner had they departed than disappointed 
lovers and an “outraged public sentiment” combined in a mob 
which reduced their winter quarters to a shapeless ruin. So far 
as my information goes, the following year they returned to the 
ordinary ways of the world, and gave up the unequal contest 
- against a tyrannical public opinion, so far as their life of isolation 
was concerned. 

~ I knew of several instances in which attractive young women, 
“crossed in love,” led for at least two years (the period during 
-= which I was cognizant of their behavior) a life of celibacy which 
seemed likely to be indefinitely prolonged. These instances 
= seem opposed to the mechanical theory of life among savage 
tribes which has of late been strongly advocated. It is true these 
Eskimo were more intelligent and less depraved than some other 
races of the same stock and than many tribes of exotic habitat. 
Still even among the lowest peoples it seems probable that indi- 
vidual energy, taste and opinion are by no means geen 
factors, and may have far greater influence on the common wea 
‘than is often taken for granted. 
A mother’s love for her children is characteristic even of ani- 


mals, though with the latter it appears to cease with the maturity 
i of the offspring. Among these Eskimo, however, in times of © 
scarcity, if a child be born for whom food can hardly be provided, 


it is exposed to die of cold with its mouth stuffed with a bunch 
of grass to prevent it from crying. This is done as a matter of 


ca 


men will not cut wood with an axe for the same aoe 
_ Mother or wife will bewail the deceased for a number of d 


_ Of deaths will alarm a whole settlement and sometimes cause the | 
~ abandonment of a village-site until not a resident remains. 2 


1878. | Social Life among our Aborigines. 7 


duty, is considered perfectly justifiable, in fact as the only course 
consistent with common sense. The child must not cry or its 
voice will be heard about the house afterward. One of these 
children picked up and adopted by some one who can care for 
it, owes lifelong service to the foster parent. It has no property 
of its own except certain especial articles; it must work for its 
foster parent and bring to him any wage received for labor. It 
cannot marry without his consent, and for its life long, in one 
sense, is a bondsman. 

Yet the children reared by their mother are treated with 
devoted tenderness and care. They are never punished. They 
receive the last food when others are starving. Their dress glis- 


tens with beads and fringes, while the parents can barely cover 


themselves from the cold. The boy is eager to become proficient 
in manly exercises. He must keep aloof from the girls until he 
has killeda deer. All play together until ten or twelve years old ; 
then boys and maidens separate in their sports, except in the 
village dance house, and even there seldom take part until mature. 
The bond of relationship, to fourth cousins, was always 
respected on the east shore of Norton Sound. It is not univer- 
Sally the case, however, as in the Kaviiak country, I was told, 
much laxity occurs. Except for this, until married, the commu- — 
nal bond, as in most American races, governs the intercourse of — 
the young people. 
Sickness is universally regarded as the result of sorcery exer- _ n 
cised by enemies, either of their own race or Indians. This is 
the belief even when the real occasion of the sickness is clearly 
evident as it would seem to the civilized mind. When it is the 
result of particular circumstances, those circumstances were 
brought about by sorcery. A death in a house necessitates its a 
destruction. Hence the dying, or those supposed to be, are 
‘usually taken into the open air unless they own the house and 
are its governing occupants. Death is often unnecessarily caused © 
by this exposure. The prospect of a death will often make the s 
chief person of a household flinty-hearted toward his house- 
fellow, even if a relative or dear friend. An unusual succession 


After a death the women do no sewing for four days, ane 


8 Social Life among our Aborigines. [ January, 


repeat the wailing afterwards at intervals, sometimes for several 
years. It seems to be in compliance with custom and independent 
of grief, which is often sincere and deep. 

The wooden vessel used for a certain purpose, and of which 
every Eskimo owns one, is invariably placed over his remains and 
usually broken. Other property is left about him, differing in 
amount according to the panic, if any, caused by sickness at the 
time; to his whole stock of worldly goods or to the grief of the 
mourners. The personal property of a wife goes back to her 
relations if they claim it, or is given away to the community. 
The house-fellows or the community, rather than the relatives, 
are the inheritors of property; which is more likely in the latter 
‘case to go to brothers than to children or wife of the deceased. 
These house-fellows being the persons who joined forces to build, 
and who jointly occupy and own the house, form a hittle society 
subsidiary to the village commune. These subordinate groups 
have in domestic affairs considerable importance. The most . 

important, oldest or wealthiest individual takes precedence of the 

others, and has always assigned to him the corner of the sleeping 

platform or space at the right hand of and next to the door. He 

~- settles disputes, directs the course of domestic affairs of the com- 

= mon household, meets strangers, assigns them their place on the 

sleeping platform and offers them refreshment by the hand of his 

= wife. There is a certain allegiance due him by all inmates who 
also have certain duties toward each other. 

This imperfect attempt at conveying some idea of the social 
thought and feeling of a barbarous people, may be followed here- 
after by additional matter of a similar nature, but for the present 

I will close by sketching the daily round of an Eskimo house- 
wife in early winter. Rising in the early hours when first a faint 
glimmer through the parchment cover of the smoke hole indi- 
cates the peep of dawn, her first care is to remove the necessary 

wooden vessels before alluded to, to the antechamber of the house 

where their contents are preserved for tanning and other useful 
purposes. This done she removes the cover of the smoke hole 
and searches the hearth, where carefully covered embers should 

= still be glowing, and if they are not extinguished, carefully gathers 
them together, places some light dry sticks upon them and going _ 

outside arouses the sleepers by pitching down a quantity of fuel — 

_ through the aperture in the roof. Before coming in she arranges | 
‘some bits of wood or boards so as to aid the draught through the 


1878. ] Social Life amoug. the Aborigines. 9 


= smoke hole, and brings from some adjacent running spring a 
l _ kettle of water for drinking and cooking purposes. Returning, 
-the beds and mats are rolled up against the wall and the inmates 
perform their very simple toilets which consist chiefly in putting 
on their clothing, all of which except a pair of deerskin socks is 
usually removed at night. A few touches to their hair, a dry wash 
with a bit of cotton rubbed over the face, or at most with a little 
fine snow in lieu of water; after which bunches of dry grass are 
arranged in their boots to fit the foot, the boots are put on and 
tied, and they are ready for the day’s work. 

Meanwhile the housewife has prepared the materials for a meal 
of boiled deer, or seal flesh or of boiled fish with oil. The morn- 
ing meal, always hurried, is seldom delayed to roast meat or fish 
on sticks, as at the evening meal. The house-fellows make short 
work of their breakfast and immediately disperse to visit their 
_ traps or pursue the avocations of the day. The remnants of the 
= meal fall to the share of the dogs, the wooden dishes are usually 
hastily cleaned, and the mistress of the house sits at her daily 
work. This at this season usually consists in preparing deer 
skins for boots or clothing, or cutting and sewing the skins into 
garments. From time to time during the day a morsel of deer 
fat, a bit of dry salmon or some other fragment of food is inci- 
-dentally discussed, but without any regularity. Since most of the 
women are similarly engaged in the morning there are usually few 

visitors until the middle of the day is passed, unless some girl 
_ bringing her work with her, comes in to sew in company with 
others, if her own house be empty of female associates. Chit- 
chat, scandal and very small small-talk make up the bulk of the 
= conversation, broken only by directions in regard to work from 
the more experienced work-woman to the younger ones. As the 
_ day draws into afternoon some stranger from another village may 
_ present himself, when with few words he is directed to a sitting. 
~ place, one of the women removes his wet boots and places them, 
__and the straw pads they contain, in the smoke to dry, and some- 
thing in the way of refreshment is at once offered to him. 

_ Silence reigns for a time when slowly, bit by bit, and at long 
intervals, the stranger tells the story of his journey, the latest 
~ news in his own village, and any messages he may bring to the 
household. 

© As night comes on, the sewing is laid aside, the smouldering 
r isb built ay to throw out a pes blaze, and one of the 


Ho : The Sewellel or Show’ tl. [ January, 


household goes up on the roof to look for the returning hunters 
or trappers with their spoils. Fur animals are the property of the 
trapper, but he can only claim exclusive right to the skin, sinew, 
fat, tongue, head and belly pieces of a deer. The remainder is 
distributed to any who may need it, or reserved as the common 
property of the house-fellows, if there are no other applicants. 
The wife receives her husband in silence, removes his belts and 
gun case, puts his boots to dry, offers him a bit, of meat and fish, 
and when he has taken his accustomed place, calls his attention 
to the stranger while she prepares the evening meal. This is the 
event of the day. The oil lamp is trimmed and lighted; con- 
versation becomes general ; all eat together, served by the mistress 
of the house, and when the repast is over, tales have been told, 
and the fire burns low, the larger embers are tossed out of the 
smoke hole, the coals carefully covered, the parchment replaced 
to keep in the warm air, beds are unrolled, clothing doffed, and 
the inmates lay themselves head to the fire; the light is put out, 
and in a short time the silence is only broken by an occasional 
nasal indication that the hunter is enjoying his well earned rest. 


—: 0m 
THE SEWELLEL OR SHOW’TL. 


BY S. K.: LUM. 


N the deep evergreen forests of fir, clothing the western slope of 
the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon and Washington Territory, 
is found a singular animal, Haplodon rufus, the natural his- 
tory of which is but little known to scientists. 
It is called by various names in the different localities it inhab- 
its; considering it as new, each settler has named it after some 
- better known animal he fancied it resembled. In Southern Oregon, 
it is found in moist situations on the tops of the Siskiyou and 
Rogue’s River Mountains, and is there called “ mountain beaver.” 
On the head-waters of the many streams flowing westward to the 
Willamette River, it may be seen in great numbers, and is there 
called “ mountain boomer,” “ ground hog,” “ gopher,” “ badger,” 
&c. North of the Columbia River it inhabits nearly all the streams 
rising in the Cascade Mountains and flowing westward to tide 
-_ water,also, on the Cowlitz and other tributaries of the Columbia, and 
in the vicinity of Shoalwater Bay. There it often goes by the Indian 
name of Shote or Show’tl. Its special habitat is the broken hilly 


Se eae Cie a ee eset ee SP N 
; etar hae > A ae mR Ne Rees a eee oe A 
ea a i aE ei a ao a ane a aa a a aa n me n ii t a aa a a a aa i a E e S 


1878. ] The Sewellel or Show tl. II 


country forming an elevated bench some two thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, and lying along the western base of the Cas- 
cade Mountains. It is semi-aquatic in its nature, and its haunts 
will always be found where veins of water beneath the surface of 
the ground are abundant. It usually selects the open glades of 
the forest, thickly grown up with fern and sallal (Gaultheria 
shalon). It is emphatically a burrowing animal, and here the 
ground will be seen perforated with holes. Generally a little 
hillock of excavated reddish clay marks their entrance, but, some- 
times, only a hole large enough to admit the animal passes di- 
rectly downwards, the earth seemingly having been removed.* 
Beneath the ground, the various openings connect, and form a 
perfect “plexus” of passages, often nearly parallel with the sur- 
face, and only a foot or so in depth. Horses and cattle frequently 


fall into these places, to their great annoyance, and the farmer in 
plowing such lands for the first time, finds much difficulty in get- 
ting his team to work. These underground passages, no doubt, 
extend to great distances, in proof of which, water has been seen 
_. falling into a hole in one place, and coming out at another a fourth 
or half a mile distant. ; 

In many instances I found water coursing its way through these 
passages which had been worn by the water large enough to take 
in the body of a cow. Then, again, pools of water appeared ~ 
beneath the surface of the ground, where the show’tls, young and 
old, took pleasure in sporting and performing their ablutions, 
_ The show’tl’s food is the various vegetation of the locality, includ- 
ing shrubs, herbs, roots, etc. These it gathers in a hurried man- 


-~ ner above ground, and drags them to the mouth of its burrow. — 


_ It has been observed to ascend a bush two or three feet, cut off a 
limb quickly, and retreat with it to its hole. Often, a mass of — 


ee dried sticks and rubbish may be seen about the entrance to the 


* Perhaps such holes are made by the animal burrowing to the surface from below. 


. 


42 The Sewellel or Show tl. | January, 


hole, being the refuse of the gathering. I have known it to take 
possession of a field seeded down to red clover, forming numerous 
burrows, and seeming delighted to feed upon this herbage. Its 
strong and sharp teeth seem eminently adapted to cutting off 
sticks, as in the beaver, although I have observed none more 
than one-fourth to one-half an inch in diameter, cut off by 
them. Ferns, sallal and hazel form a large part of its food, which 
it masticates very fine, as ay be seen by inspecting the contents 
of its stomach. 
In general form and color, the show’tl has much the appearance 
of a huge meadow mole, thirteen to fourteen inches in length 
from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, of a reddish color, 
and weighing three to three and a-half pounds. The males are 
larger than the females. The tail is short and almost hidden by 
the long hairs surrounding it. The eyes are small, and apparently 
but little use is made of them while passing through the bur- 
rows. Their whiskers are long and strong, extending laterally 
beyond their bodies. They have also bristles springing from 
their fore legs outwardly; these answer in a great measure the 
use of eyes by touching the walls of their burrows and thus direct- 
ing their course in the dark. 
Its fur is similar to that of the musk-rat, and but for the tail 
might easily be taken for the skins of that animal. It has no 
scent or musk that I can appreciate. I consider the flesh good _ 
eating, although it is not generally so esteemed by the people. 
The Indians eat them, and formerly made great use of them as 
food. Since the disappearance of the Indians from large sections 
of the country I think the show’tl is increasing in numbers. Itis 
nocturnal in its habits, doing most of its excavating, feeding and 
moving about during the night. It is occasionally, however, seen 
above ground in the day time; when so seen it is extremely shy 
and wary, and will never be caught far fromitshole. They move 
about considerably during the day time, as is evinced by being 
frequently caught in steel traps. They are pugnacious fellows, : 
and will seize the nose of a dog, inflicting a severe bite. Enemies 
a they have, no doubt, as minks have been caught in their burrows ‘ 
on the uplands, and wildcats, fishers, and other rapacious animals 
abound in their neighborhood. i 

I have found them associated with the digger squirrel (Sper- 
~ mophilus beecheyi), with which they seemed to be on friendly terms To 
indeed, the appearance and plan of the burrows of these two ani- i 


1878. | The Microscope in the Examination of Rocks. 13 


mals are very much alike, being frequently started under an old 
log and continuing under the same for its entire length. 

They do not hibernate, but keep their burrows open all winter; 
beaten trails in the snow are often seen, leading above ground for 
a few feet, from one hole to another. They are able to gather 
their food at any time of the year, seldom going more than a few 
feet from the entrance of their holes to procure it. . 

I have never heard them make any kind of noise by day or 
night, save a kind of growl when caught in a trap. They are 
easily caught in steel traps, to the contrary of what many with 
whom I have conversed assert. I have caught numbers of them 
without even covering the traps. The No. o “Newhouse” trap 
is the one I have used. They are quite strong, and generally 
break their legs ; and, if long in the trap, will be found dead. 

A friend of mine had one domesticated for several months. It — 
readily ate apples and other fruit, vegetables, etc., and seemed to 
bear confinement very well. It took great pleasure in paddling 
in a dish of water; slept most of the time during the day, but 
awakened to activity as night came on. Another man caught one. 
while young, and let it run about the house. As it grew larger 
it dug a hole in the ground near the well, where it lived con- 
tentedly for a long time, when a strange dog killed it. 

My knowledge respecting the breeding of the show’tl is limited 
and uncertain. People living in the vicinity of these animals tell 
me that the young show’tls just weaned make their appearance 
during the month of June, in numbers from three to five ata 
birth. The females have six teats. From my present knowl- 


edge of them I suspect they breed but once a year, like the beaver.* 


See 


THE MICROSCOPE AS A MEANS OF EXAMINATION 
OF ROCKS AND FOSSILS. 
BY DR. R. FRITZ-GAERTNER. 
=e E examination of rocks in regard to their lithological char- 
acter is accompanied with great difficulties whenever their com- 
posing minerals are so minute and so thoroughly intermingled 
* On the habits of this animal compare also: Coues, Monograph of Rodentia of 


North America, 1877, pp. 590-598; Matteson, Am. Nat. XI, 1877, pp. 434, 435; 
uty, London Field for May 5, 1877.—E. C. 


Fee The Microscope in the Examination of Rocks. {January, i 


with each other that one even by aid of the magnifying glass 
cannot recognize them. 

A compound rock of such minute structure may appear to be 
a homogeneous one, as the individuality of its minerals is lost, in 
comparison with the whole appearance of the rock. The chemi- 
cal analysis of the compound will not furnish an adequate repre- 
sentation of its mineralogical composition, but will only give 
some figures of its elements, after which we classify the rock 
under examination by comparison with a group of rocks, with 
which it has the greatest resemblance in its chemical composition, 
At the same time we have to remember that there are rocks which 
are of the samt chemical composition, and yet their mineralogical 
constituents are different from each other. True, chemical in- 
vestigation has helped us to gain some valuable points according to 
which we may form some idea of the composing minerals, but not 
of their physical qualities, z. e., in which state of molecular arrange- 
ment they may be, and how they adhere to each other: 
Chemical analysis is therefore not a complete survey of the litho- 
logical nature of the rock; the task laid upon chemistry by 
lithology was too heavy, as the former destroys the architecture 
of our mineral aggregate, instead of examining it, We should 
therefore not wonder that this result of chemical investigation 
could not be used as a firm basis for lithology and geology. 

A great number of rocks, mineralogically different from each 
other, were treated and named according to their chemical compo- 
sition as one kind of rock, whilst lithology on the other hand 
unnecessarily enriched its nomenclature by giving to one and the 
same rock (the structure of which presented itself in various 
forms) different names, 

The study of palzontology without the aid of the microscope 
was limited, as it could only treat, in its description, of facts 
visible to the eye. We know by experience that nature by the 


process of petrifaction has not only preserved the macroscopical 


forms and organs of those fossil organisms, but also their micro- 


scopical one. These minute remains whether only organs of a 


macroscopical fossil or an organism by itself, rightly deserve to 
be studied with the same industry and endurance, with which 
their larger fellow organisms are favored ; the more, as we know 
that the microscopic organic. world takes and has taken an 
important position as architects of the sedimentary rock of our 
earth. The researches of the palzontologist enable him to meet 


t 


weg Fo fg RAN ies a aaa. aa aa 


1878. | The Microscope in the Examination of Rocks. 15 


with forms of which it is difficult to decide without the aid of the 
microscope and some preliminary preparation of his material, 
whether they have to be treated by the lithologist or palzontolo- 
gist. A chemical analysis will not disclose their origin, whether 
by mineral accumulation or organic life. Usually they are left 
to the lithologist who, not long ago, claimed all the fossils as 
freaks of nature. A great number of those interesting forms are - 
generalized with oolites, concretions, etc. The unsatisfactory re- 
sults obtained by the limited macroscopical and chemical 
analysis of rocks and fossils, induced Dolomien and Cordier 
in the last century to advocate the use of the microscope as a 
necessary and important instrument for investigations in geo- 
logy. But their efforts failed to secure to the microscope an 
acknowledged position in the laboratories of the lithologist and 
paleontologist. This failure has to be principally attributed to 
their defective mode of preparing the rocks for the micro- 
scope. The examination of the rock consisted mainly in view- 
ing its natural fracture or polished surface by aid of reflected 
light, as the opaqueness of the material did not allow the use of a 
transmitted light. This imperfect method could not be of much 
service. 

Another method of preparing rock material for the microscope 
was to crush it to a fine uniform powder, which by decantation 
with water was deposited according to its specific weight. The 
minerals composing a compound rock being of different specific 
weight, they separated in beds or layers, which contained prin- 
cipally one and the same mineral. The minuteness of the powder 
allowed it to be viewed under the microscope with transmitted 


. = light. In most cases the minerals could be recognized either by 


means of the magnifying power or by aid of chemistry, which 
analyzed the separated layers by themselves, but which in reality 
do not always consist of fragments of the same kind of mineral, 
but are also partially mixed up with each other. The chemical 
analysis could not be entirely depended upon, but had to be veri- 
fied by microscopical observation. The greatest drawback to 
this method of rock analysis is the entire loss of structure during 
_ the grinding process. And although Ehrenberg, by this method 
of examining rocks in form of dust, achieved his famous results 
of the micro-fossil organs of the chalk formation, yet the micro- 
‘scope remained for a long time of only limited use. 

The great reorganization of lithology which has recently been. 


— 


16 The Microscope in the Examination of Rocks. (January, 


- accomplished by Sorby, Zirkel and Rosenbush may be attributed 


to the introduction of thin sections of rocks for microscopical 
analysis. These sections are ground thin enough to allow the use 
of transmitted light, and although but a small slice of a rock be 
examined, it reveals their composing minerals and their structure 
and also their accessory aggregates. 

The structure and means of cementing of rocks is clearly repre- 
sented in the various sections made in various directions. 

The base of a rock is by aid of the polariscope readily de- 
cyphered, whether it be crystalline or amorphous. The base of 
porphyry is composed of minute particles of feldspar and 
quartz. Basalt was found to contain sometimes enclosures of a 
glassy character, which in many cases are so large that they 
assume the aspect of a base through which the crystalline part is 
scattered, and rocks which were always considered as amorphous, 
were shown by aid of thin sections to be ina state of crystalline 
formation. 

One of the most interesting features of lithology is the chapter 
treating of the cause and result of metamorphic changes in rock. 
A section of an altered rock presents in itself the whole story of 
a process which for a long series of years must have been work- 
ing to produce a chemical and physical alteration in those solid 
bodies. We learn by the study of the thin section with the 


microscope, which of the composing minerals was at first dis- 


turbed and changed, and how the progress of change in the 
molecules was gradually spread through the whole mass. The 


well-known rock, serpentine, may illustrate this. A section presents 
_ outlines of crystals which are on the borders serpentine, but which 


in their centre enclose a clear and unaltered nucleus of chrysolite, 
the remainder of the chrysolite crystal, the form of which is pre- 
served in serpentine. Further, basalt carries chrysolite as one of 
its most common accessory minerals. Nearly all these chryso- 
lites are in a state of metamorphism, their outlines showing 
bands of serpentine, similar in structure to the serpentine occur- 
ring in large masses and the origin of which has been found to 
be ina compound rock changing by ‘the chemical and physical 
alteration to a homogeneous one. 

_A careful microscopical study of rocks and minerals of a coun- 


try enables us also to trace the original rocks which furnished 


those immense layers of drift clay, which when prepared for the 


Me LI e PEP eT a TERS Ce OT Pee eee e Pon ED eS PRE Ag cs ee T 
Te ee AES MP ay 


1878. } The Microscope in the Examination of Rocks. 17 


microscope appears as a mass of debris of rocks altered by me- 
chanical means and pseudomorphical actions. 

The study of thin sections of rocks has also widened our 
knowledge of the more frequent occurrence of certain minerals 
as micro-mineralogical accessories, as magnetite, menaccanite, 
apatite, hornblende, tourmaline, nepheline, nosean, microlites, 
and many others. 

It is also due to microscopical researches that crystallography 
and mineralogy have been abundantly enriched in facts which may 
be of the greatest importance for their development as sciences. 
What we formerly thought to be a single crystal has shown itself 
as a number of crystals in position of twin formation. A great 
number of crystals, f y quartz, have been found to be porous, 
the pores filled with liquid, most likely water and carbonic acid, 
and these pores are the most frequent if quartz occurs in granite 
or syenite. 

Orthoclase presents under the polariscope two systems of bands 
crossing each other at right angles. Labradorite is filled with 
menaccanite and magnetite; and mica and magnetite generally 
pierced with apatites when occurring in granites, or in diorites. 

It is not the intention of the writer to describe all those results 
of micro-lithological researches which within a few years have re- 
organized lithology and richly contributed to geology, mineralogy 
and crystallography. The remarkable work of Prof. Zirkel, forming 
the sixth volume of the Report of the United States Geological 
Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, under the direction of Prof. 
Clarence King, Geologist-in-charge, will demonstrate at once the 
importance of thin section in lithological researches. 

Paleontology likewise has derived a great many new facts, as 
will be seen in a forthcoming volume of the “ Palzontology of the 
State of New York,” by Prof. James Hall. A great number of 
sections of corals and sponges and other fossils have been prepared 
and illustrated. The result derived from its perusal will show 
that palzontology also has progressed as much as lithology by 
the adoption of thin sections and the microscope as a means for | 


the study of fossils. 


O VOL. XIL.—=nNo. 1, 


aoe 


18 The Springs of Southern Nevada. . {January, 
THE SPRINGS OF SOUTHERN: NEVADA. 
BY D. A. LYEE, U.S. A. 


T is the intention of the writer to merely jot down a few per- 

sonal recollections of some of the springs visited in the arid 
region of Southern Nevada, while a member of one of the 
Wheeler expeditions. 

To those who have experienced the pangs of thirst, while 
journeying over the desolate wastes that characterize this section, 
it will not be surprising that reminiscences of water should linger 
longest in the memory of the traveler. In fact the procurement 
of that necessity is a matter of such vital importance that all 
movements are subordinated and controlled by the answer to 


os ee Met Had Spring. 
the question, “ Is there any water there?” Should the reply be 
in the negative, some other route must be followed, or else a sup- 
ply of water must be carried along. The springs in this portion 


of the Great Basin are few, and often far between. Their waters 


differ much in quantity, temperature and chemical composition. 
In quantity, the yield varies from a few gallons per day to a never 
failing supply. As to temperature, the heat of the waters range 
through cold, cool, tepid and warm to boiling. As regards 


chemical composition, some are fresh, others alkaline, and still 


others, sulphurous. In the waters of some springs, a mere trace 


_ of saline ingredients are found, while in other cases the salts are 
present in sufficient quantity to produce saturation. 


The first that will be mentioned are Mud Springs (Fig. 1), also 


a ee ee E 


EEP Ae 


eA a ew ara PS 


1878. | The Springs of Southern Nevada. 19 


known as Desert Wells, from the fact that parties passing that way, 
have dug pits from four to eight feet deep when there, in search of 
more water. These springs, when visited by the writer, were 
mere pools of muddy slime, with a slight film of stagnant water 
overlying the viscous blue marsh. So nauseous were these waters 
that neither men nor animals could drink them. Enough water, 
however, was obtained by digging new pits or “wells” near by, 
to partially alleviate the sufferings of man and beast, which were 
somewhat intense after marching over thirty miles through the 
heated sands of the Smoky Valley Desert upon a July day. 

These springs—if springs they may be called—were situated 
at the southern extremity of Smoky Valley surrounded by a 
dreary waste of sand and “alkali flats,” with here and -there a 
stunted sage bush. 


Day break the following morning found the party en route to 
Silver Peak, the next objective point. Silver Peak, a small 
mining camp, is located near the west side of Clayton Valley, 
and at the eastern base of the Red Mountain range. Near 
this place and along the western border of the salt marsh 
which forms the major part of the basin are the Thermal 
Springs. The more important ones are eleven in number. 
With one exception they are contained in a narrow belt, running 
almost north and south. This belt is about a half mile in length, 
its width being but a few rods. Beginning at the southern limit 
of this line, the first spring we encounter is in a small depression 


in the general surface. (Fig. 2.) Its waters are slightly saline, 
_ but quite palatable, and are the best for use in the vicinity. The 


20 The Springs of Southern Nevada. [ January, 


temperature of the water is 69° Fahr. Just north of this is found 
a cluster of springs; the largest and most central one is called 
Saturn. (Fig. 3.) Their temperatures are 69.5° Fahr. These 
springs are in close proximity to each other, and flow out upon a 
level area some twenty acres in extent, covered with a rank 
growth of coarse salt grass, from whence the water flows into the 
salt marsh. 

Proceeding northward, we next meet with three salt springs 
arranged in the form of an isosceles triangle, differing widely in 
temperature and the degree of their saturation. 

These are situated in the edge of the salt marsh, the two form- 
ing the base, being in an east and west line, twenty feet apart. 
The more westerly one has a temperature of 79° Fahr., while 
the other one in its quiescent state has a temperature of 117.8° 
Fahr., and at irregular intervals boils and emits steam. The third, 


FEE 
Fig Dd Saturn Spree: 


. forming the apex of the triangle and lying ninety feet north, has 
a temperature of 116.5° Fahr. 
Still further north are two more salt springs, situated also in 
an east and west line, only four feet apart; the westerly one, as 
before, having the lowest temperature, being 79° Fahr., while the 
other has a temperature of 117° Fahr. Another spring (Fig. 4), 
_ about one fourth of a mile north of the others, was constantly 
_ boiling and emitting steam. A gurgling noise could be heard in 

several places near the main opening, under the tufaceous crust 


of calcareous matter deposited by its waters. In approaching _ 
this spring the greatest caution had to be exercised to avoid 


breaking through the crust of tufa which bridged and in part, 
concealed the seething waters, which could be seen through the 


_ many perforations in this treacherous envelope. Every step in — 


‘ se alee as EEN E 
Socio. AS Oh a a ni ere 


1878. | ` The Springs of Southern Nevada. 21 


advance was carefully tested by striking the tufa with a mining 
hammer, to see if it would bear the weight of a man. Thus, by 
slow degrees one or two members of the party succeeded, with- 
out accident, in reaching the main opening, which was about five 
feet in diameter. Regard for personal safety, however, soon 
overcame scientific curiosity, and the retreat was accomplished by 
separate routes in the same cautious manner, to avoid getting too 
much weight upon any one place. The waters were found to be 
impregnated with soda, lime and borax. 

In the immediate vicinity of the hot springs were found numer- 
ous concretions, either on the surface or slightly imbedded. 
These had generally a prolate spheroidal form, although many 
eccentric shapes were seen. About half a mile out in the salt 
marsh was a remarkable spring (Fig. 5), nearly twenty feet in 

` diameter. The water rose to the height of several inches above 


Fig 4 Boiling Spring: 


the general surface, and was retained by a ring of earth elevated a 
foot above the terrain and thickly set with //es, a kind of rush, 
whose verdancy contrasted strangely with the sombre gray 
around, and gave to it the appearance of a miniature oasis. 
The water was quite clear and nearly fresh ; this latter property 
was probably only apparent from the contrast, after imbibing 
the more brackish water of the other springs ; its interior cylin- 
drical walls extended to a depth of about five feet, below and 
under which, as far as could be reached by a pole, nothing like 
earth could be felt. There appeared to be a subterranean lake be- 
neath the salt-marsh, of which this spring was the only visible 
portion. As to its depth we had no means of determining it; the 
temperature was 69° Fahr. The circumjacent earth was a mere su- 
_ *perficial crust, five or six inches thick, which was springy beneath 
-our tread, and breaking through which one sank into the viscous _ 


| January, 


. trembled, thus in- 


The Springs of Southern Nevada. 


7 
3 
$ 
j 
4 
: 
2 
: 
å 
i 
: 
‘ 


be Bee SS Uh ee Ss et ee kK 2 a a noa oS 
dee oeCS RoC eel Cet oRseeaee sks aa es 
WEEP eye ee Cet k ae ek Soe eee eS 
v Lae a7) 3 5 g g% v ': 
eee tee Sue Seek espe eB onL 
ra a on = = ; To kS) c= vuu OO ge) © O H 
See Da ee P ra] O = Ai 4+ 0) 
pe, w 2n a 382 82a GeO wae O 38 Bet YW to Ss 
me 2 ee ee on aa sé gaaG9 5 2 MPN Oo HY 
e838 69 4 2 Sah i ee oie @ n mueg Ble Fes 
Bis se BY e Pog nA vn ae Oe Se vo 
SSSees Vel sees Sas eaPeseesesary 


Here, in the short interval of less 


Its appearance was hailed with joy by 


At last water had been found that would slake 


In walking over this area the ground constantly jarred and 


mud. 


$ 
a8 
a4 
SA a 3 
` * A N g 2 
h S ——— LD “ee y é VN he Q n a 5 
_ F paS 
= ee G v & 2 
p=] e 
p S, ES 
3 poe ee 
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tes = ae 
© 2 3 
Fa 5 a3- 
“a ced 
ast -m € ete 


Traveling westward from Silver Peak, a distance of eleven and 
three-fourth miles, during which the Red Mountain range is 


them leaves the walls and bottoms covered with beautiful crys- 
crossed, Mountain Spring is reached. This spring bubbles up at 
the foot of Red Mountain peak. The water is clear, cold and not 


1878. | The Springs of Southern Nevada. 23 
than ten miles, the physical characteristics of the water supply 
had radically changed. 

On the east side of the Red Mountain range the springs were 
thermal, brackish, and often nauseating, while on the western 
slope they were pure, cold and refreshing. 

A few miles west of Red Mountain Spring, in a dry ravine, 


Binoy anuepy ‘9 


through which the traveler passes to reach Fish Lake Valley, is 


found. Mamie Spring. (Fig.6.) The water is excellent and plentiful, 
Its situation is rather unique. In the bottom of a dry wash lies 


24 The Springs of Southern Nevada. [ January, 


a very large boulder of conglomerate, or more strictly of breccia, 
. transported from 
some distance, from 
the under side of 
which the water of 
the spring gushes 
into a little pool or 
basin it has made 
for itself. From this 
basin the water, 
overflowing, trav- 
erses fora few yards 
the gravelly bed of 
the wash, when it 
sinks and is seen no 
more. The huge 
boulder that shad- 
ows this little basin 
with its overhang- 
ing edge is mainly 
‘sale composed of a very 
S| 

Hh hard arenaceous 
matrix, in which 
are seen imbedded 
many rounded peb- 
bles of various 
sizes, and also large 
angular fragments 
of rock. The most 
remarkable t hing 


2 Pl Dis SE 
—— = 


A (2 
Sa 


vè 
TAN S i 
NE 


tg. €. , Meund “Springs. 


i was the fact that it 
had only been running about two years, having suddenly sprung 
into existence, the miners said, since they had been in the vicinity. 

Upon the eastern edge of the Amargoza Desert is quite a large 
area called Ash Meadows; so named from a small species of ash 
tree growing there. The meadows are covered with good grass 
and are well watered by numerous warm springs. 

-The principal spring was about thirty feet in diameter and situ- 
ated at the foot of a small butte. The water issued from the 


~ bottom, through a tufaceous mass of rock. 


about this spring - 


; 


i but is soon lost in the 


1878. | The Springs of Southern Nevada. . 25 


It was about four or five feet deep and was cooler than the other 
springs. The stream of water that flowed out was five inches. 
deep and two feet wide, 
and clear as crystal. The 
sides and bottom of this - 
spring were covered with 
a white, chalky-looking 
deposit, that gave a 
milky tinge to the water 
when stirred up. A few 
small fish were seen in 
this spring. Many of 
the springs in this vicin- 
ity contained quicksand. 

South-east of Ama- 
goza is Pah-rimp Desert. 
About the middle of the 
upper end of this dreary 
waste of sand and sage 
bushes are several little 
oases bountifully wa- 
tered with exhaustless 
springs, some of which 
are very large, and the 
confluence of their wa- 
ters forms quite a large 
creek that flows off to- 
wards the south-west, 


Pintle sedaj seg g A 


sand. Splendid grass abounds along the banks of this water 
- course. Immediately around the springs a band of southern Pah- 
Ute Indians is located, and by irrigation succeeds in raising a 
quantity of corn, squashes and watermelons. Willow trees and 
wild grapes are indigenous, the latter growing in the greatest 
abundance. 

Mound Springs. (Fig. 7.) By this appellation it is proposed 
to designate those springs situated upon small mounds rising 
above the general surface of the country surrounding them. 
-~ The most prominent mound noticed by the writer was upon the © 
= Vegas plains in Southern Nevada; its base was circular and _ 


26 The Springs of Southern Nevada. [January, 


about twenty-five feet in diameter, it was fifteen feet in height and 
was covered with “¢u/es” and coarse grass. Several small sul- 
phur springs oozed from its nearly flat top, and provided moist- 
ure for the tangled vegetation. 

It appeared as if built up by the partial decay of organic matter 
and the depositions of these numerous springlets. The soil was 
tremulous and yielding to the tread, and resembled in that par- 
ticular the sphagnous bogs of Alaska. The fumes of sulphuret- 
ted hydrogen were strongly apparent even at some distance from 
the mound. 

A short distance beyond the mound above-mentioned, occurred 
the Las Vegas Springs (Figs. 8, 9), the largest of which was ap- 


CHa 
J. 


parently about three feet deep, with white quicksand constantly 
“boiling up” from the bottom. Quite a large creek issued 
from it and ran in a south-easterly direction for a mile or more. 
This spring had been regarded by the Indians and squatters as 
a rather supernatural one, and among other improbable legends was 
said to be bottomless. This myth, at least, was exploded when a 


& -= sixty pound weight tied to a cord was used to sound its depth. 


_ This weight sank eighteen feet and three inches through the ever 3 


1878.] The Night Herons, and their Exodus. 27 


varying quicksands, and then came to rest. Further on ran the 
other springs which also poured their waters in the creek flowing 
from the first one. On the left bank of this creek stood an old 
adobe enclosure, rectangular in shape, built by the Mormons some 
years before. . 

Two or three large sotana trees shaded the creek near the 
quadrangle. Here the bed of the stream was broken into a series 
of little rapids or falls, none exceeding four feet in height, arer 
by rocks of calcareous tufa. 

At the foot of these miniature waterfalls was a quiet pool, 
about five feet deep and ten feet in diameter, used in former 
times by the Mormons as a baptismal font. The land along 
the banks of the creek had been cultivated, and at this time 
were seen the remains of irrigating ditches, which attest the in- 
dustry and enterprise of this strange, and to our minds, deluded 
people. These fields are now overgrown with mesquite and this- 
tles, the latter attract numberless goldfinches, humming birds and 
humble bees. 

In the springs above enumerated, the reader has a sketch of 
a few of those in Southern Nevada. The springs of this inhos- 
pitable region are so few, that at one time or another, each one 
becomes, as it were, the polar star of the desert traveler, towards 
which he turns his face with inflexible determination. 


0; 


THE NIGHT HERONS, AND THEIR EXODUS. 
BY REV. SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, PH.D. 


MONG our showy birds, although far from graceful in many of 

its movements, is the night heron (Vyctiardea gardeni Baird). 

If fine feathers make a fine bird, then assuredly our Wyctiardea de- 
serves consideration. The bird when adult is fully two feet long. 
It has a deep guttural cry, consisting of one syllable, slowly | 
repeated. This circumstance afforded the old name given it by 
Nuttall, Ardea discors, as also its popular names of qua-bird, or 
quawk. It is also known as the black-crowned night heron, 
the crown of the head, and considerable of the back being a very 
_ dark green, almost approaching black. In the nuptial months, the 
bird flourishes from the hinder part of the head, flowing backwards, 
_ like so many natural “accidentals,” three very delicate white 


28 The Night Herons, and thew Exodus. [ January, 


plumes, nearly ten inches long. If I might change the simile, 
these pretty white filaments are suggestive of the white streamers 
pendant from the chignon of some fantastic bride. And the two 
sets of adornments are afflicted with a similar perverseness; for 
the bridal toggery of the one will insist on getting twisted, and 
Nyctiardea’s nuptial head-gear also will snarl into one. But in 
this instance the thing after all is quite natural and becoming. 
Each of these white, almost thread-like filaments, is nearly cylin- 
drical, owing to an incurving of the edge of the feather; hence 
the three do have a habit of slipping into one another, and mak- 
ing, as it were, a pretty imbricated cord or cue of ivory white- 
ness. The general coloring of this showy bird is such as neither 
pen nor pencil can quite portray. Says Coues, who is a fine bird 
painter, when verbal pigments are concerned: “General plumage 
bluish-gray, more or less tinged with lilac; forehead, throat-line, 
and most under parts whitish.’ The bill is black, and the feet 
are yellow. You will find nothing verdant in the eyes of the 
night heron, although the space between them is of a greenish 
blue. As to the optics themselves, they are red. Does some one 
insinuate “that is the way with night birds?” Let such an one 
consider that generally the owls have bright yellow eyes. 

It was three years ago, just as June, the busy bird month was 
opening, when, accompanied by two of our students, I set out for 
a visit to a famous heronry, some three miles in a south-west 
direction from New Brunswick, N. J. The neighborhood is called 
Three Mile Run, because of a tiny stream about that distance from 
the city. We went first to the farm house near by, where a col- 
loquy something like the following occured: 

Self. “Do you know when the herons began to settle over 
there?” 

Hostess. “ Well, sir, you see it is so long ago since the herons 
- came, that it really is not possible to say when they did settle, 

but they’ve been there 35 years to my certain knowledge.” 

_ Host. “Oh, wife, more than that: I remember them over 40 
yea: and there was father, who had known them long afore that. 
Pll be bound that heronry is 50 years old if a day. And since 
Tve snosi them they’ve come and gone every year, never missing 
once, 

Self. “Is that all the woods there were?” 

_ Host. “Bless you, sir, no. Once that was as pretty a piece of 
_oak woods as one need put eyes on. It covered many acres, and 


1878. ] The Night Herons, and their Exodus. 29 


we called it the Swamp. Just that grove where the herons are is 
all that is left of it. We never attacked the birds, so I suppose 
they got to understand us, and to know that they were welcome. 
The felling the timber and tilling the land has pretty much done 
away with the swamps. You see, there’s only about two acres in 
that grove. But the herons were a good deal more numerous 
when the woods were bigger.” 

Hostess. “Yes, I remember when it was a’most deafening to 
hear them.” 

Host. “When we see them coming back in the spring, we know 
that corn-planting is nigh; and when they leave in the fall, it is 
usually time to husk.” 

With the two young men I now started for the heronry, but five 
minutes’ walk distant. It was evidently once a swamp. The grove 
was a remnant of a large wood of red oak, Quercus rubra, and, 
as already stated, did not cover quite two acres of land. With 
an exclusiveness not unlike that of some wasted Indian tribe, these 
red oaks kept out every other kind of tree. They even pressed 
upon one another so closely, that the lower branches after a pre- 
carious growth, inevitably died and fell. Atrophy of the lower 
limbs was the invariable habit. Thus the trees with a small 
girth pushed up towards the sky, each one a slim mast about fifty 
feet in height, with a small dome of shining green leaves at top, 
the base of each little dome crowding upon its fellows. It looked 
to me like a garden supported on piles; but as the wind sprung 
up there was such a wave-like movement overhead, that I wished 
for a balloon view, when I fancied I should see an emerald ocean 
floating in the air. 

But if in mid-air was a scene of beauty, one of quite another 
character was soon to greet our eyes. Everywhere in the grove 
the ground seemed as if plashed with drippings of whitewash. 
And the leaves and twigs of the scanty underbrush were stained 
with these unsightly blotches of white. This was the effect of 
the droppings of the birds, both the old and the young. It indi- 
cated a large consumption of food; and if fish makes good brain 
food, perhaps this may have some bearing on the commendable 
circumspection of these occupants of the top flat in this estab- 
lishment. I was led to look for some peculiar effect on the plant 
life of a soil so dressed annually for a half century. But I failed 


BS to detect anything noteworthy. 


> we entered the wood there arose a grand commotion. An 


30 The Night Herons, and their Exodus. [ January, 


old bird, perhaps the patriarch of the tribe, sprang into the air 
. with a startling qua! which, after a pause as if to gather assurance, 
was repeated—Qua! qua! qua! Up flew another, and another; 
then many, all joining in the one wild out cry of qua! qua! qua! as 
they circled in air, loath to let their nests be out of sight. It was 
a wild chorus of alarm, utterly unmethodical, but perfectly up- 
roarious, while over the edges of the rude nests of sticks peeped 
hundreds of little callow heads in mute astonishment, as if to see 
what could be below to incite so great a tumult above. Almost 
in the heart of that small grove I countéd fifty herons’ nests. 
These nests were high up in the leafy domes already spoken of. 
In some instances I noted three, and even four nests in one tree. 
Some writers I find saying that in the breeding season, the qua- 
bird is less suspicious. Assuredly it seemed to me that these 
herons could not be more circumspect. To come upon them by 
surprise was just impossible. From a distance no one can see 
them in their leafy outlooks, but they can see you; and should 
one approach too closely, the nearest male bird will give the 
alarm. 

I noticed that the females whose incubation was not completed 
did not leave their nests. I have no doubt that they were waiting 
further signals from above. 

Query: What notice of change in the situation can a bird give 
whose whole vocabulary is contained in the one monosyllable, 
_ qua? But do not philologists tell us that in some of the dialects 
of “The Flowery Land,” that even a monosyllabic word may 
have eight significations if spoken in so many different tones? 
Thus if a barbarian outsider might be allowed to improvise a bit 
of barbarous Chinese, one might say shod, to mean lovely, or all 
right; and shoo, to signify awake, or all Aside 3 And pray why 
not as much in the bird lingo? 

Here let me mention an incident. Not knowing that one of 
the party was behind us making a feint of climbing a tree with a 
nest in it, there was observed an increase of commotion in the 
= air. To a question what are the quas doing, the answer returned 
= was: “They are taking a bird’s eye view of the situation.” > I 
_ requested the aspiring youth whose conduct had intensified the 

_ Stir above, to climb the tree and get a young one from the nest, 
that we might see it. Now began that change in the bird talk. 


_ It was qua! still, but in a different tone, and one which was under- 


4 stood by the sitting birds, for they spring from their nests and - 


1878.] The Night Herons, and their Exodus. 3E 


joined their companions inthe air. As the youth neared the nest 
the wild monotonous cry became painful.to me, and I was anxious 
to shorten the suspense of the poor birds. Clinging to the tree 
with both legs and one arm, with the free hand he took a young 
bird out of the nest, and held it at arm’s length from the tree, 
that I might see the callow thing, which was about as big as a 
fat squab. I saw it—yes, and I saw more than I looked 
for. The downy little beast vomited upon me the topmost layer 
of his night’s feeding. And even my philosophy sold me, for 
concluding that the mischief was done, I stood my ground, but 
- the mischief was only begun; for after an extraordinary pause, 
layer number two, in a more advanced stage of digestion descended, 
which in a hurried manner I declined to receive. After another 
pause, the third and last installment followed. We now called to: 
the young man to put the unmannerly little thing back in the 
nest. - It had thrown up the remains of six fishes. 

The above incident was called “a sell,” and subjected the writer 
to some chaffing at a later date. Said a wag, as if in quest of 
knowledge—“ Why does a young qua-bird vomit his dinner upon 
being disturbed” ? To this the answer was: “I do not get it from 
observation, but have it from tradition, that some of the herons 
when pursued by the raptors, keep up a series of diversions by 
vomiting the contents of their stomachs in installments, much as 
the Russian dispenses the contents of his sleigh when pursued by 
wolves.” Now what the young heron did, was done from mere 
instinct—not offensively, subjectively considered, although object- 
ively it was offensive enough—but as a protection by way of 
diversion. That is, the young bird acted wholly from an auto- 
matic impulse of instinct. And what is instinct but inherited 
experience after being crystallized into habit? In a word, the 
frightened young quawk, simply did in a blind way what its ances- 
tors had done with better methods. If there had been enough 
_ intelligence in that instinctive act to indicate purpose, then the 
intention would have been as against the youth who held it as a 
captive, and not at all as against the spectator of the act. 

Although they indulge in varied food, yet these night herons 
are nocturnal fishers, and their fishing must be limited to the 


2s margins of streams, and in waters decidedly shallow. They sally — 


a out at twilight, though sometimes if the day is cloudy and dull, 
they will not wait till then. As they pass near, and sometimes : 
over the farm houses, on their way for food, they indulge in their ae 


32 The Night Herons, and their Exodus. [ January, 4 


peculiar cry, the effect of which on the stillness of the night, is 
somewhat weird; still it is neither so ghostly nor so ludicrous as 
that of the classic bird of night. And very industrious must these 
night fishers be, for with a voracious appetite of their own, anda 
good deal of really hard work to be sustained, their young also 
consume an enormous quantity of food. 

In connection with the fishing of the night heron, I founda very 


curious item of belief among these persons whose acquaintance | 


with the habits of the birds of this heronry reached so far back 
It was this: that the quawk when fishing in the night stood in 
the shallow water watching for its prey, and was aided in the mat- 


ter by a soft light which emanated from its legs and feet. We : 
had heard of luminous understandings, but they belonged to the — 


higher vertebrates. I was assured that this phenomenon had 


been witnessed, the observers being out coon hunting on a moon- q 
light night, and I was asked if these birds had not the capacity of 4 
emitting light from some phosphoric source in the legs, in some — 
analogous manner to the phosphoric emission of the fire flies, of 


lightning beetles. Having in a modest way expressed my doubt 
as to the phosphoric hypothesis, I ventured to suggest that the 
yellow legs of the bird when withdrawn wet from the water might 


have shone, reflecting the moonlight. But the phosphoric hypoth- — 
esis held its ground, being regarded, and perhaps rightly, as the — 


= more erudite of the two. 


My pupil, who climbed the tree to show me the young bird, a _ 
little later in that same season, secured one of the fledglings, which — 
he successfully tamed. It became an interesting pet, though — 
hardly of the amiable sort. It had the run of the premises, espè | 
cially of the barn yard; and was blessed with the appetite of a | 
= glutton. To this insatiable craving, fowl, flesh and fish were alike | 
acceptable. Though descended of kindred who had always win- — 
tered in the warm southern climes, the bird stood the winter, 4 — 
- severe one, admirably. In this way it met with experiences which — 


were not at all inherited, and decidedly novel. 


It hugely relished soft fresh meat when cut into convenient 
Tae The same meat hung in the barn would get frozen. 
In this condition it had to be cut up with a hatchet. A bit of — 
_ frozen fat. thrown to the bird evoked conduct of a humorous © 
-~ character. Suspecting nothing, the bird went for the coveted — 
-~ morsel, when, after some queer contortions the half-swallowed A 
: a, would = > suddenly eructed with the amainten demon- 


T 
E EL aA, 


fol gota nite apis Pann eld Nia 


Ns Ha ela ini ie ad aai ela dibs 


1878.] The Night Herons, and their Exodus, 33 


strations of astonishment and distress, much as a child who on 
an extremely cold day in winter, dancing with pain, complains that 
the door-knob has burnt his fingers. But though embarrassed by 
the situation, the young qua would repeat his efforts to get the 
frozen meat well down, until success resulted, when he would 
come for more; so that in this conflict of bird thinking, the judg- 
ment that the meat was good prevailed. In fact, this bird’s expe- 
rience with frozen meat was not unlike daft Jerry’s first acquaint- 
ance with ice cream: “This pudding zs good; but such a pity it 
got froze!” 

A very impudent, bossy bird, did the young qua grow up. 
Through the winter months the arena of his daily exercises was 
the barn-yard, which also was the scene of occasional night 
activities quite annoying to the more orderly disposed denizens 
of the place. His movements, even when “ feeling good,” were 
always awkward, and in no sense graceful; while from the depth 
of his inner consciousness was evolved a conduct so absolutely 
graceless as to almost indicaté a deep-seated depravity. He 
would pursue the domestic animals, harrying the poultry and 
the old dog, presenting his formidable bill to those who owed 
him nothing, not even their good will. He knew his young 
master well, and paid him a sort of deference which he did to no 
one else. But though there was a kind of attachment, affection 
there was none. In fact his master was simply his feeder, to whom 
he was drawn by a very active appetite; this craving for food satis- 
fied, even his keeper was but little more to him than other folks. 

At length the cold season was over, and my young friend was 
glad to know that he had wintered his charge safely. He had 


_ begun to speculate how much longer he would have to keep the 


young qua bird ere it would attain to the plumage of its parents. 


Die spring is well advanced, and the pet is about ten months old. 
_ See it is looking skyward and southward. Nay, it seems listen- 


ing. Sure enough, the cry of qua! is heard in the air. The 
herons are coming. That cry is from the avant courier of the 


returning community. As the young bird looks up it is evidently 
undergoing a change in its feelings. There is another cry as if 
_ from the second outrider of the approaching host. The pet heron 
seems well nigh beside itself. It has never seen the “sunny 
_ clime,” but it has caught that mysterious passion, the semi-annual 
_ frenzy of these birds. Its bird nature seems suddenly developed 


—and the bird soul is now above pellets of frozen mutton, and: 


VOL, X11.—No. 1. 3 


34 The Night Herons, and thew Exodus. [ January, : 


the communion of fowls and dogs. Now the qua cries are thick- 
ening in the air, and the herons are coming fast. All this is too 
much for the young bird, so he is on the wing too to join his 
tribe. Albeit kindnesses received, he has cut himself from the 
white man and his ways. One would like to know how, with 
his superior education, this young person conducted himself; also 
how those illiterates, the old quas, received him. Well, this 
much must be said, as affairs will prove in a few days—the 
youngster has rejoined his tribe on the eve of an event the most 
remarkable in its history, one which might afford scope for the 
best exercise of bird wisdom, whether inherited or acquired. 

On my table, at this writing, lies a pretty egg, which seems 
to give inspiration for my task. It is really beautiful for its 
symmetry, also its one attractive color, with neither spot nor 
stain. The larger diameter is fifty-two m.m., or two and one- 
sixteenth inches; the lesser diameter is forty m.m., or one and 
nine-sixteenths inches. Of the color I should have said above, it 
is a lustreless, waxy pea-green; though some call it a sea-green. 
And what an interesting object it is to me! and how sad is this 
interest! At the beginning of June in our Centennial year, 1876, 


my pupil who acted as guide to the heronry, brought me this F 


egg, and with it the startling intelligence that the herons had 
gone! The community returned at the usual time, and had 
begun nesting. It happened that trade being dull in New Bruns- 


wick, many operatives were out of employment, and of these, not _ 
a few spent their time in a wanton destruction of the birds. Some — 
went to the heronry, although strictly private property, and neat — 
the homestead of its owner, and in despite of his earnest remon- — 


strances, a few shots were fired in the heronry. I am told that not — 
more than two herons were killed. Had this happened away 
from their nesting place that would have been of less moment. 
But here in their cherished home, it was too much for these birds, 


so timid, and so circumspect. But have birds feelings? Whe 
can doubt \it? Doth not God care for birds? Verily, “you! | 


Heavenly Father feedeth them.” What a resolution was that 
taken by these birds, every one of them. And how grandly — 
prompt the performance. Fitting hour it was too for so sad anact 


_—they left their home in the night—thus disrupting the bliss of 


the nuptial month by accepting a homeless uncertainty. That 
entire colony abandoned the spot where they and their ancestors - 


eee 
Ime 


-~ had dwelt for fifty summers. In p premanie maturity one mother: 4 


5 


1878.] Variations in the Nests of the same Species of Birds. 35 


bird at least had been compelled to lay her eggs, and then must 
leave them behind. And this pretty treasure on my table is one 
of them. Interesting, was it said? Nay, is it not historic, a me- 
mento of this remarkable exodus of the night herons from their 
almost romantic heronry at Three-mile Run, New Jersey. Do 
you ask, “ Did they hold together as in a well-ordered retreat ? 
And did they establish a heronry elsewhere? Or did the dis- 
pirited community dissolve itself into the isolation of single pairs? 
And finally, where did they go?” Well, just these are the ques- 
tions which we are aching to find out. Meanwhile, let this much 
go on the record, of the time, circumstance, and spirit of the exodus 
of this ancient colony of birds. 


20: 


VARIATIONS IN THE NESTS OF THE SAME SPECIES 
OF BIRDS. 


BY DR. T. M. BREWER. 


N the present brief paper I propose to deal more with facts than 
with theories. I leave to others to make such deductions there- 
from as may suggest themselves. When one cannot, to his own 
satisfaction, point out the reasons that can fully account for indis- 
putable facts, it seems to be the safer course to be content with 
only taking cognizance of natural phenomena, just as they im- 


press our senses. The legitimate scope of the naturalist is first 


correctly to describe isolated facts as they present themselves. To 
seek to investigate the laws that unite these, though always 


tempting, is not always safe. The homely advice: “ Never to 


prophesy unless you know,” is applicable to the case. There is 
no worse bondage to the student of nature than to be a slave to 
theory. The danger of a “little learning ” is of its leading to un- 
warrantable deductions, and then the temptation to color facts to 
suit preconceived opinions may become one of the besetting 
weaknesses of our human nature, against which it behooves nat- 


_uralists especially to struggle manfully. 


From time immemorial the theory has been prevalent, and 
generally accepted, that the constructions of all animals, man 


= excepted, are the inevitable results of a faculty called instinct. 
_ On the other hand it is claimed that all the constructions made by _ 
man are due to another faculty known as reason. To this I am 


36 Variations in the Nests of the same Species of Birds. | January, 


not prepared to assent without many qualifications. Thus broadly 
stated it is entirely inconsistent with innumerable facts. The 
architectural achievements of very many kinds of birds, their vari- 
ations and their deviations, their skill, their wonderful adaptations 
to varying circumstances, all point to intellectual action much 
higher than a mere blind instinct. The wretched holes, the 
degraded lives, on the other hand, of the Papuans and the 
Australians are surely not evidences of reason, properly so called. 
Their homes are infinitely below those of nearly all the feathered 
tribes, and show no advance. A few years ago it was discovered 
by accident that within fifty years there has been a wonderful 
change in the manner in which the common house martin of 
Europe builds its nest. Formerly their nests were globular in 
shape, with a small rounded opening, hardly large enough to 
admit the parent birds comfortably. Such are all the old nests in 
museums, such the descriptions of all writers, half a century ago. 
These nests were inconvenient, only one bird could come at a time 
to the opening to be fed. Long before the young could leave 
their nest, they must have been uncomfortably crowded in their 
ill-ventilated and close quarters. Some time within the half 
century this entire species has made a great advance and wonder- 
ful changes in the whole style of their nest. Instead of a sphere, 
the nest is simply hollow, semi-oval, roomy, airy and comfortable, 
stronger in its attachments, with increased facilities for access, bet- 
ter protected, both from the rain and from enemies. Unfortunately 
no one observed just when this remarkable change in their archi- 


tecture took place. We know not if it was gradual or sudden, of 3 


how long it was in becoming general. But surely no one can 
pretend that all this was the result of mere instinct! Wallace 
maintains that no bird can succeed in constructing a nest in the 


same manner as its congeners, if it has not first learned their | 
method, either from its own parents or from others of its kind. 
_ From this it would appear that birds brought up in confinement, from _ 
their nests, cannot construct nests like those of their fellows who — 
cy have always been at liberty. Without attempting to decide how 
_ far Wallace’s theory may be well founded, I can give two instances 


that have fallen under my own observation, that have an indirect 


-bearing on the general need of instruction in other things than — 
making a nest. A young cedar bird fell from its nest and was 5° 
severely injured that it never obtained the use of one wing. It 7 
-was fed from the hand and remained wholly dependent on the care — 


pT Se EE ek Ta ie eens Nee eee ae ten ae ee a a 


Rg gee Ee ee ee es i E A WOEL ee: 


Re ny eS ee hae EEIE AAEM Tete Tete MRT SEES TR mylar goer arr ne Te nae A EN aE Ee oR hee PLITA CRT SRE MC Piper ea Le ee cal a ee 


1878.] Variations in the Nests of the same Species of Birds. 37 


of its benefactor. It never would attempt to feed itself even with 
food all about it, and when it was transferred to other hands died 
of starvation in the midst of abundance. Nearly the same 
occurred with a. young mocking bird, who always insisted upon 
having its food held to its mouth. The latter died young, but 
the cedar bird reached maturity, and was two years old without 
learning to feed itself. 

It is contended by some naturalists that the nests of young 
birds are invariably poorly made and not well situated. This, 
however, is a belief that it would not be very easy to verify. That 
birds of the same species do not always build their nests alike, 
that under varying circumstances they will vary their style in a 


very remarkable manner, is a matter of not unfrequent observa- 


tion. Thus the cliff swallow, in wild tracts of country, and in its 
original haunts, constructs, with much labor, a long nest, shaped 
like an inverted retort, with the entrance from below. On Green 
Island, one of the Grand Menan group, I saw a large colony avail- 
ing themselves of two boards put up for their convenience, and 
about half a foot apart, under the eaves of a barn, and all building 
open cup-shaped nests as unlike their typical nests as can be con- 
ceived, 

In the last number of the Nuttall Bulletin, Mr. Brewster con- 
tributes a very interesting paper on the nesting of the yellow- 
throated warbler, Dendreca dominica. The nest found by Mr. 
Brewster was on a stout horizontal branch of a southern pine, set 
flatly on the limb. It was a well made—an unusually well made 


nest, the framework being a few twigs and strips of bark into which 


d been worked a beautiful soft felting of moss and silky down 
of plants, all neatly and firmly compacted. I have seen the nest 
and am inclined to the opinion that it is probably the typical style 
of this bird, whenever it builds in a region where the abundance 
of the Spanish moss does not tempt it to make use of that growth, 
and there to build a totally different nest, with no other frame- 


___ work than the long fibres of the moss afford. In the appendix of 
_ the Ornithology of North America, I refer to several nests of this 


bird built in this latter manner, taken by Mr. Norwood C. Giles, 


ot Wilmington, N.C. Several of these nests were obtained and 
_ well identified, and sent with their parents to the Smithsonian. 


Unaware of this positive identification, Mr. Brewster very naturally 


infers that Mr. Giles must have been mistaken. But this was not 
so. His identification was complete, and only adds another re- 


38 Variations in the Nests of the same Species of Birds. (January, 


markable instance of variation in the mode of nest building by the 
same species. The history of several of our North American 
birds also affords abundant evidence that it is by no means safe 
to assume that the same species may not exhibit a “ great differ- 
ence in the position and structure of the nest,” - under varying cir- 
cumstances. 

The recent observations of Dr. James C. Merrill (MSS.) 
shows that the /cterus cucullatus displays quite as striking vari- 
ations as this warbler. Some of its nests, like those of the lat- 
ter, are buried in tangled and elaborately interwoven masses of 
the Spanish moss, and have no apparent resemblance to others - 
built in the more normal pensile style of its congeners, such as 
the orchard oriole and others. So, too, with the nests of the 
Empidonax acadicus. ‘he first identified nest of this species I ever 
saw was a flat platform, so common in Contopus borealis; and this 
is its usual style about Philadelphia. The second was a deep 
cup-like nest, surrounded and surmounted by a curious chevaux- 
de-frise, somewhat in the style of the magpie and the mocking- 
bird. This style is common in Indiana. And now within a few 
months, I have received two other nests equally well identified, 
one of them with the eggs, the nests being pensile and not unlike 
those of the orioles. Such facts as these warn us that we need not 
and should not, on too slight grounds, discredit either the care- 
fulness or the truthfulness of our fellow-workers in observing the 
hidden and often varying facts of natural history, even when their 
observations do not accord with our own. The account of the 
nesting of the D. dominica given by Mr. Nuttall has always seemed 
in the last degree improbable, and to be in conflict with that of 
Mr. Audubon, and their discrepancy has long been a stumbling- 
block to students until more light began to be thrown upon its 
history. Mr. Giles’ revelations gave us some clue to what seemed 
the fabulous narrative of Mr. Nuttall. For when we remember 
how closely ee stand the trees in a cypress swamp, how the _ 
long “ropes” of 7i//andsia do swing from tree to tree, we can now 
understand how Mr. Nuttall, having never seen it himself, may 
have imperfectly understood the information he received from 
another in his account of its swinging nest. And now Mr. Brew- | 
ster confirms substantially Mr. Audubon’s discredited account of 
his experiences. After all, these pioneers in American ornithol- 
-~ ogy may not have been so absurdly inconsistent, or so entirely at 
_ fault as we, in our own ignorance, have taken for granted. - 


» 


1878.] Variations in the Nests of the same Species of Birds. 39 


I might go on and prolong this article by other accounts of con- 
spicuous variations made by the same species in its nest-building, 
citing the lammergeyer that builds indifferently a huge nest on a 
tall tree, or lays its eggs on the bare ground or some tall cliff, 
without any nest at all, but I have given enough to show how 
marked these variations often are. To speculate on the whys and 
the wherefores would be a very tempting theme were it not that 
we are so often at fault in attempting.to explain them. But I do 
not believe it is logical to call the intellectual promptings that 
inspire these variations mere instinct, though we may not be able 
„tò read clearly the hidden motives. If experience taught the 
European martin that its old-fashioned nest, which perchance it 
had built since the flood, was inconvenient, ill-ventilated and 
unsafe, and they were prompted by the example of some wiser 
intellect among themselves to improve upon the hovels of their 
fathers, so that all at once the whole race made a long stride in 
improvement, can we call this instinct ? Grant that the changes have 
been slow—extending over fifty years—so gradual that no one 
has noticed the change while it was going on, we cannot deny 
the advance, and advance is inconsistent with our ideas of instinct 
which is unchangeable and incapable of education. It is a clear 
case of reason and instruction, yielding marked fruits, and is ona 
higher plane. That birds like the Dendræca dominica and the 
Icterus cucullatus build a typical nest, like their congeners, where 
nothing tempts them to do differently, but where the long branches 
of Tillandsia offer a safe shelter and the absence of labor, shows 
something higher than instinct, there must be a rational intellect 
that prompts them to avail themselves of the opportunity. 

If we cannot understand what it can be that stimulates an 
Empidonax in Staten Island to build a pensile nest, while its fel- 


low in Indiana builds one like a deep cup and surrounded with 


thorns, and another group in Pennsylvania put theirs on an 


_ exposed tree-top, and so flat that the eggs seem liable tọ roll out, 


we must see that some cause, hidden to us, is gradually effectin 


_ changes that sooner or later may become universal in the species, 
_ though which it is to be we may not be able to imagine. 


Our eastern song-sparrow’s natural instinct prompts it to build 
on the ground. A series of disasters to its eggs or brood impress 
it with the need of a safer place. It draws nearer the: friendly | 


= shelter of a dwelling, and there, no longer on the ground, but up 
_ in some thick bush or vine, it makes its nest. For want of the 


40 Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. [January, 


tufts of grass or weeds that furnished it with a roof, it changes its 
whole shape and builds a bulky, nearly spherical, domed nest. 
Some of its offspring adopt the new style of their parents, but 
others fall back upon their original style. The latter may be con- 
sidered the promptings of a natural innate instinct, but the domed 
nests, the changes initiated by the parents and imitated by the 
more enterprising of their offspring are due to a higher intellect- 
ual power that rejects the blind suggestions of their original 
instinct, and teaches them to follow the paths of experience to 
safety. This is no imaginary case, but rests on facts within my 
own observation. . 


5. 
THE RELATION OF ANIMAL MOTION TO ANIMAL 
EVOLUTION. 

BY E. D. COPE.* 


HE origin of variation in animal structure is, par excellence, 
the object of the doctrine of evolution to explain. There can 


be little doubt that the law of natural selection includes the — 


cause of the preservation of certain modifications of preéxistent 
structure, in preference to others, after they have been brought 
into existence. In what manner or by what process the growing 
tissues of young animals have been so affected as to produce 
some organ or part of an organ which the parent did or does not 
possess, must be explained by a different set of laws. These 


have been termed originative, while those involved in natural | 


selection are restrictive only. 


7 


Of course we naturally look to something in the “surrounding _ : 


circumstances” in which a plant or animal is placed, or its 
“environment,” as the most probable stimulant of change of 
its character, because we know that such beings are totally 
dependent on cosmic and terrestrial forces for their sustenance 
and preservation. The difficulty has been to connect these forces 
with change of structure as originative ; to show their operation 
as multiplying, restricting or destroying organisms already in 


existence is comparatively easy. This difficulty is partially due- $ 


*Abstract of a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of — 


EE at ee August, es 


ae 
te i aa a es Ga el 


Se et See 


1878.] Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. 41 


to the fact that such modifications must be realized during a lim- 
ited portion of the life of an animal at least; that is, during the 
period of growth, when it is not at all or but little subject to the 
influence of external environment, but is usually protected or 
supported by the parent. 

That the environment and changes in it affect the movements 
of plants and animals is clear enough. The potency of such 
changes may be read in the physical history of the earth. A long 
series of modifications preceded the advent of life upon it, and 
change, both gradual and sudden, has been exhibited in the con- 
. figuration and climate of all portions of the surface of the globe 
since that period. Animals have again and again been called 
upon to face new conditions, and myriads of species have fallen 
victims to the inflexibility of their organization which has pre- 
vented adaptation to new surroundings. But it is evident that if 
change of environment has had any influence in the progress of 
evolution, it has not been alone destructive. It has preceded life 
- as well as death, and has furnished the stimulus to beings capa- 
ble of change, while it has destroyed those which were incapable 
of it. It is a truism that change of physical conditions has pre- 
ceded all great faunal changes, and that the necessity for new 
mechanism on the part of animals has always preceded the 
appearance of new structure in geologic times. 

The embryology and paleontology of vertebrated animals 
show that the primary steps in the progress of this branch of the 
animal kingdom are marked by the successive changes in the 
structure of the circulatory system. First we have the various 
mechanical methods for the aération of blood in a watery medium; 
the result being a fluid whose metamorphosis in nutrition pro- 


as duces no heat. After the fishes followed Batrachia, the earliest air- 


breathers, whose long tarriance to-day in early aquatic stages, is 
an epitome of the necessarily “amphibious” character of air- 
breathing vertebrate life, when land and fresh water, in constantly 
changing areas, were rising and separating from the universal 
ocean. The successive disappearance of the traces of the fish 
type of circulation in Batrachia and reptiles, are familiar facts; and 
the exclusion of the unaérated blood from the systemic circula- 
tion in the birds and mammals marks the increase of general 
temperature which gives those classes one of their ciamis to 
superiority. : 
_ The appearance of land of course furnished the opportunity 


42 Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. [January, 
r 


for aquatic animals to assume a terrestrial life. Marine animals 
which had acquired the habit of gulping air from the surface, 
which some of them now possess, perhaps because its richness in 
oxygen produced an agreeable exaltation or intoxication, would 
not find visits to the land difficult. And this would naturally 
follow the necessity of escape from aquatic enemies, or the 
search for new supplies of food. 

In fine, it requires little argument to show that the environ- 
ment has had in the past as in the present, a primary influence 
over the movements of animals. 


II. 


I will now endeavor to exhibit some reasons for believing that 
the movements of animals affect their structure directly. 

There are two alternative propositions expressive of the rela- 
tions of the structures of animals to their uses. Either the use 
or attempt to use ‘preceded the adaptive structure, or else the 
structure preceded and gave origin to the use. The third alter- 
native, that use and structure came into being independently of 
each other is too improbable for consideration in the present 
article. Many facts render the first of these propositions much 
the more probable of the two. 

A general ground for suspecting that movement affects struc- 
ture is the fact well known to systematic zodlogists, that adaptive _ 

characters are the least reliable in systematic classification, £. €. 
are the most variable. What we call adaptive characters are 
those whose teleological significance we can most easily perceive; 
those whose uses are at the present time most obvious. System- 
atists habitually fall back on characters which are apparently the 
least related to the ordinary necessities of the life of the animal, — 
and this not from any theoretical considerations, but because such 4 
characters are found to be the most constant; this is a very sig- i 
nificant fact, showing as it does that it is the adaptive structures 
-= which are undergoing modification to-day. And this truth can 
doubtless be discerned in all past ages, for many of the structures 
which are not now more related to the needs of an animal than 
many others might be, were at one time most essential to its well- l 
being, or necessarily related to its environment. Such are the — 
structural characters of the heart and arteries already enumerated. 
There seems to be no reason why all Vertebrata might not exist 
with equal comfort and success at the present if possessed of 4 


$ 
E 
a 
= 
ap 
A 


1878.| Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. 43 


uniform organization in this respect. But the successive modifi- 
cations which they present were, in past ages, most intimately 
connected with the progressive changes of the medium in which 
they lived, as to the volume of oxygen supplied for respiration, 
as compared with that of the vapor of water, carbonic acid gas, 
etc. But it must be here noted, in passing, that there are many 
structures in animals which have never been adaptive, but which 
are simply due to excess or defect of nutrition following a redis- 
tribution of force. 

The most direct evidence in support of the view that motion 
affects structure directly, is to be found in the well-known phe- 
nomenon of the increase of the size and power of all organs by 
use. This increase is limited in the adult animal by the general 
fixity of all the organs, so that one of them cannot be developed 
beyond a certain point without injury to others, or without 
exhausting the source of supply of nutritive material or special 


force derived from other organs. The syncope of the gymnast 


is an illustration of the natural limitation to the development of 
the muscular system which proceeds at the expense of the diges- 
tive and circulatory. But effort and exertion may become a habit 
of mind, which even if limited in its executive means, is probably 
inherited by offspring like all other mental traits. Such a quality 
possessed by an infant or child doubtless tells on the growth of 
its organs during their plastic stage, and produces structure by 
growth which is impossible to the mature body.? And no one 
knows as yet how far mental bias, may affect the nutrition of 
the parts of the infant in utero. Certain it is, that if use modifies 
nutrition in the adult, it must have still greater influence in the 
young; and it is in the young that the changes which constitute 


_ evolution necessarily appear. 
Change of structure during growth is accomplished either 


addition of parts (“acceleration”) or by subtraction of parts 
(“ retardation ”). 

Acceleration is produced either by multiplication of parts (as 
cells or segments) already present (“ homotopy ”), or by the 
transfer of parts (cells) from one part of the organism to the 
other (‘‘heterotopy”’). Homotopy or repetition is the usual and 
normal mode of acceleration ; it may proceed by an “‘exact repeti- 
tion” of the parts already existing as in the simplest animals and 


1 Method of Creation, 1871, p 


~ #,In man these changes are chet produced in the brain. 


~~ 


44 Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. (January, 


plants; or the new parts may differ from the old, as in higher 
animals, where the process is called “ modified repetition.” Where 


new forms traverse in their growth all the stages in which they | 


previously existed, they necessarily present at each stage the char- 
acters of those forms which have remained stationary in them, and 
have not changed. This relation of “exact parallelism” is the 
result of the simplest form of evolution or “palingenesis.” When 
the history of growth of an advanced form does not show an 
identity between its stages and the various undeveloped or lower 
adult types, the relation is termed “ inexact parallelism,” and the 
type of development “ccenogenesis.” 

Change of structure is seen to take place in accordance with 
the mechanical effect of three forms of motion, viz: by friction, 
pressure and strain. Under the first two, epidermal tissues be- 
come both dense and thick, as is seen on the’ palms and soles of 
the hands and feet and in corns. There is no doubt that strength 
of the teeth is intimately connected with the hardness of the 
food. Density of osseous tissue and the coossification of parts 
of the skeleton, are directly associated with the force and dura- 
tion of muscular contraction. Pathology abounds in illustrations 
of the determination of nutrition to new localities to meet the 


exigencies and demands arising from new stimuli. It is only 


necessary for a structure-producing supply of nutritive material 
to be habitually determined to a new locality by oft recurring 
stimulus, for the movement to become automatic and reflex ; and 
such a tendency would sooner or later be inherited, and produce 
structure in the growing organism of the young to a degree far 


exceeding anything that is possible in the adult. : 
In view of the above considerations, we can ascribe an exten- 


sive class of osseous projections at points of muscular insertion, 


to the strength and duration of muscular contractions. To the — 


_ Same cause may be ascribed various anchyloses, such for instance, 


= asis seen in the foot of the sloth. Transverse strains or theif 


absence may be looked upon respectively as the cause of the hinge- ` 


like or immoveable articulations of the segments of the limbs of — 
vertebrate animals. It is well known that in land animals, where 


easy flexibility of the limbs is essential to speed, that these articu- 
lations are highly developed, while in marine animals where the 


_ limbs are only used as paddles, they are almost or quite inflexible, a | 
and the extremities of the bones are truncate. Inthe most highly 7 
_ organized land mammalia, the tibio-tarsal, and humero-cubital — 


1878.| Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. 45 


articulations display an interlocking or tongue and groove char- 
acter. The same thing is seen in the ulno-radial fixed articula- 
tion in the same types. These arrangements are especially ad- 
apted to prevent dislocation by side strains, andif the preceding 
explanations be true, this structure is a corrugation due to the 
lateral pressure of a more or less convex surface, on a concave 
one which embraces it, and vice versa. : 

In the circulatory system pressure has doubtless played an im- 
portant part. Increased oxygenation of blood, the necessary con- 
sequence of the purification of the atmosphere, would stimulate 
the action of all the organs, including that of the heart. Greater 
pressure on its walls and septa would increase their size and 
strength, and ultimately close such foramina, as were not in the 
course of the blood current; as the foramen septi ventriculorum of 
_ reptiles and the f ovale. Increased force ofthe current would, on 
= the other hand, soon cause the enlargement of one or other of the 
four or five pairs of primary aorta bows, and develop it at the 
expense of the others, until finally the pre-eminence of one chan- 
nel be secured and the aorta be the result. This part of the sub- 
ject might be prolonged to an unlimited extent, but the above 
illustrations must suffice to indicate the meaning of my propo- 
sitions. 


Se se Ge RR ale ee ESEN TWLA Rn A Meee MEERN SAS ee ere ep ag ee ee eee A 


1 Pee E gee ae 


it Sa A ka ah 


III. 

That movements change the environment of a plant or an ani- 
mal, or parts of them, is obvious enough. If we consider only 
the reflex class, to which all the movements of plants and many 
of those of animals belong, we perceive that but for them the or- 
dinary functions of assimilation, circulation, -etc., could not be 
performed; there would be no change inthe contents of their 
tubes and cells, and the environment of these would be unaltered. 

But when we view the movements of the higher animals, we per- 
_ ceive the immense importance of the powers and organs of move- 
ment as a factor in evolution. It may be safely assumed, that 
without powers of designed or adaptive movement, life would 
never have advanced beyond the stage presented by the vegetable 
kingdom. 

The stimuli which are effective in animal consciousness are four, 
viz: excessive temperature, hunger, danger from enemies, and 
_ the reproductive instinct. These prompt to the movements which 
_ we observe in animals in a wild state, and without which it is evi- 
_ dent that the animals themselves would soon cease to exist. 


46 Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. | January, 


It cannot be denied that organisms which are incapable of 
-= moving from place to place in search of food, or of migration to 
escape vicissitudes of temperature, are much more completely 
subject to the influences of their environment, than those that are 
capable of such movement. Hence animals are much more inde- 
pendent of the supply of food and of temperature than are plants. 
Hence also, other things being equal, the greater the powers of 
motion, the greater the independence. 

Powers of. movement then enable animals to avoid extremes of 
climate by migrations or by protective arts. They enable them 
to procure food by making journeys in search of it, and by all 
methods of capturing it. They furnish the agent of active defence 
against enemies, and of successfully reproducing their kind. 

When, through changes of level of the earth’s surface, drought 
has overtaken a region, animals capable of the necessary migra- 
tions have escaped. When an irruption of destructive animal 
enemies has threatened an animal population with death, those 
members of it whose strength or speed ensured them safety, were 
the survivors. When land has been encroached upon by water 
to such a degree as to bring starvation on its animal inhabitants, 
those which could fly or swim have sought new localities. 

Since all food supply, as well as the ability to obtain food, is de- _ 
pendent on temperature, those portions of the organism which 
furnish means of resistence to climatic vicissitudes have the 
deepest significance in the life history of any division of animals. 

The organs of circulation and motion are generally recognized 
as primary in the classification of Vertebrata. All situations where 
animal life is permitted by climate, support vegetable life also; $0 — 
each of the primary divisions of animals presents types adapted to 
the use of all kinds of food ; herbivorous, omnivorous, and carniv- — 
orous. Accordingly it has been found that dental and other — 


structures connected with digestion, define divisions of secondary } 


value and minor extent. Paleontology shows that the origin of 
such divisions is of later date than that of the great classes first | 
mentioned ; and each of the latter has in its day been modified N 
in the Sabordinate directions indicated by the teeth and beak. A : 
But here also organs of movement are of great importance; 5° 
that the herbivorous and carnivorous types at least, have ever in 1 
land animals (reptiles, birds and mammals) been characterized by — 
the structure of their feet also. q 


SPER AE Cee eee Pep Ca eel ee E MEA NN OE pe EA EEREN ay CWI Mee PET Ny mete KEIT EEES ie ae, Sm he Re TE ee eee SM eT Re Th ee AS RUTE 17 ce Te 


1878.] Relation of Animal Motion to Animal Evolution. 47 


LY, 

It has been maintained above, that environment governs the 
movements of animals, and that the movements of animals then 
alter their environment. It has also been maintained that the 
movements of animals have modified their structure so as to 
render them more or less independent of their environment. 
The history of animal life, is in fact that of a succession of con- 
quests over the restraints imposed by physical surroundings. Man 
has attained to a wonderful degree of emancipation from the iron 
bonds that confine the lower organisms. 

It becomes then all important to examine into the elements in- 
volved in animal movements. 

These are of the two classes, reflex and conscious. To the 
former, belongs the accelerated activity of muscular action and 
circulation, inferred to have accompanied increase in the percent- 
age of oxygen in the atmosphere, during the earlier periods of 
geological time. To the consciously performed acts belong all 
those due to states of pain or pleasure in animals; such as are 
excited by the four classes of stimuli already mentioned. 

Doubtless physical changes in the surrounding medium have 
always produced new reflex movements in animals, and have been 
a first element in evolution. Such has been the immediate cause 


= of change of structure in plants, and in animals so far as they are 


unconscious. But consciousness brings with it limitless possibili- 


= ties, since it places an animal in contact with innumerable stimuli, 


which leave unconscious beings unaffected. All the causes which 


provoke the movements of higher animals are appeals to con- 
‘sciousness, and the consequences due to movements of such 
beings have only been possible through consciousness. 


It is evident then that sensibility to impressions has been the 
prime essential to the acquisition of new movements, and hence 


of new structure, other things being equal. Another essential, 
not less important, has been memory ; because without this fac- 


ulty, experience, and hence education and the acquisition of habits. 


_ of movement, are not possible. 


The ascending development of the bodily structure in higher 
animals has thus been, in all probability, a concomitant of the 
evolution of mind, and the progress of the one has been depend- 


= ent in an alternating way on the progress of the other. The de- 
velopment of mind has secured to animals the greatest degree of 
independence of their environment of which they are capable. — 


R 


48 Recent Literature. [January, 


The first important acquisition leading to this end was aérial res- 


piration ; the second, rapid nutrition by hot blood. And as es- — 


sential to the production and preservation of these, improvements 
in organs of movement have been superadded to every successive 
type of life. 

Consciousness remainsas the unresolvable factor in the process ; 
as at once the measure of, and respondent to a large class of phe- 
nomena. 


:0: 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


Coox’s Biotocy.'—It appears that the author of this book, after 
ee his theological studies, exhausted the study of biology 
the course of a summer’s vacation by lying on his back on 

i “ Bioplast Beach,” reading Beale on the Microscope. and some of 
the popular books of Huxley and Haeckel on the Darwinian 
question. This be an excellent way to get up a course of 
sensational ree for an audience of clergymen and others who 
wish to be amused after their Sunday toil, but until we have some 
evidence that the author personally made the acquaintance of the 
weeds, snails, and other creatures living about this romantic Bio- 
plast Beach, and spent a number of years studying their structure, 


development, and classification, we fear that the book must be set — 


down as a burlesque on- biology. The title, even, is misleading. 
The book should more properly be dubbed Romance of Natural 
Theology. No naturalist will want to waste time over it, and the 
lay as well as the clerical reader should look with no little suspi- 


cion upon the distorted science and sensational statements scat- 
tered through its pages. The Preludes are much better to our — 


mind than the Biology. 


VauGHan’s OSTEOLOGY AND MYOLOGY or THE Domestic FowL’ : 
—An account of the skeleton and muscles of the common fowl; _ 
such as this, will prove of much use to one beginning the study — 
of anatomy. This book is well prepared and fully illustrated, and 4 


will be of service in the laboratory. 


Tue GEOLOGICAL RECORD For 1875.*—This volume is of the — 
same nature as the one issued last year, though it is larger, im- 


proved in its plan, and contains an index of new species, whic 
will add to its ihe in the eye of the palzontologist. As the 


1 Biology: with aee on Current Events. By JosepH Cook. Boston: James : 
20; PP» 325- 


a 
R. Osgood & Co. 
2 Notes on the Outlay and Myology of the Domestic Fowl. ( Gallus domesticus): 


AN, Ph. D. Sheehan & Co., Ann Arbor, Mich. 1876. 13m9, — 


pp. 116. 


pepe © ae tee Std for 1875. An acon of Works on Geology, Mineralogy : 
~ and Palæontology, published during the year. Edited by WILLIAM WHITA pa 
Pa London: Taylor and Takak 1877. 8vo, si 443: ; : E 


1878.] Recent Literature. 49 


American literature in the departments of which it treats is given 
in the same careful, detailed way as the European, our mineralo- 
gists, geologists, and paleontologists will find in it the only annual 
digest of discoveries and of new works to be had in the language; 
and it is for their interest, perhaps, to patronize the undertaking of 
the editor. It is partly supported by a grant from the British 
Association, but still needs a larger list of subscribers for its 
maintenance. 


WINCHELL’S RECONCILIATION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION‘ — 


preconceived notions or dogmas. Such a spirit will in the end 
serve only to strengthen the foundations of a pure morality and a 
true religion. 

e essays are by an expert in geology, and a theologian as 
well, and therefore the volume is an authoritative one on this 
absorbing theme. 


Jounson’s CycLopapia.2—The fourth volume of this compact 
and useful cyclopzdia well compares with the three that have 
preceded it, and the work as it now stands, from a scientific point 
of view at least, is quite as fresh and timely as could be desired. 
While the literary and biographical articles are excellent, espe- 
cial stress has, as may be imagined from the names of the editors, 
been given to physical and natural science. Most of the zodlogi- 
cal articles in the present volume have been contributed by Prof. 
Theodore Gill, though a lengthy and well illustrated article on 
sponges is contributed by Prof. Hyatt. Botanical articles by 
Profs. Gray, Goodale and Farlow, geological articles by Prof. 
Newberry, and paleontological articles by Prof. O. C. Marsh, 
attest the freshness and accuracy of the contributions, and the 

dgment shown by the editors in selecting the leading specialists 
of the country as collaborators. 


t Reconciliation of Science and Religion. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.De 
Harper & Brothers. 1877. 12mo, pp. 403. 
on’s New Universal Cyclopedia: a scientific and popular treasury of use- 
I M a gravings. Editors-in-chief, — 
A. P. Barnard and Arnold Guyot. Complete in 4 vols. Vol. IV., 1878. A.J. 
& °? pp. 1760 2 - 


_ VOL. XII.—=NoO. I. 4 


50 Recent Literature. . [January, 4 


RECENT Books AND TUTE, —The Geological Record for 1875. 
count of Works on Geology, Mineralogy, and Paleontology published during the 
year. Edited by William Whitaker. London: Taylor & Francis, 1877, 

PP- 443- 

The different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same Species. By Charles Dar- 
win. With Illustrations. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 12 mo., pp. 352. 

Pollen. By M. Pakenham Edgeworth. Illustrated we Ta figures. London. 
Hardwicke af Bogue, 192 Piccadilly. 1877. 8vo, pp. 9 

Notes on the Structure of Several Forms of Land Planarians, with a Descri paa 
of Two New Genera and Several New Species, and a List of all Species at present 
meike By H. N. Mosely. 8vo, pp. 21. (From Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 
Scie 

Ön Sihi pelagicus, a New Species of Pelagic Planarian, ier hie on other 
Pelagic Species, on the Larval Forms of Thysanzoén, an oso — 
Pteropod. B u N. Mosely. 8vo, pp. 11. (From Quarterly Ta of Miop 
scopical Science. 

Catalogus Plantarum in Nova Cæsarea Repertarum. sei a of Plants grow- 
ing without gages ve in the State 4i = co. etc. By Oliver R. Willis. Re- 
vised and enlargededition. A. S. & Co., New York, Dhicess, rei New 
Orleans. ta 8. 

Practical Directions a piney Preserving, Transporting, Preparing, and 
Mounting Diatoms. By P s A. M. Edw ards, Christopher Johnston, H. L. 
Smith. New York: The Sitti Publication Co. 1877. 12mo, pp. 53. 

The Illinois State Hitoñel ee and Natural History Museum. Circular No. 

i pegan Illinois. 8vo, pp. 

en der grésse eibar Blüthenhüllen und seine Wirkung auf die 
Rianerichtosy der Blumen. Von Dr. Herman Müller. (From Kosmos.) 8vo, 
pp. 14. 


nat or as Deposits in Boone County, een of two Distinct and Widel 

istant Peri y George Sutton. (From the Proceedings of the American As- 
EASA for ‘the Aata of Science, Buffalo Meeting of 1876.) 8vo, pp. 5- 

The Latimer Collection of Seca Sar from Porto Rico in the National Mus 
at Washington, D. C. By Otis T. Mason. (From the Smithsonian Berat for 1876.) 
p eA or r pp. 23. 

Science Lectures at South Kensington. The Steam Engine. By F. J. Bramwell. 
With Tiraitratióis, Lo ndon and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1877. 12mo, pp. 

cents. For sale by S. E. Cassino, Salem, Massachusetts. 

A Review = the Birds of Connecticut, with Remarks on their Habits. By C. 
Hart Merri (From the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy, iv, 1877.) 
8vo, pp. iia 

First Annual Report of Sapporo Agricultural College, 1877. Tokei. 8vo, pP- 
146. 

An Examination of Types of some Recently Described Crustacea. By T. Hale 
Streets, M. D., and J. S. Kingsley. (From the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, vol. 
six, No. 7, 8, 9.) Salem. 1877. 8vo, pp. d 

Notice of a New Genus of Annelids from the Lower Silurian. By George e Bird a 
Grinnell. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts. September, 1877.) a 


On the c ambari of Northern Indiana. By Will F. god onre of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences.) Philadelphia. 1877. 8vo a 
Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. Vol. v. Topeka: 1877. 8v0% a 


Fert orth America. By Daniel C. Eaton. Part 1. 1877. S.E. Cassino, 

Wace ee Salem, Mass. 4°, pp. 12. 3 colored plates. $1.00 ; 

A New Order of ee Reptilia eet hcp from the Jurassic of the Roc cky 

ont nang By Prof. O. C. Marsh. (Appendix to the American Journal of Science 
d Arts. Dec., prt pp. 1.) New Haven. 


» 


ENIR SEE N TLES E TOLPE E i E EE PEE EEE STEE al E ED AUTE a 


1878.] - Botany. 5I 


Descriptive eae of Photographs of North American Indians. By W. H. 
Jackson. Washington, 1877. Miscellaneous Publications, No. 9, of the U. S. Geo- 
ree Survey a the Territories; F. V. Hayden in charge. Washington,D.C. 8°, 
pp. 124. 

Paleontological —_ No. 26. On some New or Little Known Reptiles and 
Fishes of the Cretaceous No. 3, of Kansas. By E. D. Sopa: (Read before the 
American Philosophical Society, August 17, 1877.) 8°, pp. 20 


:0: 
GENERAL NOTES. 

BOTANY. 

Š Nores on THE ALPINE Fora oF Mr. Suasta—While looking 

for’ insects on the crater cone of Mt. Shasta, in Northern Califor- 


-nia, late in August, I hastily picked up examples of all the plants 


I could find at and above timber line, and at the lower edge of the 
limits of perpetual snow, which is said on this peak to be about 
gooo feet above the sea. I was struck, though not a botanist, 
with the radical difference between the alpine (?) flora of Mt. Shasta 
and that of the Rocky Mountains and the White Mountains and the 
Alps of Switzerland. In the case of Mt. Shasta, which forms the 
northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada, the flora seemed much 
less alpine in its nature than was expected, and appeared to have 
been of local derivation from the foothills and plains below. I 
am indebted to Mr. Sereno Watson for naming the phenogams, 
to Prof. W. G. Farlow, for fence bes the lichens, while Mr. 
Booth kindly named the Carex. No distinctive alpine insects oc- 
curred, only a wingless focust, fes was also found lower down 
among the firs. =A S Packard, 

Phænogams — Silene grayi Watton (ized.) (in flower); Sari- 
Jraga tolmiei T. & G. (in flower); Applopappus bloomert Gray (in 


flower) ; Senecio aureus var. borealis (in flower); Penstemon men- 


Cares Booth. 
Lichens da oie chlorophana, Lecanora rubina var. opaca ? 
Lecanora glaucoma? Umbilicaria rugifera Nyl., 


PRODUCTION OF APPLES IN “oFF” YEARS—We have been in- 
ane by Mr. Elbridge Gerry, of Marblehead, Mass., that some 
-five years ago the foreman of the Pickman Farm, in Salem, 


- cant crops of apples in the “off” year, z. e., the year they usually 


. ee 


Eee General Notes. [ January, 


did not bear, by simply picking off the fruit buds in the bearing 
years. His neighbors could never understand how he was en- 
abled to raise a fair crop each year, until finally the secret became 
known. This mode of artificial selection is quite new to us, and 
we would like to know if it has ever been practiced before in 
orchards. 

In connection with this subject I am told by Mr. John Sears, of 
Danvers, Mass., that in old orchards deep ploughing, by which 
the roots are often torn’and broken, carried on in the “ even” 
years, will cause the young apples to fall off, so that they will 
bear the next year. Also picking off the apples on the young 
trees in the “even” years will cause the trees to produce in the 
“off” years. Still, adds Mr. Sears, none of these processes are 
perfectly sure—A. S. Packard, Fr. 


BotanicaL News.—The following articles appear in the Annales 
des Sciences Naturelles, for September 1877. J. Vesque, on the 
absorption of water by roots in its relation to transpiration. Soro- 
kine, On the structure of Crocysporium torulosum (a microscopic 
fungus). J. Wiesner, Researches in regard to the influence of 
light and radiant heat upon transpiration in plants. Deheran, A 
notice of the preceding memoir. Van Tighem, On the digestion 
of albumen. Fischer de Waldheim, On Ustilagineæ and their 
hosts. 


Flora, No. 23, contains the following papers: W. Nylander, 
Remarks concerning gonidia and their different forms; No. 24, 
A. Wigand, On horn-prosenchyma ; No. 25, Hugo de Vries, Con- 
cerning longitudinal epinastic (elongation of the internal surface 
of an organ); F. Arnold, The Musci of the French Jura; No. 26, — 
z H. Christ, Roses observed in 1876, de Thümen, South Afri- 

n Fungi; No. 27, Schulzer, Concerning certain Fungi; No. | 
28, Robert Caspary, Life of Alexander Braun. d 

Botanische Zeitung, No. 39, Dr. O. Drude, Selected examples to | 
explain the formation of fruit in Palmee ‘(continued and illus- | 
trated by plates in No. 40); No. 40, Prof. J. Baranetsky, On dr g 
urnal periodicity in the growth of internodes in length; Oudemans, 
Notices respecting certain Boleti. Many critical notes by the 
editors conclude the number. No. 41, eat and aie q 
On oen granulatum (continued in No. . NO: Dr. 3 

= Karl Goebel, History of the at com of the Prothallium of 
Gymnogramme leptophylla, Desv ‘ 
_ A Botanical Section of the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, — 
consisting of about twenty members living in Salem and adjoining — 
towns, has lately been formed there, bi-monthly meetings having _ 
been held. Dr.G.A. Perkins is Chairman, and Miss L. H. Upton, | 
Secretary. 4 
iG The nature of the Spermatia is discussed by G. Murray, in Tri- _ 
men’s Fournal of Botany, for October. 


TR Oe ER SO Eee ee ee E AY eae E 


a em a a a 


PEE ee LPO PE ENS Ten eae ae ete ee 


i878] 3: Zoology. 53 


The Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, for October, contains a 
paper by O. Beccari, describing a new genus of the family 
Olacinez ; and the editor, T. Caruel, proposes a new classification 
of plants, the reasons for which are to be given in an unpublished 
work on vegetable morphology. The transactions of the Royal 
Swedish Academy for 1874 and 1875 ( just received in this coun- 
try), contains papers by Heer, on the miocene flora of Greenland ; 
by Berggren, on the mosses and Hepaticz = a an 
also on the mosses of Disco Island, Greenlan 


ZOOLOGY. 


NOTE ON THE GARTER SNAKE.—While making some geological 
examinations on the bank of Lone Tree Creek in Colorado last 
summer, I started a common snake (Zutenia, sp.) upon the bank. 
It immediately took to the water, which was then about eighteen 
inches deep and had but little current, rested upon the surface and 
looked at me. I threw a stone which struck near it, when it im- 
mediately stretched itself upon the surface, gulped. down into its 
lung a quantity of air, and immediately dived to the bottom and 
remained there. The mass of air it swallowed caused a distinct 
globular swelling of the body, which I saw pass along to the region 
occupied by the posterior end of the lung, where it remained, as | 
could distinctly see through the clear water, after it had reached 
the bottom. I then threw a broad, flat stone so that it fell upon 


the snake and held it fast, whereupon two or three large bubbles 


of air rose to the surface. I then lifted the stone from it with a 
stick, allowing it to ce and as it did so I saw that the air- 
swelling had disappea 

I infer that this is probali? a habit with the snakes under such 


i circumstances, but I was not aware of it before.. In this case the 


air seems to have been intentionally passed back to the posterior, 


_ simple sac-like portion of the lung, where respiratory capillaries 


are few, to be passed forward to the more cellular anterior portion 


- when the respiratory needs might require it 


The cellular character of the anterior portion of the lung would 
seem to have offered some impediment to the rapid swallowing of 
so much air, but I am sure it was so done in this case.—C. A. 
WuiTtr, | D. 


NESTING OF THE ROBIN On THE GROUND.—An instance of this 
deviation from the usual conditions of nest-building came to my 
knowledge in May, 1875, near Vineland, New Jersey, where I 
found a nest of Turdus migratorius on the ground. It contained 
four eggs, and was not peculiar in structure. The nest was identi- 
fied, as one of the old birds flew from it on my approach. I also 


l _ saw a stump about a foot and a half high, on which I was informed — 
= that a pair of robins had nested.—H. W. Turner, Ithaca, New 


Yor 


54 General Notes. - [January, 


WILD GEESE NeEstinG IN TREEs.—While in Greeley, Colorado, 
last summer, Mr. Louis Wyatt told me that he had seen wild 
geese nesting in large cottonwood trees on Snake River, a branch 
of the Yampah or Bear River, west of the Rocky Mountain range, 
in Colorado, at a point bearing a little north of west of Greeley, 
Colorado. This is the only instance published, I believe, of this 
habit as observed in Colorado. Dr. Coues, in his “Birds of the 
Northwest,” states that it “nests in various parts of the Upper 
Missouri and Yellowstone regions zx trees.’ —A. S. Packard, Fr. 


RATE OF GROWTH OF THE BARNACLE.—Upon taking up, Nov. 
17, a post to which my boat was moored, and which was put down 
at low-water mark April 5th, 1877, in Salem harbor, I found 
numerous barnacles (Balanus balanoides) living and of nearly full 
size, being four-tenths of an inch in diameter and about two-tenths 
high. With them were small Fucus vesiculosus, the largest one 
of which was about three inches in length. The post was a new 
one and had not been used the year previous. A number of sim- 

-ilar observations will be found in Darwin’s work on barnacles.— 
A. S. Packard; Fr. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE PaciFic Coast.—The Rev. Stephen 
Bowers has just completed an archzological exploration along the 
Pacific Slope for Major J. W. Powell, who is in charge of the Sur- 
vey of the Rocky Mountain Region. During the six months 
of his labors, Mr. Bowers examined one hundred and fifty miles 
of the southern coast of California, and the inland country drained 
by the three streams, Santa Ifiez River, Sisquoc River, and Cuyama 
River. He also visited San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands, hav- _ 
ing previously explored Santa Rosa Island for the Smithsonian 
Institution. The results of his last and most important expedition 
are between five and six tons of antiquities. 
The collections obtained consist of the following objects: — 
Ollas of crystalized talc; zortia or millstones of the same ma- — 
terial; arrow-smoothers of the same material; mortars and pestles 
of sandstone (some of the latter finely wrought and over two feet 
= in length); cups of serpentine; pipes of indurated talc and other — 
= material; charms or amulets of talc, etc.; perforated discs of ser- _ 

-~ pentine, sandstone, etc.; spear-points and arrow-heads; knives of 

-= chert; vast quantities of shell ornaments, and beads, in great va- 


- they would be too bulky for use. 


1878.] Anthropology. 55 


to several pounds. A more plausible explanation of their use is 
the one Mr. Bowers advances: he says, “ Those of pyramidal form 
were doubtless used in spinning, while others were used in games.” 
—E. A. BARBER. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NeEws.—It has been impossible to obtain a 
programme of the German Scientific ogee. but reports of two 
very interesting communications have reac ed us. Professor 
Haeckel’s address on the evolution Aiea of the present day in 
its relation to science in general was an earnest reiteration of his 
theory of inheritance and adaptation, applying it to moral and 
mental phenomena. Professor Virchow read a paper On the 
Liberty of Science in Modern Thought. He congratulated his 
fellow workers that science had now obtained perfect liberty, and 
at the same time warned them not to lose their influence by mis- 
using it. He advocated the introduction of scientific instruction 
into the schools, but thought that great care should be used to 
introduce the results of science, and not mere unsubstantial 
‘theories such as the genealogical system of Professor Haeckel. 

The second international congress of Américanistes was held at 
Luxemburg, September 1oth—-13th. Papers on the mound builders 
and Pueblos were read by Messrs Barber, Robertson, Gillman, 
Peet, and Force; on the antiquities of Greenland and the primitive 
habitat of thé Eskimo by Messrs. Waldemar Schmidt and Rink; 
on hieroglyphics and ancient culture, by Leon de Rosny , Hyde 
Clarke, Maladier de Montjau, Allen Schwab, Malte-Brun, a 
Abbé Pipart, Dr. Leemans, etc.; on philology, by Messrs. Henry, 
Moore and Lucien Adams; on history, by Messrs. Brauvoisn and 
Nadal ; on the stone age, by M. Guimet. The next congress will 
be held in Brussels in 1879 

Occasionally papers of great value to anthropologists appear in 
journals not wholly devoted to their science. Among these 
Révue Scientifique is to be specially mentioned. In the number 
for January 13, 1877, M. Jouan writes upon Les Monuments poly- 

nesiens ; in that for February 3d, M. Quatrefages has a long paper 
= reviewing that portion of his late work, L’Espéce humaine, which 
refers to fossil man. The whole work in favorably noticed in the 


number for March 4th, by M. W. Ferrier. In the numbers for 


May 5th and 12th, Carl Vogt discusses at length the origin of 
man. The learned author takes issue with both Haeckel and 
Quatrefages, and, while advocating evolution, maintains that the 
former has erred quite as far in knowing too much as the latter has 
in his “ Je ne sais pas rien.” The same periodical for September 
contains quite full reports of the French Association. 

Two fields of anthropological research are so fully occupied at 
the present time that one almost despairs of keeping the run of 
— titles even. We refer to the seat of war and British India. Hap | 
-~ pily the latter field is well worked in Triibner’s last catalogue, to — 
which all must refer who would become familiar with the subject. 
_ The work of D. Mackensie Wallace on Russia, of W. R. London 


56 General Notes. [January, 


on Savage and Civilized Russia, and of Russell on Russian Wars 
with Turkey cannot be sra from the list of those who wish to 
read up on the seat of w 

The Tenth Report of the Peabody Museum is one of the most 
interesting in the series. We have already referred to Dr. Abbott’s 
paper. Those of Professor Andrews and Admiral F. Bandelier are 
worthy of careful study. 

Two articles have = dort in the New York Nation concerning 
the Nes Percés in the numbers for July 12th and August 2d. 
The same journal, Sépectibet 6th, treats of the Indian policy of 
Canada and of the United States. 

The archeological section of the Academy of Sciences at St. 
Louis, has published a caution to collectors against imitations of 
pottery, etc., from the mounds. The same difficulty has arisen in 
England and Germany with reference to antiquities within their own 
borders and from the East: notably, Flint Jack, the Shapira collec- 
tion of Moabite pottery, and the carvings from the Thurigen Cave, 
near Schaffhausen in Switzerland. Colonel Whittlesey has done 
good service in exposing frauds in hieroglyphics, and Mr. J. D. 
Moody of Mendola, Illinois, sends a pamphlet of four pages, 
attacking the authenticity of the Rockford Tablet. No one should 
be more zealous than the archzologists themselves in unearthing 
everything of the kind, since no amount of doubtful material will 
aid the truth in the least —O. T. Mason, Washington, D. C 


GEOLOGY AND PALZAIONTOLOGY. 

THE SAURIANS OF THE Dakota Epocu.—Professor Cope has 
recently described two additional species of terrestrial saurians 
a the Dakota rocks of Colorado, which rival the Camarasau- 

rus supremus in dimensions. They are referred to a new genus 


= which resembles Camarasaurus in the chambered character of the 
vertebral centra, and in the peculiar interlocking articulation of — 


the neural arches, but differ from it in the amphiccelous character 
-of the centra and the form of the neural spine, which is longitu- 
dinal instead of transverse. The articulation of the neural arches 
alluded to is very peculiar, and is effected by the presence of a 
new vertebral element which Professor Cope calls a hyposphen. 
It is an inverted wedge which is attached to the posterior zyga- 
pophyses below them by a median vertical plate of bone. This 
plate enters a deep fissure between the anterior zygapophyses 


and it results that the latter are tightly embraced between the | 


posterior zygapophyses above, and the hyposphen below. This 
‘structure is the reverse of that of the zygosphen articulation. 


e new genus is called Amphicwlias, and the species A. altus 


and A. latus. The length of the femur of the former is six feet 
two inches, a little exceeding that of the Camarasaurus Supremus, 


but it is more slender. The elevation of a dorsal vertebra is three 


feet two inches. The A. /atus is characterized by robustness, as 


A EL T E APE RAEE IE N AOE AN AE E E AE E TAE Sh E EPE ES, INE RAA S EED EE IR T EN PLE A ES NEE L EE RE ESENS SFO E CENE S TSE STE 


ee ee Re TA i tE a 


the A. altus is by elongation of parts. A caudal vertebral cen- fe 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 57 


trum is ten inches in transverse diameter; with others it is more 
depressed and more deeply bi-concave than the corresponding 
vertebra of C. supremus. The femur of this species is very thick, 
its length is fifty inches and the diameter fourteen i inches. 

ditional remains of Camarasaurus supremus include a femur 
six feet, and a scapula five and a half feet in length. The pos- 
terior dorsal vertebra exceed in dimensions those of any known 
saurian, equaling those of the right whale. The centra measure 
sixteen inches in transverse diameter. 


Mount Lepanon Fismes IN Daxota.—Many years ago Dr. 
Hayden obtained some fossil fishes from the Cretaceous No. 3 
of Dakota. They have been recently examined by Professor 
Cope, who, describes them in the late number of the Bulletin 
of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. 
He refers them to the genera Triæenaspis g. n., Leptotrachelus 
Mark, /chihyotringa g. n., Spaniodon Pict., and Sardinius Mark. 
The first, second and third genera belong to the Dercetide, and 
Leptotrachelus has been found in Syria and Westphalia. /chthyo- 
tinga is allied to Dercetis of Westphalia, and 7rienaspts to Pela- 
sabi of the same region. Spaniodon is a well-known Leb- 

non type and Sardinius is abundant in Westphalia. This deter- 
EE De adds evidence to that already in our possession, showing 
the wide distribution of types in the Northern Hemisphere during 
past time. 

CRETACEOUS FisHes oF EncLanp.—E. Tully Newton of the 
British Geological Survey, has recently discovered the Kansas 
genera Portheus and Ichthyodectes in the chalk of Kent, and finds 
several species of both. 


Ciepsyprops IN Texas. — Professor Cope has recently ob- 


= Texas. This discovery confirms the reference of the Clepsydrops 
= shales of Illinois to that formation or the Permian, in opposition 


to the view at first maintained ig Professor Bradley that they are 
a member of the coal measure 


THE GENUS E EET eye R. Lydekker has recently 


described the dentition of this genus, ea was discovered by 


Falconer in the Sivalik formation of India. He regards it as a 
bunodont Artiodactyle allied in some pom to Hippopotamus. 
He finds it to be very peculiar in that the premolar teeth are of 
relatively enormous size, although simple in their form. The 

characters of the genus resemble those of Elotherium. 


THE AFFINITIES OF THE DinosAuRIA.—Professor Owen recently 
described an interesting Dinosaurian under the name of Osmosaurus 
armatus. At the close of the article he makes some remarks on 
the structural relationships of the order. He thinks that the 


_ pubic bone is directed forwards, not backwards, as asserted by 
_ Huxley. The bird-like structure of the tibio-tarsal articulation, — 


58 General Notes. - [January, 


first pointed out by Cope, he attempts to explain in another way. 
He regards the supposed astragalus of Le/aps and Pecilopleuron 
as homologous with the tibial epiphysis of Mammalia, rather than 
with the astragalus, and he homologizes the distal tarsal element 
of Dinosauria with the mammalian diaphysis rather than with the 
second tarsal series. 

Professor Owen has recently described an English species of 

laps under the name of Pwcilopleuron minor. 


‘Triassic SAURIANS FROM PENNSYLVANIA.—Additional material 
received from Charles M. Wheatley, of Phoenixville, embraces 
some species of extinct reptiles from the Trias of Pennsylvania 
not included in the last report. (See Proceedings of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, 1877, p. 182.) These are of especial 
interest as introducing to American palzeontological science two 
genera only known heretofore from the European Trias, viz: 
Thecodontosaurus. and FPal@osaurus of Riley and Stuchbury. 
These are called 7: gibbidens and P. fraserianus. A third new 
species belongs to the genus Suchoprion, and is described as S. 
sulcidens. Mr. Wheatley has also obtained additional specimens 
of Suchoprion cyphodon, Belodon priscus, Paleoctonus appalachi- 
anus, and Clepsysaurus wheatleianus. Teeth of the last-named 
saurian indicate a larger animal than the type, and nearly equal 
to the Paleoctonus appalachianus. 


NEW ARTIODACTYLES OF THE UPPER TERTIARY.—Three new gen- 
era allied to Oveodon have recently been discovered in the Loup 
Fork beds of Montana, and been described by Professor Cope 
under the names of Pithecistes, Brachymeryx and Cyclopidius. All 
three are selenodont, have the mandibular symphysis codssified, 
and a deficiency in the number of the incisor teeth. In the first 
two genera there are only three premolars. In Pithecistes the inferior 
canine is functionally developed, there are but one or two incis- 
ors on each side, and the anterior premolars are broader than long. 
In Brachymeryx the premolars are trenchant except the last supe- _ 
rior, which has four columns. The first inferior, is function- 
ally the canine. Cyclopidius is similar to Leptauchenia in its 
dentition, excepting in the presence of only two inferior incisors 

-on each side. The frontal region is occupied by enormous vacul- 
ties, two of which extend between the orbits, and are separated 
by the very narrow nasal bones, which, in the type species C. 


simus, do not extend beyond the lachrymal fosse. The superior 


cial region is excavated, and the cavity is reached from the sides 
by a huge foramen in the facial plate of the maxillary bone. 
second species, C. heterodon is described. The species of the 
other genera are P. brevifacies and B. feliceps. 

Accompanying these was found a species of Blastomeryx (Cope) 
as large as the black-tailed deer, which is called B. borealis. The 
genus Alastomeryx is believed by Professor Cope to be the ances- — 
tor of the existing Cervide, as Dicrocerus is of Antilocapra. 2 


Beats Aira tee ny aaa | 


easy Li Sch Ye 


ae PSE T E eh Ra 


pies were tes erga ee AEE 


: 
x 
A 


1878.] Geography and Travels. l 59 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 


NARRATIVE OF HALLS NortH Porar ExrEDITION.!— Captain 
Hall having died on his return to the winter quarters of the 
Polaris, from his journey to the farthest point north hitherto at- 
tained, it was reserved for others to write the record of his daring 
and successful expedition. The volume contains everything of 
general interest relating to the origination, organization and the 
fitting up of the expedition, which was first suggested and organ- 
ized by Hall himself. One chapter is devoted to an account of 
Hall’s earlier researches and is accompanied by a map illustrating 
the route he pursued during his eight years of Arctic exploration, 
which fitted him so well for the crowning work of his life. Geo- 
graphers will also find in this volume a detailed account (some- 
times too irrelevant details are given) of the eventful history of 
the expedition after Hall’s death. The woodcuts are numerous, 
but are not of a high order of excellence. 


STANLEY’s ACCOUNT OF THE Conco.—Mr. Stanley thus sums up 
in his letter to the New York Hera/d and the London Telegraph, 
our present knowledge of the Congo River: The entire area the 
Congo drains embraces about 860,000 square miles. Its source 
is in that high plateau south of Lake Tanganyika, in a country 
called Bisa, or Ubisa by the Arabs. The principal tributary feed- 
ing Bemba Lake is the Chambezi, a broad, deep river, whose 
extreme sources must be placed about longitude 33° east. 
Bemba Lake, called Bangweolo by Livingstone, its discoverer, is 
a large body of shallow water, about 8,400 square miles in extent. 
It is the residuum of an enormous lake that in very ancient times 
must have occupied an area of 500,000 square miles, until by some 
great convulsion the western maritime mountain chain was riven 
asunder, and the Congo began to roar through the fracture. Is- 
suing from Bemba Lake, the Congo is known under the name of 


Luapula, which, after a course of nearly 200 miles, empties into 


e Mweru, a body of water occupying an area of about 1,800 


: square miles. Falling from weru, it receives the name of 
-= Lualaba, from the natives of Rua. In Northern Rua it receives 


an important affluent called the Kamalondo. Flowing in a direc- 
tion north by west, it sweeps, with a breadth of about 1400 yards, 
by Nyangwe Manyema, in latitude 26° 15’ 45” south, longitude 
26° 5’ east, and has an altitude of about 1,450 feet above the 


ocean. Livingstone, having lost two weeks in his dates, appears, 


according t to Stanford’s map of I 1874, to have placed Nyangwe in 
latitude 4° 1’ south, longitude 24° 16’ east, but this wide differ- 


_ ence may be due to the carelessness of the draughtsman. Those 
= who feel interested in it should compare it with the latest map 


1 Narrative of the North Polar Expedition, U. S. Ship Polaris, Capt. C. F. Hall, 
commanding. Edited under the direction of the Hon. G. M. Robeson, Secretary of 


the Navy, by Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, U. S. N. U. S. Naval Observatory, 1876. 
= Be 69 ' ; o 


60 General Notes. [January, 


issued by Stanford, or the map published with the traveler’s last 
journals. The distance the Con ngo has flowed from its extreme 
source in Eastern Bisa to Nyangwe Manyema is about 1,100 
miles. 


EXPLORATIONS IN PALESTINE.—The Palestine Exploration So- 
ciety, which is supported by voluntary contributions, was organ- 
ized in 1870 for the purpose of making a scientific survey of the 
region known in Biblical history as Moab, Gilead and Bashan. 
In 1873 the first surveying party was sent out, and in 1875 the 
work of exploration was further extended by a second party, one 
of the members of which was Dr. Selah Merrill, who gave special 
attention to the archeology of the regions explored. The work 
of surveying was soon suspended, however, but Dr. Merrill con- 
tinued his researches during 1876 and a part of the present year. 


At a late meeting of the Society, as reported in the Tribune, — 


Dr. Merrill said, in part: “ One of the difficulties of exploration 
in Palestine is caused by the traditions which widely prevail—a 
difficulty which is experienced in exploration in no other part of 
the world. Numerous archeological facts have been collected, 
however, which will be very valuable in the study of the Bible. 
All explorations are carried on in the face of many obstacles. 
The climate is very peculiar and severe, and many explorers have 


lost their lives on this account. The Valley of the Jordan from 4 


ke Tiberias to the Dead Sea, sixty miles in length and about 


three miles in width, is generally supposed to be a desert, but this _ 
is not so. I have examined the Valley of the Jordan on the east — 


side several times, and I am satisfied that it could be easily irri- 


gated from the Jordan itself. It would then become exceedingly 4 
fertile, and it is believed that half a million people could live in 
this valley. Some very important mounds exist in various parts — 
of this region. In the Succoth region there is a very large one, | 


thickly covered with pottery. Into this I wished to dig, for I 


think some very valuable results may be obtained in this way. It 
was in this region that King Solomon’s brass foundries were situ- — 


ated. I think that the best evidence of the situation of the Cities 


of the Plain shows that they were at the north end of the Dead 4 
Sea. In the region east of the Jordan nearly all the houses are ~ 
deserted, on account of the Moslem and Turkish rule. You can — 
-~ scarcely travel half an hour in this region without meeting witha — 

valuable ruin. The theatres in many cases were built so as tO © 

command fine views of the surrounding country. Between Petra — 
and Damascus there were between 400 and 500 miles of Ronm : 


roads. There was also in ancient times an extensive system 
irrigation. This was especially apparent in the Valley of the 
h 


Jabbok, the most fertile portions of which are now under culti- _ 


vation. 


prea Typ areaaese 


. Orton’s EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AmEricA—Several letters — 
~ from the late Professor Orton have appeared in the New York 4 


a Ske a 


PEN PEE ER ie PE ee EE EN AE O 


_ Surgeon and naturalist. 
Japan after six months explorations in the neighborhood of Tokio, 


: 


have the following table of contents: ; 
-Recent Sojourn at Lake Nyassa, Central Africa. Mullens, A New 
__ Route and New Mode of Traveling into Central Africa, Buchanan, 
= On the Distribution of Salt in the Ocean as indicated by the 


' 1878. ] Geography and Travels. 61 


Tribune regarding his explorations in Peru, containing some in- 
teresting reflections on the probable number of inhabitants of Peru, 
at the time of their conquest by Pizarro. He thinks their num- 
bers have been greatly overestimated by historical writers. Good 
collections of birds, reptiles and fishes were made, which by pre- 
arrangement are the property of Professor E. D. Cope. 


GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The Geographical Magazine, for Novem- 
ber, contains a continuation of an interesting description of the 
island of Formosa, by James Morrison. Professor Nordienskidld 
expects to lead another Swedish Arctic Expedition, to start from 
Gothenburg about the ist July, 1878, and za Tromsö or Ham- 
merfest, make progress from Novaya Zemlya eastward, trying to 
force a passage along the coast of Siberia, and returning home 
through Behring Straits, and by the Suez Canal, thus sailing 
round Asia and Europe. Next year the Norwegian Deep Sea 
Sounding Expedition will examine the region between North 
Cape, Jan Mayen, and the north of Spitzbergen, and possibly make 
a trip eastward, in the direction of Novaya Zemlya, to determine 
the position of the isothermal line of 0° C. at the sea-bottom, this 
line being considered the limit of the range of codfish——Count 
Wilzek and Lieutenant Weyprecht have published a programme of 
work for the proposed international polar expeditions. Capt. H. 
W. Howgate has published an account of the American preliminary 
Arctic Expedition, now wintering at the head of Cumberland Gulf. 
M. Kelsief has been making researches during the past summer 
along the Murmanian Coast and in Lapland, for the Moscow Anthro- 
pological Exhibition of 1879; he has made a good collection of 
stone implements and other prehistoric remains. e geogra- 


< phy of the Upper Indus has been made by a Punjab surveyor, 
_ who has completed our knowledge of this river. 


Savorgnan 
de Brazza has arrived at Doume, in the Loando country, on his 
way eastward to the Ponbara Falls. The River Sibumbay, which 
some geographers have described as a northern affluent of the 
Congo, turns out to be a feeder of the Ogowai on its left bank. 
An expedition has left Belgium for the exploration of Central 
Africa. Dr. Maes, of Hasselt, accompanies the expedition as 
Prof. E. S. Morse has returned from 


and has made several expeditions into the interior and about the 


2 coast, and discovered some prehistoric pottery, etc., of much in- 


terest. Dr. Petermann has published a map of Costa Rica 


“ showing the results of Professor Gabb’s survey made in 1873-4. 


The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Nos. 4-6, 
No. IV.—Young, On a 


cific Gravity of its Waters. Allen, Notes of a Journey through 


62 General Notes. [January, 


Formosa from Tamsui to Faiwamfu. Bullock, Trip into the in- 
terior of Formosa. Nares, On the Navigation of Smith’s Sound, 
as a Route to the Polar Sea. Carpenter, Lecture on the Tem- 
perature of the Deep Sea Bottom and the Conditions by which it 
is determined. Trotter, The Pundit’s Journey from Leh to Lhasa 


. No. V— 
Anniversary Meeting, May 28th, by Sir R. Alcock. No. VI.— 
Crowther, Notes on the River Niger. Hutchinson, Progress of 
the Victoria Nyanza Expedition of the Church Missionary Society. 
Wallace, Lecture on the Comparative Antiquity of Continents as 
indicated by the Distribution of Living and Extinct Animals. 
Markham, The Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 (with a map). 
Simson, Notes of Journeys in the Interior of South America. 
Smith, The Translation and Transliteration of Chinese Geographi- 
cal Names. Marsh, Description of a Journey Overland to India, 
via Meshed, Herat, Candahar, and the Bolan Pass, 1872. Kirk, 
Visit to the Mungao District, near Cape Delgado. Cottam, Over- 
land Route to China, via Assam, &c., across the Irrawaddi into 
unan. 

Among recent geographical works are the following: S. W. 
Silver & Co.'s Handbook to the Transvaal; British South Africa, 
Its Natural Features, Industries, Population and Gold Fields, 1877. 
South Africa; Its Difficulties and Present State, suggested by a 
recent visit to that country. By A. R. Campbell Johnson, 1877. 
South Africa; Past and Present. By John Noble. Loango und 
die Loankuste.. Von Dr. Pechuel-Losche. Leipzic, 1876. (Lon- 
don, Triibner & Co.) 

MICROSCOPY:? 

New CABINET FoR SLIDEs.—Two slide cabinets have recently 
been described in Science Gossip which possess some advantages 
‘for certain purposes, and have the no small recommendation that 
they can be easily and cheaply made. 

Mr. T. H. Moorhead’s cabinet is in the book form, and is made 
of card-boards mounted in slate frames. Common school slates 
are selected, of suitable size and with perfect frames. The frames 


_ at intervals of an inch and a quarter, so that each slide will be sepa- _ 
rately held. Stout canvas can be tacked to the edge of each frame. 
and the whole bound together, in volumes of about five each, bya — 

1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Ward, Troy, N. Y. 


E $378,1-- ° ' Microscopy. 63 


bookbinder, forming a really handsome set. If the cards are six 
and a half by ten inches they will hold fifteen slides on a page. 
The slides and their labels are well displayed, though they cannot 
lie in the best position for safe keeping except by allowing the © 
volume to lie flat and leaving the under page of each unused. 

Mr. A. W. Stokes, of Guy’s hospital, has contrived a slide box, 
which is less showy than this, but more compact and portable. 
As a compromise between a stationary cabinet and a box for carry- 
ing around, it seems to possess advantages not before -attained. 
A box is made like an ordinary tray-slide box, opening both at the 
top and front. In this the slides lie flat in several tiers of a single 
row each, with their ends pointing towards the front of the box. 
The upper row rests in a tray with a ledge in front, and close to 
the cover when the box is closed. Below this the rows of slides 
rest on shelves, each-of which projects forward half an inch or 
more beyond the one above it, so that the slides will also project 
and the labels of all the rows be visible at once. Stops are ar- 
ranged between the shelves, behind, to prevent the slides slipping 


=.” back too far, and between the separate slides on each shelf to pre- 


vent their striking together. A piece of card-board or thin wood 
hinged to the cover falls in a slanting direction across the rows, 
and keeps the slides from slipping forward in any position of the 
box when it is closed. The shelves may be of light card-board, 
as they are well supported by the wooden strips which confine the 
slides behind and at the sides. A box nine inches long by five 
inches broad and two inches deep will hold thirty-five slides in 


_ five rows or tiers of seven each. [A very neat case may be made 


of a good cigar box, while another box may be cut up to furnish 
the ledges or partitions between shelves. ] 


D1atoms.—Under this title the Industrial Publication Company 


has produced a neat and useful little book which will be a great 


= convenience to many workers. It is a reprint of three papers on 


the subject of collecting, preserving, and preparing diatoms, by 
Professors A. M. Edwards, Christopher Johnston and M. L. Smith, 
respectively. - These excellent papers will be handy in this form 


-even for those whose libraries include the originals in the Lens 


and the Natural History of New Hampshire. 


AMERICAN JOURNAL oF Microscopy.—The great success of this 
popular journal of microscopy, together with the inconvenience of 
mailing half-dollars in the present state of our currency, has induced 


4 the radical change of doubling its size with a corresponding in- 
= Crease of price. While much better opportunity will thus be ob- 
_ tained for elaborate articles, the simple and elementary character 


will still be maintained, The change will please many readers and 
incommode but few. 


MicroscopicaL Societies.—The following elections of new offi- 


_ cers have taken place since the last list published:— 


64 General Notes. [January, 


erican Association for the advancement of Science, micro- 
scopical subsection, meets annually in connection with the migra- 
tory sessions of the association. Chairman for the Nashville 
meeting, 1877, Dr. R. H. Ward, of Troy, New York; for the St. 
Louis meeting, 1878, Dr. Geo. S. Blackie, of Nashville, Tenn. 

Dunkirk Microscopical Society. President, Geo. E. Blackham, 
M.D.; secretary and treasurer, A. P. Alling, M. 

Fiimount reese oe Gee President S. H. Griffith, 

M.D.; secretary and treasurer, Wm. C. Stevenson, Jr.; managers, 
John ‘Gordon Gray, Tioma D. Ingram, M.D. „and Henry Winter 
Davis. 

Nature Club, Albany, New York. Organized October 1877. 
Microscopy a prominent feature. Meets at residences of mem- 
bers on the second and fourth Monday evenings of each month. 
President, Geo. T. Stevens, M.D.; vice-president, D. J. Pratt; 
secretary, Richard Prescott. 

State Microscopical Society of Illinois. President, Henry W. 
Fuller; vice-presidents, Lester Curtis, M.D., and Chas. = Fellows; 
secretary, H. F. Atwood; corresponding secretary, oe G, Oliver, 

.D.; treasurer, B. W. Thomas; trustees, S. J. Jones, M.D., 
Professor E. Bastin, W. H. Summers, H. M. Panon and James 
Colgrove. 

Troy Scientific Association ; microscopical section. Chairman, 
R. H. Ward, M.D.; vice- chairman, Rev. A. B. Hervey ; secretary, 
Professor A. W. Boy 

Tyndall sears section of microscopy. President, Rev. 
I. F. Stidham ; secretary and treasurer, Curtis C. Howard; cura- 
tor, Professor T. C. Mendenhall. 

ExcuaAnces.—A Curtis’ section cutter, made by Miller, of New 
York (cost $20.00), for microscopical objects or books. Address 
offers to C. E. H., No. 1 Gale Place, Troy, N. Y. 

Plumule scales of small cabbage butterfly (Pieris rape), mounted, 
for good slides. Address Edward Pennock, 805 Franklin street, 
Philadelphia 

Very fine BOGA of shells from the Bermudas, for objects 
of special interest. Address C. C. Merriman, Rochester, N. 

Material: Marine algæ, diatoms in situ on algæ from east e 
west coasts, musci, lichens, ferns, lycopodia, garnet sand, &c., in 
-= exchange for mounted slides. M. A. Booth, Longmeadow, 

Mass. 


SU oia 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Two articles on the evolution of nerves and nerve-systems, — 
Q ‘ifastrated by the structure of Aurelia, a type of the lowest group 
=~ of animals in which a nervous system appears, have been pub- ; 


| 1878.] Scientific News. ' 65 


lished by G. J. Romanes, in Nature, for July 26th, and August 2d. 
By removing the eight nervous ganglia, the whole disc of the 


k jelly-fish presents not merely the protoplasmic qualities of excita- 


bility and contractility, but also the essentially nervous quality of | 
conducting stimuli to a distance irrespective of the passage of a 
contractile wave. He therefore concludes that there can be no 
longer any question that we have here to deal with a tissue already 
so far differentiated from primitive protoplasm, that the distant 
ing function of nerve has become fully established. 

— Dr. Sachs, who was sent to Venezuela by the Berlin Acad- 
emy of Science, for the purpose of studying the electric eel in its 
native haunts, has returned, says Nature, after an absence of ten 
months, with a rich store of valuable observations.—A second 
specimen of PEGLA sie Save has been discovered near 
Solenhofen ; this specimen is muc e perfect than the other, 
and possesses the eae. bahe bona of the skull of Amia 
calva have been described in detail by T. W. Bridge, in the English 
Fournal of Anatomy and Physiology. 

— Professor E. D. Cope has lately visited the Nickajack Cave 
near Chattanooga in Company with Professors Loverell and 
Nipher, Dr. Walker and Mr. Lindsley. The cave is as large as 
the Mammoth or Wyandotte caves, and is traversed by a large 
“stream. He found an abundance of a blind craw-fish and several 
small crustacea, some of them allied to Czcidotzea. e also pro- 
cured the myripod, Spirostrephon cavernarum, a spider with eyes, 
and a Raphidophora, etc. 

— We have received some advance sheets of Erklarungen zu 
den Zoologischen Wandtafeln, herausgegeben von R. Leuckart, 
professor in Leipzig, and Dr. H. Nitsche, professor in Tharand. 
Taf. i—iii. Cassel, Theodor Fischer, 1877. These are colored dia- 
_ grams, printed from stone, and are well selected and in all respects 
-= admirable. They are designed for the use of schools and col- 
leges, and the series will, when finished, comprise about one hun- 
dred sheets, accompanied by an explanation of each plate in 
German, F rench and English. The price to subscribers for the 
whole work will be from eighty pfennigs to two marks (a mark is 
32 cents). It will be seen by this that the diagrams as a whole 
will be quite cheap. 

— The death of Prokessor James Orton, occurred about the 
24th of October last, while he was crossing Lake Titicaca, en 
route for Puno. He had been some time in Bolivia, and having re- 
linquished his journey to the Beni River, was on his way home. 
Professor James Orton was bora at Seneca Falls, N. Y., April 
21, 1830. He was graduated at Williams College in 1855, and 
in 1858 at the Andover Theological Seminary. After traveling 
n Europe and in the East, he was ordained a congregational 
= minister in 1860. In 1866 he became instructor in the natural 
_ sciences at Rochester University. The year following he went at 


VOL, XII.—NO. I, 


66 ` Scientific News. [January, 


the head of an expedition from Williams College to South 
America. On this occasion he crossed the continent by Quito, 
the Napo and the Amazon, discovering the first fossils found in 
the Amazon valley. In 1869 he became Professor of Natural 
History at Vassar College. In 1873 Professor Orton madea 
second journey across South America, from Para up the Amazon 
to Lima and Lake Titicaca. About a year ago Professor Orton 
returned once more to South America, to undertake alone and with 
limited means, the exploration of the Great Beni River, which 
carries the waters of Eastern Bolivia to the Amazon, by way 
of the Madeira. His works are: “ The Miner’s Guide and Met- 
allurgists’ Directory” (1849); “The Proverbalist and Poet” 
(1852); The Andes and the Amazon” (1870); “Underground 
Treasures ; How and Where to Find Them ” (1872); and “ Com- 
parative Zoology” (1875). 

— Messrs. S. H. Scudder, of Cambridge, and F. C. Bowditch, 
of Boston, have just returned from a two months’ tour in Col- 
orado, Wyoming and Utah, where, under the direction of Dr. 
Hayden, they have been exploring for fossil insects, and collect- 
ing specimens especially in the high regions. They report having _ 
secured many specimens of fossil insects at different points along _ 
the railways from Pueblo to Cheyenne, and from Cheyenne to — 
Salt Lake, as well as at Lakin, Kansas, and Garland, and George- “ 


- Six or seven thousand specimens of insects, and 2,000 or 3,000 

of plants have already been received from Florisant, and as many 
more are expected before the close of the year. Arrangements 
were also made with persons who have found a new and rich de- 
posit of fossils in the tertiary strata in Wyoming, to forward all 
the specimens obtained there. 

Mr. Scudder believes that the tertiary strata of the Rocky 
Mountain region are richer in the remains of fossil insects than 
any others in the world, and that within the next few months the 
~ amount of material at hand for the study of the subject, will be 

_ greater than was ever before possessed by any single naturalist. 


; tions during the past season, was the country about Fort Bridget, 
Unitah Mountains and the Salt Lake Basin. The specimens he has — 
collected comprise the lowest and simplest forms of animal life, 


1878.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 67 


the most minute requiring high microscopic power to distinguish 
their structure. 
— Captain Howgate has received a letter via Scotland, from 
_ Captain Tyson, who commands the Florence, the advance vessel 
of the American Arctic Expedition. It is dated September 29, 
and reports Captain Tyson’s safe arrival at Niuntilick Harbor, 
Cumberland Gulf after a tedious voyage of forty days. He pro- 
poses moving to the head of the gulf ina few days, to go into 
winter quarters, and carry out his instructions in reference to the 
collection of material. The crew were all in good health and 
spirits. Messrs. Sherman and Kumlein are reported as doing 
well in their respective departments. 


3 -— We regret to learn that the note on page 749, volume xi, has 
_ been regarded by Dr. Brewer as too personal, and construed as 
an affront. The writer begs us to disclaim for him the slightest 
intention of reflecting upon Dr. Brewer’s veracity and sincerity 
= in his conduct of the sparrow controversy. The bantering sen- 
: tence seemed to bear its own credentials; but since it has been 
misconstrued, the writer permits us to substitute the following: 
“ Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, has so long remained in what I consider 
= tobe his honest misapprehension of the real bearing of alleged 
facts, in the face of testimony no less explicit, that it is no longer 
a question with me whether he will continue to argue as heretofore 
against such bearing of the testimony. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


— York, October 23d to 25th, the following papers on subjects re- 
~ dating to natural science were read: On the Development of 
= Flounders, by A. Agassiz. On the Morphology of the Antlers 
of the Cervide, by Theodore Gill. On some new Fossil Fishes 
= from. Ohio and Indiana; on the Geological Age of the Western 
_ Lignites, by J. S. Newberry. On some Gigantic Dinosaurian 
Reptiles bisa the Wealden of the Rocky Mountains; American 
Cretaceous Birds, by O. C. Marsh. On the Air-Sacs of Locusts, 
by A. S. Packard, jn On the Glycogenic Functions of the Liver, 
$ and its relation to Vital Force and Vital Heat, by Joseph Le 
_ Conte. Biographical Memoir of Louis Agassiz. First part, re- 
lating to his Life and Work in Europe, by A. Guyot. 


T NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.—At the session held in New 


AcaADEmy OF Science, St. Louis, Nov. 5—Dr. Engelmann pre- | 


opment of the flower. ‘It opens in the aening, and antri sieg : i 


sented an additional paper on the curious mode of fertilization ofthe __ 
Agave shawn, Dr. Engelmann expatiated upon the process of devel- 


68 . Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [ January, 


pollen that night, while the stigma is not ready for four or five 
days to recéive the pollen. The rest of the flower withers while 
the stigma is secreting its liquid. 

President Riley read a communication on the life-history of the 
blister-beetles. After showing that, notwithstanding the import- 
ance to commerce and to the pharmacopeea, of the well-known 
Spanish fly (Cantharis vesicatoria), its early life-habits have yet 
remained a mystery. The same holds true of our American 
blister-beetles, many of which have the same valuable vesicatory 
power. The fact that their transformations have hitherto eluded 
investigation is all the more remarkable that some of the species 
abound during certain years and are quite injurious to potatoes, 
tomatoes, beans and other cultivated plants. Prof. Riley has dis- 
covered that they prey in the larva state on locust eggs, and he 
has reared several species from the eggs of that western scourge, 
the Rocky mountain locust. These blister-beetles are remarkable 
for passing through many curious changes, which are known as 
hypermetamorphoses. After illustrating these, Professor Riley 
gave the following summary: 

rom the foregoing history of our commoner blister-beetles, it 
is clear that while they pass through the curious hypermetamor- 
phoses so characteristic of the family, and have many other fea- 
tures in common, yet Epicauta and Macrobasis differ in many 
important respects from Meloe and Sitaris, the only genera hith- 
erto fully known biologically. To resume what is known of the 
larval habits of the family, we have: 

First, the small, smooth, unarmed, tapering triungulin of the 
prolific Sitaris, with the thoracic joints subequal, with strong, 
articulating tarsal claws on the stout-thighed but spineless legs, 
and, in addition, a caudal spinning apparatus. The mandibles 
scarcely extend beyond the labrum; the creature seeks the light, 
and is admirably adapted to adhering to bees but not to burrow- 
ing in the ground. The second larva is mellivorous, and the 
transformations from the coarctate larval stage all take place with- | 
in the unrent larval skin. We have: q 

Second, the more spinous and larger triungulin of the still more 
prolific Meloe, with long caudal sete, but otherwise closely 
resembling that of Sitaris in the femoral, tarsal and trophial char- 
acters, in the subequal thoracic joints, in the unarmed tibia, an 
in the instinctive love of light and fondness for fastening to bees. 
_ The second larva is also mellivorous, but the later transformations 
take place in the rent and partly shed skins of the second and 
coarctate larva. We have: 


: 
. 


ness and tendency to burrow and hide in the ground. The second 


1878. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 69 


larva takes the same food as the first, its skin is almost entirely 
cast from the coarctate larva, while the subsequent changes are 
independent and entirely free of the shell of this last. 


Tue Iowa ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, Sep. 26.—Among the papers 
read were Observations on the structure of the leaves of Sz/phinm _ 
laciniatum, by President Bessey. The paper embodied the result 
of microscopic observations on sections of the leaves of the com- 
pass plant. As all know, the blade of the leaves of this plant is 
always in, or nearly in, the plane of the meridian, and the purpose 
of the investigation was to determine whether this polarity i is cor- 
related with any peculiarity of structure. In ordinary leaves the 
cells making up the green pulp are differently arranged on the 
two sides of the blade, being packed closely together beneath the 
upper surface, forming what is called palisade tissue. If leaves 
be turned so as to expose the under surface to the sun, they 
either twist the leaf stalk and bring the palisade tissue to the light 
or die. Every leaf makes an effort to keep the proper upper sur- 
face, only, exposed The investigation shows that the two sur- 
faces of compass plant leaves are exactly alike as to structure, 
both in the matter of palisade tissue and arrangement of the 
veins. Both sides therefore are equally affected by light, and the 
equal struggle of the two sides to turn toward the sun gives the 
blade a position about parallel to the meridian. 

A second paper by President Bessey was on dimorphism in 
Lithospermum. This paper was illustrated by diagrams, and 
pointed out that while there is complete dimorphism in Lithosper- 
mum canescens, there is only an appearance of dimorphism in 
Lithospermum longiflorum, due entirely to the varying length of 
the corolla tube. In early summer, the last named plant bears 


_ showy flowers, the corollas of which vary in length from one to 
= two inches. The stamens are always about the same distance 


from the mouth of the corolla, while the stigma borne on a style 
that is nearly constant in length, is sometimes above and some- 


times below them. In place of dimorphism there is simply 
extreme and inconstant variation 


Later in the season this plant produces only minute flowers that © 


are not more than a tenth of an inch in length. These: later flow- 
ers are always self-fertilized. 


Professor Todd read a paper on the distribution of forests in 


= South-western Iowa, with considerations regarding the origin of 
_ prairies, The writer presented facts showing that the position of 
_ prairie and forest is not altogether determined by fires, the fineness 


of the soil, nor even the distribution of rain, but rather by the 


_ constancy of moisture in the air and soil. For ‘example i in South- 


70 Scientific Serials. [ January, 


Garman read a paper on some features of erosion in the tem- 
perate zones. Dec. 5—Mr. S. H. Scudder made a communica- 
tion on certain interesting articulates from the Carboniferous rocks 
of Illinois, and Professor A. Hyatt remarked on the evolution 
of the races of Planorbis multiformis. 


New York Acapemy oF Sciences, Nov. 19.—Professor J. S. 
St. John read a paper on the application of dry plate photogra- 
phy in preparing, without a camera, glass transparencies of sec- 
tions of fossils for projection (with lantern illustrations). Profes- 
sor T. Egleston spoke of some remarkable forms of amethysts 
from Brazil; and Mr. A. A. Julien remarked on the chemical and 
microscopical characters of certain American rocks. 


“SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.! 


QUARTERLY JOURNAL oF MicroscopicaL Science.—October. 
Loxosoma, by Carl Vogt. Abstracted and annotated by the Rev. — 
J. Hincks. On the minute structural Relations of the Red — 
Blood Corpuscles, by A. Boettcher. Notes on the Embryology 
and Classification of the Animal Kingdom: comprising a Revis- _ 
ion of Speculations relative to the Origin and Significance of the — 
Germ-layers, by E. R. Lankester. 1 


Tae GeotocicaL Macazine.—November. American Surface — 
Geology, and its relations to British: with some Remarks on Gla- _ 
cial Conditions in oa e “The Great Ice Age” of Mr. — 
James Geikie (Part i.), b V. Wood. Across Europe and — 
Asia, Part vi. Tornsk to Sisk by J. Milne. 


ANNALS AND MaGazineE oF Naturat History. — November. 
On a Carboniferous wera and other “eon from Ayr 
shire, by Prof. and Mr. J. You 


ANNALES DES SCIENCES ea ae 15. Recher i 
_ pour servir à l’Histoire de la Respiration chez les Poissons, par 
_M. Jobert. Recherches pour servir a l'Histoire du Batonnet 
optique chez les Crustacés et les Vers, par J. Chatin. : 


Tue GEOGRAPHICAL Macazi nE—November. Quetta and the 
= Afghans, by H. G. Raverty. The Island of Perim. 


CanapiaAn Enromotocist.—November. Pieris we a yen 
ey of Pjeris protodice, by T. E. Bean. An account of somè 
her experiments upon the effect of cold in changing’ the For 
of certain Butterflies, by W. H. Edwards. 


a The articles enumerated under this head are usually selected. o 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xu.— FEBRUARY, 1878. — No. 2. 


ON THE N RECENTLY eo ea IN THE 
AKOTA BEDS OF COLORAD 


BY E. D. COPE.- 


i las formation known as the Dakota was long since characterized 
by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, from the studies made by the 
latter gentleman, of the great section exhibited by the Missouri 
river. Subsequently Dr. Hayden, then as now, the esteemed di- 
~ rector of the United States Geological Survey of the territories, ob- 
= served and defined the same horizon along the eastern flank of 
_ the Rocky mountains. Doctor J. S. Newberry, in his reports on 


: the. geology of the Colorado basin, has mentioned the same 
_ stratum under the name of Lower Cretaceous sandstone, and I 
~ have in my report to Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler identified that part 
J of these sandstones which is seen in northwestern New Mexico, 
2 with the Dakota. This formation is then one of great extent 
_ and importance. It consists chiefly of sandstones which are 
sometimes so amorphous as to constitute a quartzite. Among 
| _ these are interstratified beds of clay, carbonaceous clay, and lig- 
_ nite, some of which may be used as an inferior fuel. These 

: _ mineral characters show that the formation was, as pointed out 
_ by Prof. Newberry, deposited in shallow water during a 
_ period of subsidence. He remarks that previous to this subsi- 
_ dence there was an extensive land area ; but that it steadily dimin- 
_ ished by the encroachments of the ocean. This period of ex- 
_ tended dry land, would be regarded by many geologists as a part 
_ of the great cretaceous division of time; that occupied in its 
_ sinking, and in the deposit of new pete being now paral- 
_ lelized with the later half of the cretaceous period of the old 
world scale. In any case the deposit of the sands which became 
the Dakota rocks, marks the beginning of the cretaceous ocean 
in North America, and is the No. 1 of Meek and Hayden. - 


VOL, XII.—NO. II 


72 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. (| February, 


Along both the eastern and western flanks of the Rocky 
mountains the Dakota beds form a distinctive feature of the land- 
scape. Their hardness has resisted the effects of erosion so that 
they remain prominent where other beds have been worn away. 
As all the earlier cretaceous strata lie tilted up against the great 
central axis, the harder ones form lines of hills or “ hog backs,” 
while parallel valleys mark the upturned edges of the softer ones. 
This role is played by formation No. 2, as has been often shown 
by Dr. Hayden. The side of the sandstone ridge next the moun- 


tains is steep, while the opposite one is sloping, and the summit is- 


is often a narrow ledge. Onthis elevated perch theancient Pueblos 
of New Mexico fixed their rock built houses, courting one peril to 
escape the greatest of all, the attacks of savage men. To-day these 
ruined abodes form the resting places of the geologist, the true 
lover ofyscenery, who climbs for birds-eye views of his favorite 
subjects, and for clews to many a knotty problem, 
As a shore and shallow water formation, the Dakota should 
enclose the remains of 
js Ss the plants and animals 
SSE | of the land. And plants 
have been found’ in 
abundance, and have 
| been the theme of an 
interesting volume of 


NS 


vertebrate remains 
were until recently un- 


what forms of animal 
life. ranged that unex- 


able continent, is 4 


Fig. 1—Cervical vertebra of Camarasaurus sur excursions among the 
premus. afrom above ; 4 from right side. The neural 


arch is mostly wantin These figures, like all the “hog backs” of Colo- 
others in this paper, are one-tenth natural siz rado and New Mexico; 


and many cliffs have been ‘eye and many fasts endured without | 


result in this direction. 


known. To ascertain — 


plored and unexplor- l 


problem that stimu- : 
lated the writer tomany — 


i 
: 1378. | Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 73 


It was therefore a source of no small gratification to have been 
in receipt of letters from Superintendent O. W. Lucas, of Canyon 
City, and Professor Arthur Lakes, of Morrison (both in Colorado 
and one hundred miles apart), at about the same time, informing 
me of their simultaneous discoveries of vertebrate remains in the 
_ beds of Dakota age, near their respective residences. The bones 
_ obtained by the former were found in a rather friable bed, and 
were easily extracted in good condition. Some of those obtained 
by the latter gentlemen were from a similar or identical formation, 


Fig. 2—Anterior dorsal vertebra of amarasi us supremus from behind. 


while others were embedded in the hard sandstone already men- 

_ tioned. I obtained possession of those from near Canyon city, 
_ while those from near a were purchased for the museum of 
‘Yale college. 

One of the first objects sent by Mr. Lucas is a fragmentary lower 
jaw of a carnivorous dinosaurian, which he found on the surface 
of the ground. This fossil was found to belong to a species here- 
_tofore unknown, which I referred to the genus Lae/aps, under the 
name of Laelaps trihedrodon} The second sending included a num- 
ber of vertebrz, which apparently represent a much more gigantic 
animal, and I believe the largest or most bulky animal capable of _ 
_ progression on land, of which we have any knowledge. This cae | 
: * Bullet. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terrs. ILI, 1877, p. 805. 


74 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado, | February, 


tile I described in my paleontological bulletin No. 26, under the 
name of Camarasaurus supremus. Subsequent sendings included , 
many of the more important bones of the skeleton, which render 


Fig. 4. Fig. 3. 
m Fig. 3—Dorsal vertebra represented in Fig. 1, the right sight side. Fig. 4—A 
caudal vertebra viewed from behind. 


it comparatively easy to determine the general character of this 
monster. Later collections received from Mr. Lucas include the 
teeth of two large species of a new genus which has been charac $ 
terized under the name of Caulodon ; and the vertebrze of tw a . 
genera new to science, which I have named Tichosteus and Sym- | 
Phyrophus. He also procured remains of two additional forms of 


new genus Amphicelias. A species. of tortoise was associated 
with these saurians, and appears to have been abundant. It is — 
the oldest species of the order yet obtained from American for — 
mations, and is not very different from existing forms. 

_ The species of Camarasaurus and Amphicelias, which attained to 
the most gigantic proportions, are remarkable for the light con- 
struction of the vertebrz anterior to the tail. In both gener 


1878. ] Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 75 


the centra of dorsal vertebra are hollow, including two large cham- 
bers which are separated by a longitudinal median wall, and 
communicate with the cavity ofthe body by a foramen on each side. 
This is well exhibited by a centrum shown in fig. 6, from which 
the anterior wall has been removed, and the mineral contents of the 
chambers extracted. The communication of the latter with the ab- 
dominal cavity is seen on the left side, while the foramen of the right 
side (of the figure) is concealed by its anterior border, which 
remains. 


Fig. 5—A median dorsal vertebra seen from behind, showing the hyposphen. Fig, 

entrum of a dorsal vertebra without anterior wall, ig. 7—Caudal vertebra 

shown in fig. 4, from the right side. Fig. 8—A more posterior caudal, end view of 
the centrum, 

They are also remarkable for the enormous elevation of the 
superior arches, and diapophyses, the result of which is to give the 
ribs an unusually elevated basis, and the cavity of the body 
__ imuch space above the vertebral axis on each side. On the other 


76 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado, | February, 


hand the bones of the tail and limbs are solid or nearly so,in 
great contrast with some of the Dinosauria of later geological | 
periods. E 
The manner of the mutual articulation of the arches of the l 
vertebræ in the genera Camarasaurus and Amphicelias is very 
peculiar, and has not been observed in any other animals. 
The anterior zygapophyses are separated by a deep fissure, l 
while the posterior zygapophyses are united on the middle line. 
From the latter from the point of junction, there descends a ver- 
tical plate which rapidly expands laterally, forming a wedge 
whose base looks downward. The supero-lateral faces are flat, 
and articulate with corresponding facets on the inferior side of the 
anterior zygapophyses, which look downward and inward, on 
each side of the fissure above described. When in relation, the 
anterior zygapophyses occupy a position between the posterior 
zygapophyses above, and the Ayposphen, as I have termed the in- 
ferior reverse wedge, below. This arrangement accomplishes the 
purpose effected by the zygosphenal articulation, that is the 
strengthening of the articulation between the neural arches, but in 
a different way. The additional articulation is placed at the opposite 
extremity of the vertebre, and it is the anterior zygapophysis in- 
stead of the posterior one which is embraced. This structure enti- 
tles the genera which possess it to family rank, and as the two 
genera mentioned above belong to different families in conse- 
quence of the different types of vertebral centra, the one opis- 
thoccelous, the other amphiccelous, they have been called Camara- 
sauride and Amphicelide respectively. 


This structure is readily seen by reference to Figs. 5 and 13, 
where it is represented in the vertebrae of the two genera from 
behind. In Fig. 2 it is replaced by a stouter vertical plate of 
bone, which spreads out a little below. It is seen in profile in 

ig. 3. It is not present in the vertebre of the tail. 

-© The characters of the genus Camarasaurus are derived from 
nearly all portions of the skeleton excepting the skull and 
ungues. The bones are generally in good preservation. 

The vertebrze of the cervical, dorsal and lumbar region are all 
opisthoccelous or reversed ball and socket. The centra of the — 
cervicals are very elongate, but those which follow them diminish — - 

_ rapidly in length, until in the lumbar region they have but asmall 
= anteroposterior diameter, The anterior caudal vertebra are also 


1878. } Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 77 


very short and wide; but the length of the centra gradually 

increases, so that the distal ones are quite elongate. The caudal 

centra are all moderately amphiccelous. 
| The sacrum is short and consists of only four vertebral centra, 
thoroughly coossified. The anterior articular extremity is convex; 
that of the posterior extremity slightly 
concave. Its transverse processes are 
like those of the other vertebrae, muc 
elevated, although they spring from the 
centra. The external face of their bases 
is not prominent, and the spaces between 
their projecting portions are deeply exca- 
vated. The centra are like those of the 
caudal vertebrz, composed of dense bone. 
The extremities of the adjacent transverse 
processes are united, thus enclosing large 
foramina. 

The scapula is relatively of large size. 
It is rather elongate, and the superior ex- 
tremity is expanded. There is a very 
large mesoscapular process, which is 
wanting in Cetiosaurus, according to Phil- 
lip’s figures. It appears to resemble the 
scapula in Dystropheus.' (See Fig. 10.) 

The coracoid bone is of proportionately 
small size. It is of an irregularly quad- 

Fig. 9——View of the right rate form, with the proximal extremity 
side of the dorsal vertebra of 
Camarasaurussupremus,rep- the shortest. The articular face is large, 
resented in Fig. 5. and is presented obliquely away from 
Pe the long axis of the plate. There are no emarginations nor in- 
_ termediate processes, and the perforating foramen is well removed 
» from the border. 

Pelvic bones of two forms are present. Neither of them 

_ resembles pelvic bones of Dinosauria, and are least of all similar 
to the forms of ilium which are known in that order. One of 

_them is a robust L-shaped bone, one limb of which is expanded 
into a wide fan-shaped plate; and the other is stouter and of sub- 
equal width, terminating in a stout sub-triangular articular 
extremity. 


1See Report Lt. Wheeler, Vol. IV, pl. LX XXIII, p. 31. 


TE By ages OE Re 
WHEN Seat OR ee 
ee) pS 


_[February, 


Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 


78 


TRS 


SAER 


- T 


Fig. 10—The right scapula of Camarasaurus supremus, external view. 


1878. | Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 79 


But one species of Camarasaurus has as yet been discovered. 
This I have named C. supremus, in allusion to its huge size. The 
bones, so far discovered by Mr. Lucas, are: a cervical and twenty 
dorsal and lumbar vertebre, with twenty caudals. Both scapulz and 
coracoids were recovered, with one-half of the sacrum, and two 
pairs of pelvic bones. Of the hind limb I have the femur, with 


Figs. 11, 12——Pelvic bones of Camarasaurus supremus. 


a tibia less certainly belonging to the same animal, although found 
among the other bones. There is one metapodial. There are many 


= other bones which I have not yet reconstructed or determined. ` 


80 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. [ February, 


The dimensions of this animal may be inferred from the fact 
that the cervical vertebra is twenty inches in length and twelve 
in transverse diameter; and that one of the dorsals measures 
three and a half feet in the spread of its diapophyses, two and a 
half feet in elevation, and the centrum thirteen inches in transverse 
diameter. Another dorsal is two feet ten inches in elevation. 

The femur already mentioned is six feet, and the scapula five 


ees 


Fig. 13. Fig. 14. 


Fig. a vertebra of Amphicelias altus seen from behind, exhibiting the 
hen ; 


Fig. 14-—The vertebra represented in Fig. 13 seen from the right side, brag st 
the excavaticns of the neural arch and spine, and the a foramen of the 
centrum, 


and a half feet in length. The posterior dorsal vertebra exceed | 


1878. ] Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 8i 


in dimensions those of any known saurian, equaling those of the 
right whale. The centra measure sixteen inches in transverse 
diameter. The neck was probably ten feet in length. 

That this species was capable of and accustomed to progres- 
sion on land, is certain from the characters of the bones of the 
limbs and their supports above described. The extraordinary 
provision for lightening the weight of a portion of the skeleton 
has more than one significance. It must be borne in mind that 
the caudal vertebræ retain the solid character seen in those gen- 
era which stood habitually on their hind limbs. That the present 
species was herbivorous is suggested simply by its huge dimen- 
sions, and the natural difficulty of supplying itself with animal 
food. 

The scapula is enormous as compared with the pelvic bones. 
The sacrum is also small and short, showing that the weight was 
not borne on the hinder limbs. The great length of the humerus 
in the probably allied genus Dystrophæus, from the Trias of Utah, 
adds to the probability that the same bones were large in Cama- 
ràsaurus. This character, taken in connection with the remark- 
ably long neck possessed by that genus, suggests a resemblance 
in form and habits between those huge reptiles and the giraffe: 
While some of the later Dinosauria elevated themselves on their 
hind limbs to reach the tree-tops on which they fed, the general 
form of the body in some of these earlier types enabled them to 
reach their food without the anterior limbs leaving the earth. 

The vertebra from all parts of the column of Camarasaurus are 
known, and those of the dorsal and lumbar regions present the 
extraordinary character, of which a trace is seen in Cetiosaurus, 
of neural spines expanded transversely to the axis of the column. 


_ Numerous vertebrz of Amphicelias are known, and in the dor- 


-sals in which the neural spine is preserved, the latter displays the 
usual form, that is, it is compressed in the direction of the axis of 
the column. The centra differ from those of Camarasaurus in 
the form of their articular extremities, resembling more nearly in 
_ this respect the genus Zichosteus Cope (Paleontological Bulletin, 
No. 26, p. 194). They are unequally amphiccelous, the posterior 
extremity being more concave, and with prominent margins; 
while the opposite one is less expanded, and is but slightly con- 


. cave, The neural arch is codéssified to the centrum, and there is 


no capitular costal articulation on the latter. 


82 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. [¥ebruary, 


The lightness of construction 
ofthe vertebrz of this genus is as 
remarkable as in the Camarasau- 
rus, but is differently exhibited. 
The greater fore and aft extent 
is seen in the fossz, which are 
therefore not so deeply excava- 
ted as in that genus, but the os- 
seous walls are not less lightened 
and attenuated. The elevation 
Jof the middle line of the back 
must have been extraordinary in 
the Amphicelias altus (Figs. 13, 


tthe sum- 


=_= 
we 
= 
Sa 


mit of the neural spine indicates 
the strength of the longitudinal 
ligament which connected the 
vertebræ with each other and 
with the head. 

The femur of Amphicælias 
altus is remarkable for its slen- 
der form. It is a few inches 
longer than that of the Cam- 
arasaurus supremus, but is not 
so robust. The shaft is nearly 
round and somewhat contracted 
at the middle, where it is slight- 
ly convex backwards. It is 
slightly curved inwards at the 
great trochanter. Here the shaft 
is moderately grooved on the 
posterior face. This trochanter 
is only a prominent ledge below 
the head. The third trochanter 
is situated a little above the mid- 
dle of the shaft; it is a promi- 
nent obtuse ridge directed back- 
wards. The condyles are €X- 
tended well posteriorly, and arè — 
= “/ separated by a deep popliteal 
Saaana --* proove, which originates on the 


Fig. 15—Femur of Amphicelias altus, Seen from the inner posterior direction, 


1878.] Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. 83 - 


inferior portion of the shaft. They are also separated anteriorly 
by a shallow open groove. The external condyle is rather more 
robust than the internal. 

The length of the femur is six feet four inches; the elevation 


a 4 
Fig. 16—A caudal vertebra of A mphicælias 
latus; a from before, b from the left side. 


of the dorsal vertebra three feet 
three inches. The animal, if pro- 
portioned anteriorly like the Cam- 
arasaurus supremus, must have 
been able to elevate itself to a 
height of thirty feet. Its length 
cannot yet be conjectured. 

If inthis fauna, the Camarasaurus 
Supremus was preeminent in gen- 
eral proportions, and the Amphi- 
celias altus was the tallest, the 
Amphicelias latus was the most ` 
robust. It is represented in Mr. 
Lucas’ collection by a right femur 
and four caudal vertebree which 
are in good preservation. They 
reveal the existence of another 
saurian of huge dimensions, and . 

Fig. 17—Left femur of Amphicelias Of great mass in proportion to 
 Žatus, from behind. its height. 

The caudal vertebrae are apparently from the anterior part of 
the series. They are all strongly biconcave; the anterior face 
- more so than the posterior. They are much more deeply bicon- 


84 Saurians of the Dakota Beds of Colorado. (February, 


cave than those of the Camarasaurus supremus; and also differ in 
their relatively and absolutely greater breadth of body. 

The femur is extraordinarily robust. The great trochanter is 
low, but the shaft is widest where it expands outward. ‘The third 
trochanter is a ridge, is above the middle, and is short and little 
prominent. It is on the inner edge of the posterior aspect of the 
shaft, and looks backwards and inwards. The shaft in its present 

_ state is compressed so as to reduce the antero-posterior diameter. 
It is not however crushed or cracked. The condyles have much 
greater transverse than antero-posterior extent. They are mod- 
erately produced backward, and are separated by a deep pop- 
liteal groove, while the anterior trochlear groove is wide and 
well marked. The inner condyle is narrowed posteriorly, while 
the external one is obtuse and robust. Their articular faces are 
marked with irregular pits as in Dystropheus and Cetiosaurus. 

The length of this bone is fifty inches and the thickness four- 
teen inches. The body of the caudal vertebra is ten inches in 
transverse diameter. 

The character of the articular surfaces of the bones of the 
limbs already mentioned is a peculiarity of Camarasaurus as well 

as of the genera named. It indicates a thick cartilaginous cap 
of the bones, which, if ossified, would be an epiphysis like that 
of the Mammalia. I first observed this character in the Dys- — 
tropheus viemale, a huge saurian discovered by Prof. J. S. New- 
berry in the red rocks of the Painted Canyon, near the Sierra La 
Sal, in south-eastern Utah, and described by myself in Lieut 
Wheeler’s final report. The bed from which it was derived is 
supposed to be of Triassic or Jurassic age. It had an enormous i 
scapula like Camarasaurus, and a long straight humerus; its toes 
were short. It was probably a predecessor of the gigantic forms 
from the Dakota formation, and an inhabitant of a more ancient 
continent. It did not reach the dimensions of either of the species — 
of the genus above-named, or of Amphicelias, having been only 
as large as an elephant. eo 


SLES ere TTR) Oe RS Ps RL maar A © yee ite 


3 


- The genus Tickosteus included a species not larger than an 

‘alligator. Its vertebræ were hollow, but the internal chamber 
did not communicate with the body cavity. The only known 
species of Symphyrophus was of similar size, but the vertebral — 


__. bodies were solid. Some of the numerous crocodile-like teeth 


_ found by Mr. Lucas probably belong to species of these genera 


i A 3 
| 18784} Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. 85 


Dr. Hayden visited the locality of Mr. Lucas’ excavations, and 
informs me that the formation from which the Camarasaurus was 


_ obtained, is the Dakota. Prof. Marsh has attempted to identify 


what is, according to Prof. Mudge, the same horizon, one hundred 
miles north of Canyon City, with the Wealden of England. 
Specimens from the northern locality which I have examined 
render it certain that the horizon is that of Mr. Lucas’ excava- 
tions. Of this I may say that there is no palzontological evi- 
dence of its identity with the Wealden. The resemblance of the 
vertebrate fossils to those of the English Oolite is much greater, 
but not sufficient as yet for identification. 

The discovery of Vertebrata in the strata of the Dakota epoch 
is an important addition to the geology and palzontology of 
North America. Credit is due to Superintendent O. W. Lucas 
for this discovery, and also in an especial manner for the skill and 
care he has exercised in taking out and shipping the ponderous 
specimens. 


20% 


THE DISCOLORED WATERS OF THE GULF OF CALI- 
FORNIA. 


BY THOS. H. STREETS, M.D., U. S.-N. 


NE of the earliest names given by the old Spanish navigators 
to the body of water that lies between the peninsula of Lower 


= California and the western coast of Northern Mexico was the 
- Vermilion sea. It was also known in the earlier times as the Mar 
_ de Cortez, and Mar Laurentano; or the Mar Vermiglion, Mar 
Rojo, and Mar Vermijo, on account of the reddish color of its 
3 -= waters; and more recently as the Mar, or Gulfo, de California. 


The names Vermiglion, Vermijo, and Rojo seem to have been 


_ applied as early as between the years 1537 and 1540, after the 
= explorations of Ulloa and Alarcon, and from the accounts given 
_ of it by Nuño de Guzman and his officers, who were the con- 
= querors and rulers of Sinaloa, a state bordering on the gulf. 


In all these narratives, however, it is well to note that two 


entirely distinct causes of discoloration are confounded. Father 
_ Consag and Ugarte, in particular, speak of the brick-colored cor- 
_rosive water of the gulf-head, which is altogether different from 


the more vermilion-colored patches at the mouth of the gulf, 
which were, doubtless, what suggested the name Vermilion sea. 


86 Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. [February, 


J. Ross Browne, at a recent date, and before him De Mofras, 
discredited the statements of the old Spanish sailors, and attribu- 
ted the red color to the reflection in the water of the brilliant, 
rosy-tinted clouds of sunset. 

We had ample opportunity to verify the truth of the Spanish — 
account during the extended survey of the gulf and its shores by 
the U. S. Steamer “ Narragansett,” in 1875. 

We first saw patches of the red water south of Ciralbo island. 
The steamer was stopped and a bucket was thrown overboard to _ 
secure some of it for examination. The water thus procured — 
revealed nothing when subjected to the test of the microscope; it | 

. 


wa a ne A a ath pa 


a ae C P 


was perfectly transparent. The failure to discover the cause in 
this instance was due to the fact that the coloring matter does 
not float upon the top of the water, but is suspended several feet 
below; and when this was ascertained, by putting a lead inthe — 
bucket and sinking it a half fathom or more below the surface, 
there was no difficulty in obtaining all that was desired. 


When first drawn up and viewed in a glass vessel by the un- _ 
aided eye the water had a faint reddish tinge. When allowed to 
stand for a half hour the coloring matter settled to the bottom of 
the vessel as a greenish-yellow precipitate; and when some of this 
was taken up by a pipette and examined under the microscope, it — 
was seen to be composed of minute roundish bodies. Further on 
these were proven to be the remains of ciliate infusoria. 

The latter fact was not discovered, however, until after much 
painstaking investigation. Some small objects had been seen — 
repeatedly to dart across the fiéld of vision when the water was — 
placed fresh upon the glass slide, but they disappeared as they — 
came, like a flash, and it was a long time before their disappeat- 
ance could be satisfactorily accounted for. The molecules were 
the only bodies that were permanent, and I was inclined to 
attribute to them the phenomenon of the water. Finally, one of 
the little bodies mentioned above stopped directly i in the centre of 


us search for, there was no difficulty in seeing the same process 
oS Sees again and again. 


1878. ] Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. 87 


Mr. Darwin in his “ Naturalists Voyage Around the World,” 
encountered a patch of similarly discolored water off the coast of 
Peru. According to his account, the water when examined by 
the microscope was “seen to swarm with minute animalcule dart- 
ing about and often exploding. Their shape is oval and con- 
tracted in the middle by a ring of vibrating curved cilia. It was, 
however, very difficult to examine them with care, for almost the 
instant motion ceased, even while crossing the field of vision, 
their bodies burst.” From the foregoing it is evident that the 
water of the two localities is discolored alike by the same cause. 

Those from the Gulf of California exhibited the same rapid 
to and fro motion as the ones seen by Darwin, and this 
motion was succeeded by a rotatory movement on the longer 
axis. Sometimes the rupture took place as soon as the latter 
motion ceased, and at other times the animal was motionless fora 
few moments preceding its final dissolution; and it was during 
these intervals of quiescence, only now and then observed, that 
anything like a correct impression of its general outline and 
structure could be gained. The following is the result of numer- 
ous observations extending over considerable time. The animal 
is oval in outline, with a projecting lip at its broad extremity, 
fringed with cilia. The rotatory movement took place around the 
smaller end as a pivot, and it advanced the same end in its to and 
fro movements. The envelope is a transparent and, apparently, 
structureless membrane, and in its interior are greenish-yellow 
granules, or bodies with dark rims and bright centres. These 
= bodies floated loosely in the cavity of the animal, for when it 
revolved they changed their places like pebbles in a revolving 
_ cask. They averaged about the 1-12000 of an inch in diameter. 
_ According to Mr. Darwin the bursting, which generally oc- 
a curred at the extremities of the body, is due to an expansion of the 
 tegumentary covering. I can not reconcile this with the results of 
_ my own observations. On the contrary, I noticed a contraction 
-= to take place in the transverse axis of the body; its length was 
_ increased and its transverse diameter diminished; in other words, 
-the oval form was replaced by an oblong. This will better illus- 
_ trate why the rupture generally took place at one of the extremi- 
ties of the body. If these observations are correct the bursting 
of the envelope would be the result of an active rather than a 
passive action. The only reasonable way of accounting for an- 
; . : 


VOL, XII.—No. II. 


Teu a a Oe SEE eRe RE, n u a a a ee Meee Re Sk ae mena. R aA A ita a a a a a AA 


88 Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California, | February, 


expansion of the body-covering would be by an imbibition of 
water from the outside, and a rupture would as Pa occur in one 
place as in another in such a case. 

- When confined in a drop of water, or in an animalcula cage, 
the little animals never lived as long as a minute, the field of vis- 
ion was often strewn with their remains before the observer had 
time to look through the tube of the microscope. This was espe- 
cially the case if some time had elapsed since their removal from 
the sea. When kept ina bucket or in any vessel containing a 
large quantity of water they lived for a much longer time. 

Many experiments were made with destructive agents with the 
view of killing the animalcule before they had time to destroy 
themselves, but the results were unsatisfactory. In every instance 
they failed to accomplish the end for which they were used; if 
they served any purpose it was to accelerate the process of self- 
destruction. 

The only explanation that I can give for this suicidal propen- 
sity lies in the abstraction of oxygen from the water; yet this 
appears somewhat exceptional in view of the fact that this gas is 
rather immaterial to the existence of the low, structureless forms 
of animal life. The bacteria, for instance, will flourish in infusions 
that have been boiled and hermetically sealed. 

We have a record of these minute animals having been in this 
locality for more than three hundred years, defying the combined 
action of the winds, waves, and currents, and remaining as closely — 
aggregated as a community of individuals endowed with reason 
or instinct, and not exposed to dispersing causes. They appar- — 
ently have great control over their movements, at least so far as ; 
regards the fixity of their positions. 4 

The great Colorado River, at the head of the gulf, constantly 
pours into it an immense volume of water which has a tendency — 
to carry things seaward, as it does logs and other drift; yet here 
is this microscopic animal, the 1-1000 of an inch long, exposed — 
to the same influence, but remaining in its chosen locality for 
centuries. What keeps these masses together forever in one 
place in spite of the circulation of the waters on the surface of 
the earth? Well might the question have presented itself to the 
_ mind of Darwin, but his meee imagination suggested no nee 

solution for it. 
-Other r patches of discolored water obey the same impulse 


1878. | Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. 89 


1835 Mr. Darwin investigated that off the coast of Peru. The 

earliest notice we have of its existence in that locality is the be- 

ginning of the nineteenth century, and a good authority might be » 
cited for its existence there as late as 1872. In the latter year 

while sailing down the eastern coast of South America we passed 

through a tract, while off the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where 

the surface of the water was covered with a thick scum, resembling 

saw-dust. Darwin, in 1832, or forty years previous, found it 

further north, in the vicinity of the Abrolhos Islets. In this case 

the material that discolors the water belongs to the vegetable 

kingdom. It is a “ minute cylindrical conferva,” the 7richodesmium 

erythreum. According to Ehrenberg, the color of the water of 
the Red Sea is due to the presence of a “ peculiar genus of alga,” 

and Darwin states, on another authority, that it is the same species 

as that found off the coast of Brazil. In the latter locality it 
would certainly argue a defect of the vision to call the water red. 

Old sailors call it whales’ feed, which, with them, is the generic 
title of everything that discolors the water of the ocean. 


EP eee a a a 


Ne ET EY EE 


=- “The brick-colored and corrosive waters of certain parts of the 
gulf-head ” received an easier solution at our hands than the more 
vermilion patches of the mouth of the gulf. The former is spoken 
of as being so extremely caustic as to remove the skin from the 
body like a blister, and to cause obstinate boils and ulcers, similar 
to those produced by scurvy, and which lasted for a long time. Some 
have gone so far as to even state that it would rot the clothes of 
those who were incautious in meddling with it. A recent com- 
piler has endeavored to account for this peculiar property of the 
water on the supposition of an “excess of the iodides, bromides 
and sulphurets of minerals, derived, doubtless, from the abundance 
of volcanic material so common in these portions of the gulf.” 
_ But as is common in such cases of explanatory guessing, his an- 
_. Swer is not the true one. 

Most of our information concerning this water has come down ` 
to us with the accounts of the voyages of Father Consag and 
Ugarte, both of whom confined their explorations, in these parts, 
to the head waters of the gulf; the former in 1746, and the latter 
in 1721. 


Ee ney Mone ie Soe See eee ere 


Se ee p 


ple Ae ee toe eee ae 


_ We encountered this peculiar caustic water in about the same 
__ locality assigned it by Consag and others. In the Bay of Muleje, 
_ an indentation in the coast more than half way up the peninsula, 


\ - 
90 Discolored Waters of the Gulf of California. [February, 


the whole surface of the water was of a milky-red color. The 
body that gives to this water the strangely caustic properties is 
not a mineral, but an animal—a flagellate infusorium—the common 
Noctiluca miliaris. In this well-sheltered bay they accumulate 
from their light specific gravity at the top of the water. How 
thick the stratum was we did not ascertain, but we may form 
some idea of its extent from the fact that we steamed through the 
tract in a straight line for four or five hours at a speed of about 
five knots per hour. We dipped a canvas bucket in their midst, 
and when the water drained off it remained half filled with the 
animalcule. They resemble minute grains of boiled sago. Every 
drop of water was literally crowded with them. They were so 
small that it required two or three to cover the area of a pin’s 
head. It is very easy to comprehend how, if this bay were 
agitated by the slightest cause, it would glow as a broad sheet of 
living fire. 

The Spanish sailors bathed in this water, and according to ~ 
their chroniclers their bodies were covered with boils and ulcers — 
in consequence. They were only half-way right when they at- — 
tributed their infirmities to the water. The lashes of the little — 
noctiluca were, undoubtedly, the exciting agents—the direct cause 
of their troubles; but that they were insufficient, in themselves, 
-to account for the severity of the symptoms the evidence of our — 
own men under different conditions of bodily health sufficiently — 
proves. That their ulcers were similar to the effects of scurvy — 
they recognized; and that a scorbutic condition of the blood — 
played an important part in their production is evident. All — 
sailors in those days were more or less the subjects of scurvy, which 
was a greater obstacle to the spread of commerce than were the 
small crafts of the navigators. It is a disease that often manifests 
itself in the form of boils and ulcers, and it exaggerates all trivial 
bruises and injuries of the skin. If our own sailers had been 
. scorbutic when they bathed in the water the same train of symp- 
toms would undoubtedly have followed; and, as it was, the skin, 
in places, became considerably inflamed and swollen, but the only 
disagreeable symptoms were the burning and tingling that ac 
companied the inflammation, which was of short duration. 


1878.] Distribution of Timber and the Origin of Prairies. QI 


NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF TIMBER IN 
SOUTH -WESTERN IOWA, WITH INFERENCES 
CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF PRAIRIES’ 


BY- -PROF -J E TODD. 


PON the bluff deposit of Western Iowa is found an unusually 

favorable field for testing the theories concerning the much- 
vexed question of the origin of prairies, or rather the origin of 
forests, for doubtless the former are necessarily the older condi- 
tions of most regions. 

The soil over wide areas is almost perfectly uniform, and so 
deep that no underlying formation can thrust in its influence to 
complicate the problem. The surface is almost infinitely varied; 
the high plain which is the summit of the loess, the low alluvial 
plains and hill-sides and bluff-sides presenting every conceivable 
angle of inclination, and dipping in every possible direction. To 
produce even greater variety, ledges of rock and knolls of gravel 
occasionally appear. 

L 


In such a region timber occurs in the following circumstances: 

(1.) In the hill-regions where the slopes are inclined from 5° 
to 10°, it is found much the most generally on the northern 
Slopes just south of creeks flowing east or west. This was noted 
some years since, by Mr. J. A. Allen. 

Timber is found in the same region a little less frequently on 
western slopes, east of creeks flowing north or south. On the 
same streams considerable timber may occasionally be found on 
_ the west side. All other portions of the hill region are uniformly 
destitute of trees. 

(2.) In the bluff region, where the slopes are from 10° to 45°, 


e 
E, 
a 
d 


through Mills and Pottawattamie counties, with a narrowing and 


_ western ridge of bluffs, leaving the slopes facing the bottom land 
_ bare, except in two well-marked cases; the first, when a lake, 


-~ 1 Read before the Iowa Academy of Science, September 26, 1877. 


s j 
92 Distribution of Timber and the Origin of Prairies. | February, 


slough or stream comes close to the base of the bluffs; the sec- 
ond, when the bluff-side is deeply furrowed with ravines. In the 
former case the slopes are covered with bushes and scrub-oaks, 
often quite to the top. In the latter, the ravines are wooded, — 
usually with the trees extending considerably higher on the j 
south side than upon the north, and often the latter is scarcely 
wooded at all. These points are very evident to one riding over 
the bottom lands so far away as to get a general view. 
(3.) In the low alluvial valleys, the timber is found along the 
streams, usually in narrow strips, widening to fill the bends, and 
usually wider on the east and north sides of the stream. All 
other portions of the bottom lands are remarkably destitute of 
trees and bushes. 


H: 


The timbered areas are very constant, increasing very slowly if 
at all. This is indicated by the existence of old trees, over two hun- 
dred years old, within four or five rods of prairie, and the prairie 
showing no signs of having been previously timbered. Some of 
these cases were on the north side of groves, which side is most — 
exposed to prairie fires, as the north-west wind usually prevails _ 
when the prairies are burning. Moreover after a personal 
acquaintance for the past twenty-five years with numerous locali- 
ties in this region where the annual fires have been kept out, the 
writer has not yet learned of a single case where the advance of 
the timber has been more than five rods, and in the great majority _ 
of cases it has not been as many feet. He has not noted any © 
cases of any destruction of timber by prairie fires except on the 


sand bars, “break offs,” and where freshets break the turf, or 
cover it with a layer of bare earth. From such beginnings som 
times thrifty groves result, but quite as frequently the trees $0 
started barely hold their own against their herbaceous foes, if not 
assisted by the favoring hand of man. In the slow advance of 
groves before alluded to, the Rus glabra takes the front rank, 
_ and the hazel follows, preparing the way for elms, hickories, et 


1878.] Distribution of Timber and the Origin of Prairies. 93 
HI. 


These are the observed facts; wnat is their bearing on some of 
the theories advanced by different writers? 

(1.) We find in Dr. White’s report on the Geology of Iowa, 
Vol. 1, page 133, these words: “It now remains to say without 
the least hesitation that żke real cause of the present existence of 
the prairies in Towa is the prevalence of annual fires. If these had 
been prevented fifty years ago, Ilowa would now be a timbered, 
instead of a prairie state. This view was fully endorsed by his 
assistant, Professor St. John. Although the distribution of trees 
as given above may seem to favor this theory, when we remem- 
ber that fires occur mainly while the north-west winds prevail, 
‘and though it may be a slight factor in the problem, yet its inad- 
equacy is clearly proved, not only by the constancy of timber 
areas whether the fires burn or not, but also indirectly, by their 
failing to make prairies of Ohio and New York, when the princi- 
ple is made of general application. Dr. Newberry from a general 
survey of the subject, pronounces the idea “simply pees 
(Geology of Ohio, Vol. 1, page 30). 

(2.) Professor J. D. Whitney has recently taken pains to reit- 
erate his theory published some years ago, viz: that the cause of 
prairies, at least in states east of the Missouri river, is mainly 
in the fineness and depth of the soil, which he further ascribes to 

_ the nature and position of the rocks underlying. This theory is 
sufficiently disproved by the. observations given above. In 
exactly the same soil totally different results are discovered, 

_(3.) The theory that ‘the absence of trees is mainly dependent 
on the rain-fail, as is very generally held, is also proved to be 
faulty, if not false, for there is every reason to believe the rain- 
fall the same over most of the area under consideration. There 


American NATURALIST (October, 1876), in which he shows from 
Smithsonian rain-charts that the forest region of several States 
receives the least rain-fall, and the prairie region the greatest. 
 (4.) The theory advocated, as we understand, by Colonel J. W. 
Foster, and more recently by Dr. Newberry (Geology of Ohio, 
Vol. 1, page 30), is, that forests to flourish need “not so mucha 
profuse as a constant supply of water,” that a deficiency of winter 


94 Distribution of Timber and the Origin of Prairies. | February, 


rains and snow with “occasional though rare seasons of excessive 
dryness” characterize the prairie regions. This seems to come 
nearer explaining general facts, but though the underlying cause 
may be correct, viz: constant moisture, the means. by which it is 
secured is certainly not that needed to explain the particular 
cases before us, for both timber and prairie, in the region under 
consideration, has, as before stated, the same rains and the same 
droughts. 
IV. 


From these theories, then, we have found nothing helpful for 
solving our problems, unless it be the idea of the constancy of 
moisture. Furthermore it seems quite clear that there is nothing 
very variable in the region observed, except the surface of the 
land and the distribution of streams. Can these factors secure 
the constancy of moisture required, in the circumstances where 
we have found trees, and the lack of such constancy where we 
do not find them? Let us see. 

(1.) This constancy of moisture must be in one or both the 
media, in which the trees are located, viz: the soil and the aif, 
and it is reasonable to presume that this constancy is to be looked 
for when the forces of vegetable life are in activity. Excess or 
lack of moisture at other times may be safely ignored. 

(2.) We can readily see that moisture of the soil will be more 
constant on northern slopes than southern, because they are not — 
so much exposed to the sun’s heat. In spring they are many 
days later in drying up, so also after showers, and at certain 
degrees of humidity of the air, the northern slope may act as 4 
condenser, thus collecting the moisture, which the opposite hill- 
side is giving off. These processes also affect the air, tending t° — 
secure a greater constancy on the northern slope. Moreover the 
same slope would be more protected, by its position, from the 
summer south wind, which occasionally is very hot and dry. 
These considerations may sufficiently account for the timber 
occurring on northern slopes and for its absence, in general, from 
southern slopes. 

(3.) The prevailing winds of the region are westerly in sprig 
and summer, This perhaps may sufficiently explain the Pf 
ponderance of timber areas on the east side of streams flow- 
ing south, especially where the streams are of considerable 
~ size, and affording better opportunity for evaporation. Ths 


1878.] Distribution of Timber and the Origin of Prairies. 95 


combined with the increased roughness of the surface of the 
country, may also go far toward explaining the timber belt 
observed in the bluff region. This becomes more obvious 
when we remember that the east side of the Missouri bot- 
tom lands, in the particular counties through which the tim- 
ber belt passes, abound in sloughs and lakes, which are kept well 
filled by numerous springs and small streams, which fail to make 
_ their way across the bottom land to the river. 
4 These causes also explain the occurrence of timber on the 
= west face of the bluffs, where the moisture in the air counteracts 
the severe drainage of the abrupt slope and the intense drying 
action of the afternoon sun, which render other portions of the 
__ bluff-face almost destitute of even grass. 
(4.) It remains to explain, if possible, the distribution of tim- 
d ber and prairie in the alluvial valleys or bottom lands.’ Here we 
have usually a slightly different soil, layers of clay preventing the 
ready drainage of many parts. These conditions render much of 
the surface too wet at all times, while other places are too wet in 
spring and too dry in late summer. These areas are found mostly 
_ in the eastern portion of the Missouri river bottom, because the 
surface there is lower and receives the water from springs and’ 
freshets from the bluff-region. The occurrence of trees along 
__ the streams and on ridges along old channels, on the other hand, 
_ may be explained partially by the inequality of surface, making 
_ the drainage of surplus water possible, so that moisture around 
_ the roots is more constant than elsewhere on the bottoms. The 
_ prairie fires, moreover, have been more efficient over the dryer 
~ portions of the bottom lands than elsewhere, because of the 
_ greater growth of grass and the free sweep for winds north and 
south 


V: 


That the constancy of the humidity of air and soil is the most 
important factor in the formation of forests seems supported by 
further considerations taken from a wider field, which may be 
briefly indicated as follows: This theory explains the timber in 
areas of less rain-fall in northern Michigan and Wisconsin by 
their being traversed by moist winds, and not as subject to the 
hot rays of the sun as the southern portions of the same states. 
It explains the occurrence of timber upon mountains by a sub- 
stitution of altitude for latitude in the preceding cases. It 


96 United States Survey of the Territories. | February, 


explains the distribution of timber in slightly hilly and level 
regions like the one under consideration, as has been shown 
above. It explains the existence of prairies where the rain-fall 
may be extreme even, for the precipitation of moisture may be 
caused by extreme changes of temperature, and the changeable 
climate which may produce much rain may also produce intervals 
of great dryness. It explains why the timber areas may some- 
times correspond to geological formations, as urged by Professor 
Whitney. The soil either carrying the rain-fall away rapidly or 
retaining it; either cutting off the surface from the springs of 
water below, or drawing it up like a sponge; either rendering the 
climate more uniform by its better conducting power, or allowing 
the changes of the atmosphere to govern too perfectly the tem- 
perature of the surface of the ground. It may explain to some 
degree the fact that the grass of the prairie prevents the advance 
of timber in a hilly region by its preventing the showers entering 
and moistening the roots of larger forms of vegetable life. It 
also suggests certain means for securing the healthy and contin- 
- ued growth of groves, indicating the more favorable positions for 
them, showing methods of economizing the rain-fall in places 
where it may be scanty, etc. 

In conclusion, therefore, while acknowledging that prairie fires, 
=- the amount and distribution of rain-fall, the nature of the soil, 
the temperature and inclination of surface, that all may have more 
or less importance in explaining the origin of forests and prairies ; 
we may nevertheless be convinced that the fundamental condition 
of forest growth is a constant medium humidity of air and sou, 
Let us, therefore, while not neglecting our pluviometers look more 
carefully to our hygrometers in our study of this subject. 


oo 


THE FIELD-WORK OF THE UNITED STATES GEO- | 
LOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE 
TERRITORIES, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF PROF. 
F. V. HAYDEN, FOR THE SEASON OF 1877. 


N the completion of the survey of Colorado last year, it was de 
termined that the work of the United States Geological and Geo- — 

ee graphical Survey of the Territories, under the direction of Prof. 
-Hayden should continue northward into Wyoming and Idaho. The 
belt of country including the Pacific Railroad having been explor d 


1878. | United States Survey of the Territories, 97 


and mapped in detail by the Survey of the Fortieth Parallel, 
under Clarence King, Esq., it was deemed best to commence at 
the northern line of that work, and continue northward and west- 
ward, taking for the season of 1877 the country from Fort 
Steele, Wyoming Territory, to Ogden, Utah, or, more exactly, 
from longitude 107° to 112°, and northward to the Yellowstone 
Park. ; 
The primary-triangulation party, in charge of Mr. A. D. Wil- 
son, chief topographer of the survey, took the field from Raw- 
lins Springs, W. T. Near this point a base-line was measured 
with great accuracy, from which a net-work of triangles was 
extended over the country to the north and west, locating at 
intervals of from twenty to thirty miles, some prominent peaks 
upon which stone monuments were built, in order that the topog- 
raphers could recognize the points thus fixed for them. Upon 
these points was based the system of secondary triangulation. 

_ From the base at Rawlins, the work was carried northward to 
the Sweetwater mountains, and thence to the Wind River range. 
Upon some of the more prominent peaks of the latter range, such 

as Frémont’s peak, the stations were made with much difficulty, 

owing to the great masses of snow found there during the month 
of June, when the party was working. From this range the 
work was carried across the Green River basin to the mountains 
on the west and north, where several stations were made. The 
work was resumed to the west as far as Fort Hall, Idaho, and 
thence south to the vicinity of Bear lake, where another base, or 
base of verification, was measured; thence south as far as Ogden 
and Evanston, connecting with the triangulation of the Fortieth 

Parallel Survey at these points. From Evanston the party marched 

eastward, making some stations north of the railroad, thus bring- 

ing the work back to the point of beginning, Rawlins Springs, 
where the party was disbanded for the season. 


The area assigned to the Green River division, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Henry Gannett, was rectangle No. 56, which is limited 
_ on the east and west by the meridians of 109° 30’ and 112°, and 
on the north and south by the parallels of 43° and 41° 45’. This 
= is an area of about 11,000 square miles, lying in parts of Wyo- . 
_ ming, Utah and Idaho. The party took the field at Green River 
city, Wyoming, on June Ist. They first surveyed the drainage of 
Green River basin. For this purpose they travelled ug the Big 


98 United States Survey of the Territories. [February, 


Sandy, a large eastern branch of the Green, to the foot of the | 


ind River mountains; thence crossing the head of the basin, 

fording the large and rapidly rising streams which make up the 
New Fork of the Green, they reached the main Green, and trav- 
eled down its western bank, going in to Granger, Wyoming, on 
the Union Pacific Railroad, for supplies on June 23d. 
‘ The party left the field at Ogden, Utah, on September 3oth, 
having been in the field just four months. The area surveyed 
was between 12,000 and 13,000 square miles; 347 stations and 
locations were made, 53 of the stations being important ones, 
were marked with stone monuments for future reference. 

The geological work of Dr. A. C. Peale in the Green River 
district connected directly with the western edge of the Sweet- 
water district. With the exception of a small area of granite 
along the south-western side of the Wind River mountains, and 


some basaltic flows in the north-western portion of the district, 


the rocks are sedimentary, including the rocks from the Silurian 
to very late Tertiary age. 

The first month of the season was occupied mainly with the 
survey of the Green River basin. 

The next area taken up was that lying between Green river 
and the Bear, with a strip along the northern edge of the district, 
reaching westward beyond Fort Hall. 

The Blackfoot, Portneuf, and Bear all have basalt in their val- 
leys. On the Portneuf it extends almost to the Snake River 
plain, appearing as a narrow belt. Its surface slopes, but not so 
much as the present bed of the stream. In some places the vol- 
canic rock appears to have pushed the river to the western side — 
of the valley. The lower valley of the Portneuf is interesting — 
from the fact that it is the probable ancient outlet cf the great 
lake that once filled the Salt Lake basin. At the head of Marsh À 
creek, which occupies the valley, continuing directly south from a 
that of the Lower Portneuf, is the lowest pass between the Great — 
- Basin and the drainage of the Columbia. In fact, so low and flat — 
is it that a marsh directly connects the two streams, one flowing — 
to the Bear and the other to the Portneuf and Snake rivers. . 

The bend of Bear river at Soda springs is one of the most | 
remarkable features of the whole district. Rising in the Uintah 1 
_ mountains, Bear river flows northward for over two hundred — 
miles, and at Soda springs bends abruptly and flows southward 


1878.] United States Survey of the Territories, — 99 


` toward Salt lake. After it emerges from the gap west of Soda 
springs, it flows out into a wide valley which opens directly into 
that of the Upper Portneuf. In this valley the divide between 
the two rivers is only a basalt plain, and in the eruption of this 
lava we may look for the clew to the extraordinary course of 
Bear river. 
The latter half of the season was devoted to Bear river, Bear 
lake, and Cache and Malade valleys. 
There is but little doubt that the waters which once filled the 
_ Salt Lake basin covered also the broad Cache valley. The 
_ modern tertiary deposits are found jutting against the mountains, 
and seem to pass gradually into the more recent deposits found 
in the central portion of the valley. The clays, sands and marls 
of these modern beds are beautifully exposed along Bear river, 
which cuts its way across the north-western part of the valley. 
_ On the west the mountains are broken or isolated ranges, which 
seem to have risen above the waters of the old lake as islands. 
_ The terraces are well marked on their sides, connecting with the 
_ Salt Lake valley through the gap of Bear river. 
= West of this gap, and extending northward, is the Malade 
= valley. It is broad and filled with modern lake deposits. Silu- 
_ rian rocks outcrop on the east and Carboniferous on the west. At 
_ the divide between the Malade and Marsh creek is another of the 
_ old outlets of the ancient Salt lake when its waters were at the 
= highest level. Although the area surveyed was large (13,000 
_ square miles), good collections of fossils were made and data 
obtained for the elucidation of many interesting problems in 
~ relation to the age of the mountains. 
Dr. F. M. Endlich, geologist of the Sweetwater divison, states 
hat within the area described above he found a well diversified 


ORTAS E E a Pe ee ae AE T A A N Poe hae ah ted 


addition to the lower bluffcountry in the southern portion, fur- 


_ surveyor. 


slevation the geological formations change. Instead of the youngest 


100 United States Survey of the Territories. [February, 


beds resting directly upon metamorphics, we now find a full series of 
the sedimentary formations, beginning with the Silurian. Numer- 
ous interesting stratigraphical phenomena were observed and 
studied with a view to determine their relations to the main 
mountain-chain. An ample amount of evidence has been obtained, 
more particularly by this means, to speak positively respecting 
the geological age of the Wind River mountains. These latter, in 
this region, form the main Rocky Mountain chain, and the deter- 
mination of their age will necessarily throw much light upon the 
same question arising in other portions of the same range. It 
will be possible to speak with a certain degree of precision of 
either the local, varying (as to time) elevation of the mountains 
or to refer it to one particular epoch for the distance of many 
hundreds of miles. 

Camp Brown is located in the valley of the Little Wind river, 
which there is of considerable breadth. The famous hot springs 
there were examined. As the main peaks of the Wind River 
mountains were mostly inaccessible from the east side, it was 
deemed advisable to make the ascents of the highest from the 
west. Therefore the party traveled along the eastern foot-hills, 
through a very rugged country, until Stambaugh was reached. 

July 22d the party again left Stambaugh and marched along — 
the headwaters first of Sweetwater river and then of the eastern 
tributaries of Green river. Several of the highest peaks were 
ascended, and the greatest altitude reached found to be about 
13,700 feet. This latter was on what the settlers generally des- 
ignate as Frémont’s Peak. From careful comparison of Fre i 
mont’s report with the observations made by the party, it is 
evident that a misapplication of the name has been made, and 
that the peak in question is not the one ascended by that intrepid 
explorer of an “early day.” 

Having reached the northern limit of the district, the route 
was reversed and the western foot-hills of the main ranges exam- 
ined. Here, as well as in the mountains proper, were noticed the 
remains of enormous ancient glaciers. Moraines, covering many 
square miles, often a thousand feet in thickness, extend down- 
ward through narrow valleys, now containing rushing streams. 
Striation, grooving and mirror-like polish of rock in situ denote 
the course taken by the moving ice-fields that have left thes¢ 
marks of their former existence. From all appearance the cessa- 


go, ied OI as OS A A AVETE CTO EDR, AE EE WN an SY 


ings (REL OS gan SS nts Se ara Sn eg one a 


1878. | United States Survey of the Territories. IOI 


tion of glacial activity must have occurred within a comparatively 
recent time. Scarcely any vegetation has sprung up on the light 
glacial soil, and the characteristic distribution of erratic material 


_ bears every evidence of freshness. Considering the enormous 


amount of snow and ice that was observed by the party exploring 
(latter part of July and beginning of August), the view was 
expressed by the geologist that the discovery of still active gla- 
ciers in that range would by no means be surprising. 

Returning for the last time to Stambaugh, the route was taken 
in an easterly direction along the Sweetwater and its drainage. 
First, the adjacent drainage of the Wind river was surveyed, and 
the divide between the two streams crossed. All along the 
Sweetwater the characteristic “Sweetwater group” of tertiary age 
was found to occur. It has been named and described in my 
former publications. This continued uninterruptedly until a series 
of hills north of the river opposite Seminole Pass, was reached. 
These consist merely in projections of granite that during the 
tertiary epoch, and probably long before that, had remained as 
islands above a widely-extended sea. Apart from their singu- 
larly unique character in this respect, the granite itself possesses 
a peculiarity that renders it at once conspicuous. Owing to the 
distribution of component minerals this granite is in a high 
degree subject to exfoliation. Probably the main cause of this 
may be found in the action of freezing water. The result as 
observed is striking. Instead of the rugged outlines usually 


presented by isolated granitic outcrops, we find a series of 


rounded, smooth, almost totally barren hills. To such an extent 


_is this feature developed that many of them offer serious obsta- 


cles to an attempted ascent. A locality where the celebrated 


= moss-agates occurred in great quantities was found in that region, 
_ and the geognostic horizon of these interesting quartz varieties 
= was established. 


The district assigned to the Teton division, directed by Mr. G. 
R. Bechler, was situated between the parallels 43° and 44° 15/ of 
north latitude and the meridians 109° and 112° of west longi- 
tude. This area is drained by the branches of Shoshone or 
Snake river. The first portion surveyed by this division lies 
along the Blackfoot river and its tributaries. 

After having completed the area described above, Mr. Bechler 


returned to Fort Hall for supplies, and then passed up Henry’s 


102 United States Survey of the Territories. (February, — 


Fork to the northern portion of the Teton mountains, where 
he spent several weeks investigating this snow-covered range; 
then, crossing Pierre’s basin, surveyed the lofty group to which 
in 1872 he gave the name of Pierre's Hole mountains. These 
ranges are characterized by as great ruggedness and inaccessibil- ' 

ity as any other mountains in the north-west. : 


Fronting the Grosventre range on the north rises another 
mountain cluster, separated from the former by the Grosventre 
river. This range forms the divide between the latter river and — 
the Buffalo Fork of the Snake. It connects with the main Rocky 
mountains near the sources of Wind and Gosventre rivers and 
the Buffalo Fork of the Snake, and culminates near its western 
end in Mount Leidy. Mr. Bechler occupied two weeks in a care- 
ful survey of a part of the Grosventre range, the entire Mount 
Leidy group, with the Upper Snake River valley and its numerous 
interesting features. 

North of the Buffalo Fork of the Snake, his observations ex- 
tended into that densely wooded mountain region which connects 
to the north with the Mount Sheridan group near the Yellow- 
~ stone, Lewis and Shoshone lakes. 

About the 1st of September he left the waters of Snake river 
and marched along the rugged and densely timbered mountain 
spurs toward the Upper Wind River pass, and, after crossing the : 
latter, entered Wind River valley, having the Owl mountains on ~ 
the left and the Wind River range on the right. As he was — 
about to cross over the Warm Spring pass of the Wind River — 
mountains into the Green River valley to survey the southern — 
ends of the Grosventre and Salt River ranges, he received a notice — 
through Indian scouts, from the commander of the military post — 
at Camp Brown, to leave the country on account of the danger _ 
of hostile Indians, On this account nearly a month of valuable 
time was lost, abridging somewhat the results of the season's 
work. Notwithstanding the various difficulties which this party 
encountered, they surveyed an area of about 6,000 square miles 
of the most rugged mountain country in the north-west, and made 
one hundred and ten reliable observations with the mercurial 
barometer. Mr. Bechler, throughout his district, personally 4 
observed 7,340 horizontal angles and 5,700 angles of elevation 
and depression; they repeated backward and forward, and were 
= checked by good barometric observations. : 


Pree” ere alg 


1878. | United States Survey of the Territories. OF 


Mr. Orestes St. John, geologist of the Teton division, entering 
the field assigned to the Teton division of the survey at its south- 
western corner, the first five weeks were devoted to the examina- 
tion of the region lying in the great northern bend of the Snake 
river, and which includes an area of 1,700 to 2,000 square miles. 
The Blackfoot mountains are mainly composed of Carbonifer- 
ous strata, which mainly represent the earlier period, whose 
epochs are indicated by similar paleontological peculiarities 
which distinguish the Lower Carboniferous formations in the 
Mississippi basin, and which more extended research will doubt- 
less reveal in this distant region. But one of the most interesting 
discoveries in this connection was the presence of fish-remains, 
representing several forms identical with or closely allied to 
Keokuk species of the genera Cladodus, Petalodus, Antliodus, 
Flelodus. 
Dr. White, the paleontologist of the survey, has shown the 
identity of the lignitic series of strata east of the Rocky mount- 
ains in Colorado with the Fort Union group of the Upper Mis- 
souri river, and also its identity with the great Laramie group of 
the Green River basin and other portions of the region west of 
‘the Rocky mountains. He also finds the planes of demarkation 
between any of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic groups, from the 
Dakota to the Bridger inclusive, to be either very obscure or inde- 
finable; showing that whatever catastrophal or secular changes 
took place elsewhere during all that time, sedimentation was 
_ probably continuous in what is now that part of the continent 
from the earliest to the latest of the epochs just named. Other 
results and further details of the season’s work will appear in the 
following paragraphs. 
__ The general course of travel pursued by Dr. White during the 
= season was as follows, not including the numerous detours, 

_ meanderings and side trips which the work necessitated: Outfit- 
ting at Cheyenne, he journeyed southward, traversing in various 
directions a portion of the. great plains which lie immediately 
adjacent to the eastern base of the Rocky mountains in Colorado. 
The most easterly point thus reached was some sixty miles east 
of the base of the mountains and the most southerly point about 
_ twenty-five miles south of Denver. Returning to Denver to 
= renew his outfit, he crossed the Rocky mountains by way of 
Boulder pass through Middle park. After making certain com- 


VOL. XII.—NO, II. 8 


104 United States Survey of the Territories. [February, a 


parative examinations of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations 
in Middle park he proceeded westward to the headwaters of the 
Yampa river, following that stream down to the western foot-hills 
of the Park range of mountains. 
Here resuming his comparative examinations of the Mesozoic 
and Cenozoic strata, he passed down the valley of the Yampa as 
far as Yampa mountain, one of those peculiar and remarkable up- 
thrusts of Palaeozoic rocks through Mesozoic strata. In all this 
area, as well as that between the Yampa and White rivers, the 
Laramie group reaches a very great and characteristic develop- 
ment, and it received careful investigation, yielding some of the 
most important results of the season’s work. Crossing the 
ground between the two rivers named to White River Indian 
agency, thence down White River valley about one hundred 
miles; thence to Green river, crossing it at the southern base of 
the Uintah mountains, making many detours on the way, he : 
reviewed the geology of the region which he had surveyed 
during the previous season. This review brought out not only — 
the important paleontological facts before referred to, but it also i 
added materially to the elucidation of the geological structure of — 
the region which lies between the eastern end of the Uintah a 
mountain range on the west and the Park range on the east. 
Beyond Green river he pursued his travels westward, studying 


logical and paleontological characteristics. 

In this way he traversed the whole length of the Uintah range, 
crossing at its junction with the Wasatch range over into the val- 
ley of Great Salt lake. Recrossing the Wasatch to the north 
side of the Uintah range he continued his examinations of the 
Cretaceous and Tertiary strata into and entirely across the great 
Green River basin, leaving the field at the close of the season 
Rawlins station on the Union Pacific railroad. j 

A general statement of the results of the season’s work h 
been given in a previous paragraph, but the following additional 
summary will make the statement somewhat clearer, being mas ; 
after the route of the season’s travel had been indicated. The 
formations of later Mesozoic and earlier Cenozoic ages, especiall 
those to which Dr. White in former publications, has applied the 
provisional designation of “Post-Cretaceous,” have received pat 


1878. | United States Survey of the Territories. 105 


ticular attention. The extensive explorations of Dr. Hayden in 
former years, and the paleontological investigations of the late 
Mr. Meek, pointed strongly to the equivalency of the Fort Union 
beds of the Upper Missouri river with the lignitic formation as it 
exists along the base of the Rocky mountains in Colorado, and ~ 
also to the equivalency of the latter with the Bitter Creek series 
west of the Rocky mountains. The investigations of this year 
have fully confirmed these views by the discovery not merely of 
one or two doubtful species common to the strata of each of 
these regions, but by an identical molluscan fauna ranging through 
the whole series in each of the regions named. 

This shows that the strata just referred to all belong to one 
well-marked period of geological time, to the strata of which Mr. 
King has applied the name of “ Laramie group” (Point of Rocks 
group of Powell). His investigations also show that the strata, 
which in former reports by himself and Professor Powell have 
been referred to the base of the Wasatch group, also belong to 
the Laramie group and not to the Wasatch. He has reached this 
later conclusion not merely because there is a similarity of type 
in the fossils obtained from the various strata of the Laramie 
group with those that were before in question, but by the specific 
identity of many fossils that range from the base of the Laramie 
group up into and through the strata that were formerly referred 

to the base of the Wasatch. Furthermore, some of these species 

are found in the Laramie strata on both sides of the Rocky 

_ mountains, Thus the vertical range of some of these species is 
no less than three thousand feet, and their present known geo- 
graphical range more than a thousand miles. 

Besides the recognition of the unity of the widely-distributed 

_ members of the formation of this great geological period, bounded 
_ by those of undoubted Cretaceous age below and those of equally 
_ undoubted Tertiary age above, his further observations: have left 
2 comparatively little doubt that the “ Lake Beds” of Dr. Hayden, 
as seen in Middle Park, the “ Brown’s Park group” of Professor 
= Powell, and the “Uintah group” of Mr. King, all belong to one 
and the same epoch, later than and distinctly separate from the 
_ Bridger group. 

In that portion of the region which lies adjacent to the southern 
base of the Uintah Mountain range, and which is traversed by 
Lake fork and the Du Chesne river, not only the Uintah group, 


ee ee aw ee ee 


106 United States Survey of the Territories. (February, 


but both the Green River and Bridger groups also are well devel- 
oped, each possessing all its peculiar and usual characteristics as 
seen at the typical localities in the great Green River basin, north 
of the Uintah mountains. This, added to the known existence of 
Bridger strata in White River valley, and the extensive area occu- 
pied by the Green River group between White and Grand rivers, 
has added very largely to our knowledge of the southward exten- 
sion of those formations. 
In all the comparative examinations of the formations or groups 
of strata that have just been indicated, he has paid especial atten- 
tion to their boundaries, or planes of demarkation, crossing and 
recrossing them wherever opportunity offered, noting carefully 
every change of both lithological and palzontological characters. 
While he has been able to recognize with satisfactory clearness 
the three principal groups of Cretaceous strata, namely, the 
Dakota, Colorado, and Fox hills, on both sides of the Rocky and 
Uintah mountains, respectively, they evidently constitute an un- 
broken series, so far as their origin by continuous sedimentation 
is concerned, While each of the groups possesses its own pecu- 
cliar paleontological characteristics, it is also true that certain spe- 


cies pass beyond the recognized boundaries of each within the — 


series. 
The stratigraphical plane of demarkation between the Fox hills, 


the uppermost of the undoubted Cretaceous groups, and the Lara- 3 
mie group, the so-called Post-Cretaceous, is equally obscure; but — 


the two groups are palzontologically very distinct, inasmuch as 
the former is of marine origin, while the latter, so far as is now 


known, contains only brackish-water and fresh-water invertebrate — 
forms. He reports a similar obscurity, or absence of a strati- 


graphical plane of demarkation, between the Laramie and Wasatch 


groups, although it is there that the final change from brackish to 
entirely fresh water took place over that great region. Further- 
more, he finds that while the three principal groups of the fresh- 
water Tertiary series west of the Rocky mountains, namely, the — 
Wasatch, Green river, and Bridger groups, have each peculiar 
characteristics, and are recognizable with satisfactory distinctness _ 
as general divisions, they really constitute a continuous series of 


strata, not separated by sharply-defined planes of demarkati 
either stratigraphical or palæontological. 
Messrs. S. H. Scudder, of Cambridge, and F. C. Bowditch, of 


K 
i 
44 
4 
4 
$ 
t 
3 

; 


1878. ] United States Survey of the Territories. 107 


Boston, spent two months in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, in 
explorations for fossil insects, and in collecting recent Coleoptera 
and Orthoptera, especially in the higher regions. They made 
large collections of recent insects at different points along the 
railways from Pueblo to Cheyenne and from Cheyenne to Salt | 
Lake, as well as at Lakin, Kans., Garland and Georgetown, Colo. 
and in various parts of the South Park and surrounding region. 

For want of time, they were obliged to forego an anticipated 
trip to White river, to explore the beds of fossil insects known to 
exist there. Ten days were spent at Green river and vicinity in 
examining the Tertiary strata for fossil insects, with but poor re- - 
sults; the Tertiary beds of the South Park yielded but a single 
determinable insect, but near Florissant the Tertiary basin, de- 
scribed by Dr. A. C. Peale in the annual report of the Survey, for 
1873, was found to be exceedingly rich in insects and plants. 

In company with Rev. Mr. Lakes, of Golden, Mr. Scudder spent 
several days in a careful survey of this basin and estimates the in- 
sect-bearing shales to have an extent at least fifty times as great 
as those of the famous locality at Œningen in Southern Bavaria. 
From six to seven thousand insects and two or three thousand 
plants have already been received from Florissant, and as many 


-= More will be received before the close of the year. 


Mr. Scudder was also able to make arrangements in person with 
parties who have found a new and very interesting locality of Ter- 
tiary strata in Wyoming, to send him all the specimens they work 
out, and he confidently anticipates receiving several thousand in- 
sects from them in the course of the coming winter. The speci- 
mens from this locality are remarkable for their beauty. There is, 
therefore, every reason to believe that the Tertiary strata of the 


Rocky mountain. region are richer in remains of fossil insects than 


any other country in the world, and that within a few months the 


- material at hand for the elaboration of the work on fossil insects, 
_ which Mr. Scudder has in preparation for the Survey, will be much 


larger than was ever before subject to the investigation of a single 
naturalist. 
Prof. Joseph Leidy, the eminent comparative anatomist and mi- 


À _ croscopist, made his second visit to the West the past season, under 
— the auspices of the Survey. He made a careful exploration of the 
country about Fort Bridger, Uintah mountains, and the Salt Lake 
basin, in search of rhizopods. He has been engaged for a long 


108 United States Survey of the Territories. [February, 


time on a.memoir on this subject, which will eventually form one 
of the series of the quarto reports of the Survey. 

The botany of the Survey was represented the past season by 
the two great masters of that department, Sir Joseph D. Hooker, 
director of the Gardens of Kew, England, and president of the 
Royal Society of London; and Prof. Asa Gray, of Cambridge, 
Mass. Their examinations extended over a great portion of 
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. Their in- 
vestigations into the alpine floras and tree vegetation of the 
Rocky mountains and Sierra Nevada enabled them to give a 
clear idea of the relations and influence of the climatic conditions 
on both sides of the great mountain-ranges. 

Sir Joseph Hooker, whose botanical researches embrace the 
greater part of Europe; the Indies from the bay of Bengal across 
the Himalayas to Thibet; the Antarctic regions and the southern 
part of South America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, 
Morocco and Asia Minor, presents in the English periodical 
“ Nature,’ for October 25, an outline of his studies during 
the season, and this outline when filled out will form a most 
important report for the eleventh annual report of the Sur- 
vey. It will be seen at a glance that the report will be of the most 
comprehensive character, and cannot fail to be of the highest in- 
terest to our people. The tree vegetation, and especially the 
coniferze, were made special objects of study, and many obscure 
points were cleared up. 


Of a section of the Rocky mountains comprising Colorado, Wy- 
- oming, and Utah, Dr. Hooker says: 


i 
; 
À 
l 
Such a section of the Rocky mountains must hence contain 
representatives of three very distinct American floras, each char- 
acteristic of immense areas of the continent. There are -two ~ 
temperate and two cold or mountain floras, viz: (1) a prairie flora 
derived from the eastward ; (2) a so-called desert and saline flora 
derived from the west ; (3) a subalpine; and (4) an alpine flora; 
the two latter of widely different origin, and in one sense proper 
to the Rocky Mountain ranges 4 
-= The principal American regions with a the comparison 
will have first to be instituted are four. Two of these are in a : 
broad sense humid; one, that of the Atlantic coast, and which 
extends thence west to the Mississippi river, including the forested : 
shores of that river's western affluents ; the ead that of the Pa- — 
cific side, from the Sierra Nevada to the wester ocean ; an a 
inland, that of the northern part of the continent Pen to the 


1878. ] United States Survey of the Territories. 109 


Polar regions, and that of the southern part extending through 
New Mexico to the Cordillera of Mexico proper 

The first and second (Atlantic plus Mississippi and Pacific) 
regions are traversed by meridional. chains of mountains approxi- 
mately parallel to the Rocky mountains, namely, on the Atlantic 
side by the various systems often included under the general 
term Appalachian, which extend from Maine to Georgia, and on 
the Pacific side by the Sierra Nevada, which bound California on 
the east. The third and fourth of the regions present a continua- 
tion of the Rocky mountains of Colorado and Utah, flanked for a 
certain distance by an eastern prairie flora extending from the 
British Possessions to Texas, and a western desert or saline flora, 
extending from the Snake river to Arizona and Mexico. Thus 
the Colorado and Utah. floras might be expected to contain repre- 
sentatives of all the various vegetations of North America, except 
the small tropical region of Florida, which is confined to the ex- 
treme south-east of the continent. 

The most singular botanical feature of North America is un- 
questionably the marked contrast: between its two humid floras, 
namely, those of the Atlantic plus Mississippi, and the Pacific 
one; this has been ably illustrated and discussed by Dr. Gray, in 
various communications to the American Academy of Sciences, 
and elsewhere, and he has further largely traced the peculiarities 
of each to their source, thus laying the foundation for all future 
researches into the botanical peke i ii of North America; but 
the relations of the dry intermediate region either to these or to 
the floras of other countries had not been similarly treated, and 
this we hope that we have now materials for discussing. 


: 
l 
3 
: 
E 
7 
d 


Dr. Hooker sums up the results of the joint investigations of 
Dr. Gray and himself, aided by Dr. Gray’s previously intimate 
knowledge of the elements of the American flora, from the Mis- 
sissippi to the Pacific coast: 


Each of these, again, is subdivisible into three, as follows : 

. The Atlantic slope plus Mississippi region, subdivisible into 
(2) an Atlantic (£), a Mississippi valley, and (y) an interposed 
Mountain region with a temperate and subalpine flora. 

2. The Pacific slope, subdivisible into (4) a very humid, cool, 
forest-clad coast range ; (8) the great, hot, drier Californian valley 
ormed by the San Juan river flowing to o the north and the Sacra- 
nto river flowing to the south, both into the bay of San Fran- 


LIO United States Survey of the Territories. [February, 
cisco; and (y) the Sierra Nevada flora, temperate, subalpine and 
alpine 


` 3. The Rocky Mountain region (in its widest sense extending 
from the Mississippi beyond its forest region to the Sierra Nevada), 
subdivisible into (a) a prarie flora, (£) a desert or saline flora, (y) a 
Rocky Mountain proper flora, temperate, subalpine, and alpine. - 

As above stated, the difference between the floras of the first 
.and second of these regions is specifically, and to a great extent 
generically, absolute; not a pine or oak, maple, elm, plane or 

irch of Eastern America extends to Western, and genera of 
thirty to fifty species are confined to each. The Rocky Mountain 
region again, though abundantly distinct from both, has a few ele- 
ments of the eastern region and still more of the western. 

Many interesting facts connected with the origin and distribu- 
tion of American plants, and the introduction of various types 
into the three regions, presented themselves to our observation or 
our minds during our wanderings. Many of these are suggestive 
of comparative study with the admirable results of Heer’s and 
Lesquereux’s investigations into the Pliocene and Miocene plants 
of the north temperate and frigid zones, and which had already 
engaged Dr. Gray’s attention, as may be found in his various pub- 
lications. No less interesting are the traces of the influence of a 
glacial and a warmer period in directing the course of migration 
of Arctic forms southward, and Mexican forms northward in the 
continent, and of the effects of the great body of water that occu- 
pied the whole saline region during (as it would appear) a glacial a 
period. e 4 

Lastly, curious information was obtained respecting the ages of 4 
not only the big trees of California, but of equally aged pines and 
junipers, which are proofs of that duration of existing conditions ) 
of climate for which evidence has hitherto been sought rather 
among fossil than among living organisms. 


Up to the year 1874 rumor had been telling many marvelous 
stories of strange and interesting habitations of a forgotten people, 
who once occupied the country about the headwaters of the Rio — 
San Juan, but these narrations were so interwoven with romance a 
that but few people placed much reliance upon them. To those- 
well versed in archeology, ruins of an extensive and interesting 
character were known to éxist throughout New Mexico and Ari- - 
zona, and the various reports of Abert, Johnson, Sitgreaves, Simp” 
son, Whipple, Newberry, and others form our most interesting , : 
chapter in ancient American history; but their researches, asid 
from the meager accounts published by Newberry, throw no light 
on the marvelous cliff dwellings and towns north of the San Juan- 
In 1874 the photographic division of the United States Geologi 


Rey MRD, re oe Ee ee PO a ee 


1878. | United States Survey of the Territories. III 


Survey was instructed, in connection with its regular work, to visit 
and report upon these ruins, and in pursuance of this objeet made 
a hasty tour of the region about the Mesa Verde and the 
Sierra el Late, in South-western Colorado, the results of which 
trip, as expressed by Bancroft, in the Native Races of the Pacific 
Coast, “ although made known to the world only through a three 
or four days’ exploration by a party of three men, are of the 
greatest importance.” A report was made and published, with 
fourteen illustrations, in the Bulletin of the United States Geolog- 
ical and Geographical Survey of the Territories, second series, 
No. I. 

The following year the same region was visited by Mr. W. H. 
Holmes, one of the geologists of the survey, and a careful investi- 
gation made of all the ruins. Mr. Jackson, who had made the re-. 
port the previous year, also revisited this locality, but extended 
his explorations down the San Juan to the mouth of the De 
Chelly, and thence to the Moqui villages in North-eastern Arizona. 
Returning, the country between the Sierra Abajo and La Sal and 
the La Plata was traversed, and an immense number of very in- 
teresting ruins were first brought to the attention of the outside 
world by the report which was published the following winter by 
Messrs. Holmes and Jackson, in the Survey, Vol. II., No. 1. 

The occasion of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia led 
to the idea of preparing models of these ruins for the clearer illus- 
tration of their peculiarities, four of which were completed in sea- 
son for the opening of the Exhibition. Since that time not only 
the number of these interesting models has been increased, but 
they have been perfected in. execution, and faithful delineations 
have thus been secured of these mysterious remains of an extinct 
race who once lived within the borders of our western domain. 

A visit to the aéelier of Mr. Jackson, photographer of the Sur- 
vey, enables one to inspect, in miniature size, the dwellings of the 
Mogqui, and in full size a large collection of the ceramics and im- 
plements of those ancient and extinct people of our continent. A 
study of the models will give a very excellent idéa of the ruined 
dwellings themselves. The first of these models, executed by Mr. 
Holmes, with whom the idea originated, represents the cliff house 


_ of the Mancos Cañon, the exterior dimensions of which are 28 


inches in breadth by 46 inches in height, and on a scale of 1.24, 


or two feet to the inch. This is a two-story oe constructed 


112 United States Survey of the Territories. | February, 


g 

of stone, occupying a narrow ledge in the vertical face of the bluff 
700 feet above the valley, and 200 feet from the top. It is 24 feet 
in length and 14 feet in depth, and divided into four rooms on the 
ground-floor. The beams supporting the second floor are all de- 
stroyed. The doorways, serving also as windows, were quite 
small, only one small aperture in the outer wall facing the valley. 
The exposed walls were lightly plastered over with clay, and so 
closely resembled the general surface of the bluff that it becomes 
exceedingly difficult to distinguish them at a little distance from 
their surroundings. 

The second model of this series was constructed by Mr. Jack- 
son, and represents the large “ cave town,” in the valley of Rio de 
Chelly near its junction with the San Juan. This town is located 
upon a narrow bench, occurring about 80 feet above the base of a 
perpendicular bluff some 300 feet in height. It is 545 feet in 
length, about 40 feet at its greatest depth, and shows about 75 
apartments on its ground-plan. The left-hand third of the town, 
as we face it, is overhung some distance by the bluff, protecting 
the buildings beneath much more perfectly than the others. This 
is the portion represented by the model. A three-story tower 
forms the central feature; upon either side are rows of lesser 
buildings, built one above odir upon the sloping floor of rock. 
Nearly all these buildings are in a fair state of preservation. This 
model: is 37 by 47 inches, outside measurements, and the scale 
1.72, or 6 feet to the inch. A “restoration” of the above forms 
the third in the series, of the same size and scale, and is intended 
as its name implies, to represent as nearly as possible the original 
condition of the ruin. In this we see that the approaches were 
made by ladders and steps hewn in the rock, and that the roofs 
of one tier of rooms served as a terrace for those back of them, 


showing a similarity, at least, in their construction to the works of a 


the Pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona. Scattered about over 
the buildings are miniature representations of the people at theif 
various occupations, with pottery and other domestic utensils. 
The “ triple-walled tower,” at the head of the McElmo, is the 
subject of the fourth model. It was constructed by Mr. Holmes, 
and represents, as indicated by its title, a triple-walled tower, situ- 
ated in the midst of a considerable extent of lesser ruins, probably 
of dwellings, occupying a low bench bordering the dry wash of 
e McElmo. The tower is 42 feet in diameter, the wall two feet- 


eee E TNS 


i 


1878.] United States Survey of the Territories. 113 


thick, and now standing some 12 feet high. The two outer walls 
inclose a space of about 6 feet in width, which-is divided into 14 
equally-sized rooms, communicating p one another by small 
window-like doorways. The next is a “ cliff-house ” in the valley 
of the Rio de Chelly. Itis ‘about 20 miles above the cave town 
already spoken of. This is a two-story house, about 20 feet square, 
occupying a ledge some 75 feet above the valley, and overhung by 
the bluff. The approach from the valley is by a series of steps 
hewn in the steep face of the rock ; and this method was the one 
most used by the occupants, although there is a way out to the 
top of the bluff. This model is 42 inches in height by 24 broad, 
and is built upon a scale of 1.36. 

Téwa, one of the seven Moqui towns in North-eastern Arizona, 
is a very interesting and instructive model, representing, as it 
does, one of the most ancient and best authenticated of the dwel- 
lings of a people who are supposed to be the descendants of the 
clif-dwellers. Téwa is the first of the seven villages forming the 
province as we approach them from the east, and occupies the 
summit of a narrow mesa some 600 feet in height and 1,200 yards 
in length, upon which are also two other somewhat similar villages. 
The approach is bya circuitous road-way hewn in the perpendicular 
face of the bluff which surrounds the mesa upon all sides. It is the 
only approach accessible for animals to the three villages. Other 
ladder-like stairways are cut in the rock, which are used princi- 
pally by the water- -carriers, for all their springs and reservoirs are 
at the bottom of the mesa. This village is represented upon a 
scale of 1 inch to 8 feet, or 1.96. The dimensions of the model 
are 36 inches in length, 29 inches in width and 14 inches in 
height. : 

In the spring of 1877 Mr. Jackson made a tour over much of 
the northern part of New Mexico, and westward to the Moqui 
towns in Arizona, and secured materials for a number of very in- 
teresting models, illustrating the methods of the Pueblos or town- 
builders in the construction of their dwellings. Two villages 
have been selected for immediate construction, as showing the 


_ most ancient and best known examples of their peculiar architec- 
. a ture, viz: Taos and Acoma; the one of many-storied, terraced 
houses, and the other built high up on an impregnable rock. 
_ The model of Taos is now completed,:the dimensions of which 
me 42 by 39 inches, and the scale one inch to twenty feet, 1: ‘oe ai 


aS: United States Survey of the Territories, (February, 


Of this town Davis says: 

It is the best sample of the ancient mode of building. Here 
are two large houses three or four hundred feet in length, and 
about one hundred and fifty feet wide at the base. They are sit- 
uated upon opposite sides of a small creek, and in ancient times 
` are said to have — connected with a bridge. They are five and 
six stories high, each story receding from the one below it, and 
thus forming a ences terraced from top to. bottom. Each story 
is divided into numerous little compartments, the outer tier of 
rooms being lighted by small windows in the sides, while those in 
the interior of the _pauding are dark, and are principally used as 
store-rooms. * The only means of entrance is through 
a trap-door in > roof, and you ascend from story to story by 
means of ladders on the outside, which are drawn up at night. 

Their contact with Europeans has modified somewhat their 
ancient style of buildings, principally in substituting doorways in 
the walls of their houses for those in the roof. Their modern 
buildings are rarely over two stories in height, and are not distin- 
guishable from those of their Mexican neighbors. The village is sur- 
rounded by an adobe wall, which is first included within the limits 
of the model, and incloses an area of eleven or twelve acres in 
extent. Within this limit are four of their estufas or secret coun- 
cil-houses. These are circular under-ground apartments, with a 
narrow opening in the roof, surrounded by a palisade, ladders 
being used to go in and out. 

These models are first carefully built up in clay, in which 
material all the detail is readily secured, and are then cast in 
plaster, a mold being secured by which they are readily multi- 
plied to any extent. They are then put in the hands of the 
artists and carefully colored in solid oil paints to accurately 
resemble their appearance in nature, and in case of restorations Or 
modern buildings, all the little additions are made which will give 
them the appearance of occupation. The Survey is in possession 
of the data for the construction of many more models, and they 
will be brought out as opportunity is given. They have also, in 
connection with the views, multiplied many of the curious pieces 
of pottery which have been brought back from that region by 
the various parties connected with the survey. 


See Lae, Pe FR. ET EE ee Ee NSE gy En En Oo ee Ey ng EMC ete ae nek og 
a rie ght ia he Bid eerie ahs rt 


WN, M. A 
z PP- 352. 


1878.] Recent Literature. II5 
RECENT LITERATURE 


‘ > a 
DarwIin’s DIFFERENT FORMS OF FLOWERS ON PLANTS OF THE 


` SAME SPECIES'—AlII botanists may not become Darwins, but if a 


perusal of this and the other works of their talented author, 
should induce any of the present collectors of local floras, and de- 
scribers of dried plants, to at least devote a moiety of their leisure ` 
to observing flowers, their daily conduct of life, how they grow 
and reproduce their kind, their relation to one another, to insects 
and to the world at large; observations, however, in many cases 
requiring care and patience, as well as some genius, then would in 
time be reareda crop of botanists, who would bridge the chasm now 
yawning between the ordinary herbalist—no farther advanced now, 
perhaps, than in the days of Gerarde—and the author of this book 
and its predecessors. This work, however, interesting as it is, 
was not written for the public, but for the few who have, since 
1862, read the Journal of the Linnean Society, which contains the 
papers forming the body of this book, which are here republished 
in a connected and corrected form, together with some new mat- 
ter, and is now in such an attractive form that few who have read 
Mr. Darwin’s former writings will neglect the present work. 
Premising that, in the words of the author, cleistogamic flowers 
are fertile, minute, completely closed, with the petals rudimentary, 
often with some of the anthers abortive, and the remaining ones 
together with the stigmas much reduced in size; that these flowers 
grow on the same plant with perfect and fully expanded flow- 
ers—we will now let the author give the results of his studies: 
“I will now sum up very briefly the chief conclusions which 
seem to follow from the observations given in this volume. Cleis- 
togamic flowers afford, as just stated, an abundant supply of seeds 
with little expenditure; and we can hardly doubt that they have 
had their structure modified and degraded for this special purpose ; 
perfect flowers being still almost always produced so as to allow 
of occasional cross-fertilization. Hermaphrodite plants have often 
been rendered moncecious, dicecious, ‘or polygamous ; but as the 
separation of the sexes would have been injurious, had not pollen 
been already transported habitually by insects or by the wind from 
flower to flower, we may assume that the process of separation 
did not commence and was not completed for the sake of the ad- 
vantages to be gained from cross-fertilization. The sole motive 
for the separation of the sexes which occurs to me, is that the pro- 
duction of a great number of seeds might become superfluous to 
a plant-under changed conditions of life; and it might then be 
highly beneficial to it that the same flower or the same individual 


_ should not have its vital powers taxed, under the struggle for life 


1 The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same Species. By CHARLES DAR- 
. F. R. S., with jllustrations. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1877, 12m0., 


> 


116 Recent Literature. [ February, 


to which all organisms are subjected, by producing both pollen 
and seeds. With respect to the plants belonging to the gyno-di- 
cecious sub-class, or those which co-exist as hermaphrodites and 
females, it has been proved that they yield a much larger supply 
of seed than they would have done if they had all remained her- 
maphrodites ; and we may feel sure from the large number of seeds 
_ produced by many plants that such production is often necessary 
or advantageous. It is therefore probable that the two forms in this 
sub-class have been separated or developed for this special end. 

Various hermaphrodite plants have become heterostyled, and 
now exist under two or three forms; and we may confidently be- 
lieve that this has been effected in order that cross-fertilization 
should be assured. For the full and legitimate fertilization of 
these plants pollen from the one form must be applied to the 
stigma of another. If the sexual elements belonging to the same 
form are united the union is an illegitimate one and more or less 
sterile. With dimorphic species two illegitimate unions, and with _ 
trimorphic species twelve are possible. Thereis reason to believe 
that the sterility of these unions has not been specially acquired, 
but follows as an incidental result from the sexual elements of the 
two or three forms having been adapted to act on one another in 
a particular manner, so that any other kind of union is inefficient, 
like that between distinct species. - Another and still more remark- 
able incidental result is that the seedlings from an illegitimate 
union are often dwarfed and more or less or completely barren, 
like hybrids from the union of two widely distinct species.” 


Breum’s Animat Lire—We have already (Vol. xi. p. 557) in 
general terms called attention to the elaborate and useful work of 
which the present volume forms a part. Prof. Taschenberg, the au- 
thor of this volume, is well known for his studies on the lower Hy- 
menoptera and his work on economic entomology. He brings to 
the task ripe scholarship, a pleasant style, and is aided by an artist 
whose success greatly enhances the value of the work. Ina few 
introductory pages, Prof. Taschenberg treats of the anatomy, 
physiology, and transformations of insects, and then enters at once 
_ upon a very general description of the more interesting forms of 
the families of insects, beginning with the beetles and ending with 
the myriopods, spiders and mites. The Linguatulide, and Panto- 
poda (Pycnogonidz) are included, and the Tardigrades are briefly _ 
noticed, 

The work is well worth the cost to one even who cannot read 
German with facility, from the graphic, full-page illustrations, ang — 
the cuts which abound in the text. The picture of the dead and — 
probably stinking mole hanging by its snare, and overrun with 4 — 

1 Brehm’s Thierleben. Bando. Die Insekten, Tausenfiissler und Spinner. Von — 
Dr. E. L. TascHENBERG. Mit 227 Abbildungen im Text und 21 Tafeln, von Emil 
© Schmidt. Leipzig, 1877. New York, B. Westerman & Co. New York. 8vo. 
So. Pps FIL, ex, a a 


Gra 


Recent Literature. 


1878.] 


1w i E 2 he e 
EARE: “sag Laa 
V os ugo gao g 
do 3 & u 2 2 see 
Los Sgh SergE 
E TON Ge 3 ag n 
S Fi y 
SPOT CBSp Se RAE 
Shins ee. oe 4 'D & z 
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Ta: ase isine 
eo uv = UH > 
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2p Sa iad E Egy 
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piki: Tou TARO] 
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— ¥ “= Ot e] OI 
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O 3 RSS ES ae ` A eiraels go 
Sade Ses. a X a p> “sapanca 
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2 g oF THE LOCUST OF THE OLD WORLD, NATURAL SIZE. . By Spex a 
O Q An | Bt a a ; 
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Tx TETI ty 
PN ARAL E S A PEE n. MP 
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118 Recent Literature. [ February, 


ers a notion of the size and power of the creature by which in the 
eastern hemisphere the prophet Joel, who left us the first entomo- 
logical monograph ever written, was so impressed. 


NATURAL History AnD GEoLocy IN BonEemia.—We have re- 
ceived for notice several important works, containing many litho- 
graphic illustrations, upon the botany, natural history, palæon- 
tology and geology of Bohemia, by several scientists of Prague, 
entitled, Archiv fiir die Naturwissenschaftliche Landesdurchfor- 
schung von Böhmen, edited by Profs. Koristka and Krejei, who 
contribute several topographical and geological memoirs to the 
first volume, which appeared in 1869. Dr. Fric writes on the fos- 
sils of the chalk formation, and C. Feistmantel discusses the 
geology of the coal basin of Bohemia, while Dr. Celakovsky 
contributes a lengthy prodromus of the flora of Bohemia; Herr 
Lokaj catalogues the beetles; Alfred Slavik, the land and fresh- 
water molluscs, and E. Barta, the spiders. In the second volume, — 
published in 1873, the prodromus of the flora is continued; and 
Dr. Fric enumerates the vertebrates and crustacea, and describes — 
the river fisheries of Bohemia. The third part of the prodromus 
-of the flora appeared in 1875, and in 1876 was published Rosicky’s _ 
Myriopoda of Bohemia. . = 


oe Der es eee ea erage eg ee Noe oe 


Worthen; it has sessile eyes. Karl Feistmantél’s Coal basins iN | 
different localities of Bohemia; Vala and Helmhacker’s iron ores — 
in the region of Prague and Beraun, and Helmhacker’s geolog 
cal description of portions of Bohemia, with a valuable work by 
Dr. G. C. Laube on the geology of the Erz mountains of Bohe 
mia, are all valuable and fully illustrated; but undoubtedly 


excite a very considerable degree of interest among American- 
geologists. The works can be obtained of Fr. Rivnac, the pub- 
lisher, at Prague, Austria. 
KIRBY'S Synonymic CATALOGUE OF BUTTERFLIES. — The appear 
-ance of the supplement to this work warrants some notice of on 
-1 A Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera, By W. F. Kirey. London, 
DA Supplement, March 1871—June, 1877. London, 1877, 8vo. pp. 883- y3 
oorst. : 


1878. | Recent Literature. IIQ 


of the most useful books of reference the entomologist can have 

upon his book-shelves. The original work forms a bulky octavo 

of 690 pages, while the supplement, even, is paged from 691 to 

883. As this contains simply a synonymic list of one group of 
Lepidoptera, one may form some idea of its extent, and the labor. 
involved in its preparation. 


FERNS oF Nortu AmErica.'\—The first part, now before us, more 
than meets the expectations formed when the work was announced. 
Professor Eaton has treated the subject in a clear and methodical 
way; presenting in a popular form detailed descriptions character- 
ized by the great merits of readability and accuracy. The plates 
are well done both by artist and lithographers. In the first part 
the following species are figured and described: Lygodium palma- 
tum, Cheilanthes vestita and coopere, Asplenium serratum. There 
is also a synopsis of the species of Cheilanthes known to occur in 
the United States. This work of so much promise can be most 
heartily recommended to botanical teachers and students. The 

low price at which it is offered is a pleasant surprise to many who 

are familiar with the cost of such productions, and it is to be 
earnestly hoped that the projectors of this enterprise may receive 
_ from the public the support to which it is entitled —G. Z. G. 


~ Frower’s Ostrotocy oF THE Mammarta2—This valuable 
résumé of the osteology of the Mammalia, may be recom- 
mended to those desiring a knowledge of the subject, as the 
best manual in our language. While not exhaustive, it is full of 
information, especially in regard. to cranial characters, and the 


publishing works of this class, preferring in some instances at 
least the position of public instructors to the accumulation of large 
Profits on outlays. 

_ Tue Morpuotocy or THE SKULL,—by W. K. Parker and G. T. 
Bettany? This is another of the excellent manuals published by 
the Messrs. Macmillan. It consists of a general abstract of the 
Papers by Prof. W. K. Parker, chiefly published in The Philo- 
|_| Ferns of North America. By Prof. DANIEL C. EATON, of Yale College. Pub- 
lished by S. E. Cassino, Naturalist’s Agency, Salem, Mass. Part I, price $1. 

* An Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia. By Wm. HENRY FLOWER, 
RRS ERES. London, Macmillan & Co., 12mo. pp. 349 Second Edition. 
The Morphology of the Skull. By Prof. W. K. PARKER, F. R. S., and F. BET- 

M. A. London, Macmillan & Co., 1877. 12mo. pp. 368. Ba 
VOL. sino. Ir, o OO a 


120 Recent Literature. [February, | 


sophical Transactions of the Royal Society, on the development 
of the skull in various vertebrate animals. These are the skate 
and dogfish, the salmon, axolotl, frog, snake, fowl and pig. Ap- 
pendices on the general structure of the skull of the orders to 
which these animals belong, together with one on the human 
skull, are added. A preliminary chapter on general embryology, — 
and a closing one on the general homologies of the elements of the 
cartilaginous and osseous skulls, complete the work. The mode 
of treatment of the subject by Prof. Parker is lucid, and the text — 
is illustrated by numerous excellent cuts. It is the best manual 
of the subject in the English language, and to the student of any 
aspect of the osteology of vertebrata, is invaluable. It introduces — 
an extensive and difficult department to a large class who do not 
read German or French with sufficient facility to master the sub- 
ject in those languages. We observe with pleasure that the au- , 
thors are not contented with the dry enumeration of facts alone, — 
but are willing to indulge in reflections on the wider bearings of — 
their theme. Their observations on the homologies of the cranial 
elements, and the nature of the supposed segments, are interesting — 
and judicious, and we refer to them (pp. 331, 342-3, 359) as 
models of cautious induction without affectation of an ignorance, 
which is greater than their knowledge of the facts demand. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.—A Text Book of Physiology. By M. Foster, 

-A., M.D., F.R.S. London: Macmillan & Co., 1877. 8vo, pp. 889. $6.00. 
United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Clarence King, 

~ Geologist-in-Charge. Microscopical Petrography. By Ferdinand Zirkel. Illus- 
trated by twelve plates. Washington, 1876. 4to, pp. 297. 
Sixth Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of 
the State of Illinois, The first biennial Report. By Cyrus Thomas, Ph:D. Spring- 
field, Ill., 1877. 8vo, pp. 180. : 
Brehm’s Thierleben. Band ii, Heft 8-11 iii. 1-8. Leipzig, 1877. New York: 

ts a Heft. : 


B. Westermann & Co. 8vo. 40 cen 


Vol. ii. Salem, Mass., Naturalist’s Agency. 1877. 12mo, pp. 336. Be 
On New Forms of Actiniaria dredged in the Deep Sea; with a Description of cer- 

tain Pelagic Surface-swimming Species, By H. N. Moseley. 4to, pp. 10, with a pla 

On two Forms of Deep-sea Ascidians; obtained during the voyage of H. M 
Challenger. By H. N. Moseley, 4to, pp. 8. (From the Linnæan Transactions 
Ser. 2d, vol. i.) : ; j pE 
On the Structure of a species of Millepora occurring at Tahiti, Society Islands. 
By H. N. Mos (From the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: 
vol. 167, part I.) 4to, pp. 18. ae 
- On the larval Characters and Habits of the Blister-beetles, belonging to the gen = 


Macrobasis Lec. and Epicauta Fabr.; with Remarks on other species of the 


o egath sce. Further Rema Aoa 
ccasella, and on the Pollination of Yucca. On the Differences betw pi 
How., and Anisopteryx zscularia W.-V., with Remarks 0! 
By C. V. Riley. rom th o a 


1878. } Botany. 121 


Polar Colonization, The Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877. Washington, 
D.C, 8yo, pp 
Immortality. All Life conditionally Immortal. By William Bross. Chicago: 
Jansen, McClurg & Co. p. 3. 
e Geological Formations of = Salle county, and their Organic Remains. By 
reer W. Calkins. I2mo, pp. 
ent Investigations of EEES By Charles PT Minot. (From the 
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, xix.) , PP. 
n the present state of our knee ene of the me, Part i, i, ii. On the 
EARE: es of the Dermal Skelet By C. Spence Bate. (From the Rosat of the 
arije Association eE the Advice ot Science for 1875, 1876.) 8vo, pp. 
12, 2 
ae ogy of a ante of 1873-1877 ; 9; II. Part I, Historical; II, 
Eastern ‘hams ; IIL, Central Baita IV, Lead Region. Accom panied by 
an atlas aii: + Publis hatu the direction of the Chief Geologist, T. C. 
Chamberiin, by the State ry en of Public Printing, Madison, Wis. in 
8vo, pp. 768. 
Palzontological Bulletin, No. 28. On new Vertebrata from the Upper Tapae 
the West. On new Saurians discovered by Mr. Whea = mh in the ye 5 Pen 
sylvania. On the Vertebrata of the Dak + Epod och of Col Co oi. 
(Read before the American Philoso ia Baiti, pobe: H, Fai ) ore pp. 28. 
Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences; Vol III. Buffalo. From 
April, 1875, to August, 1877. 8vo, pp. 230. 


vo, 


Q 
Ah 


20: 


q 
ae 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


LAVALÉE’S ARBORETUM SEGREZIANUM.'—This is a handsome 
volume of some 500 pages, containing a catalogue of the trees 
and shrubs collected by Mons. Lavalée on his estate at Segrez, a 
-= few miles south of Paris, with their synonyms, origin, and with 
abundant references to the most accessible figures. In an inter- 


ig 
N 


lay, in the middle of the sixteenth century, down to that which 
V Vilmorin brought together on his estate at Barres; now fortu- 
nately in 1 popaessión of the State as a school of forestry. 


l Arboretum Segreztanu m—Enumeration des Arbres et Arbrisscaux Cultivés á 
Seres Par ALPH. LAVALE. ar J. B: Bailliere 2 Fils. ees 


122 General Notes. [ February, 


In the body of the catalogue a few errors are noticeable, mis- | 


takes in the spelling of foreign name are not infrequent, and 

synonomy and origin of some plants (Rubus didicertsus is given as 
a native of Canada) will require correction for another edition, 
from which no doubt further study will remove some of the 


doubtful ice credited to North America. To directors of | 


botanic gardens, or to those whose duty it is to care for such col- 
lections, the Arboretum Segrezianum will be an invaluable aid. 
A volume of plates with technical descriptions of some of the 
last and little known species in M. Lavalée’s Arboretum is prom- 
ised, and is, we believe, already in press.— C. S. Sargent. 

RESEARCHES IN REGARD TO TRANSPIRATION IN PLANTs.—J. Wies- 
ner has published, in Annales des Sciences Naturelles, an account 
of his experiments pen this subject. The following i is a state- 
ment of his conclusio 


The effect of light upon transpiration is most obvious in the 


case of plants of a green color. The comparison of green and 
etiolated maize does not leave any room for doubt. 

The functions of chlorophyll in transpiration are evident. A 
part of the light which traverses the chlorophyll is transformed 
into heat, and from this results an elevation of temperature in the 
tissues. Increase of tension of aqueous vapor in the intercellular 
space follows, and the excess of vapor passes out by the stomata. 

It is therefore easy to understand how a plant can transpire ina 
saturated atmosphere, but only under influence of light. 

ese experiments were conducted in three ways: by c 
paring green and etiolated plants, by exposing the plant to ee 
solar spectrum, and by placing them behind solutions of chlor- 
ophyll. 

"The results from these three methods agree. They show that 
the presence of chlorophyll appreciably augments the action of 
light on transpiration; that it is the rays corresponding to the 
absorption bands of the chlorophyll spectrum, and not the more 
luminous rays which excite transpiration; and finally that the 
rays which have passed through a solution of chlorophyll exert 
only a feeble influence on transpiration. 

Other coloring matters, like xanthophyll for example, act like 


chorophyll, but to a less degree. Wiesner does not deny that — 


opening of the stomata may accelerate transpiration in sunlight, 
but the very great transpiration of maize, the stomata of which 
were closed, and the feeble transpiration of Hart twegia comosa, in 
which they were largely open in the dark, suffice to indicate that 
they are not the principal cause of transpiration in the light. 


e dark heat rays act in a very appreciable manner, but less- | 
than the luminous rays. So far as the ultra-violet chemical rayi eo 


are concerned their action is xi or exceedingly sligh 


_ Whatever the nature of the bole they always os ‘i increasing a 
oo the ers of the tissues 2 


Ap rt roe ae Pete a E N eee ee ee 


Pie rae se eee Pee 


1878.] Zoölogy. 123 


Wiesner concludes his paper by the statement: “The physio- 
logical end of the absorption of light is no longer a secret, and I 
have at the same time detected a new function of chlorophyll.” — 
Annales des Sciences Naturelles, September. 

To the above may be added a brief reference to a note by 
Déherain, in which he states that he had obtained results different 
from those of Wiesner, and that he is soon to criticise further 
Wiesner’s paper. 


BoranicaL News.—Z7rimen’s Fournal of Botany for December, 
besides articles of local interest, contains an interesting discussion 
of some questions of botanical nomenclature, by J. Ball; some 
contributions to plant-chemistry, by A. H. Church; notes on 
. Japanese and Bermudian ferns, and notes on some hybrid brambles, 

by W. O. Focke ; Julius Wiesner’s work on the influence of light 
and radiant heat on the transpiration in plants is abstracted. The 
journal contains a discriminating review of Darwin’s Different 
Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same Species. 

The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for November and 
December, contains Wolle’s enumeration of Fresh Water Algæ, 
which embraces upwards of 150 forms new to the United States, 
= and 24 species new to science. Mr. Meehan describes the habits 

Of Gentiana andrewsit. Mr. C. F. Austin describes Danthonia 
_ faxoni n. sp., and two new mosses, while Mr. Davenport presents 
-a description of a new fern, Cheilanthes viscida, from California. 


ZOOLOGY. ! 


= PECULIAR FEATHERS OF THE YouUNG Ruppy Ducx.— The un- 
— usually narrow, rigid and acuminate tail-feathers which constitute 
_ acharacter of the genus Ærismatura are much more peculiar at an 
_ early stage of their growth. The curious structure will doubtless 
be new to most readers of the NATURALIST. 
___+ The accompanying cut will give an idea of the general appear- 
_ ance of the feather, which is, in 
_ fact, double, one complete feather 
_ growing on the end of another, 


LThe 


departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT | 
es, U.S. A. one js e a hase 


124 General Notes. [ February, 


cylindrical barrel for half its length; at the point where the vane 
begins, it sends off a bunch of barbs constituting an after-shaft; 
it then becomes channeled along the under side, and gives off its 
loose barbs alternately on either side, forming a disconnected 


feather (whether barbicels and hooklets are present or not I can- — 
not now determine for want of a microscope). The proximal 
half of this duplex affair is in all respects a perfect feather of 
ordinary character. The distinction of the two feathers is clearly 
seen at the point where the end of the channeled and densely- 
pithy shaft changes into the enlarged, cylindrical and nearly hol- 
low quill of the terminal a ae TER feather. The relations 
of the two being such, they must have sprouted from the same 
matrix, one after the thes, the true feather following after the 
temporary downy one, which is deciduous, and falls off when the 
duckling is about ten inches long. The process is essentially the — 
same, of course, as that by which the downy tip of an ordinary 
contour-feather is shed; but it Shoes not be expected to occur in 
the case of sucha particu larly strong and stiff rectrix as Erisma- 
tura possesses.—Liliott Coues, Turtle Siri. Dakota, Fuly, 1874. 


Nore on RANELLA CLATHRATA Gray.—Last winter I collected 
the above species at Cedar Keys, Fla. I found the shells in shal- _ 
low water, occupying dead shells of Mercenaria mortoni; also — 
attached to the pretty little coral, Oculina diffusa. Through Mr. — 
Bland I submitted specimens to Geo. W W. Tryon, Jr., who, aftera 
careful examination, identifies them as above. This is a west — 
coast form not heretofore known to exist on the eastern coast, — 
and adds another species to the list common to both oceans. | 
Ranella caudata is our usual form, and abundant in Florida— | 

Calkins. 4 

SPARROWS AND PEEWEES.—My residence is in the country 
(Chickies, Lancaster, Co., Pa.), and for about forty years the pee- | 
wee flycatcher (Sayornis ' fuscus) has nested under my portico, 
until 1877, when several European or domestic sparrows (Fringilla a 


domestica) appeared, and not only attacked the resisting peewees 


during several days when these were repairing their nest, butas 
fast as one party built the other demolished, tearing the nest to 
pieces and littering the porch below, without renewing or occU- 
pying the premises.—S. S. Haldeman. 4 


Tue PRAIRIE CHICKEN IN Catirornia.—A fact of considerable a 
interest to our sportsmen has recently been noted in connection — 
with the prairie chicken. The absence of this choice bird of the — 
prairies among the feathered game of California has been felt, and 
efforts have been made by individual enterprise to introduce 
acclimate it. They have not been successful, and the possibility 
of this desirable result has remained in doubt. But it seems that 
_ the bird is solving the problem for us. Starting from the prairies 


i E ER E PE A E KITA OET a RE a EE ERT PELER ETE o A E OE il a a aa 
Di er a i PESES si a ii em se ee ù AAEE EI Pena EE EE PEA 


Kp E ate a EA aa ae a a a EAE ETS Baa aa aaa E ET, 


1878. ] Anthropology. 125 


of Nebraska, it has followed the overland railroad westward, its 
appearance being noted from time to time in localities along the 
line where it had never before been seen. Gradually it followed 
westward until it reached Battle mountain and Winnemucca, 
on the line of the Central Pacific in Nevada. From these points 
it extended its wanderings northward into Surprise Valley, in 
north-eastern California, and is gradually spreading through the 
valleys extending down from Mount Shasta. Its diffusion over 
the whole State is now believed to be only a question of time and 
reasonable forbearance on the part of gunners.—Sa/inas ( Califor- 
nia) Index—Communicated by R. E. C. Stearns. 

On THE FORM OF THE STAPES IN Dipopomys.—Upon making 


very thin, inflated, hollow internally, with a salient rim jutting 
inwards, and a similar salient horizontal border or rim bounding 
it externally; from this flat rim the grooved crura arose, and 
united distally; an osseous tube giving passage to a vessel and 
nerve traverses the crural opening, as in many other Rodents 
and Insectivora. Looking at the base of the stapedial bone from 
the side above and little oblique it reminds one strongly of a 
minute hat with a rounded crown and narrow rim, while a view 
from the side calls to mind the shape of the carapace of an 
Emys. On making comparisons of my sketches with the re- 
markable collection of preparations of the internal ears of various 
vertebrates made by Professor Hyrtl,and now in the museum 
of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, to which I was very 

indly permitted access through the courtesy of Dr. Bache, I 


_ found that the base of the stapes was similarly inflated with the 
>- Convex surface dipping into the fenestrum, in Hyrax, Mephitis, 
_ Enthizon, and Phalangista—Fohn A. Ryder. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


= son, Jr., of Mansfield, Ohio, to a typographical error which — 


126 : General Notes. [ February, 


numerous flakes with arrow and spear heads of obsidian, many 
of them much tarnished by long erosion. All were lying mingled 
together on the surface of a bed of clay, which was covered by a 
deposit of “volcanic sand and ashes” of from fifteen to twenty 
feet in depth. This had been drifted away by the wind in some 
localities, thus exposing the remains. Great numbers of speci- 
mens of the fresh-water shell, Carinifex newberryi, of a white 
color, were found with the vertebrate fossils. The locality is the 
basin of a lake, a small remnant of which still remains, and is 
visited by numbers of Mammalia and water-birds at the present 


tıme. 

POoWwELLĽ’s NorTtH AMERICAN Erunorocy.— The first volume 
of a series of “Contributions to North American Ethnology” 
has recently been published at Washington, by Maj. J. W. Powell. 
It is a quarto volume of 361 pages, and contains a number of 
_ able papers, of which the following is a summary: Part I contains 
aper “On the Distribution and Nomenclature of the Native 


me author is represented by a second paper, 
“On the succession of the Shell-heaps of the Aleutian Islands.” 
This is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Ameri- 
can kywkkenmeddings. The illustrations of the objects of art 
discovered among the different strata which mark the Littoral, 
the Fishing and the Hunting periods are numerous, and are. 
described at length. Another article, by the same writer, “On 
the Origin of the Innuit” or Eskimo, concludes Part I. After 
reviewing ‘the principal hypothesis of origin and migration, he 
assumes that the larger part of North America may have been 
peopled by way of Behring Straits. The appendix to Part I con- 
tains philological papers by Messrs. Furnhelm, Dall and Gibbs. 
Part II consists of an interesting paper by Dr. Geo. Gibbs, con- 
cerning the habits and customs of the “ Tribes of western Washing- - 
ton and north-western Oregon,” with map showing the distribu- 
tion of Indian tribes of Washington Territory, and a linguistic 
appendix, principally by Dr. Gibbs.—E£. A. Barber. — 
Erratum.—Attention having been called, by Mr. E. Wilkin- 


occurred in one of my recent articles entitled “The Ancient and = 


Pee ey Pee Tae e eee ae 


_ 1878.) Anthropology. 127 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—Major Powell and Mr. F. W. Put- 
nam, after the meeting of the American Association at Nashville, 
made some very important investigations among the mounds and 
slab-graves of Tennessee, of which Mr. Putnam will give an ac- 
count in the next report of the Peabody Museum. 

The Rev. Stephen Bowers has ‘sent to the National Museum 
an exceedingly valuable collection of relics from the southern 
coast of California. The bone and shell implements and ‘orna- 
ments form the most attractive feature of the collection. 

In the last volume of the Proceedings of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., reproduces a romantic 
description of Dr. Le Plongeon’s excavations in Yucatan, and his 
discovery of a statue called Chac-mool, with photo-lithographic 

rawings. 

Some valuable information upon Mexican antiquities will be 
found in “Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tomo I 
Entrega [*, published in Mexico. ; 

Mr. George J. Gibbs, of Turks and Caicos Islands, sends to the 
Smithsonian Institution a manuscript in which he endeavors to 
prove that those islands, and not Guanihani or Watlings Island, 
were the first landing place of Columbus. Enclosed in the manu- 
script was a photograph of another wooden stool, somewhat 
similar to that figured in the Smithsonian Report of 1876. 

Jansen, McClurg & Co. have published in a separate pamphlet 
Gov. Bross’s paper on immortality, or all life conditionally im- 


mortal, read before the American Association in Nashville. 


The Munich Society of Anthropology have commenced the 
publication of a separate organ entitled “ Beitrage zur Anthro- 


_ pologie und Urgeschichte Bayerns.” The four parts already pub- 


lished are full of interesting matter and elegantly illustrated. 
he following works of interest to anthropologists are an- 


- : nounced: The Origin of Nations, Geo. Rawlinson (Scribner's); 


The Myths and Marvels of Astronomy, R. A. Proctor (Putnam) ; 
Mycenz, Schlieman (Scribner's); Die Bevolkerung der Erde, 


India, Triibner’s Catalogue; Cyprus, di Cesnola (Murray, Lon- 
_ don); The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, Geo. Dennis (ib.); 
-= China,a H istory of the Laws, Manners and Customs of the People, 
= Ven. J. H. Gray (Macmillan). 


) : 
In Professor Shield’s recent work on the Final Philosophy are 


_ Some very important sections upon anthropology 


On the shores of Mobile river, just above the city of Mobile, 


_ Vast deposits of shells have been discovered. The Mobile and 
_ Ohio Railroad recently utilized one of these beds to pave their 
_Stock-yard, and in doing so unearthed some beautiful pottery and 


other relics of aboriginal settlement. Through the activity of 
r. K. M. Cunningham this treasure has been secured for the 


128 | General Notes. [ February, 


The following papers on American anthropology have appeared: 
Recent Discoveries in the American Bottom, : 
Howland, Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sc., Mar. 2; The Mound-build- 
ers of Illinois, Western Rev., Nov.; in the same periodical, the 
paper of H. A. Rush on Mound-builders in Missouri, before the 
American Association; Are the Indians dying out? S. N. Clarke, 
Bureau of Education; Col. Garrick Mallery read a paper before 
the Washington Philosophical Society, Dec. 8, upon the same 
subject; Rink’s Greenland is reviewed in Nature, Nov. 22d; Die 
Indianer Canadas, Globus, xxxii; Aboriginal Pottery of Salt 
Springs, Ill., Geo. E. Sellers in Popular Science Monthly, Sept.; 
On the Antiquity of Man in America, Dr. Daniel Wilson in Can- 
adian Fournal, Oct.; two volumes of Maj. Powell’s Contributions to 
American Ethnology will soon appear, Vol. II, by Gatschett, 
Mallery, and others, and Vol. III by Powers, Crook, Hazen, and 
Powell; Notes on the Zaparos, paper read before the London 
Anthropological Institute, Nov. 27th; Explorations of Don F. P. 
Moreno in Patagonia, Geographical Magazine, 1877, No. 8; Ueber 
die Eingeborenen von Chiloe, L. Martin in Zeitschrift fir Ethnolo- 
gie, 1877, H. 3; Das Land der Yukararer und dessen bewohner, H. 
v. Holten, same, Heft 2; Die gegenwartige Lage der Indianer in 
den Vereinigten Staaten, Fred. v. Theilmann.—QO. T. Mason, 
Washington, D. C. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


A New Mastopon.—A new species of the 7etralophodon type 
has been recently discovered by Russell S. Hill, in the Loup 
Fork beds of Kansas, which is called by Prof. Cope (Palæonto- 
logical Bulletin, No. 28) T. campester. It is allied to the T. sivalen- 
sis C. and F. in its dentition, and to the T. dongirostris Kaup © 


Europe, in its lower jaw with prolonged symphysis. The spec — 


men obtained has no indication of tusks in the symphysis, and 
the superior tusks have a broad band of enamel, which is not 
found in T. longirostris according to Vacek. T, mirificus Leidy, 


the only other American species of the group, has a short sym- 
physis and a very different composition of the molar teeth. The 


T. campester is about the size of the African Elephant. 


THE Snout FISHES oF THE Kansas CHALK.—Prof. Cope rè- 


si aia al 


Be 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 129 


the American species, and Prof. Cope discovered that the fin 
structure was that of the order above named. These fishes 
were, then, fully armed ; first, with an acute bony rostral weapon ; 
second, with large lancet-like teeth ; and third, with acute-edged 
bony pectoral spines. 


EW GENUS OF OREODONTIDA.—From the Upper Miocene 
(Pliocene) of Montana, has recently been described by Prof. 
ope, a new genus of Oreodontide, which holds an Aere 
ing intermediate position. It has the full dental formula and 
preorbital fossa of Oreodon, but the premaxillary bones form 
a single mass, as in Merycochærus, and there is a large lach- 
rymal vacuity as in Leptauchenia. It differs from the last 
genus in the absence of frontal vacuities. The molars are short- 
crowned, and not prismatic. It is named Ticholeptus, and 
the typical species, 7. sygoimaticus, is the size of Oreodon major. 
It has widely expanded zygomata, which have a horizontal plate- 
like extension at the glenoid region. The anterior face of the 
united premaxillaries is flat, and the nareal fissure is deep. The 
molar teeth are remarkable for their wing-like external ribs, which 
curve forwards. Length of molar series M. .o97; width of 
premaxillary in front .032; length of cranium .225. 


PALHONTOLOGY OF GEORGIA.—Prof. Little, director of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Georgia, has accumulated a valuable scsi i 
of the vertebrate fossils of that State, of cretaceous and tert 
Among these there have been identified the dices Hadro- 
saurus tripos, and the turtles Taphrosphys strenuus and Amphiemys 
oxysterinum, a new genus and species related to Adocus. Mr. 
Loughridge of the survey also discovered a very fine specimen 
of that rare Propleurid, the Feritresius ornatus. 


SILURIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS PLANTS.—Prof. Lesquereux read 
before the American Philosophical.Society of Philadelphia, last Oc- 
tober, two papers, one describing a fungus (R/zzomorpha sigillaria), 
discovered under the bark of a Sigillaria from the Cannelton 
coal of Beaver Co., Penn. The other describes four species of 
plants from the Lower Silurian, viz. : a Pselophyton and Sphenophy- 


first remains of land plants from, the Lower Silurian were dis- 


covered by Dr. Scoville in the Cincinnati beds near Lebanon, 
Ohio 


A NEW ALLY or SIVATHERIUM.—Dr. R- Lydekker of the geologi- 


-cal survey of India, has recently discovered a new genus allied to 


Sivatherium which is of much interest. It lacks anterior cael 


cores, and has but a single base for horns on the vertex. 


130 General Notes. [ February, 


Extinct REPTILES oF Inp1a.—Dr. Lydekker describes the. first 
Plesiosaurus discovered in India from the Umia f h. 
He refers to the discovery of remains of Megalosaurus from the 
upper cretaceous of Trichinopoli, and mentions the existence of 
a huge dinosaurian in the Lameta rocks of Jabalpur. It is repre- 
sented by a femur and caudal vertebræ, and he names it Titano- 
saurius indicus.. He, however, does not define the genus to which 
he desires the name to apply. 


PALAONTOLOGICAL CoursE.—This course, at the Jardin des: 
Plantes, by Prof. Albert Gaudry, includes an interesting discussion 
of the evidences of descent to be observed in the teeth and feet of 
the Mammalia artiodactyla. ‘One part of it published in the Revue 
Scientifique is illustrated with many excellent cuts which convey 
important evidence to the eye. He refers to American observa- 
tions in the same field, but commits,a minor error in ascribing 
three upper incisors to the genus Procamelus, stating that Leidy 
has so determined it. The fact is that Dr. Leidy was unac- 
quainted with the superior incisors of that genus, and that Prof. 
Cope first showed that it possesses but one, as in Camelus. Prof. 
Cope, however, discovered the genus /Protofabis, which possesses 
the three superior incisors referred to by Prof. Gaudry. 


GEoLocy oF Wisconsin.'—The Geological Survey of Wisconsin 
first instituted by the late Dr. I. A. Lapham, has been carried on 
with evident vigor by Prof. T. C. Chamberlain, and his assistants, 
R. D. Irving and Moses Strong. While Professor Chamberlain 
reports on the geology of Eastern Wisconsin, Mr. Irving describes 
that of Central Wisconsin, and Mr. Strong discusses the geology 
and topography of the lead region. An appendix on microscopic 

“lithology is contributed by Charles E. Wright. The illustrations 
are numerous and excellent, and the atlas of thirteen maps further 
enhances the value of the report. We have been especially inter- » 
ested in the account of the surface geology of the eastern portion 
of the state, particularly the description of the ancient fiords 
which run into Lake Michigan, and the determination of the 
Kettle range to be an old terminal moraine, as abundantly - 

proved by the interesting and excellent diagram facing p. 204. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 


GEOGRAPHICAL Work oF Haypen’s Survey.—A photolitho- 
graphic plate of the primary triangulation carried on during the 
summer of 1877. by Mr. A. D. Wilson, Chief Topographer, has 
just been published by the U. S. Geological Survey, under the 
charge of Dr. F. V. Hayden. The area covered by these triangles 
extends from Fort Steele in Wyoming territory, westward to Og- 
den in Utah territory, a distance of about 260 miles, and north 
1 Geology of Wisconsin. Survey of 1873-1877, Vol. II., accompanied by an Ato 
as of Maps. Madison, 1877. 8° pp. 768. 


~- ; 


1878. | Geography and Travels, 131 


as far as the Grand Teton, near the Yellowstone National Park, 
including Frémont’s peak of the Wind River range of the Rocky 
mountains. The area embraces about twenty-eight thousand 
square miles, and within it, twenty-six primary stations were oc- 
cupied and their positions accurately computed. 

Besides these occupied stations a large number of mountain 

peaks were located, which in the future will be occupied as points 
for the extension of the topographical work of the survey. 
5 base line was carefully measured near Rawlins’ springs, on 
the line of the Union Pacific railroad, and from this initial base 
the work was extended north and west to the valley of Bear 
river in Idaho territory. Here a check base was measured and 
the sytem expanded to the neighboring mountain peaks to con- 
nect with the triangulation as brought forward from the first men- 
tioned base. 

Along the line of the Union Pacific railroad the work was con- 
nected at six points with the triangulation system of Clarence 


these ranges were not inthe scope of the season’s work they are 
not given on the chart. 


Tue American GEOGRAPHICAL Society.—In referring, how- 
ever briefly, to the geographical work of our Transatlantic 
brethren, it must be considered a fitting opportunity to offer our 
congratulations to the American Geographical Society, which, 
incorporated in 1852, has now fully attained its majority ; and the 
occasion is the more appropriate, as the society has recently ac- 
quired a new and commodious home, for which it is indebted to 
the public spirit and liberality so characteristic of American citi- 
zens, under the able direction of its distinguished President, Chief 
Justice Daly, whose eloquence and heartfelt regard for our favorite 
science cannot fail to have impressed his hearers during his late 
visit to this country. The American Geographical Society now 
numbers 1750 fellows, and possesses a geographical library of 
some 10,000 volumes and a large collection of maps, &c. Geo- 
hical operations on a large scale have been engrossed by the 
= state in America; but the numerous and valuable papers contain- 


. 


slides through the mails. Where the slides are properly packed — 


1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Ward, Troy, N. Y. 


132 | `. General Notes. [February, 


ed in the twelve volumes of “ Proceedings,” “ Bulletin,” and 
“ Journal,” issued by the society since 1852, sufficiently attest 
the vitality of geography in the country at large.— Sir Rutherford 
Alcock’ s address before the London Geographical Society. 


GEOGRAPHICAL News.—Mr. Wetherman has published at Lima 
a valuable report on his exploration of the Peruvian tributaries of 
the Amazon, giving an account of an adventurous descent of the 
rivers Perene, Tambo, and Ucayali, in balsas, specially constructed 
for the purpose, says the Geographical Magazine. —A Dutch Arc- 
tic reconnoissance has been resolved upon by the Dutch Arctic 
Committee, which will dispatch in the next May a small sailing 
vessel of 85 tons to the Spitzberger and Barents seas. The ex- 

dition is paid for by the voluntary contributions of the whole 
people of Holland.—Herr Kiepert has lately presented to the Berlin 
Geographical Society a new map of Armenia, which embraces all 
available information and shows many additions to our previous 
knowledge of that region—Among new books are, Upper Egypt, — 
its People and its Products, by C. B. Klunzinger, M.D., with a 
prefatory notice, by Dr. George Schweinfurth (London, Blackie. 
1878); The Monuments of Upper Egypt; A Translation of the 
Itinéraire de la Haute Egypte, of Auguste Marietto Bey (Lon- 
don : Triibner, 1877). : . 


MICROSCOPY.! 


Tue Postat Cius.—During the past year this society has con- — 
tinued its operations with full numbers, and with marked interest 
on the part of its members. The varied character of the objects 
contributed, and the sociable, gossipy nature of the notes, have — 
made the boxes welcome throughout every part of the twenty- — 
seven circuits. Comparatively few slides have been broken on — 
the way or by careless handling, especially in those circuits wher 
the new style of boxes has been in use; and scarcely any annoy 
ance has been experienced except an occasional refusal of some 
postmaster to take the boxes because they contained glass. - Ev 
the difficulty in regard to the legality of mailing the slides has 
been as yet but a small and exceptional evil. The law against 
mailing glass is plain enough, the slides are unquestionably glass, _ 
and the objects are doubtless articles contained in glass; andit 
has been known from the first that to demand our rights under 
the law would be to break up the very useful practice of sending — 


ae iiie 


SE ag ee OE eee Sie ee ee ES tet Pe 


i h Pe 
a ee 


S 


In addition to the regular boxes of the club, several contribu- 


ae ee ee 


A he rs Do eM Te Ae ne oe Ee eee ee Co ae 


ry koi a unta ERA a ais nt a 
SO ART EP RA ees Le Wy SNe oh Mh mae 2 ORT RS PURE a tae Poa OMe eS ae PE SEK enw e one ren nL hha Mea e te a, heehee ae lee > | eg oe a ee eres. hee E et Sere ete age Pm T a Pee ee 
a EROM pi POER EAEE EEN ý 
FSP Set PRS ORIA g ee EER Perea EANES ese oe eee isa ee x 
% S s $ 3 


a Ee th 


1878. | Microscopy. 133 


tions have been made during the year of special boxes of such 
excellence as to require particular mention. One of these is a 


_set of exquisite vegetable sections, double-stained in compound 


dye by Dr. Beatty’s method, prepared and contributed by W. G. 
Corthel of Boston. Another, a series of unsurpassed crystalliza- 
tions for the polariscope, by G. E. Bailey, of Lincoln, Neb. And 
a third, the beautiful preparations of Bermuda shells, by C. C. Mer- 
riam, of Rochester, already described in the NATURALIST. 
During the year the club has lost two well-known members by 
death, Edwin Bicknell, of Cambridge, one of the most skillful of 
workers both with the instrument and at the preparing table, and 
Dr. Geo. D. Beatty, of Baltimore, one of the most talented, culti- 
vated and promising of the cultivators of microscopy in this 


country. 


The offices of secretary and treasurer have heretofore been 
combined, and ably filled by the Rev. A. B. Hervey, of Troy, to 
whose thorough:and genial management the club is indebted for 
much of its success. The duties of the position having outgrown 
the time at his command and compelled him to offer his resigna- 
tion, the managers have determined to recommend, instead of 
accepting the resignation, to divide the office and the labor by 
electing a separate treasurer who shall also act as assistant secre- 

This change will doubtless be adopted by the club, and 
add to the ease and efficiency of its management. 


. A New Martine Box For SLIDES.—A new style of mailing box 
contrived by Dr. R. H. Ward, has been adopted by the Postal 

lub, and has proved successful beyond anything tried before. 
An account of it is therefore published in the hope that it may be 
made more generally useful. 

In the boxes hitherto used for posting slides, the slides are 
occasionally found shattered to pieces, while the box containing 

em is quite uninjured or only a little strained. Insome boxes con- 
taining six or twelve slides, half or more of the slides have been 
found broken in a perfectly sound box. This seemed to indicate not 


-the effect of a crushing blow but the result of the inertia of the 
slide itself, which was only supported by the wooden racks at the 
_ ends and more or less perfectly by the cotton stuffed around it. 


An adequate occasion for such an accident might be furnished by | 
throwing the mail-bag from a wagon to the pavement, or trans- 
ferring it to or from a rapidly-moving train. It was therefore 
decided to reject the wooden rack altogether, and instead to sup- 


port the slide by the whole of its edges and much of its sides by 
` cloth, leather, india-rubber, or other soft and evenly-yielding 
Material. This may be attained with the common boxes by 


removing the racks, lining the top, bottom and ends with thick, 


— soft cloth, and arranging folds of the cloth, glued or stitched in 
Place, like a rack at each end of the box so that a double thick- 


134 Scientific News. (February, — | 


ness of the cloth shall extend between the slides from each end 
one inch towards the centre. It is better, however, to have the 


boxes made for this use somewhat larger than the customary. 


size, so that very thick beaver cloth can be used for the packing. 
For six slides a box may be made of hard wood 3-16ths of an 
inch thick, 334 inches long, 114 wide and 11% deep inside meas- 
urement. The folds of cloth should be so arranged that not 
more than an inch in the centre of the slide is unsupported, 
except when large cover-glasses are to be used, when more space 


should be left to avoid pressing on the cover. The outside ofthe 


box is covered with strong thin cloth. 

The comparative safety of this method is indicated by the expe- 
rience of the Postal Club. During a trial of several months in 
many of the circuits, not one slide is known to have been broken 
while packed in this manner, while to slides in the ordinary boxes 
with wooden racks accidents are unfortunately frequent. For 


sending by express these boxes should be made of thicker wood, _ 
or enclosed in larger cases, to prevent crushing by the weight of 


‘heavy packages among which they may be carried. 


—:0:—— 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— At the late meeting of the American Association for the — 


Advancement of Science at Nashville, Tenn., Dr. T. Sterry Hunt — 


presented a report on the subject of an International Geological À 


Congress, from which we extract the following: 


“The Committee to arrange for an International Geological 
s . . . 8 as ; p 


Exhibition and Congress, to be held in Paris in 1878, W 


appointed by this Association at. Buffalo, in August, 1876, and i 


- 


consisted of Messrs. W. B. Rogers, James Hall, J. W. oe 


o 


- the general Exhibition to be held at Paris in 1878, and indicating _ 


to be — 


i pen io sais $ i 
EIE EE AS E EE LESA OE PE AER N E 


Pe DIE T 


Xt 
a 


1878. }. Scientific News. 135 


Geology throughout the world. The response to this invitation 
as been most gratifying. The Geological Society of France 
has formally recognized the great importance of the objects 
= proposed, and promised its hearty co-operation, while private 
letters from its President to the Secretary of the Committee, and 


published the circular in their respective languages, and have 
communicated to the Secretary their hearty approval of the plan. 
Prof. Capellini has, in this connection, published an interesting 
correspondence, calling attention to the fact that, in 1874, he had 
laid the project of a similar International Geological Congress, to 
be held in Italy, before the Italian Minister of Agriculture, In- 
dustry and Commerce.” 
“ The Geological Society of London and the Geological Sur- 
vey of Great Britain have also formally signified their approval 
of our objects, and the co-operation of Norway, Sweden, Russia 
and Austria-Hungary is promised. It is to be regretted that 
Germany has declined to take a part in the International Exhi- 
bition of 1878, but we trust that this will not prevent her geolo- 
gists from joining in the proposed Congress. The Director of 
the Geolog.cal Survey of Japan promises to aid in our work, and 
we have the same assurance from Brazil, where the circular has 
been translated into Portuguese. Chili and Mexico have also 
responded, and promise an ample representation of their geology 
at Paris next year, while Canada, both through her Geological 
_ Survey and in the person of Dr. Dawson, will probably be repre- 
_ sented there.” 

“The Government of the United States has as yet failed to 
accept the invitation of France to take a part inthe Exhibition 
of 1878, so that American geologists are not certain that they 
will be able to participate in the International Geological Exhi- 
bition. We are, however, assured, that the Government is very 
desirous to have our country duly represented at Paris; and it 
is to be hoped that at the approaching extra session of the United 
States Congress measures will be taken for accepting the French 
invitation, and appointing a commission, so that our people may. 
secure a representation in Paris. am assured, on all sides, 
that our geologists desire to contribute largely to the Inter- 
national Exhibition, and even at this late day it will be possible 
to do much, In any event it is probable that several members 
of our committee will be present at the proposed Geological 
Congress. The precise date of this has not yet been fixed, 
though your Secretary is now in correspondence with the Sec- 
_fetary of the Geological Society of France upon this point, and 
believes that with the co-operation of that body, a time conven- 
tent to all will be agreed upon.” | 
“Tt is recommended by the Standing Committee of the Asso- 


_ VOL. XII.--NO. II. : 9 


* 


136 Scientific News. '[ February, 


ciation that, in addition tothe names of J. P. Lesley, of Philadel- 
phia, and Prof. . Ramsay, director of the Geological Survey 
of Great Britain, already added to the International Committee, 
the Presidents, for the time being, of the Geological Societies of 
France, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, of Berlin, of Belgium, 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Imperial Geological Institute of 
Vienna, be invited to form part of our Commission.” — T. Sterry 


gress, constituted as follows: Hébert, president; Tournouer and 
Albert Gaudry, vice-presidents; Bioche, treasurer; Jaunetaz, 
secretary-general; Delaire, Sauvage, Brocchi and Véelain, secre- 
taries; with the following, Belgrand, Bureau, de Chancourtois, 
G. Co é i 


Desnoyers, Fougué, V. Gervais, Gruner, De Lapparent, Mallard, 
Milne-Edwards, Pellat, Marquis de Roys and L. Vaillant, mem- 
bers of the committee. 

A circular issued by this committee, bearing date July 31, in- 
vites all those interested in geological, mineralogical and palæon- 
tological studies to take part in the approaching congress, and to 
subscribe the sum of ¢welve francs each, which will give a card 
of admission to the congress, and right to all the publications 
thereof. All those who intend to be present are at the same 
time invited to send, as soon as possible, a list of the questions 
which seem to them worthy of general discussion, as well as 0 


the communications which they propose to make touching these 


questions. They are also invited to indicate which time appears 
to them most convenient for the meeting of the congress. 


As regards an International Geological Exhibition, the Paris a : 


Committee of Organization state that the difficulty of finding 4 
suitable locality seems to them an obstacle in the way of realizing 
this part of the programme. They hope, however, that there 
will be many special collections sent, and beg the exhibitors of 


Department of the Universal Exhibition. 
It is certain that, as at all previous similar exhibitions, " 
different nations will contribute more or less of geologica 
material, and it was conceived that such collections, extended an 
systematized in accordance with the plan set forth in the cH 


1878.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 137 


cular, would, while forming a part of the Universal Exhibition, 
without farther cost, meet all the requirements of an International 
Geological Exhibition. To the accomplishment of this end it 
will only be necessary for the exhibitors of all nations to send a 
list of their geological contributors to the local committee of or- 
ganization at Paris. 

All correspondence relating to the congress should be addressed 
to Dr. Jaunetaz, secrétaire-général, rue des grands Augustins 7, 
Paris, France, and all moneys sent to Dr. Bioche, at the same ad- 
dress. 


— Russell S. Hill has recently returned to Philadelphia from- 
Kansas, where he as been, for several months past, exploring for 
Prof. E. D. Cope. He discovered many fine vertebrate fossils, in- 
cluding a Protostega gigas, the bones of which, cleaned from the 
matrix, weighs three hundred pounds. He also discovered the 
new mastodont Tetralophodon campester,and numerous other mam- 
malia. 


a TEESE OTE AET E BERE, 


ERRATA.—Page 51, second paragraph of: Botany, first line, for “ized” read “ined;” second, for 

e a fi ‘ mensiesii ” read ‘‘ menziesii” twice; seventh, 
for “‘empitriformis’’ read ‘‘empetriformis ;” eighth, for ‘‘ Erigonium’’ read ‘‘ Eriogonum”’ twice ; 
tenth, for “ Polymonium”’ read * Polemonium ;” next paragraph, for * Booth ” read ‘‘ Boott; also 
ph. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


_ Putnosopaicar Sociery oF WasuinoTon, D. C., Nov. 24, 1877. 

_ His annual address was read by the President, Prof. Joseph 

Henry. It includeda sketch of the methods of scientific research, 

_ and an account of the progress of investigations into the phe- 

_ nomena of sound as exemplified by fog-signals. It was shown 

that experiments of all kinds tended to increase the probability 

_ that refraction of the sound waves or beams was the chief factor 
= in producing the supposed abnormalities. 

_. Lieutenent-Colonel Garrick Mallery, U. S. A., read a paper on 
Certain errors, in general acceptance, in regard to our aborigines. 
It was especially devoted to showing that the number of Indians 
in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, in spite of losses by 
violent death, is probably on the increase, and that the discrep- 
ancy between their present numbers and the earlier accounts is 
chiefly due to the exaggerated and erroneous nature of the latter. 
This paper being unfinished when the hour of adjournment 
arrived, the remainder was postponed until the next meeting. 

_ Dec. 8, 1877,—The same paper was continued. The author 
referred to poisoning arrow-points, belief in a single supreme 
Spirit or deity, supposed knowledge of medicine or medicin 

roperties of plants, etc., as being in the category of popular 


138 Scientific Serials. [ February, 


errors, time-honored but with slender foundation. The 
was the occasion of much discussion, and occupied the antiki 
evening. 


, 
AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SocieTY.—Dec. 17, 1877, Mr. J. A. , 
Bennett, Esq., read a paper entitled My first Trip up the Magda- 
lena, and Life in the “ Heart of the Andes.’ '—Jan. 8, 1878, Rev. 
W. E. Griffis read a paper on Japan, Geographical and Social, with _ 
personal experiences. 


Boston Society oF NATURAL History.—Dec. 19, 1877, Prof. 
_E. S. Morse made some observations on the habits and structure 
of Lingula, including his discovery of otoliths, which had not 
been previously known to exist in any Brachiopods. —Jan. 2, 1878, 

r. T. Sterry Hunt made a communication on some è geological 
features of North Carolina, and Mr. J. . Allen remarked on an 
“ Inadequate Theory of Birds’ Nests.” ‘ 


APPALACHAIAN MounTAINn CLus.—Dec. 12, Prof. G. Lanza de- 
scribed an ascent of Scar Ridge, a mountain lying north-west of 
Mt. Osceola, and Mr. Warren Upham spoke concerning some un- 
named mountains between Mt. Hancock and Scar Ridge. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.! 


Tue GeoGRAPHICAL MaGazineE.—December. Indian Famines 
and Sun Spots. Water-partings versus Ranges, by R. B. Shaw. 
The Arctic Fohn, by Sir G. S. Nares. Mr. Stanley's Voyage down 
the Congo (with Stanley’ s map of The Congo river). 


Tue GeoLtocicaL MaGazine.—December. American “Surface 
Geology,” and its relations to British, by S. V. Wood 


ANNALS AND MAGAZINE oF Narurat History. — December. 
Report on the ee collected during the Arctic Expe- 
_ dition, 1875-76, by P. M. Duncan and W. P. Sladen. A Post — 
tertiary Beds of Grinnell Land and North Greenland, by H 
Feilden. The Nomenclature of the Groups of Ratitæ, by Alfred 
Newton. ; 


1 The articles enumerated under this head are, for the most part, selected. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xii. — MARCH, 1878. — No. 3. 


ON THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE RED MITES! 
BY PROF. C. V, RILEY. 


The Locust Mite (Trombidium locustarum Riley).—One of the 
most interesting as well as one of the most important of our 
locust enemies is what we may popularly call the Locust Mite. 
It forms a true link between those articulates which prey on the 
eggs and thése which prey on the locusts, since it combines both 
traits. Referred to in previous writings under the name of the 
silky mite, its natural history was first fully made out by the writer 
_ during the past summer. It differs so much in infancy and 
_ Maturity that it has been referred to distinct genera, and was 
always known under two different names. During either period 
it proves a bitter enemy to the locust. In the mature form it 


No suspicion that it was purely a larval form. The specific name 


1 Extracted from Rated copy for the First Annual Report of the U. S. Entomo- 
ical Commiss sio 


VOL. XIL—NO. 111. 11 


140 On the Transformations of the Red Mites. [ March, 


locustarum was first proposed for it by B. D. Walsh} but Dr. Le 
Baron afterwards gave it the name of Atoma nee, in con- 
nection with a detailed description. 

Active when they first hatch and impelled by instinct, these 


Fig. 1—Yrombidium locustarum :—a, female with her batch of eggs (after 
Emė leas 6, newly hatched Jarva— natural size indicated by the dot within the cir- 
cle; G egg; ‘d, e, vacated egg-shells (after Riley). 
little six-legged specks crawl upon the locusts and B to 
them, mostly at the base of the wings or along their principal 
veins, just as a tick fastens to a dog, or a sheep, or to man. Thus 
attached to their victim they suck its juices and swell until the 
legs become invisible. It is in this condition (Fig. 24) that they 


— Ti mene locustarum :—a, mature larva when about to leave the "i 
- d, female—the natura 


1 Practical Sak ipa 

Le Baron’s Second Illinois a won 1872, p. 156. The author employs the 
_ term Avoma, which, though at first employed by Latreille, is corrected to Astoma 
in his Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum, I, p. 162 (1806 : 


1878. | On the Transformations of the Red Mites. Igi 


are most often noticed, presenting to the ordinary observer the 
appearance of a bright red oblong-ovoid body growing from the 
wing. They are so firmly attached by the mouth, so immovable, 
and with the legs so short and hidden, that persons unfamiliar 
with their true nature might easily mistake them for some natural 
growth or excrescence. That they are often so numerous as to 


‘weaken and kill their victim, reports clearly prove. 


In due time these swollen bodies let go their hold and drop to 
the ground where, clumsily and with difficulty, they crawl under 


_ the first shelter afforded by some bit of loose earth, or a stone. 


Here they remain quiet for two or three weeks, gradually swell- 
ing and changing form. During this change the pupa state is 
assumed, but not by shedding any skin as do true insects in going 
through their transformations. New legs, feelers and mouth- 
parts form under the old skin, which, with its now useless legs, 
distends so as barely to cover the new parts, which are all 
appressed to the body very much as in the pupa of a beetle. 
(Fig. 24.) Finally both the distended larval skin and the new one 
that incases the pupa burst, and release a creature quite different 
from the former Astoma—in fact, none other than the 8-legged 
Trombidium. (Fig. 2c.) We thus see that from the time this mite 
hatches, through all its growth and changes, but one molt takes 


_ place. The mature form passes the winter in the ground, and is 


active whenever the temperature is a few degrees above freezing 
point. ! 

Only two species of the genus Trombidium have been described 
in America, viz: scabrum Say, and sericeum Say? The descrip- 
tions in both cases are brief, and lacking in structural details and 


in measurements. The locust mite under consideration has been 


hitherto referred to sericeum, but the characteristic polished anal 


~ plate precludes the reference, and we define it under the name of 


locustarum. Since the time when it was established by Fabricius, 
evidently on the characters of the European T. holosericum, the 
genus Zrombidium has been greatly modified by different authors. 


_ The species have been variously arranged according to relative 


length of legs, position of eyes, divisions of the body, etc. As 
restricted at present, the genus is thus characterized. Abdomen 


’ swollen, especially in front where it is broadest; cephalo-thorax 


small and narrow, with two eyes, superior and barely raised; 


$ Jouri. me Nat. Sc. Phil. 11, 1821, p. 70. 


142 On the Transformations of the Red Mites. [ March, 


legs 7-jointed, palpate, with two minute terminal hooks, the front 
pair longest; the two front pair widely separated from the two hind 
pair; mandibles unguiculate; palpi large, free, the penultimate 
joint strongly ungulate, and the terminal joint forming a movable 
thumb upon it. Larva 6-legged, parasitic; defined under the gen- 
eric names Astoma, Leptus, Lepostomus and Ocypete. Many species 
have been described in Europe, but the one in question differs 
from all of them as given by Gervais.* 

Trombidium locustarum Riley —Egg, 0.12 mm. in diameter, 


spherical, full of granulations, pale orange-red in color, becoming | 


more pointed at one end before hatching (Fig. 1¢), the shell split- 
ting across and the severed sides rolling toward each other 
when vacated (Fig. 12). 

rva.—When newly hatched, pale orange-red, 0.14 mm. long, 


ovoid, the body with but three transverse sutures, one anteriorly, 


one between first and second, and another between second and 
third pair of legs; dorsum with several transverse rows of about 
six piliferous points; head somewhat narrowed, showing four 
minute swellings, each giving rise to a rather long hair; mouth- 
parts small and indistinct, with a dusky, granular spot at their base; 
legs 6-jointed, inclusive of fixed coxal piece, the third joint 
longest, hind pair somewhat longer than the others; all tipped 
with two well developed claws, those on front pair the longest; 
what appears to be a rudimentary sub-cutaneous fourth pair; no 
anal sete. 


Full 
distended and elongated, the elongation being principally from 
the posterior dorsal portion so as to bring to view four hairs at 
the end; body showing two principal transverse constrictions, one 


about the middle, the other above it, while the whole surface is 3 


finely andtransversely striate. 
ong, one-half as broad. Either pale yellow of 
orange-red, polished, swollen and rounded anteriorly, more taper- 


ing posteriorly, the dorsum well arched; two transverse impres- — 
sions, at first noticeable but subsequently obliterated; palpt and . 
legs formed under the larval skin, their ends finally projecting — 
from it and more or less free; traces of the shriveled larval legs : 


_ widely separated. : 


Adult—When first from pupa the color is orange-red, with @ . 
distinct transverse constriction about the middle, anda deep trans- 


diameter, armed wi h rather long 


1 Suites à Buffon. Aptéres, 1844. 


ð 


own larva.—1.6 mm. long, with the whole body greatly 


glee oD hs. Tore dearth | wie Solas "ati ei 


Pe ee imac ba ea RPE CEE, BO eth pt, me Sse eee ee phe FE, 
EIS PO 25 na A E U g 


1878. | On the Ti si ia a of the Red Mites. 143 


to or very little beyond its tip; alga by a sunken polished plate at 
the end of the body dorsally; the plate but sparsely covered with 
hairs, elongate, square in front and broadening behind. The legs 
have the terminal hooks very short and blunt, the front pair is 
longest, the second shortest. Hairs of body barbed, slightly 
curved and attenuated. The scissor-like mandibles are faintly 
toothed within. With age the color intensifies to scarlet, but 
the legs, palpi and ventral surface are always more pale and sil- 
very than the superior part of the body. The male is smaller than 
the female, has more intense color, relatively somewhat longer 
legs, wih the body more pointed behind and more deeply con- 
stricted; the anal plate more narrow; ventrally his body is more 
distinctly constricted toward tip, and more deeply impressed 
longitudinally; also with the genital impression more distinct. 
His body becomes more creased and impressed with age, while 
that of the female becomes broader and more smooth and swollen. 
Average length of female when full grown about 3 mm.; male 
about 2 mm 

Widespread. We have it from Manitoba, Texas, various 
eastern States and from California. 

In each of the two egg-masses we have examined, the number 
ranged between 300 and 400, the mass being irregularly globose, 
and the eggs but loosely adhering to each other. We have not 
been able to ascertain the exact length of time required for the 
full development of the larva after attachment, but it is brief and 
seldom exceeds a fortnight, while the final transformation after 
detachment occupies but three or four days. Though the motion 
of the swollen and detached larva is slow, the legs move about 
with considerable rapidity, yet in the gradual change to pupa 
they shrink and are partially drawn in. Since De Geer’s time it 
has been known that some of the octopod mites are hexapods in 
their early life, and there can be no doubt but that all the Zrom 
bidide have hexapod larve. In addition to the locust mite above 
described, we have found another larval form attacking the mature 
C. spretus. Jt isat once distinguished from the larva of docustarum 


by the more prominent head, by the longer, more slender legs 


which are 7-jointed, the joints increasing in length to the penul- 


_ timate which is longest, and by the hairs, whether on the body, 


legs or palpi, being long, tapering and barbed. It is possibly the 


: larva of a large species which we have called Trombidium gigan- 
~ teum, distinguished by the following characters: 


Trombidium giganteum Riley—Adult 8 mm. to 9 mm. long 


pyriform, : somewhat flattened; no pronounced constrictions, but 


144 On the Ti PASE of the Red Mites,  [March, 


various dorsal irregularities, usually about five pairs of circular 
essións connecte y transverse ones on anterior 
two-thirds, and a triangular series posteriorly. Barbed 


Characterized by the penultimate palpal joint forming 
a single claw with a prominent notch, while the ter- 
minal thumb is large, extending one-third its length 
\ beyond the claw, clavate and with the inner side of its 
broad end flattened; the claw as well as the thumb 
ye having sparse hairs: terminal joint of legs squarely 
Pe SS | docked, with the claws reaching but little beyond the 
Trombidium side. ca : : : k 
giganteum, a, Living in the ground. Nine specimens examined. 
“ses pa a We have also reared to the perfect state the 
and thumb. well-known Astoma parasite that attacks the com- 
mon house-fly (Musca domestica) in this country. 
The larva (Fig. 4) has the same mode of trans- 
formation as T. locustarum, but is much more ac- 
tive after detachment, while the gradual shrinking 
and withdrawal of the larval legs during the 
g transformation to pupa is much more easily ob- 
Fig. 4—Larva served. The species is distinguishedfrom 7: /ocus- 
of he: yombidium 
ae tarum by the following characters: 


hee muscarum Riley —Larva distinguished from that 

of T. /ocustarum by the greater relative length of 
legs, and by the hairs on the body being much 
longer and more aon a needa also by the more 
distinct transverse sutures, of which there are 
four. Transverse striations noticeable soon after 
5 ‘attachment. Full grown — also more active. 

Fig. 5.—-Trombid- | Pupa-—More rounded ind, 


sum MOm, 4 Adult Average fengeh 1 1.2 mm.; color bright — 


labial claws and 
thumb; 4, pedal and pale scarlet; legs very pale and with the 


claws; 4 — tu- terminal ‘joint fusiform and the claws much 
berculous hai longer than in T. Jocustarum, and more nearly as 
found in he larva; body rounded, very little narrower behind, 
with no impressions or other marks, Barbed hairs of body 


led appearance under the microscope. Genital depression circu- 
lar; penultimate palpal joint ending in two ery equal, blunt 


its tip. No marked sexual difference 
Many specimens examined. 
The mode of growth of these mites may be more clearly illus- 


1878. | On the Transformations of the Red Mites. 145 


trated by a brief reference to a common red water mite (Hy- 
drachna belostome Riley) which we have studied. The mites of 
the typical genus Hydrachua are, in reality, the aquatic repre- 
sentatives of Zrombidium, and have a precisely similar mode of 
development. We have not had the eggs, but in Europe they are 
known to be laid in spring, in holes in soft-stemmed aquatic 
plants. 

The young larva (Fig. 60) like that of Zroméidium, is pale red, 
hexapodous, and with the legs 6-jointed, including the coxal 
joint. It has the mouth-parts retracted, and is characterized by 
two dark eye-spots anteriorly, and by the swollen second joint of 


Fig. 6. pes belostomæ; 6, newly hatched larva ; æ, larva soon after becom- 
ing fixed; c, mature ep with pupa forming within ; 2 adult ; e, its pedal claws; 
J, palpal claws sf lar 
the palpi PEE at each anterior corner. Moving about in the 
water these young larvæ fasten, often in very large numbers, to 


different aquatic insects. Water bugs of the family Belostomidæ 


-are particularly subject to attack, and especially Zattha fluminea 


(Say'), upon a single specimen of which we have sometimes 
counted over too. They are able to fasten to the bug by means 
of several sharp hooks at the end of the palpi. Once fixed, the 
head and mouth parts stretch until they become separated by a 
neck from the main body, the transparent skin of which rapidly 


=“ swells and elongates so as to form a bag with the more solid, 


dark-red parts visible anteriorly. (Fig. 6a.) The maxilla pene- 
trate and extend beneath the chitinous covering of the host, until 
they form a long pointed thread. ` The legs curl up, become use- 
less, and are more or less withdrawn, and the larva gradually 


7 z passes to the pupa state within this bag, which becomes more and 
: = more swollen and rounded posteriorly, and finally bursts to 
_ release the adult mite. This bag-like larva was looked upon as 


os Perthostoma aurantiaca, Leidy. 


è 


“Yes, sir, it is the grandest view in America, for you can see 


146 The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. [ March, 


an egg by many old authors, and was made the type of the genus 
Achlysia by Audouin. 

The adult swims actively about in the water, but before attain- 
ing maturity fixes to some plant and undergoes another molt 
without material change of form. 


Flydrachna belostome Riley—Larva. Hexapodous. Elliptic- 
ovoid. Pale red, with two dusky eye-spots. Legs 6-jointed including 
cox; terminal joint longest; claws very small. Surface closely 
and evenly studded with minute points. Palpi drawn beneath the 
head with the second joint greatly swollen, and showing like an 
eye at each anterior side of the body; the three terminal joints 
indistinctly separated and each armed with a sharp hook. Be- | 
coming elongate and more or less pyriform, with a distinct neck 
when fixed. Pupa formed within the bag-like body of larva. 
Adult—Average length when first from pupa 1.5 mm.; globular; 
color dark blood brown; body smooth; legs with but few hairs, 
terminal joint truncate and with two very minute claws; pal- 
pal claws very small and the thumb no longer. 


MERE ae eS et ig pe 


SER ate Ap ee a AT 


:0: 
THE HOME OF THE HARPY-EAGLE. 
BY FELIX L. OSWALD, M.D. 


OT far from the old military road which unites the Mexican 
esp of Tehuantepec with the cities of the table-land, there — 
stands an ancient Spanish fort, Æ Fortin de Tarija, which is now — 
Jn as a storehouse by the proprietors of a neighboring copper- — 
mine, while one of the larger outbuildings has been converted into — 
a tavern, where the stage coach stops for dinner. Posada de dos 
mares, Hotel of the two seas, seems rather a strange name for a 
posada situated in the heart of the Sierras, and at an elevation of a 
at least twelve thousand feet above the level of any sea, but if the 
traveler deigns to alight and share the ¢ad/e d'hôte of the humble 
posadero he may convince himself that the name is not so very 
inappropriate after all. . . 
“Forty minutes time before the coach starts Señor,” my host 
will observe after dinner, “and if you never passed here before, 
perhaps you would like me to accompany you to the Fort 
and show you the a/¢a vista, the grand view, from the parapet.” 3 
_ “Grand view? is there anything exceptionally grand about it?” 


1878.] The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. 147 


los dos mares, the two oceans, at the same time! I only charge you 
one real (twelve cents) extra.” 
He who has never seen two oceans at the same time will very 
likely invest a real. The view is grand indeed. You stand on 
the back-bone of the American continent, which measures less 
than two hundred English miles from shore to shore here, and 
see the Gulf of Mexico so plainly that you might distinguish the 
smoke-trail of the New Orleans packet, or the glittering towers 
‘of St. Juan de Ulloa, while the Pacific, though thirty or forty 
miles nearer, glistens faintly through a gap of the Chiapas coast- 
hills, and but for the sharp-drawn line of its horizon might be 
mistaken for a mountain lake. Yet it is not the water that con- 
stitutes the grandeur of the alta vista, it is the land, the main- 
land of the western world, of which you see a larger and fairer 
portion from the parapet of Fort Tarija, than from perhaps any 
other point between Mount St. Elias and the Peak of Aconcagua. 
Far from the north, from the distant border state of Sonora, 
descends a mountain chain which is easily recognized as the 
Sierra Madre, the main and “%entral chain of the American con- 
tinent, the southern prolongation of the Rocky mountains of 
New Mexico and Colorado, A second Sierra, a continuation of 
_ the California Contra-costa range, lifts itself in the north-western 
sky, and may from here be traced through a succession of fainter 
but snowier summits that seem to rise with the distance, till they 
culminate in a stupendous peak, the extinct volcano of Culiacan, 
which looms like a jagged white cloud over the edge of the 
horizon. About ten leagues, or thirty English miles, from the 
Fort the two Sierras unite, and between their icy ridges, their wild 
Crags and their forests of evergreen pines enclose a mountain- 
land which is perhaps, after all, the true paradise of the western 
hemisphere. 
- From the regions of eternal snow to the lakes and fruit-groves 
in the valleys that communicate with the primeval forests of the 
tierra caliente, this vast triangular terrace-land, the great mountain 
valley of Oaxaca, exhibits every degree of elevation, the climatic 
extremes with all their intermediate grades and almost every 
Variety of the American fauna and flora. On a surface of six 
thousand English square miles the eastern half of the state of 
Oaxaca unites a greater abundance and variety of animal and 
Pele life tan any other American country of equal extent, 


148 The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. [March, — 


and the exuberant fertility of its lower valleys is only equaled 
by the coast regions of the Sunda islands. Life seems intensified 
here. The mightiest trees and the strongest animals, as well as - 
the sweetest fruits and most brilliant birds, are found together in 
this garden of the Hesperides, which (from all but a political 
standpoint) would appear, even to a patriotic Yankee, as superior 
to the finest portions of the United States as the hill counties of 
Southern Tennessee are superior in beauty and fertility to the 
most favored districts of Labrador. 
Between the two main forks of the Rio Verde, and within a 
circuit of fifty English miles, the naturalist may find from sixty 
to seventy-five different species of palm trees, wild growing © 
oranges, figs and almonds, four varieties of the Musa paradisiaca; — 
the Adansonia and the dragon-tree, with their gigantic trunks, — 
the most gorgeous butterflies, the largest reptiles and Carnivora — 
of the New World, including the Boa imperator and the jaguar, 
and the strongest if not the largest of all American birds, for the 
forests of Southern Mexico are the favorite home of the Harpy- — 
Eagle, the king bird of our western continent. a 


š i Pee A Se les 
aE SSDI iy Ne Hire ee ee eng ge PRE ag sea A a arn NCE eee O ORE AE EE NEEE eee ae ME eT flat ee ae eae, O ce ie re 


Even animals of a wide latitudinal distribution show an elective 
affinity for some special country which may have been their 
_ “centre of creation,” and has always remained their favorite abode, “ 
where they will survive after their species has become extinct in — 
other lands, and which may, therefore, be called their home far 
excellence. The tiger is thus at home in the Sunderbunds of the 
Ganges Delta, the bustard (Otis tarda) on the plains of Southern 
Russia, the flying squirrel in the Southern Alleghanies, and the 
prairie dog in North-western Texas, near the head waters of the Red i 
River. The harpy-eagle (Harpyia destructor) has been shot in 
the mountains of South-western Bolivia, in the Mornes du Diable 
of St. Domingo and in the valleys of Southern California; but & 


neighboring crags, which he is ready to rob of its eaglets or larg? 
white eggs for a couple of reals. From the projecting rocks of 
the lower Sierra, on any bright morning of the year, one may 5 
_ the hovering form of the destructor suspended in the clear sky 

or wheeling in ascending circles over the misty ocean of foliage 


1878. ] The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. 149 


and from March to the end of June the tree-tops of the “erra 
caliente resound with the screams of the ever-hungry eaglets. 

In the spring of 1875, I sent a pair of callow harpies to Messrs. 
McAllister & Co., of Vera Cruz, who took them to Philadelphia 
the next year, where one of them is now, while the other found 
its way to New York. They were the first living birds of their 
species that ever reached our Eastern States, I believe, with the ` 
exception of a wounded old hen-harpy of extraordinary size, that 
was shot and captured near Tampico by Colonel Godolitz, of the 
Austro-Mexican army, who took her to St. Louis, Mo., where 
she died soon after her arrival, either from her wounds or from 
the effects of the climate. A so-called harpy, which is kept in 
the Zodlogical Garden of Munich, I found to be a Brazilian eagle 
(Polyborus tharus), which, properly speaking, is no eagle at all, 
but like the Lemmergeyer of Switzerland, a compromise between 
the Falconide and vultures. None of the repeated attempts to 
carry the genuine harpy-eagle to Northern Europe has succeeded, 
as faras I know; owing more probably to its sensitiveness to 
cold than to its impatience of captivity, for the aguila real is a 
common pet in the farmhouses of Southern and South-western 


Mexico. 


: On the hacienda de Tuxpan, the hereditary estate of the Santa 
_ Anna family, I saw among other curiosities a tame eagle, which 


e had been kept in and near the house for upwards of twelve years, 


and had been so much indulged in all its whims that it had come 

to consider itself as a privileged member of the household. It was 

a fine specimen of the genuine crested king-eagle, and gave me 

the first opportunity to study the physical and moral peculiarities 

_of the species. 

The Harpyia destructor is well equipped for its trade. A square, 
Strong head, armed with a most viciously curved, powerful bill, 


_ that can crush a man’s finger-bones without any special effort 


_ and dislocate the neck of a squirrel-monkey by a single wrench; 
_ broad compact wings, moved by shoulder-muscles of enormous — 
Strength, and a pair of stout legs, feathered, to below the tarsi, 


a that terminate in claws of such extraordinary power and sharp- 
=- ness that they leave marks on the skin of a quadruped and even 


on the tough leather of a Mexican saddle like the bite of a wild- 
cat. The harpy is often killed for the sake of its feathers, I mean 
for the feather-bed value of its plumage, by the Mexican Indians, 


a : was —_ enti me a wrong dog that came to the % 


150 The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. [ March, 


and if plucked, yields about four pounds of soft, grayish-white 
down, beside the stiff wing and tail feathers and the bristling tuft 
which crowns its head. This plumage is so elastic, so compact, _ 
and so firmly imbricated that buckshot, striking the wings Of 


and, in spite of its size, steers its way through the labyrinth of 
forest trees and hanging vines with amazing skill, and rarely 
fails to rise with a pheasant, a woodcock or a small mammal in 
- its claws after plunging like a meteor from the clouds into the 
leafy maze of the “erra caliente. 

The full-grown eagle walks in stiff grandezza, with its head 
erect and its crop thrown out, after the manner of strutting 
turkey-cocks, except, if charging an enemy, when he lowers his 
head like a vicious buck, half opens his wings and rushes to the 
encounter with a succession of flopping jumps. The old hen- 


foe without regard to his size, this is probably true, for, at the 
bidding of its master, an English bull-terrier will charge a beagle 
or a bear with equal promptitude, but if we speak of the ability 
to vanquish as well as to assail larger animals the first prize be- 
longs indisputably to the Harpyia destructor. ~ 
The obo volante, or winged wolf, as Quesada translates the old 
Aztec name of the harpy, attacks and kills heavy old turk 
cocks, young fawns, sloths, full-grown foxes and badgers, middl 
sized pigs and even the black Sapayou monkey (AZe/es paniscus 
-whose size and weight exceed its own more than three times. 
The old eagle on the hacienda de Tuxpan engaged, not in 
friendly bout, but in mortal combat, the big shepherd’s dog of 
neighboring farmer who visited the hacienda now and then; 4 


1878. The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. I51 
7 S 5 


his brother. The colly, who looked as if he had encountered a 
pack of wolves, managed to limp off, but on his way home dropped 
by the roadside, exsanguis, and a post-mortem examination showed 
that he had bled to death from a deep gash in his throat, that 
one of his eyes had been torn out, and that in the fight of ten 
minutes the bones of his skull and breast had been laid open in 
as many different places. 

At the return of President Juarez to the Mexican capital in 
1867, the festive bull-fights were supplemented by various side- 
shows, and in the vestibule of the Grand Arena a pugnacious old 
cock-harpy was pitted against a Mexican lynx (Felis onca), which 
had been crippled by a shot through its haunches, but was other- 
wise in good fighting trim and very much inclined to take satis- 
faction out of somebody. The bird was torn to pieces; but the 
mammal did not survive him many minutes, having been literally 
flayed from its shoulders to the tip of its nose. 

Professor Buckley, State Geologist of Texas, told me that he 
shot a harpy in the jungle-delta of the Rio Grande, but failed to 
capture it, though both its wings were broken and the blood 
issuing from its beak gave proof of severe internal injuries. In 
this crippled condition the bird kept the dogs at bay by turning 
on its back and presenting its claws after the manner of a wounded 
cat, shuffling off at the same time by an alternate movement of 
its neck and tail, till it reached the edge of the jungle, into which 
it disappeared before the hunter had reloaded his shot-gun. 

The organ of vitality, which, according to Lavater’s definition, 
inspires a tenacious adherence to life, must occupy a large portion 
of the harpy’s brain, and enable it to survive injuries which would 
terminate the nine lives of the most vigorous tom-cat. No 
Mexican hunter of experience will waste ammunition by a long- 
range shot at a crested eagle, for unless the bullet shatters his 
head or breaks one of his wings, the bird flies off as if nothing 
had happened, though a cloud of feathers flying from his breast 
or abdomen may attest that the shot has not missed altogether. 
A Mexican miner who left the blast furnaces of St. Miguel, 

near Orizaba, before day-break one Sunday morning and de- 
-scended the mountains by a short-cut, surprised a pair of harpies 
on their eyrie, and with a common cudgel knocked down one of 
lem, which, either to scare the intruder or because it was scared 
: of its own wits, flew directly at his head. The bird — 


I 52 The Home of the Harpy-Eagte. [March, 


among the boulders, but before it could take wing again, the 
miner put an end to its struggles with a few well-aimed whacks, 
and shouldering his game, resumed „his road towards the valley 
settlements. Half-way down the hill he reached a steep cliffand 
shifted his burden to his left shoulder, to use his right arm to 
better advantage. But at the most critical moment of the danger- 
ous descent he suddenly felt the claws of the eagle at his neck, 
and, in order to save himself, had to drop his stick, which fell 
down the cliffs and into the bed of a mountain torrent. Holding _ 
on to the bird with one hand, he managed to reach the foot of 
the precipice, where he seized the struggling captive by the legs, 
and swinging it up, dashed its head against a rock, till its con- 
vulsions had ceased entirely. His arrival in the village with the 
story of his adventure, created quite a sensation, but when the 
bird was deposited on the ground to be examined at leisure, it : 
revived for the third time, struck its claws through the hand of . 
its captor, struggled to its feet and would have escaped after all, 
if the enraged miner had not flung himself upon it, seized a rock 
and hammered its head to a jelly. 


EA ere 


As soon as the lengthening days of the year approach the ver- 
nal equinox, the hen-harpy begins to collect dry sticks and moss, 
or perhaps only lichens with a few claws’ full of the feathery bast 
of the Arauca palm, if her last year’s eyrie has been left undis- 
turbed. Her favorite roosting places, the highest forest trees, 
especially the Adansonia and the Pinus balsamifera, and the more | 
inaccessible rocks of the foothills, are commonly also chosen for a 
- breeding place, and it is not easy to distinguish her compact-built 
eyrie on the highest branches of a wild fig-tree from the dark- 
colored clusters of the Mexican mistletoe ( Viscum rubrum), which 
frequents the same tree-tops. The eggs are white, with yellow- _ 
ish brown dots and washes, and about as long, though not quite 


_ with the contents of the remaining eggs. The process of incuba- 

tion is generally finished by the middle of March, if not sooner; 
and from that time to the end of June the rapacity of the old 
birds is the terror of the tropical fauna, for their hunting expedi- 
tions which later in the year are restricted to the early morning 
_ hours, oe: occupy them for the larger part of the day. 


| 1878. ]- The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. 153 


From the garden-terrace of £/ Pinal, a little villa on the ridge 
_. of the Organos mountains, I frequently watched a pair of harpies 
that had their nest in the crags below. The hen-bird, which 
could be recognized by her larger size and the greater energy of 
her movements, generally made her appearance a few minutes be- 
fore sunrise, mounted to the upper sky, as if to study the 
meteorological probabilities for the coming day, and then pro- 
ceeded to business. After wheeling at an elevation of some hun- 
dred feet over the tree tops, in a circle or rather in a contracting 
spiral for a couple of minutes, she commonly would stop short, 
hover with quivering wings for a second or two, and then dive 
into the leafy ocean below, with a headlong rapidity that could 
hardly be followed by the eye, but evidently with a practical pur- 
pose, for her descents were generally succeeded by the ascent of 

a cloud of birds or the shrill piping of the squirrel-monkeys 

(Callithrix sciureus) and the exultant scream of the wild huntress 

from the depths of the forest. Then followed a pause, devoted to 

domestic duties, during which the thanksgiving duet of the 
= eaglets ascended from the cliffs, and very soon after one or both 
-~ parents reappeared in the upper air to resume the work of de- 
struction. 

The calłow harpies, with their pendant crops, their misshapen 
big heads and their preposterous claws, resemble embryo demons 
or infantine chimeras rather than any creatures of nature, but 
they grow very rapidly and their appetite during the first six 
months of their existence is almost insatiable. The pair which 
I afterwards sent to Vera Cruz kept an Indian boy busy from 
morning to night, cleaning their cage and refilling their trough 
with a ragout of fish, pork and hominy. The exigencies of two 
or three harpy-nests to the square league, which I take to be the 
average ratio of their distribution would exhaust the food supply 


and the sea-eagle is pursued for miles with implacable fury when- 
er he ventures to prespash upon the rivers of the tierra caliente. 


IGA: The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. [ March, 


Of all the aguzlinae, the harpy is the only one that tolerates no 
interference with his business by jackdaws, jaybirds and other po- 
lice agents of the woods. In his excursions to'the upper moun- 
tain forests he is often attacked by swarms of the iris-crow, the 
sworn enemy of the falcon kind and all other Raptores ; but, un- 
like the others, the harpy invariably turns upon his pursuers, and 
by capturing and tearing one or two, greatly moderates the zeal 
of the others. 

In the choice of his game he shows a great latitude of taste and 
seems to devour with equal relish a fat iguana-lizard, a young 
woodcock or a tough old monkey. During the wet season, when 
pheasants won’t break cover and squirrels stay at home, the Harp- 
yia destructor may often be seen perched on some overhanging 
bough at the edge of a lagoon or large river, in wait for waterfowl. 
If you can watch him unobserved, you may see him get ready if the 
squawk of an approaching string of wood-ducks resounds from the 
depths of the everglades. He half opens his wings, bends his head 
up and down so as to put his perch into a rocking motion, and 
then leans forward like a catamount preparing for a spring. As _ 
soon as the unsuspecting mallards have passed his tree, he flings _ 
himself ahead, with wings laid back and claws ready for action and 
shoots like an arrow between the water surface and his game, thus _ 
getting them completely at his mercy. After rushing forward in 
blind obstreperous flight for a few hundred yards, the frightened 
ducks resign themselves to their instinct, which guides them 
waterwards ; but before they touch the saving element the harpy 
is in their midst, with time enough and to spare, to make a judic- _ 
ious selection. He can catch fish, too; does not disdain the black _ 
watersnakes that glide through the shallow ponds of the coast- : 
jungles, and even anticipates the trick of the tortoise hunters that 
uncover the oily eggs which the carey turtle has covered with the a 
sand of the shallow river banks. But during the larger part of | 
the year he seeks his quarry on the trees of his native woods, 
and causes more distress and dire commotion among the tribes of : 

‘the gallinaceous tree birds, raccoons, frugivorous rodents and — 
monkeys than all their other enemies taken together. 

The upper branches of the tall mango trees which are visited 


it rt 


ee ee ER se a 2 fue Ss WERS: £ ž A. = ae 3 at sees 
RUB Ae ah Se aae Dade f yiii Soe ER > 2 Sie ae rae us P ane 
PEI SS Oe Ca Oy Ve OS E L ELE Ee NE, Re ee her ee kn ie pe ee a er TEE NS ee Te RG ee Se Ge Seer SPORTS Ko reste ta ON ESTA ee N R= S EEA S  e S E OA O oe a 


Pa the hovering form of the arch-fiend, getting Ay for E 


1878. ] The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. ey 55 


first act of an oft-repeated tragedy, and gives the alarm signal by 
a coughing scream, followed by the yells and confused chattering 
of the entire party. They huddle together like a flock of fright- 
ened sheep, the mothers especially endeavoring to push their 
babies into the centre of the crowd ; but in the midst of the prep- 
arations the screech of some outpost gives the signal for a general 
Sauve-gui-peut—the murderer is upon them, has grabbed some un- 
lucky youngster between neck and skull and flies away, with the 
switching tail of the captive depending from between his claws, 
while the pitiful piping of the bereaved relatives mingles with the 
grunts of execration of the old patriarchs. The whole assembly 
then repairs to the upper branches for a chattering indignation 
meeting. 

A struggling monkey generally throws its hands up, and by 
thus losing its hold upon the branches, gives the enemy a fatal 
advantage; but the large bluish-gray squirrel of the Mexican 
woods (Sciurus gigas), if pounced upon so unawares that it has 
no time to regain its hole, either throws itself headlong to the 
ground or jumps toward a stout bough, takes hold with its four 
legs and four teeth at once and never loosens its grip while a 
spark of vitality remains in its claws or jaws. The harpy then 
either devours his prey čz situ, by tearing piece after piece from 
the quick body, or relaxes its hold and takes wing for a moment, 
which often betrays the squirrel into the imprudence of letting go 
-~ and taking a flying jump into space, in the hope of reaching the 

ground, where it would easily escape in the thick underbrush. 
Anticipating this, the eagle has perched upon a lower branch, 
with his wings half open, and intercepts the salto mortale by 
catching the jumper in mid-air. 
: During the sultry hours of the early afternoon the harpy-eagle 
participates in the general siesta, and may often be seen perched 
upon a lower branch of the caucho or some other dense shade- 
tree, alone or in company of his mate and the eaglets of the last 
brood. Swaying from side to side and crooning to himself in a 
‘Sort of snoring or murmuring purr, he sits thus for hours, enjoy- 
ing the sweets of digestion, till the lengthening shades and the 
reawakening voices of the forest summon him to supper or to one 
of those aerial excursions in which a pair of breeding harpies 
_ Joins toward sunset as often as in the early morning hours. 


a The Incas and Anten noblemen trained harpy-eagles He = 


156 The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. [ March, 


falcons, and preferred them to tame panthers, which were used by 
pot-hunters to capture deer and young peccaries. Devega, the 
biographer of Hernan Cortez, says that the satrap of a Mexican 
province presented the Great Captain with a hunting-eagle, called 
El Hidalgo del aire, the prince of the air, whose value was estimated 
at the price of ten slaves; and adds, that the only bodily injury 
which Cortez ever received during his adventures in Mexico, was 
inflicted by this eagle. The cruel Spaniard used to prick the bird 
with his dagger, because he would not obey the hood, z. e., did 
not wait for the signal of attack, as the Castilian gerfalcons were 
taught to do, and once, when the eagle repeated this error and 
took wing without proper authority, the angry hunter sent a pis- 
tol ball after him, “ to teach him manners.” The shot cured him 
of his bad habits forever, for it broke his head, and the prince of 
the air tumbled down with his talons quivering in the death 
shudder.- Cortez dashed his pistol to the ground and knelt down 
in the hope of saving the victim of his passion; but Hidalgo was 
booked for the happy hunting grounds. Three or four times he 
tried to rise to his feet, and then lay still, his strength ebbing 
away with his life blood. But before he resigned himself to 
death, he raised his head once more, grabbed the best finger of 
the right hand of his cruel master, and bit it through—-crushed it 
completely, “ so as not to leave the world unavenged,” as Devega 
says. 

The Princes of Tlascala wore the image of the crested eagle on 
their breasts and on their shields, as a symbol of royalty, and 
could not easily have chosen a fitter emblem. The aguila real 
does not wear his crown in vain, he is a true monarch and em- 
bodies all the ideal characteristics of a wild warrior. Proud, 
strong, swift, wary and bold to a surprising if not to a sublime 
degree, he meets no superior but the omnipotent biped that has 
not inappropriately been called the god of the animal world, and 
_ among the tribes of his own element he recognizes neither a chief 
nor a rival. The tropical forests between the Gulf of Mexico and 
the head-waters of the La Plata are his domain, and he has 
chosen his home well. There wilĻbe forests and game and wild 
liberty in those regions after the last wilderness between Texas 
and Labrador has disappeared and all Northern America is either 


2 a treeless waste, like Turkistan, or a hive of industry like Ger- 


many and Great Britain. The continuous woods that once cov- 


1878.| Morphological Effects of Like Mechanical Conditions. 157 


ered Europe from Portugal to the foothills of Caucasus have dis- 
appeared, the mountains of Persia have become naked rocks and 
the promised land is a desert ; but the Sunda Islands, Southern 
India, Siam, Ethiopia and the birthland of the Nile are still as 
sylvan and as prolific of life as in the springtime of creation. Not 
only the ocean but the vegetation of the tropics can defy “the 
vile strength, which man for earth’s destruction wields,” and 
Macauley’s New Zealander who might visit the desert relics of 
American cities after musing over the ruins of London, would 
still find the primeval forests that covered the southern part of 
our continent when Humboldt and Bonpland explored the valley 
of the Amazon. 

“These forests will be felled,’ says De Tocqueville, speaking 
of the Calaveras cedar groves, “they will disappear as the cedars 
of Lebanon and the mountain-firs of Scotland have disappeared ; 
these and all other forests of the cold and temperate zones. e 
trees of the tropical woodlands are the only true evergreens on 
earth.” . 


:0; 


ON LIKE MECHANICAL (STRUCTURAL) CONDITIONS 
AS PRODUCING LIKE MORPHOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 


BY JOHN A. RYDER. 


PROPOS of the interest recently manifested in the matter of 
“the relation of animal motion to animal evolution,” I have 
thought it pertinent to offer the following remarks. The possible 
morphological effects of like mechanical or structural conditions 
are illustrated in the vertebral axes of turtles and extinct armadil- 
- loes (Hoplophoride), where the rigid exoskeleton (carapace) has 
caused the originally segmented axial skeleton to exhibit a strong 
tendency to revert to the primitive homogeneous (notochordal) 
condition, without at the same time losing its osseous character. 
The exoskeleton in both these groups has assumed in part the 
function of the chitinous exoskeleton of articulates. The verte- 
bral axis relieved in both instances from the transverse flexures 
incident to locomotion and respiration, has codssified into a solid 
bony bar, or rather a hollow tube, with loss of the cylindroid 
form of centrum. The vertebral centra are in both represented 


ee 1 See E. D. Cope in this Journal for January, 1878. 


138 Morphological Effects of Like Mechanical Conditions. [March, 


by the inferior wall of the “dorsal tube,” wv in the cut. The 
extremital portions of the 
axes in both, manifest more 
or less distinctly the action 
> of flexion in preserving the 
axial elements separate, 
since, in the necks and tails 4 
of both, there still remains ; 
more or less of mobility. In 
A, transverse section through the “ dorsal ; 
tube ” A lege cthus so ent redu tee after both, the union of the ver- 
Burmeister. B, the sam ugh the dorsal tebræ has resulted in a sim- 
region a, a aps song terrapin eio. ae 
original. C, side view of dorsal vertebra of ilar disposition of the lat- 
re ees after Bojamus. eral foramina for the exit of 
the spinal nerves, that is, these open midway of the length of the 
vertebrz, piercing the lateral wall of the dorsal tube, and not 
passing out laterally between the bony arches of the neural canal, 
as happens in other vertebrates (see A, a, B, a and C, a, of cut). 
The reduction of the centra in the higher tortoises is, as should 
be expected, much more manifest than in the lower forms, and 
the union with the carapace, though not extensive, is manifested 
in the armadilloes by sutural union in the lumbar region. Simi- 
lar structural alterations, which are believed to be similarly due to 
alterations in the mechanical relationship of the skeletal elements, 
are to be observed in the sacra of birds and mammals where the 
ilia have been greatly elongated so as to prevent lateral flexures 
of this portion of the column. The ribs in turtles have been 
involved in the dermal ossifications, and are therefore, as should 
be expected (B, 4 and C, 4), united to the vertebral axis by suture; 
this is not the case in the Hoplophoride, where, owing to the 
preservation of the more highly specialized mammalian respiratory 
apparatus, the vertebro-costal articulations are still preserved, with 
loss in large measure of movement in an outward direction of 
their sternal ends. The costal movement was probably from 
behind forwards, with return, since the only articulation of the 
= thoracic axial skeleton which is preserved, is that between the 
_ twelfth dorsal vertebra and first lumbar. .A priori we should 
expect the phylogenetic history of the vertebral axes of the order 


= 


5i imo CAC» Sala ec aa hacer asp) ogi 


iy 
= 
a 
: i 
4 


1 A similar degeneration and anchylosis of the centra is observed in the cervical 
ebra of Dipodo. omys, as I have recently ascertained from a specimen sent me PY 


1878.] Morphological Effects of Like Mechanical Conditions. 159 


of Chelonians to agree with ontogenetic history or embryology 
of the individuals of the highest family. This, so far as I have 
been able to make investigations, proves, in a measure, to be the 
case, for it is observed that that portion. of the vertebral axis 
included within the carapace in a young Cistudo has the vertebral 
centra more nearly of the character of the same parts of the low- 
est turtles, which approximate in the development of their centra 
to the normal or usual types of vertebrates with segmented axes. 
The degeneration of the vertebral axis in Czstudo into a mere 
tube, with exceedingly thin walls for the lodgment of the spinal 
cord, may probably be regarded as an instance of Czenogenesis. 

These observed coincidences, it is believed, are neither acci- 
dental nor designed by an active cause external to these organ- 
isms or their cosmic environment. I would rather believe that 
the structures, so far as they have been evolved in parallel or sim- 
ilar ways, are the results of like forces conditioning growth and 
nutrition in definite modes and determinate directions. The 
manner of incidence of the modifying forces being in all cases 
determined by the voluntary actions of the organisms; the actions 
in turn are determined by the degree of intelligence of the animal 
manifesting them. 

The origin of dermal ossifications is to my mind rationally 
explained by supposing the bioplasm of each dermal cell as sen- 
sitive and irritable to rude or violent external impacts, which, oft 
repeated, act as stimuli of growth force, determining certain tracts 
of these cells as the nidus within which osseous particles eventu- 
ally appear as nuclei of the future defensive dermal bony system. 
This happens in the true skin and not in the corneous epiderm, 
which is still retained in more or less rudimentary condition in 
both Chelonians and Armadilloes, though it is not to be forgotten 
that in the toothless old-world Edentata it is the epiderm which 
becomes the defensive covering. This thickening, though not 
depending upon peculiar movements of portions of the body, as 
in the origin of hoofs, horns, etc., of other forms, depends upon 
the motion of the whole body mass, during which the hurtful 
stimulating impacts with the environment take place; so that the 
rationale of the origin of dermal ossifications is finally resolved 
into terms of osteoblasts and animal motion. The likeness of the 
process of the evolution of a defensive osseous or corneous derm, 

as sketched above, to the process of reparation in wounds is very 


160 On the Transpiration of Plants. [ March, 


great, indeed, in no essential are they different, except that 
the former usually goes forward in a bilaterally symmetrical way, 
while in the latter it most frequently does not. 

The preceding facts and considerations embrace what may be 
regarded as the complementary principle demonstrating the 
mechanical theory of axial segmentation or origin of vertebrz, 
as proposed by Spencer, since it must be allowed, that if segmen- 
tation is due to flexures of the vertebral axis, conversely, union, 
coossification of segments, is due to their absence, because oppo- 
site conditioning causes must produce opposite effects in two 
things respectively so conditioned. 


:0: 
ON THE TRANSPIRATION OF PLANTS! 
BY J. M. ANDERS, M.D., PH.D. 


N looking over the literature of the subject, one is surprised to 

find how little definite knowledge we possess in regard to 

the process of plant transpiration. When the importance of the 

subject is considered, there would seem to be no explanation for 
this apparent omission of research. 

It has been pretty well established that transpiration is pro- 
duced and modified by influences acting from without, and by the 
structural peculiarities of the plant. Most important among the 

- former modifying agencies are sunlight, wind, dew point and 
temperature ; and among the latter circumstances is to be men- 
tioned, more particularly, the nature of the epidermal tissue. The 
precise connection between these various conditions and the 


amount of water evaporated has not been investigated to any con- — 


siderable extent; and the most important question, viz.: the 
amount of liquid ordinarily transpired by different plants has, 
also, hitherto been quite as sadly neglected. 

A few bare statements are made in relation to the quantity of 
transpiration (Gray’s Structural and Systematic Botany). A sun- 
flower 314 feet high, with a leaf surface of 5616 square inches, when 
exposed to the air, evaporated from 20 to 30 ounces in twelve 
hours, being seventeen times as fast as man exhales. A seedling 
apple tree, with leaf surface amounting to 112 square feet, evapo- 

1 The Geo. B. Wood prize essay, 1877, read before the Society of the Alumni of 


> the Auxiliary Dept of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. 


1878.] On the Transpiration of Plants. 161 


rated at the rate of g ounces per diem, and a vine with twelve 
square feet of leaf surface, transpired at the rate of 5 to 6 
ounces per day. The sunflower during a dry night lost 3 ounces, 
but nothing on a dewy night. The method adopted in these 
experiments is not referred to by him. 

Balfour, in his work on botany (page 457), refers to the investi- 
gations of Woodward, giving some of the results of this observer. 
Woodward took plants, and, having immersed their roots in 
water, placed them in the light for more than a month. He no- 
ticed the quantity of water absorbed and the amount transpired 
(making allowance for extraneous evaporation), and showed that 
the greater quantity of the water absorbed was again given off 
by the leaves. 

It is questionable whether results thus obtained are to be relied 
upon, inasmuch as these plants must have been placed under un- 
natural conditions and influences, by allowing their roots to rest 
in pure water; for it is a known fact that certain plants (Calla 
ZEthiopica, for instance) can be made to distill the water in drops 
from their leaves, if too abundantly supplied to their roots. 

Curiously enough, in every instance in which the methods 
adopted have been detailed, the objectionable circumstance of 
placing the plants in a very unnatural state while experimenting 
upon them has obtained. Reference is here made only to ex- 
periments on entire plants. The results of the observations 
of Garreau (Annales des Sciences Nat. 3d Ser. Bot. xiii. 35 5) on 
the transpiration from leaves should, doubtless, be accepted as 

reliable, if we consider the means employed: This observer esti- 
mated the amount of exhalation by collecting it by means of 
chloride of calcium, placing the leaf between two bell-jars, one 
applied to its upper and the other to its under surface. His con- 
clusions were: 

“1. The quantity of water exhaled by the upper and under 
surfaces of the leaves is usually as 1 to 2, I to 3, or even I to 5 
or more. The quantity has no relation to the position of the 
surfaces, for the leaves when reversed gave the same results as 
when in their natural position. 2. There is a correspondence 
between the quantity of water exhaled and the number of stomata. 
= 3. The transpiration of fluid takes place in greater quantity on- 
the parts of the epidermis where there is least waxy or fatty mat- 

_ ter as along the line of the ribs.” 


162 On the Transpiration of Plants. [ March, 


Among the reported results that my eye has been able to reach, 
the foregoing only are considered worthy of special notice. - Pos- 
sibly some have escaped notice. 

The present experiments have been performed more especially 
with the view of ascertaining, as nearly as possible, the amount 
of water evaporated by plants in a healthy, natural state, and, also, 
to determine the connection between the meteorological con- 
ditions and variations and the nature of the cortical tissue, and 
transpiration. The importance of keeping the plants in a per- 
fectly normal state while being experimented upon was called at- 
tention to by Prof. Rothrock when lecturing on the subject of evap- 
oration from plants. To accomplish this it was suggested by him 
at the time that something impervious to moisture be adjusted to 
the receptacle in which the plant had previously been growing, fit- 
ting the same accurately to the base of the stem, the object of it 
all being to prevent any evaporation from the vessel or earth in 
which the plant was situated, so that all evaporation would be 
from the plant itself above the ground. The plant was now to be 
weighed at stated intervals and the loss of weight in any given 
time would represent the weight of the liquid transpired. It is 
evident that this, with properly balanced scales, would show ex- 
actly the quantity evaporated, save the slight increase in weight 
of the plant by the gases derived from the air which it fixes in 
the time of one experiment. This certainly must be regarded as 
extremely small when we reflect that plants return to the atmos- 

aere the greater portion by volume of the gases absorbed by’ 
them. The circumstance of plants gaining slightly in the course 
of a day by the gases they fix from the air, it will be observed, 
is not calculated to favor an over-estimate of the quantity trans- 
pired. . 
_ The means employed to accomplish these ends were as follows: 


ai 7 A : Sets i A 
E AEE T S AE EA E, O E r EEE ET g A RRS PETR OE a 


A piece of good rubber cloth of sufficient size was taken and 
its narrower border tucked up neatly around the base of the stem 
of the plant and secured by means of an elastic cord. The rubber 
_ cloth was then allowed to drop down over the vessel in which 
_ the plant was situated, the portion of the cloth underneath the pot- 

gathered up and brought to one side of its base, and after giving- 
ita few twists in one direction so as to insure its close application 
_ to all parts of the pot, the twisted portion was well wrapped an 
— > off 7 means ofa cord so as to a it in this conor. Thi 


1878.]| On the Transpiration of Plants. 163 


done, the line of separation at the point where the edges of the 
cloth met, was remedied by allowing an overlapping of two inches 
or more and sealing by means of gum mucilage. It was now 
thought that evaporation from the vessel in which the plant was 
situated was next to impossible; but the question next arose, 
“ How is the plant to be supplied with the necessary moisture ?” 
This difficulty was overcome by taking a hollow cylinder of tin 
3-4 inch in diameter, and about 3 inches in length, and having 
made a hole of sufficient size in the cloth covering the pot, a few 
inches from the stem of the plant, introducing one end of this 
tube into the opening, the rubber cloth was tucked up and tied 
on it the same as in the case of the stem of the plant, the external 
opening of the tube being guarded by means of a cork. 

It would be useless, as well as illogical to assert that this ar- 
rangement would allow of no escape of moisture whatever, yet 
there is perfect safety in affirming that the quantity thus lost sinks 

into insignificance compared with the amount actually trans- 
pired by the plant itself. The loss by insecurity of this method 
could certainly not exceed a few grains per day. 

The plants were watered in the morning before weighing them 
_ for the day’s experiment, and just sufficient water was given them 
= to keep them in a natural state, the condition of the leaves being 
in all cases taken as a guide. After watering the plants in the 
_ Morning they were carefully weighed and then placed in the de- 
sired position and left undisturbed till evening, or any number 
_ of hours desirable, and then were again weighed (as a rule before 
any more water was given). ` The loss of weight, as before stated, 
was considered equivalent to the amount evaporated during the 
time of the experiments. 

Usually the observations were made for a day and a night, but 
the plants were also weighed in the evening so as to establish the 
relation between night and day evaporation during the same 
twenty-four hours. As before intimated the relationship between 
the dew point, temperature, etc., and the rapidity of transpiration 

was noted in most of the observations made. This was arrived 


pea i = 


rule, which it would be needless to detail here. 

_ With this brief yet, it is hoped, sufficiently comprehensible 
description of methods pursued, we shall pass to the notice of re- 
sults obtained me these arce 


164 On the Transpiration of Plants. [ March, 


Plant No. 1 employed, was a common Calla (Calla :thiopica), 
an herbaceous plant 3 feet 114 inches high. Its whole weight on 
taking it up, with roots cleaned, was 2 pounds 2 ounces; weight 
of evaporating portion, or all above ground, I pound 3 ounces, 
240 grains in a green state; complete weight of outfit, including 
plant, vessel, and apparatus adjusted for experimentation, 21 
pounds 4 ounces 20 grains. This latter weight is here stated in 
order to avoid an unnecessary record of figures in the table of re- 
sults to follow, by giving the weight of the growing plant at each 
time it was taken. Suffice it to give the loss of weight, or its 


equivalent the amcunt of water evaporated during the periods of _ 


time indicated. The same plan will be pursued hereafter. 
The following are the results with this plant : 


Duration Loss of weight or 
Ex, F seaaesanitng amount evaporated, Place. Weather. 
| PEA 2a 
I) 12 hours, day. 1420 gr. Indoors. Clear. 

II 12 ai 195 s Cloudy, rain. 

HU 12 s 1440 “ 1 Clear and warm. 

IV} 12 X 2040 “ In open air. Paty slöndy: 

| 12 ee 2380 “ “ec Cle 
VII 12 “ S320 s “ Cier, windy. 


The important part played by the sun’s rays and atos pie 
currents in transpiration is very well shown by these results. The 
plant while indoors received the sun’s rays only about half the 
time during a clear day, which was the case in all indoor experi- 
ments made, and, although the room in which it was kept was 
well ventilated, the currents were in no way comparable to the 
circulation of the atmosphere outside. It was found, very curi- 
ously, that this plant evaporated nothing during a cloudy night in 
or out of doors, and only about 460 grains on an average during 
clear nights in open air. 

Plant No. 2 was one of our common geraniums (Pelargonium. 
cucullata); also herbaceous; 18 inches high; weight in a green 


haling part 7 ounces; complete weight fitted for experimenta- 
tion, 9 pounds 15 ounces 350 grains. The evaporating surface 
of the two first plants tried was not estimated on account of the 
shape of the leaves, and the extent of the branches in the case of 
the geranium and of the leaf stalks in the case of the calla (which 
it would have been necessary to include) rendering it too difficu 

_ for the observer. It might be well to state here that the plan 


1878.] On the Transpiration of Plants. 165 


were taken up after the experiments made upon them, in order to 
ascertain their weight. 


The geranium gave the following results : 


ze ietaupa] 1de | aue | We 
I| Day and night. | 1560 gr. | 1@80 gr. Indoors. Clear. 
II 5 r930 * .| 1440 s Clear, warm 
HI — — 1286 “ “ lear 
IV| Day and night. | 3380 “ | 2880 “ In open air. |Clear. 
V “e 3976." | ET E E à Clear, very warm. 
VI é Foo n poa ée é Clear. 


These results indicate that the amount exhaled at night is 
about the same in the open air as in the house, while the evapora- 
tion in day time is more than double in the former position what 
it is in the latter in the same length of time. It will be observed 
that this plant evaporated more than the weight of the portion 
with exhaling surface in the course of twenty-four hours. It 

should be remarked that this and the previous plant were in the 
flowering stage. 

= Plant No. 3, a fuchsia (F. macrostemma), was a shrubby plant 

-inthe flowering stage; leaf surface estimated at 450 square inches; 

_ height of plant 27 inches; weight of the portion having evapora- 

ting surface 2 ounces; of whole plant, with roots washed and in a 

green state, 4 ounces; complete weight of outfit ready for experi- 

ment, g pounds 15 ounces 360 grains. 

Coincident with the remainder of the experiments, daily obser- 

ations were also made on the average temperature and dew point. 

It should be stated that these latter observations were taken in the 

same medium in which the plant was situated. 

This plant gave the following interesting results: 


Duratio Loss of | Loss by |Avera’e| Average : 
P ean weight by| day, 12 |temper- dew Plate. Weather, 
` jevapora’n| hours. | ature. | point. 


ae Day and night|1810 gr.|1260 gr.| 77.° 61.4° | Indoors. (Clear. 
II i 1800 “ 1240 “ | 72 r = 


Bis “ 1450 “ | 980 “ | 68. | 49.9 | “  _ |Partly cloudy. 


IV « —— laa%0  |1910 * | 63.5 | 49.5 |In open air Cloudy, some rain. 
V He ae = 1536 " ace 50.5 s Clear, partly cloudy. 
Ni} ” 2510 “ |2020 “ | 65. | 49.9 a Clear, windy. 


‘Tt will have been observed that the average temperature was 
higher, and the dew point consequently correspondingly lower 
oy the time of the observations made on this as in the 


166 On the Transpiration of Plants. [March, 


house than when exposed to the open air; this, no doubt, accounts 
for the fact that more was lost at night while indoors than when 
exposed, as may be seen by subtracting the amounts evaporated 
by day, in the table, from the whole amounts given off in twenty- 
four hours, the average at night having been 540 grains per night 
while indoors, and only 422 grains per night outside. Tempera- 
ture and the relative humidity of the atmosphere would therefore 
seem to influence transpiration at night, the weather, apart from 
the conditions mentioned, having been about the same at night in 
the two cases. These results also show that the process is at 
least twice as active when the plant is exposed during the day as 
when kept in the house; and yet, as before intimated, the average 
temperature and the complement of the dew point were higher 
during the experiments made indoors than when the plant was © 
out of doors. This would go to show that sunlight and currents — 
of air are, one-or both of them, great modifiers of this process. 

It is interesting to notice that this plant evaporated 100 grains 
more than its own weight (4 ounces) in twelve hours. 

Plant No. 4, Hydrangea arborescens, a shrubby plant in æsti- 
vating stage, 2 feet high; weighed, in a green state with roots 
cleaned, 4 ounces 250 grains; leaves alone, 2 ounces 250 grains; 
evaporating surface of leaves, 744 square inches; complete weight — 
of plant fitted for experimentation, 7 pounds 11 ounces 240 
grains. 

It was found on taking up this plant, after the experiments had 
been made on it, that the quantity of earth its roots had to draw 
moisture from was rather too small, notwithstanding this circum- 
stance, however, the results obtained are full of interest. They 
are the following : 


Place of Dùration of |. Los Loss by |Avera’e) Average 
Ex.| experiment,| experiment. weight by day, temper- io 
evapora’n| t2 hours. | ature, | point. 


Weather. 


a. 
a 


I\In opén air Day and night) 3010 gr.'2450 gr.) 71.° | 54.6° Clear, windy. 
I " s 2305 "1610 e i 7T. 55-8 |Clear, calm 
C 


AII “ “, Taaa “ |1940 * | 75.5 | $9.2 |Clear. 
IV . " 2515 “* |2045 “| 75. | 57-5 |Clear. 
È Indoors. u 1460 = | 975 “ | 79; 1 58.7 Clear, 
VI " 1370 “ | 900 * | 8, | 59.3 iClear. gu 


| os proportion to the extent of evaporating surface, this plant 
| did not exhale as much as the Fuchsia; whereas the relation be 
= tween the weights of the two plants, and the quantity evaporate? 
-by eask; oe is about the same. In the case of t : 


1878. | On the Transpiration of Plants. 167 


Fuchsia strong currents of air hastened the process, for while on 
the last day the Fuchsia was experimented with, the temperature 
was no higher and the difference between the dry bulb and dew 
point was not as great as on the previous day, it was found to 
exhale most—exceeding all. the rest of the results by 92 grains. 
This latter excess, under the circumstances, must, in part at least, 
have been due to atmospheric currents, which were more preva- 
lent on that day. The influence of these currents was still better 
exemplified by the results from the Hydrangea. It will have 
been noticed that this plant evaporated, at least an ounce more 
during experiment I. than on any succeeding day. The atmos- 
pheric currents no doubt produce their effect in a mechanical 
manner. They remove vaporized fluid as it is formed, and thus 
really act as a vis a fronte to the vaporizing liquid within. 
Apart from the influence of winds, and given a clear day, a 
glance at the two last tables of results will show a direct corres- 
pondence between the complement of the dew point and the rate 
of transpiration in these cases. This latter fact will become more 
evident hereafter. 
A few observations were made on the Hydrangea with the view 
_of determining the rate of evaporation of different periods during 
the day. It was found that this plant while in the open air evapo- 
rated between the hours of 11 A. M. and 3 P. M. as much as in the 


ant No. 5 was a Camellia japonica, a shrubby plant 28 inches 
high; leaf surface 479 square inches; complete weight of outfit 
ready for experiment, 8 pounds 12 ounces 40 grains. 

The following results were obtained: 


Durationof | Loss of i ths Av’ge | Av’ge | Place of 
Ex, H weight b ‘Itemper-| dew | experiment. Weather. 
: | TEETE iasi 12 pea ature, | point. pi 
I Day and night| 7to gr.| 710 gr.| 78.5° | 63.3° |In ope air Clear. [rain. 
I a 650 * | 650 * | 79.5 | 71-3 Cloudy part, some 


“At “ 170“ 480 «i 90; 61.5 cid Clotigy. clear at piar 
IV R 240“ | Jas | 63. Indoors, (Cloudy. 

-V i 10 “| 190 * |74. | 65.7 5 fini and Bs in 
i xs sho lose 1745 16581 


_ These results exhibit in a satisfactory manner the connection 
between the character of the leaf structure and the aridity of 


~ 


h smaller r quanti of a a we some allowance ae 


168 On the Transpiration of Plants. [March, 


ought to be made in this case for the less favorable meterologi- __ 
cal conditions during the time this plant was used, as shown by l 
the table. T 
Again, itis very probable that in plants with evergreen leaves 
having thick epidermal tissue evaporation is only possible through 
` the stomata, whereas in the case of leaves which are thin, soft and 
rapidly growing, with little cortical tissue, evaporation is more gen- 
eral from their surfaces. It is quite possible, also, that the number 
of stomata in the case of the Camellia is below the average. How- © 
ever these things may be, the fact remains, that the nature of the 
cuticular tissue of the leaves is hereby shown to be closely re- 
lated to the amount of liquid transpired. = 
This plant exposed during a cloudy and dewy night gained in 
weight to the extent of 310 gr., as shown by the table; the same — 
thing occurred on a rainy night in the house, when the plant was — 
situated about four feet from an open window, as was the casein 
all indoor experiments; the gain in the latter case, as shown by © 
the table, being 230 gr. There was no loss by evaporation at night 
in the open air. : 
Plant No. 6, was a Lantana (Z. carnosa), a shrubby plant, 18 
inches high; leaf surfaée 330 square inches; weight only 1% 
ounces; complete weight fitted for experimentation, 5 pounds 2- 
ounces 250 grains. : 
e following are the results : 


Duration of Loss by | Loss by | Av’ge | Av’ge 
Experiment, | Evapora-| day, |temper-| dew Place. Weather. _ 
tion, | rzhours.| ature. | point 


ee 
I Day nd night/1360 gr./1200 gr.| 66.° | §2.2° |In open airfClear, cloudy. 

II ” 988 | 688 “ | 64. |544 “ Cloudy p 
III “ re e es re ae S Cl’r, windy dewy n't 
I : 


face, this plant evaporated more than any other plants tried, 
ing, in a clear windy day, nearly 2 ounces per square foot of ! 

-~ surface in twelve hours. It will be observed that the Lantana 
_ evaporated nearly three times its own weight in twelve hours. — 

_ A few experiments were made with this plant (as was done with 

_ the Hydrangea) to ascertain how much more rapid the proce 
~ waè about midday than at other periods of the day. Tt was fou 


1878. ] On the Transpiration of Plants. 169 


= 
j 
P 
E 
7 


to be most rapid about noon and a little after; and it was found 
here, also, that half the quantity evaporated by day was given off 
between the hours of 11 A. M. and 3 P.M. These observations 
were made on clear days. 

The last, or plant No. 7, was a Dracæna, an herbaceous plant ` 
_ with large leaves (being cultivated for its foliage). Its leaf sur- 
_ face was estimated at 817 square inches; its height 27 inches; 
weight not taken; complete weight of outfit, 11 pounds 6 ounces. 

The following are the results obtained : 


i 
q 


| | | 
D | Loss of | Loss by Aver’ ge ae 
Aai pi no ees ht by| day, ltempe | Place. Weather. 
evaporatn| 12 hours. | Ene boi fe | 
i | 


Day and dightloyBe gr. 2410 gr.| 607 T gage ‘In open air Clear. 
II “ [1870 * 11385 * | 64 4-4 


7 Clo oudy, clear at night. 
x ise f | cit | PG ORR | fs Clear, kait Bien 
Ai |2670 * |2410 “ | 79.5 | 66.6 3 Clear , do, 
ya |2770 “ 12620 792 OO. 4 i Clear, mek kiad 


, In comparison to the extent of leaf surfacẹ, this plant did not 
_ transpire as fast as most of the other plants used. The fact of the 
_ Draczena having smooth and. more or less hard leaves, no doubt 


_ In experiments IV and V, with both the Lantana and Dracena, 
are shown once more the favorable influence of winds over this 
_ process in plants. The scales used in all these experiments were 
accurately adjusted. 


Summary of Investigations. 


In clear weather the evaporation by night as compared to that 
which takes place in the day appears to be about in the ratio of 
Ito 5. In some cases no loss occurred on dewy or cloudy 
nights. The Camellia, however, lost nothing during clear nights, 
and gained in weight on dewy or rainy nights, even when kept 
indoors. Under ordinary circumstances evaporation at night 


periments, half was given off between the hours of 11 A. M. and 
P. M., as shown by repeated G testing. 


Me | tion of the sun’s rays, is shown by the fact (bat, during tie z 


170 On the Transpiration of Plants. [March, 


. The following table, compiled for the number of clear days, 
will serve to exhibit the average rate of transpiration by day which 
took place in the open air during clear weather. It will also in- 
dicate the relation between leaf surface and the weight of the 
plant, and amount transpired. 

The mean temperature and average dew point have also been 
recorded in the table. 4 


No.| Name of Plant. | Duration of Average Evaporating Weight of | | Average lA verage 4 
experiments evaporati n surface. plant. |temp’ture, laew point. ; 
e a cea 12 hours. 2850 gr. All parts mai n lb. 2 oz.] | sno 
2 |Geranium FES aR Teas es ok 4 14420 Be sates Ho : 
3 |Fuchsia..... s ya “ /450 sq. in |1920 “ 64:59 | -49:6°. ; 
4 ret s # aB V aa S 2170 “ 73 2] 56.7 i 
5 [Camellia . ey TO RAI OS Ca tae a's 75-5 63.3 ; 
6 | Lantana. .... ee 17175 “ “|330 «“ 720 “ 75.1 | 61.7 o 
7 |Dracena.... “ ese OO S ee -Isg 62. 


After an inspection of this table, the average rate of evapora- 
tion for soft, thin-leaved plants, in clear weather, may be put down : 
at about 114 ounces per day (12 hours) for every square foot of — 
leaf surface. The Lantana shows nearly 2 ounces to the square 
foot of surface. The Camellia, with its dense, smooth leaves, | 
averaged less than half an ounce to the square foot of surface, per — 
day. : 
The nature of the leaf structure modifies very greatly the rate 
of evaporation, as may be seen by comparing the results fromthe — 
Camellia with those of other plants having soft and thin leaves. 

Apart from structural peculiarities, no doubt the sun’s rays 
stand first in importance among the modifying influences; for a 
going back to the results from the Fuchsia, for instance, we find 
the average temperature higher and the dew point greater during i 
the indoor experiments than when the plant was exposed, and — 
yet the relation of evaporation in the two situations was, other 
things being equal, about as ordinarily the case. The same ob 
tained in the case of the Hydrangea in a still more marked de- 


It j is still an unsettled question whethes radiation, as such, pro- 
duces this great effect, or whether it is through’ the heat that ac 
companies the rays, or the chemical changes they produce. 

That the difference between indoor and .out of door evapora- 


1878. ] On the Transpiration of Plants. 171 


periments outside on a cloudy day, strong atmospheric currents 
did not by any means raise the daily quantity to what it was on 
a calm but clear day. But it must be remembered that currents 
are much more effectual in hastening the process in clear than in 
cloudy weather, for the simple reason that the sun’s rays opening 
the pores of the plant, allow of the more ready escape of senn 
vapor. 

Of the influence of currents, then, it might be stated,from what 
has been observed, that in clear weather they are very effectual 
in favoring the process; in cloudy weather their influence is not 
so noticeable. On clear days strong currents increased the 
amount over that of calm days by about one-fifth or even one- : 
fourth. : 

It was found, in every instance tried, that, other things being 
considered, the complement of the dew point, or the dryness of 
the air, modified ina marked degree the rate of transpiration; 
and this appeared to be, in a measure at least, independent of the 
temperature, as the latter condition did not seem to affect per- 
ceptibly the amount evaporated, unless, as is usually the case, the 
relative humidity was correspondingly low. 

A few calculations may serve to impress the importance of 
the ratio of transpiration, deduced from these experiments. Ac- 
cording to the above rate the Washington Elm, at Cambridge, 
a tree, it is stated, of no very large size, with its 200,000 square 
feet of leaf surface, would transpire 734 tons of watery vapor in ` 
twelve hours (day) of clear weather. 

Carrying the calculation further, a grove consisting of five | 
hundred trees, each with a leaf surface equal to that of the elm 
Mentioned, would return to the atmosphere 3906 tons of aqueous 
vapor in twelve hours. Even supposing this to be much over- 
estimated, it may very fairly be concluded from the facts given 
that the evaporation of watery vapor from plants is a powerful 
agent in maintaining the humidity of the surrounding air. And 
if the above data be correct, a strong argument is furnished in 
Support of the belief that vegetation influences, in a great degree, 
the rainfall of a region of country. 

The practical advantage of keeping plants in occupied rooms, 
in which the air is generally dryer than outside, has, also, from 
the results obtained, received further demonstration. 


; PERETE Doo 13. 


172 Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. [ March, 
RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN NEW MEXICO. 
BY EDWARD LEE GREENE. 
I 


ANTA Rita del Cobre is situated in the extreme south-western 

part of New Mexico, amid the Santa Rita mountains, so rich in 
copper ore. It was in former times a Mexican penal colony 
where convicts did service in the mines; now, however, since the 
acquisition of that region by the United States, Santa Rita del 
Cobre has become a mere pile of adobe ruins; the crumbling 
walls, a group or two of neglected and very ancient looking 
peach trees, and the abandoned mines showing to him who passes 
through, that the place was not always the silent wilderness it 
now appears. New towns are at present springing up within a 
few miles, in different directions; for the American people have 
_ discovered rich silver mines not far from where the Mexicans 
found only the grosser and less valuable metal. It is an interest- 
ing region, the natural history of which has not been looked into 
except by the few scientists who have accompanied one or two 
government surveying expeditions in passing through it. Aglow 
with the ardor of a botanist in a new field of study, I entered this 
remote corner of New Mexico from the westward early in April. 
The broad expanse of plains through which runs the boundary 
line between this territory and Arizona was already decked with 
` a profusion of flowers. The number of species was not great, 
but each species was represented by myriads of individuals, so 
that the whole prairie landscape seemed painted in lively colors. 
The plant most common of all was the smaller species of Cali- 
fornia poppy (Eschscholtsia douglasii Hook. & Arn.), one of the 
characteristic plants of the Pacific coast, hardly to have been 
looked for unless as a rarity so far eastward as this. In northern 
. parts of California the Eschscholtzias sometimes grow in such 
abundance on the plains that sensitive eyes are dazzled and 
pained by the intense brightness of the mass of golden yellow 
bloom; yet never in California have I seen a landscape more 
brilliant with these flowers than were these level tracts away 
upon the borders of New Mexico. An albino variety, more- 
pleasing than the normal yellow was frequently noticed, its petals 
not pure white but pale cream color, with a yellow spot at the 


1878. } Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. 173 


In fine contrast with the sun yellow of the California poppies, 
was the bright purple of a spreading Verbena, common here (V. 
bipinnatifida Schauer), a species which adorns the plains all 
along the base of the Rocky mountains from Mexico to. the far 
northward. A blue flowered dwarf lupine (Z. brevicaulis Wats.) 
was noticed in very sandy places, and two larger leguminous 
plants were conspicuous, not by their flowers which in both spe- 
cies were small, dull-purple, but by their large inflated pods. On 
one of them (Astragalus diphysus Gray) these pods were deci- 
dedly ornamental, being specked with dark purple, and looking 
almost like nests of birds’ eggs as they lay in clusters on the 
sand, for the stems that bear them are nearly or quite prostrate. 
The other is also an Astragalus (A. triforis Gray), producing 
almost white and very thin membranous pods of oblong shape. 

These when mature fall from the stem without opening to dis- 
: charge their seeds, and are tossed about over the plains by every 

wind; sometimes lying in heaps under the lee of bushes and tufts 
of grass or other herbage. These harmless toys of the winds 
had, before I was accustomed to their ways, to my nerves, a sin- 
gular little faculty of suggesting evil, the effect of which might 
slightly have amused a witness, had there been one. The weed 

_ gatherer on these plains needs to be always on the look-out for 

rattlesnakes; one of these reptiles may be lying coiled up under 
or near by any plant which he steps aside to examine or collect. 
The warning rattle is a sound he is familiar with. Now while he 

-~ bends over some novel and interesting plant, absorbed in contem- 
' plating its peculiarities, or busily preparing specimens of it for 
his port-folio, lét a passing breeze set in motion one of these blad- 
~ dery capsules, and as it tumbles near with its detached seeds rat- 
_ tling within, ten to one he will be startled with the idea that a 

: serpent is at his heels. The sound of the rattlesnake is very per- 
fectly reproduced by the moving dry astragalus pod and seeds. 

_ From these plains we pass gradually up to the highest lands of 
the low range, called the Burro Mountains, and are within an easy 
day’s journey of the ruins of Santa Rita del Cobre, and equally 
near a number of new and lively mining camps. Fora south- — 


eT PO en Sy a a e PE Pere eee Sere EME Te 


lohed that is to say, there are small springs and streamlets to 
be met with at. intervals of a few miles, and their gentle slopes 
and rounded summits produce a scattered growth of oaks, pines 


174 Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. [ March, - 


and cedars, all being peculiarly south-western species of rather 
dwarf and stunted habit. There is also a considerable variety of 
shrubs and herbaceous plants, making it altogether very interest- 
ing ground for the herbalist. The zest of botanizing in these 
hills was, however, a little tempered by fear of Indians. At 
the time of my journeying among them the Apaches were giving 
more trouble than usual, “ on the rampage” as the settlers have 
it; sometimes riding up boldly to the lonely stage stations and 
driving off stock before the eyes of the solitary keeper; now and 
then shooting down upon the high road a helpless mail-rider for 
the sake of his pony, or an unprotected buck-board driver for his 
span of mules, and keeping all travelers and the few scattered 
settlers in a state of perpetual fear. 

“Wagons close by >” asked the lone tenant of the one hostelry 
in the Burro Mountains, Carson by name, and nephew of the 
renowed “ Kit,’ as port-folio in hand and haversack over my 
shoulder I came to his door a little before sunset. I answered 
that I knew of no wagons being on the road. “You come 
alone?” I replied in the affirmative, and volunteered at once 
such brief account of myself as would partly satisfy his manifest 
curiosity. “Well,” said he, after a pause, and with an assumed 
air of calmest philosophy, “I reckon a man don't die ‘till his 
time comes.” The fact was the Apaches had made Aim a call 
only the day before, and driven away captive the horses that 
chanced to be grazing on the hillside opposite the door, and the 
man had not quite recovered from his fright. I, the luckier mor- 
tal, had leisurely botanized across a hundred miles of the infested 
region without having seen a savage. Nothing more formidable — a 
than Carson’s pet turkey had I met with on all the road. This — 


bird, a remarkably fine specimen of his species, assailed me furi- 4 | 


ously with beak and wings as soon as I came near the house. 
There are no domestic turkeys in the country, and this wild onè 
had come to the ranch alone, of its own accord, when a mere — 
chick, and that evidently with a mind: to renounce forever the 
society of its kindred. Carson called the bird his dog, and 


assured me that he never failed by his loud cry of alarm to 3 . 


announce the approach of an Indian or any stranger, either by _ 
day or night. Both his antecedents and character seemed to mê 
rather remarkable, and, I record them here for the edification of 4 
the ornithological. At this stage-station I resolved to establish 


1878. } Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. 175 


myself for a day or two for the purpose of studying somewhat 
‘carefully the flora of the vicinity. In the early morning I wan- 
dered out among the picturesque rocky hills to find their sunny 
southward slopes covered with purple Phacelias (P. crenulata 
Torr.), scarlet Indian-pinks (Castilleia integra Gray) and many 
other plants less showy but more interesting to the botanist. 
Hemispherical masses of a low-growing cactus with light scar- 
let flowers (Cereus phaniceus Engelm.) adorned the otherwise 
barren rocks away towards the summits, and here also in the shade 
of a lofty overhanging precipice, I detected, to my great delight, 
the handsome saxifragaceous shrub Fendlera (F. rupicola Eng. 
and Gray). It was hardly yet in flower; but a few weeks later in 
the more immediate vicinity of Santa Rita I saw it in perfection, 
its gracefully recurved branches resembling wreaths of large rose- 
colored, or sometimes nearly white flowers, interspersed with nar- 
row green leaves. It is a beautiful bush, and one which from its 
home in the secluded mountain dells of the far south-west ought 
to be introduced to our gardens and made the associate of its 
much admired kindred, the Deutzia and the mock orange. I re- 
turned from this day’s ramble bringing a port-folio well filled 
with rare plants, and in my hand a bundle of the thick leaf-stems _ 
of a stout-growing species of dock (Rumex hymenosepalus Torr.). 
The latter I handed to my good-natured, obliging host, with the 
request that he would have them made into a pie for my dinner. 
He looked at the stems suspiciously, at me enquiringly, and said 
he would have the pie made if I wanted to eat it and run all risks. 
This I agreed to. On the previous day, after having traveled from 
early morning until long past mid-day without water, I had 
pulled the root leaves of this fine-looking dock, eaten a consider- 
able quantity of the thick, juicy and pleasantly tart petioles; and 
found them refreshing. I thought it worth while to try to demon- 
strate to these dwellers in a wilderness where there are no fruits, 
that in this common plant of the valleys around them they had a 
very tolerable substitute for rhubarb at least. Carson remarked 
that when the pie was taken from the oven it smelled nicely, but 
i could in no wise prevail on him to taste it. He was afraid the 
“weed” was “something poison.” 
As a Rumex or dock, this species is remarkable as growing 
not in wet places after the habit of most species of its genus, but 
often « on Sy ee far from Spee? and streams, just where its © 


176 Recent Literature. [ March, 


sour, juicy, refreshing stems might often be very serviceable to 
travelers if acquainted with its properties. 

From the summit of the Burros the eastward slope stretching 
away for thirty miles, to the base of the Santa Ritas, descends so 
very gradually that the whole tract appears more like an elevated 
plain than like a mountain slope. The vegetation is that of the 
higher south-western plains, there being no trees, few bushes, in 
fact not much but grasses and numerous species of the vast genus 
Astragalus. The Astragali that grow here (A. mollissimus Torr.; 
A. missouriensis Nutt.; A. humistratus Gray; A. cobrensis Gray ; 
A, shortianus Nutt., and A. nuttallianus Gray) are mostly very 
handsome sorts, with more or less white, silky foliage, and fine 
racemes of rich violet, or pink, or purple flowers, quite different 
from the rattle-podded things of the same genus which occupy 
the plains at the western base of this same range of hills. 


Pe kanama h 2 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


LeConte’s Grotocy.'—The body of this work is divided into 
three parts, treating respectively of dynamical, structural and 
historical geology. The author devotes the large space of 160 
pages to the consideration of the dynamical agencies concerned 
in producing crust-modification. Atmospheric, aqueous, igne- 
ous and organic agencies are successively considered. Er 
sion due to rain and rivers, the action of waves and tides, glacial 
action, chemical agencies, each receive a full share of attention, 
with good illustrations. The subject of earthquakes and volcanoes 
is fully and elaborately discussed and the great geyser district O 
the West receives more attention than has been devoted to it 


ness that will be appreciated by all American students. The 
section devoted to*the consideration of reef-formation is. full of 


- valuable matter with well chosen illustrative diagrams, as is also, 1 


that on faunal and floral distributions. 

_ The hundred pages devoted to structural geology is an unusually 
large proportion for this subject, but the many varieties of fault 
ing and unconformability due to various causes, and which are 
calculated to puzzle the young geologist, require the full elucida- 
tion which they receive in the work. 


1878. } Recent Literature. 177 


To the historical part the author devotes about 300 pages, 
which, as he informs us in the introduction, has been considered 
throughout from the standpoint of the evolution hypothesis. This 
is a new and commendable feature in an American text-book, as 

- previous authors have made it only a secondary matter. 

The earlier floral and faunal characteristics of the American 
continent are illustrated by well chosen figures from the works of 
Dawson, Hall, Meek, Worthen, Gabb, and others. The carbonif- 


, as 
vatherium, are 
restorations made before enough of the skeleton was known 

o make exact figures, which have since been superseded by more 
recent studies from more perfect material. 

The value of this part of the work is somewhat curtailed by 
the use in some instances of a nomenclature which is not used by 
European or many Ameérican paleontologists. As examples we 
cite the names Edestosaurus, Tylosaurus, Lestosaurus and Dinoceras, 
which have never been distinguished from genera previously 
named, and Broxtotherium, which there can be but little doubt is 
the same as the genus long since called Zitanotherium, by Leidy, 
and still earlier Menodus by Pomel. 


qualities of protoplasm peculiarly associated together. The domi- 
nant principle of this association is the physiological division of 

abor corresponding to the morphological differentiation of struc- 
ture. Were a larger or ‘higher’ animal to consist simply of a 
colony of undifferentiated Amcebz, one animal differing from 


in the evolution of living beings through past times, it has come 
about, that in the higher animals (and plants) certain groups of 
the constituent amcebiform units or cells have, in company with a 
change in structure, been set apart for the manifestation of certain 
only of the fundamental properties of protoplasm, to the exclusion 
AA Text ysi é . Foster, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., Prelector of 
Physiology saat Bellow ore iciee College Cambridge. ‘London: Macmillan & Co,, 
877, 8vo, pp. 559. | 7 


= mS trated by pe e a 1870. 


178 Recent Literature. [ March, 


or at least to the complete subordination of the other properties.” 
This extract from the introductory chapter strikes the keynote to 
the method of treatment of the subject. It is without doubt, and 
we have the word of a competent physiological expert for it, the 
most compact, clear and advanced text book of physiology in the 
language. The style is simple, clear and concise, and the preface 
is written in a happy vein with a dry humor that is unexpected 
but not the less telling and forcible. The book is designed chiefly | 
= medical students, ‘who have already mastered Huxley’s Ele- _ 
entary Lessons in Physio ology. We think the book would have _ 
eed improved by the addition of more illustrations than there are; 
not perhaps of machinery, but giving the results of important 
physiological experiments. The chapters on the Fundamental 
Properties of Nervous Tissues, and the Brain, are particularly 
good. ; | 
SEMPER’S EYES OF THE VERTEBRATE TYPE ON THE BACK OF 
SyaiLs.'—This work gives the results of Professor Semper’s ex- 
tensive and brilliant researches on the small organs of sight, or 
eye-specks, scattered over the back of a shelless snail (Onchidium) 3 
of which he has examined nineteen species, some of them living 
in the Philippine islands. In the author’s opinion these eye-specks 
have almost all the elements of the vertebrate eye. These eyes 
are different in structure from the tentacular eyes of the Onchidium 
and other land snails, as the nerve arising from them are not 
thrown off from the cerebral ganglion, but from the visceral nerve- 
centre. Prof. Semper describes the arrangement, size and num- 
ber of the dorsal eyes, with their structure, and gives remarks on 
their developmental history; a comparison of the dorsal eyes of 
chidium with those of other animals, discusses the biological 
Soteiderations resulting from these facts, and in the closing re- 
marks of a theoretical nature, discourses on the primitive origin 
of dorsal eyes, and on the “ Monophyletic or poi phieno ae 
vance in the formation of the simplest dorsal eyes.” 
bear witness to the beauty of the microscopic sections, ee 
glanced at some of them through the kindness — Professot 
Semper during his visit in the United States last a The 
plates are colored lithographs, and are effectively aid "skillfully 
drawn. 


ZIRKEL’S MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY.*— This espis has — 
in the hands of Zirkel, Boricky and others in Germany and Aus- 
tria, attained a good degree of develophiont but little attention 

1 Reisen im Archipel der Philippinen, von Dr. C. SEMPER. Zweiter Theil. Wis- 
eaaa eean Resultate. Drittu Band. Land- Moliusken. Ueber “ec organe vom — 

pus der Wirbel thier augen auf dem Rücken von Schn . n Dr. C. Sem- 

; = Mit fiinf Tafeln Colorirter abbildungen, Wiesbaden, sas. phy pp- 46. 

2 United py Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Clarence Kap : 
Geologist-in-Charge. Microscopical na pie my FERDINAND ZIRKEL. 


Bese > o 
x ERA 


E aa a aa 


1878.] Recent Literature. 179 


having been bestowed upon it in England, except in a slight way, 
we believe, by Forbes'and Sorby; in this country it has suffered 
almost complete neglect, though undoubtedly a few will by this vol- 
ume be stimulated to special research in a department promising 
interesting results. The present volume will therefore form the 
starting point, a basis of comparison for future American micro- 
geologists. Mr. King and his assistants, Messrs. S. F. Emmons and 
rnold Hague, made large collections of crystalline rocks along the 
Fortieth Parallel in the western United States. Professor Zirkel 
was invited to New York to make a preliminary examination of 
the collection, thus becoming acquainted with the geological dis- 
tribution, relative age and reciprocal connections of the rocks, so 
that their minute chemical and mineralogical constitution has 
been made from a geological view, greatly enhancing the value 
of Zirkel’s labors. At home the author carefully studied more than 
twenty-five hundred thin sections of these rocks, crystalline or of 
volcanic origin, and he pays Mr. King the compliment that “your 
original designations should almost never be altered or corrected.” _ 


_ The plates are excellent and well. colored. 


BULLETIN OF THE BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— 


comycetous Fungi of the United States; an article concerning the 
Fishes of the Ichthyologia Ohioensis, and a Check List of the 
Fishes of the Fresh Waters of North America. The last paper 


is the joint production of Prof. Jordan and H. E. Copeland, and 


is avaluable contribution to our ichthyological literature, bringing 


letin presents a make-up and typographical accuracy worthy of 

all imitation. We observe that the positions of Director of the . 
useum and Chairman of the Publication Committee are still 

filled by Mr. A. R. Grote. 

BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL AND. GEOGRAPH- 

ICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES!—This last number of the Bul- 


. ; 
Grande valley, by Mr. Sennett, who enumerates several species, 
h 


hich Dr. Coues determines to be new to our political limits. A 
‘+ Vol. IV. No. 1. F. V. Hayden, Geologist-in-Charge. 


ary 


States, which have been her d, with descriptions of so 


180 Recent Literature. [ March, 


very important paper by Mr. Ridgway odes the families w 
the Herodiones, and the subdivisions and génera, chiefly of the 
deide. ‘The precision of definition exhibited it in Siki paper gives it ; 
a first rank in scientific work of its kind, ‘sgt an example i 
7 

. 


worthy of imitation in all departments. observe, however, 
that the learned author thinks it necessary = employ generic 
names for groups characterized by size and color, and forms of 
feathers which are sometimes only seasonal, and sometimes very | 
slightly differentiated, a custom which is not adopted by students 
of other classes of Vertebrata. Dr. Coues furnishes interesting | 
accounts of the consolidated hoofs of movie individuals of Carta- | 
cus virginianus and Sus scropha. is conclusion regarding the | 
latter is stated in the following rather pa highly figurative lan- 
guage: “The upshot of this modification of the foot is, that a 
strictly artiodactyle animal is transformed into an imperfectly 
perissodactyle one. As far as the hoof is concerned the pig is 
completely solidungulate.” There are entomological articles by 
Messrs. Scudder, Grote and Chambers, and two palæontological 
ones by Prof. Cope. One of the latter is a reply to Prof. Owen's | 
criticism of Prof. Cope’s writings on the Pythonomorphous reptiles. 
An article by Drs. Coues and Yarrow gives useful information : 
regarding the geographical distribution of Batrachia and reptiles 

of Dakotaand Montana. But wecannotsee why the authors should 
again describe the dentition of the genus Crotatus, and the well- 
known characters of the teeth of Heterodon, which may be found in 

any of the general herpetological works. The distribution ofthe — 
Lutenia proxima is erroneously given as extending over the 
entire United States west of the eastern region. Its range is 
N. E. Mexico, Texas and part of the Mississippi Valley. 


o Books AND PAMPHLETS.—Die Ccelenteraten, Echinodermen und Wür- 
r, de . Osterreichisch- sae ayia Nordpol Expedition. Von Dr. gti Ns 
Marenzeller, Wien 1877. ie 
r God in Nat By Robert McK. Ormsby. Second Edition. New 
York. Mina Publishing her Furnishing Co. 1878. 12mo, pp. 69. 2 
Brehm’s been ase Band i as Sa 9-14 vii. 1—2. Leipzig, 1878. New York: i 
ft. 


B. sick termann & Co, 8vo a He 
welfth Annual Report o of on oe on Inland Fisheries for the year 
stabs January 1, 1878. Boston. 1878. 8vo, pp. 64. 


Proceedings of 1 the Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. xix. Part II. Boston. 
vo, pp. I 


Notes on the Meah and Petrography of Boston and vicinity. By M. Edwa ard 
Main aig (From the Proceedings of thé Boston Society of Natural oe xix.) 
vo, pp-2 
Fifth me Sixth Annual Reports of the’Curators of the Museum of Wesleyan Uni- 
vey ege aing a History of the Museum from its Formation. Middletown, Com. 
18 » PP- 


- oe of the Spee of the Telia A aman family Aphidæ, FER in et hese ae 


: By Coes Thomas, (From arpa Wo z “th State Lab. of Nat Hist.) rie i4, ; 
=- Report on the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Tens Mountain Ba 
By J. W. Powel veces a: De ae 8vo, pp. I 


1878. j Botany. 181 
rege: NOTES. | 
3 TANY. 


DAVENPORT’S NOTES ON Boi SIMPLEX. —In 1821, the 
late President Hitchcock collected at Conway, Mass. of 
a fern which he at first referred to Botrychium lunaria Two 
years later, however, he published in Silliman’s Journal, a 1 aca 
tion of the species, giving to it the name of Botrychium simplex. 
That the species has had an uncertain place in pteridography, is 
evident from Mr. Davenport’s account of its drifting in different 

editions of one work from B. virginianum, Sw.,to B. lanceolatum, 
ngs., to B. matricaniefolium, A. Br. Part of this confusion is ` 
suspected by Mr. Davenport to have arisen from the fact that 
_ President Hitchcock really collected two distinct species, namely, 
B. matricariefolium and B. simplex. This supposition is rendered 
the more probable from the occurrence of the two species in the 
Sony of the original station. 

In clearing up the matter, the author has appeared to avail him- 
self most patiently of every means of discrimination in his power. 
A critical examination of all the specimens known to him to have 
been hitherto collected for B. simplex, is followed by an analysis 
of a portion of Milde’s monograph of the genus Botrychium, an 
by diagnosis of B. simplex and B. matricariæfolium. Mr. Daven- 
port’s studies were carried on without a knowledge of Milde’s 
paper, and his conclusions independently reached are the same as 
those held at one time by Milde. These may be stay as follows, 

in a translation of Milde’s words: 
_. “The characteristics of B. simplex lie :— 
“ist. In the stalked sterile frond approximate to the rhizoma. 
“2d. In the esanei segments of incomplete half-lunate 


ms. 

“3d. In the kind and manner of the evolution of the forms.” 
merton’s figures given in this work exemplify the above 
Gciecless very fully. To this may be added the peculiarities of 
= the spores. B. simplex = large spores closely covered with small 
~, points, never with wart 
op. matrcariefolim is spores which are thickly covered with 
= Marge oo. 


to both Mr. Davenport and Mr. Robinson.—G. L. G. 

_ Movement or an AQUATIC SUBMERGED PLant.—M. Rodier has 
recently made some interesting observations on the rhythmical 
movements ofa well-kaown ea, Ceratophyllum demersum. 
Notes on Botrychium simplex Hitchcock. By Grorce E. DAVENPORT, 1877. 
fone 2 pages, with two TES privately p printed. ) a 


182 General Notes. 


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to its first flexion, and in four hours it attains its ma mo 
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through red glass. M. Rodier was unable to detect that the leaves 
have any motion of their own, independent of that of the stem.— 
A. W. Bennett. 

Tue EucaLyPTUS IN CALIFORNIA.—Last season the Centra 
Pacific Railroad Co. planted 300,000 gum trees on the lines 0 A 
their roads. This winter they intend to set out 700,000 more, — 


Company are now planting 2,000 additional trees, placing pes A 
in every available nook and corner around the works and along — 
the track by the slough. ; T 

GERMINATION OF Acorns.—In this place (Lansing, Michigan) A 
white oak acorns germinate in autumn. The radical pushes our 
and down into the leaves or soil often for three inches or er 
The petioles of the cotyledons grow out from the shell a oe 
half an inch. This enables the plumule to find plenty of ea = 
to start in spring. It is quite common to find two embryos. i. d 
one acorn, and three embryos are not very rare.— W. F. Beat. 


1878. ] Zoölogy. 183 


ABSORPTION OF WATER BY Roots.—Vesque gives the following 
results of his experiments: : 
ist. The absorption of water by roots is not proportionate to the 
temperature of the leaves when the latter are surrounded by an 
atmosphere not saturated with moisture. t low temperatures it 
increases only slightly as the temperature rises; but at a certain 
degree fixed for each plant absorption increases rapidly, and at a 
maximum temperature becomes stationary; this maximum varies 
in different species. 
2d. The absorption of water by roots is independent of the tem- 
perature of the leaves when these are surrounded by a saturated 
atmosphere, in the dark, and protected from calorific radiation. 
d. Calorific radiation in the dark acts in a very energetic man- 


_ ner upon transpiration in saturated air, and produces upon ab- - 


sorption the same effect as an elevation of temperature does upon 
leaves which are in dry air—/vom Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 
September, 1877. 


ZOOLOGY. ! 
HOMOLOGIES OF THE EAR-BONES OF MAMMALS, ETC.—Professor 


the incus of mammals, are the quadrate (Gegenbaur), tympanic 
(Owen) of reptiles and birds; the quadrate or suspensorium of 
amphibia, the quadrate, hypotympanic, jugal, hypocotyleal, os 
quadrato-jugal as it has been variously called, of fishes. The ar- 
ticulare of fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds are homologues 
of the mammalian malleus. The branchiostegal rays of fishes, 
the cartilaginous tympanic ring of amphibians, without homo- 
logue in reptiles and birds, is homologous with the tympanic ring 


1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 


184 General Notes. [ March, 
and birds) are regarded as the homologue of the scutiform cartilage 


in mammals, 
It will be noticed upon comparison with Huxley (Anatomy of 


TERRESTRIAL MorLusca oF Texas.—During a recent visit to 


Texas the writer had an opportunity of making quite an exten-. — 


-sive collection of the land shells, and a still more interesting col- 
lection of the Reptilia and Batrachia. The land shells exhibited 
a few peculiar characters which would be of interest if fully dis- 
cussed. The species discovered were as follows : 

1. H. thyroides Say; two varieties, one of which has the um- 
bilicus closed. This variety was the only one occurring at Orange 
and Beaumont, on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, one 
hundred miles east of Huston. At Huston only the typical spe- 
cies was found. Mr. Bland, who has kindly examined these 
shells, suggests that the non-umbilicate variety is the Æ. bucculenta 
Gould. 

2. Zonites friabilis W.G. Binney.. Typical; rare, under bushes 
at Orange. : 

3. Helix monodon Racket; a small, elevated variety, under logs 

in pine woods. 

5. Bulimulus alternatus Say. Common under bushes in prairies. 

6. Helix mooreanus W. G. Binney; “considered a variety of H. 
tholus.” (Bland.) + ' 

7. Helicina tropica Jan. 

8. H. berlandieriana Moricand. This shell occurred in great 
abundance in the grass, on a sandy bluff of the bayou at Huston, 
associated with the HW. ¢riodontoides Bland, and Æ. thyroides Say. 
In this situation the shells were almost totally without cover, 4 — 
circumstance somewhat anomalous. - 

9. H. texasiana Moric; abundant under logs, bark, stones, ete. 

10. H. espiloca Ravenel; abundant at Orange, and also at 


even in the door-yards of private residences. Associated with it 
z Helix pulchella Müll., and Pupa pentodon Say, at Brasheat 
= II. Helix vultuosa Gould, “typical,” (Bland). With this was _ 

_ found, at a place twenty miles north of Beaumont, in Hardin 


rew one 


eee ee 


1878. ] : Zoology. | =a 8 5 


County, a very curious variety, which differs, materially, and for 
which I propose the name of H. copei, or H. vultuosa variety 
copet, and of which the following is a description: 


RR ee ee ae ST oe 


Shell reddish, somewhat thin, deeply striated by lines of 
growth, and of medium size. Spire somewhat depressed in some 
specimens, slightly more elevated in others. Whorls five, trans- 
versely striated with oblique lines of growth, and increasing very 
gradually and regularly in size; a faint carina appearing at the 
junction of the upper third and lower two-thirds of the body- 
| whorl, from which the latter tapers inwardly to the base of 
: the shell. Sutures regularly and moderately impressed. Peri- 


= stome sub-acute, and broadly reflected outward and down- 
; ward at its lower two-thirds, and bearing on its basal third an acute 
3 carina, within which is seen a prominent, vertical, double tooth, 
~ of which the outer portion is the larger. second tooth is car- 


ried by the inner margin of the peristome at the centre of the 
body-whorl, the point of which is in close relation to an arcuate 
tooth carried by the parietal wall of the aperture. Umbilicus 
~. @ ®. wide, exhibiting most of the volutions. Height 7'mm. 
Lesser diameter 12 mm. Greater diameter 14 
mm. This size is about the average. 

This shell differs from the Æ. vultuosa Gould, 
to which it is closely allied, and of which it is perhaps but a very. 
distinct variety, in the following particulars: It is a larger shell 
but of lighter texture. The lines of growth are more deeply im- 
pressed, though this character might not be constant in a larger 
number of specimens. e lip is much more broadly reflected 
below, with a sharper central angle, and much more produced 
outwardly, at the point of junction of the upper third with the 
lower two-thirds. The umbilicus is much wider, exhibiting the 
volutions more plainly. The arrangement of the teeth is very 
_ distinct in the two species or varieties under consideration. This 
_ Shell I collected under logs in pine woods, twenty miles north of 
Beaumont, in Hardin County, Texas, where it was associated with 
the Æ. bucculenta Gould, Zonites intertextus. Binney, H. monodon 
_ Racket, Helicina tropica Jan., Zonites demissus Binney, and Zonttes 
-~ arboreus Say. I dedicate the ‘shell, with great pleasure, to my 
friend, Prof. E. D. Cope. ~ ; 

The specimens of Z. intertextus and Z. demissus were very large, 
and some of the latter exhibit the peculiarity of bearing an indis- 
tinct carina.— W. G, Weatherby. 


ia 
G 
k 

i 
et 
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Ags 


- A Srrance Fricut or Hawxs.—A very curious phenomenon 
_ occurred in this neighborhood during the last week in September. 
A number of trustworthy persons who witnessed the sight all 
give the same facts. Near Middle river, about sixteen miles 
south of Fulton, thousands of large hawks were seen circling just » 


~ species of this family attain their development late in the summer . 


We General Notes. [March, 


above the trees. After they reached the creek near A. T. Wik 
liams’ farm, large numbers of them lit in the trees and collected 
close together. Parties with shot-guns went in among them and 
killed a number, but the hawks seemed tired and determined to 


resting about three hours they rose again, forming great circles 7 
often interlacing each other, and pursued their flight toward the 
south. The specimens killed and examined show that they were : 
not quite so large as hen-hawks, and they were not prairie-hawks. 

R. W. Maid, who witnessed this extraordinary sight at a point. 
some eight miles distant, says they were “quail-hawks,” and that 
as the quails begun to leave the country, they were in pursuit. : 
Many of the hunters who were out looking for birds tell us that . 
they saw hundreds of quail in the immediate neighborhood of. 
the hawks, but they refused to fly, and ran, as if in terror, to the ) 
thickest parts of the brush. That there were an immense number 

of hawks is shown by the fact that no one could see them all at 
. once, though they were flying very high; and by the fact that they 
were seen at about the same hour by persons eight and ten miles: 
apart.— California paper— Communicated by R. E. C. Stearns. 


A Texan CuirF Froc.—G. W. Marnock has recently discov- 
ered in south-western Texas a new species of the genus Lithodytes, 
which Prof. Cope calls Z. /airans. It lives in fissures in the lime- 
stone cliffs that stretch across that section of the state. Accord- 
-ing to Mr. Marnock the eggs hatch out in the winter, and the 
tadpoles live in the rainwater which is caught i in the shallow holes 
in the rocks, far from the creeks. During the winter the adults 
are very noisy, the rocks resounding in the evening with their dog- 
like bark. The noise is supposed by the country people to be 
made by lizards, especially the Gerrhonotus infernalis which oc- 
curs in the same region. Lithodytes Cope, embraces many other — 
species, from Mexico and South PERA It is referred to the 
Cystignathide. 


OCCURRENCE OF THE PHYLLOPOD EuBRANCHIPUS IN WINTER.— 
Specimens of adult male and female rentan vernalis Ver- 
rill, were brought, on January roth, into the Museum of the 
Peabody Academy of Science, from Danek Mass., by Mr. John 
H. Cook. Mr. John Sears, an observing man, who saw these 
specimens, assures me that he has found similar ones in Danvers — 
in early winter cosa ed when the ice is forming. It has also ; 


— : and “oes in the autuna. S. Packard, Fr. 


F i 
1878.] Anthropology. 187 
ANTHROPOLOGY.! 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—Mr. F. W. Putnam, in the Nation, 
for January 3d, reviews Mr. Prime’s work on pottery with refer- 
ence to the north-west coast of America. Sabin’s Bibliotheca 
Americana, which most of our readers know to be the standard ° 
authority upon books pend to America, has reached its fiftieth 
number with the word Jamaic 

Dr. Georg Fischer, of F sibune coninbites to Archiv für Anthro- 
pologie, &c.,1877,III,an able paper upon mineralogy as an auxiliary 
to archæology. Some months ago this distinguished author pub- 
lished a work upon the same subject, at the same time calling 
upon those who are interested in the matter to send him frag- 
ments of jade implements, or their shavings removed from the 
unsculptured side with a diamond saw. The article above alluded 
to gives especial attention to Mexican jades. 

Dr. Gustav Brühl continues his brochures entitled “Die Cul- 
turvolker alt-Amerikas,’ Part V-VII, relates to monuments and 
antiquities in Colombia, Peru, and the valleys of the Colorado and 
Rio Grande; Part VIII to writing; and eit ie to chronology. 
Issued from New York, Cincinnati and St. L 

From January 15th to March Ist, in the halls of the Louvre 
set apart for the exhibition of antiquities, the anthropological 


ee eR ee ee eS eee ae ee a a ae ee Oe ee ee aaa 


by the French government, will be displayed. On the eighth of 
January, Mr. C. C. Jones, of New York, made a communication 

to the Lond. Anth. Inst. upon American bird-mounds. Mr. Wm. 
_ Owens contributes to Lippincott s Magazine for January an article 
on the Folk-lore of the Southern negroes. 
~ Asroap.—The dying out of the Polynesian races, Sir David 
Wedderburn in Fortnightly ie gd Science Monthly, Supple- 
ment, III); The Races of the Danube, John Fiske in At/antic 
Monthly, April; Beiträge zur gern oe Anthropologie der 
_ Deutschen, Virchow in Abhandlungen der Konigl. Academie zu 
Berlin; the first six parts of the Mittheilungen der Anth. Gesell- — 
-schaft in Wien, contain very able articles upon Contemporaneity _ 
_ of Men with the Cave-bear in Mahren, On the use of stone 


Fae Te Re PTE EF) ACA tLe SBR IES Sear ROR PRE ACEH, Se VEE OLD at a S eRe TE PS ET a ae ee a ODE eR EDS ee MMe ea oy TEAT ee EVES ge Mr OE ET Ge ke A A eh og ee an SS SR Nee TT ee T A Y Oe E 


the evidence as to the Antiquity of Man in Great Britain, in 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute for Nov. (an exceedingly 
< 1 Edited by Prof. Oris T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 

nie VOL. X1I—No. T, i 14 


188 General Notes. [ March, 


valuable number); Les s de la province de Saint 
Petersburg, and Sculpture situeés sur les bords des 
lacs des Merveilles, JT OS A viii; Chronometres fournis par la 
stologie pour mesurer l’antiquité de l homme; Congres Archéol- 
-ogique de France, and Sur le Traitement des Morts chez les 
Peuples aryens primitifs, Matériaux ix. 

Prof. Edward S. Morse has found traces of pre-historic man in 
Japan. Near a station on the railroad to Tokio, called Omori, are 
shell-heaps composed of shells of various genera, such as Fusus, 
Eburnea, Turbo, Pyrula, Arca, Pecten, Cardium and Ostrea. The 
heap examined is 200 feet wide, and from 1 to 6 feet deep. Over 
this is a deposit of earth three feet thick. Fragments of bone, 
implements of horn and pottery were found. While the mass 
resembled similar structures found in New England by Prof. 
Morse, the prevailing characteristics were the immense quantity 
of pottery and the absence of bone implements and of flint flakes. 
On account of the distance from and elevation above the shore, — 
the absence of stone implements, and the great thickness of the 
beds above, the Professor supposes the deposit to be of great 
antiquity——O. T. Mason, Washington, D. C. 


~ 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF New ZEALAND is pursuing its 
labors with much success under the able management of its 
director, Dr. Jas. Hector. This gentleman gives the thickness of 
the strata from the Carboniferous to the Lias as over 18,000 feet. 
The beds have south dips, are full of joints, and exhibit two great 
pally gine breaks. They present seventeen fossiliferous hoe 

A remarkable feature of the palzontology is the low 
ae of Sai: and the high range of eerinees Spirifers. 
Some huge saurians occur at one of the horiz 


_ A NEW GENUS OF DINOSAURIA FROM te —A form of- 
this order has recently been discovered in the Dakota Beds of 
Colorado by Mr. Lucas, which is quite different from those 
already announced, e vertebræ resemble those of typical Di- 
nosauria in their solidity and slightly amphiccelous extremities, 
and in the wide discoidal form of the proximal caudals, but differ — 
from them in the extraordinary elevation of the dorsal zy gapophy- 
ses, which stand on a stem composed of the neurapophyses 
The anterior zygapophyses of the dorsal vertebra are united 
on the middle line, forming a basin which receives the pos sterior — 
zygapophyses. This is not the case in the anterior caudals, 


curus. The dorsal vertebra of the latter measures m. 105 t oft 
the base of the neural arch, and m. .300 to the middle of the 


. 1878.] Geography and Travels. 189 


faces of the posterior zygapophyses, The centrum is m. .105 
i The caudal centrum is m. .175 wide; and m. .160 high. 
The neural arch and spine are m. .575 high, and the latter m. .o40 
wide at the base, and m. .130 wide at the summit. The species 
was as large as Hadrosaurus foulkit. It is not impossible that it 
may be the same as the Le/aps trihedrodon Cope. The femur of this 
species recently discovered has very nearly the characters of that 
of the Megalosaurus bucklandii, and is quite different from that of 
Lelaps; hence, if not a Hypsirophus, the L. trihedrodon must be 
referred to Megalosaurus. 


A NEw Deer From ĪNDIANA.— John Collett, of the Geological 
Survey of Indiana, discovered in a late lacustrine deposit in Van- 
denburg Co., Indiana, a number of post-pliocene fossils. One of 
these is the ulno-radius, etc., of a Bos, and another is the left 


anterior position of the posterior edge of the masseteric fossa, 
_ which leaves behind it a wide oblique face, little developed in the 
= Existing species. The species being clearly new, I call it Cariacus 
—s @olichopsis —E., D. Cope. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 


190 General Notes. [ March, a 


existence of these organisms are far more favorable than are those 
of lands a long way to the southward. The flora of the series of 
channels between 80 degrees and 83 degrees north, the shores of — 
which have been botanized-by the officers of the Polar expedi- 
tion, have yielded upwards of 70 flowering plants and ferns, which 
is a much greater number than has been obtained from a similar 
area among the Polar islands to the south-westward, and is unex- 
pectedly large. All are from a much higher latitude than has 
elsewhere been explored botanically, except the islets off the 
extreme north of Spitzbergen. The species are, with two single 
exceptions, all Greenlandic. Spitzbergen, altogether to the south 
of these positions, contains under 100 flowering plants and ferns, 
though its west coast is washed by the Gulf Stream, and its 
shores have been diligently explored by many trained collectors. 
Its north coast has yielded fewer plants, and no less than 15 0 

the plants collected by the Expedition have not been found any- 
where in Spitzbergen. Contrasted with Melville island, in lati- 
tude 75 degrees north, and Port Kennedy, in 72 degrees north, 
the.contrast is even more striking, these well-hunted spots, both 
so much further south, yielding only 67 and 52 species respect- 
ively. This extension of the Greenland flora to so very higha — 

latitude can only be accounted for by the influence of warm cut- — 
rents of air, or of the air being warmed by oceanic currents 
during some period of the summer; and we look with great 
interest to the meteorological observations made during the voy- 
age, which are being discussed by Sir George Nares, who hopes 


of glacial ice that surrounds it on all sides? Professor Heer, 0t 
Zurich, has examined the fossil plants, the most important of 
which are those he states to be of miocene age. There are 25- 
-identifiable species, of which all but one have been found also 1m- 
Spitzbergen. This tracing the miocene flora so far to the north- 

ward was one of the principal scientific objects to be accomplished | 
by the Polar expedition; and the fact that its character continues 
to be neither Polar nor Arctic, but temperate, supports the 
hypothesis that during the era in question a vegetation analogous 
to that now inhabiting the temperate latitudes entirely cappe@ 5 
_» North Polar area of the globe. Mr. Etheridge has worked at th 

_ very valuable collection of paleozoic fossils procured by Captain 
_ Fielden, and these, with the miocene and post pliocene fossi 


a 
A 
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3 

; 

k: Je 
4 
3 
Ki 
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er ag a Pr RNA a eee See a E A E EO a 


1878.] Geography and Travels. ol 


have thrown more light on the former conditions of the circum- 
polar regions than perhaps all those of previous expeditions. 

Si Nares has supplied to the President the following résumé 
of some of the principal meteorological results, and their com- 
parison with those taken at Polaris bay in 1871-2: 


Mean Annual Mean annual Minimum 
pressure. temperature, temperature. 
f Degrees. Degrees. Degrees. 
Alert, Floeberg beach. ......... 29.869 —3.467 . r e 
Discovery, Discovery bay....... 29.887 — 3.932 —70.8 


Patas Da ieee P ess es 29.970 +4.196 —45.5 
Minimum temperature of earth 20 inches beneath surface—t3.0 degrees. 


was cut off. The still warmer temperature of Polaris bay is 
partly attributable to there being some uncovered water in the 


ev. Dr. Haughton, who hopes to present his results before the 
end of this session of the society. He has already arrived at the 
following general conclusions: 1, the tide which comes down 
Smith’s sound from the north is generically distinct from the 
Behring’s straits tide and from the Baffin’s bay tide; 2, it must, 
therefore, be the East Greenland Atlantic tide, and consequently 
Greenland is an island; 3, this new tide contains a sensible tertio- 
diurnal component of much interest. The result of temperature 
examination was thus stated: Making due allowance for una- - 
voidable sources of error, the temperatures of the sea observe 


= on the west shores of Smith’s sound prove the existence of a 


_ covery bay to so great an extent as that of the direct channel.— 
London Times. ` 

_ GeocrapnicaL News.—The Bulletin de la Société de Geographie 
for November contains: commentaries on some old maps of New 


ee 


192 General Notes. [March, 


Guinea, forming materials for a history of the discovery of this 
country by Spanish navigators from 1528 to 1606, with a map. 
M. Marche has returned from the west coast of Africa after 
exploring Upper Ogooné. M. Wiener has finished his explora- 
ions of the Andes. Mr. N. B. Wyse, member of the Interna- 
tional Society of the Interoceanic Canal by the Isthmus of Darien, 
is now making a new exploration in this region. 

Prof. Mohn, in Petermann’s Mittheilungen for January, gives an 
original map of the relief of the sea-bed between the British 
Isles, Norway, Spitzbergen and Greenland. On this the contour 
lines of equal depths for each 100 fathoms are shown, and the grand 
feature of this region, the submarine barrier which passes from the 
north of the British Isles across by the Fare islands and Iceland 
to Greenland, rises for the first time distinctly to view. | It is this 
great barrier, says the Academy, that mainly determines the con- 
ditions of the deep seas on each side of it. The depth of the 
Atlantic on the south-western side are filled up with warmer 
water, but as soon as the barrier is crossed this is limited to the 
uppermost strata. On the Atlantic*side of the ridge a mass of 


e 

Atlantic. Prof. Mohn also proposes that the sea between Norway 

and the Farée islands, from Mayen and Spitzbergen, which has _ 

never been distinguished by any special name, be called the “Nor- 

wegian sea.” 

Gerhard Rohlfs is to undertake a new journey of exploration in 
the Eastern Sahara, which is planed to extend over five years. 


MICROSCOPY .! 


Buttocn’s Microscopes. — Mr. W. H. Bulloch, 126 Clark 
street, Chicago, has issued a well illustrated description of his re- 
cent improvements in the construction of the microscope, in 
which appear several points of novelty and importance. The new 
large stand is literally full of ingenious contrivances, and without 
being clumsy or unduly complicated seems to combine more 
really useful adjustments than any other stand containing the 
modern improvements, 

The sub-stage and mirror bar both swing around an axis in the — 
plane of the object on the stage. Mr. Bulloch claims, with much 
reason, to have been the first to apply such an adjustment to 
the sub-stage, and he now mounts the mirror bar in a similar 
manner, the two being made to move either together or sepa- 
rately, and either by hand or with a mechanical motion; 
or the sub-stage with its milled heads can be entirely removed. 


_ Thus is attained a facility not hitherto equaled of using either 
_Sub-stage or mirror or both together at any angle below the stage 


_ This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Ward, Troy, N. Y. 


Saas ap ge ee T Tg eee eee 


OSE Ee ES i eee, i ee ee ae ee eee nt ee jj 
A aaea CAREA ENE T. PEL AEE RAS PENALE EE 8: 


a tens r Ne T E TT O 


1878.] Microscopy. 193 


or in any desirable position above it. The obliquity of illumina- 
tion is indicated by graduated arcs. The sub-stage itself has cen- 
treing and rotating as well as vertical movement. 

The fine adjustment has been removed to the same position as 
in Zentmayer’s recent stands; but instead of a separate slide, the 
levers act upon the body by means of the rack itself, by moving 
steadily, up and down, the box in which the pinion of the coarse 
adjustment acts. This is forced upwards by a direct action, and 
downwards by a spiral spring. Great steadiness is attained, as well 
as the ordinary advantages of removing fine adjustment from the 
nose-piece. The nose-piece, however, is movable vertically, and 
has a safety spring as in the usual form of fine adjustment. 

he stage is mounted on such a level that when the tube is placed 
vertically the axis around which the instrument rotates at the base 
will pass through the object on the stage, and consequently through 
the focal plane of the objective and of the illuminating apparatus, 
giving great advantage for optical experiments. The stage itself 
is sufficiently thin to admit an obliquity. of illumination of 67 
degrees without special appliances. It has graduated hori- 
zontal and vertical movements by means of a screw and a chain 
moved by milled heads upon the same axis; also a mechanical 
and graduated rotation around a centre which is easily adjustable 
to the axis of even a high power objective. It is also supplied 
with Brown’s iris diaphragm. The iris diaphragm is furnished 
with the society screw so that it can be, if desired, either 
used in combination with an achromatic condenser, or used as an 
adapter above the objective itself so as to reduce directly the 
angle of light in the instrument. 
Besides thi perb inst t, Mr. Bulloch | ller stand 
specially suited for diatom work, but well calculated for general use. 

i SS fg E + 


Itis nearly equal to the larg p ' every 

but size, and has a stage (rotating but not mechanical) sufficiently 
thin to admit light at an obliquity of 73 degrees, and reversible so 
that the slide can be used on the under side with light at any de- 
sired angle up to go degrees. He also introduces several styles 
of small and low priced microscopes in which some of the most 
excellent and popular English and American stands are repro- 
duced with ingenious additions and improvements. 

These instruments are beautiful in form and of excellent work- 
manship, and they add another notable item to the recent valu- 
able contributions of American workers in this department of 
science. 


+ 


Microscopicat Suppiies.—Mr. Chas. Petit, of 151 High street, 
Stoke Newington, London, England, is sending cover glasses and 


_ other small supplies to this country promptly and at a low price. 
_ One ounce of thin circles are sent postpaid, for $1.25, or if thinner 
_ glass for $1.50. Two ounces of squares and circles mixed are 


194 Scientific News. [ March, 


sent for $2, ground edged slips for $2 per gross, ornamental paper 
covers five hundred for $1, tin cells of any usual size and thickness 
for from 50 cents to $1 per gross, and glass cells at from $1 per 
gross upwards. One dozen and a half really good unmounted ob- 
jects are furnished for $1. 


MicroscopicaL SorrEE.—The Soirée given at the Agricultural 
and Geological Rooms, under the able direction of Professor Cox, 
in Indianapolis, on the 30th of January, was largely attended by 
the most cultivated citizens of the place. Microscopes by Zent- 
mayer, Bulloch, Beck, Hartnack, Grunow and others were in use, 
and the exhibition was made instructive as well as entertaining. 
The opening address was made by Professor Cox, and the objects 
were shown and explained by the various microscopists of the 
city. i ; 

New York MicroscopicaL Socrety.—This new society com- 
pleted its organization by.the adoption of a constitution on the 
-= 21st of December last. It will meet on the first and third Friday 
evenings of each month. The officers for the present year are as 

follows: J. D. Hyatt, president; G. I. Whitehead, vice-president ; 

; an, 176 William street, corresponding secretary; K. 

Hitchcock, recording secretary; W. C. Hubbard, treasurer; D. 
B. Scott, librarian and acting curator. ‘ : 


NATURE CLUB or ALBANy.—At the annual election, January 
14th, 1878, the following officers were elected: Dr. George T. 
Stevens, president; Dr. Willis G. Tucker, vice-president; Richard 
Prescott, secretary. 


10: 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The occurrence of the hundredth anniversary of the death 
of Linnzus, on the roth of January last, gave occasion to all the 
scientific societies and institutions in Sweden, and to several others 
abroad, to arrange festive meetings in celebration of the day. 
The Swedish papers of the succeeding days were full of descrip- 
tions of these feasts, and we give our readers a short account of 


one of them, which was held at the old University of Upsala, the 
00 


venerable Ad4ma Mater of Swedish science for more than 4 


- science, 


E T ee 


S e 
he University to the grand hall of the College, which for this 


> ae ee PEENE 


1878.] Scientific News. 195 


occasion was profusely and tastefully decorated all around with 
fresh flowers and shields bearing inscriptions alluding to events in 
Linnæus’s life. In the backgroun nd was seen Linnæus’s bust, 
mounted on a pedestal and crowned with a wreath of fresh laurel: 
it was surrounded with living Thuyas. Above this was seen 
Linnæus’s coat of arms—in the centre a blue field with an egg (to 
illustrate his thesis “ Omne vivum ex ovo”), and around this three 
fields, viz: one black, one green, and one red, representing the 
three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, the vegetal and the 
animal. These fields were surmounted by a ekcane out of which 
two cactus leaves protruded. A garland of Linnea borealis was 
twisted round the whole crest. Opposite the background was 
seen, on the organ gallery, a ribbon with his motto, “ /xnocue 
vivito, Numen adest.’ A considérable number sf ladies in gala 
dresses added to the festive appearance of the . The chan- 
cellor of the University, Count H. Hamilton, the Archbishop, 
the Governor of Upland, the rector Manificus, and the prorector 
of the University had their seats next to the tribune. Next to 
them appeared some descendants of Linnzus, among them Dr. 
Tycho ee the zoologist. The whole auditorium numbered 
about 

The} programme began with a cantata by Prof. Josephson, with 
words by Prof. Fr. Holmgren, of which elegantly printed copies 
were distributed among the auditors. Botanicus Professor Th. 
M. Fries then mounted the tribune and read the oration, in which 
he, with his usual eloquence and spirit, gave a sketch of Linnzeus’s 
immortal works as naturalist, physician and academical teacher, 
as well as of his private life. He pointed out how Linnzus’s 
great genius was so much ahead of his time that many of seo 
greatest questions of our days were already conceived by 
although not understood by his contemporaries and therefore (eee 
until in our days they have been taken up again. Even 


and energy enabled him to complete an enormous amount of 
work, Only his private correspondence would have been enough 


196 Scientific News. [ March, 


for a man of less enormous ey and still mo every letter 
of his is a scientific treatise of great value. It is 
he once was cured from podagra by the arrival o Kalm’s large 
PER from North America. To him the natural history was 
“ gaia scienzia,” and it was at the same time a form of devotion 
f the Creator, free from all selfishness. He ardei himself as 
pontifex m the temple of Nature. “I have,” so he says in his 
preface to Systema Nature, “I have seen the eternal, infinite, om- 
niscient, see Toe God. I have seen Him and been dumb with 
astonishment.” : 

In the Royal Acadenty of Science in Stockholm, was gathered 
the same evening, an illustrious assembly of all that the Swedish 
capital has eminent in science. This Academy was founded by 
Linnæus and his friends. The festival oration was read by Gen- 
eral Wede, the Præses of the Academy. King Oscar read a tele- 
graphic greeting in Latin from the German Academy of Science 
in Frankford on Main, and also his answer in the same lan- 
guage. Before the meeting was dissolved, the academy decreed 
an appropriation to a great-grand-daughter and a great-great- 
grand-daughter of Linnzeus, both living in rather indigent cir- 
cumstances. 

To the great number of busts, medals and portraits of Linneus, 
previously existing, have on this occasion been added a well exe- 
cuted copy of the portrait of Linnzus, at the age of 67, painted 
by Roslin, and a new medal by Mrs. Lea Ahlborn. The large 
statue of Linnaeus for which EE have been collected all 
over the country, on the invitation of the Academy of Science, 
had not r been completed.— F. Lindahl. 


roposed to issue by subscription a catalogue of scien- 
tific serial publications in all languages, which has been prepared 
by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, librarian of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, and formerly librarian of the Boston Soci- 
ety of Natural Histo 
This work, which has double the extent of any existing list of 
the like kind, aims-to include rt transactions of societies and inde- 
o fan in every branch of natural, mathematical and 


their respective countries. Cross references are given wherever 
desirable. It will be printed in octavo, will extend to almost 300 
pages, and will be delivered, bound in cloth, to subscribers at four 
dollars the copy. Other copies will be printed on one side of the 
leaf, to be cut up for mAN use, and will be delivered in 
folded sheets at five dollars the c 

Intending subscribers may aidreas Justin Winsor, librarian of 
Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. 


Br ee tee Os SOR Awe E eae T ER e Bae ENE Ee ot S EA 9 ‘isis oR 


Rie rage what © APRE A Bet APE SREP ST PEN 


1878.] Scientific News. 197 


— A third session of the Summer School of Biology of the 
Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass., will open July 5th, 
and continue six weeks. Those desiring information regarding 
the course of instruction, etc., may apply to A. S. Packard, Ji, 
Director of the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass. 


— An important work has just been issued by Hayden’s U. 
S. Geological Survey of the Territories, entitled Contributions to 
the Fossil Flora of the Western Territories. Part II. By Leo 
Lesquereux, Washington, 1878. It forms Volume VII, of the 
quarto reports of Professor Hayden’s Survey, and is a bulky 
volume of 366 pages and 65 plates. It is divided into three parts, 
of which the first treats of the Areal Distribution, the Stratigra- 
phy of the Lignitic Formation, and its capacity for combustible 
mineral, and third, the age of the Lignitic, indicated by its Geo- 
logical Distribution and its Fauna. The second Part contains the 
Descriptions of the Tertiary Fossil Plants, while the third com- 
prises the following subjects: The Age of the Lignitic Formations 
determined by the characters of the Fossil Plants; a Table of the 
Distribution of Species, and a Table of the Distribution of the 
species of the Point of Rocks. 


— Two distinguished entomologists have just been removed by 
death: T. Vernon Wallaston, born March 9, 1821, died in Eng- 
land suddenly, January 4th ult. He will be remembered for his 
elaborate work entitled /usecta Maderensia, and his little work On 
the Variations of Species, published in 1856. she 

Andrew Murray, born February 19, 1812, died in London, 
January roth, 1878. His quarto volume on the geographical dis- 
tribution of mammals, his monograph of the beetles of the Sphen- 
dude, and of the genera Cercyon and Catops, and his papers on 
the geographical distribution of beetles, are monuments to his 

morye 

Hens Lawson, M.D., died at Cork, October 4th. He was for 
many years the editor of the Popular Science Review, and con- 
ducted the Monthly Microscopical Fournal from its commence- 

_ ment till his death, which has caused its discontinuance. 

L. Pfeiffer died at Cassel, aged 72. His Nomenclator Botanicus 

was the most useful of his laborious compilations. 


i * àl E es SOT ea a a a ariaa aako ia oina eaat NER er s o aa EEN o E a A daaa a aa a a meee 
aaa ad e Mama a a a a e R ay Se dG Rpt AB Oi a atA E iia line en Aa aa aE E a a a a i winaa EN z r. 2 


Sag SS ly iY PR SA OO A a Ge 


SO eRe Sree Ree at 


ters: New and little known Ccelenterates ; New Echinoderms, by 
the late Michael Sars. The remaining chapters.are by Professor 


198 Scientific News. [ March, 


Koren and Dr. Danielssen, on the following subjects: Description 
of some new Norwegian Ccelenterates, Contributions to the Natu- 
ral History of the Pennatulide living on the Norwegian coast; 
sony greg of new Bryozoa; oattenvens to the Natural His- 


of the Norwegian Gephyr A new species of the genus ` 


Peseta: Some of the plates are ord and many anatomical 
details are given, making this part worthy of its distinguished pre- 
decessors. 

Peterman, of Gotha, in his “ Geographical Notes” for 
Nevers calls Henry M. Stanley “the Bismarck of African ex- 
ploration.” As Bismarck united the various German principali- 
ties into one great empire, so Stanley, taking all previous African 
discoveries, scattered as they were and mix ed up with conjectures, 

with one masterly stroke artes all these disyecta membra, wove 
the odds and ends of previous researches and efforts for thous- 
ands of years into one compact, valuable web.” Thus he thinks 
that Stanley’s work is unparalleled in the whole history of dis- 
covery in the world; and he proceeds to sustain the opinion by 
showing how Stanley transcended all that was previously known 
respecting the Congo river. This is lofty praise, but it comes 
rom one whose competency to give it has never been questioned. 


— Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, who died at East Rockport, Ohio, was 
f i 


a native of Wallingford, Ct., and was well known in this country 
for his attainments in natural history, and especially discoveries 


in conchology and ichthyology. In 1848 he was given charge 


of the natural history department in the survey of Ohio, and his 
works on the subject were published in Boston and elsewhere in 
the East. Important degrees were bestowed upon him by various 
Eastern and Western colleges, and honors were given by several 
societies for valuable scientific services. He was 84 years old at 
the time of his death. 


— A letter just received from Prof. J. Schoetter, Secretary Gen- 
eral of the “Congrès International des Américanistes,” states 
that one volume of the proceedings of the interesting and suc- 
cessful meeting, held at Luxembourg on the 10-13 of September, 
1877, would be issued about the first week of December. The 
second about the last of February, 1878. The next session will 
be feld at Brussels in ath instead of in this country, as was at 
one time proposed.—Z. A. Barber. 


_— The American Museum of Natural Ba in Manhattan 
Square, at Seventy-seventh street and Eighth avenue, was opened 


to the public December 22d, by President Hayes. ak is a high, a . 


red brick building, with modified English-Gothic win 


An. eloquent address was delivered by President Elliott, of 


Head College, in which he is reported to have s 


as “We are assembled here to view with gratitude ‘the henchceet ; 


Bis Lis 


1878. | Scientific News. 199 


power of natural science, to praise and thank its votaries, and to 
dedicate this splendid structure to its service. The power to 
which we do homage is the accumulated intelligence of our race 
applied, generation after generation, to the study of nature, and 
this palace is the storehouse of the elaborated materials which 
that intelligence has garnered, ordered and illuminated. What 


has natural science done for mankind that it should be thus hon-. 
ored? Natural science has engendered a peculiar kind of human ~ 


mind. The searching, open, humble mind, which, knowing that 
it cannot attain unto all truth, or even to much new truth, is yet 
patiently and enthusiastically devoted to the pursuit of such little 
new truth as is within its grasp, having no other end than to 
learn, prizing, above all things, accuracy, thoroughness and candor 
in research, proud and happy, not in its own strength, but in the 
might of that host of students whose past conquests make up the 
wondrous sum of present knowledge, whose sure future triumphs 
each humblest worker in imagination shares. It has been reserved 
for natural science in this generation to demonstrate the univer- 
sality of hereditary transmission and its controlling influence upon. 
the families, nations and races of men, as well as upon all lower 
orders of animate beings. It is fitting that natural history should 
have given this demonstration to the world, for the basis of sys- 
tematic natural history is the idea of species, and the idea of 
Species is itself founded upon the sureness of hereditary transmis- 
sion upon the ultimate fact that individual characteristics are he- 
reditable. As the knowledge of heredity recently acquired by 
science permeates society it will profoundly affect social customs, 
public legislation and governmental action. It will throw addi- 
tional safeguards around the domestic relations, enhance the natu- 
ral interest in vigorous family stocks, guide wisely the charitable 
action of the community, give a rational basis for penal legisla- 
tion, and promote both the occasional production of illustrious 
men and the gradual improvement of the masses of mankind. 
These moral benefits will surely flow from our generation's study 
of heredity. Modern science has exalted the idea of God, the 
greatest service which can be rendered to humanity.” After 
Prof. Marsh, President of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, had delivered a brief address, President 


I now perform the honorable but brief and simple duty assigned 
to me at the opening of this enterprise, so noble, so valuable and 
so splendid, which the country owes to the enlightened liberty of 
the city and the citizens of New York. And I now declare that 
the opening ceremonies have been completed ; that the American 


Museum of Natural History is now open. 


The building has been built by the city of New York, while 


_ the fine collections in it have been purchased by private subscrip- 


2 chiefly directed to the Eucalyptus rostrata in Australia, where he r 5 


> a DAE Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [March, 


tions. Each hall is 170 feet long by 60 wide, inside the walls. 
The lowest story is 18 feet high ; the second, or principal story, 
including the gallery is 30 feet; the upper story 22 feet, and the 
Mansard story 16 feet in height. 


— On the 21st of May, 1877, fourteen carp, only three of which 


_were old enough to spawn this season, were placed in a pond near 


the residence of Henry Parsons, three miles from this city. On 
the roth of October, following, the pond was drawn off, and the 
original fourteen carp, much grown and in a fine condition and 
healthy, together with their increase of 1408 young and vigorous 
fish, were taken out and placed in a breeding pond for next year. 


_— A Sea Lion and Sturgeon in Combat. In San Francisco bay 
the angler sometimes hooks a salmon that has had a piece bitten 
out of the shoulder by the rapacious seal, and certainly the seal 
lives by masticating fish in whole or part. Recently the passen- 
gers on the 10 o'clock, a. M. boat from Oakland, witnessed a 
tough fight between a sturgeon and a sea lion. The seal 
bit viciously at the gill openings of its adversary, and showed 
superior finesse in planning the campaign, while the sturgeon 
lashed the water powerfully with its unequally lobed tail, and 
occasionally administered a stunning blow to the seal. ood 
flowed profusely and the water was dyed for yards around, 
but eventually the sturgeon yielded up the ghost, being seized 
unluckily by the tail and paralyzed in movement by having 
its only propeller nearly bitten off. Thus wounded and circum- 


vented, it speedily desisted from the battle, and the seal adminis- 


tered the coup de grace, and towed his dinner beneath the waves. 
The spectacle was an exciting one.— San Francisco Paper. 


— A new species of Chimera has recently been captured on the 
Banks. This is the first occasion of this interesting fish so low 
down the American coast, though a species occurs in British 

rs. 


os 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


CALIFORNIA ACADEMY oF ScIENCES, December 17th—Dr. H. 


Behr read an interesting paper giving the results of his experi- 
ments on the resistance of some species of Eucalyptus to ignition. 
Whether all the Eucalypti share in this peculiar power of resist- 


ing fire, has not been ascertained. His observations had been 


often seen it flourishing in burnt tracts where every other tree. 


_ had been consumed. He attributed this peculiar property of the 


1878. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 201 


tion rather than to its vitality 
A general discussion on the Eucalypti followed, in which seve- 
ral members stated that some species of that tree had been found 
impervious to the attacks of frost as well as heat. 
he concluding paper of the evening—on the “ Necessity of a 
Physical Survey of California” —was read by Prof. Davidson. He 
believed that such a survey was of the utmost importance to the 
State, and enumerated the advantages that would be equally 
gained by the farmers, manufacturers and capitalists, from a per- 
fect map illustrating accurately the physical, geographical and 
geological features of every part of the State. Such a map, he 
believed, would be of the greatest service for the reclamation of 
swamp lands, to understand the hydraulics of the Sacramento 
Valley, to open new avenues of travel and transportation, and to 
afford valuable information for all the industries. Another im- 
portant reason why the State should undertake such a work was 
the fact that the whole system of maps and land surveys adopted 
by the United States Government is a delusion, and any one who 
has examined this subject will find them to be full of the most 
glaring errors and inaccuracies. At another meeting, Dr. A. 


wood chiéfly to its physiological structure and chemical composi- 


many varieties are grown as of the apple here, and the sweetness 
of the fruit is always retained. a 

He remarked, “ The fruit is, I think, the most beautiful of all 
the fruits I have ever seen, and is the most delicious to the taste. 
I carried four of them to San Francisco last fall, which weighed 
three-quarters of a pound each. The fruit is a rich yellow color, 
and seems more like a ball of wax than a fruit. It is simply splen- 
did. I think it will be the greatest acquisition to our State ever 
introduced. 

“This variety, known as the Diospyros kaki, differs materially 
from the wild persimmon of the Southern States, as it ripens with- 
out frost, and is equally palatable whether fresh or dried. The 
tree is highly ornamental, a prolific bearer, and as hardy as the 
pear. Its season is from October to March, coming in when fine 
fruits are scarce. The fruit is of a bright yellow, orange or red- 
dish color, and is pronounced equal to the pear or peach. It is 
also sufficiently solid to be packed and shipped with safety. It 
grows to a large size, attaining in some cases a pound each in 
weight. — | 
“The Japanese persimmon is perfectly adapted to the soil and 
_ climate of this country, and may be cultivated precisely as the 


202 Scientific Serials, [ March. 


apple. The grafted trees bear in about four years, seedlings re- 
quire double that time and are not reliable.” 


AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.— January 31st. The 
bers received the Earl of Dufferin, Governor-General of Canada, 
and then considered Capt. H. W. Howgate’ s plan for the explora- 
oa of the Cere regions.. Addresses were delivered by Capt. 

wgate, C. Bryant, Mr. Bayard Taylor, Bee Lh 

Haye and EREI Justice Daly, President of the Socie 

APPALACHIAN Mountain CLus.—February 13th. ee were 
read on the Mt. Desert Hills, by Rev. J. C. Adams, and on Roan 
Mountain, North Carolina, by Prof. J. H. Huntington. > 

Boston SOCIETY oF NATURAL HISTORY. January 16th. Mr. 
G. W. Bond made a communication on the Origin of the Merino 
race of sheep. 

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. — February 13th. 
Prof. B. G. Wilder read a paper on the erial respiration of Amia. 


:0: 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.) 


THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE.— January. Language-map of 
the East Indies, by R. Cust. The north-western frontier of India. 
The still unexplored parts of South America, by C. R. Markham. 
The ancient silk-traders’ route across central Asia. Affairs in 
Japan, by R. H. Brunton. 


AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ScIencE.—February. Echinoid fauna 
of Brazil, by R. Rathbun. Poplars of North America, by S 
Watson. 


ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES. — December 31, 1877. 
Micitsire sur l'Embryologie des Némertes, par J. Barrois. Expé- 
riences sur le Developpement rubanaire du Bysicerene Phomme, 
par M. Redon. 


1 The articles quoted here are, in some cases, selected. 


American Naturalist. ‘ Vol. XII. PLATE T. 


A Gast tase Louis, ih: 


Hypermetamorphoses of Epicauta and Hormia - 


CV. Riley, del. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. 


All the figures enlarged unless otherwise stated, the hair-lines indicating the natural 


FIG. 


Fic. 


. 9.—Lateral view of the true pupa of Epicauta cinerea Forst.; 948, 
of same 


SIZES. 


1.—Egg-pod of Caloptenus differentialis with the mouth torn open, exposing 
he newly-hatched larva of Æpicauta vittata (1 a) eating into an egg, and 
the passage which it made through the mucous covering—natural size. 

2.—Dorsal view of the first larva, or triungulin, of Æ. vittata; 2 a, one side 
of the head of same from beneath, greatly enlarged so as to show the 
mouth parts; 2 4, terminal joint of maxillary palpus showing imbrications 
and flattened inner surface armed with stout points; 2c, leg, showing more 
plainly the tarsal spines; 2 e, labrum; 2 d, one of the abdominal joints 
from above, showing stout points, stigmata and arrangement of spinous 
hairs. : 


. 3.—Eggs of Æ. vittata, the natural size indicated at side. 
. 4.—Dorsal view of the Carabidoid stagesof the Second Larva of Æ. vittata; 


4 a, its antenna; 44, its right maxilla; 4 ¢, its leg; 4 d, side view of same, 
showing its natural position within the locust-egg mass. 


. §.—Lateral view of the ultimate or full-grown stage of the Second Larva of 


E. vittata; 5 a, portion of the dorsal skin, showing short setaceous hairs. 


. 6.—Third head, or that from the Scarabeidoid stage of the Second Larva of E. 


vittata, from beneath, showing the reduction of mouth-parts as compared 
with the first head (2 a); 6a, antenna of same; 6 4, maxilla of same; 6 ¢, 


mandibles of same. 


. 7.—Fourth head, or that of the full-grown larva of Æ. vittata, from above; 7 4, ; 


leg of same; 7 4, the breast-plate or prosternal corneous piece. 


. 8.—Lateral view of the pseudo-pupa or Coarctate Larva of E. vittata, with 


the partially shed skin adhering behind; 8 a, dorsal view of same; 8 b. its 
from the front; 8 c, same from side ; 8 d, tuberculous leg; 8 ¢, raised 

spiracle ; 8 f, anal part of same. 

ventral view 


. 10.—LEpicauta vittata (lemniscata or trivittate var.). 
. 11.—Epicauta cinerea Forst (= marginata Fabr.). 
.12.—Antenna of the triungulin of Zpicauta pensylvanica ; 12 @, maxilla of 


same; 12 4, labial palpus of same. 


-13— 5) Hornia minutipennis, dorsal view, 13 @, lateral view of same; 134, 


simple claw of same; 13 ¢, Coarctate Larva ; 13 d, leg of ultimate stage of 


Second Larva. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vor. xii. — APRIL, 1878. — No. 4. 


ra Dl Parc s tate aE Ry Re oh Ne pea Re ae ly aa ae 


THE PRAIRIE DOG, OWL AND RATTLESNAKE. 
į BYS. W. WILLISTON. 


ye singular and amusing stories have been, and still are, 
accepted by many of the amicable relationship existing be- 
tween the prairie dog, burrowing owl and rattlesnake. It is not 
_ within the province of the present article to repeat them, for they 
are familiar to every school boy. Many of their habits, however, 
= are yet little understood, and I shall endeavor to give the results 
of several years observation on the plains and in the mountains. 
The prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) is widely extended 
: _ through nearly all the Rocky Mountain region of the United 
_ States, and seems to thrive equally well in the bleak regions of the 
: l Upper Yellowstone, or in the fervid tableau of Central Mexico. 
_ Inthe rich, fertile lands of Central Kansas, they sometimes be- 
= come disagreeable nuisances to the farmers, making sad havoc 
= among the fields of growing grain. In the dry, scorched deserts 
_ Of Southern Colorado, I have seen the villages where one would 
almost suppose the simplest forms of animal life were incapable 
of being supported. In the cold, bleak Laramie plains, where but ` 
~ little vegetation save the sage brush can exist, and where for more 
_ than six months in the year they seldom dare expose themselves 
_ to the bitter winds, they thrive in countless numbers. They are, 
) y however, provident little fellows, and literally make hay while the 
Sun shines! Late in the summer one will frequently meet bur- 
rows, around the entrance of which, for some distance, the grass 
has been neatly mown, and left to cure. Were he to visit any of 
_ them a day or two later, he would find the hay all cleanly re- 
moved. In a few instances I have surprised the inhabitants car- 
tying the nicely preserved hay into their dwellings. As their 


VOL. XIL—NO. IV. 15 


CT RS pe ae o SAE ee ae aii T ae ana ae ere a A a MRI EES cet Oe Re aa a aa a a. Aa NTR 8 AR eee oe at REE ome OR 


Bi ps RD rie ee 


4 
g 
“ans 


2040s The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake. [ April, 
food consists, almost exclusively, of grass and succulent stems, I 
doubt not that they thus provide food, as well as bedding, for the 
sometimes long and rigorous winters they have to endure. But 
notwithstanding their prudent squirrel-like habits they emerge in 
the spring much less plump, with the surplus of fat acquired by 
autumn, well nigh exhausted. 

They prefer for their villages, ely sloping lands skirting the 
valleys, but are often found in the tops of the highest divides, and 
far down near the streams, though always avoiding rocky, marshy, 
or even moist grounds. The villages rarely cover many hundreds 
of acres, and are even miles in circumference, but more usually 4 
number from a score, to a hundred or two burrows. o 

Whole villages will, not infrequently, be deserted, and left to 
the peaceful possession of the owls and snakes. The cause of such 
nomadic habits is not clearly seen. 


It requires a considerable courage to trace out one of their 
burrows. They descend obliquely and sinuously to considerable 
depths, and frequently, if not usually, I believe, have more than 
one opening. The entrance is always protected by a circular 
mound, and after a severe rain, or when otherwise damaged, the 
busy little inhabitants carefully repair it, throwing the dirt up with | 
their hind feet till water is securely guarded against. Their holes — 
are rarely seen in situations where any but the severest freshets 
would overflow. But once have I known their villages to be €x- _ 
tensively inundated, and, as in that instance, the camp was washed 
away, and all the members of our party given a very cold mid- 
night bath, they were certainly excusable for lack of foresight! 
The instinct that teaches them of such danger is not strange, when 4 
we recollect that animals of lower intelligence, as the brown 
thrush and wild goose will depart from their usual habits, and 
build nests beyond reach of the constantly recurring freshets. 


During all warm, pleasant days, the villages are scenes of busy : 
activity. Never strolling beyond immediate reach ‘of their rée- = 
treats, they have few enemies to fear besides the snakes. They- 
are clumsy in movement like a young pup, and, when rarely sur- 
prised at a distance from their burrows, may be caught without 
much difficulty. They are quite social among themselves, and 
when not engaged in hunting food, make frequent calls upon their 
- neighbors, to discuss, probably, the affairs of their quiet oe 
wealth. 


1878.] The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake. 205 


At the first approach of an intruder,a general scampering takes 
place throughout the village with warning cries; upon reaching 
their mounds they sit perfectly erect, like so many sentinels, curi- 
ous to know the cause of all the commotion. Upon nearer ap- 

` proach they sit more closely in the entrances, and threaten most 

_ vehemently, throwing up their tails in a very comical manner with 
each energetic bark, their noisy chatterings mingled with liquid, 
gurgling tones, Not infrequently, they will allow one to approach 
within a rod or two, growing still more vociferous in their scold- 
ings, and occasionally making very amusing little dashes, as if to 
overawe the intruder. In a twinkling they disappear and continue 
their gurgling remonstrances a few feet below the entrance. It is 
very hard to obtain specimens by shooting, for no matter how badly 
wounded, they elude their would be captor, instinctively—one 
might say, automatically, for I have seen them escape beyond 
reach after the rifle had spattered their brains over the mounds! 
A readier way to obtain them is by inverting a barrel or high box 
half filled with sand over an entrance. They will find their way 
to the surface of the sa; but cannot return, and are thus securely 
caged. 

& A dog, or other small animal dying in the burrow, is allowed 

to remain, and it is rare that a mound, not freshly made, will not 

= show skeletons of one or more. 

I have noticed the young most frequently i in May, less so in 
August, or early September, in litters of from four to six or seven, 
= playing about the entrances. They are not far behind the adult 
_ in their noisy chatter, but less timorous, remaining last on the 
surface, and responding to the parents’ gurgling below, as if much 
__ the wiser. 
= The prairie dog readily becomes accustomed to the haunts of 
man, their villages sometimes being scattered through the out- 
skirts of thriving towns. Though easily tamed to feed from one’s 
hand, they resent caresses, enforcing their scoldings with ready 
= “use of their sharp incisors. In a little town in Western Kansas, a 
_ pair of tame ones after frequent changes, took up their abode in a 
large, open lot, where they were very noisy in their protestation 
against intrusion, especially of the school children and dogs. A 
young lady teacher in passing by, incurred their highest resent- 
ment. They would follow her closely, often to the school house 
door, a i canes of several hundred yards, chattering noisily, and 


Mans ae nts eo 9 en 


- -Ethe while staring with their solemn eyes till with a cry not 


206 The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake. [April, 


making furious angry dashes at her, till she was compelled to 
choose another path. In three years they had propagated to a 
very considerable little colony with several dozen burrows. 

I have seen it stated that the prairiè dog finds an enemy in the 
skunk. I can hardly credit it. The skunks of the plains fre- 
quent the low marshy lands near streams and ponds, raising their - 
young near the water’s edge; and not usually approaching the 
vicinity of the prairie dog villages; their food consisting mostly 
of insects, snails, crayfish, etc. Prof. Snow observed them feeding 
largely upon Améblychila cylindriformis. 

It is a prevalent belief in the west, and has so been published, 
that these animals dig wells for their water! I have never yet 
learned of an authenticated instance, and in many cases the 
idea is absurd. Their villages are often in high localities, several 
feet above water, and much of the distance through loose imper- 
vious sand or rock strata! It is true that in captivity they readily 
and frequently drink, but this is also the case with the little 
striped squirrel (Spermophilus), and that the latter also dig wells 
is too great a tax upon credulity. They do not obtain water from 
the surface even when within convenient distance. 

The prairie dog and burrowing owl (Sfeotyto var. hypogéa) 
will, not infrequently, occupy the same hole, but the latter, like i 
the other parasites, is’ there on sufferance, to whose presence the : 

: ; 
. 


dog pays but little heed, though probably one of the causes of : 
the abandonment of the villages. Not long since I was greatly 
amused while passing a mound upon which an owl was quietly 
engaged in contemplation, at the attempts of a squirrel to pass by i 
into his hole. If any of my readers have evef observed a puppy 
attempting to purloin the treasures of a sitting hen, they will 
have a very good idea of the action and appearance of both owl 
and dog—the owl very indignant and the dog very sheepish. 
After numerous ignominious retreats, however, he finally ran the a 
gauntlet successfully, but not without several most vicious 
peckings. : : 

There are but few birds that present a more ridiculous appear- 
ance than these owls. Most of the time during the day they” 
spend standing quietly at the entrance of their dwellings, engaged, 
apparently in the deepest contemplation. At the appearance of 
an intruder they begin the most comical bowings and courtesies, 


š > 


$ 3 


1878. ] The Prairie Dog, Owl and Rattlesnake. 207 


unlike a watchman’s rattle, nor less melodious, they fly to a 
neighboring mound and resume their pensive meditation. At 
nightfall they fly about in search of food, and through many 
months have I listened to their monotonous tones blending with 
the similar notes of the raincrow and the startling cry of the cay- 
ote, upon the stillness of the western plains. By far the most 
frequently, the owl is found in the deserted villages of the prairie 
| dogs, in communities by themselyes. The young or half grown 
§ I have only noticed in the latter part of July and August. 

; The relations of the rattlesnake with both squirrel and owl, 


eee eg ae me 


: although not at all friendly, is scarcely so inimical as one might 
suppose. Of the species most peculiar to the prairie dog regions 
~ (Crotalus confluentus), I have destroyed many hundreds, and 


although in numerous instances the stomach would show the 
young of the prairie dog, yet I was never positive in finding the 
young owl. In one instance I found the adult dog poisoned by 
the rattlesnake, and twice have caught the half grown as they 
were driven out by the venomed blow. In these instances the 
. cry of pain and fear was almost incessant, and peculiar; the little 
victims succumbed in three or four minutes to the fatal poison. 
For a long time I believed that the occupancy of a burrow by a 
) snake would prevent the ingress of the dog, but I am now satis- 
| fied that such is not the case. The rattlesnake is never wanton, 
it simply defends itself from danger or annoyance, or procures 
its food by means of its terrible fangs. Small animals or other 
: reptiles do not generally show much fear, or at least soon recover 
~ composure when thrown together with them; least of all will 
2 they bite other snakes. It is not very uncommon to meet on 
| _ warm days in spring or autumn, rattlesnakes and racers (Bascan- 
| -~ ton flaviventris) sunning themselves entwined together near the 
_ entrance of some favorable hole. The prairie dog will pass by 
| = them and enter its burrow. Both of these snakes choose any 
_ convenient shelter for the time being, neither molested nor par- 
= ticularly avoided by the prairie dog and owl. When fortune 
favors them they readily devour the young squirrel, and more 
than one at a meal; but their more usual food is the ground- 
nesting birds, rats, mice, ground squirrels, etc. In one moderate 
_ sized rattlesnake, whose stomach I examined, were founda freshly 
killed ground squirrel, and slum lark, ne with a half 
ao lark finch O eS 


208 Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. [ April, 


The rattlesnake is slow and sluggish in his movements, and 
prefers shelter in damp or cold weather. When intent upon prey 
he is less readily induced to rattle, but at other times his stroke 
is usually preceded by a warning. When mating during May _ 
they are more vicious than at other times. The danger fromthe 
rattlesnake’s bite has been popularly over-estimated. I have ob- 4 
served a great many cases among the larger animals; fatal results 
have been the marked exception. Among horses and cattle not 
one case directly fatal has come within my notice. 

In man, in eleven cases there were three deaths, two of which 
were most probably through ignorance or improper attention. 

The rattlesnake is not dependent upon vision alone in detecting 
danger; his warning rattle may often be heard while yet he is i 

| 


entirely concealed, having been apprised of intrusion either by _ 
the sense of hearing or by mere tractile vibration. A 

In addition to the owl and the snake, there are still other 
dwellers in the burrows of the prairie dogs, but they are very 
useful little scavengers, though only beetles. Six or seven species 
of Lleodes and Asida are always found near the burrows, and one 
or two are almost peculiar to them. 


0; 


RAMBLES OF A BOTANIST IN NEW MEXICO. 
BY EDWARD ‘LEE GREENE. 
il. 


HE neighborhood of the old copper mines furnishes the best 
of ground for studying the imperfectly known and therefore 

very interesting sylva of the remote south-west. The number of 
species belonging to genera which make up forests in other 
countries is very considerable, and yet there is nothing in all this — 
region which merits the name of a forest; nothing which i 
emigrant from “the States” would call “ a piece of good timber. 
-= Of oaks, for example, there are four species, but one of which — 
attains the dimensions of a middle-sized forest tree; this is Gam- 
pbel’s oak (Quercus gambelii Nutt.), a deciduous tree with some 
thing of the habit of the Wisconsin burr oak, but having foliage 
-and acorns more like those of the common white oak. It grows 
-rather sparingly in the little valleys among the higher hills, ant 
_ is about the only oak of the region whose wood is good for an 


1878. ] Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. 209 


thing but fuel. Another kind of white oak common on all the 
hill-sides near the plains is of a low but stout habit, showing a 
trunk a foot or two thick but rarely attaining a height of twenty 
feet. Its leaves are oblong in outline, small and of a rather 
leathery texture, not deciduous, but remaining on the tree until 
the appearing of the new ones in April. Emory’s oak (Q. emoryi 
Torr.) is a small but rather handsome tree. It has hitherto been 
erroneously classed with the white oaks, owing to the insufficient 
material brought in by the various explorers who had seen it; 
but it rarely takes rank among the blackest of the black oaks. 
Its bright-shining lance-shaped leaves remain green all winter, 
falling, like those of the species mentioned above, only when the 
new ones are appearing .in spring. The fourth species of the 
genus, found away upon the summits of the Santa Ritas (Q. Ayp- 
oleuca Engelm.), though a mere bush is very unique and pretty, ` 
with narrow laurel-like leaves which are dark and shining above, 
and on the under surface beautifully clothed with a fine dense- 
= white wool. The bush is perfectly evergreen. The black walnut. 
of the region (Fuglans rupestris Engelm.) is a small species with 
nuts differing from those of its eastern congener, though the 
wood is quite similar; but lumbermen rarely find a trunk of this 
walnut large enough to be sawn into boards. The pines, with 
the exception of the tall yellow pine (P. ponderosa Dougl.) which 
occurs rather sparingly on the more elevated mountains, are of 
the dwarf nut-bearing sorts (Pinus edulis Engelm., and P. chihua- 
_ hua Engelm.) called piñon by the Mexicans, of little value except 
for their oily and nutritious nut-like seeds. The very graceful 
willow-leaved cottonwood (Populus augustifolia James) frequents 
the banks of streams, makes a beautiful shade tree, is largely 
employed for that purpose on the streets of the young New Mexican 
towns, but is not otherwise very valuable. And here where oaks, 
pines and walnuts, the /arge trees of other countries, appear only — 
in the shape of dwarfs, the junipers, which in other regions are 
usually small, develop into trees of very respectable size. It 
Seems a favorite soil for junipers, for we meet here the leading 
“Species of the east (F. virginiana L.) and its ally of the Pacific 
coast ( F. occidentalis Hook. ), besides a fine species peculiar to the 
interior south-west, which is remarkably different from both 
AK pachyphlea Torr.). This is an oddity among junipers by — 
agi taipad of the dark red very fibrous bark common to most — 


‘ 

¥ 
J 
— 


210 Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. ` [April, 


of them, a trunk so clothed in light ash-gray that at a little dis- 
tance it looks almost precisely like the trunk of a white oak. 
Mexicans, much averse to the hard work of swinging an axe, 
never undertake the operation of cutting down even a medium 
sized tree of any sort; they prefer, when wood is wanted, to 
climb the trunk and cut off the branches; thus in the vicinity of 
any ‘Mexican village among these hills, one sees instead of low 
stumps, trunks standing ten or fifteen feet high simply divested 
of their arms or branches. Where white oaks and this juniper 
had grown side by side it was hardly possible to distinguish be- 
tween them in the absence of the branches so closely does the 
one imitate the other as to the appearance of the bark. I took 


the measurement of a vigorously growing not old-looking speci- 


men of Funiperus pachyphlea and found the circumference of its 
trunk, at three feet from the ground, fifteen feet and three inches. 
The height of the tree was a little more than forty feet. The 
berries of this tree are light-green with a bluz bloom when 
mature, and are full four times the size of ordinary juniper ber- 
ries. They are sweet and not unpleasant to the taste, and as an 
article of food seem to be greatly enjoyed by various birds and 
mammals, and by the Indians. Among the small trees of the 
region the mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus parvifolius Nutt.) is 
valuable on account of its very hard wood, for nearly all the rest 
of the native woods, even that of oaks, is light and brittle. The 
New Mexican locust (Robinia neomexicana Gray) is another 
small tree, or sometimes a mere shrub, remarkable not from any 
utilitarian point of view but for its great beauty when loaded with 
its heavy pendant racemes of rose-purple flowers. No other 

orth American locust is so highly ornamental. But perhaps 
the most beautiful flowering tree of this section and of the whole 
south-western country is the one known to the Americans by the 
common name of desert willow (Chilopsis linearis DC.). The 


appellation sounds paradoxical surely, for from the ancient a 
Hebrew poets down to the present generation, all, even superfi- © 


cial observers, know that the place for willows is not in deserts, 
but “by the water courses.” And the tree in question is not M- 
deed a willow, though the Mexicans have made the same mistake aS 


we, for they call it the mimdre, which is the Spanish word for i 
osier. But with its black bark, like that of some species of w 
_ low, and its long narrow leaves clothing slender and gracefully 7 


LEER TETA) 


1878.] Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. 211 


drooping boughs, it is well enough named desert willow, though 
it belongs technically to a very different order of trees. The 
_catalpa of the south-east is its nearest ally. The flowers of the 
two trees are much alike in form and size, but those of Chilopsis 
are bright deep pink color with purple markings; and clustered 
among the. willow-like foliage on branches that droop and sway 
with every breeze, they place the species far superior to the 
catalpa in point of grace and beauty. We hardly meet with it in 
our mountain saunterings, nor even along the banks of the Rio 
Mimbres, which pretty stream, flowing along the eastern base of 
the Santa Ritas, takes its Spanish name from the real willows 
which overshadow its clear and rippling waters. Only beyond 
the mountains on the sandy plains, though indeed in the lowest 
parts of them, along channeled sands where water sometimes 
flows after a heavy shower, do we find the shade of the branches 
and inhale the pleasant fragrance of the flowers of the desert 
willow. One cactus of the plains, which attains the dimensions 
of a small tree (Opuntia arborescens Engelm.), maintains a foot- 
hold among the rocks in the cooler, fresher region of the moun- 
tains, and in spite of its defiant aspect, armed thickly as it is with 
stout needle-pointed spines, it is a splendid object late in June 
= when every branch bears at its apex a cluster of very large bril- 
liant magenta blossoms. Another of a different genus (Cereus 
=~ fendleri Engelm.), is a humbler tenant of the rocks, with still more 
beautiful flowers. Of the two species of Yucca noticed, one ( Yucca 
angustifolia Pursh) merits the name of a true lily, growing as it does 
_ to the height of twelve or fifteen feet, the large panicles of nodding 
white lily-like flowers sometimes of themselves measuring six feet 
. long. It is a majestic plant when in bloom, though less to be 
= admired at other seasons, when it displays a mere branchless 
trunk terminating in a single tuft of long narrow leaves. In this 
last-named condition a group of yuccas seen at a distance on the 
plains has a singular likeness of a band of long-haired south- 
western savages, and has often been at first sight mistaken for 
such by travelers newly coming into these sub-tropical regions. 
The other member of this genus (Y. daccata Torr.) is of humbler 
growth, and its flowers are succeeded by edible fruits looking a 
little like bananas and having the flavor of paspa, together 
with slightly cathartic properties. 
a Teg one day in an eastern neoe a notice that a century 


Gre aa aAa et 


4 Se ie TEES 2 viet eas Sa Se Sores 


212 Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. [April, 


plant was about to flower in some one’s conservatory in an east- 
ern city. The plant is well known to be a native of old Mexico. 
I had seen many forms of it growing along the Rio Gila in Ari- 
zona, where it constitutes, together with stately yuccas and giant 
cacti, a marked feature of the landscape. Here, near Santa Rita 
del Cobre, I had in my rambles come upon several localities 
where a fine large form of it was abundant. In May I had. 
observed the starting up of the flower stalks from the centres of 
such as were to flower this year. Now, near the end of June, I 
set forth one morning in the direction of the nearest locality of 
the plant which I had remembered, expecting to see them 
in bloom. My anticipations were realized after an hour's ride. 
On coming within sight of the mountain side where they grow, 
the great branching stems were visible, each branch terminating 
in an umbel of greenish yellow. I rode up to the nearest speci- 
men, but was unable to reach, from the saddle, the lowest branch 
of the gigantic panicle. In the act of tying my horse to another 
of them I was surprised by the fall of an abundant shower of 
honey. Every one of the great mass of tubular flowers was filled 
with a clear, rather fetid liquid, very sweet, however, to the taste; 
and a jarring of the great stalk was sufficient to bring down mel- 
lifluous rain more copious than agreeable. This New Mexican- 
species is not identical with the century plant common in cultiva- 
tion, but is probably new and undescribed. During the weeks of 
my delightful sojourning in the Santa Ritas my favorite rambles 
were along the streamlets that come, I had almost said running, : 
but rather dripping, down from among the higher peaks and 
ridges. The smaller of these are commonly lost among the rocks | 
midway between their sources and the plains below ; and the best 
of them sink into the thirsty ground as soon as they get fairly 
down out of the mountains. Nothing less than a great river — 
could preserve itself and get across those sun-burnt, r ainless 
tracts that separate the different mountain districts of the sou 
west. It was charming however, when among the hills, to g0 "} 
several miles of some ravine where a scanty rill came trickling 
down. On one side, that which sloped northward, one could pro- 
ceed under the shade of pines, oaks and cedars and salvias blue 
= or scarlet-flowered, purple clematis climbing up among wild 
cherry bushes, and other delicate shade-loving plants peculi 
“the region. On the opposite side where the slope was to t 


= 1878.] Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 213 


4 
: 
1 
= 
e 
4 
a 


hot sunny southward, one saw no trees, nor plants of fine or 
graceful habit, but only yuccas, century plants, cactus and Dasy- 
lirion, adorning with rigid and stately magnificence the otherwise 
-almost barren rocks. On less rugged portions of these hot un- 
shaded hills is where we look for and find various species of an 
interesting genus (Dalea) of peculiar south-western leguminous 
plants. Some are herbs, others shrubs, with small, very small 
ferny foliage and a profusion of yellow pink or purple corollas set 
usually in exquisite white-feathery calyces. Another characteris- 
tic and very abundant shrub of these ravines and hill sides is an 
oddity of the rose family (Fadlugia paradoxa Torr.), in which the 
flower of a rose, or it might rather be called that of some large 
flowered raspberry, or blackberry (Rubus), is succeeded not by a 
berry of any description, but by a close tuft of dry seeds with 
long silky tails, much like those of a clematis, but finer and 
more graceful, and of a purplish hue. They are borne in great 
profusion and the bush is more showy in seed than in flower. 
But passing upward beyond where all these interesting things are 
found, we come to higher, more open and smoother lands at an 
altitude where snows are more sure to fall in winter, and show- 
ers in summer are more frequent. Here are scattered pines of 
larger growth, and under them grasses are abundant and the wild 
deer graze in safety; masses of blue lupines, with here and there a 
tall stalk of flame-red pentstemon (P. barbatus Torr.), occupy the 
“more open grounds, while, farther upward still, the ravine narrows 
to a gorge a few rods wide. Here we find our streamlet a brook 
shaded by alders and poplars, and the dripping precipices are clad 
with mosses, mimuli and saxifrage, reminding the herbalist here 
upon the borders of Mexico of familiar scenes in far northward 
latitudes, 


ise. 


. 
l 
| 


:0: 
ON THE TRANSFORMATIONS AND HABITS OF THE 
BLISTER-BEETLES.' 

BY CHAS. V. RILEY, A.M., PH.D. 
HE larval habits of the European Cantharis of commerce, as 
also those of its congeners in our own country and in other 
parts of the world, have hitherto remained a mystery, notwith- 
tanding the frequency with which the beetles occur, their great 
— uP permission aom the Transactions of the EEN of Science of Ste 


214 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. [April, 


abundance at times, and their commercial value and interest. 
The same remarks hold true of the allied genera Macrobasis, 
Epicauta and Henous, the species of which have the same valu- 
able vesicatory properties as Cantharis. Some of these species 
are very common in the United States, and quite injurious to 
vegetation, swarming at times on potato vines, beans, . clematis, 
and other plants. Their great numbers and destructive habits 
make it all the more remarkable that so little has hitherto been 
discovered of their early life. Harris, who evidently had hatched _ 
the first larva of the Ash-gray Blister-beetle (Macrobasis unicolor : 
Kirby), says: “ The larvæ are slender, somewhat flattened grubs, 
of a yellowish color, banded with black, with a small reddish 
head, and six legs. These grubs are very active in their motions; 
and appear to live upon fine roots in the ground; but I have not 
been able to keep them till they arrived at maturity, and there- _ 
fore know nothing further of their history.” (Zas. inj. to Vegeta- 
tion, p. 138.) Latreille, according to Westwood, states that the 
larvee live beneath the ground, feeding on the roots of vegetables 
(Jutr., vol. i., p. 301), but the statement is evidently founded on : 
= conjecture. Ratzeburg, who well describes the method of ovipo- —_ 
sition of the European Cantharis vesicatoria, and roughly figures 
the first larva (Forst Insecten, II, Col. Taff. ii, fig. 27 B), believed 
that it was a plant-feeder in the immature state. Olivier describes 
what is possibly the second larva as a soft, yellowish-white, 
13-jointed grub, with short filiform antennz, and short, corneous, 
thoracic legs—‘“ living in earth” (Traité Elém., etc., M. Girard, 
Col., p. 618); but his account is very loose, and may apply t° 
any number of other coleopterous larve. Audouin, who studied 
the Cantharides intently, making them the subject of his thesis 
in his medical examination, was obliged to confess that absolutely 
nothing was known of their larval history. This is about all we - 
learn from the older authors, and more recent writers have shed 
no further light upon the subject;.Mr. Wm. Saunders, of Lon 
don, Ont., in a paper on these insects, read at the 1876 meeting 
of the American Pharmaceutical Society, being unable to add 
anything more definite. Among the early writers the opinion 
was general that the Blister-beetle larvae in question were veer 
table feeders, like their parents. In 1874 Laboulbéne mentioned 
. the fact (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1874, \xxxili) that some one 
~ (name not given) had seen the European Cantharis vesicatoria 


1878. ] Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 215 


=~ issuing from the ground in the neighborhood of which there were 
wasps (gwépes—no specific reference given), and rashly concludes 
that the former were parasitic on these. Still more recently M. 
J. Lichtenstein, of Montpellier, France, has endeavored to dis- 
cover the larval habits of this species, and gives some reasons for 
believing that it develops in the nests of Halictus 

These facts, as well as analogy, pointed to a parasitic life and 
partly carnivorous, partly mellivorous diet for our own allied 
species, since the life-history of two genera in the family, viz: 
3 Meloé Linn. and Sitaris Latr., has been fully traced. Indeed, the 
young of all vesicants belonging to the Meloidæ, so far as any- 
-~ thing has yet been known of them, develop in the cells of honey- 
| making bees, first devouring the egg of the bee and then appro- 
=~ priating the honey and bee-bread stored up by the same. They 
=~ all are remarkable, in individual development, for passing through 
= seven distinct stages, viz: the egg, the first larva or #iungulin, 
: the second larva, the coarctate larva or pseudo-pupa, the third 
=~ larva, the true pupa, and the imago. They are further remark- 
’ able in that the first pair of spina are distinctly mesothoracic 
; 


es N E AEL O ae 


and dorsal in the triungulin. 
History of Meloë—The history of Meloë may be briefly summed 
up as follows: The newly hatched or first larva (now generally 
_ Called t¢riungulin) was first mentioned in 1700 by the Holland 
= entomologist Goedart, who hatched it from the egg. Frisch and 
= Réaumur both mistook it for a louse peculiar to bees and flies. 
De Geer, who also obtained it from the egg, mentions it in 
1775 as a parasite of Hymenoptera. Linnzus called what is 
evidently the same thing, Pediculus apis; Kirby, in 1802, described 
as Pediculus melitte,and Dufour, in 1828, named it 77 riungulinus 
_ andrenetarum, Newport, in 1845 (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. Xx, p. 
297), first rightly concluded that it was carried into the nests of 
| bees, and described, in addition, the full-grown larva from exuvial 
1 characters, and the coarctate larva and pupa which he found in 


< 
> 
: 
= 
oA 


1 Quite recently (Comptes Rendus de ? Ac. des. Se., Paris, Oct. 11, 1877, p. 628) he 
has succeeded, by furnishing the larvæ of C. vesicatoria with artificial nourishment 
Composed of the filled stomachs of honey-making bees, and especially of Ceratina, 
_ in tracing the development from the triungulin to the coarctate larva, which last dif- 
_ fers from those of the other species considered by me, in freeing itself entirely from 
the second larval skin. He has thus established the fact that Cantharis agrees w 
-the other species of the family in its DPEN NOAS: Mor ke naan hadits a 
FRR as much as ever a ae 


216 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. (April, 


the cells of Anthophora retusa. He failed, however, to fill the gap 
between the first and full-grown larva; and this Fabre first infer- 
entially did in 1858 (Azz. d. Sc. Nat., Zodl. t. ix, p. 265) by 
tracing the analogous stages of Sitaris. 3 
The female Meloë is very prolific. She lays at three or four 
different intervals, in loose irregular masses in the ground, and 
may produce from three to four thousand eggs. These are soft, 
whitish, cylindrical, and rounded at each end. They give birth 
to the triungulins, which, a few days after hatching—the number 
depending on the temperature—run actively about and climb on- 
to Composite, Ranunculaceous and other flowers, from which 
they attach themselves to bees and flies that visit the flowers. 
Fastening alike to many hairy Diptera and to Hymenoptera which — 
can be of little or no service to them, many are doomed to perish, 
and only the few fortunate ones are carried to the proper cells of 
some Anthephora. Once in the cell, the triungulin falls upon 
the bee egg, which it soon exhausts. A molt then takes place 
and the second larva is produced. Clumsy and with locomotive 
power reduced to a minimum, this second larva devours the 
thickened honey stored up for the bee larva. It then changes to 
the pseudo-pupa with the skin of the second larva only partially 
shed; then to a third larva within the partially rent pseudo-pupal 
: skin, and finally to the true pupa and imago. These different 
-changes of form are known by the name of hypermetamorphoses, : 
the term first given them by Fabre to distinguish them from the 
normal changes from larva to pupa and imago, experienced by- 
insects i gee | The triungulin or first larva (Fig. 1, 4) iS 
characterized by 4 
prominent labrum, 
: very stout hee : 
M unarmed shan 
three broad and E ; 
spatulate tar 
claws, feeble and re- 


” 


Fig. 1.—Melod; d, first larva; å, claws; ¢, antenna = 

Seas .— ee fs WwW > 

- maxillary palpus ; > labial palpus; f mandible; g; & £ setz, the two ‘inne! 
abdominal ari h, me es i, antenna of 4. ones ent Wheat 


1878.] Transformations and Habits of Blister- Beetles. 217 
the abdomen is shrunken the general aspect is very much that. of 
Pediculus, and it is hardly surprising that some of the early 
describers so determined it. 


| 

a History of Sitaris—The history of Sitaris is also well known 
a and agrees very closely with that of Meloë. Its first larva was 
figured many years ago by Westwood (Introduction, etc., fig. 34, 
= 5) from specimens obtained from Audouin, who found the female 
, Sitaris in the cells of Anthophora enclosed in its thin pseudo- 
: pupal and second larval skins, which Audouin erroneously took to 
= be the pellicle of the devoured bee-larva. But the complete life-his- 
~ tory of the genus was first given by Fabre in 1857 (Azz. d. Sc. Nat., 
_ Zodl., t. vii. p. 299; t. ix. p. 265), who studied the S. Aumeraiis 
| = Fabr, while that of S. col/etis V.-M. has been more recently 
= given by M. Valery-Mayet, of Montpellier, France (Aux. Soc. 
Ent. de Fr. 1875, p. 65), from whom I have specimens in all 
stages. The former species infests the nests of Anthophora, the latter 
those of Colletes. In the former the newly hatched larva hybernate 
in huddled masses in the galleries of the bee; in the latter they hy- 
_ bernate in the bee-cell, slowly feeding while the temperature per- 
mits ; but such differences doubtless depend on the relative earliness 
in the autumn that the eggs are ‘laid. The first larva or triungulin 

— 


Noles 


ae 
| 


sal and general char- 
acters with that of 
Meloé, but differs in 
‘Several important par- @ 
_ ticulars,and especially fi 


from which is secreted i sie 
(A serous, sticky fluid, a d manar i cond lavas Peedo pupa; J 
_ which aids the animal third larva ; ¢, pupa ; d imago Ọ (after V.-Mayet). 
in holding firmly to the bee that is to carry it into the nest. A 
_Pre-anal pair of claspers also assist in this work. The hypermet- 
_ amorphoses are very similar to those of Mée/oé. The triungulin 
after absorbing the contents of the bee egg, molts, and thereafter 
_ floats upon and devours the honey—the pseudo-pupa, third larva 
: and true pupa all forming in due time within the second larval- 
skin.. The female does not wehi and on account of her heavy. 


218 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. (April, — 


abdomen travels but a short distance from the bee-burrows where 
she developed. 


History of Hornia—While the natural history of none of our 
N.. A. species of Meloé has been traced or recorded, they will, 
beyond all doubt, be found to agree with their European con- 
geners in their partial parasitism on Mason-bees. In examining 
the cells of Anthophora sponsa Smith, I have thus far failed to dis- 
cover that Meloë is parasitic upon that species, but Meloë is in 
reality very rare around St. Louis. I have, however, found on 
four different occasions in the Fall, within the sealed cells of the 
bee mentioned, a very interesting and anomalous Meloid (/ornia 
_ minutipennis Riley), which may be taken to represent the typical 
partial parasitism of the family in the United States. There isa 
tendency in the family to wing reduction, but in no hitherto 
described species is the reduction carried to such extremes as in 
this (Plate 1, fig. 13) both sexes having the elytra as rudimentary _ 
as in the 2 of the well-known European Glow-worm (Lampyris 
noctiluca). Another characteristic feature is its simple tarsal 
claws, which, together with the rudimentary wings and the heavy 
body, show it to be a degradational form. Anthophora sponsa, 
its host, builds mostly in steeply-inclined or perpendicular clay 
banks, and, in addition, extends a tube of clay from the entrance. 
The burrow of this bee has usually two branches which decline 
about an inch from the surface of the bank, and six or eight cells 
are arranged end to end. By means of saliva the inside of the 2 
cell is rendered impervious to the moisture of the honey and 
bee-bread stored in it for the young. It is evident that this 
clumsy Meloid will have difficulty in crawling out of or about — 
the cells, and it is probably subterranean and seldom, if ever, 
leaves the bee gallery. The male can climb and drag his body, — 
but with some difficulty, up a steep surface if rough, and, as he 
does not leave the bee-cell till spring, when the Anthophora tubes 
are very generally broken and have fallen, he may possibly wan- 
der a short distance from the mouth of the bee-burrow; but the 
female will naturally possess less power of locomotion. The 
triungulin is yet unknown, but the ultimate stage of the second 
larva as well as the coarctate larva, as shown by the distene 
and unruptured skins, exhibit the ordinary family characteristics, 
~ the legs and mouth-parts being atrophied in the former, and 
-~ merely tuberculous in the latter. The lateral ridge, as found 10 


1878. ] Microscopical Examination of Rocks. 219 


Epicauta and Meloé, is not conspicuous, and in this respect, as 
well as in the final transformations taking place within the two 
unrent skins, the insect approaches Sitaris. In the hairless and 
unarmed surface of the second larva, and of the third larva and 
pupa, as shown by careful examination of their shrunken exuviz, 
the insect also resembles that genus. 


[To be continued in May Number] 


EE Pee Seg MORES ee Re Rp ry AP 


een Sy 


THE PREPARATION OF ROCKS AND FOSSILS FOR 
MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION. 


BY R. FRITZ-GAERTNER, PH.D. 


T is often supposed by those who have never prepared sections 
of rocks or fossils that the process is associated with great 
difficulties and expenditure of time, but this in reality is not the 
case. A small amount of practice is needed for the beginner and 
he may soon be able to manufacture sections which are fit for the 
microscope.. The time spent in the mechanical operation of 
grinding rocks is not only remunerated by interesting and 
_ instructive preparations, but adds also to a complete knowledge 
= of their physical structure, gained by a close observation of the 
various features they present during the process of preparation. 
In cases where large numbers of sections are to be prepared 
= itis not possible for the lithologist or paleontologist for want of 
_ time to perform all the work himself: he may be assisted by any 
person of ordinary ability in the preliminary part of preparation. 
= Those who do not personally wish to prepare sections can be 
: - referred to Mr. Fues, of Berlin, or to Mr. A. Julien, School of 
_ Mines, New York city, who prepare and deal in sections, which, 
= On account of their perfection, deserve commendation. 
= In the present article I wish to describe the process of pre- 
_ paring rocks or fossils for microscopical study. They are mainly 
intended for those who design to make sections themselves, and 
to whom a detailed description of a mechanical operation may be 
of some assistance in their first attempts. 
_ Selection of Rock Material—It is quite important in order to 
make a complete microlithological analysis of rocks to select 
material which is characteristic. Most rocks are in various states 


VOL. X41.-—-NO. IV. 16 


RRS ER A E eS Nt ey Pe A RENE ANS Me Ad ea LenS PE ELL My OMe oer es eee ST SL A 
SoTL Og TNS aj i PENEN dhe 


er ae Ree or, 


220 Microscopical Examination of Rocks. [ April, 


of alteration; it is therefore necessary to choose fragments both 
from the fresh and decomposed parts, as thin sections of the lat- 
ter ones are just as important and instructive as those taken from 
parts in which no visible change has occurred. Usually such — 
decomposed rocks are very fragile and crumbling, because their 
crystalline structure or their cementing medium has been 
destroyed by the process of decomposition. Before undertaking : 
to grind them their firmness must be restored. The fragments 
of such decomposed rocks are at first well dried and then placed 
in liquid Canada balsam, which is exposed on an iron plate toa 
gentle heat till it has filled and penetrated the pores and fissures 
of the rock. They are then separated from the Canada balsam 
and laid upon the warm iron plate till the balsam proves to be 
hard when cooled down, and are then capable of undergoing the 
process of slicing or grinding. i 

Apparatus.—It consists in its most simple form of some plates 
of iron and glass about eighteen inches square, to allow a full 
stroke with the arm during the grinding process. They haveto — 
be perfectly even and flat. Emery of various degrees of fineness 
is required to be used on the plates with an addition of water. — 
Fragments of rocks are ground by hand and treated as will be 4 
described in the following lines: 

In the New York State Museum of Natural History at Albany, 4 
where a large number of rocks and fossils have to be cut and i 
prepared for thin sections for illustrating the Palaeontology of 
New York, the slow process of grinding by hand had to be 
abandoned, and a small boiler and steam engine of two and 
a-half horse power were purchased for the purpose of using 
steam-power for the grinding and slicing operations. The grind- 
ing apparatus is formed by two circular iron plates (A and B) of 
eighteen inches diameter and one-half, inch thickness, which 
rotate horizontally with a velocity of about 300 revolutions 4 
minute. The slicer which is used to cut the rock in certain — 
directions, or to separate from it small slices to be ground after- a 
wards, is a thin copper or steel disk of twelve inches diameter, ss 
and turns also horizontally with the same velocity as the grinding 
plates. For rocks above hardness 5, another slicer of steel 15 
used, which turns vertically, and which is fed with diamond 
powder moistened with oil. 

The whole apparatus may be run at the same time, an 


d is 


1878. ] Microscopical Examination of Rocks. - 221 


arranged in such a manner that no one operation interferes with 
another. 

The grinding and slicing is performed by the aid of emery, 
which is constantly applied to the plates and slicer with a brush 
held in the left hand. The plates are kept wet by a small current 
of water. It is important to use emery of different but uniform 
degrees of fineness as the work progresses. A mistake usually 
made by beginners is to choose a too coarse emery, in order to 
hasten the work of grinding, but they soon discover that all their 
sections break and wear off long before being half finished. It is 
advisable to use for the coarse grinding on plate A an emery 
which can be bought in any drug store as emery No. 90 (A). 
‘Plate B is charged with flour of emery (B); it serves also to pre- 
pare one or two sorts of finer emery from it, by treating a certain 
quantity of the flour with water in a vessel which may be about 
three feet high and six inches in diameter. In stirring the water, 
the emery becomes suspended in it; after a lapse of fifteen min- 
utes the water with emery which has not settled down during 
this time is decanted in a similar vessel and left there for twenty 
minutes more, when the water may be drained off. A sediment 
of fine emery will thus form in the latter vessel; and after having 
repeated the process for some time the emery sediment (emery 
C) is taken from the vessel, dried and bottled. Its degree of fine- 
ness is expressed by the number of minutes, which is in this case 
fifteen minutes. 

Canada balsam serves as a cementing medium, it also is used 
‘to increase the transparency of various sections. It should be 
entirely clear and not of yellowish tint: Usually a solution of 
Canada balsam in turpentine is employed to mount such rocks as 
= will not undergo any change in heating them gently over a warm 
plate of iron. For rocks which cannot be exposed to any heat, 
a solution of pure Canada balsam in chloroform is used. Both 
.solutions of Canada balsam should be well bottled to prevent 
evaporation. 
= Object Glasses —The slides of glass which are intended to bear 
the section should be entirely clear, free of any color, air bubbles 
_or any other enclosures, as those which are used in other branches 
of microscopy. Their size should be uniform. Prof. Zirkel, of 
Leipzig, the distinguished lithologist, has proposed and introduced 
the howe size, 45 mm. by 25 mm., which is preferable to the 


222 Microscopical Examination of Rocks. ~ [April, 


ordinary 3 dy 1 zwch, asa slide 45 mm. by 25 mm.can be rotated on 
the table of the microscope; besides they are less liable to break 
in dropping them, and also take up less room. 

In the New York State Museum of Natural History the slide 
measuring 45 mm. by 25 mm. is adopted. As it was found that 
this glass slide was too small for a number of sections of fossils, 
which exceed the usual size, two other standard sizes were intro- 


ae 
i 


duced which are in proportion to the first. Size B is twice the — : 


size of first — 50 mm. by 45 mm. Size C is twice the size of sec- 


ond — 50 mm. by 90 mm. It would be of great advantage if a 
uniform size was introduced in the various collections of those 
whe prepare sections. The slide 45 mm. by 25 mm. is generally 


adopted with lithologists and palzontologists both in America 


and Europe. 

Process of Slicing and Grinding —The fossil or rock is at first 
marked with a pencil and afterwards with a file in the direction in 
which it is designed to be cut. It is then held with the right 
hand without any further apparatus, in such a direction that the 
revolving slicer will cut the specimen according to the marked 
line. The slicer is constantly supplied during the operation with 
flour of emery and water. If there is plenty of material and no 
special direction needed, small slices can be separated from the 


rock by a heavy blow with a hammer. The rock fragments k 
should as a rule not be beyond the size of a twenty-five cent 4 
piece; of course it is of great advantage to prepare sections 
which offer a large field for observation, and the rock specimens 


should not be chosen too small, as they lose in size during the 
grinding process. 

The slice of rock which has been separated either by the slicer 
or by the heavy blow with a hammer, is gently pressed with the 
right hand against the turning plate A, while the left hand sup- 
plies plate A with emery A and water. It is necessary to change 


constantly the position of the rock-slice in the right hand in order — : 
to grind it to an even and plain surface. The slice is then well a 
rinsed and cleaned of any particle of emery A, and then trans- — : 
ferred to plate B (emery B) where the grinding proceeds till its 
surface is free of any scratches. Being cleaned of the emery — 3 
B, it is brought upon glass plate C (emery C) and ground till its — a 
surface is entirely smooth. The rock section is finally well i 

rinsed and brushed to clean off all impurities and allowed S 


to dry. 


ae OTe Tae, 


- 
a 
; 
4 
Be 
; 


FERE Pa Ee Pore ee E aa SR 


1878.] Microscopical Examination of Rocks. 223 


Mounting Process—A slab of iron two and a half feet long, 
four inches broad and half an inch thick is laid horizontally upon 
a tripod (of iron) and heated with a Bunsen burner. The glass 
slide on which the rock fragment is to be mounted is well cleaned 
and laid upon a part of the slab which is of a constant and mod- 
erate heat; after being warmed a few drops of Canada balsam are 
placed upon the glass and left with it on the slab till the balsam 
by evaporation has assumed a tenacious condition, in which its 
films will not adhere much to the fingers and yet be pliable 
enough to be bent readily without breaking. The warmed min- 
eral slice is now laid upon the Canada balsam with its ground 
face down, and allowed to remain on the slab till all air bubbles 
have disappeared below the slide in the balsam. It is then 
gently pressed on the glass and then taken off and allowed to 
cool. It is of great importance to use Canada balsam in its 
above described condition, as the rock section during the process 
of grinding thin unavoidably breaks to pieces in case the balsam 
proves to be too soft, and if on the contrary it has been too long 
exposed on the slab it will become brittle and the section will, 
during the grinding, be liable to break off. The loosened min- 
eral slice must in such a case be laid into a dish with turpentine 
to dissolve the balsam, and after being well cleaned is mounted 
again as described. There is no considerable difference in the 
process of mounting with balsam in solution with chloroform or 
with turpentine. The balsam in chloroform is allowed to harden 
in a warm room: it usually needs one or two days, while the solution 
in turpentine by application of heat hardens in from five to ten 
minutes. In the latter case care should be taken not to heat the 
balsam too quickly, as it turns yellowish on account of a partial 
carbonizing. 


Grinding Operation.—After having used all necessary precau- 


tion in cementing the rock fragments to the glass, the grinding 
Manipulation now begins on the reverse side of the section. It 
is ground at first on plate A (emery A), then on plate B (emery 


B) till the section commences to be translucent, or till it is so 


thin that it is not advisable to continue the process on the rotating 


Wheel. It is, of course, only a matter of experience to know how 
long to use the various wheels, as much depends on the consis- 


_ tency of the rock material. It is advisable to discontinue the use 


of plate B before the slice is too much reduced in thickness, so 


224 Microscopical Examination of Rocks. [April, 


as to allow a further treatment on glass plate C with the fine 

emery C. Due precaution should be employed so as not to grind 

' the section uneven. To avoid this the position of the section 

should frequently be changed in grinding. The section is ready 
as soon as it is thin enough to allow a complete study of its 

texture and its component parts, of which a preliminary examina- 

tion under the microscope will be the best test. 


Process of Covering and Remounting—The section is well 
rinsed and brushed to remove any emery ‘which might have 
remained on the glass or which may be accumulated in the pores 
or fissures of the slice. It is then laid in a vessel with turpentine 
in order to dissolve the excess of Canada balsam around the slice. 
In a few minutes it will be softened enough so as to be easily 
removed by a gentle brushing with turpentine, after which it is 
well washed and then dried with chamois leather. In order to 
protect the section and also to increase its pellucity, it is usually 
imbedded in balsam and covered with a thin glass, the thickness of 
which should not exceed 0.25 mm., to allow the use of a high 
magnifying power. 

Usually the glass slide on which the mineral slice has been 
cemented to grind it thin, becomes partly ground during 
the various operations. It may be replaced with a clean slice on 
which the mineral slide is mounted as already described. 

The separation of the section from the original glass is done 
by gently heating it till the Canada balsam b ftened enoug 
so as to allow the removal of the section by a slow sliding to 4 
vessel with turpentine. The heating should be done very gently, 
otherwise a crust of hard Canada balsam will form around the 
sections, the removal of which by aid of turpentine or any other 
dissolving medium will be most difficult. 

Another method consists in laying the glass with its slice in a 
dish with turpentine and to leave it there till the balsam 'S 
entirely dissolved, after which the slice of rock may be separated 
from its glass without any difficulty. The thin slice is transferred 
to another dish with turpentine and left there till it proves to be 
entirely free of any foreign matter. It is then taken from the vessel 
with the point of a knife, rinsed with alcohol and dried, after- 
wards mounted ona glass which has been warmed, when ue 
slice may be placed upon it with a few drops of Canada balsam. 

‘he whole operation of transferring needs great care, as 


1878. ] © The Serpent and the Ape. 225 


some mineral slices will prove to be very fragile on account of 
their thinness. Sections which are made of a rock material which 
needed a preliminary treatment with Canada balsam to make it 
firmer would break entirely to the smallest fragments in the 
attempt to remove them to another glass, and have therefore to 
remain on their original glass. Before covering them, the greatest 
care should be taken to free them entirely from any Canada bal- 
sam around the borders of the mineral section, and also from 
emery, which sometimes can only be detected by aid of a magni- 
fying glass. The re-mounted mineral slice, or the one which 
could not be removed, as stated above, is covered with a few 
drops of Canada balsam and laid again upon the warm slab till 
the balsam has obtained the required tenacity. A thin cover- 
glass, corresponding in size with the mineral slice is cleaned with 
alcohol and warmed; it is then taken up with a pair of forceps 
and dropped slopingly on the slice so as to exclude any air. The 
section is left on the warm slab till all air bubbles have disap- 
peared which may have been enclosed between the section and 
cover-glass; the latter is gently pressed upon the section and 
then allowed to cool. Care should be taken to place the mineral 
slice and cover-glass in the centre of the glass slide, which will 
contribute to a nice appearance of the finished preparation. The 
surplus of Canada balsam around the cover-glass is cleared off 
by brushing it with turpentine, then it is well rinsed with water 
and after being dried it should be labeled at once. The labels 
should be applied on both sides of the preparation and inscribed 
with the name and locality and geological group of the prepared 
material. It is well to number the sections and record them in a 
catalogue in which also a description of the most interesting and 
principal features of each mineral slice may be given, which will 
facilitate a future study of the section. 


:0: 
THE SERPENT AND THE APE. 
BY ARTHUR E. BROWN. 


Woa the purpose of observing the manner in which the feel- 
ings of curiosity and astonishment are manifested in the 
monkey, Mr. Darwin once introduced a snake into a cage con- 
taining a number of those animals, and the results of his experi- 


226 The Serpent and the Ape. [April, . 


ment he refers to in “The Descent of Man,” and also in “The 
Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” as illustra- 
tive of the extent to which those qualities are developed in that 
branch of the animal kingdom. 

Reading his statement, the writer conceived the idea that the 
results obtained were capable of a deeper application than was 
then given them, and he proceeded to try the experiment for him- 
self. The Monkey House at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden 
afforded the opportunity, so a dead snake was coiled up in a news- 
paper, the corners of which were twisted together in such a man- 
ner that they would readily come undone, and the package was 
then set on the floor of a cage containing forty or fifty monkeys 
of a great variety of species. It was instantly spied by a female 
Cynocephalus, who was the principal leader in all the pranks with 
which the monkeys constantly amused themselves; she seized the 
paper by one corner, and set off across the cage, dragging it be- 
hind her, evidently intending to have a good time with it. 

Before she had gone more than a few feet, the paper became un- 
folded, and the snake slipped partly out. She instantly dropped 
the paper and sidled off in a very comical manner with her head 
over her shoulders, keeping an eye behind her, much as Lot's 
wife must have looked back on the fascinating terrors of the cities 
of the plain. No sooner did the rest of the monkeys perceive the 
dreadful object in their midst, than they approached, step by step, 
and formed in a circle of six or eight feet diameter, having for its 
centre the snake quietly coiled up on the floor. None dared, how- 
ever, to touch it or to go beyond the established line of safety, 
with the exception of one large Macaque, the acknowledged leader 
of the cage, who cautiously approached and made an occasional 
_ snatch at the paper, apparently to see if the enemy was really 

devoid of life as it appeared to her; all the others, meanwhile 
looking on in breathless attention. 

At this point, a.string which had previously been attached to 
- the tail of the snake was gently pulled. The serpent lengthened 
slightly, and the monkeys fled up the sides of the cage, chattering 
and screaming like magpies; when they got to a safe distance 
they halted for observation, and after some moments, seeing nO 
further sign of danger, they gradually returned, one by one, to 
their former position—the large ones in the front’ rank, and the a 
smaller ones, crowded out by superior strength, forming behind 
and looking over their shoulders. 


hy 


ee Cn ee a e TT 


PP sh 


ee Oe pee ee E E E CA T N ER EES 
SONE iai i as e 


EENT 


ee AE SEN E S IA mit ae ET ot ee Pa eS Pipe, ee R AE ON ee gee A 


1878.] . The Serpent and the Ape. 227 


This was continued for some hours without the slightest change 
in the disposition of the monkeys—all of their actions showing a 
most intolerable fear of the snake, mingled with an attraction or 
curiosity which would not allow them to remain away from it. 
This was so universal that not one of the monkeys in the cage 
was entirely free from it. 

The snake was finally taken out, and several other animals be- 
longing to the same class were put in its place, but with very dif- 
ferent results. Of a tortoise, for instance, and a small dead alliga- 
tor, they were at first rather shy, but they at length began to 
touch them, and in ten minutes they were playing with them, 
and passing them from one to another with the greatest curiosity. 

The same snake was then shown, in turn, to animals belonging 
to a number of other orders: Carnivores, Rodents, Ungulates, 
Edentates and Marsupials, but none of them paid it any special 
attention with the exception of a Peccary (Dicotyles labiatus), 
which, finding it to be dead, seemed disposed to make a meal of it. 

Turning from the monkeys and watching, instead, the visitors 
to the Reptile House, it is evident that the instinctive fear and 
horror of the snake which is so common as to be almost universal 
with man, is closely allied to that which has been seen to exist 
among monkeys. Women readily develop this, as their emo- 
tions are more quickly responded to by gestures, than is usually 
the case in the other sex, and I was specially fortunate, a short 


_ time after the occurrence detailed above, in having an opportunity 


of observing the effect produced by the collection of snakes, upon 
a lady who was deaf and dumb—by the fact of her disabilities she 
was shut out, to a very great extent, from the influence—repress- 
ing, so far as the expression of the emotions is concerned—of free _ 


= association with others, and the nature of her feelings was there- . 
by rendered more evident. I was not at all surprised to trace in 
her, actions and gestures which resembled closely those which I 
-= had observed on the part of the monkeys; they evidenced the 


same fear, the same attraction and the same repulsion, and after 
watching for a long time, with an expression of the most intense 
disgust, the cage of Boas, she was at last led away by her oe 


_ protesting that she wanted to stay. 


Now if it be asked why this instinctive feeling should be de- 
veloped in the Primates alone—it is probable that as the early 


dawnings of intelligence in the common ancestor of man and 


228 Traces of Solar Worship in North America. [ April, 


monkeys began to surpass the power of receiving impressions 
which existed in other animals, he would be most liable to con- 
ceive great dread of that enemy which inflicted upon him wounds 
of a very different sort from those which he received from his own 
kind or from animals which approached more or less to his own 
form, and which also produced effects so subtle in their character 
and operation, that they would be apt to leave lasting impressions 
on those animals which were frequently subjected to witnessing 
them. It should be remembered, also, that the home of the 
monkey and the spot where, in all probability, the earlier Pri- 
mates first saw the light, is in those regions of the earth which are 
most infested by numerous and venomous serpents. 

These facts will at once suggest to all who put their faith in the 
theory of gradual development, that the fear of the serpent be- 
came instinctive in some far distant progenitor of- man, by reason 
of his long exposure to danger and death in a horrible form, from 
its bite, and that it has been handed down through the diverging 
lines of descent which find their expression to-day in Homo and 
Pithecus. How strongly marked it is in the latter, the experiment 
detailed above, corresponding in each of its results with that of 
Mr. Darwin, bears testimony; and for the evidence of its influence 
on the mind of the former, turn to the story of the serpent in 
Paradise; to the signs and symbols of many ancient mythologies, 
and to the feeling which few men ‘can deny to themselves when 
they are brought into association with even the most beautiful 
and harmless member of the order Ophidia. 


:0: 
TRACES OF SOLAR WORSHIP IN NORTH AMERICA. 
| BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 


T an article published in the October Naturatisr, entitled “On 
the Ancient and Modern Pueblo Tribes of the Pacific Slope 
of the United States,” the writer made use of the following €x- 
pression: “Both paid homage to the sun, or at least looked for 
a Messiah daily to come to them from the east,” to which asser- 
tion exceptions have been taken by some ethnologists. i 
It is held by this class of scientists that the heavenly bodies 
were never deified by any of the American races. Granting 
-this to be, in some degree, true: That the luminaries, collectively 


1878.] Traces of Solar Worship in North America. 229 


or individually, were not elevated to the Aighest place in their 
worship, by any tribe or people in North America, yet the celes- 
tial orbs, nevertheless, figured prominently in the list of supreme 
objects of worship, and many żraces, at least, of this form of wor- 
ship are found in the religions of aboriginal races of all ages, from 
the oldest American people down to the tribes of the present day, 
especially among those versed in astrology or astronomy. 

Although little is known of the Toltecs of Ancient Mexico, it 
is an established fact that astral worship existed among them. 
They paid homage to the sun and dedicated their earliest temples 
to him. The moon, also, they reverenced as his wife and the 
Stars were believed to be his sisters, according to the Mexican 
Licentiate, Don Mariano Veytia, in his “ Historia Antigua.” The 
same writer describes the ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan, the 
most ancient architectural remains of Mexico, situated about thir- 
teen miles north-east of the capital city. Of these, the largest 
pyramid, which measured six hundred and eighty feet in length 
at the base and was estimated at two hundred and twenty feet in 
height, was dedicated to Tonatinh or Tonatricli, the sun; the 
next structure in size and importance was inscribed to Meztli, the 
moon. On the summit of the former a temple was erected, in 
which was placed an immense statue staan: the sun, which 
faced toward the east. 

According to the accounts of Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish 
writer of the sixteenth century, and one who was particularly 
cautious in his deductions and entirely reliable in his accounts of 
the religion of the Aztecs, as set forth-in his “ Historia Universal 
de Nueva España,” solar and lunar worship occurred in the Aztec 
religion, the sun with them being a spiritual conception. They 
believed that. the heroes who fell in battle or died in captivity, 
or women who died in childbirth, were immediately transported 
into the House of the Sun, where they led a life of everlasting 
delight. From the broad tops of their zeocallis or temples, the 
_ Aztec priests were in the habit of performing impressive, and, in 
too many cases, bloody ceremonies, in which the heavenly bodies 
Were made to take a prominent part. 

After the fall of the Mexican Empire, traces of sun worship 
Were common. Captain Fernando Alarcon, in the year 1540, 


Mentioned having met, on the Colorado River, Indians who wor- 


Daa the sun. 


230 Traces of Solar Worship in North America. [ April, 


The same custom exists among the modern Pueblo Indians of 
New Mexico. Lieut. A. W. Whipple says of these people that 
“they are now anxiously expecting the arrival of Montezuma; 
and it is related that in San Domingo (one of the nineteen Pueblo 
towns), every morning at sunrise, a sentinel climbs to his house- 
top, and looks eastward, to watch for his coming.” 

Mr. Whipple also gives a tradition! of these Indians which _ 
assigns Acofi (another Puéblo village, situated on the Rio Grande 
del Norte, the ancient Tiguex) as his birth-place; but the tale is : 
so at variance with facts and so rich in imagination that it is evi- 
dently the invention of some fertile brain. The Spaniards who a 
came among the Pueblos, just after the Mexican conquest, about 
the year 1539, evidently introduced the name of Montezuma and . 
probably instilled into their minds this idea of his second advent. 4 
Thus the worship of heavenly bodies may have become blended 7 
with the deification of ancestors; then the sun may have taken 
the name of Montezuma. Whipple further states that they 
“ smoke to the sun that he may send them antelope to kill, In- 
dians to trade with, and save them from enemies.” 

Among the Navajos, also, by the same authority, “The sun, i 
moon and stars are sacred, as the authors of seasons of rain and of 
harvest.” He also says of the Zuñians, “ Beneath the apparent mul- 
_tiplicity of gods, these Indians have a firm faith in the Deity, the 
“unseen Spirit of God. His name is above all things sacred, and 
like Jehovah of the Jews, too holy to be spoken. Montezuma is 
His sonand their king. The sun, moon and stars are His works, | 

| 


worthy of their adoration.” 

The “ancient Pueblos” of the Pacific slope of the United States, 
whose ruined stone structures are found so numerously through- 
out portions of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and proba- 
bly Nevada, held the sun in high esteem, at least, if they did not 
worship it. This is shown in the situation of the houses in many 
localities. In the Cañon of the Rio Mancos, for example, the 
dwellings are almost invariably found secreted in the cliffs of the 
western bluff, and from their roofs the inhabitants were wort tO 

salute the king of day as he raised himself above the eastern 
plateau. 


1 Vol. III, Pacific R. R. Reports. 


2 A northern tributary of the Rio San Juan, in the extreme south-wester 
of Colorado. 


n corner 


1878. Traces of Solar Worship in North America. 231 
p 3 


Among the Moqui tribe, to-day, traces of this form of worship 
still obtain. The religion of their forefathers seems to have de- 
generated into a mere custom, the origin of which has been long 
lost sight of in their obscure traditions. Thus, in the course of 
time, it seems probable, the worship of celestial orbs has given 
place to hero-worship; solar worship to anthropomorphism, and 
it is said that the Moquis have ultimately become imbued with 
the belief that it is a Messiah, in the form of one of their own an- 
cestors, that is, Montezuma, whom they are expecting to arrive 
from the east. The Moquis and the Pueblos and Zuñis are cog- 
nate tribes and doubtless remnants of the ancient Nahuatlac races; 
hence the similarity of their customs. 

As the faint streak of red lights up the low horizon, tall, dark 
figures appear on the parapets of the seven Moqui towns and re- 
main facing the dawn until the sun has appeared entirely to view. 
Then the muffled forms drop away slowly and sadly, one by one, 
for another morn has brought disappointment to the souls of 
many that have watched so eagerly and persistently for the com- 
ing of the great Montezuma. The routine of another Moqui day 
has commenced; all is bustle and life and the subdued hum of 
household occupation floats out drowsily on the sullen, sultry 
air and the sound of the hundred flour-mills (me¢ates) grinding 
steadily on every side, seems, as it issues from the doors and win- 
dows of the stone houses, to pause in mid-air like a droning bee. 
Then scores of busy figures repair with their water-vessels to the 
verge of the steep bluffs, and disappear in the crevices of the rocks 
below. 

Having presented these facts in support of the assumption that 
solar adoration entered, to some extent, into the religions of some 
of the American races, we may sum them up briefly as follows: 

1. Fetichism being the commonest form of idolatry, especially 
amongst the lower races of man, most tribes whose religion is 
polytheistic, venerate the sun. 

2. We can detect vestiges of sun-worship in the ruins of the 
Toltec and Aztec temples and pyramids and also in the statues 
which were placed within them. 

3. We can observe traces of it in the traditions and observances 
of savage and semi-civilized tribes at the present day. 

4. We notice indications of it in the hieroglyphics or picture- 


1 Motecuhzuma. 


232 A New Locality for Cordylophora. [ April, 


writings of most North American tribes, ancient and modern, in 
which the sun symbol occurs frequently. 

5. Also in the position of ruined stone houses which look to- 
ward the east, the larger rectangular buildings of the Pacific slope 
being built so as to face the cardinal points. 

6. Finally, we can observe signs of this worship in the orienta- 
tion of dead bodies in graves. 

If we accept these briefly stated facts, there can be no reason- 
able doubt that the worship of the sun entered, to some degree, 
into the religions of the American aborigines; how far, we have 
not the means of determining; yet, quoting the poet Southey’s 


words,— 
: “ I marvel not, O sun! that unto thee 
In adoration man should bow the knee, © 
And pour the prayer of mingled awe and love; 
For like a god thou art, and on thy way 
Of glory sheddest, with benignant ray, 
Beauty, and life, and joyance from above.”’ 


:0: 
A NEW LOCALITY FOR CORDYLOPHORA. 
BY S. F. CLARKE. 


HIS interesting form of compound hydroid was first discov- 

ered in this country by Prof. Leidy, a number of years ago. 
It was found living “in a slightly brackish pond near the coast,” 
in the neighborhood of Newport, Rhode Island. In October, 
1870, it was again taken by Prof. Leidy, this time in the Schuyl- 
kill river, near Philadelphia. A record of the same will be found 
in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
Philadelphia, for 1870, page 113, from which we learn that 
Prof. Leidy had not decided whether his specimens were dis- 
tinct from C. lacustris Allman. He says “It appears how- 
ever to be much smaller. Allman says the colonies are sev- 
eral inches and the polyps a line in length. Ours are not 
more than one-half that size. As a variety it might be named 
C. americana.” Unfortunately there are no specimens to refer to 
and their specific identity must be left undetermined. 

On the thirteenth of last October a collecting party of three 
from thé John Hopkins University, consisting of Dr. Brooks, Dr. 
Uhler and the writer, were so fortunate as to find Cordylophora 
lacustris Allman, living in great abundance within seven or eig 

miles of Baltimore. The mouth of Curtis’ creek, from the point 


1878.] A New Locality for Cordylophora. 233 


where it empties its cold clear spring waters into the Chesapeake 
bay, for a distance of one hundred and twenty yards up the 
stream, was densely populated with colonies of this beautiful 
organism. Attached to the water-plants (two species of Potamo- 
geton and a Nitella), and to the rocks in the bed, and on the sides 
of the creek, they formed a delicate living fringe to every object 
in the stream. At the mouth of the creek its bed is about forty 
feet wide with a narrow channel on one side, in which the water, 
not over three or four feet in depth, flows very rapidly. In the 
channel where the sunlight is the strongest, owing to the much 
less abundant growth of vegetable life, where the current is most 
rapid, and nearest to the mouth, where the changes in the sur- 
rounding conditions must be greatest, there we found the colonies 
in their greatest luxuriance. The waters of the Chesapeake are 
only brackish in this northern part of the bay, and the tide rises 
and falls but ten or twelve inches; still this is sufficient to make 
quite an appreciable difference in the saltness, density and tem- 
perature of the water for a number of hundred yards up the 
stream. The variations in the conditions then must be consider- 
able and the changes must be quite sudden, as they occur with 
the rise and fall of the tide. The nutritive hydranths too must be 
possessed of great activity and strength to enable them to catch 
and retain their food while the water is dashing by them at such 
a rapid rate. Another visit was made to the same locality in the 
last week in October, when we found the reproductive bodies of 
both sexes in great numbers. In these latter the reddish-brown 
branched spadix showed very distinctly in certain stages of devel- 
opment, ramifying through the opaque-white mass of the gono- 
_ phore, and in later stages becoming resorbed. The specimens 
differ in no important respects from the figures and description of 
Allman. The color is usually a little brighter, being pinkish-red 
instead of reddish-brown; occasionally there are as many as 
eighteen or twenty tentacles, and occasionally the shallow annula- 
tions at the bases of the ultimate ramuli may be absent, but these 
all fall within the range of specific variation. Unlike Prof. Leidy’s 
specimens, those from Curtis’ creek agree in size with -those of 
Prof. Allman. It is interesting to note that in one of the locali- 
ties whére Prof, Allman collected it, he found it associated with 


= — Potamogeton and Lemna, though not attached to them as many 


_ of our specimens were. 
Cordylophora presents three special points of interest: 1. It 


234 A New Locality for Cordylophora. [ April, 
possesses a ramified spadix. 2. It is the only compound hydroid 
ever found in fresh water, and 3. The reproductive’ zooids are 
developed in a chitinous cup, while the nutritive zodids are not so 
developed or protected. 
ne of the nutritive hydranths showed, in a slight degree, the 
polystomatous condition which the zodids of this species at times 
present; and which has been described and figured by Mr. Hugh 
Price, of Oxford, England! Mr. Price’s specimens were obtained 
from the Victoria docks, and the polystomatous hydranths were 
found only on certain colonies. Some of these hydranths pos- 
sessed as many as five distinct mouths, each one of which was 
supplied with a series of tentacles; though separated throughout 
their entire length, they remain united at the base, thus forming 
a small closely united group from a single hydranth. As the 
different mouth-bearing parts were very small and without tenta- 
cles in some of Mr. Price’s specimens, and others were interme- 
diate in size, he is inclined to consider this a regular mode of 
increase in the hydranths of this species. The single specimen 
of this kind obtained by us possessed two mouth-bearing portions, 
each with a set of tentacles and united at the base. Unfortunately 
it was not preserved and I have been unable to find any others in 
a similar condition. 
There is but one other species of Cordylophora and it may not 
be out of place to mention it. Kirchenpauer found specimens 
of a compound hydroid growing upon buoys at highest tide lim- 


its in the river Elbe. These he describes in a letter to Busk as a n 


new species of Cordylophora, giving them the specific name of 
albicola, It differs from C. lacustris in forming smaller colonies, 
in having the branches ated opgan and the perisarc 
terminates abruptly. 

Habitat—Grand Canal docks, Dublin, Allman; Commercial 
and West Indian docks, London, Bowerbank and Allman; a fresh- 
water cistern near London, Busk; Agricultural drains near Lyme 
Regis, Dr. Lowe; Canal near Osten: Van Beneden; Schleswig, 
Semper; neighborbiood of Stockholm, Sweden, Retzius; neat 
Rostock, F. E. Schulze; Newport, Rhode Island, Leidy; Schuy!- 


kill river, near Philadelphia, Leidy; in basins in the Jardin des @ 


Plantes, Perrier; The Baltic, Mobius; Curtis’ creek, near Balti- 
more, Md., S. F. . Clarke. 


Quarterly Microscopical Journal, Vol. xxiv, New Series xvi, folio 23. , 


on 
N 


1878.] Ameba Proteus. 235 


AMCEBA PROTEUS. 
BY PROF, JOSEPH LEIDY. 


wonderful creature is the Amw@éa, one of the lowliest of the 

lowest class of animals, a mere speck of the thinnest jelly 
endowed with the usual attributes of all living things. Possessing 
an. extensile and contractile power, it puts forth portions of its ma- 
terial in any direction; which portions act as temporary instru- 
ments of locomotion and prehension, and which again withdrawn, 
melt away in the common mass without leaving a trace of their 
previous existence. 

The human body with its intricate mechanism and appliances 
is a theme of incessant wonder and admiration, but the Amadéa in 
its simplicity of structure and capabilities may reasonably excite 
the same feelings. Though it has long been known, it has recently 
acquired new interest, from the discovery in higher animals of 
jelly-specks which in structure and endowments are undis- 
tinguishable from the free Amada of stagnant waters. The 
white corpuscles of the blood travel through the tissues of our 
body as independent beings, just as the Ameéa creeps in the mud - 
of a pool, and so alike are they that the wandering corpuscles ap- 
pear as if they were parasitic Am@de. 

With such a creature as an Amba, of the utmost simplicity, 
a globule when quiet; of the most variable and ever changing 
shape when moving, one would not anticipate the recognition of 
different kinds, of the character of the more fixed specific forms 
of higher animals. Nevertheless, we observe, Amæbæe varying 
greatly in size, in the general habitual shape they assume in mo- 
tion, in the extent and usual form of the locomotive prolonga- 
tions,and in some other points, ordinarily sufficient to render dif- 
ferent kinds distinguishable from one another. 

Many naturalists think that all varieties of Amade are transi- 
tory phases of one and the same species, and this view is in some 
Measure confirmed by the occurrence of intermediate or transi- 
tionary forms which make it impossible, in many cases, strictly to 
define the limits of more characteristic and striking forms such as 
we commonly find. The same reasoning, however, applies with 


more or less force to higher organic forms, and as with these, it 
is at least convenient to refer to the different kinds of Amabe as 
SO many named species. 


vr. XII—NO. IV 


236 Ameba Proteus. [ April, 


The first notice we have of the discovery of an Ameda, is by 
Rosel, in a work entitled “ Insecten Belustigung,” or Recreation 
among Insects, published in Nurnberg in 1755. Rosel calls the 
animal the little Proteus, and accompanies his description with 
colored figures engraved by himself. 

Linnzus, in the Systema Nature, referring to Rosel’s animal, 
named it Volvox Chaos, and afterwards Chaos Protheus. Nearly at 
‘the same time Pallas called it Volvox Proteus. Müller subsequently 
gave it the name of Volvox Sphaerula, but later, after having him- 
self observed the animal, described and figured it under the name 
Proteus diffiuens. 

As the generic name of Proteus had been previously appropri- 
ated for the well known salamandroid of Adelsberg, Bory de St. 
Vincent substituted that of Amba for the animal of Rösel and 
Miller, calling it by the various names of Amiba divergens, A. 
` Röseli and A. Mülleri. : 

In 1830, Ehrenberg described a comparatively small Amæba, 
which together with all others previously noticed by different au- 
thors, he referred to the same species under the name of Amada 
diffiuens. In 1831, in the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences, 
of Berlin, p. 79, Ehrenberg described what he considered to be a 
new species of Ameéa with the name of A. princeps. Its charac- 
ters are as follows: “ diameter 1-6th of a line; body transparent, 
yellowish, with many readily and voluntarily movable blunt pro- 
cesses, four times larger than the Proteus.” In 1838, in his great 
work, the Infusionsthierchen, Ehrenberg described Amba prin- 
ceps as “large, yellowish, equaling 1-6th of a line, provided with 
a variable number of cylindrical appendages, thick and. rounded 
at the end.” 

Accompanying the former description there is also O 
Ameba diffluens as follows: “diameter 1-24th of a line, body 
clear as water, with mostly three or four variable processes; four 
times less than the former species.” In the Infusionsthierchen 
the same is described as “ branching, rarely extending or exceed- 
ing 1-24th of a line, colorless, with processes variable, moderately 
long, robust, and subacute.” 

From the descriptions it appears to me that Rösel’s little 


ne of 


Proteus 


accords with Ehrenberg’s Amba princeps, and not with Ameba . 
diffluens. Ehrenberg says A.‘princeps is four times larger than the 3 
Proteus, meaning A. diffluens, and not the Proteus of Rosel, for 


Fin We LT Pe Pee ee Be Re de he Sgt ss eee 


ee ee Ret A Nears T Mk TIE A Ree ks eK Lape Ur tee achat TS A 
as Sees : : : t wee 


1878.] Ameba Proteus. 237 


this as represented by Rösel is of greater size than that given by 
Ehrenberg to A. princeps. It would naturally be supposed that 
an Ameba discovered by the earliest observers, with instruments 
less perfect than those later in use, would be one of the larger _ 
and more common forms. That such was the case appears 
fairly proved by both figures and descriptions. 

Rosel, referring to a figure of his little Proteus, remarks that in 
its natural size it looks like fig. A. Now this represents the ani- 
mal in its quiescent state, in globular form, and the figure measures 
four-fifths of a line. No Ameéa has since been recorded so large 


- as this, and we may look upon the figure as somewhat exag- 


gerated, which might readily have occurred without the accurate 
measuring instruments which came later into application to micro- 
scopic objects. Rdésel also refers to his having held the Proteus 
at rest with the point of a feather, so that the evidence is suffi- 
cient to prove that the Amada was one of the largest kind. 
Taking size alone into consideration, Résel’s Proteus is as far 
removed in one direction from Ehrenberg’s Amæba princeps, as 
Ameba diffuens is in the opposite direction. But in other char- 
acters Rosel’s Proteus agrees with the former closely, and not 
with the latter. 

Ehrenberg describes A. princeps as yellowish, the A. diffuens as 
colorless. Résel says nothing of the color of the Proteus, but 
his figures are colored yellowish. Most of Rosel’s figures exhibit 
the characteristic changes of form of the animal in movement, 
and of one of these he remarks that in its branching it resembles 
the antlers of the deer. 

As regards the concurrence of size and color of Résel’s Proteus, 
it might apply to other large Amæbeæ, instead of A. princeps, as 
for instance the A. villosa of Wallich, or the Pelomyxa palustris 
of Greef, but the changes of form represented as occurring in the 
Proteus of Résel, approach it rather to the former than to either 
of the latter. 

Miiller’s descriptions and figures of Proteus difluens, which that 
author regarded the same as Résel’s Proteus, likewise appear to 
apply to the same animal named A. princeps by Ehrenberg, rather 


_ than to that which he named A. difluens. 


If the views taken, as above expressed, are correct, it must be 


. admitted that the Ameba princeps of Ehrenberg is the same ani- 


mal as the Proteus diffiuens of Müller and the little Proteus of 


238 Recent Literature. [ April, 


Résel. Even consenting to the opinion that all forms of Amebe 
may eventually be shown to be transitory phases of the same 
species, it does not render the determinations of Ehrenberg and 
his followers, in regard to A. princeps and A. diffluens, any the 
less incorrect. 

Arriving at the conclusion that the common large Amba, 
usually assigned to A. princeps is the same as the Proteus of 
Rosel, the question arises as to its appropriate name. Of the 
specific names employed for the little Proteus, that of “ Chaos” is 
the oldest, but appears to me less appropriate than that of “ Pro- 
teus,” applied afterwards. As the latter cannot be used in its 
generic sense, it might be aecepted in its specific application so as 
to perpetuate the name given to the animal by Rosel, its discov- 
erer. While, therefore, in strict conformity with the rules of 
zoological nomenclature, the little Proteus of Rösel, the Proteus 
diffluens of Müller, and the Ameba princeps of Ehrenberg, would 
be called Amba chaos, I would suggest that it should be called 
Ameba proteus. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Monveiro’s ANGOLA AND THE River Conco1—Now that Mr. 
Stanley has discovered the source of the Conyo, and crossed the 
continent to the Coast of Angola, one will turn to the present 
book for the excellent account it gives of a region so little known. 
The country described by the author lies between the River Zaire 
or: Congo and Mosammedes or Little Fish bay, comprising ten 
degrees of latitude. In this region, an interesting and rich part 
of tropical Africa, Mr. Monteiro lived and journeyed for many 
years. How the lowland country of the Angola coast may strike 


the stranger, and how the traveler journeys through its unique — @ 


scenery, may be ascertained by a glance at the view here given. 
A number of similar full-page engravings adorn the book, which 
is full of interesting information regarding the country and its 
people, their manners and. customs, and the 

upon them. All books of this sort sooner or later exhaust the 
human features of the country, and we are then regaled with 1n- 
teresting notes regarding the animals and plants, many of them s° 


strange and striking. Some of the characteristic insects are rP 
7 th map and 


__1 Angola and the River Congo. By JOACHIM JOHN MONTEIRO. Wi 
illustrations. New York. McMillan & Co. 1876. t12mo, pp. 354- 


1878. ] 


'ZIUIWV UVAN MALTA—WIODONV NI ONITIGQAVUL 


Recent Literature. 


239 


240 Recent Literature. [ April, 


resented in the accompanying cut, while the Manis, a type illus- 


Pelopæus spirifex and nest.—Devil of the Rosd.—Dasylns EEEIEI aek tadih, 908 
nest.—. moultiscutatum and Ants’ nests. 


trating the a of Southern Africa is seen in one of its charac- 


teristic attitude : bt- 
The most essen natural product of this country 1S undou 


1878.] Recent Literature. 241 


edly the Welwitschia mirabilis. Mr. Monteiro collected specimens 
of the plant, flowers and cones for Dr. Hooker, which supplied 


4 
5 
5 
< 
~ 
BOE 
va 
zy 
z |) 
S 
Wn 
& 
ef 
a 
= 
= | 
Fs 
z 


"S IAAWVSSON AVAN NIVIA V 


some of the material for his well-known monograph on this 
plant. Monteiro states that the country about the River San 
Nicolau, or 14° S. latitude, seems to be its northern limit The 


X 


242 Reent Literature. [April, — 


following account is extracted by the author from Dr. Hooker’s 
work: “The Welwitschia is a woody plant, said to attain a 
century in duration, with an obconic trunk about two feet long, 
of which a few inches rise above the soil, presenting the appear- 
ance of a flat two-lobed, depressed mass, sometimes (according to 
Dr. Welwitsch) attaining fourteen feet in circumference (?), and 
looking like a round table. When full grown it is dark-brown, 
hard, and cracked over the whole surface (much like the burnt 
crust of a loaf of bread; the lower portion forms a stout tap- 
root, buried in the soil, and branching downwards at the end. 


grown, one corresponding to each lobe; these are quite flat, 
linear, very leathery, and split to the base into innumerable thongs 
that lie curling upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer 
describes these same two leaves as being present from the earliest 
condition of the plant, and he assures me that they are in fact 
developed from the two cotyledons of the seed, and are persistent, 
being replaced by no others. From the circumference of the 


ovule contained in a compressed utricular perianth. The mature 
cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly-winged fruit in each 
scale.” 


Barrois’ EMBRYOLOGY oF NEMERTEAN Worms!.—The author 


of this work is well known for his labors on the developmental a 


young are in some cases (though not in those mentioned by the 


author) related in form to those of the true Annelids, being 5°87 . 


mented. M. Barrois concludes from a study of the developmen 
of a number of genera (Lineus, Amphiporus, Tetrastemma, Poña, 

1 Mémoire sur f Embryologie des Némertes. Par M. JULES BARROIS. ( Annales des 
Sciences Naturelles, Sixtième Série. Tome vi. Paris, 1877.) 8°, pp- 23% 
12 plates. 


with 


1878. ] Recent Literature. © 243 


Cephalothrix, Drepanophorus) that they pass through three prin- 
Cipal stages. : 

I. A bilateral Gastrula-form. 

II. A Gastrula, with the middle layer (mesoderm) arising from 
the exoderm, and composed of two principal rudiments: (1) the 
muscular layer, thin and uniform; (2) the recticulum, extending 
through the entire body-cavity, and represented in the embryos 
of Lineus obscurus by oil globules. 

III. The longitudinal layer is enlarged in advance of the lateral 
organs into a solid mass; the nervous system arises over all the 
internal extent of the layer thus complicated. The internal cavity 
is divided, into a system of cavities separated by partitions, all 
along which the reticulum is applied in a continuous layer. 

These three states, which may be successively observed in the 
embryo of a nemertean worm, appear to exist in a more explicit 
way in Prorhynchus, where state II seems to be represented by 
an adult, free-living Planarian. The Nemerteans, then, appear to 
have derived from a sudden modification of the Planarian type, 
and justify, in the author’s opinion, the establishment of homol- 
ogies between the two groups. 


Tuomas’ Noxious Insects oF ILitno1s!'—This interesting re- 
port is divided into two parts, the first relating to horticultural 
entomology, and the second comprising the introductions to and 
first part of a manual of economic entomology for the State of 
Illinois, including the Coleoptera. The first part contains excel- 
lent advice concerning the best means of contending against in- 
sects injurious to the orchard, especially general and preventive 
remedies, which are always the best and usually the last to be ap- 
plied. Considerable attention is bestowed on the birds found to 
be useful in the orchard, and a list is given of the most important 
species. The report will prove very useful and timely to the 
farmers and gardeners of Illinois, for whose sole use it has been 
compiled. 


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FossiL FLORA OF THE WESTERN TERRI- 
TORIES. Part II, Tue Tertiary FLora. By L. Lesquereux.2— 
In this important work Prof. Lesquereux gives to the world the 
results of many years of laborious investigation of the remains 
of plants which have been discovered in the later horizons of the 

ocky Mountain region from the Laramie formation upwards, by 
the U.S. Geological Survey under Dr. Hayden, and by Messrs. 
Berthoud, Le Conte, Denton and Allen, Profs. Lakes and Cope, 
Lieut. Vogdes and others. After considering the stratigraphy of 

1 Sixth Report of the State Entomologist on the noxious and beneficial Insects of 
the State of Iilinois. The first biennial Report. By Cyrus THOMAS, PH.D., St 
Entomologist. Springfield, Ill., 18 7, 8°, pp. 174, iv, ii. 

2 Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. F. V. HAYDEN, 
U.S. Geologist-in-charge. Vol. vii. 4to, pp. 360. 1878. 


244 Recent Literature. [ April, 


refer chiefly to the exposures which the author has visited along 
the line of the Union Pacific railroad, and but little information 
is furnished respecting the strata of the Laramie on the middle 
and upper Missouri and the Saskatchewan regions. Then follow 
the detailed descriptions of three hundred and twenty-nine species 
of plants, many of which are represented by numerous remains, 
and from various localities. This portion of the work is illus- 
trated by sixty-five plates, well executed by T. Sinclair & Son, of 
Philadelphia. Here the author supplies his fellow students with 
the most valuable evidence as to the characters presented by this 
vast department of life during the past periods of the existence of 
our continent. 

e work closes by a general discussion of the meaning of the 
evidence with regard to the mutual relations in time of the 
various formations treated of, and their correspondences to the 
horizons of other countries. He reaffirms the conclusions pre- 
viously stated, viz: that the flore from the base of the Laramie 
upwards is of tertiary age. He divides the series into four 
groups, all of which (p. 352) he regards as belonging to the 
“ Lignitic formation.” He thus parallelizes them with the Euro- 
pean standards (p. 354). “I admit the lower group as Lower 
Eocene; the second group, which seems intermediate between 
this and the Carbon, may be Upper Eocene; the relation of the 
third group is by its plants with Lower and Middle Miocene of 
Europe, and that of the fourth with the Upper [Miocene]. These 
are like the first outlines traced for the preparation of a map; 
they may be erased or modified, the spaces have to be filled as 
our acquaintance with the Tertiary becomes more intimate.” 

The evidence in favor of the correctness of these positions 1$ 
an 


d not be 
accepted by students in other departments. Nevertheless the 
value of the evidence derivable from these vegetable remains 1S 
only to be fully understood by comparison with that derived from 
all other sources, 


the evidence they offer as to the age of the horizons both in their 
mutual relations and their relations to the formations of 
countries, is quite different from that presented by Prof. Lesque!- 
e t is well known that I was the first to show that the ver 
tebrate fauna entombed in the lignitic formations to the mm 
of the Laramie, or to the summit of Prof. Lesquereux’s firs 


ee i ai PCE e a aa E eR ire E e o a e e a A S a O O pe Neer eee riie Bn es 


E E E A A E EEI ES E EA D L S A ea AES EET 


1878. ] . Recent Literature. 245 


division, and perhaps his second division, is of mesozoic and cre- 
taceous type; and also that that of the Wasatch (or Green river) 
epoch, or Prof. Lesquereux’s fourth group, lower division, is of 
Eocene Tertiary age. The evidence in favor of these positions 
has been steadily accumulating since I first announced them in 
1869 and 1872, no exceptions have come under my notice, and 
their applicability has been extended to all parts of the North 
American continent which have yet been explored. In fact the 
most important interruption in the vertebrate life of North 
America is found between the Laramie and Wasatch epochs, and 
there only can the line between the Cretaceous and Tertiary 
periods of this continent be drawn. 

The evidence in favor of this position has been in a measure 
overlooked by Prof. Lesquereux. He remarks (p. 30): “ As no 
kind of cretaceous animal remains have been discovered in the 
Lignite of Colorado, none either in that of the north, generally 
called the Fort Union group, the question of age essentially bears 
upon that Bitter Creek series. The line of demarkation between. 
the cretaceous and the tertiary is placed by Prof. Cope above the 
Black Buttes Saurian Bed.” ` The facts as regards.the amount of 
vertebrate evidence in favor of the cretaceous age of the Laramie, 
are as follows: In 1869 I determined the vertebrate remains from 
the Fort Union beds of Dakota, which had been supposed to be 
mammalian, to be reptilian, and indicative of the Mesozoic char- 
acter of the Fort Union beds of the Missouri. The number of 


rof. Lesquereux seeks t : 
saurian Agathaumas sylvestre in a bed of Tertiary plants as did Prof. 
See Bulletin U. S. Geological Survey Territories. III, No. 3, 1877- 


. 


246 Recent Literature. ; [ April, 


Dawson, and has apparently not noticed my reply to the remarks 
of the Jatter gentleman. He observes (p. 351): “ We may ad- 
mit, however, that while the Tertiary age was at its beginning 
represented as a land formation as seen its flora, a cretaceous 
marine fauna may have still locally persisted in deep seas. Facts 
of this kind are recorded in the European geology. The presence 


formation are as generally terrestrial or, (in the case of the 
fishes) fresh-water in their character, as are the plants described in 
his valuable report now under review. I may here note the fact 
that Maj. J. W. Powell, who has followed Dr. Hayden in regard- 
ing the Wasatch epoch as of Tertiary age, was disposed at 
one time to place its inferior boundary below the Agathaumas 
bed, so excluding the latter from the cretaceous series. Las 
season’s examination of the locality at Black Butte, by Prof. C. 
‘A. White, has convinced that gentleman that the boundary be- 
tween the cretaceous and Tertiary formation is where I placed it, 
above the Agathaumas bed. 

As regards the Lower Focene character of the Wasatch beds, I 
have furnished abundant and conclusive evidence in various publi- 
cations, which are summarized in the Vol. IV, of the Final quarto 
reports of Lt. Geo. M. Wheeler, published in 1877. This period 
witnessed the introduction of the Mammalian fauna in large num- 
bers to North America, and forms the beginning of Tertiary time. 
Prof. Lesquereux’s conclusion that it is of Miocene age, is nega- 
tived by the Vertebrata, which are typically lower Eocene. We must 
conclude then that not only was a Cretaceous fauna contemporary 
with a Tertiary flora in North America, but that the flora spans the 
greatest gap in the history of vetebrate life. We must also be- 
lieve from the evidence offered by Prof, Lesquereux, that a 
Miocene flora was contemporaneous with an Eocene fauna. Since 
a Jurassic flora is still, according to Dr. Hector, existing in New 
Zealand, it must be evident that the positions of strata in the 
scale will be far more accurately determined by a consideration of 
the Vertebrata, than of any other form of life-—&. D. Cope. 

RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.—National Academy of Sciences. Biographi- 
cal Memoirs. Vol. 1. Washington. 1877. 8vo, pp. 343- 

Proceedings of the National Academy. Vol. 1. Washington. 1877- Svo, 

p. IIQ. 


Sponges considered as a distinct sub-kingdom of animals. By A. Hyatt. ibs $ 
the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. xix, Nov. 1, 1870- 
8vo, pp. 5- a 
Geological Survey of Canada. General Notes on the Mines and Minerals of a 


1878.) Recent Literature. 247 


economic value of British Columbia, with a list of localities. By Geo Pes! Dawson. 


nnual Spee g ay i es Geological sabi for the year 1877. By T.C. 
eects 8vo 

The Erysiphei. Bs E Bessey. (Extracted koi the Seventh siie 8 Report 
of the Iowa Agricultural Co ict December, etic 8vo 8, 2 pla 

Collembola borealia — Nordiska Collembola, beskr ifna af Tycho peru 
Oiversigt af Kongl. Susans nia ast gente 1876. No. §. Sto ck- 

holm. 8vo, pp. 20, 4 plates. 

oe New Tineina from Texas. IV. oes pana of ees V. Index to the 
Described Tineina of the United States and Can y V. T. Chambers. (Ex- 
faciei from the Bulletin of nae U. S. Geological sare. ri y: Hayden, in charge.) 

* Washington. 1878. 8vo, 8. 

Catalogue of PAARE i and Vascular Plants of Jefferson county, Indiana 
By Charles R. Barnes. pi which is added a list of plants growing in 1 Clark county. 
By John F. Baird. 8vo 

On the Cl pares of Generates: with special reference to the position of the 
Equites or Swallow By S. H. Scudder. (From the Transactions of the 
American sapar H l Philadelphia, June, 1877.) — pp. 

On me A discovered Traces of Fossil Insects in, ae merican Tertiar ries, and 
on bt v Carabidee oe the Interglacial rmo of Beaehote Heights, near 
Tor o aaa: By S. H. Scudder. (Extyacted hoin the Bulletin of the U.S 
Giclopini Survey, F. V. Hayden, i in che rie Washengts on, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 24. 

Ortho ouen vom Senegal. Gesammelt von Dr: Franz Steindachner. Bearbeitet 
von Dr. Hermann Krauss. (Vorgelegt in ye Sitzung aus 21, Juni, 1877.) Mit2 
Bras Sop y, 35. 

naking Ants of the Aa By Rev. H. C. McCook. John A. 
Black. Philede elphia. 8vo, pp. 43, 5 plates. 

n the Suet of the "Decora Leaf Scars of certain Sigillarie. By Her- 

an ok Fairchild. (From the Annals of the New York Academy of Scenca, 


8 t 
On the Variations of the Leaf'Scars of Lepidodendron aculeatum Sternberg. 
By Hermann L. Fairchild. (From the Annals of the New York Academy of Sci- 
B Vol. 1, No. 3.) 8vo, pp. is : iy ates 
A Synopsis of the Nor th Am n Species of the genus Alpheus. By J. S 
ae Soc racted from the Bulletin tt the U. S. Geological Survey, Vol. iv., 
I.) hps Feb. 5, 1878. 8vo, pp. 

On Notiothauma Reedi, a a e new ee and species of Neuroptera from 
Chili, per ertaini ing to the family P orpide. By R. McLachlan. (Extracted pit 
the Tr ransactions of the ntcioloaien’ Society of London, 1877. Part iv, Dece 

8vo, pp. 4. 


Zur Physiologie und Histologie des Central nervensystem von Helix pomatia. 
Von Dr. Hermann von Ihering. Göttingen, 1876. 12mo, pp. 6. 

Die G chorwerkzeug der iu. TAn in eak pa ieia für das natürliche System — 
nome Vo on H. von Ihering. Erlan 1876. 8vo, pp. 33- 

Ueb ic geien von Cyclas und ate creat sg der Keimblatter bei den 
Motisken, Leipzig. 1876. 8vo, pp. 

r Kenntniss der peta bei spi Misie. Von Hermann von Ihering, 

i 1877. 8vo, pp 

Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Nata stem der Amphineuren und Anthrocochliden. 
Von H. von Ihering. 1876. 8vo, pp. 2 

Ueber die systematische Stellung von Penh und die Ordnung der ee saa 
pneusta v. Ih. Von H. v. Ihering. Erlangen. 1877. , pp. 38. = 

ey die Byssus des Mytilus edulis, Von Tycho — Upsala. oS r : 
he te, 4to, pp. 9. ae 


248 General Notes. [ April, 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS IN DANTHONIA —At the end of Au- 
gust last, Mr. Edwin Faxon and I, in the White Mountain Notch, 
collected a form of Danthonia which interested us much ; although 
resembling D. spicata in its panicle, its culm was stouter than we 

ad ever seén in this species, greatly swollen above the nodes, 
readily disarticulating as we sought.to secure a supply (the 
plants being mostly out of season at that time), and showed in 
some specimens a panicle below the terminal one bursting from 
the upper sheath; the root-leaves as well as those of the culm 
were unusually large and long for Q. spicata. : 


has. É. Faxon submitted his brother’s specimens to Mr. © 


. Cha 
C. F. Austin, who, though he thought the plant might be a form 
of D. spicata, described it under the provisional name of D. Faxom, 
observing especially the unusually long and pointed teeth of the 
lower palet, and assuming that the culm of D, spicata is always 
single. ef . 
Not long since, on one of the mountains of Western Vermont, 
came across specimens of D, spicata, which at once suggested 
to me the plants I had seen in the White Mountains, and tearing 
away their sheaths, I found concealed flowers in every specimen. 
Following up this clue to a solution of the puzzle presented by 
the White Mountain plant, I have since examined a large num- 


ber of specimens of Danthonia spicata, and in every instance have - 


detected flowers concealed in the sheaths, even the most depau- 
perate plants with slender culms less than a foot in height show- 
ing at least rudiments of flowers. 

Within the sheath on the side opposite its slit the culm is con- 
cave from the node upward, and the chamber thus formed is 0C- 
cupied by a spikelet one to ten-flowered, sessile on the node, and 
subtended by two awl-shaped, unequal, sometimes subequal, 
plumes, two to six lines long, and very rough on their back; Ff; 
in the case of the stouter plants, and in their upper sheaths, by 
two or more such spikelets, standing still sessile, side by side ; 
or again, as in the case of the White Mountain specimens, by 
small panicles approaching in character the terminal one. In the 
smallest plants these spikelets are often undeveloped beyond n 
pair of short glumes; in all they are simplest toward the base ° 
the culm; in the lower sheath of ordinary plants they are one- 
flowered ; when several-flowered they are filiform, rather monili- 
form, the flowers being so distant on their rachis as barely tO 
touch each other. 


their lower palet is smooth and shining, quite coriaceous, 4° 
though tapering into an acuminate point, is entirely awnless. 


Gch NA ae Fela OO ie Si acd ie SEA ea ee oe Ba Ca SD 


1878. } Botany. . 249 


the spikelets become more highly developed, or are multiplied, 
toward the summit of the culm, particularly in the stouter, speci- 
mens, the flowers generally approach in character those of the 
terminal panicle, their outer palets becoming by degrees’ thinner 
and rougher, and assuming an awn, at first short, straight, and 
terminal, then becoming more and more twisted, and placed lower 
and lower between the teeth of the notched apex. The glumes, 
also, are gradually modified, until as shown by the specimens 
from the White Mountain Notch, those of the upper spikelets in 
the panicle issuing from the sheath of the upper leaf are scarcely 
different from those of the terminal panicle. These hidden flow- 
ers are perfect, the palets of moss of those examined being found 
to enclose well-developed seeds. May they not be considered as 
` a special means for the dissemination of this plant, which as a 
matter of fact is rapidly spreading over the drier soils of Vermont 
to the great detriment of agriculture, an ultimate scourge, com- 
pleting the desolation begun by indiscriminate use of the axe, and 
helped on by the consequent increasing droughts of our sum- 
mers? The seeds borne at the top of the culm of this grass fall 
readily for the most part in mid-summer; without aid in their 
dispersion, they must lodge in their immediate vicinity. But 
these concealed seeds securely stored within the sheath of the 
culms, when these are disjointed and swept away before the winds 
of autumn and winter, go to plant the species in new fields. 

Danthonia compressa Austin, exhibits precisely the same cleis- 
togamouS flowers as D. spicata, and its culm disarticulates even 
more readily. In on@ of the few specimens of D. sericea, exam- 
ined with this view, I find a one-flowered spikelet in its lower 
sheath ; in this species, however, as it may be worth mentioning, 
the culms seem less stiff and not so easily separable at the joints. 

In other genera of this family are these flowers to be found. I 
have already observed them in Vilfa, Holcus, and Arrhenatherum. 
—C. G. Pringle. y r z 


FERNS oF NorTH AmeRICA!— In the present number plates are 
given of Asplenium ebeneum Aiton., Asplenium ebenoides Scott. 
Three species of Botrychium, namely, B. lunaria Sw., B. lanceo- 
latum Ang., and B. coreale Milde, Cheilanthes lanuginosa Nutt, 
and Cheilanthes californica Mett. All of these except the last 
are described at considerable length. Prof. Eaton begins in each 
case with a concise diagnosis. This is followed by the synonymy 


1 By Prof. DANIEL C. EATON. Part 2—Naturalists’ Agency, Salem, Mass., $1.00, 


250 General Notes. [ April, 


A Fossit Funcus.—One of the most interesting recent dis- 


antiquarius. Fossil Fyngi were not previously altogether un- 
nown. Some years ago Mr. Carruthers, the keeper of the bo- 
tanical department in the British Museum, detected mycelial 
threads among the cells of a fossil fern (Osmunda) from the Lower 
eocene strata of Herne bay ; an r. Darwin has stated that fun- 
gus threads in a fossil state in silicified wood were shown to him 
more than forty years ago, by Mr. Robert Brown. Messrs. Han- 
cock and Asthey have also déscribed in the Azmals and Magazine 
of Natural History (4th ser. vol. iv, 1869, p. 221, t. ix, x), under 
the name of Archigaricon, what may be a fossil Peronosporites 
from the Crawlington black shale.. The specimen examined by 
Mr. Worthington Smith (the fungoid nature of the organism 
having been first suggested by M. Carruthers) was seen within 
the vascular axis of a Lepidodendron, and is thus described 
by that gentleman :—It consists of a mass of mycelia and zo- 
osporangia (or oogonia). Beginning with mycelium, a close ex- 
amination shows that it is furnished with numerous joints or septa. 
If, therefore, any reliance is to be placed upon the modern distin- 
guishing characters of the now living species of the genera Peronos- 
pora and Pythium, as furnished by a septate or non-septate myce- 
lium, the fossil parasite belongs to the former, and not to the latter 
_ genus, nor to any of the Saproleginee. The oogonia do not agree 
with those of Cystopus. Within many of the fossil oogonia the 
differentiation of the protoplasm into zoospores is clearly seen ; 
but if any doubt could exist as to the exact nature of this differ- 
entiation, then other oogonia (or zoosporangia) on the same slide 
show the contained zoospores with a clearness not to be exceeded 
by any living specimens of the present time. It is a very remark- 
able fact that the oogonium precisely resembles, in size and other 
characters, average oogonia of the present day, especially those 
belonging to Peronospora infestans. The contained zoospores are, 
moreover, the same in form and dimensions with those of Z. 7% gst- 
ans when measured to the ten-thousandth of an inch. The or- 
ganisms are in fact apparently identical; and the average number 
of zoospores in each oogonium is also the same, viz.: seven OF 
eight. The aérial condition of the fungus has not been observed. 
= Mr. Worthington Smith suggests, in conclusion, that we proba- 
bly have in Peronosporites antiquarius one of the primordial plants _ 
from which both the great families of Fungi and Algze may poss" 
bly have descended, There is no doubt that the Peronosporee an 
Saproleginee are very closely allied ; and yet the former are com 
monly placed among Fungi, the latter among Alga ; and we may 
possibly here have the point of departure from which the two 


= families branched out—A. W. Bennett. 


1878. ] Zoblogy. 251 


BoranicaL News.—The Transactions of the Academy of Science 
of St. Louis, Vol. iii, No. 4, 1878, contain the following botanical 
papers of interest, by Dr. George Engelmann: On the Oaks of 
the United States ; The Flowering of Agave shawii (with a plate); 
The American Junipers of the section Saina (with cuts); A Syn- 
opsis of American Firs (Aies? Link); Oak and Grape Fungi. 

Dr. Aug. Jæger continues his Genera et Species Muscorum, 


Dr. O 
Mittheilungen for January, on the geographical distribution of 
alms. The Journal of Botany for January contains a paper by 
A. Dickson on the structure of the pitcher of Cephalotus follicu- 
laris; the February number, Side-lights on the structure of Com- 
posites, and a note on the Dimorphism of Restiacez, by M. T. 
asters. 4 

The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for January, contains 

a valuable paper by G. E. Davenport, on Vernation in Botrychia, 
with a plate. In the Botanical Gazette for February, A. W. Chap- 
man continues his enumeration of new Floridian plants. se 


ZOOLOGY.! 
OTES ON THE NESTING HABITS OF THE ENGLISH SpARROW.— 


its own use. A prominent example of this kind came to view 


* The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Cougs, U. S. A. 


VOL. XIL.—NO. IV. Ho 


252 General Notes. [April, 


branches of a maple tree. The female had scarcely time to warm — 
her abode before a lot of sparrows came and during the meélce 

the former was vanquished and driven away. The nest was then 

- pulled up and partially destroyed. In the spring of 1875 a pair 

of robins came (and I doubt not but that they were the same), 

examined the débris which had beén pretty well settled during 

the winter, and commenced the construction of another nest. 

This time they were unmolested until after the eggs had been 

deposited. I commenced to feel more secure for my little neigh- 

bors, but my gratification was of short duration. About a week 

had elapsed when the sparrows made another attack, finally con- 

quering their opponents and driving them away. They tore the 

nest into one mass of rubbish, when all but one pair retired, 

which then worked an entrance and fitted it up, where they 

remained until two broods were hatched. In the spring of 1876 

the limbs were sawed off of the trees, preventing probably áa 
recurrence of similar exhibitions of strife, or in other words, 

downright cruelty — W. F. Hoffman, M.D. 


THE LARGEST OF ALL FRESH-WATER PoLyzoa.'—There is in 
this neighborhood a fresh-water lake in which are produced curi- 
ous jelly-like substances, covered on the outside with small seed- 
like bodies. These structures are of various sizes, from that of a 
cocoa-nut to that of a half-bushel basket, and are transparent for 
a thickness of two or three inches, the inside of the mass being 
tinged with red and green. They apparently begin their growth 
on a submerged stick or stone, and when grown large loosen and 
float about for a time, and then gradually dissolve or decay. The 
body of the jelly-mass is firm and cuts with a knife nearly as hard 
as a ripe melon.— XK. Cruger, West Chester Co., N.Y. 

Mr. Cruger apparently refers to the largest of all known fresh- 
water Polyzoa, Pectinatella magnifica Leidy. 


Two New GENERA OF NORTH AMERICAN FRESH-WATER FISHES 


oglossum. The only species known is named Lagochila lacera, a 


other genus is Acanthopterygian, and is placed by Prof. Jordan 
between the Percide and Aphredodiride. \t agrees with Aphredo- 
dirus in several particulars, but has a posterior vent. The typica 
species is quite small, and is found in the rivers of Arkansas and 
Texas. It is the A/assoma zonatum of Jordan. 


A New Genus or CysTIGNATHIDZ FROM Texas has recently o 
been determined by Prof. Cope from specimens discovered by ©- _ 


1 Abstract of a letter communicated by the Smithsonian Institution. 


1878. } Zoology. | aes 


W. Marnock, near San Antonio. It is allied to Phyllobates, being, 
like that genus, without vomerine teeth, but the nasal bones form 
a close continuous roof as in Hylodes. The species is of medium 
size, and is called by Cope Syrrhophus marnockit. With it were 
found specimens of the Eastern species of Hylid, Chorophilus ocu- 
latus. i i 
BASSARIS ASTUTA IN Orecon.—Mr. A. H. Wood, of Painted 
Post, New York, has lately sent to the Smithsonian, at my re- 
quest, a specimen of Bassaris astuta taken in a trap, on Rogue 


river, thirty-five miles north-west of Jacksonville, Oregon, in De- 


cember, 1877. The person who took it had hunted and trapped 
in the region for many years, but had never before seen such an 
animal. This occurrence is interesting as still further extending 
the known range of the species: see Baird, Mamm. N. A. : 
147 (Arkansas and California and south through Mexico); Sul- 
livant, Am. Nat. vi. 1872, 362 (Ohio); Coues zid. 364 (Ohio and 
Kansas)—Filiott Coues, Washington, D. C. 

LEPTODISCUS MEDUSOIDES, A NEW FORM OF NocrtiLuUcCA.—In the 
Fenaische Zeitschrift, Neue folge, 4th Band, 3d Heft, 1877, 
Richard Hertwig, under the above name, describes an exceed- 
ingly interesting Noctiluca-like organism which he had the good 
fortune to discover in the Harbor of Messina, during the winter 
of 1876-77. This new form is perfectly discoid in shape, with the 
flagellum characteristic of Noctilucæ. Its size varies, measured 
across the disc from 0.6 mm. to 1.5 mm. The disc is thickest in 
the centre, somewhat raised or convex on the dorsal side, while 
the ventral is concave; near the ventral surface and in the centre, 
there is a bipartite, ovoid nucleus, the smaller half of which is 
homogeneous, the larger, granular. Numerous oil globules are im- 
bedded just beneath the dorsal integument, but with the excep- 
tion of the whitish spot (granular area), in the centre the disc is 
clear and transparent, exhibiting slight iridescence of the convex 
side. ! 

As the names indicates, this organism is medusa-like, but this 
likeness becomes still more strikingly manifest when the organism 
moves. As in Meduse, change of place is effected by the power- 
ful contraction and dilatation of the umbrella-shaped body, like 
the former forcing the water suddenly from the cup-like cavity. In 
the energy and rapidity of the contractions Dr. Hertwig says it 
is not behind any Medusa, provided the little creature is touched 
with a glass rod. Under these circumstances it darts like a Aho- 
/alonema through the water as swiftly as an arrow, by the quickly 
succeeding pulsations or contractions of its umbrella-shaped 
body. The strongest contractions were produced by osmic acid, 


the creature under the action of this reagent becomes bell-shaped, _ 


about half as wide across the free border of the bell as it is high. 
s in Meduse@, the animal has the power of bending portions of 


__ the free border of the umbrella inwards, or sometimes the opposite : 


254 | General Notes. [ April, 


halves of the disc become bent towards each other like the op- 
posite valves of a mollusc. Altogether the discovery is a most 
interesting one, showing as it does the wide range of form and 
physiological differentiation which may be exhibited by a very re- 
stricted group of simple organisms. 


' 

MARGARITANA DEHISCENS Say.—A study of the anatomical parts 
of various species of Unionidæ, leads to opinions somewhat dif- 
ferent from those set forth by Mr. Lea in the last edition of his 
invaluable Synopsis, and suggests a revival of the discussion as to 
the propriety of dividing the genus Unio, as now constituted, into 
several genera or sub-genera. The soft parts of these molluscs 
have been found to present very great differences, not only in the 
position and relation of the various organs, but also in regard to 
their degrees of development. 

The species known as the Margaritana dehiscens of Say, pre- 
sents characters that set it entirely apart from the other species of 
that group examined in connection with it. These characters will 


observations shall have been made.. It is suggested that this 
species belongs to the genus Leffodea of Rafinesque. It exhib- 
its certain characters that would seem to ally it to the genus 
Mycetopus from South America.—A. G. Weatherby. 


On TEXAN STREPTOPOMATIDÆ,—The writer has recently had 
the pleasure, through the kind services of Mr. G. W. Marmock, 
of Bexar county, Texas, of examining specimens of the exceed- 
ingly rare Melania pleuristriata of Say, which, before Mr. Mar- 
mock’s discovery, was regarded as a lost species, no types being 
in existence. 

A careful study of the linguals of this species, as well as 
various characters of the shell, and the extreme south-western 
geographical range, suggests its close alliance to the genus 
Pachychetlus Vea. 

am informed by Mr. Marmock that it inhabits the springs of 
south-western Texas, in this respect having the habit of the East 
Tennessee Gomiobasis. A species closely allied, or a very Pet 
sistent variety, for which I suggest the name, at present, of variety 
marmocki, accompanies the specimens, together with an uniden- 
tified Planorbis, a Physa and a Lymnea. 

Mr. Marmock also found, in the same region, the very rare 


Holospira roemeri Pfr., the Macroceramus pontificus Gould, and the 


Helix photus Pfr. 

The description of the Pachycheilus was published by Mr. Say 
in the New Harmony Disseminator, December 30, 1839. Descrip- 
tions may also be seen in the following works: Descr. of New 
_ Shells, 8vo, p..15, 1840; Binney’s Edition of Say, p. 140. 

For the identification of the species, and the above references 


to the description, the writer is indebted to the kindness i 
Geo. W. J 


ryon, Jr—A. G. Weatherby. 


SEE a RE eee 


1878.] Anthropology. 255 


ANTHROPOLOGY.' 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—In the Geographical Magazine, for 
February, will be found an interesting autobiography of Hans 
Hendrik, an Eskimo, who served with Kane, Hayes, Hall, and 
Sir George Nares, translated by Dr. Rink. 

Dr. Hoffman, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., communicates the 
following description of a practice among the Dakotas, of Grand 
river, D. T., for producing abortion: The hair from the tail of the 
black-tailed deer is cut up into short pieces and fried in the fat of 
black bears’ paws. The patient ‘swallows as much of this as is 
thought necessary to produce the effect. There are certain old 
squaws who are recognized as “ general assistants,” and nurses to 
lying-in women, and they are frequently called in to aid young 
and old women in producing abortion. The patient sits upon the 
lap of the nurse, who reaching around the abdomen and inter- 
lacing her fingers to get a secure hold, hugs her victim with all 
her strength repeatedly and for a long time. This frequently 
ends to the satisfaction of the operator and subject. 

Mr. Paul Schumacher, writing from San Francisco, makes the 
following communication with reference to the perforated stone 
discs found so abundantly in Southern California and elsewhere : 
“With reference to the employment of these objects to give 
weight to digging-sticks, I received my information from a half- 
breed Indian who had seen, in his youth, the last aboriginal in- 
habitants of the Island of Santa Cruz, still occupying the rancheria 
at Prisoners’ Harbor, in which I made excavations for the Smith- 
sonian Institution three years ago. I have since followed up the 
subject, and although positive proof is wanting, no contradictory 
evidence was observed during my researches. The aborigines 
cultivated extensively on some of the islands, a species of plant, 
on the bulbs of which they partly subsisted, and they even 
exchanged them with the people of the main land. I did not say 
that the design of the digging-stick was to open graves, as the 
handy Haliotis shell was better adapted to this purpose in the 
sandy ground of the islands.in which the graves are located. 
The fact that some of the rings are of light weight is no argu- 
ment against my position, as digging-sticks are used without 
weight, by the Australians of our day. There is hardly a class of 
relics that is not frequently represented by diminutive specimens, 
rougher and less symmetrical than the full-sized (they may have 
been playthings for children); but these should not deter the stu- 
dent from correctly naming the average sized objects.” Mr. Bowers 
says, “ Those of pyramidal form were doubtless used for spinning, 
while the others [simply a variety in form, but alike in perfora- 
_ tion] were used in games.” How were these used for games, and 
_ those for spinning? I have summed up the evidence for their 
use as weights to digging-sticks in a paper, entitled “ Aboriginal 

1 Edited by Prof, Oris T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


256 : General Notes. _. [April 


Manufacture,” now in the hands of the Curator of the Peabody 
Museum. 

The second part of Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico 
contains the following anthropological papers : Cuestion Historica, 
Sr. D. Jesús Sanchez; Dedicacion del templo major de Mexico, 
Sr. D. Manuel Orozcoy Berra; Estudio comparativo entre el 
Sanscrito y el Naguatl, Sr. G. Mendoza, director del Museo; Idolo 
Azteca de tépo japones. : 

The Smithsonian Institution has long had the intention of pub- 
lishing an exhaustive work upon North American archeology, 
accompanied by maps, exhibiting by signs and colors the site and 
character of all archeological remains. To this end a circular 
has been issued and the Institution calls upon all lovers of Ameri- 
can antiquities to lend a helping hand, which the readers of the 
NATURALIST, doubtless, will not be backward in doing. 


Curtius, Jnternational Review, February; Das Problem über den 
Ursprung der Sprache, O. Caspari, in Ausland, 1877, Nos. 47, 48, 
49; Der Mensch, vormals und heute, Richard Oberlander, Otto 
Spamer, Leipsic, 1878; La Question de I) Homme Tertiaire, 
L’Abbé Bourgeois, Louvain, Peeters, 1877; Grammar and Dic 
tionary of Samoan, Rev. G. Pratt, London, edited by S. J. Whit- 
mee; Zhe China Review, or Notes and Queries on the Far East, 
bi-monthly, Triibner & Co.; Transactions of the Philological So- 
ciety of London, 1877-8-9, Part I, 800 pp.; Ueber die Methoden 
zur Ermittlung der topographischen Beziehungen zwischen Hir- 
noberflache und Schadel, A. Ecker, in Archiv fir Anthropolcgt, 
1877, IlI.; Die Grosshirnwindungen des Menschen und deren 
Beziehungen zum Schadeldach, von Dr. I. Hefftler, id; zur Arch- 
äologie des Balticum und Russlands, von A. Grewinck, id Les 


id; Les 
Alleés Couvertes de la Provence, P. Cazalis de Fondouce, Matin- 


aux, 10; Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, V, Part I, 
October 1876-1877; Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 
Index of Vols. I-VIII, by James Hector, Wellington; The Phy- 
sical Basis of Mind, Mind, January; Fetichism in Animals, Geo. 
J. Romanes, Nature; “The Land of Cold, M. Nevirovich-Dan- 
chenko, St. Petersburg; Assyriology, London Quarterly, January; 
The Languages of India, Robert Cust, Geographical Magasin", 
January, finely illustrated; An Account of the Polynesian 
its Origin and Migrations, and the ‘Ancient History of the di 
waiians, Abraham Fornander, Vol. I, Triibner; The Dawn ° 


History; An Introduction to Pre-historic Study, C. F. Keay, — 
London, Mozley & Smith; Archzology in Italy, Felic Barnabel, 


Academy, January 12.—Ortis T. Mason, Washington, 


Race: =) 


1878. ] Geology and Paleontology. Re 7 


GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY. 


A PROBLEMATICAL FOSSIL from the Cretaceous of Bohemia is 
described by Dr. Anton Fric in his volume on this formation in 
the Archiv der Naturw. Landesdurchforschung von Bohmen, 


alimentary canal of a fish. It is covered with scales and bones 
belonging to different species of fishes, and Dr. Fric suggests that 
it is the cast of a tube of some worm, which covered its abode 
with those objects, as the larvae of Phyganeid@ use mineral and 
vegetable fragments at the present time. 

Tue Prasric Cirays or New Jersey receive a full exposition 
from Prof. Cook in the last report of the Geological Survey o 
that State (1878), so far at least as regards those of cretaceous age. 
He states the view of Lesquereux that they represent the Dakota 
epoch of the west, and offers some pertinent remarks as to their 
probable origin. He believes that they were derived from the 
decomposition of feldspars contained in the granite and gneiss of 
a former extension of the azoic beds now visible to the north-east 
and south-west in the high grounds of the cities of New York 
and Philadelphia. This exposure Prof. Cook believes to have 
formed a barrier to the eastward of the present beds of cretaceous 
age, and to have at times excluded the salt-water from the 
enclosed lagoon. This hypothesis was, we believe, first proposed 
by Prof. Cope in explanation of some characteristics of the cre- 
taceous formations of New Jersey. Additional evidence in favor 
of the derivation of the material from the south-east is seen by 
Prof. Cook in the absence from the clays of all traces of the 
material of the Triassic formation which bounds it on the north- 
west at the present time. 

PLIOCENE VERTEBRATA OF THE VAL D’Arno.—Dr. C. I. Forsyth 
Major, in the Atti. Soc. Toscana d. Sc. Nat., describes two species 
of Canis from the upper val d’Arno and va d’Era, which he 
regards as new, and names Canis etruscus and C. falconeri. The 
former is as large as the wolf; the latter rather larger. Mr. 

ajor gives the following list of species of the pliocene of the 
upper val d'Arno; Macacus 2 sp., Felis 3 sp., Canis 2 Sp., Ursus 
1 sp., Mustela sp., Hyena 2 sp., Macherodus 3 sp., Equus i sp., 
Hippopotamus 1 sp., Mastodon arvernensis, Elephas 1 sp., Rhino- 
ceros L Sp., Sus 1 sp., Bos I sp., Cervus 4 sp., Castor 1 sp., Hystrix 
Sp., Lepus sp. 

SurFAcE GeroLocy oF British CoLumBIA.—We have received 
from Mr. G. M. Dawson of the Canadian Geological Survey, a 
letter upon this subject, calling our attention to what had been 
printed by himself on the Geology of Vancouver Island, of 
which we had not known when our article was published in the 
Naruratist for November, 1877. eee X 

“I have just read your interesting notes on the glaciation of 


258 : General Notes. [ April, 


the Pacific coast, in the November number of the AMERICAN NAT- 
URALIST. I traversed the same region on my way to Victoria 
last spring, and hope shortly to publish in the Canadian Natural- 
ist a few memoranda made at the time. As you will see by the 
abstract of a paper of mine, read before the Geological Society 
last June {posted with this), I believe it can be shown that the 
glaciation of the south-eastern part of Vancouver Island was not 
accomplished by the glaciers of the interior of the island, as such, 
ut by a great glacier sheet filling the Strait of Georgia, which 
though receiving tribute from the mountains, was fed chiefly by 
the accumulations on the coast range of the mainland, and per- 
haps through its gaps by ice from the central plateau of the 
country. I hope soon to be able to send to you a printed copy of 
the paper referred to, which will make the points on which this 
supposition is based, clear. The north to south glaciation of the 
interior of the province, mentioned in the abstract, I have been 
able to confirm during this season’s exploration, in a number of 
additional localities, and have even found it furrowing the summit 
of an almost isolated mountain at an elevation of over 5000 feet. 
“The original discovery of marine shells in the drift of Van- 
couver Island is due to Mr. H. Bauerman. You will find the mat- 
ter mentioned in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Society, 1859, p. 198; 
also in Dr. Hector’s Report of Explorations in the North-west; 
see also Mr. Dawson’s article in the Canadian Naturalist: ‘ Note 
on some of the more recent changes in Level of the coast of 
British Columbia and adjacent Regions.’ ” 


MICROSCOPY .! 


NEw METHOD OF OpagueE Mountinc.—Mr. C. C. Merriman of 
Rochester, in a recent communication to the microscopical sec- 
tion of the Troy Scientific Association, describes the method of 
preparing his elegant preparations of foraminifera which have 
attracted unusual attention and admiration in the Postal Club, at 
the soirée of the Troy Association, and indeed wherever they 


cover glass, of size to match, is then varnished on one side 


1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


Se a = BE Big he ve 


Na eee, Cae eee eT AEP DEN Nk, NS Terence emg: i 


1878. ] Microscopy. 259 


and attached by any strong varnish, and the joint finished off 
with white zinc cement. The objects appear with great distinct- 
ness, lying with their upper surfaces on a level and close to the 
cover glass, but looking as if they were at the bottom of a dark, 
deep cell. This method is also applicable to many of those 
objects which show well as opaque objects when immersed in 
balsam. ; 


IMAGES IN THE EYES AFTER SUDDEN DEATH.—Mr. Henry C. 
Hyde, the newly elected president of the San Francisco Micro- 
scopical Society, in his opening address, gave a very interesting 
summary of the recent remarkable. discoveries of Profs. Boll, of 
Rome, and Kiihne, of Heidelberg, in the anatomy and physiology 
of the eye. He said that the popular notion that the murderer's 
image is found photographed as it were on the retina of his vic- 
tim’s eye may have some foundation in fact, viewed in the light 
of these recent discoveries, especially those of Dr. Kühne. His- 
tologists have always considered the rods and cones of the retina, 
which are taken to be the terminal organs of the optic nerve, to 
be in a natural condition when under examination. Prof. Boll 
found, however, that when the animal, say a frog, is killed rapidly 
and the retina viewed as quickly as possible, it has peculiarities 
never before observed, and throwing new light on the physiology 
of vision. 

ce the experiments of Dr. Kühne are more elaborate and 
extensive than those of Prof. Böll, a sketch of them will be most 
instructive. Prof. Boll found that the newly removed retina had 
a rosy purple tint, which was difficult to examine, because expo- 
sure to light changed it in ten seconds toa satiny lustre, and then 
after fifteen minutes of transparency to a turbid opacity. Dr. 
uhne discovered that if kept in the dark, or in sodium (yellow 
light, the delicate “vision purple” of the removed retina could 
be retained as long as wished, thus making a series of very 
original and incisive experiments possible. It is proved that the 
retina contains a substance which, under the influence of light, 


darkness, then the retina can be kept in its natural condition, 
purple colored, the batteries ready charged to signal to the brain 


260 General Notes. [ April, 


by their discharge the impact of the first light wave. Having 
thus the power of keeping retine just as they leave the eye, by 
immersing them in darkness, or yellow light, very much as the 
photographer takes his negative from the camera and preserves 
and finally fres the image, working at it always by yellow gas- 
ight, Kühne also preserved the images that were in the natural 
photographic plate, the retina of the natural camera, the eye, and 
actually fired these images by soaking them in a solution of alum. 
Thus he would fix the head and one of the eye-balls of a living 
rabbit opposite a bright skylight, cover it with a black cloth for 
five minutes, then remove the cloth, exposing the eye a few min- 
utes, immediately remove the eye, soak in alum, and, upon exam- 
ining the retina, find a beautifully accurate image of the skylight, 
showing its separate parts, the boards, etc. Even the eye ina 
severed head gave these results. The images were generally of 
a rosy hue. 

Now, while this proves that images of objects seen before 
death may be found on the retina after death, yet, since to make 
this possible, the eye and the object must be perfectly still for 


some minutes, and the light must be strong, it probably never . 


has happened, and never will happen that the image of the mur- 
derer is found in the eye of his victim, murder being a deed of 


darkness, and a deed tending to anything but immovableness in 


those enacting it. 


Annuat Erections IN Microscopicar Societies.—The follow- 
ing officers of societies have been elected since those last pub- 
lished: 

Jamestown Microscopical Club. Organized June, 1873. Meets 
first Thursday evening of each month. Dr. A. Waterhouse, 
president; Chas. E. Fuller, secretary and treasurer. 

Louisville Microscopical Society. Founded January, 1874- 
Meets first and third Thursdays of each month at Louisville 
Library. Dr. J. B. Marvin, president; Dr. J. Sloan and Prof. W. 
F. Beach, vice-presidents; D. W. Lane, secretary ; J. Williamson, 
corresponding secretary; A. L. McDonald, treasurer. : 

San Francisco Microscopical Society. Henry C. Hyde, presi- 
dent; C. Mason Kinne, vice-president; X. Y. Clark, recording 
secretary; C. W. Banks, corresponding secretary; J. A. Lang- 
stroth, treasurer. 

Buffalo Microscopical Club. Dr. L Howe, president; Jas. W. 
Ward, secretary; Henry Mills, D. S. Kellicott and Geo. E. Fell, 
advisory council. 


LABORATORY WORK AT THE SEASIDE—The third session of the 
Summer School of Biology will be opened at the Museum of the 
Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass., beginning July 5th 
and continuing six weeks. Lectures will be given five days of 
each week, and the best of opportunities afforded for laboratory 


1878. ] Scientific News. 261 


work with the microscope. In addition to the ae eoa 
in zoology by Dr. A. S. Packard and Messrs. C. S. Minot, J. H. 

merton and J. S. Kingsley, a series of afternoon per on 
microscopy will be given by Rev. E. C. Bo lles. Admission fee, 
$20.00; board, $5.00 to $7.00 per week. 

Besides this tempting arrangement, a marine zoological labor- 
atory will be opened June Ist, on the outer shore of Salem Neck, 
under the care of Messrs. Emerton and Minot, in a position most 
favorable for the study and collection of marine plants and 
animals. The cost will be $20.00 per month, and students can 
conveniently attend the Summer School of Biology. at Salem. 


SoirEES.—The annual meeting of the Buffalo Microscopical 
Club, at Goodrich Hall in that city, terminated in a soirée and 
exhibition of microscopic objects. A large variety of popu- 
ar and interesting objects were shown under nearly twenty micro- 
scopes, to the universal gratification of the large audience. Dr. 
Geo. E. Blackham, of Dunkirk, and Chas. E. Fuller, of James- 
town, assisted the local members in the entertainment of the 
evening. 

The microscopical section of the Troy Scientific Association 
and a large party of invited guests were entertained at the resi- 
dence of the chairman of the section, Dr. R. H. Ward, on the 
occasion of the annual soirée on the evening of March 4th. The 

_ microscopes, over thirty in number and many of them first-class 
=~ instruments, were arranged on tables in different parts of the 
house, and the objects were classified in a strictly natural manner, 
each table with its group of instruments being used to illustrate 
some one field in the study of nature. By substituting this plan 
for the want of method which is generally allowed to result from 


promptly notwithstanding the large crowd in attendance. e 
soirée was the largest and most enthusiastic meeting ever held by 
the section. 


ExcHANGEs.—Wanted, some well-posted a to give the 
correct names of diatoms (arranged) on a few slides in exchange 
for the slides. C. M. Vorce, 164 Lake'street, Cleveland, Ohio. 


:0: 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— A paper has been recently published in the Pean Monthly 
Magazine by William Blasius of Philadelphia, in which he criticizes 
the methods of meteorological investigation usually adopted. 
e, however, commends those. employed | y Prof. Loomis, of Yale 
College, but asserts that they have been mostly derived from his 

Own previously issued publications. 


262 Scientific News. [ April, 


— Recent arrivals at the Philadelphia Zodlogical Gardens, 
Feb. 10, 1878: 2 Chinese or knobbed geese (Anser cygnoides), 
resented; 2 common marmosets (/apale jacchus), 1 black-eared 
marmoset (Hapale pencillata), presented; 2 barn owls (Strix 
ammea, Var. americana) presented; 3 opossums (Didelphys vir- 
giniana), presented; 1 red-shouldered buzzard (Buteo lineatus), 
presented; 1 eland (Oveas canna) 9, purchased; 1 siren (Siren 
lacertina), presented; 1 red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), pre- 
sented; 1 bald eagle (Hatiaétus leucocephalus) presented; 2 rough- 
legged buzzards (Archibuteo lagopus), purchased; 3 white rabbits 
(Lepus cuniculus), presented; 4 hybrid fowls, presented; 8 dingos 
(Canis dingo), born in the Garden.—Arthur E. Brown, Gard. Supt. 
— The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 
Vol. I, 1877, contains Selections from the Records of the Home 
Secretary, Prof. J. E. Hilgard, under whose direction this volume 
has been published. Unfortunately Congress has not yet author- 
ized the publication of the papers and memoirs presented by the 
members at the semi-annual meetings of the Academy. 

The Biographical Memoirs of the deceased members of the 
National Academy of Sciences has been published by the Home 
Secretary, and forms a volume of 343 pages. It contains obit- 
uary notices of fifteen deceased members. 


— We have received, from Mr. Townend Glover, Manuscript 
Notes from my Journal, or Entomological Index to name, etc., 
in Agricultural Reports, with List of Vegetable and Animal Sub- 
stances injured or destroyed by Insects, etc., Washington, 1877. 
This is a quarto work of 103 pages in the author’s clear and 
legible handwriting transferred to and printed on stone. It forms 
a useful supplement to the laborious works of the author on th 
Diptera and Hemiptera, printed for private distribution. 


— A ‘new curriculum of education having been adopted by the 
board of control of public schools of Philadelphia, which includes 
a space in each of the divisions throughout the course, to be de- 
voted to object study, the question of the introduction of primary 
instruction in the natural sciences is being agitated. At the last 
teachers’ institute of the city, held in the Girls’ Normal School, a 
lecture was delivered by Prof. Cope, in advocacy of this measure. 
In this lecture Prof. Cope explained that teaching in this depart 
ment should never be without natural objects, models or charts. 
For general or comparative study, where the student should use 
a considerable number of objects, it was pointed out that pe- 
trology, mineralogy, botany, and entomology present the greatest 
facilities, since specimens can be obtained in these departments 
with the greatest ease. In the majority of departments © 
geology and biology it. was maintained by the lecturer, that charts 
giving simple analyses of structure should be used, and it was 
recommended that these be of two kinds. Those of the first kind — ; 


Pani se 


1878.] Scientific News. 263 


were to stand in place of the text-book in other departments, to 
be of smaller size, and to be accompanied by pages of explana- 
tions, constituting an atlas to be studied by the scholar. The 
other kind should be of large size and be used in the school 
room like wall-maps without printed explanation. The exercises 


should be tests of proficiency of the student in the identification 


of parts in the specimens or the wall-maps, after study of the 
atlas or the object, under direction of the teacher. Instruction in 
classification following identifications of parts, were recommended 
to be conducted by the aid of simple analytical keys, either drawn 
by the teacher on the blackboard, or in chart form, like the 
diagrams of structure, suspended on the wall. The similarity be- 
tween instruction in geology and structural biology, to geography 


mind in all questions of practice or thought. In the dynamical 
sciences, or structure in motion, the use of text-books was regarded 
as necessary. ) 

— The following circular has been issued by the Pennsylvania 
Board of Agriculture, and is signed by Thos. J. Edge, Secretary. As 
an effort to obtain reliable information on an obscure subject, by 
a goverment commission, it is worthy of general attention from 
those to whom it is addressed : 

“ Harrisburg, February 1, 1878. Dear Sir :—The report of this 
Board for your district has named you as a practical dairyman, 
who would be likely to take an interest in the advancement of our 
knowledge of dairy matters, and who would also be willing to 
answer any question which may be asked, with a view of obtain- 
ing such information. If our reporter is right in his surmise, and 
you are willing thus to assist me, you will please signify the same 
on the enclosed card ; giving full name and address, with number 
of cows in your dairy,and return the card at your earliest conven- 
ience. This Department is aware that we have enough of theory, 
and are much in need of practical observation, and we think that 
by proper application of this kind of observation, you can enable 
us to render comparatively certain many items which are now in 
doubt. 

“ Of such subjects, we have selected the possibility of regulating 
the sex of calves as the first to claim your attention, and I would 
respectfully ask your careful and practical observation of the fol- 
lowing theory, for one year, and would further ask that you report 
when you have any information to warrant you in so doing, giving 
the cases in which the theory has held good, as well as those in 
which it has failed. You can also confer a favor by directing the 
attention of your farm club or grange to the matter, and also 
interest any other dairyman in your neighborhood. + 

“It has been claimed by good authority, and the claim seems 
to be supported by proof, in some cases at least, that each alter- 


= nate ovum will produce a male if impregnated at the proper 7 


264 Scientific. News. [Apri 


period: That is, if a cow has just produced a male calf, and is 
served at the next period of heat, a heifer will be the result ; thus 
‘each ovum producing alternately male and female. If, as is often 
the case, your male is kept separate from the cows, you will have 
superior advantages for observation, and your results will prove 
of value in determining the question. 

“ Each one who will thus assist, and gives notice of his desire 
to do so by enclosed card, will receive a copy of the total result, 
and will also be entitled to the thanks of the Department.’ 

— An account and figure of a two headed gopher snake (Pity- 

ophis species), by Mr. J. W. A. Wright, appears in the Mining 
and Scientific Press, San Francisco, February 16, 1878. A similar 
‘monstrosity in an eastern species, the common striped snake, we 
believe, was described by the late Professor Wyman, in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History for January 21, 
1863 (vol. ix). 
German botanist, Regel, has discovered, according to 
Nature, in the Himalayas a variety of wild onion, which he re- 
gards as the original source of our ordinary garden onion. It is 
called A/hum cepa sylvestre. 

— The well-known Danish conchologist, Dr. A. L. Morch, 
died in January last at Nice. The eminent Swedish botanist, 
Prof. Elian Fries, died at Upsala, February 8, in his 84th year. 

— Drs. W. Marshall and A. B. Meyer, have published @ 
memoir, as one of a series of communications to the Zodlogical 


Museum, at Dresden, “On some new or little known sponges be- 


longing to the Hexactinellida found in the Philippines.” It seems 
but the other day since one could have numbered on the fingers 
of one hand all the known species of this family, so well known 
o many by that beautiful typical form, the Venus’s flower-basket 
(Euplectella), and now the number of described species is very 


large. In 1872 one of the authors (Dr. Meyer) was staying at 


being attached to the basal portion of Euplectella. Semperella 
schultzei is figured of a natural size from a specimen twenty-one 
inches in length, and figures of the spicules of the various new 
species are also given. Vazture. 

= — The interest in the reproduction of Batrachians is by no means 
yet exhausted, says Nature. A Spanish naturalist, Jimenez de la 
Espada, has recently discovered additional facts respecting Rhino- 
derma darwinii (of Chili), which was first made known by ME, 


Darwin. He finds that the supposed viviparous birth of the young 
from the female is a very different phenomenon. It is the males i 


1878. ] Scientific News. i 265 


which are the nurses, and they have an extraordinary brood-sac, 
developed as a pouch from the throat, and extending over a great 
portion of the ventral surface of the animal. In this cavity a num- 
ber of living tadpoles were found, in numbers of individuals, and 
the length of the tadpoles was about 14 mm. How these are first 
developed and nourished is not yet known. Dr. J. W. Spengel 
translates a portion of the Spanish paper in the current number of 
the Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. xxix, part 4. 

— We have received and are much pleased with the first two 
numbers of The Young Scientist, a popular Record of Scientific Ex- 
periments, Inventions and Progress. It is well adapted for boys, 


= the articles being attractive and clearly written. It has our hearty 
sympathy and good wishes. 

— MacMillan & Co., have in preparation the first part of a 

“ Course of Instruction in Zodtomy,” by Prof. Huxley, assisted by 

4 r. T. J. Parker. They are about to publish “ A monograph on 


the development of Elasmobranch Fishes,” by Mr. F. M. Balfour. 


— During his recent five months’ explorations in Costa Rica, 
Mr. A. Boucard collected about a thousand specimens represent- ` 
ing 250 species of birds,some of great variety and two new to 
science (Zonotrichia boucardi and Sapphironia boucardi of Mulsant). 


— We copy from Sir J. D. Hooker’s address before the Royal 
Society, the following notice of the U. S. Geological Survey of the 
Territories, of which Professor Hayden has the charge : 

f the many surveys of the United States Territories under- 
taken, some by the central government, others by State govern- 
ments, and still others by private enterprise, more or less aided 
by public funds, none has effected so much for science as that di- 
rected by Dr. Hayden. Its publications, distributed with great 
liberality; are in every scientific library, and its director is hon- 
ored no less for the energy and zeal with which he has labored 
= as a topographer and geologist, than for the enlightened spirit 
_ in which he has sought to render the resources of the survey 
_ available for the advancement of all branches of natural knowl- 
edge by every means in his power, and with admirable impartiality. 

Having obtained an extended leave of absence from my official 
duties at the Royal Gardens, at the close of our last session, I 
accepted an invitation from Dr. Hayden to join his survey, and, 
in company with our foreign member, Professor Asa Gray, to 
visit, under his conduct, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and 
Utah, with the object of contributing to the records of the survey 
a report on the botany of those States. 

I have thus had some opportunity of learning for myself the 
extent and value of the operations of the survey, which are so in- 
teresting that [ venture to think a brief sketch of its rise and | 
Progress and a few of its results may be acceptable to you. 


266 Scientific News. [ April, 


When the Territory of Nebraska was admitted into the Union 
in 1867, Congress set apart an unexpended balance of £1,000 for 
a geological survey of the new State; and Dr. Hayden, then a 
young man who had distinguished himself as an indefatigable 
observer and collector (in various expeditions since 1853), was 
appointed to conduct it. In 1868 the operations of the survey 
were continued, and carried westward into the Rocky Mountains 
of Wyoming, the rich tertiary and cretaceous beds of which were 
examined and described in detail, and the famous Yellowstone 
district, with which Dr. Hayden’s name will ever be associated, 
was reconnoitered. The value of the survey was immediately ap- 
preciated, and in 1869 a large appropriation was voted by Congress 
for placing it on its present footing under the supervision of the 
Secretary of the Interior. In 1869 and 1870 operations were 
carried on in Colorado and New Mexico; and full reports 
on the meteorology, agriculture, zoology, and paleontology of 
these regions, of great interest and importance, were drawn up 
and subsequently published. In 1871 the detailed survey of this 
Yellowstone district was begun, and those marvelous natural fea- 
tures were carefully studied which have excited the liveliest in- 
terest in Europe, and have induced Congress, on Dr. Hayden’s 
representations, to appropriate the whole area as a government 
reserve, thus securing to naturalists free access to natural phe- 
nomena which in other places, both in Europe and America, are 
too often monopolized by speculators and closed to the public. 

In 1872 the survey was further extended, and was organized 
into two corps, each provided with a topographer, geologist, 
mineralogist, meteorologist, and naturalist, and the States 0 
Idaho and Montana were embraced in its operations; in 1873 
it was pushed into Colorado, thence into Utah, and on its com- 
pletion in 1876, an area of not less than 70,000 square miles, much 
of it exceedingly mountainous, had been included in the survey. 

e literature of the survey, consisted, in 1876, of 41 volumes, 
classified as follows: 1, annual reports, with maps and sections; 
2, bulletins for giving speedy publicity to new facts; 3, miscel- 

neous publications, comprising tables of elevations, catalogues 
of plants and animals, and meteorological data; 4, monographs 
on various branches of natural history, especially paleontology, 
copiously illustrated with admirable plates in quarto, among 
which are the works of Leidy, Lesquereux, Coues, C. Thomas, 
Cope, Parry, Meek, Packard, Allen, Hayden himself, and 
others, all of whom are well known on this side of the Atlantic; 
lastly, the number of photographs now exceed 4,000, and includes 
besides geological and geographical features of great interest, 
views of ancient architectural remains, and of 1,200 Indians be- 
longing to seventy-four tribes. 

In giving these particulars I speak from some personal know- 
ledge. I wish that the same could be said of the local habitation 
of the survey and its museum, which I am assured contains 4 


OO ee ee ee ee een 


1878. ] ; Scientific News. 267 


very extensive and instructive collection; but these are at Wash- 
ington, and my pressing duties here and at Kew prevented my 
visiting the federal Capital. 

e most important scientific results hitherto derived from the 
labors of Dr. Hayden and his parties are unquestionably the geo- 
logical; such as the delineation of the boundaries of the Creta- 
ceous and Tertiary seas and lakes that occupied more than one 
basin of the mountain of Central North America, and the mar- 
velous accumulation of fossil vertebrates that these ancient shores 
have yielded. Over an area of many hundred thousand square 
miles in North America there have been found, within the last 
very few years, beds of great extent and thickness, of all ages, 
from the Trias onwards, containing the well-preserved remains of 
so great a multitude of flying, creeping and walking things, ref- 
erable to so many orders of plants and animals, and often of such 
gigantic proportions that the palzontologists of the states, with 
museums vastly larger than our own, are at a loss for space to 
exhibit them. So common indeed are some species, and so beau- 
tifully preserved, that I saw numbers of them, especially insects, 
plants and fishes, exposed for sale and eagerly purchased by 
travelers with confectionery and fruit, at the stalls of the railway 
station, from the eastern base of the Rocky mountains all the 
way to California. 

An examination of some of these fossils has brought to light 
the important fact that in North America there is no recognized 
break between the Tertiary and Cretaceous beds. This is due to 
the interpolation of a vast lignitic series, the fossils of which fur- 
nish conflicting evidence. Concerning this series Dr. Hayden, 
who has traced it over many hundred miles, observes (Report of 
Geological Survey, 1874, p. 20), that the character of its palaon- 
tological as well as of its strictly geological results is such that 
whether the,entire group be placed in the Lower Tertiary or 
Upper Cretaceous is unimportant, and that the testimony of the 
palzontologists willrobably always be as conflicting as at present. 

I must not end my notices of some of the labors of our 
scientific brethren in the United States without expressing 
my admiration of the spirit and the manner in which the Gov- 
ernment and people have cooperated in making known the : 
physical and biological features of their country, and my con- 
viction that the results they have given to the world are, whether 
or magnitude or importance, greater of their kind than have 
been accomplishéd within the same time by any people or gov- 
ernment in the older continents. How great would now be our 
knowledge of the climate and natural features of India and of our 
_ colonies*had the excellent tsigonometrigal survey of the one and | 
_ the territorial and geological surveys of the others been supple- 
mented by reports such as those to which I have directed _ oe 
attention ! noe 


VOL. X11.—No IV. 19 


268 Proceedings of Scientific Socteties. { April, 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, BIOLOGI- 
CAL AND MiIcroscoPicAL SECTION, Philadelphia, January 21, 
1878.—-Dr. R. S. Kenderdine in the chair. Mr. Ryder related 
some observations which he:had made on the residual image in 
the retina, as to the changes of color it undergoes, and as to 
the length of time it remains after the real image has ceased to 
excite the retinal cones and rods. The matter was discussed at 
length by Dr. Seiler, Messrs. Zentmayer, Perot and Ryder. 

Mr. Potts then made an interesting communication on carniv- 
orous plants. In the course of his remarks he gave a full descrip- 
tion of the Drosera, Dionea and Nepenthes. Of the latter he 
showed two preparations of the pitchers, one mounted flaf in bal- 
sam, and the other in a deep cell filled with benzole, both stained 
with hematoxylin. These beautiful preparations showed the 
peculiar distribution ‘of the spiral vessels and excreting as well as 
absorbing glands. Mr. Potts called particular attention to the 
fact that the spiral vessels in this plant consist of four fibres, and 

o not anastomose, even in the midrib of the leaf, but are 
collected in bundles and run alongside of each other. He also 
described the peculiar openings of ducts along the serrated and 


He set forth the advantages of the new instrument as 
combining steadiness, convenience of manipulation and smallness 
of cost, which latter is generally an important item with students 
of minute vegetable and animal anatomy. 

Dr. McQuillen made some interesting experiments upon reflex 
nervous action as illustrating Pfluger’s laws. Further remarks 


University of Pennsylvania, adapted to the wants of his botanical 
l 


native of Australia and the East Indies. The insects had been 
thoroughly digested, not a particle of soluble organic matter OF 
protoplasm was left inside the external shell of chitin, which 
orms the covering of the creatures. The specimen was therefore 
a very instructive one, as illustrating how completely carnivorous 


these plants have become. The most interesting part of their 


structure is the presence of the honey-secreting glands on pr 
outside which attract the ants, whieh, when they venture sti 


further up the pitcher, finally are bold enough to crawl up i n 
its mouth, never more to return, and to be drowned, digested ang — : 
appropriated to nourish the structures of the invidious destroyer. — 


See aD O CES Uh OS he a a a CR eT NRE Og ae eee 


tay Nec a eat EA OS Sm 


Leigh (rat Ok ARAM ay ares aah a Ly oe es oe ae, es DAEA eat ae tag eR ame PY EDS = rea a! 


RET OE RLE E UPa ee RT ee Caan Raa CLE get ne Ce Cape, 


Pein ds Re eae oa eae ke ba Å 


Le Hye en 


1878. ] Scientific Serials. . 269 


Glands‘ of a very remarkable form are found in great numbers 
upon the inside of the pitcher, whose function it seems is to 
secrete the solvent or digestive fluid; others open in the inturned 
rim of the mouth, which are regarded by Dr. Hunt, their discov- 
erer, as the only vegetable gland with a proper excretory duct. 


dermal plates of this animal to those of the snakes. In continu- 
ation he observed that on making comparison of the neck vertebre 
of the box tortoise with those of the great fossil armadilloes of 
South America, some remarkable and instructive similarities were 
noticed. Especially was this the case in regard to the hinge-like 
joint between the last vertebra of the neck and the first of the body. 
It indicated similarity of function, and was undoubtedly used by 
the armadillo to partially withdraw the head within the carapace 
as in the box tortoise, or at least to bring the head shield of the 
animal against the carapace or body shield in case of attack. 

Dr. G. B. Dixon then called attention to a series of histological 
preparations by Dr. Carl Seiler which were referred to the con- 


- servator for examination and report. 


On motion adjourned. 

Boston Society or NATURAL Histrory.—February 6th. Prof. 
W. G. Farlow gave an account of recent researches on the devel- 
opment of lichens, and Dr. T. M. Brewer read somes notes on the. 


birds of New England. 


Feb. 20th.—Mr: M. E. Wadsworth read some notes on the 
petrography of Quincy and Rockport, and Mr. C. S. Minot made 
a communication on the histology of the grasshopper (Ca/- 
optenus), 

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL Society, New York.—February 27th. 
The President, Chief-Justice Daly, delivered his annual address | 
upon the Geographical work of the world in 1877. 


APPALACHIAN Mountain CLuB, Boston.—January 9th. Mr. S. H 


Scudder delivered his address as retiring president, entitled A 


Year of Exploration in North America. 


` 


ER 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


Tue GrocrapuicaL MaGazinE.—February. Language-map of 


_ the East Indies, II. Further India and the Indian Archipelago, 
by R. Cust. Memoirs of Hans Hendrik, the Greenland Eskimo, 


1 The contents of these journals are for the most part selected. 


RI tg 
7 T 
ak 


270 Scientific Serials. [April. 


edited by H. Rink. The Island Tribe of Great Nicobar; by Fr. 
. de Röepstorff. a 


THE GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE.— January. Recent Pfogress in 
Palæontology, by A. Nicholson. American Surface Geology, II, 
by S. V. Wood. 

February.—On the Preservation of Deposits under Till or 
Boulder Clay, by J. Geikie. 


: 

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFLICHE ZOOLOGIE.—November 30. 
Rhizopod-studies, by E. Buck. Anatomy of the star fishes, by | 
H. Ludwig. On the nauplius of the shrimps (Peneus), by F. 
Miller. The organ of smell of female Heliconid butterflies, by F. | 

Müller. On the Natural History of Cestodes, by H. A. Pagen- 
stecker. : 
January 22.-Contributions to a knowledge of the Flagellata, | 

by O. Bütschli. On the lungs of Birgus latro, by C. Semper. 
The organs of copulation of the sharks, etc., by K. R. Petri. The a | 
brain of the alligator, by Rabl Riickhard. : | 
, 


Here ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR NATURWISSENSCHAFT, Marz 20, 
1877. hysemaria, Gastrzeades of the present time, supple- 
ment to Ho Gastræa theory, by E. Heckel: On the pencils ofa 
hair, felt-spots, and similar structures on the wings of male but- 
terflies, by Fritz Müller. Ep to the developmental 
History of the Lepidoptera, by B. 

June 15.—On the structure and pees of Spirochona — 
gemmipara (an Infusorian), by R. Hertwig. Embryology of the — 
Decapods, by P. Mayer zi 

November 3.—On Leptodiscus medusoides, a new Flagellate 
rie to Noctiluca. Studies on the Rhizopods, by R. Hertwig. 

the Nervous System and Sense-Organs of the Medusæ, by 
i R. Hertwig. 


@ THE QUARTERLY JourNAL oF ConcnoLocy—Nov. 1877 and 
cb. 1878. Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of Tar 
restrial Mollusca, by C. P. Gloyne. 


= CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST— January. Notes on Lycæna sie a 
argiolus and its Larval History, by W. H. Edwards 


Canapian Natoratist, viii, No. 6—Dec. 29. Notes òn a few 
Dykes cutting Laurentian Rocks, more especially with referen 
to their microscopic structure, by B. J. Harrington. Notes o the 
Surface Geology of New Hampshire, by Warren Upham. Lower : 
Carboniferous Fishes of New Brunswick. Note on a Fossil Seal | 
from the Leda Clay of the Ottawa Valley, by J. W. Dawson. 


THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x11. — WAY, 1878. — No. 5. 


HAIRS AND GLANDULAR HAIRS OF PLANTS, THEIR 
FORMS AND USES. 


BY*PROF. W. J. BEAL. 


OMMON in green-houses is a plant called Ageratum mexi- 
canum, which is grown chiefly for its light-blue heads of 
flowers which are valuable for bouquets. The stems and frame- 
work of the leaves are slightly rough on account of large num- 
_ bers of hair-like projections along the entire surface. A small 
_ fragment placed under 


and delicate objects as 
follows: 

The greater number 
of these consists of from 
five to twenty cells of ` 


_ Curved hairs on Ageratum mexicanum.} 


end. Each hair or chain of cells is curved more or less, often 
into a complete ring, always towards the top of the plant. The 
end cell is blunt or rounded at the tip. Scattered among these- 
are occasionally seen sharp-pointed hairs which are straight and 
much more slender. Still less frequently may be seen larger and 
stouter projections, like Fig. 4, in which there are two rows of 


-` The degree to which these figures are magnified is not given because of consid- 
_ erable uncertainty in most cases, The objects were all drawn by Mr. W. S. Holds- 


VOL. XII,~—NO. V. 


AGB Glandular Hairs of Plants. [ May, 


cells overlapping each other. The lower cells are three or four 


times as long as broad, while towards the top the transverse 


diameter is the greater. The top of the 
projection is capped with a single hemi- 


aginous substance. All the other cells 
are in a greater or less degree transparent. — 
They are filled with a liquid containing 
granules which under a magnifying power 


AS) 


about in steady flowing currents. Some — 


but a single row of cells for the main por- 
| tion of their length. Perhaps still other 


Fic. $ FIG. 4. 
‘Fic. 3.— Slender hair of | 
Ageratum mexicanum. 
1c. 4.— Glandular hairs 
having two rows of cells. 


Fic. 7. 
Stout one-celled hair 
FIG. 5. Fic. 6. on Panicum capillare. 
Hair of Ageratum. Hair of Erigeron canadense. 
forms might be found which would be intermediate bewer 
some of these, showing more conclusively that they were modi- 
fied forms of the same members. 
Erigeron canadense, a common weed often known as horse-weed 
or mare’s tail, is clothed all over its surface with slender rapidly 


spherical cell which is filled with a mucil- 


of 250 diameters are often seen to move — 


_of these glandular hairs, like Fig. 5, have a 


RL pe eee eas Ee ae an a ee a tee ne Pye) ten ih ee etre) ae. ee ee ee AD van en Tae 


1878. | Glandular Hairs of Plants. 273 


tapering hairs composed of a single row of cells. Many species 
of Helianthus are covered with similar hairs. The surface of 
Panicum capillare, old witch grass, is covered with slender, one- 
celled hairs which are straight and quite stiff for their size. The 
surface of a common Physalis, or ground cherry, abounds in 
slender hairs composed of from ten to fifteen cells 
placed in a single row. Some of these hairs termi- 
nate in a sharp point, but most of them have, at the 
end, a round cell like a knob, full of a sticky sub- 
stance. Occasionally a hair 
produces one or more E p7 
branches which may like- } 
wise terminate with a short 
point or a globular cell. 
The fruit of Circea luteti- 
ana, enchanter’s nightshade, 
is covered with rather stout 
one-celled hairs which have 
a hook ‘at the extremity. 
The stems of the common Fic. 8. Fic. 9. BAG. 10. 
butter bean of our gardens ‘Hairs on surface of Physalis, ground cherry. 
have a few scattering hairs of similar structure, though they are 
_ smaller and much more delicate. 
The surface of Malva rotundi- 
Jolia, common mallow, is quite 3 
harsh to the touch on account of % 
numerous rather stout one-celled 


Fic. 11.—Hooked hair on fruit of 
Circea goe 


_ These stout hairs spread in every dakon Among the hairs 


Fig. 12. FIG. 13. 
Hairs on Maiva rotundifolia. Sessile gland on same plant. 


are a few sessile glands capped with two quarters of spheres. 


274 Glandular Hairs of Plants. [ May, 


The edges of ne petioles of Stezronema (Lysimachia) ciliata, a kind 
ofloosestrife, are fringed 


simple, while others are 
much larger and irreg- 
ularly branched, like a 
stag’s horn. Each hair 
whether simple or 


IG. 14. branching seems to 
Hairs on petioles of Stetronema ciliata. consist of one cell, made 


of several pieces fitted together. The surface of Leersia oryzoides 


Fic, 15.—Hairs on Leersta oryzoides. 
and L. virginica, rice-cut grass, is well supplied with short stout 
one-celled spines, all of which point downwards. 

x Several species of 

Galium, bed straw, are 
also supplied with 
: ; hooks of a similar char- 

FIG. 16. Bain on Galium. acter. In these the base 
of each hook is quite broad and the point quite short. 
The 


under sur- 
face of the leaves 


plant, are thickly 
covered with a 
woolly substance 
which consists of 
immense numbers 
of one-celled 
stalks, each hav- 
ing at the tip six 


Fic. 17.—Hair on Aralia papyrifera. celled arms OF 
rays which spread in every direction like the spokes of a wheel. 


papas at Dhaene Wein Mbt te 


Fg Se RS eat eT 


= 
9 
A 
: 
i 
: 
a 
a 
a 
F 
| 
a 


3 1878. | Glandular Hairs of Plants. : ho 


The common mullein is covered in every part with a still more 
abundant supply of branching hairs. The main axis of the hairs 
has radiating arms at different heights along its length. The 
glaucous nature of cabbage leaves and plums is due to numerous 
= small cells on the surface. The mealy substance on pig weed, or 
_.. lamb’s quarter, consists. in 
numerous capitate hairs. 
Shepherdia canadensis is 
a rather rare shrub grow- 
ing about the borders of 
lakes and seas. The 
young stems and buds, 
and portions of the leaves, 
are rendered red or rusty 
on account of the large 
number of scales, each of 
which is held to the plant 


by a short stem. Figs. “Fic. 18.—Branching hair on Shepherdia 
18 and 19 show two of canadensis. ` 


Fic. t9.—Shield-shaped scale on Shepherdia canadensis. ee 
these objects. In Fig. 19 there are several rays attached side by = 


276 Glandular Hairs of Plants. [May, 


side throughout most of their length, while in Fig, 18 there are 
but few rays, which separate at once from each other. Between 
these two extreme specimens are found any number of interme- 
diate forms. Much like the preceding are the star-shaped scales 


~My 


Fic. 20.—Star-shaped hairs on Deutzia scabra. 


on the leaves of Deutzia gracilis. There are many scales of a 
similar character found on most of our ferns. 

De Candolle, in his Vegetable Organography, says of the hairs 
of plants: “Some are very tender, others very rigid, and most 
are of all the intermediate degrees. With regard to their direc- 
tion, some are vertical to the surface from which they spring; 
some more or less incline forwards; others more or less bac x 
wards; some are perfectly straight, others hooked at the point; 
there are several which are contracted, or which are interwoven 


with one another. As to their form, they are found as cylinders and a 


very cylindrically-elongated cones. They are sometimes seen P 
the orm of reverse cones, among. those that are EE 
they are found forked, with two, three or a greater number 0 


branches; or starred at their apex, or divided at their base me 3 
branches which seem as so many distinct hairs reunited into 


bundles, having a common base.” 


eee: 
aes 


A ai A 


1878. } Glandular Hairs of Plants. 277 


Sachs says, “The first indication of the formation of hairs 
occurs in the papillose protuberances of the epidermis of many 
petals, to which their velvety appearance is due. To the simplest 
forms belong also the root-hairs which grow from the epidermis 
of true roots or underground stems (Pteris aguilina and eguisetum), 
they are thin-walled bag-like protuberances of the epidermis cells 
which lengthen by growth at the apex.” 


The Petunia of our gardens is rendered sticky and unpleasant 
to the touch on account of one-celled glands raised 


alate cated 


Fe ee! eer A ee ee re Oe Ee eS ee Pt OEE Sy Ce ee ee eee eee TN Pw oe eS Pn aa ee a) Ee 
AR TF MENETE 7 STFI 1 aana i yee e ELAT 


Fic. 23. 


Glands on Scrophularia 
nodosa. 


Fic. 26. 
A Top of gland. 


on a stem of two to seven cells. Scrophularia nodosa, the figwort 
of our rich bottom lands, has numerous glands on its surface. 
These are composed of one, two, three or more cells raised on a 
short stalk. Some of the larger glands are more expanded into 
flattened spheres, and are much like those found on our garden 
verbenas next to be mentioned. The gland of the garden ver- 
bena consists of a large cluster of about thirty-five cells at the tip 
of a delicate stalk. The top of the gland is seen in Fig. 26, and 
appears to have about thirty rays and some central pieces of 
irregular shape. The lower surface of the gland, when it breaks 
off, shows two rings, one within the other. The inner is seen 
first, and on turning down the tube of the microscope the outer 
_ ting isseen, The gland is full of a purple substance. Figs. 27 
_ and 28 exhibit the four-celled glands of the tomato plant. Each 
cell, as in many other cases, shows a nucleus, and some of them 


; 
i Fic, 21. 1G, 22. Fic. 24. 
Glandular hairs of Petunia. Glandular hair of Verbena. 


ae ee a a 


278 Glandular Hairs of Plants. [May, 


one or more nucleoli. Besides the short hair and the gland of 


Fic. 29 Fic. 28. 
Fic. 27.—Side view of — on Toiiato, Fic. 28.—Top view. Fic. 29.— 
Hair and protuberance on Tom 
the watermelon plant, shown in a 30 and 31, there are large 
numbers of other very long-jointed hairs. Figs. 32 e 33 show 
us two hairs of Phlox drummondii. Here the 
glands appear to be composed of four or more 
cells. Some of the glands of this 
plant consist of a single cell. Fig. 
34, &, 6 represent 
some of the small- 
est hairs on Mar- | 
tynia proboscidia. 


FIG. 30. Fic. 31. FIG. 32. Fic. 33. 7 
Short hair of plant Glandular hair of Hair of Phlox Hair of Phlox Drum- 
of watermelon. watermelon, Drummondii. mondii. 


Besides a few of these small hairs, the whole surface of the plant, 
including the sepals and petals, is thickly covered with glandular 
hairs as shown in Figs. 35, 36, 37. These glands, as do most 
glands of other plants to a greater or less extent, secrete a sticky: 
‘substance which is usually increased in quantity by irritation. — ) 


1878. | Glandular Hairs of Plants. 279 


From the end of the gland, when touched may be drawn out a 

gossamer thread of some length. The pulling out of the thread 

exhausts the gland in ue or in part, and causes it to collapse 
| or change its shape. Fig. 36 
shows a gland from which such 
a thread has been drawn. 


a å 
The fruit of Tecoma radicans, 
FIG. 34. trumpet creeper, has on its sur- 
Hairs of Petu- face numerous sessile cup- 


Fic. 38. 
Tip of gland 
of Martynia. 


FIG. 39. 
Fic, 36. Fic. Tip of gland of 
Fics. 35, 36, 37.—Glands of Martynia. Martynia. 


Fic, 35. 


shaped glands of which Fig. 40 shows a vertical section. In 
damp weather, or when not exposed to very dry air, these cups 


Fic. 40.—Gland of Tecoma radicans. Fic. 41.—Spot Fic. 42.—Stoma 
nba ta of same. on fruit of same. 


are heaped full with a drop of glistening liquid in each. Besides 
these, on the surface are numerous spots, like Fig. 41, in which 
numerous cells are clustered into a circular form. From these 
we may find all gradations down to a two-celled stomate, as in 
Fig. 42. 

On each margin of the petiole of Viburnum opulus and Passi- 
Jora are some cup-like glands which exude a sticky substance. 
Similar glands are found on the petioles of the cherry and some 


3 peaches. 


280 Glandular Hairs of Plants. [ May, 


For our present purpose enough of these hairs and glands 
have been described and illustrated. A large majority of plants 
j possesses something 
of this nature in a 
greater or less de- 
= ==~ gree. When fresh, 
and especially when 
not exposed to di- 
rect sunlight or air 
which is too dry, 
these glands are cov- 
ered with a spherical 
glistening drop which is often several times the diameter of the 
gland. 

The uses of these hairs and glands we probably now under- 
stand to some extent, but in other cases we can only guess their 
office. The slender-pointed hairs may serve to some extent to 
ward off insects. These and the scale-like hairs may prevent the 
delicate surface from being scorched by the sun. This is not 
very probable, because most of the hairs on leaves are on the 
under side away from the direct rays of the sun. In the case of 
the common mullein, the thick branching hairs probably make the 
plant offensive to cattle and other animals. In a similar way 
other plants are protected from animals. 

When packed within the bud scales during winter, the young 
leaves and flowers of many of our trees and shrubs are well pro- 
tected by these soft hairs which envelope the tender parts like a 
mass of cotton or wool. After expansion of the buds these hairs 
generally drop off. 

When the hairs or spines are stout and point backward, as 1n 
Galium and Leersia, they serve well to hold up the weak plant as 
it rises among stouter objects. 

Fruit with hooked hairs is likely to be scattered by holding 
fast to animals. The bloom ona cabbage leaf or plum, and the 
thick hairs on plants prevent them from becoming wet on the 
surface. The shield and star-shaped scales on Shepherdia and 
Deutzia, and others, may serve the same purposes as hairs. These 
delicate objects must protect the plant from injury on account of 
sudden changes of the weather. The advantage of the sting of 


Fic. 43.—Glands on petiole | of Snowball. 


the nettle to the plant is obviously a means of self-protection. 


PO vB PS TIT ES Deere settee I Cee TEE Neen S| NA 


CE te eee oS EG ee ee eee aap eee A 


POE Kes EEE (eR E Ste ame as 


1878. ] Glandular Hairs of Plants. 281 


The function of glandular hairs in some cases is a great mystery. 
In the case of Martynia the writer found it caught immense num- 
bers of small insects, and in some way seems to suck out their sub- 
stance. Small insects are found to a greater or less extent caught 
and held fast by the glandular hairs on all or most of the plants 
which produce glands. In his Insectivorous Plants Mr. Darwin, 
by experimenting, concludes that the glands of Droseras devour 
animal substances. The same conclusion is reached in case of 
numerous other plants, as some Saxifragas, Primulas, Pelargo- 
niums, Pinguiculas, 

The glands of the trumpet creeper are active, even till the fruit 
is of full size and quite near maturity. They are much visited by 
flies, wasps, and especially by ants to such an extent that the 
plant is often considered a nuisance when placed near the house. 
The glands on the leaves of cherry trees and Viburnum are also 
much frequented by insects. ‘ The base of the leaves of the sun- 
flower, locust, Pteris aquilina (a fern) and numerous other plants 
are freely visited by insects. Of what benefit it can be to Tecoma, 
Pteris, Helianthus and the cherry to be thus visited by ants is be- 
yond my certain knowledge. 

The glands of tomatoes, tobacco, petunia and many other 
plants secrete a substance which is offensive to most insects and 
other animals which might otherwise devour the plants. 

r. Darwin has also shown that some of these plants do cer- 
tainly absorb and appropriate gaseous and liquid bodies. Many 
ingenious experiments were made on plants of several different 
orders, showing that “they detect with almost unerring certainty 
the presence of nitrogen.” Plants by their glands were fed with 
green-peas, raw meat, a decoction of grass leaves. These sub- 
stances “are acted on in exactly the same manner as by gastric 
juice.” 

Why may not these glands also draw nourishment from the 
particles of dust which fall on them from the air, or from the parti- 
cles of soil which in many cases accumulates to such an extent as 
to completely cover some portions of the plant? As root hairs 
are active in absorbing materials from the soil including some- 
thing from solid substances, why should not these active glands 
absorb materials from the dust and fragments of soil? The free 
presence of the air and light may also assist in this supposed ac- 
tion. This covering of the plant by the particles of soil held by | Me 


282 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. (May, 


the hairs and glands may also save the plant from destruction by 
animals, 3 

Of one thing the writer is certain, that these delicate objects are 
interesting to study. Situated as they are in immense numbers and 
in such great variety on the surface of so many plants, they are 
easily obtained and easily prepared for examination. They are 
excellent objects for a beginner in the use of the compound 
microscope; and for protracted and careful experiments, they are 
worthy the skill of the most accomplished scientist. In them 
we may spend weeks to advantage in observing the development 
of cells, the nucleus and nucleoli, and the gyration of the sap. In 
form and color they are exquisitely beautiful, while in variety they 
are inexhaustible. 


:0: 


ON THE TRANSFORMATIONS -AND HABITS OF THE 
BLISTER-BEETLES. 


BY CHAS. V. RILEY, A.M., PH.D. 
[Continued from the April Number.] 


History of Epicauta—lIt is generally stated by writers on the 
Hive-bee that the Oil-beetle (Meloë) is one of its parasites. The 
possibility that our more common blister-beetles were similarly 
parasitic on bees, taken in connection with the frequent complaints 
from apiarians of the wholesale death of bees from causes little 
understood, led me, some years since, to pay attention to the 
biological characteristics of the blister-beetles, in the hope of 
ascertaining whether or not they really bear any connection with 
bee mortality. From these investigations I am satisfied that Meloé 
is only parasitic on the perfect Hive-bee as it is on so many other 
winged insects that frequent flowers; and that it cannot well, in 
the nature of the case, breed in the cells of any social bee whose 
young are fed by nurses in open cells. 

I have had no difficulty in getting the eggs or the first larva of 
several of our vesicants, and described some of them at the Hart- 
ford (1874) meeting of the Am. Ass. Adv. Sc.; but these young 
larve refused to climb on to plants furnished to them, or to fasten 
to bees or other hairy insects. Nor would they nourish upon 
honey, bee-bread, or bee larvae on which they were placed. They 
showed a proclivity for burrowing in the ground, and acted 
quite differently from those of Meloé or Sitaris, which not 

: t 


1878.] Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 283 


only readily attach to bees in confinement, but which, in the 
case of Meloé, I have known to so crowd upon 
mature hive bees as to worry them to death and 
cause extended loss in the apiary. Explorations 
into the nests of Solitary bees gave no clue, and, 
in fact, the immense numbers in which the more 
common blister-beetles occur, rendered a parasitic 
life upon such bees highly improbable. In sweeping 


$ Epi- 
plants and flowers with the net, I had never met with canta. vittata: 


any of the first larvae with which I had become famil- ” ooe tis) 


iar, as already indicated; while I had on several occasions, in 
digging ground where there was no trace of bee nests, met 
with the curious pseudo-pupa so characteristic of the family. 
While analogy and the law of unity of habit in species of 
the same family pointed, therefore, to a parasitic life, I began 
to conclude, from the facts just stated, that the parasitism 
was of another kind, having satisfied myself by various ex- 
periments that the triungulins did not feed on roots. Few 
discoveries are stumbled upon. We find as a rule that only 
which we anticipate or look for. In 1876, in digging up the 
eggs of the Rocky Mountain locust (Caloptenus spretus) at Man- 
hattan, Kansas, the pseudo-pupz were not unfrequently met with. 
The thought at once occurred to me that locust eggs might be 
the proper food for these blister-beetle larve, and it was encour- 
aged by the fact that the Meloids abound most in those dry west- 
ern regions where the Acrididz most prevail, and by a pretty 
distinct recollection, which my notes support, that the years when 
the vesicants were most injurious to potatoes had been preceded 
by dry Falls, during which there had been much locust injury and, 
necessarily, unusual locust increase. The suspicion thus raised 
that these blister-beet- 
les preyed in the pre- 
paratory states upon 
locust eggs was con- 
firmed last spring by 
finding the larve of 
different ages within 
the egg-pods and de- 
vouring the eggs of 


— Macrobasis unicolor :—a normal, gray form 
Capens Arens. MT, et (murina) form; c, d, male and female anten- 


| AN. Godfrey had, also, ne of either 


284 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. [ May, 


no difficulty, under my directions, in finding them last May j; 
Manhattan; while they were sent to me among other locust-egg 
parasites by Mr. Seth H. Kenney of Morristown, Minn., and from 
St. Peters in the same State by Prof. Cyrus Thomas. 

From such larvæ preying on the eggs of C. spretus I have reared 
the unicolorous form of Epicauta cinerea (Forster), or the margined 
Blister-beetle!; the Lpicauta pensylvanica (DeGeer)? or the 
Black Blister-beetle; the Macrobasis unicolor (Kirby) or the ash- 
gray blister-beetle; and the form of it described as murina by 
LeConte, or the black-rat blister-beetle. 

Since then I have found it very easy to trace the larval habits 
and development of the two more common potato-feeding species 
around St. Louis, viz: the striped blister-beetle (Epicauta vittata, 
Fabr.) and the Margined Blister-beetle (marginata Fabr.) just 
alluded to. 

Careful examination of locust eggs in the vicinity of potato 
fields frequented by these beetles show a varying proportion of 
the egg-pods affected, and in some locations nearly every pod © 
the differential locust (Caloptenus differentialis) will contain 
the Epicauta larva. The eggs of this locust are laid in large 
masses of 70 to 
about 100. The pod 
is but slightly bent, 
rather compact out- 

i = side, while the eggs 
Fic. 5.—Caloptenus differentialis. are irregularly ar- 


1The black, gray-margined form, very appropriately described by Fabricius as 
marginata, is referred to cinerea Forster by modern systematists, and “specifically 
united with it by Dr. Horn. Yet the fact remains that the two are not ordinarily, } 
ever, found commingled. The margined form is very common in potato fields in 

issouri. It shows little variation and is found almost invariably in conjunction 
with z¢fata, but not with the unicolorous form in question, which is most com mmon 
farther west and occurs abundantly without the margined form—all "on is against 
p specific union of the two. 

E. atrata Fabr. 

3 — M. cinerea Fabr., Fabricii Lec., murina Lec., debilis Lec. I accept Dr. Horn’s 
conclusion that the last two are but poorly developed forms of this species. Yet the 
m a form is not due to te or injury, but issues from the pupa without 4 
trace of gray scales on the elyt 

= E. lemniscata Fabr. Dr. Han retains /emniscata as a distinct species in his 
_ Revision already referred to. The outer stripe in the bi-vittate specimens divides up 
in others so as to give the tri-vittate character on which /emniscata is founded. Both 


extremes and every possible variation between them occur constantly together in the 


same potato field in Missouri, and there are no other differences of specific valu 


af 


Se pee TS tn PR eae Bee RES tg tN Ge ete EAST E 82 Bee oy rac hk ee See Me ON Sen aT a S a E E a R ee Rew ge ee dere O 


1878.]| Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 285 


ranged, and capped with but a shallow covering of mucous mat- 


ter. It is the egg-pod of this species which the larvz of the 
two Blister-beetles in question prefer; for while they will feed 
upon those of other species in confinement, I have so far found 
none in the deeper-necked, narrower, more compact egg-pods 
either of Caloptenus femur-rubrum, C. Atlantis, or Œdipoda sul- 
phurea, in which the eggs are regularly and quadrilinearly ar- 
ranged, as in those of C. spretus. Not only have I found a large 
proportion of the egg-pods of C. differentialis naturally infested 


with these Aficauta larve, but I have succeeded in hatching and 


rearing numbers in-doors. 

From July till the middle of October the eggs are being laid in 
the ground in loose, irregular masses of about 130 on an average 
—the female excavating a hole for the purpose, and afterwards 
covering up the mass by scratching with her feet. In confine- 
ment she sometimes omits both these instinctive acts and ovi- 
posits on the surface of the ground. She lays at several different 
intervals, producing in the aggregate probably from four to five 
hundred ova, judging from examinations made on the ovaries of 
some that were gravid. She prefers for purposes of oviposition 
the very same warm sunny locations chosen by the locusts, and 
doubtless instinctively places her eggs near those of these last, as 
I have on several occasions found them in close proximity. In 
the course of about 10 days—more or less, according to the tem- 
perature of the ground—the first larva or triungulin hatches. The 
hatching takes place without the aid of any ruptor ovi, for the 
egg-shell is so delicate that it easily splits, from mere expansion, 
along the back near the head, and breaks and shrivels up with the 
escape of the larva. These little triungulins (Pl. 1., Fig. 2), at first 
feeble and perfectly white, soon assume their natural light brown 
color and commence to move about. At night or during cold or 
wet weather all those of a batch huddle together with little mo- 
tion, but when warmed by the sun they become very active, run- 
ning with their long legs over the ground, and prying with their 
large heads and strong jaws into every crease and crevice in the 
soil, into which, in due time, they burrow and hide. Under the 
microscope they are seen to fairly bristle with spinous hairs, 
which aid in burrowing. As becomes a carnivorous creature, 
whose prey must be industriously sought, they display great 
power of endurance, and will survive for a fortnight without food 


286 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. — {May, 


ins a moderate temperature. Yet in the search for locust eggs 
many are, without doubt, doomed to perish, and only the more 
fortunate succeed in finding appropriate diet. Upon the slightest 
disturbance they curl up ina ball with the head bent pretty closely 
on the breast. 

Reaching a locust egg-pod, our triungulin, by chance, or in- 
stinct, or both combined, commences to burrow through the mu- 
cous neck, or covering, and makes its first repast thereon. If it 
has been long in the search, and its jaws are well hardened, it 
makes quick work through this porous and cellular matter, and 
at once gnaws away at an egg, first devouring a portion of the 
shell, and then, in the course of two or three days, sucking up 
the contents. Should two or more triungulins enter the same 
egg-pod, a deadly conflict sooner or later ensues until one alone 


remains the victorious possessor. By the time the contents of an 


egg are consumed, the body of the parasite has perceptibly in- 
creased so that the white sutures between the segmental plates 
show conspicuously, especially as there is a tendency on the part 
of the animal to curve its body, and bring the sutures more into 
relief. A second egg is attacked and more or less completely ex- 
hausted of its contents, when a period of rest ensues, the triungu- 
lin skin splits along the back and there issues the Second Larva 
(Pl. 1., Fig. 4)—white, soft, with reduced legs and quite different 
in general appearance from the first. This molt is experienced 
about the eighth day from the first taking of nourishment. The 
animal now naturally lies in a curved position (Pl. 1., Fig. 4, d), 
but, if extracted from the egg-pod, will stretch itself and move 
with great activity, reminding one very strongly of many Carabid 
larve, for which reason I would designate this as the Carabidoid 
stage of the second larva. After feeding for about another week, @ 
second molt takes place, the skin, as before, splitting along the 
back and the new larva hunching out of it until the extremities are 
brought together and released almost simultaneously. This kind of 
molting, which is characteristic of our blister-beetles up to the 
pseudo-pupal state, is exceptional among insects, the skin being 
ordinarily worked backward from the head. The modification at 
this molt is slight. The mouth-parts and legs become rudimen- 
tary and the body takes on more fully the clumsy aspect of the 
typical Lamellicorn larva, for which reason I designate this as the 
_ Scarabeidoid stage of the second larva. 


1878.] Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 287 


Another six or seven days elapse and the scarabzidoid skin is 
rent and shed with but slight modification in the form and char- 
acters of the animal. In this, the Ultimate stage of the second 
larva (PI. 1., Fig. 5) the creature grows apace, its head being con- 
stantly bathed in the rich juices of the locust eggs, which it now — 
rapidly sucks or more or less completely devours. The color is 
more yellowish than it was before, and the power to stretch and 
travel on the venter on an even surface is still retained. In another 
week it forsakes the remnants of the pabular mass, and, by bur- 
rowing a short distance in the clear soil, avoids the deleterious de- 
caying influences of these egg remnants. In the soil it forms a 
smooth cavity, within which it lies stretched on one side, motion- 
less and gradually contracting. The skin separates and becomes 


— loose at the end of the third or fourth day, when it splits on the 


top of the head and thoracic joints and is worked toward the ex- 

tremity, but never fully shed. The mouth-parts and legs are now 

quite rudimentary and tuberculous, the soft skin rapidly becomes 

rigid and of a deeper yellow color, and we have what has been 

called the semi-pupa (Pl. 1., Fig. 8). The term pseudo-pupa 

given it by Fabre is more appropriate, and I should prefer myself 
to call it the coarctate larva, for it is nothing but a rigid and dor- 

mant larval stage, having its counterpart in the well-known “flax- 

seed” stage of the Hessian-fly larva and in the so-called coarc- 

tate pupa of the Diptera generally. A similar dormant but less 

rigid larval stage occurs with many Tenthredinide in Hymenop- 

tera, and, in fact, the summer dormancy of certain Lepidopterous 

larvæ and the winter dormancy of others is analogous. We find 
something similar, therefore, in all the orders undergoing com- 

plete transformations, but in no insects is the change so marked 

and exceptional or the freeing of the subsequent larva from the 

coarctate larva so striking as in these Meloide. The insect has 

the power of remaining in this coarctate larval condition for a 

long period, and generally thus hybernates. 

In spring the coarctate larval skin is, in its turn, rent on the top’ 
of the head and thorax, and there crawls out of it the Third 
Larva} which differs in no respect from the ultimate stage of the 
second larva already mentioned, except in the somewhat reduced 

1 The coarctate larva is, properly speaking, the third, and that following it the 
fourth; but just as I have preferred to designate as special stages of the second larva 
the stages between the first and fourth molts, so I prefer to call the last larva the 


third, to conform to the nomenclature now generally employed. 
Ae ee 21 


IL—NO 


288 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. [ May, 


size and greater whiteness. The coarctate skin, when deserted, 
retains its original form almost intact. The third larva is rather 
active, and burrows about in the ground; but while there seems 
to be no reason why it should not feed, nourishment is not at all 
essential, and all my specimens have, in the course of a few days, 


transformed to the true pupa without feeding. In the transforma-. 


tion to pupa (Pl. 1., Fig. 9) the third larval skin is worked into a 
wrinkled mass behind, as is also the skin of the true pupa when 
shed. The pupa state lasts but five or six days, and before the 
wings of the imago are fully expanded, or the abdomen con- 
tracted, the general aspect of Apzcauda forcibly recalls the mature 
Henous. 

Like all parasitic! insects that nourish on a limited amount of 


food and possess no power to secure more, the blister-beetles vary 


greatly in individual size in the same species, and the larvæ have 
the power of accommodating their life to circumstances, and of 
assuming the coarctate larval form earlier or later according to 
the size of the egg-mass which they infest. I have had some in- 
teresting illustrations of this in my experiments with them. In 
an average sized egg-pod of the differential locust, however, there 
are more than enough eggs to nourish the largest specimen of £. 
vittata, and a few are usually left untouched. 

The period of growth, from the first feeding to the coarctate 
larva, averages, as will be gathered from the foregoing, about a 
month; yet in the month of September, out-doors, under screens 
where I have had the differential locust oviposit for the experi- 
ment, I have known the full larval growth of Æ. vittata to occupy 
but 24 days. As this species occurs in the beetle state as early 
as June in the latitude of St. Louis and as late as October, there 
are possibly two annual generations here and farther south. 

Larval Habits of Macrobasis and Henous—The characteristics 
of the triungulins of the blister-beetles, represented by Zpicauta 
and Henous, are remarkably similar, and point to unity of habit. 
The same holds true of the characters of the second, coarc- 
tate and third larva and of the pupa of Epicauta and Macrobasis. 
They are precisely alike; so that, while appreciable differences 
may be found in the triungulins, it is doubtful whether the subse- 

1An insect is not properly parasitic that simply feeds on eggs, but the term is per- 
missible and even necessary to characterize and distinguish those species which de- 
velop within and are confined to a locust egg-pod, from the predaceous species that 
are not confined but pass from one pod to another. 


Pg ar aM ae Nees came ees tsa eS ie Pere te ROPER see Lee gr eM are ee ge 


1878.) Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles. 289 


quent developmental stages will indicate specific or even generic 
differences in species of similar size in these three genera. 

That the eggs of Epicauta may exceptionally hybernate is pos- 
sible, but, from their delicate nature, improbable. That the triun- 
gulins frequently do so there can be no doubt, especially in spe- 


cies like the Black Blister-beetle, which is found on the flowers 


of Solidago, Eupatorium, etc., till the end of October, and con- 
tinues laying till frost. I have at the present time (November) 
many of these last that are quietly huddled together, and, with 
winter temperature, will doubtless remain so; while others have 
worked in between the locust eggs, there evidently to remain 
without feeding till spring opens. I have also found as many as 
five triungulins of this species curled up in the deep red mucous 
matter that surrounds the eggs of Gdipoda phanecoptera—all 
numb and torpid, and evidently hybernating. 

Conclusion.—From the foregoing history of our commoner 
blister-beetles, it is clear that while they pass through the curious 
hypermetamorphoses so characteristic of the family, and have 
many other features in common, yet Epicauta and Macrobasis dif- 
fer in many important respects from Meloë and Sitaris, the only 
genera hitherto fully known biologically. To resume what is 
known of the larval habits of the family, we have : 

Ist—The small, smooth, unarmed, tapering triungulin of the 
prolific Sitaris, with the thoracic joints subequal, with strong ar- 
ticulating, tarsal claws on the stout-thighed but spineless! legs, 
and, in addition, a caudal spinning apparatus. The mandibles 
scarcely extend beyond the labrum; the creature seeks the light, 
and is admirably adapted to adhering to bees but not to burrow- 
ing in the ground. The second larva is mellivorous, and the 
transformations from the coarctate larval stage all take place 
within the unrent larval skin—We have: 

2d—The more spinous and larger triungulin of the still more 
prolific Me/oé, with long caudal sete, but otherwise closely re- 
sembling that of Szfaris in the femoral, tarsal and trophial char- 
acters, in the subequal thoracic joints, in the unarmed tibia, and 
in the instinctive love of light and fondness for fastening to bees. 
The second larva is also mellivorous, but the later transformations 
take place in the rent and partly shed skins of the second and 


_ Coarctate larvæ.—We have: 


1 The larva of S. humeralis appears to differ from that of S. cof/efis in having hairs 
on the femora and tibiz. 


290 Transformations and Habits of Blister-Beetles.  {May, 


3d.—The larger and much more spinous triungulins of the 
less prolific Epicauta, Macrobasis, and Henous; with unequal 
thoracic joints, powerful mandibles and maxillz, shortened lab- 
rum, slender femora, well-armed tibiz, slender, spine-like, less 
perfect tarsal claws—combined with an instinctive love of dark- 
ness and tendency to burrow and hide in the ground. The second 
larva takes the same food as the first, its skin is almost entirely 
cast from the coarctate larva, while the subsequent changes are 
independent and entirely free of the shell of this last. 

Larval Habits of Cantharis—The question naturally arises here, 
whether Cantharis, in its larval habits, will most agree with Meloë 
and Stfaris or with Epicauta. The triungulin, except in becom- 
ing almost black, has much in common with- Meloë, in the sub- 
equal thoracic joints, and the long antennz; also in its habit, 
observed by Lichtenstein, of fastening to bees! The fact that it 
can nourish on honey, though it does not appear to do so freely, 
would also indicate that it breeds in the nests of solitary bees. 
Nevertheless, in the slender thighs and the caudal and abdominal 
characters it agrees more nearly with Epicauta, and in the stage 
following the first molt the legs are still quite long and the general 
aspect much like the carabidoid stage of that genus. I should not 
be surprised, therefore, if Cantharis also nourished on locust eggs. 

What is Known of the Larval Habits of other Meloid Genera.— 
Mylabris Fabr. (nec Geoff.), according to V.-Mayet, is much less 
prolific than any Meloids so far observed. The egg is 2.5 mm. 
long and is % as wide, with a tolerably thick shell and the em- 
bryo more fully bent within it. The triungulin has many of the 
characters of Epicayta, judging from the published description 
(Ann. Soc. Ent. de Fr., 1876, p. cxcvi.), which is, however, not suf- 
ficiently detailed as to the trophi. I doubt not that the genus 
will be found to infest locust eggs. 

Horia Fabr., from what little is known of it, would seem to have 
a similar partial parasitism to Meloë, but on carpenter bees. 

‘Tetraonyx Latr., was found by Guérin-Meneville in places fre- 
quented by ERE bees. 

The eggs of Apalus Fabr., as well as its triungulin, are said to 
resemble those of Meloë 

Zonitis Fabr., is kowi to develop in the cells of Osmia and 
UR, and to have a coarctate larva much like that of wens 


e this was published M. eo writes me: “ lasd only fasten to 
when rescinded i tubes with them. At liberty they do n ‘inate flowers, like Mal 
in search of og hae run quickly on the soil, just as you peee for Zpicauta? 


1878. ] The Sirenia. 291 
THE SIRENIA. 
BY ARTHUR E. BROWN. 


AS the name of this curious order of aquatic mammals was 

suggested, without doubt, by the probability that they, in great 
measure, gave origin to the ancient myths regarding the existence 
of sirens or mermaids, it may not be inappropriate to take a first 
look at the animal as it appeared to a sailor of Capt. Weddell’s 
Expedition towards the South Pole, about the close of the first 
quarter of the present century. “The sailor had lain down and 
about ten o’clock he heard a noise resembling human cries; and 
as daylight in these latitudes never disappears at this season, he 
rose and looked round, but on seeing no person he returned to 
bed; presently he heard the noise again, rose a second time, but 
still saw nothing. Conceiving, however, the possibility of a boat 
being upset, and that some of the crew might be clinging to some 
detached rocks, he walked along the beach a few steps and heard 
the noise more distinctly, but in a musical strain. Upon search- 
ing round he saw an object lying on a rock a dozen yards from 
the shore at which he was somewhat frightened. The face and 
shoulders appeared of human form and of a reddish color; over 
the shoulders hung long green hair; the tail resembled that of 
the seal, but the extremities of the arms he could not see dis- 
tinctly. The creature continued to make a musical noise while 
he gazed about two minutes, and on perceiving him it disappeared 
in an instant.” 

Notwithstanding the fact that the sailor testified his belief in 
his story by making a cross in the sand and kissing it, we who 
look on the manatee and dugong, with minds cleared from a 
delusive belief in mermaids and mermen, are tempted to agree 
with Capt. Weddell in the last clause of which he makes use in 
relating the circumstance: “I concluded he must really have 
seen the animal he described, or that it must have been the effects 
of a disturbed imagination.” 

Naturalists, however, have had almost as much trouble, in times 
past, to determine where these animals structurally belong, as the 
old explorers had to decide whether they were forms of earthly 
or supernatural origin. They were classed in the old order 
Pachydermata on account of their points of resemblance to the 


elephant ; then they were put with the whale and the porpoise in 


ad 5 


292 The Sirenia. [ May, 


the Cetacea, and they are now generally regarded as.an indepen- 
dent order, known as Sirenia, allied more closely with the Ungulates 
- than with any other living mammals ; they—the vegetable eaters 
of the sea—being doubtless descended from some form of ter- 
restrial Herbivora, as the Seals, Whales, etc.—the aquatic 
Carnivores—probably claim parentage among the terrestrial Car- 
nivora. 

The earliest Sirenian known to Paleontology is the Ha/itherium, 
found in the Miocene formation of Central and Southern Europe. 
Those now existing are separated into two genera, —Manatus and 
Halicore, and, generally speaking, there is a strong resemblance 
between all members of the group. 

They all possess a cylindrical body tapering towards each end 
from a point just in advance of the middle; the tail is flat and 
horizontal ; the hind limbs are entirely wanting ; the fore limbs are 
placed far forward on the breast and are covered with integument 
like the rest of the body; the nipples are two in number, and, as 
in the human species, are situated on the breast; the neck is thick 
and is not separated by a well drawn line of demarcation from 
either the head or the body; the head is rather small and round, 
the lips being thick and fleshy; the eyes are round and of small size 
and the nostrils, situated on top of the extreme end of the snout, are 
closed witha valve ; the presence of an ear is only to be recognized 
by a sort of crease in the skin; the hide, in appearance and tough- 
ness, much resembles galvanized rubber and is covered very scant- 
ily with stiff bristles an inch or two long, these are so sparsely 
scattered, however, that it requires a close inspection, almost, to 
see that they are there,—around the lips and mouth they are 
longer and more plenty and are deserving almost of the name of 
whiskers. In these characters all the Sirenians agree. 

The two genera composing the order are, however, recogniza- 
ble at a glance, and the species into which they are divided, 
though closely allied, yet present characters which are held to 
be sufficiently distinctive for the recognition of two species of 
dugong and three of manatee. 

The one genus, Manatus, is found altogether in the waters of 
the Atlantic Ocean, with the single exception of a small part 9 
the East coast of Africa, north of the Cape of Good Hope, while 

the other genus, Halicore, is strictly confined to the South Pacific 
and Indian Oceans. No species are found in the Northern 


$ 


Se Pee ae E E IS AT PAENT EIIE FERT 
7 ae 


1878. ] The Sirenia. 293 


Hemisphere much beyond lat. 30°, and they are common in the 
greatest numbers in the equatorial and warmer temperate zones. 

Manatus latirostris is found in San Domingo and other parts of 
the West Indian Islands, on the Atlantic coast of Florida and 
sparingly along the Gulf of Mexico, down to the neighborhood 
of Honduras, where it gradually merges into Manatus australis, 
which follows the northern and eastern coast of South America 
to lower Brazil, reaching not much beyond the 20th degree of 
south latitude. 

Crossing the South Atlantic, Manatus senegalensis is first found 
on the western coast of Africa, about the upper part of Senegambia, 
from which. point it ranges southward along the Atlantic coast, 
around the Cape of Good Hope and up the east coast as far as 
the Mozambique Channel. Here the first representative of the 
dugongs, Halicore dugong, makes its appearance, about where 
the last species ends, and ranges up the east coast of Africa, 
along both shores of the Red Sea andthe southern coast of Asia 
as far as Cochin China; taking in Borneo and the leading islands 
of the Indian Archipelago lying to the westward of the Straits of 
Lombok, which marks strictly the boundary line between the 
Indian fauna and that of the Australian region. The one remain- 
ing species, Halicore australis, ranges along the northern shore of 
Australia and down the eastern coast of that continent, which is 
washed by the waters of the South Pacific, to about latitude 30° 
south. It was stated by Hernandez that he had found an animal 
Supposed to be either H. dugong or H. australis on the coast of 
Peru and Ecuador. Individual members of the order have also 
been seen on several occasions in the neighborhood of the British 
Islands; it is probable that these belonged to M. /atirostris and 
that they were transported by the Gulf Stream from Florida or 
the West Indies. It is thus seen that the polar extremes in range 
of the Sirenia are about the 30° of latitude, north, in the United 
States, and the 35°, south, at the Cape of Good Hope. 

They live generally about the mouths of rivers and are even 
found up the streams to a considerable distance from the coast, 
rarely being common in water of more than several fathoms 
depth. It is stated also that in Africa they inhabit fresh water 
lakes near the coast,—this is not, however, beyond dispute and is 
doubtful, except by supposing a water communication with the 


main sea. All are strictly herbivorus, feeding on the water plants _ - 
which grow in great profusion in the localities which a a 


294 The Sirenia, ” [May, 


The manatee rarely attains a length of more than eight to ten 
feet. The tail, like that of the dugong, is horizontally placed, but 
differs from that species in being evenly rounded on the end; the 
fore extremities are short and weak ; the fingers are“énclosed to- 
gether in one fold of integument and bear faint vestiges of nails; 
the skin is thick and very tough and of a lead or slate color. 
There are no incisor or canine teeth in the adult, and the molars 
are thirty-eight in number,—twenty in the upper and eighteen in 
the lower jaw. These are not all present, however, at any one 
time, as they successively come out, fill their purpose and are suc- 
ceeded by others in turn. The bones of all the Sirenians are 
massive and heavy ; the animals, therefore, possess little buoyancy 
in their native element and are not much disposed to rapid mo- 
tion. ; 

The main points of difference between M. australis and M. sene- 
galensis, according to Prof. Owen, are in the larger skull of the 
former and in the conformation of the malar bone and of the 
mandible or lower jaw. M. latirostris is said to resemble the 
African form more closely than it does its nearer neighbor on the 
American coast. 

Several efforts have been made to keep the manatee alive in 
confinement, but without much success. One of the most satis- 
factory attempts was made in the summer of 1876, by the Zoolog- 

ical Society of Philadelphia, and as the habits of the animal are 
not very widely known, a few words descriptive of the manner in 
which this specimen passed its time may not be uninteresting. 

The animal was a female, not fully adult, about six feet long, 
and was captured in the Orinoko river. She was put in a tank 
containing about a foot of water and was shipped from Demerara 
in May, arriving in Philadelphia on the 15th of June, apparently 
uninjured by the tossing to which the vessel had been subjected 
during the voyage. She was at once placed in a glass tank con- 
taining about forty-five hundred gallons of water, at a temperature 

of about 75 degrees,—the weather being warm, this was about 
the natural degree, and only once while the animal lived was it 
necessary to heat the water artificially to keep it at this point. 

The great difficulty was to get it to feed. The ship captain who 
brought it up, said, “Oh! there is no trouble about that, it will : 
eat anything,” and insisted that he had been feeding it on ship- 
biscuit and cabbage, but when this was tried, the ship-biscult — 


a 


1878. ] The Sirenia, 295 


might as well have been cobblestones and the cabbage had about 
as much effect as a piece of rag carpet, so it was tempted with all 
the delicacies of the season in the way of vegetables, in the hope 
that something more easy to obtain than river grass might prove 
acceptable, but nothing would do, so a variety of sea-weed and 
aquatic plants were placed at its disposal: sedge grass, M/yriophyl- 
lum and Sagittaria were to be had in large quantities, but did 
not seem to be exactly the thing, until at last a variety of 
Potamogeton was found which the animal took to at once and in 
a month it had eaten all there was in the Schuylkill and Delaware 
rivers within reaching distance of Philadelphia, and it became 
necessary to give it something else—generally Sagzttarias, of 
which it ate the heads—while a new crop was growing up. It 
was remarkable to see with what dexterity the animal, though 
seemingly deficient in all the senses, would pick out the stalks of 
its favorite food from among a wheelbarrow load of stuff thrown 
into the tank. In this it appeared to me to be guided more by 
its sense of smell than by sight,—which agrees perfectly with the 
observations of Dr. H. C. Chapman, Prosector of the Society, on 
two specimens which had previously been kept in the garden, and 
also with the result of his dissection of those animals, which 
showed that the olfactory nerves were well developed. 
_ The manner of introducing food into the mouth appeared to be 
peculiar; the upper lip being chiefly used, and that by a motion 
rather lateral than downwards. The lip is fleshy and tumid, inca- 
pable of much mobility and is cleft in the centre, like a hare lip, 
_ and the motion seemed to be produced by muscular contractions, 
drawing the sides inward and toward the cleft, bringing into play 
the bristles with which they are clothed, almost as organs of pre- 
hension. 

It was difficult to observe this action, as the animal seemed to 
be somewhat nocturnal and fed at night; the water also became 
discolored by the mud which adhered to the plants, and the ani- 
mal, when feeding, quickly became obscured to view. 

It had been stated that the manatee was in the habit of crawl- 
ing partly out on the bank for the purpose of obtaining food; as 
_ it did not seem probable that the animal could move to any 
extent on land, considering the weakness of its fore-limbs, this 
was tested in the following manner: A shelf was arranged gently | 
sloping at an angle of about 30° from one side of the tank so that its — 2 


296 The Sirenia. [ May, 


lower edge was under water, this was covered with wisps of straw 
so as to bear some resemblance to the sloping bank of a stream 
covered with sea-weed left by the ebbing tide. As the animal did 
not seem disposed to put even its nose on the shelf, its food was 
for some nights deposited there, just above the water line, with 
the result that it did not show the slightest disposition to help 
itself, until after some hours the grass was thrown into the tank, 
when it at once fed. It never manifested the least trace of a 
desire to raise itself out of the water, and certainly no structure 
could be worse adapted to move on land than the awkward bulky 
body and the weak flippers of the manatee. 

The animal was never in good condition from the earliest 
period of its confinement, and was very apt to become costive, 
which was always relieved by throwing some soft river mud into 
the tank, which it swallowed with excellent effect. It appeared 
to be very fond of mud, and was always more lively when the 
water was discolored by heavy rains than at any other time. In 
general, through the day time it rested on the bottom of the 
tank, on its chin and the end of its tail, with the body slightly 
arched. Every two and a half minutes on an average, using its 
tail as a pivot, it raised its head to the surface by the action of its 
fore flippers, just so that its nostrils appeared above the water, and 
after taking breath sank at once to its former position at the bot- 
tom. Although sluggish and inactive in habit, the animal was 
not devoid of intelligence; it learned to recognize its keeper, and 
soon appeared to understand that no harm was intended when 
the water was drawn off from the tank for the purpose of cleaning. 
At such times, after the first few days, it lay perfectly quiet on its 
side, and allowed the keeper to sweep around and over it without 
making the least disturbance. 

The animal lived a quiet unruffled existence, apparently as 
happy in its tank in a corner of the Carnivora House as it could 
have been in its natural home. Everything was done for it that 
it apparently could desire—a palace of glass kept clean without 
the least trouble to itself, clean water made brackish as that of its 
native haunts by a solution of marine salt, and carefully watched 
by the aid of a thermometer lest the cold air of the north shoul 
be too trying for a constitution accustomed to the warmth of the 
equator; plenty of that food which it selected as being best 
adapted to its wants, and in fact all that the most assiduous care 


= x4 


anin e 


EAN RR te er EEA E ee Re 


1878. | The Sirenia. 297 


could suggest and procure, but liberty is liberty, and the waters 
of the Schuylkill were not those of its native Orinoko, and so 
after two days of extreme torpor and indisposition to eat, she 
was found on the morning of September 5th, resting on the bot- 
tom of the tank, having died as she had lived, peacefully, and 
with no more exertion than could by any possibility be avoided. 

A careful post mortem examination revealed the presence of a 


large quantity of a fatty deposit about the region of the heart, 


exactly as had been the case in two specimens. which had pre- 
viously been kept in the Garden, and as it does not seem possible 
that accommodations more in accord with the native surroundings 
of the animal could be given in confinement and in so different 
a climate, or that the attempt could be made at a more favorable 
season of the year, it appears almost certain that the speedy death 
of these animals was owing to insuperable obstacles in the way 
of acclimating the species here. It is. possible that the more 


- northern member of the group, M. latirostris, which occasionally 


experiences a touch of frost in the St. Augustine river in Florida, 
and is presumably more hardy than those from more southern 
regions, might be better adapted to a residence in this latitude, 
but I do not know that the opportunity has ever been fully pre- 
sented for the experiment. A pair of this species was at the 


. Garden for some days in the month of August, 1876, but as the 


Society did not care to pay the large price demanded for them, 
they were removed by their owner to one of the Centennial side 
shows, where they were destroyed by a fire before they had been 
here long enough to give any indications as to how they were 
going to adapt themselves to the climate. 

The dugongs grow to a larger size than the manatees, Ha/icore 
dugong being sometimes twenty feet long; their general appear- 
ance is similar, the tail, however, instead of being rounded is 
forked, and their color is bluish on the back, running into dirty 
white beneath. The alveolar process of the pre-maxillary bone is 
much elongated and bent downwards, giving the animal the 
appearance of having a nose of a very pronounced Roman type, 
and causing the mouth to open rather downwards. 

There are two incisor teeth in the upper jaw of the adult male, 
and none in the lower jaw; in the female there are no incisors 
visible, their growth being arrested before they emerge from the 


socket. The number of molars varies in different individuals 


298 The Sirenia. [ May, 


according to age; it is stated that the full number in the adult 
dentition of Æ. australis is twenty-four, and twenty in H. dugong. 

The habits of all the sirenians, so far as is known, are essentially 
similar, the dugong as well as the manatee being found around 
the mouths and up the water courses of the coast. 

This order affords a most striking instance of the discovery 
and speedy extinction of a species, the Rhytina borealis, or stelleri of 
some authors, having been discovered on Behring’s island in the 
sea of Kamschatka, by one of Behring’s exploring parties, which 
was shipwrecked there in 1741. They existed in large numbers, 
were easily killed, and during the ten months which the ship- 
wrecked party spent on the island, sad havoc was made among 
the animals. They were rapidly reduced in numbers, and in 
1768, twenty-seven years after they became known to civilized 
man, the last one was killed. Almost all that is known of the 
living animal is from an account published in 1751, at St. Peters- | 
burg, by Steller, who was one of the discovering party, and who 3 
saw it in its native haunts. ; 

The Rhytina was about twenty-five feet long, had a forked tail like 
that of the dugong, and was covered with a rough, wrinkled, brown- 
ish hide nearly an inch thick, composed of hair-like tubes agglu- 
tinated together into a substance somewhat like horn, and of so 
great toughness that it scarcely yielded to a blow of an axe. The 
adult animal was entirely devoid of teeth, and had in their stead 
a rough horny plate on the front of the palate, to which was 
opposed a similar one on the lower jaw. 

The Sirenia are of considerable value to the natives of the 
countries which they inhabit; the hide is of use for making 
a thick leather, and the flesh is much esteemed for the table. 
It is said that the church, disagreeing with nature and science, 
determines that the manatee is a fish, and therefore the good 
Catholics of South America feast royally on its flesh on Friday 
and all other fast days. 


ese ae 


ERS Es 


Tee í AT RE ae j 
oe eee aa e a ee E ee aed 


SP Ea cee ea PRE PT a ap een Se PIE me NLS h, e SPR TREE SE TC a eee eT EET eT eee Mae Ue Pee Cre ae Loner? Serie 
7 ý X eee ne eee ee, Sa ea ae ti ete es 


1878. ] The Origin and Formation of Prairies. 299 


AN EXAMINATION OF PROF. LEO LESQUEREUX’S 
THEORY OF THE ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF 
PRAIRIES. 

BY O. P. HAY. 


OR many years past there has been no lack of literature on the 
subject of the prairies of the western states and territo- 
ries, nor any dearth of theories to account for their origin. We 
have had their existence ascribed to fire and to water; to heat 
and to cold; to all sorts of phenomena and to the lack of them. 
The forests that once clothed these regions must have been burned 
up by prairie fires—before the prairies existed. They must have 
been drowned out by the waters of vast inland lakes that once 
covered these prairie states. They must have been parched up 
up by the dryness of the climate. They must have been smothered 
by the impalpable fineness of the soil in which they grew. They 
never had an existence ; because the seeds which ought to have 
produced them must have been ground to pomace by the glaciers 
of the Age of Ice, or hopelessly buried beneath their débris. 
Prof. Leo Lesquereux, eminent in both recent and fossil botany, 
has published various papers on this subject, the latest of which 
appears in Vol. I. of the Illinois Geological Survey. In subsequent 
volumes of this excellent Survey this paper is frequently referred 
to; and certain phenomena observed in various portions of the 
state by the members of the survey corps, are cited as helping to 
establish Prof. Lesquereux’s theory. As this scientific work will 
have a wide circulation amongst geologists ; and since, on account 
of the high reputation of Prof. Lesquereux as a scientist, his 
opinions will have great weight in determining people’s opinions 
concerning an important geological feature of the West, it is 
proposed in this paper to examine the grounds upon which the 
theory has been based, and to test its correctness. For the 
writer believes that the theory is insufficient to account for all the 
facts involved—is, indeed, opposed by many of them; and that 
those examples which have been cited by the geologists as con- 
firming the theory, instead of so doing, are excellent proofs of the 
way in which prairies have wot had their origin. 
Prof, Lesquereux believes the failure of forest vegetation to 


_ occupy the praries to be due to the chemical nature of the soil, 
coupled with, as it would seem from his language, its exceeding — 
_ fineness. He believes that all our prairies and Western plains, as 


well as the plains of South America, Europe and Asia, have been oe 


* 


300 The Origin and Formation of Prairies. [ May, 


formed as we may now see prairies of far less extent being pro- 
duced along the shores of the lakes of the West and along the 
banks of rivers. “ Where the waves or currents strike the shores 
or the low grounds and there heap material, sand, pebbles, mud, 
etc., they build up more or less elevated dams or islands. These 
dams are not always built along the shores, but often enclose wide 
shallow basins, whose waters are thus sheltered against any move- 
ment. Here the aquatic plants, sedges, rushes, grasses, etc., soon 
appear, these basins become swamps, and, as it can be seen near 
the borders of Lake Michigan, though the waters may surround 
them, the trees never invade them, never grow upon them, even 
when the swamps become drained and dried by some natural or 
artificial cause.” Prof. Lesquereux states that such marginal 
swamps, generally fringed with trees, can be seen also along the 
shores of Lake Erie, and along the Mississippi and Minnesota 
rivers, outside the line of slack water. All gradations are to be 
found between such swamps and dry prairies. He hence con- 
cludes that all our prairies, not only the low prairies along our 
lakes and rivers bottoms, but also the high rolling prairies, have 
been produced by the slow recess of sheets of water of various 
extent; that these lakes have first been transformed into swamps 
and by and by drained and dried. The soil of these ancient 
swamps, having been produced by the slow and incomplete 
decomposition of aquatic plants, must be of impalpable fineness 
and thoroughly impregnated with ulmic acid; the former condi- 
tion proving deleterious to the germination of the seeds of trees, 
the latter condition favoring the growth of the peculiar vegetation 
of the prairies. 

But if the prairies were at one time swamps, why is their ae 
face not now everywhere level, or nearly so? Or, if the existing 
elevations have been formed as low islands or dams in lakes, why 
are they not now wooded? Mr. Lesquereux believes that the 


surface was originally horizontal; but that it has been made to 
assume its present undulating character by the slow and long 


continued erosive action of water;—in short, that the broad, 
gently sloping valleys have been worn out by running waters as 
have the beds of our rivers and creeks; the difference being that 
in the former case the waters have had a very gentle, in the latter 
a more rapid motion. 


_. Let us now consider the facts and argument presented by Prof. 
-Lesquereux, to sustain his opinion. 


Ae Fee Ree Te 


1878. ] The Origin and Formation of Prairies. 301 


And first, is it true that trees will not, as a general thing, grow 
in swamps, or in ground that has once been a stagnant marsh ? 
That there are but few species of trees that will grow in swamps 
covered with stagnant water none perhaps will deny; but that 
these same swamps will not, after they have been drained and 
dried, allow the growth of arborescent vegetation remains to be 
proved. All of Prof. Lesquereux’s arguments and citations of 
authorities in reply to Prof. Winchell’s objections to the theory of 
excessive moisture, cover but this one point, viz., that trees will 
not grow on lands saturated with stagnant water, and leave un- 
proved the other and most important statement that they will not 
grow there when the ground has become dry. Should this state- 
ment be true, we ought to find extensive prairies in many regions 
where prairies are rare; for instance, along our low Atlantic coast, 
and the delta of the Mississippi River. Especially ought we to 
expect to find such tracts along the Amazon, instead of finding 
there the densest forests on the globe. 

Long ago, in the American Journal of Science, Prof. Dana, in 
writing on the origin of prairies, gave the results of his own ob- 
servations made in the Mohawk valley, and cited observations 
made by Prof. Verrill in Maine and Labrador. In this article it 
is stated that in Maine'the bottoms of the lakes are, near the 


shores, composed of black, soft, vegetable mud of great depth; 


and though sedges and rushes are found growing at the water's 
edge, various kinds of trees approach very near the shore, grow- 
ing even where the supporting soil is soft and wet. In cases 
where lakes and bogs have been drained, although grasses and 
sedges may get the mastery the first year or two, forest trees 
afterward gain the ascendency and keep it. In Labrador, trees 
were found growing in peat bogs, in the very borders of lakes 
and pools of stagnant waters. If trees will grow in stagnant 
marshes and on peat bogs in Maine and Labrador and are not 
found growing in similar situations in the Mississippi Valley, some 
other explanation of the fact must be sought than the chemical 
nature or the fineness of the soil. 

But I believe that even in the Mississippi Valley we shall have 
no difficulty in finding luxuriant forests in situations where, ac- 
cording to Prof. Lesquereux, we ought to find only prairies; 
nor difficulty in finding prairies where we should be led to expect 
to find abundant timber. The soil of the Mississippi flood-plain 
has been deposited as in the case of other large’rivers. In some =~ 


302 The Origin and Formation of Prairies. [ May, 


places strong currents have washed together coarse sands and 
gravels; in others, where the water has had a gentle movement, 
it has deposited only the finest sediment; the greater portion of 
the bottoms, however, consists, as we might expect, of a mixture 
of these materials, enriched by the humus from decaying vegeta- 
tion. There has been no lack of opportunities for the formation 
of swamps in these bottoms, which are frequently from four to 
eight miles or more in width. Nevertheless, on these bottom 
lands, formed to a great extent in the way described by Prof. 
Lesquereux, and much more recently than can be claimed for the 
higher prairies, we find the heaviest growth of timber and the 
greatest proportion of timber land. 

` In the southern part of the State, where upland prairies do not 
exist, the flood-plain is clothed with the densest growth of forest 
trees; and this almost irrespective of the character of the soil. In 
Alexander county, for instance, as stated in the Report of the 
Illinois State Geological Survey, “the bottom lands are generally 
flat and are interspersed with cypress ponds and marshes.” The 
higher bottoms are said to be heavily timbered with various kinds 
of trees. “The swampy lands are characterized by the growth 
of the cypress, sweet gum, tupelo gum, cottonwood, pecan, willow, 
etc.” We find analogous statements made concerning the coun- 
ties lying northward along the Mississippi, until we reached the 
region where prairies begin to appear on the highlands. Then 


small prairies appear also on the flood-plain ; but these are likely 


to occupy the higher grounds and the dense timber growth the 
low wet lands. We learn of heavy forests on soil described as a 
deep sandy loam, highly charged with humus; and on similar 
soils, bottom prairies. Nor is it unusual along the Mississipp! 
and other rivers of Illinois to find bottom prairies whose soil con- 
tains a large proportion of sand and gravel. In the report of the 


geology of Jo Daviess county, the most northern river county of 3 


the State, we find this statement: “In the western part of the 
township of Hanover, bottom timber-land, alluvial grass-land, and 
a table-land, high and dry, exhibit all the characteristics of the 
ordinary Mississippi alluvial bottoms. Farther down in Carroll 
county this bottom changes into the broad, well-known sand 
prairie, an old, broadly extended, glittering Mississippi sand-bar. 
Such quotations from many independent observers could be 
multiplied indefinitely to show: Ist. That even marshes may 
be timber-grown; 2d. That the distribution of forest lands bears 


Ser 


1878. ] The Origin and Formation of Prairies. 303 


no relation to that of ancient swamps; 3d. That sandy and 
gravelly bars and dams are frequently devoid of trees. 

But even if we should grant all that Prof. Lesquereux claims 
respecting the inability of trees to thrive in soils that have accu- 
mulated in swamps, I cannot admit that his theory will explain 
the occurrence of prairies over a large part of Illinois and Iowa. 
However it may be in the case of Wisconsin and Minnesota, it is 
evident that the soil of the prairies of at least large portions of 
the former States has not been formed in marshes. We have, it 
is true, evidence that at some period since the epoch of the Drift 
the surface of the whole country has been depressed much below 
its present level. We find everywhere along the Mississippi 
River‘and at many points along the Illinois an extensive deposit 
capping the bluffs and sometimes extending out into the ancient 


-river bed. This deposit is sometimes very thick near the bluffs, 


but thins rapidly towards the highlands and soon disappears. 
This deposit, called in the Report of the Illinois Survey the Loess, 
must have been thrown down during the Champlain epoch, when 
a series of lakes occupied the broad valleys of our rivers, filling 
them, no doubt, to their brim, and even extending over portions 
of the surrounding country. But that the prairie soil or subsoil 


was then deposited, or that there has been any general sub- 


mergence since, we have, I think, no sufficient reason for believing. 
On the contrary there are many serious objections that might 
be urged against the idea that the prairie soil has been deposited 


_in lakes and stagnant swamps; some of which I shall here present. 


‘1. According to Lesquereux, timber is found growing along 


dams cutting off from the body of the lake the bog that is to be- 


come prairie. Do we find our Illinois forests on the higher lands ? 
That they sometimes so occur, especially in northern Illinois, will 
not be denied ; but in such cases, instead of being long stretches of 


| 7 timber, bordering and separating prairies, they are generally small, 
_ rounded clumps. Much the greater part of the wooded country in 


Illinois is found along the river bluffs and on the bottom lands. 
2. If the prairie soil is a lacustrine deposit, it ought to be free 


_ from such coarse materials as are found in the Drift. In swamps 
= whose soil has been produced by the decay of vegetation and 
from sediment washed in by gently flowing waters, there is 


scarcely a possibility for coarse rocks and boulders to occur. The 
iscovery of a large eae boulder in the alluvium of the Missis- 


VOL. XII—NO vV. 


304 The Origin and Formation of Prairies. [ May, 


sippi river, in Whiteside county, was regarded by the observer as 
so extraordinary as to call for a special explanation. And yet on 
the prairies of Illinois, frequently lying on the surface and in the 
soil at all depths, are found numerous boulders of granite, syenite 
and trap rocks. On the surface they are found scattered from 
the hilltops to the very borders of the sloughs; and hidden in 
the ground they frequently prove a nuisance to the cultivator of 


the soil. Their presence in such situations cannot be reconciled _ 


with the notion that the soil is a lacustrine deposit. 

3. The general absence of fossils in the soil and subsoil of the 
high prairie lands is opposed to Lesquereux’s theory. In the 
Loess we find abundant fossils of land and fresh water shells. 
Such remains, too, sometimes occur in the deposits of the sloughs 
and marshes on the prairies; but these deposits are of later date 
than the soil of the higher grounds, and have frequently been 
formed as described by Lesquereux. If the prairie soil had been 
formed as he supposes, it would have afforded the most favorable 
conditions for the preservation of animal and vegetable organisms. 
“ At a depth of from one to three feet the mosses, conferve, and 
charas form a thick carpet which hardens, becomes consistent, 


like a kind of felt, and floating about six inches above the bottom, — 


is nearly thick enough to sustain the weight of a man. This 
carpet is pierced with holes where fishes pass to and fro; and the 


bottom under it is that fine impalpable clay, evidently a residue — 


of the decomposition of its plants.” We ought then almost any- 
where on these prairies, to find insect and leaf beds as rich as 
those of CEningen. But where now are those aquatic insects that 


people such waters; those land and fresh water mollusks; those 


numerous cray-fishes ; those leaves of plants that must have been 
buried there? Where are now those little fishes that passed to 
and fro through the holes in that mossy carpet? . So far as the 
writer knows, no such remains have been found. 


ae See 


4. The theory urged by the distinguished botanist requires US 4 


to suppose that these prairies have undergone a greater amount 
of denudation than would have been possible under the conditions 
supposed. He admits that the prairies must originally have been 
horizontal, and attempts to explain their present. undulating 
character by supposing that where we now find broad and Jevel 
sloughs, the soil has been removed by the gentle moveme 
water on its way to lower levels. The hills, however, rise frequ 
ly many feet, sometimes perhaps a hundred, above the leve 


nt of ae 
ent- i 
] of 


pate A ee ee ee TR age! 


1878. | The Origin and Formation of Prairies. 305 


the low grounds, and these may be many rods in width. The 
theory under consideration requires us to believe that in such 
cases an enormous amount of material has been removed. And 
yet it is questionable whether, under such circumstances, the soil 
would be removed as rapidly as it would accumulate through the 
decay of vegetation. For if the surface were as level as we must 
Suppose it was, and as it frequently is in these sloughs, the water 
must have moved so slowly as to carry little sediment along with . 
it; and as the water passed through the tangled grasses, rushes 
and sedges, even this little would have been filtered out. 

Indeed, the cause assigned for the uneven surface of the prairies 
is one that tends to produce the very opposite effect, that of re- 
moving any inequalities of the surface that might have at first 
existed. For the water running down the hillsides would have 
carried with it some soil. On reaching the level slough its 
velocity would have been checked and a large part of its burden 
deposited. That this has occurred, rather than the contrary 
phenomenon, is plainly shown by the fact that the alluvium is much 
deeper in the sloughs than on the tops and sides of the hills. 

5. The theory referred to requires us to ascribe to the alluvial 
deposits of the hypothetical lakes an undue thickness. For, since 
the peculiar fine soil of the prairies is found on the hilltops, as 
well as in the valleys between; it follows that, if the surface were 
once level, the lacustrine deposit of soil must have been of a 
thickness at least equal to the height of the hilltops above the 


4 _ lowest point to which the soil extends in the valleys. We must 


then believe that the deposit was perhaps a hundred feet in depth ; 
and since the valleys have been scooped out of this, we might 
expect to find the hills composed entirely of the lacustrine sedi- 
ment—rich, black, prairie soil from ten to one hundred feet in 
depth. On the contrary the soil is comparatively thin on the 
hilltops, very deep in the valleys. 

The valleys have been excavated from the Drift formation ; and 
the general contour of the prairies must have been determined 
before the prairie soil was formed, under whatever conditions it 
may have resulted. That some portions of the prairies, especially 


those bordering our great lakes and some of our rivers, have 


originally been swamps cannot be doubted; but that they are 
destitute of trees must be attributed to other causes, the absence 


_ of which in other localities permits the growth of trees alike on — 
_ the finest or the coarsest, the sweetest or the sourest soil. 


306 Methods of Labeling in Oblogical Collections. [ May, 
METHODS OF LABELING IN OOLOGICAL COLLEC- 
TIONS. 


BY W. H. BALLOU. 

È Sesh study of the eggs of birds, which has recently taken such 
impetus as to give it a recognized position in the science of 
ornithology, is at present in a condition deplorable indeed, from 
its broad deficiencies in the matter of labeling. Taking up an 
egg, in size no greater than a robin’s, we find plentifully scattered 
over its surface an advertisement large enough to adorn a news- 
paper column, spreading forth the fact apparently of great moment 
to the scientific world, that Mr. So-and-so was the fortunate col- 
lector of the egg, that it was collected on such and such a day, 
month and year, that it is a certain number in a standard cata- 
logue, and numbers so-and-so in So-and-so’s collection. Exam- 
ining European eggs in countries where the science was old when 
America was new, specimens are often found with a semicircular 
band’ of paper, or with a square label pasted on them with the 
scientific name written in ink or printed. Where the names are 
long, it is often a matter of speculation as to which occupies the 
greater space, the egg or the name. It is a shocking disgrace to 
European odlogy, equal in some respects to the eminently unsci- 
entific usages of our own odlogists. It is astonishing that during 
these centuries of existence that the science has attained so little 
eminence, and has remained so deficient in so small a matter as 
labeling, leaving out other points of greater and of less moment. It 
has heights and depths which it may attain to, and which 
will undoubtedly be arrived at- before many years. Its devotees, 
at present, seem to consist mainly of a class of persons whose 
only interest is concentrated in the knowledge of having a “ col- 
lection” of eggs and in discovering species yet unknown. 
The latter though of value to odlogy are used to build up omi- 
thology, and to that science is the credit of the discovery given. 
In consideration of some of the above facts it has been 4 
subject of much study on the part of myself and undoubtedly 
others as to what remedies may be successfully applied to 50 
great an evil as the present labeling system. The problem is not 
without its difficulties of solution. Many and varied were the 
experiments tried, which sometimes met with success in part, but 
on the whole are causes of grave errors. In each experiment 


some one was sure to so disarrange the eggs as to make it impos- 
‘sible to identify them. A leading difficulty was also found when — 


1878.] Methods of Labeling in Oblogical Collections. 307 


the collector possessed one or more sets of the same kind, or 
large quantities of eggs of the same species, as in the case of 
water-birds. It is still worse, when each egg or set of eggs of the 
same kind was obtained on the same day under different circum- 
stances and in different localities. Here there should have been a 
separate label in each case; but what collector is there that has 
been able or disposed to furnish one, or if he has done so, who at 
his death will be able to decipher them? A cataloyue of contin- 
ued difficulties rises before the collector; labels pasted, or mark- 
ings written on the egg, deface portions of its natural colorings. 
Slender shells often crumble in the hand while attempting to 
inscribe a written narrative thereon. Eggs are exchanged, passed 
into a new collector's hand, who rubs away at the original mark- 
ing, and deprives it of its natural luster and finish to make way 
for a new and more extended announcement. Drawbacks of 
these descriptions are sufficient to place any science below par 
and cast suspicion on its accuracy. 

But at last an expedient has been determined upon which, if 
followed, seems to cover the entire ground and to keep each 
individual egg forever in a condition that will enable one to pre- 
serve an accurate record of it. 

Having occasion during the past year to make an arrangement 
of the collection of odlogy in a certain Academy of Sciences in 
the west, my attention was more than ever drawn to the absolute 
necessity of having a different system of labeling from the one 
I employed there, especially in so large an institution where 
duplicate eggs are stored away by the thousand with no distinc- 
tion whatever. Soon after obtaining additions to my own collec- 
tion of eggs, some of which required mending, I was attracted 
by the wonderful adhesive force of “coaguline’? in cementing 
shells together. Following out the line of-thought presented at 
the time, I was enabled to perfect a system of labeling which is 
essentially described here: 

Slips of paper are to be prepared in triangular form, or at least 
to have one portion tapering to a point as in Fig. 1. The slips 


690/ 


Fig. 1. 


*A preparation sold by druggists. 


d 


308 Notes on Indian Manners and Customs. [ May, 


can be cut in sizes varying with the dimensions of the eggs, or 
the amount of writing intended to be placed upon them. Having 
made the necessary record, the very tip of the label may be 
moistened with coaguline and fastened to the egg as in Fig. 2. It 
should be placed on the border 
of the drilled hole on the side, so 
that both may occupy as little 
space as possible. Almost the 
entire surface of the egg is now 
in a condition for examination. 
The advantages of such a label 
are seen at once. Both sides 
may be written upon. They may 

=. be used as handles by which to 
hold the egg for examination, 
thus saving many eggs from 
being crushed. They may be made sufficiently large to contain all 
necessary writing, or small enough to suit the taste. They may be 


taken off at any time by simply dipping the cemented portion into 


warm water; and it is often desirable to do this, especially ‘in ex- 
changes. There is no possible danger of their being torn off when 
they are handled with the care usually bestowed on eggs. 

A practical use. of the above method is convincing proof of its 
efficiency. 


70s 


NOTES ON INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
BY DR. EDWARD PALMER. 


The Navajoes in the presence of death-—In 1869, Colonel Dodd, 


agent of the Navajo Agency, was very sick, and Barboncito, the - 


head chief, though quite unwell himself, went to see him. After 
gazing intently upon the Colonel for a few minutes, and shaking 
hands, the chief said in Navajo, “I wish you a good journey,” 
and left the room weeping. When the agent was dead and laid 
out, all the Indians came to look on him whom they had loved 


so well, though it is their custom never to look upon the dead. 


At the funeral Barboncito expressed a desire to go with the Col- 
onel, but afterwards recovered from his sickness. 


Fe S E EE E a a wee) E E e o ia ai iarba aa e e oae ee ee e AD ee EE a 


A Navajo Indian being sick, his friends took away his ticket 1 


entitling him to food at the Agency, gave him an old blanket and- 


1878. ] Notes on Indian Manners and Customs. > 309 


some water, and left him to die. No coaxing or threats of the 
agent could induce them to go near the corpse, and it was buried 
by the men of the Agency. The custom is, upon the death of a 
member of the tribe, to block up the door of the hut containing 
the corpse and never again to visit the spot through fear of evil 
spirits. They sometimes kill the best horse of the deceased and 
eat it at a funeral feast. 

Navajo women gambling—The Navajo women are fond of 
gambling, which they practice in the following manner. A square, 
marked off and surrounded by small stones, is divided into four ` 
equal parts, having ten stones to each part. A large flat stone is 
placed in the centre, anda stake four or five feet long is firmly set 
at each corner of the space. A blanket is stretched over the — 
square and fastened to the stakes, but not to shade the players, as 
will be seen. At each of the four divisions of the square a player 
is seated on the ground, while young and old stand or sit around 
to enjoy the sport. Three short, flat, smooth pieces of wood, 
black on one side and white on the other, are used to play the 


. game. The player takes the sticks in the right hand like jack- 


straws, and, bringing one end forcibly upon the stone, sends 
them up against the blanket which causes them to fall into the 
Square. If three black sides are up, it counts five, if white, ten. 
{f one white and two blacks are up it counts two, if two whites 
and one black, three. Each player keeps tally by scratching a 
notch on a stick with a stone. They are very fond of the game, 
manifest great spirit in playing, and will frequently stake all they 
have upon it. 

Apashe playing cards——The Apaches now use in gambling a 
pack of cards similar in shape and ornamentation to those used 
among civilized people. They are made of horse hide, tanned 
separately, and painted with the juices of wild plants. Like the 
Mexicans these Indians will sit upon the ground night and day, 
and in all weathers, gambling with an excitement amounting 
almost to frenzy, and stopping only when the stakes or their 
strength is exhausted. 

An Apache Medicine-man.—The medicine-man of the Ararypa 
band of Apaches is called Tseiland. He wears a very noted hat 
which could not be purchased at any price, owing to the belief 
that it came from the sun, and that to part with it would gain the — 


sun's displeasure. The hat is made of buckskin and ornamented- = 


4 


310 - Notes on Indian Manners and Customs. [ May, 


with turkey and hawk feathers, buttons, shells, and turquois. It 
is never off his head, night or day, excepting for a short time 
when he is washing his hair or combing it. The fingers of an 
Apache answer for a comb, being drawn through the hair, while 
the head is bent a little to one side. 

Apache rat-catchers—The Apaches, old and young, hunt rats, 
with long crooked sticks, no hole being too deep or winding, no 
brush too thick or thorny for them. The entire animal, just as 
caught, is roasted, and before half cooked is devoured, entrails 
and all. It is amusing to see a party of young Apaches return- 
ing from a hunt, with rats dangling at their belts as thickly as 
they can hang. No dyspepsia disturbs these juvenile rat-catchers, 
no cat or terrier can equal them in dexterity. 

Apache marriage—After the female consents to be a bride, the 
bridegroom must get the permission of her father, who at the 


same time names the articles to be given in exchange for her. The 


groom delivers the goods and takes his bride, not to his house, 
however, for she must build and equip that, and procure a great 
portion of the food for the family. The life of an Indian wife is 
one of incessant and severe drudgery. Adultery is considered a 
great crime on the part of the wife, but public sentiment does not 
condemn the husband. As soon as the crime is proved, the un- 
fortunate female is captured and her nose cut off close to her 
face, leaving a horrible wound which is not healed for a long time. 
For months some wear rags around their faces to hide the scar, 
and they conceal themselves from strangers. 

Visit to the Moqua Indians—In May, 1869, in company with 
the Rev. Vincent Colyer, I visited the Moqua Indians. One‘night, 
when camping near one of their towns, we wished some corn for 
our horses. The Governor being informed of the fact mounted 
the top of his house and called aloud for corn. A movement 
was soon discernible, house-tops, windows, and doors were occu- 
pied by listeners. The Governor repeated his call several times. 


Soon from every quarter corn was brought in flat baskets, until © 


more than enough was procured, for which we were to pay 
nothing, but Mr. Colyer gave them some flannel. They were 
surprised to see us giving corn to our horses, because it is raised 


with so much difficulty that they use it only for their own con- 


sumption. | 


_ The governors of the Moqua towns are accustomed to mount 


FEL ee AR Oe a ae te A AL Re ee SAREAT 


1878. ] Notes on Indian Manners and Customs, 311 


their house tops at night and to give instructions to the people 
regarding the labors of the following day. The night before we 
left the town of Uriba, one of these harangues was made, and we 
were informed that the governor had instructed his people to go 
out early in the morning and kill off the jack rabbits, which 
would otherwise eat up all their corn. Early next morning all 
the men turned out, accompanied by the women, whose business 
it was to take care of the game. Rabbits are an important article 
of food with these Indians, and the skins cut up into strips are 
made into cloaks and beds. The implement used in capturing 
them is the boomerang, which is shied at the legs of the animal. 
The captain of the same town once ordered the people out to 
capture the rats in the corn-field. 

The Governor of Uriba invited Mr. Colyer, Lieut. Krouse, and 
myself, to dine with him in his three-story house. He received 


us cordially, showing us a silver headed ebony cane, the gift of 


President Lincoln. Dinner being announced, a blanket was spread 
on the floor, and upon it were arranged dishes of dried peaches, a 
good supply of mutton, and a large basket of corn-cakes as blue 
as indigo, made from the meal of the blue corn. There were 
also some dishes filled with a sweet liquid made by dissolving the © 
roasted center of the agave plant in water; coffee completed the 
bill of fare. There were neither plates, knives, forks, spoons, or 
napkins, but the dinner looked clean, and so did everything else 
about the house. The bread answers for both plate and spoon. 
You take a small piece, lay a fragment of mutton and some 
peaches upon it, or a little of the sweet liquid and bolt the mass, 
spoon and all. This dinner, though prepared and cooked by In- 
dians, tasted better than many a meal eaten by us in border settle- 
ments, cooked by whites. After dinner we took leave of the 
Governor with many thanks. 

Eating customsin several tribes.—The Cocopah Indians of Arizona 
will not eat pork, though they have acquired a taste for salt beef. 
They are very fond of fish and will eat them at any time. They 
will not eat shell-fish of any kind. The Mono Lake Indians of 
California, eat soup made of angle-worms thickened with grass- 
seed flour. They also gather bats from caves and roast them in 
hot ashes without removing either feathers or entrails. Wasp 
nests are roasted and eaten; the more young they contain the 


better are they relished. The young Indians, in order to find the — < 


312 Notes on Indian Manners and Customs. [ May, 


nests, capture a wasp, place a small straw in the abdomen, light 
it, and let the insect go, they then watch its flight, follow it, and 
secure the nest. The Miama Indians were very fond of a dish 
prepared by boiling the roots of the yellow lily, Litium canadense, 
with meat. In the fall the roots, often two inches in diameter, 
are gathered; they taste very much like green corn. These In- 
dians also eat otter oil cooked in soup, and consider it very 
nutritious. ; 

The Cheyennes and Arapahoes consider dog-meat a superb 
dish, and when they wish to honor a guest especially, they kill 
the fattest dog and roast it; great offence is given if the guest eat 
not bountifully of the chosen dish. They also eat poisoned 
wolves in the Buffalo country. The white men kill the buffaloes 
for their hides, tallow, tongues, and some of the best portions of 
the meat. The tongues bring a high price. The rest of the car- 
cass is then poisoned with strychnine. The wolves eat the meat 
and their intestines become inflamed, producing death. The In- 
dians remove the viscera and eat the remaining portions of the 
wolf. On Cow Creek in Kansas, in 1865, I saw the carcasses of 
hundreds of wolves that had been thus eaten. 

i he Wichita and Comanche Indians will not eat fish that have 
scales, but are fond of those that have no scales ; they catch both 
kinds, and sell those which they do not like to the whites. 

The Apaches kill the beeves issued to them in the following 
manner: They divide themselves into parties; a lasso is cast 
around the animal’s horns and he is thrown to the ground. His 
throat being cut, a number of the Indians mount the body, still 
alive, while the others proceed to cut up the animal in spite of 
his plunging. I saw on one occasion a party cutting out the ribs, 
another removing the viscera, when the beast with a fearful bellow, 
extricated himself from the piles of Indians holding his legs, 
dealt one man a terrible blow in the face, and gored another in 
the stomach. But they rushed like wolves on their prey and soon 
had the quivering meat dangling at their horses sides, the squaws 
carrying off every morsel that was left. In this operation the 
strong have no respect for the weak, animals that have been 
sometime dead are not rejected, and every part of the carcass 1$ 
devoured, They greatly prefer mule and horse flesh. Itis roasted 
half done, all standing around and cutting off slices as soon as it 
is thoroughly warmed. They will not eat anything, however, 
_ that has been killed by lightning. 


1878.) - Recent Literature. 313 


The Navajoes dislike pork, but they beg for it to soften leather. 
They do not eat bear’s meat, and to call a man a bear is a term 
of great reproach. They do not eat eggs for fear that they will 
hatch in their stomachs. Turkeys also are rejected because they 
think that bad white men, after death, are changed into that bird. 
The transformation occurring beneath the water, the white mark- 
ings in the feathers of the turkeys is due to the white foam. 
These Indians capture the turkeys and sell them to the whites. 

While staying at the Navajo Agency I poisoned a number of 
mice for specimens and laid them away until an opportunity 
offered for skinning them; but hardly was my back turned, before 
they were stolen and socked: 

Prairie dogs are a favorite article of diet with the Navajoes. 
The animals are caught thus: A piece of glass is fixed in the 
split end of a stick which is so placed as to throw the light into 
the hole. The animal as he amuses himself at the glass is a good 
mark for the Indian. Another method is to place a large stone 
above the hole with a string attached ; when the prairie dog goes 
off to feed, the string is pulled and the stone dropped over the 
mouth of the den. The dog returning and finding his door 
blocked up, commences to dig around the stone, when he is 
quickly pinioned by the hunter's arrow. The Navajoes mix their 
meal or flour with water, and pour the batter into a hole made in 
hot ashes where it is left to bake. 


a 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


A VALUABLE WORK ON THE Howney-BEE.\W—This little French 
work before us is worthy of translation, so as to make its con- 
tents accessible to that large and growing class of bee-keepers 
who have mastered the technology of bee-keeping as practiced in — 
this country. While it is eminently scientific, it is not above the © 
comprehension of an ordinary reader. We notice particularly 
the full discussion of the embryology and anatomy of the drones, 
queens and workers, a subject not usually treated as fully as it 
deserves. The enemies and diseases to which. this wonderful 
insect is subject are also described and the former also figured. 
The geographical distribution of the three domestic forms of the 


1 Les Abeilles, Organes et Fonctions Education et Produits Miel et Cire. Par 
em ICE GIRARD, ancien President de la Société a de France, etc. 

vec une planche coloriée et trente rasa dans le texte. 1I2mo, VIII, pp. 280. 
Pats, 1878. J. B. Bailliére et fils. ee 


314 Recent Literature. e [ May, 


bee are given, viz: the common black of Central Europe, ae 

and the Egyptian, which is also found in Asia Minor, and s 

posed to be the species spoken of in the Bible. The systematic 
_ position and relations of the creature also receive attention. 

In describing the apparatus used in their management, we notice 
that most of it is such as has been thrown aside and superseded 
in this country by simpler or more effective contrivances. ‘The 

“ queen yard” as used by Quinby and improved by Mrs. Farn- 

am, “ queen cages,” “ breeding hives” are not mentioned. This 
fact taken with what the editors saw at the Centennial Exposition 
in the way of apparatus, from England principally, leads him to 
conclude that American bee-keepers are far ahead of their Euro- 
pean brethren in the perfection of appliances to render the pur- 
suit of apiculture profitable. 


BREHM’S ANIMAL Lire}—This volume completes the account 
of the Carnivora, and treats of the Insectivora, Rodentia, Edentata, 


E 


Fic. 1. SKELETON OF THE KANGAROO. 
> 5 Breakers Thierlebe en. Band 2. Grosse Ausgabe. Zweite umgearbeitete et 
o Yor, Auflager. Leipzic, 1877. 8vo, pp. 628. B. Westerman & Co. 


1878. | Recent Literature. 315 


Marsupialia and Didelphia, so that some of the most interesting 
f all the mammals are described by word and pencil. The vol- 


zr, 
a. 
< 


a} legs 
. 3 


è 
we, 


"(seprjayy sndosrvpy) OOAVONVYL *Z ‘DIT 


Fic. 3. SKELETON OF Echidna hystrix. 


Í great apparent accuracy and skill, comprising portraits in various 


316 Recent Literature. 


w —- 2 

—— 

= 
—~ 


E. 


ey ais 


[May, 


Fic. 4. Spiny ECHIDNA (Æ. hystrix). 


cs Tet ae AP hai 


; 
oo 
os 


1878. | Recent Literature. | 317 


of the kangaroo, and a drawing by Zimmermann of Macropus 
thetidis (one- eighth natural size). The Monotremes are also well 
drawn, as will be seen by the accompanying figures of ae T 
hystrix, and its skeleton ; the pair of duck-bills is wel 

The bears are well figured with one or two gee ‘We 
are not well suited with the group of prairie dogs, and in the ac- 
count of them more perhaps might have been quoted from Amer- 
ican authors, than from passing German travelers. The Egyptian 
Jerboa is well drawn and described at length, while no mention is 
made of our American jumping mouse or Meriones hudsonicus, and 
our characteristic jackass rabbit is not mentioned, much less 
figured. Still the work is of great value to the general reader and 
student of nature, as well as the special zoologist, as being a 
treasury of excellent intustiations and descriptions of the habits 
of the most striking animals of the globe; and we hope that the 
work will meet with a good sale in this country, where we are too 
much inclined to study American species alone. The price of the 
work in this country is 40 cents a part or about $5.00 a volume, 
which is certainly very reasonable. 

RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.—The Development of the Cranial Nerves in the 
Chick. By two “alate Marshall. (From Quart. Journ. Microscopical Science) 1877. 

vo 

PEE Thierleben, Leipzig, 1878. New York, B. Westerman & Co. Band 7. 
Parts I-10, 40 cts a p 

Ferns of nor America By Prof. D. C. Eaton. Salem, S. E. Cassino. 4to. 
Parts 2 and 3. 

Collembola boren lia. Nordiska Collembola, beskrifna af Tycho Tullberg. 
poren af Kon = Vetenskaps Akademiens Förhandlingar, 1876). Stockholm. 


"Es Bstudios. Ber fas Deformaciones, ee ee y aar u del Arbol de cafe 
en Venezuela. Por. A. Ernst. Enee 1878. 8vo, pp. 

Note sur des Perforation ns, observées S dim deu < Maren ux de Bois fossile. Note 
sur une aranéide fossile des Ter aia tertiaires Piik. Par. Charles Brogniart. (Ex- 
trait des Annales de le Société Entomologique de France). Paris, 7 vo 9- 

Notes on the Herpetol f Dakota and Mo By lliott Coues and 


ntana Drs. E 
. C. Yarrow. (Extracted from the Bulletin of Hayden’s U. S. Geol ological Survey 
of the Territories, iv, No. 1.) Washington, ign 8vo, pp. 4 
Nomenclature in Zodlogy and Botan a to the American Association 
Ady. Science. By W. H. Dall. Salem, 877. 0; pp. 56. . 
shee Coast riirn ar 24: Notes on m genus Colias, with descriptions 
apparently new s. By poh Edwards. oes the Proceedings of 
the California pie Tee my of | Se February 5, 1877. pp- 
nnual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontar ioe the year 1897. B 
W. Saunders, C. J. S. Bethune, B. Gott and J. ine Toronto , 1877. 8vo, pp. 59- 
Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Anatomie von 27. Ue ber den 
Begriff der Segmente bei Wirbelthieren noa Wirbellosen, PE g ee aat über 
die Wirbel. Säule des Menschen, 1877. 0, pp- 4 
eport on the Geographical an nd Geological Survey = the Rocky Mountain Re- 
gion. By J. W. Powell, Washington, 1877. » PP- 
Notice of the Butterflies perc nie by Dr. be! in a citi regions of southern 


Utah and northern Arizona during the summer of 1877. S. H. Scudder (Ex- 


tracted pm the Bulletin tin of bes he n’s U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. 
; a 1). Washingto 


1878. 8vo, pp. ae 
ome Jurassic Ponts collected by Mr. G. M. Dawson, in the Coast Range - 


Not 
of British Columbia. By J. F. Whiteaves, Montreal, 1878. 8vo, pp. I 
raveling notes on the Surfac e Geology of the Pacific Slope. By G. M. pma, 
e the Canadian Naturalist, viii. No. 7.) nor 18738. 8vo, pp. 1 


318 General Notes. [May, 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. i 

INFLUENCE OF MOISTURE ON VEGETATION.—Carefully conducted >- 
experiments (published by Paul Sorauer in the Botanische Zeitung, 
Jan., 1878) with spring barley yielded the following results: In 
dry air branching was greater than in moist, the mean figures 
standing at 2.77 and 2.37 respectively; length of leaves was 
greater in moist air in the ratio of 21.37 to 21.07, but the breadth 
was less (6.74 to 7.33); a moist atmosphere is more favorable to 
length of leaf-sheath in the proportion of 9.26 to 8.18, to growth 
of the principal stem (13.5 to 11.5) and to root development 
(26.8 to 23.9). It was found that the epidermal cells of the 
leaves were more numerous and broader, the cells between the 
stomates shorter, and the stomates themselves shorter in dry air. 
Also, that leaves developing in a moist atmosphere have com- 
paratively fewer stomates per millemetre of length. The ques- 
tion is worth further working out apropos of the relation between 
the minute structure of organs and their environment.— Journal 
of Botany. 

Bessy’s, Injurtous Fune1—This is an essay on the different 
species of blight or Erysiphei, which live chiefly on the leaves 
and sometimes on the stems of plants, and attack no less than 
fifty species of plants of much value in agriculture. The article 
contains descriptions of all but three species, the descriptions 1n- 
a few cases being original. Figures of ten species in sufficient 
detail for their identification accompany the text, which is 
extracted from the Seventh biennial report of the Iowa Agricul- 
tural College. 


t 
York Academy of Sciences, Mr. H. L. Fairchild gives some 
interesting results of studies showing that species of these fossils 
have been multiplied to too great an extent, from the imperfect 
nature of the fossils, owing to the great variability of the only 
_ characters that can be used by fossil botanists. 

REINSCH’S SAPROLEGNIEA: AND PARASITES IN DEsMID CELLS.— 
While this article from Pringsheim’s Yahrbuch contains observa- 
tions on certain new and very curious low plants, its chief inter- 
est to us are the figures and descriptions of sundry cytodes which 


have the power of penetrating the interior of desmids, and remind 


us of certain monera described some years ago by Cienkowski 


hundred species of minute plants and animals in this excellen 
drinking water. ae | 


nts he 
et SE ee 
F 


R 


1878.] Zoölogy. 1O- 


BoranicaL News.—In the London Journal of Botany M. A. 
Hartog describes the floral structure and affinities of Sapotacee. 
W. P. Hiem discusses a question of botanical nomenclature. C 
C. Babington contributes Notes on Rudi,and there are several 
descriptive papers. 

At a late meeting of the Linnæan Society, F. Darwin read a 
paper on the Nutrition of Drosera rotundifolia, in which he showed 
the advantage ġained by the plant being fed with meat, and that 
the capture by the plant of flies is of similar benefit. 

Mr. T. Dyer made a brief communication on the so-called 
“ rain-tree ” of Moyobamba, North Peru. This tree promises to 
excite as much interest amongst residents in hot, dry countries as 
the supposed anti-malarious properties of the fever tree (Eucalyptus 
globulus) had done amongst the inhabitants of hot dry ones. From 
information received through Mr. Spence, it seemed probable that 
the rain tree was Pithecolobium saman, and the so-called “ rain” the 
fluid excretions of homopterous insects which fed on the juices of 
the foliage; other trees, however might become rain trees, and the 
phenomena were comparable to the production of honey dew 
from the lime, etc., by the agency of Aphides. 


ZOOLOGY. ! 


HE HOMOLOGY OF THE CHEVRON BONES.—The chevron bones 
of Reptilia and Mammalia have been regarded as the homologues 
on the inferior side of the vertebral centrum, of the neural arch 


sense. I have recently determined the fact that the basal por- 
tions of the chevron bones are continued throughout the greater 
part of the vertebral column in the Permian genera C/lepsydrops, 
Metarmasaurus and Epicordylus, forming intervertebral elements to 
which I have given the name of intercentra. This intercentrum 
nearly replaces the centrum in Zrimerorachis, and does so com- 
pletely in Rhachitomus, both Permian genera. In Cricotus the 
intercentra are subequally developed with the centra, producing 


the curious appearance of two kinds of vertebral bodies alternating — 
= with each other, the true centra only bearing neural arches, and 


the intercentra bearing chevrons in the caudal region. It appears 

then that the chevron bones are the remnants in the caudal verte- 

bra of a structure once general throughout the column of air- 

breathing Vertebrata, but which’ has been replaced in them in the 

dorsal and lumbar regions, by the true centrum. e free 

elements of the cervical series of some reptiles are probably the 
Ci 


= same.—Z£. D. Cope. 


1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT ee 
U.S. A. ae 


< Cougs, 


_ VOL, XII—wNo. V. 23 


320 General Notes. [ May, 


NOTES ON THE RECENTLY DESCRIBED Monotremes.—With the 
appearance of Gervais’ Osteographie des Monotremes Vivant et 
Fossiles} zoodlogists are again reminded that not all that is to be 
known in regard to beings now living has yet been chronicled. 
This memoir follows close upon Mr. E. P. Ramsay’s papers read 
to the Linnzan Society of New South Wales. In the two we get 
materials which very greatly enlarge our knowledge of these 
curious porcupine-like animals with anteater-like tongues, of which 
the best and longest known example is Achidua hystrix. Mr. 
Ramsay describes a form apparently belonging to the old genus, 
which he calls, Æ. /awesi?, from Port Moresby, New Guinea; the 
number of nails being the same as in the old species, viz : five, 
both in front and behind; but I find upon comparing a skin of Æ. 
hystrix with his drawings that the inner nail is apparently some- 
what longer in his species. He observes that the species “ is dis- 
tinguished chiefly by the long cylindrical form of the quills, and 
the stiff, flat hair-like bristles on the face.” It is unfortunate that 


processes on the tongue and also the cranial and osteological 
differences which would have done much to establish the legiti- 


Echidna there never was more than seven of these series 
corroborates this, saying (Anatomy of Vertebrates vol. iil, p. 385), 
“The palate is armed with six or seven transverse rows of strong, 
sharp, but short retroverted spines.” The posteriorly convergent 
lines of spines on the basal portion of the tongue in Acanthoglos- 
sus furnished a further distinction from Echidna in which these 
are ina confused cluster. The four transverse fimbriated lamelle 
in front of this cluster of spines, as in Achidna, are absent. he 


“we 


tongue itself is about two and a-half times longer than in the old 


species, the basal two-thirds cylindrical, tapering and vermiform, 
but not acuminate at the tip, being rounded at the end and groovy 


on the dorsal face for about a third of its length. In the groove 


there are three longitudinal rows of backwardly directed spines, 
a median and two lateral. 
1 Bertrand. Paris, 1877-78, 


1878. ] Zoblogy. 325. | 


The cerebral portion of the brain of Acanthoglossus bruijnii 
is more pointed, while that of Æchidna! is more obtuse and 
somewhat square in outline anteriorly when viewed from above. 
The cerebral convolutions of the former are more numerous and 
complex than in the latter, where they are relatively few and 
simple. 

The interclavicular bone supports a strong median carina much 
more prominent than in Achidna. The xiphoid segments of the 
sternum in Acanthoglossus are ossified and not cartilaginous. The 

` phalanges of the manus and pes of both genera may be repre- 
sented as follows :— 


Acento, manus I,3,3,3,23 pes 1.3,3,3,23 mages i $. 
Echidna 2435353533 PSS 2,353,333 $ 


The foregoing characters which are the principal ones, justify, 
it would seem beyond all doubt, the papreY of erecting 
large New aaa species into a separate genus as Gervais has 
done. Knowing, as we do, the exceedingly frivial and insufficient 
morphological differences which have served for the establishment 


, differences as are here presented principally in the number of 

_ phalanges and nails, as well as perhaps the more important lingual, 
palatal, cranial and cerebral characters. 

he specimens,.a male and female, upon which Prof. Gervais has 

based his genus, were brought by M. Leglaize from the northern 
part of New Guinea to Paris. They were obtained on the Karon 
mountains, at a elevation of 3770 feet above sealevel. Peters and 
Doria had previously described the skull of this species and 

called it Tachyglossus bruijnii? The natives call the animal 
Nokdiak. 

The known species of monotrematous spiny anteaters are ac- 
cordingly three, provided Achidna lawesii is distinct, which it ap- 
pears to be from the rather brief and hardly sufficient description 
of its author; and Æ. hystrix and Æ. setosa are identical. The 
species then stand as follows in the order of discovery, or rather 
of characterization : 


PASS 


PIEST R e ii 


$ 
> 
N 
S 
Pas 
x 
PAKS 
£a: 
E 
< 


. ams 
Acanthoglossus pie! Gerv. — Jno, A. Ryder. 


ProF. P. E. ScuuLze has discovered the mode of development 
of the European cavernicolous Proteus anguinus. He found one 
at Adelsberg cave which had laid fifty-six eggs, very similar to 
those of Siredon pisciformis. The Proteus anguinus is proved by 
researches on the ovary of a female from which the eggs were 
taken to be oviparous. ; 


1 Nouv. Arch. du Mus. Tom. 5, Pl. 14, fig. 16, p. 248. 
2 Ann. del Mus. Cie: di Sci. Nat. di Ganges; tom. IX Dec. 3, 1876. 


322 General Notes. 


ANTHROPOLOGY." 


pying the valley now called the Grande Ronde Reserve, Yampill 
and Polk counties, Oregon, and probably all the Kalapuya tribes 
of the Willamette valley are accustomed to invoke the celestial 


to see the sun rise. At the appearance of the god of day they 
exclaim “O, I am poor! O, I am poor! Make me rich! Make a 
chief of me!” (The chiefs being the wealthiest men in the tribes.) 
During the night they throw up with their hands little mounds 
from three to seven feet long and from twelve to eighteen inches 
high. Their design is not to conceal property or to bury the 
dead, but simply to work themselves into a terrible sweat. Their 
exertions often occupied five nights, the wandering about without 


good portents. These tamanowus dreams are regarded very 
highly among them.—Adéert S. Gatschet. . 


THE THIRD VOLUME OF CONTRIBUTIONS to North American Eth- 
nology, published by the Department of the Interior, under the 


editorial charge of Major J. W. Powell, is a positive addition to . , 


introduced to the literary world by Mr. H. H. Bancroft in his 

ative Races, and contains an exhaustive account of his researches 
among the California tribes. The preface contains a rather 
severe blow at Major Powell’s pet theory about the sparseness 
Indian population on our continent, the publication of which is 4 
tribute to the fairness of the Major as well as to the independence 


of Mr. Powers. The latter part of the work is occupied by — 


vocabularies, in the collection of which Major Powell is especially 
ngaged. 


of February 16th, contains the description of another carve 
slate tablet, found in No. 11 of the Cook Farm group, from 
the cremation tablet was taken last year. It is about seven an 


a-half by 12 inches, and has on one surface a human figure sur- 


1 Edited by Prof. Or1s T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


of 


Sn) egies ee er en 


Dd 


= Itza, Ausland, 4. 


1878.] Anthropology. 323 


mounting an image of the sun. In the upper corners are fac- 
similes of bird-pipes, and in the space between the pipes and the 
human figure occur various hieroglyphics and the figure of a 
copper axe. The indefatigable industry of the Davenport archæ- 
ologists has more than once received the commendation of this 
journal, they will therefore receive a word of caution with kind- 
hess, and not allow themselves to be duped by some wag who 
will throw discredit upon the discoveries for which we are 
indebted to Messrs. Gass, Farquharson and others. 

The Hon. N. E. Dawson, of Burlington, Ohio, presented to — 
Congress, Feb. 5, a memorial on a Reformed Alphabet and Or- 
thography. 

Keith Johnson will publish a compendium of Geography and 
Travels, one volume to be devoted to each continent. The work 
will be similar to Von Hellwalds’ “ Die Erde und ihre Volker.” 

An Ethnological Museum opened at the Hotel des Invalides, 
Paris, contains a collection of papier maché warriors of all times and 
peoples, civilized and uncivilized, in order to exhibit in one view 
the history of the destructive agencies employed by man. 

The Sociétié d’ Anthropologie has arranged for a series of 
“ Séances pleniéres internationales des Sciences anthropologiques,” 
in connection with the anthropological exhibit at the Paris Ex- 
position. The paper read will be published in a separate volume. 

An Archeological Society has been organized in Japan, called 
Kobutzio-Kai (Society of Old Things). H. Von Siebold, a mem- 
ber of the Society, has opened a mound at Ozmuri near Jeddo, 
containing over 5000 articles in stone, bronze, &c. r. Siebold 
Says that prior to the Christian era it was customary to surround 
the grave of a deceased king or queen with a number of attend- 
ants, buried alive to the neck. Subsequently clay images took the 
place of the living subject, and numbers of these images are found 
in old grave yards. : 

Mr. Frank Cushing has made a very interesting discovery in 
connection with the pottery recently sent from the shell heaps of 
Japan by Prof. Morse. Comparing the marking on this pottery 
with the ornamentation upon a collection of Aino clothing, pre- 
viously sent to to the National Museum by Hon. Horace Capron, 
Mr. Cushing finds the constant recurrence of a conventional pat- 
tern on both, to wit, a series of elongated hexagons, joined at 
their apices, and filled with ornamentation which resembles 
hatching in a wood cut. This marking is produced on the pot- 
tery by the impression of a coarse bast cloth, and on the clothing 
by embroidery. This seems to indicate that the makers of the 
shell-heaps were the ancestors of the Ainos. 


The following papers on American Anthropology have been 


noticed: Grönland und seine Bewohner, l., Ausland, No. 2; 
Vom Amazons und Madeira, Dr. Robert Lallement, Gaea, I. ; Ent- 
deckung der Statue eines Itza-königs in den ruinen von Chichen. 


324 General Notes. [ May, 


Attention is called to the following titles of foreign works and 
papers: The Evolution of Morality, J. Staniland Wake, Triibner ; 
On the Origin of Reason, Max Muller, Contemp. Rev., Feb.; 
Forest and Field Myths, W. S. Ralston, zd. ; March of an English 
Generation through Life, Quart. Review, Jan.; Evolution of Cere- 
monial Government, Herbert Spencer, Popular Science Monthly, 
Feb.; Ueber das Alter der Hohlenbewohner des Schaffhauser 


benden Lande., Dr. H. Böttger, Stuttgard, 1877 ; Morphology of, 


the human teeth as related to the races of men, Dr. E. Lambert, re- 
`- print in Amer. Fournal, Oct., 1877; On the subjection of the old 
by the young, Carus Sterne, Kosmos, July, 1877; On the speech 
of primitive man, Fraulein von Hellwald, zd.; The origin of the 
culinary art, Fritz Schultz, zd.; On the color sense, Hugo Mag- 
nus, 72. Aug.; The Darwinian philosophy, with reference to the 
problem of will, &c., zd. Sept. ; Color and color sense, Prof. Jager, 
id.; The language of primitive man, Dr. F. Weeland, zd. Oct.; 
Die Forschungen der Kaiserlichen archaologischen commission zu 
St. Petersburg, II, III, in Mitthed. d. Anth. Ges. in Wien., 7, 8 
and 9; Review of Cesnola’s “ Cyprus,” Academy, Jan. 19; Cut- 
turgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen , Alfred von Kremer 
(Band II reviewed in Academy, Feb. 2, by Stanley Lane Poole); 
Die Orientalische Frage als cultur Frage, F. von Hellwald, £us- 
land, 1, 2, 3, 4; Languages of farther India and the Indian 
Archipelago, with map, Geographical Magazine, Feb. ; Ein Samoa 
Dorf, Ausland, 2; Ueber die Perforation des Penis bei den Ma- 
layen, A. B. Mayer, Mittheilungen Anth. Gesellschaft Wien. 
Q. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


THE STRUCTURE OF CORYPHODON.—I observe in the issue of 
“ Nature,’ No. 435, p. 340, a note by Prof. O. C. Marsh, stating 
that I have included in the cast of the olfactory lobes of the 
brain of Coryphodon that of a part of the nasal cavity also. - Prof. 
Marsh fails to point out the qualifying remarks to be found in my 
descriptions. In the explanation of Plate I of the Proceedings 
of the American Philosophical Society, 1877, p. 620, I say, 
“the right bulbus of the olfactory lobe is probably too large 
above, owing to the want of preservation of the superior wall o 
the cavity.” In my quarto report to Lieut. G. M. Wheeler, in 
vol. iv., p. 223, of his report to the Chief of Engineers, I remark: 
“In excavating the matrix from the olfactory chambers some 
difficulty was experienced in attempting to lay bare the superior 
and inferior walls, etc. On one side of the bulb this boundary was 


probably passed through, giving a larger vertical diameter that | 


ESE SSS 


spec ae 
‘oes 
ee 


SS 


eee AEREE NTI E a = a i 


ba 


nas tk cE a i e Meee POSS eae a a at 


1878.] Geology and Paleontology. 325 


the true one.” There is no doubt, however, that the greater part 
of the cast of this region, which I have made, belongs to the olfac- 
tory lobes, and for the following reasons: e excavation was 
conducted with the greatest care, occupying more than two weeks, 
and the sandy matrix was removed grain by grain. No trans- 
verse cribriform plate was found, and no osseous body interrupted 
the matrix posterior to the anterior extremity of the chamber 
cast. No longitudinal septum divided the olfactory chambers 
until the entire thin edge which marks the fundus of the groove 
in my figure! was reached. It is not probable that these struc- 
tures had been present and been lost. The position of this cham- 
ber is much posterior to that of the nasal cavities in Mammalia 
generally, being above the posterior part of the pterygoid plates, 
instead of between the posterior (tapir) or anterior (hog) regions 
of the orbits. The septum observed is doubtless that whic 
divides the right and left olfactory lobes. Its sides are smooth as 
far as the inferior termination of the chamber as figured. I have 
not followed out its superior extremity owing to the appearance 
of delicate osseous pieces which may belong to the ethmo- 
turbinal. This is the first interruption of the olfactory chamber 
met with. What the homology of the contents of this space 
with the olfactory lobes and nerves of later mammalia may be, 
remains to be ascertained. 

Prof. Marsh’s last paper on this family is, however, not free 
from what I should call, were I to use his phraseology, “ glaring 
errors.” He denies that the ectocuneiform ‘bone is in contact 
with the astragalus, which is palpably the case (see my Fig. 12, 
Pl. LIX, in the volume iv, Paleontology of the U. S. G. G. Survey 
under Lieut. G. M. Wheeler). He also represents the temporal 
fossæ as converging towards a sagittal crest behind the orbits, 
whichis not the case. The temporal fosse are entirely lateral as 
in Uintatherium. See my Plate LII of the work cited. Rather, 
however, than assume that these are “glaring errors,” I await 
solution of the question as to whether two different genera of 
Pantodonta, i. e., Bathmodon and Coryphodon are not under con- 
sideration. 


subject as left by Hébert, was added by myself between that date 

and the spring of 1876. In April of that year I exhibited to the 

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and a few days- 

after to members of the National Academy at Washington, the cast 

of the brain of this genus. Prof. Marsh’s paper appeared after — 
1 Wheeler’s Report PI. LI, Figs. 2-6. : 


326 General Notes. [ May, 


my first exhibition of it, being an extra sheet of the May number 


of the American Fournal of Science and Arts—E, D. Cope, Phila- 


delphia, March 20, 1878. 


THE ORIGIN oF Laxes.—Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S., Director-Gen- 
eral of the Geological Survey, gave the Monday evening lecture 
at the London Institution on “The Great Ice Age.” He com- 
menced with a description of a typical Swiss glacier, drawing 
special attention to that which is commonly called the perpetual 
snow line, here some 8,500 feet above the sea level, which is 
called perpetual rather by courtesy than as being an absolute fact. 
While it is the snow which furnishes the mass of the glacier, the 
fragments of rock carried down originate in this way: There are 
some steep slopes which are not covered with snow, and are 
exposed to the heat of the sun. The alternating heat during the 
day and the cold of the night cause disintegration, and masses of 
the rocks are broken off, which not only form the heap of rubbish 
called moraines, but some of which, falling through the crevasses, 
form the “ graving tools ” which score the mass of rock beneath 
into grooves. If we look further afield, we find glaciers in the 
Himalayahs, in Greenland, and in Victoria Land which make those 
of Switzerland appear quite insignificant. In Victoria Land the 
sheets of ice which float off are of enormous thickness, and indi- 
cate through what a severe glacial period the Southern Hemis- 
phere is passing. The chief signs by which the former existence 
of glaciers in places where they no longer flow can be traced, are 
the old moraines and the scratchings on the rocks. Taking these 
as guides, the eye of a trained glacialist can detect with certainty 
the traces of long-departed glaciers in many parts of the world. 
The well-known examples in Wales were first mentioned, and 


then in succession those of Scotland and North England were 


described. There is evidence in Scotland that in former times 


time was smothered in glacier ice. The glaciation of Anglesea 
was the result of a different system from the glaciers of Wales, 
as is proved by the fact that the striations of the rocks lie in dif 
ferent directions.. The Scandinavian mountain chain has been 
unmistakably moulded by glacier action, and there are abundant 
evidences that North America has been intensely glaciated. 
These facts had been noticed by many observers, but there was 4 
point in connection with this which Prof. Ramsay said he claime 

as his own idea, and that was with regard to the origin of lake 


basins. His belief is that in all cases they have originale 1 


from glaciers—that is, that the basins have been scooped ou 


_ by glaciers. He pointed in confirmation of his position to cases 


ie many parts of the world where there are lake basins near 


Sig abi 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 327 


mountain chains which could have furnished glaciers, and that 
lakes are absent in districts where there are no high chains. He 

' did not, however, say that there were not some which had 
originated from other causes. The lecture was illustrated by 
diagrams and water-color drawings.—London Times. 

(While glaciers have undoubtedly modified mountain valleys, 
which existed in mountain chains long before the glacial epoch, 
it is the opinion of many who have had large experience in gla- 
cial studies, that the agency of glaciers in scooping out lake-basins 
is much exaggerated. Many glacial lakes are due to streams 
being dammed by old moraines.—Eps. NATURALIST.) 


A New Fauna.—Prof. Cope has recently made an examination 
into the Permian formation of the west, of which a fragment was 
found by Dr. Winslow, in Illinois, a few years ago. He finds this 
period to have been rich in life, chiefly in Reptilia and Batrachia. 
Two remarkable genera of saurians have been discovered, in which 
the long diameters of the crowns of the teeth are transverse to 
the axis of the jaws. In one of these, Diadectes Cope, the teeth 
are flat, like those of the pharyngeal teeth of Catostomide; in 
the other, Bolosaurus Cope, the crowns are bulbiform with 
an apex on one side, and a deep notch on the other side. Diadectes 
sideropelicus and Bolosaurus striatus and B. rapidens are the known 
Species. Clepsydrops has been found to have the canine and incisor 
teeth distinctly characterized. The ischia are immensely enlarged 
in an antero-posterior direction, forming a boat-shaped body. The 


The zygapophyses are greatly elevated, and are connected with 
each other and the diapophyses by a wide expansion. The only 


alligator. These saurians have deeply biconcave and mostly 
notochordal vertebrz, with intercentra, and are referred to the 


Archegosaurus. In Trimerorhachis the neurapophyses are united | 


T into a v-shaped bone 


328 General Notes. [ May, 


The centrum is represented by a cortical ossification of the 
chorda dorsalis on each side, while a large crescent-shaped ossifi- 
cation of the sheath alternates with the neural arches on the 
inferior side. This body is called the zztercentrum by Prof. Cope. 
The basioccipital and parasphenoid bones are ossified, and the 
former bears a cup-shaped articulation for the first vertebra, and is 
fissured for the chorda. The only species is the 7: insignis. 
The other genus is Rhachitomus. Here the centrum is replaced 
by the large intercentrum, and the neurapophyses bear part of the 


the ossification of the intercentra. The typical species was 
probably larger than the Æmpedocles alatus, and has been named 
Rhachitomus valens. 

More than twenty species of this fauna have been determined 
by Prof. Cope, and mostly described in a paper read before the 
American Philosophical Society on March 5th. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 


THE GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE YEAR.—In his annual presi- 
dential address before the American Geographical Society, Feb. 
27th, Judge Daly, reviewed the geographical work of the year. 
He first drew attention to the confirmation by the English Arctic 
Expedition of the discovery by Dr. E. Bessels of the junction of 
two important tides in the larger part of Smith’s Sound, creating 
the impression that a new type of tide has been ascertained, oc- 
curring every eight hours. After detailing Dr. Schliemann’s dis- 
coveries, and the different national surveys, he alluded at some 
length to the topographical survey of New York. In pursuance 
of the recommendation of the society, an act was passed and an 
appropriation of $20,000 was voted fòr beginning the work. The 
general secretary of the society, James T. Gardner, was appointed 
director, and the work has now been in progress two years under 
his charge. The triangulation has been carried through the east- 
ern-central part of the State, extending from the Hudson river to 
Utica, over an area of about 3,000 squaré miles, including parts 
of eleven counties. The work is of the highest order of accuracy. 

Every city, village and hamlet is thus located with absolute pre- 
cision. A map has just been published, accompanying the report 
of the director. A comparison of this with the former maps 
shows that on the old map of this part of the State, the cities and 
villages are often misplaced more than a mile. The survey has 
not found a single town where it was represented to be on the old 
maps. During the coming season, the triangulation would be ex- 
tended across the entire State. 

Lieutenant Wyse, of the French navy, who conducted the oe 

_ pedition for ascertaining a route for a canal across the Isthmus 0f 

-= Darien, completed his reconnoissance during the year and has 


pre $ she ee = 
fy lig ah Sy A lg RMN es Ea S ee cee 


Ba dat LEE de IR MeL acre a 5 a ee ERE E EE DE AEDE, ae E act ah a TE 


SE ean n er ee Ome ph 
EIRA E See nes 


lake, flowed into it. 


A 
1878.] Geography and Travels. 329 


| published his preliminary report. His conclusion is that no 
_ navigable channel is possible between the Tuyra and the Atrato 


without locks or tunneling. 


Dr. A. Le Plongeon has been engaged for some time in re- 
_ searches in Yucatan among the ruins of Chichen Itza, Uxinal and 


Aké, and those of the once famous islands of Azumel and Mu- 


_ jeres, and has made many interesting discoveries. He has taken 


many valuable photographic views of ruins, structures and hiero- 


_ glyphics, and discovered a remarkable statue which was buried 
_ twenty-one feet in the ground. He also discovered some other 


figures in the Island of Mujeres; he thinks that relations formerly 


-existed between the people of Yucatan and the inhabitants of the 


islands on the west coast of Africa, as he finds many things re- 
sembling the Guanches, the early inhabitants of the Canary 
Islands, whose mummies are yet found in the caves of Teneriffe, 
and in other islands of the group. 

In South America Major D. A. Rivara and M. A. Werthemen 
have been exploring in the mountains of Peru, M. Weiner in 
Bolivia, and Signor F. P. Moreno in Patagonia. They have been 


measuring the heights of mountains and seeking the sources of 


rivers. Many interesting facts have been learned. 
There have been many explorers in Asia; in Palestine, Persia, 


’ Turkestan, Thibet, China, India and Japan. Herr E. Knipping. 


as been engaged in extensive surveys in Japan, and has com- 


_ pleted a large map of the country, which will soon be published. 
_ He was last surveying a route from Kobi to Tokio, a distance of 


= Over 3000 miles. 


Mr. Wojeikoff completed his meteorological journey round the 


_ world, during the course of which it will be remembered we had 


the pleasure of seeing him at one of our meetings. His last visit 


= Was to India, Java and Japan, and he made an excursion into a 


part of the interior of Japan never before visited by Europeans. 

When I referred to Mr. Stanley in my last address, he had fin- 
ished his expedition to Lake Akengara, south-wést of Lake 
Ukerewe, and was on his way to Lake Tanganika to explore the 


_ country south of the Mwutan Nizige, and north-west of that lake, 
_ in the hope of reaching the Mombutto country at the north, so 
= as to connect his own discoveries with those of Schweinfurth, 
-across the equator. It will be remembered that I mentioned last 
-= year that Lieut. Cameron circumnavigated Lake Tanganika, and 
4 concluded, from his own observations, that he had discovered the 


outlet of the lake in the River Lukuga, flowing from it on the 


_ western side. An ordinary traveler would have been satisfied 
_ with Cameron’s survey and his conclusion as to the outlet, but 
_ Stanley, in the true character of a geographical explorer, deter- 
mined to go round the southern part of the lake himself, and the 
result was that he ascertained by a detailed survey and careful 


soundings that the River Lukuga, instead of flowing out of the 


- 


330 General Notes. [May, 


After completing this work, Stanley started with a force of 140 
porters for Nyangwa, the farthest northern point attained by Liv- 
ingston or Cameron, carrying his boat, the Lady Alice, with him — 
in sections. Stanley reached this place in November, 1876, after 
a journey of about 350 miles in forty days; in itself, a remark- 


quently the most sagacious conclusions, founded upon what 
seemed to be the most trustworthy information, have not only 
been attended by failure, but with the most disastrous results, can 
fully appreciate what Stanley undertook, and the hazard he ran in- 
determining to follow the Lualaba river in its northerly course. 
The river ran to the north, apparently in the direction of the 
sources of the Nile. He had Livingstone’s conviction that it 
was the remote source of that river. To follow the river, how- 
ever, in its northerly course, might lead him, if his theory shoul 
not be verified, into the interior of Northern Africa, where he 
would be, with a large body of followers, without supplies, and 
in a state of utter destitution. He appreciated the great risk he 
ran, but after fully considering it, he came to the bold determina- 


accordingly started to follow the river to the north. He reached — 
the Atlantic coast in August, 1877, having made a journey from 
Uyangwa down the river to its mouth, a distance of about 1,800 — 
miles, passing on the way fifty-seven cataracts. ee 
Nhen we saw Mr. Stanley here in the society, his hair was — 
black; it is now said to be entirely white. Of the 350 men with 
whom he left Zanzibar, in 1874, only 115 reached the Atlantic 
coast, and 60 of these, when at the journey’s end, were suffering 
from dysentery, scurvy and dropsy. He was on the Congo trom 
fovember 1, 1876, to August 11, 1877,—a period of over mine — 
months; so that his promise to the native followers was fulfilled, 
that he would reach the sea before the close of the year. ee 
It remains only to refer to the geographical knowledge which 
has been obtained by this remarkable exploration. The entire — 


by Livingstone, who discovered it, Bangwelo. Descending be- 
yond 17° E. longitude, the Congo spreads out into an enormous — 
breadth, and then slowly contracts between hills, when 1t thunders s 

down, steep after steep, for 180 miles, and then flows as the ma- 


1878. | Geography and Travels. 33 I 


jestic and calm Lower Congo. In this 180 miles it has a fall of 
585 feet. Stanley found the people in this region very friendly. 


Kwango to be over 500 miles, while there are four or five others 
which, from their breadth, he thinks, should be navigable for 
great distances. The Nile, he says, has greater length than the 
Congo, but the Congo could furnish water for three Niles, and it 
is a much more valuable river for commerce than the Nile,as the 
Congo has its rapids concentrated in two places, and is not, like 
the Nile, frequently interrupted by rapids. The upper rapids, 
where all navigation westward on the Upper Congo terminates, 
has six great falls, while the lower series has sixty-two important 
falls and rapids, with many minor ones. Once above the lower 
cataracts, he says, we have the half of Africa before us, with no 
interruption like the desert regions of the Nile, but one vast popu- 
lous plain, no part of Africa with which he is acquainted being so 
thickly inhabited. The term villages, he says, can scarcely be ap- 
plied, for it is a collection of dwellings, and there are towns in 
some places two miles long, with one or more broad streets, and 
rows of neat and well-built houses, superior to anything to be 
found in Eastern Africa. 

Fault has been found with Mr. Stanley, especially in England, 


for the warlike contests and destruction of savage life that at- 


tended his exploration, which it has been said will make it diffi- 
cult for any future explorer.to follow in the same direction, and 
which the objectors attribute to a too ready disposition on his 


_ part to employ fire arms instead of trying conciliatory measures. 


He was attacked in the beginning and continued to be attacked 
until he came to that part of the river where natives dwelt who 
had intercourse with the Atlantic coast, but as he has stated, and 


as there is évery reason to believe, he acted throughout entirely — 


on the defensive. et 
In no other way would it have been been possible for him to 
have followed the river as he did for 1,800 miles, and none but a 


. navigation of that great lake; the investigation of its tributaries, _ 


pes 
=] 


d what he ascertained in respect to Lake Tanganika, both on 
his first and his last examinations of it, it may be truthfully said 


. 


that no man has ever, in explorations upon the land, done so 


* 


` important business to be offered for consideration, an 


332 General Notes. [ May, 


much for the acquisition of geographical information. In respect 
to the great water system of Africa, in its connection with the 
mystery of the Nile and the mystery of the Congo, he has solved 


-an enigma that has attracted the attention of the world for 


ages, and fixed his name in the foremost rank of geographers, ex- 
plorers and travelers.—Condensed from the New York Tribune. — 


MICROSCOPY. ! 


MicroscoricaL SECTION, Troy SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. —A 
regular meeting of this section was held on the evening of April 
ist, Dr. R. H. Ward, chairman of the section, in the chair. 

Minutes of the last regular meeting and record of the subse- 
quent soirée were read and approved. 

Dr. Ward announced an invitation from the microscopists of 
Indianapolis to their fellow-workers throughout the country, to 
attend a National Congress of Microscopists in that city, com- 
mencing on Wednesday the 14th of August next, and adjourning 
in time for members to attend the meeting of the American Asso- 
ciation at St. Louis, one week later. The biological section of 
the Indianapolis Lyceum of Natural History, assisted by many 
influential citizens, will make ample arrangements for the comfort 
and economy of visitors from abroad, both in obtaining reduce 
rates of travel and in the most liberal entertainment while in the 
city. A detailed statement of the proposed work of the congress 
and of the facilities offered by the local management will be given 
to the public, within a few weeks, in the form of a circular. the 
committee of arrangements, consisting of Prof. E. T. Cox, chair- 
man, Mr. E. Sharpe, Dr. Henry Jameson and Dr. W. W. Butter- 
field, secretary, have received the individual endorsement and 
promise of cooperation of leading microscopists, and now formally 
extend an invitation to the microscopical societies and workers 
throughout the country, with the assurance of a successful meet- 
ing. Such a congress, with its opportunities for stimulating 
microscopical work, discussing questions of general importance, 


and cultivating personal acquaintance among fellow-workers d 


their way to St. Louis, with no additional expense and no lay 
save the time spent at the congress. Microscopists desiring to 
for circu- 


attend should apply to the secretary of the committee _ 
lars giving further information, and should send notice of any 


papers proposed to be read, accompanied by a copy of the papers 
or by abstracts of the same, to the secretary of the com 


1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Warn, Troy, N. Y. 


d titles of | 


mittee at - 


1878. ] Microscopy. 333 


least two weeks before the time of the meeting, in order that a cor- 
rect programme may be prepared. 

The invitation to the congress at Indianapolis was, on motion, 
accepted, and it was resolved that members finding themselves 
able to attend should give early notice to that effect to the secre- 
tary of the committee, at No. 413 N. East street, Indianapolis. 

Mr. Joseph McKay gave a demonstration of Prof. H. L. Smith’s 
method of dry mounting by means of a background of wax and 
a curtain-ring cell, showing the facility and elegance with which 
this method may be carried out 


Rev. A. B. Hervey described a New Method of Fluid Mounting — 


which he had recently devised. In his study of the alge and 
lichens he had been troubled, as others have been, by the difficulty 
of permanently mounting specimens while studying them, with- 
out waste of time or change of arrangements. Most of the 
methods of mounting either ruin such objects entirely or else 
require considerable time, care, and special. appliances that are 
troublesome to a busy student; and therefore instructive speci- 
mens are often neglected and lost. The objects may be trans- 
ferred from water to Farrant’s solution of gum and glycerine and 
mounted without delay, but the structure is not well preserved 
and air bubbles are likely to be obstinately present. The objects 
show best in distilled water, sea water, camphor water, etc.; and 
to mount them instantly and with uniform success he prepares 
cells of the gum and glycerine solution put on by means of the turn 
table in the usual way. Having made cells of the required depth, 
and laid them aside until thoroughly dry, the inner half of the 
width of the cell is varnished on the turn table with gold size, 
which is also allowed time to dry perfectly. Objects in water 
are arranged and covered in these cells with ease, and are ready 
after lying aside for a time varying from a few minutes to a few 
hours, to receive a coat of gold size or other varnish, the fluid 
that exudes from the cell in pressing down the cover glass having 
dissolved enough of the gum cell to hold the cover in position. 
It has not been found that the cell is too much affected by the 
fluid; but if it should be so the cell could be made of the usual 


bf 


cements, insoluble in water, and then coated with a thin layer of — 
um 


Mr. C. E. Hanaman demonstrated the use of the Nachét cam- 


era lucida, and quoted opinions from discussions at the Queckett | 


Club to confirm its superior facility of use as compared with the 
other forms of camera. : 

Dr. Ward presented the New Self-centering Tur n-table recently 
contrived by W. H. Bulloch, of Chicago, and remarked that this 
table seemed to combine all the really radical improvements that 
have been made in the turn-table up to the present tıme. The 


» 


early tables were more or less satisfactory varieties of the original 


Shadbolt form, and were arranged to be whirled ina variety of 


* 


eastern U. S., presented; 2 spotted salamanders (Salamandra 
-~ maculosa), Europe and North Africa, presented; I 
camel (Camelus bactrianus) &, Asia, born in the Gard 


334 ; Scientific News. [ May, 4 


ways; but the first fundamental improvement was the self-center- 
ing table of Dr. Matthews, which centered the slide for width 
only between jaws swinging on opposite posts and held it in 
place by means of a sliding wedge. This method is greatly sim- 
plified without at all impairing its efficiency, by discarding the 


wedge and jaws and centering by the posts alone, in the table con-  _ 


trived and now made by Mr. Zentmayer. Mr. Cox has undisputed 
priority in the expedient which now surpasses all others, and seems 
ikely to continue to do so, of centering for both width and length 
by grasping the diagonally opposite corners of the slide between 
jaws that move automatically towards or from the center, after 
the manner of the different forms of American scroll chucks. In 
Mr. Cox’s table, now well known, the jaws are moved by a hori- 
zontal screw, with right and left threads on the opposite ends, 
under the revolving plate. Mr. Kinne adopted independently, but 
published subsequently, the same principle, but moved the jaws 
by a lever instead of a screw. Mr. Bulloch’s table is essentially 


double, of two horizontal plates, the jaws sliding through the 


It is one of the little things that are a great comfort. 


Bes 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 

— Recent arrivals at the Philadelphia Zodlogical Garden: I 
great-horned owl (Budo virginianus), presented; I zebu 
indicus) 2 , India, born in the Garden; 1 crested anolis (Anolis Ta 
tris), and 1 tree boa (Epicrates angulifer), West Indies, presented ; 


I macaque monkey (Macacus nemestrinus) 9 India, born in t 
Garden ; 3 alligators (A//igator mississippiensis), presented ; 
ring gull (Larus argentatus); 4 sirens (Siren lacertina), South- 


E. Brown, Genl. Supt., April 1, 1878 


Gé d 


bactrian 
en.—Arthur © 


, | 1878. ] , Scientific News. - 335 


— Itis with great sorrow that we announce the sudden death of 
Prof. Charles Frederic Hartt, Chief of the Brazilian Geological Com- 
mission. He died at Rio de Janeiro, March 18. His untimely death 
is a great calamity, as, after nearly three years of constant explor- 
ation over a large part of Brazil, he had begun to prepare for 
publication the results of the researches of himself and assist- 
ants, Messrs. Derby and Rathbun. e was born at Freder- 
icton, New Brunswick, in 1840, and graduated at Acadia 
College at Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He was a student under 
Agassiz from 1862 until 1865, and during that time inves- 
tigated the Devonian plant and insect beds of St. John, 
_. and made important researches in the Cambrian fossils of the 
Acadian series at St. John. He then accompanied Agassiz as 
Geologist of his journey up the Amazon and subsequently made 
three visits to the coast regions, and the results of his explorations 
are comprised in his work on “The Geology and Physical Geo- 
graphy of Brazil,” published in 1870. Several years previous he 
was appointed Professor of Geology and Physical Geography at 
Cornell University. He made a specialty of Brazilian geology, 
and mastered the Portuguese language, investigated the natural 
history and archeology of that country, and so identified himself 
with its physical history that it seemed as a matter of course that 
the Emperor of Brazil should honor himself by appointing the 
= young explorer Chief of the Imperial Geological Commission. 
_ This was in May, 1875; since then his studies have extended 
| widely over the Empire, including the unraveling of the geology 
of the. Amazon, consisting of Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous 
| rocks, the thorough examination of the coast and interior of the 
: 


ET Fee a eS a ee 


Province of Pernambuco, a reconnaissance of the diamond and 
gold districts of Minas Geraes, the examination of large areas in 
San Paulo and Santa Catharina. The survey had collected 
= enormous quantities of fossils and zoological material from the 
= Corniferous and Carboniferous formations in the Amazonian val- 
= ley, large numbers of remains of vertebrates and invertebrates from 
_ Pernambuco, including many new reptilian and amphibian forms, 
mainly cretaceous. For the last six months but little field work 
~ had been done and publication was progressing rapidly. Prof. _ 
= Hartt also made a thorough study of the coral reefs of the coast _ 
of Pernambuco, including ancient and modern forms. He also 
amassed many facts regarding the language, manners and customs 
of the Tupis, Guaranis and other Indian tribes, and Brazilian 


archeology. : 
Professor Hartt, besides being a geologist, palazontologist and 
zoologist, was a capital linguist and philologist. He had powers 


of rapid acquisition and great versatility. He was a person of 
warm sympathies, and of a cheerful, light-hearted spirit that en- - 
deared him to all with whom he came in contact. To the readers 
of this journal, to which he often contributed on geological and — oe 


VOL, XII—NO. V., 24 


336 Scientific News. [ May, 


archeological subjects, his powers of exposition are well known. 
His death is a serious blow to American science. All will deplore 
his loss; his memory will be cherished by his fellow-students and 
associates who knew him best and appreciated his moral worth 
and his intellectual and scientific attainments. 


— Dr. Charles Pickering died in Boston March 18..He was born 
in Susquehanna Co., Pennsylvania, Nov. 10, 1805. He was a grad- 
uate of Harvard, in the class of 1823, and of the Medical Col- 
lege in 1826. He was a member of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, and of the American Philosophical Society; 
was the Naturalist of the U. S. Exploring Expedition under 
Commodore Wilkes in 1838-1842; practiced medicine in Phila- 
delphia for several years, and afterwards removed to Boston. 
Besides his report of the Exploring Expedition he was the 
author of several valuable scientific publications. 

The exploring expedition returned, leaving certain countries 
that required to be visited to complete the survey of the globe. 
Accordingly, after remaining a little over a year at Washington, 
Dr. Pickering set out alone in 1843 for Malta, Egypt, down the 
Red sea to Zanzibar, and thence to Bombay, returning after an 
absence of twenty-two months. He then prepared and published 
his work on The Races of Man and their Geographical Dis- 
tribution. 

= Robert Swinhoe, well known as a writer on East Indian 
ornithology, etc., died in London, October 28, 1877, at the age 
of 41 years. 

Francois Vincent Raspail, the French botanist, well known for 
his studies on the grasses, and his Nouveau Système de Physiologie 
Végétale et de Botanique, died near Paris, January 6th, aged 87 
years. 

John J. Monteiro, the author of Angola and the River Congo, 
which we noticed in the last number of this journal, lately died 
at Delagoa bay. 


— I inadvertently, in your January number, gave credence to 
the statement of Pouchet, the Curator of the Museum at Rouen, 
in regard to certain changes alleged to have taken place in the 
nests of the house martin (Chelidon urbica); I had repeatedly 
seen the statement and was unaware that its correctness had ever 
_ been challenged. I learn from my friend, Prof. Newton, that 

there is nothing in the alleged progress in nest-building om the 
part of the martin whatever. The nest that is so well built 1 
that of the sea mow (Hirundo rustica), while that of the martin 
continues unimproved. This matter was set right some years 
ago in the Zodlogical Record, but seems to have escaped notice, 
as the wonderful story of M. Pouchet still goes on its rounds — 
unchallenged.— T. M. Brewer. 


1878. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 337 


— Thanks to the interest taken in the young and vigorous 


‘Academy of Science at Davenport, Iowa, by one or two of the 


citizens and members, a new building well adapted to the wants 
of the Society has just been finished, one or two meetings having 
been held in it. The second part of its Proceedings will appear 
at an early date. 

— Capt. Howgate’s bill for establishing a Polar Colony has met 
with a favorable hearing by the Congressional committee, and it 
seems most probable that Congress will appropriate $50,000 for 
the undertaking, which promises so much for the advancement of 
Polar research. ' 

_— The third session of the Summer School of Biology will 
be opened at the Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science, 
alem, Mass., beginning July 5th, and continuing six weeks. A 
lecture will be given each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs- 


day and Friday at 9 A. M., the remainder of the time to be given 


to laboratory work and demonstrations, as it is designed to make 
the course a practical one, so that teachers may learn the method 
of study and teaching in Natural History. During the present 
session special attention will be given to Entomology, the study 
of Spiders and Crustacea, as well as the Anatomy of Vertebrates, 
and the study of Animal Tissues. 

Instruction in Zoology will be given by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., 
with the assistance of Messrs. Charles Sedgwick Minot, James H. 
Emerton, and J. S. Kingsley. Mr. Minot will lecture on Histology 
and on the Anatomy of Vertebrates. Mr. Emerton will lecture 
on Spiders, Scorpions and Mites, Mr. Kingsley on the Crustacea, 
and Dr. Packard will give a course of lectures on the lower ani- 
mals and the Insects. Rev. Dr. Bolles will give a series of six 
afternoon lectures on Microscopy, at 3 P. M., beginning July 12. 

For further information apply to A. S. Packard, Jr., Director, 
Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass. 

10: 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


Boston Society or Natura History.— March 6. Mr. S 
H. Scudder made a communication on Prodryas, a new fossil 
butterfly from the tertiary beds of Colorado. 

On March 20, Prof. A. H. Niles read some notes upon the 
erosive power of the glaciers and sub-glacial streams of the © 
Alps, based on a summer's exploration. He took the view that 


ism. 
April 3d.—Prof. B. G. Wilder exhibited living specimens of 
Amia, and spoke of its erial respiration, and Mr. S. H. Scudder 
remarked on the early life of some tertiary insects, and particu- 


larly on the eggs of a fossil Corydalus (hellgramite). 


a 7 A. Rider, 2100 Pine street, Philadelphia. 


338 Scientific Serials. ; [May, 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.—March. New 


genera of Pycnogonidæ, by E. B: Wilson. New dinosaurian- : 


reptiles, by O. C. Marsh.—April. Surface geology of south-west 
Pennsylvania, by J. J. Stevenson. The driftless interior of North 
America, by J. D: Dana. The ancient outlet of Great Salt Lake, 
by G. K. Gilbert. Intrusive nature of the Triassic trap-sheets of 
New Jersey, by I. C. Russell. Tree-like fossil plant, Glyptoden- 
dron, in the upper Silurian rocks of Ohio, by E. W. Cla ah ole. 

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL Society, No. 5.— 
Modern researches in Palestine, by Rev. S. Merrill. My first trip up 
the Magdalena, and life in the heart of the Andes, by J. A. Bennet. 

THE GEOLOGICAL MaGazinE.—March. On the Pleistocene 
mammals dredged off the eastern coast, by W. Davies. Geology 
of the Channel Islands, by J. A. Bird. ‘Micrasters in the English 
chalk, two or more species, by C. J. A. Meyer. 

Tur GEOGRAPHICAL Macazine.—March. Mr. Stanley (a tribute 
to his success as a great explorer). The climate and soil of Sicily, 
by T. Fisc 

ARCHIV. FÜR NATURGESCHICHTE—Heft. 2. A. W. Malin, on the 
migration of birds. Gurlt and Schilling give a list of animals on 
which parasitic insects live. Helminthological papers, by J. Ulieny 
and Linstow. Ichthyological notites, by Linstow. Herpetologi- 
cal studies, by J. v. Bed riaga. 


BURG.—Bd. iv, Heft. 1. May 20. iata lilfordi and i pile 
biological and anatomical studies, by M. Braun. Contribution to — 
the biology of Oligocheta, by C. Semper (relates to the laws of 
budding and self-division in Nais, etc). Bd. iv, Heft. 2 (no date). 
The urogenital system of native reptiles, by M. Braun. Heft. 3,Jan 

*1878. n the signification of the cuticular bristle on the adhesive 

s on soles of the Gekotide, by M. Braun. The gen 

Cryptoniscde (Liriope) by P. F W 


For SALE.—Two valuable saheceous of Fresh-water Shells, | 


Nile and te id Amphipeplea, N. S. Wales, wee cee | 
dylea, Brazil and Cambodia; Lithoglyphus, etc., Uni spinosus 5 
U. delphinus ; r U. rayi; U. parallelopipedon, etc. Many ° 
= Specimens are types of Lea, Conrad, Tryon, and others. 
of first series, $2000; of second series, $1750. Apply tO 


` AMERICAN NATURALIST, VOL. XII. 


Fig | 3 


sy ; 


HISTOLOGY OF 


THE LOCUST. 


ARSE OE 


eee r RN ii e NEES, pean a ET ae sete 
Lore OUEST ae Agee ge he iis ay pee ean e pur eee se Ee ce aC ce] Se EE ik “hen eaten GA oI ete 


Pies Seema tes A C itl eet irs Se 


Mis nares eon ae aaa SI 


Sinclar k Son Mth. 


Fic. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 


1.—Longitudinal median section of "i femur-rubrum, female, to show 

the course and divisions of the digestive can mouth; Oe, cesophagus ; 

Cr! anterior, Cy? posterior part of crop; P, peat Dia, blind sack or 

diverticulum of the stomach; Ven, ventricle; M, ileum; cof, ‘colon; &, rectum ; 
n, anus 


. 2,—Optical section of Malpighian tube. 
. 3-—Section of the epithelium of the rectum of Ca/optenus spretus. 


4.—Transverse section of the hind part of the crop; s s, spines of the cuticula ; 
rid, ridges; Z, longitudinal; muc. C, circular muscular coat. 


. 5.—Epithelium of the ileal folds; A, middle of folds; B, furrow between 


folds; Z, longitudinal muscular band. 


. 6.—Epithelial cells of the gastro-ileal valve of Gidipoda sordida. 
. 7.—Surface view of the gastro-ileal valves; Ven, ventricle; Ad, circular mus- 


cular band underneath the folds; Z, ileum 


. oo section of a diverticulum. 7%, trachea; muc, circular mus- 


cular c 


G. 9.—Transverse section through the furrow; F, between two ileal folds; cz, 


Tra 
cuticula; + Be, epithelium; conn, connective tissue; mac. C, circular muscles ; 
5 fongitddinal muscular ban 


. 10.—Transverse section of the gastro-ileal folds of @dipoda sordida : muc, 


muscular band, Bd, of Fig. 7. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x11.— JUNE, 1878. — No. 6. 


A LESSON IN COMPARATIVE HISTOLOGY. 
WITH PLATE IL 


BY CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT. 


‘Oe of the first scraps of information which a young naturalist 

is apt to acquire, when he learns something of the history of 
zoology, is the knowledge of the great names of Linné and 
Cuvier. The reforms effected by these two great men in the 
methods of studying animated nature would alone secure them 
enduring. fame; when we reflect, however, that they also labored 
industriously to add to our knowledge, and were successful as 
investigators as well as reformers, we must yield to the conviction 


_ that the honorable prominence assigned to them among natu- 


ralists is their just due. After both Linnzus and Cuvier had 
been dead for years, a German savant made a discovery concern- 


ing the elementary structure of plants, which revealed the fact 


that all the parts of plants are built up out of the same units, 
which have ever since been called cells. This great generaliza- 
tion is now taught to every botany class as one of the funda- 
mental principles of vegetable anatomy and physiology, and the 
name of its great discoverer, Schleiden, is generally coupled with 
it. Schleiden made the results of his investigations generally 
known in the year 1837; and it was only two years later that his 
friend and countryman, Schwann, published a memoir showing 
that the same units—the cells—are found in all animals as well. 
It is a familiar fact to all, in these days when natural science 
has penetrated to the schoolhouse and the magazines, that matter 
Consists of molecules, or minute particles, which are themselves 
composed of other particles still more minute—the atoms. 
Every mass of matter is made up of molecules, and indefinite _ 


numbers of molecules seed be added to a mass without ee - os 


VOL. XII—No. VI. ; 25 


340 _ A Lesson in Comparative Histology. [June, 


changing anything but its size. In living matter, however, nature 
presents an exception to the universality of this law; for in living 
bodies the molecules, which are far smaller than the smallest 
visible particles, are united to form masses of limited size, which 
represent so many units of the body, just as we might say the 
bricks represent so many units of a wall. These units of life, as 
I may call them at the risk of being misunderstood, are the cells 
before mentioned. The great material difference, therefore, 
between living and unorganized bodies was at once demonstrated 
by the discoveries of Schleiden and Schwann, and it is on this 
account that naturalists attribute such importance to the work of 
these two men. In truth Schwann’s investigations caused as 
great a change in the direction pursued by zodlogists in their 
researches as the reform either of Linnaeus or Cuvier. But 
Schwann unlike his great predecessors did not continually make 
further discoveries, and has not, as far as I am aware, participated 
in the work of original research, which has been in progress 
during his life time, so that to most of us perhaps he already 
seems a person of the distant past. 

Yet during Schwann’s lifetime one of the principal labors of 
zodlogists has been the working out in detail the applications of 
his generalization, and determining the variations and modifications 


which cells undergo in the different tissues and species of animals, 
until finally the subject has assumed an importance even more — 


vast than could at first have been foreseen. It is in fact hardly an 
exaggeration to say that all our knowledge of animals groups 
itself about the doctrine of cells, as the central factor upon which 
all others depend; and whether we labor as physiologists, embry- 
ologists or anatomists, we are alike forced ultimately to base all 
our conclusions, and demonstrate all our theorems by the char- 


acter and property of cells. In brief, what a knowledge of waves a 
is to the student of sound, a knowledge of cells is to the student 


of life. 


_ various bearings of the cell doctrine, for we should deal with 
many of the fundamental problems of zodlogy, and with some 


of the most interesting additions to our knowledge in this depart- 
ment of science which have ever been made. This course would — 
take us away from the real subject of this article, the object of : 
which is to give an example of how much may be learned by 


It would be a pleasant task to expatiate at length upon the a 


1878.] A Lesson in Comparative Histology. . 34I 


the study of the cellular anatomy of even the commonest 
animals, therefore I must resign for the present the wider and 
more attractive field, and descend to details, in order to show by a 
concrete example some of the modifications which cells present, 
and to describe the appearance of some of them when prepared 
for microscopical examination. 

My illustrations are all taken from the common locust, and are 
selected from the results of a recent original investigation on the 
histological structure of that abundant pest. The work was 
undertaken at the desire of Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., in connec- 
tion with the more directly practical labors of the U. S. Entomo- 
logical Commission, and it is to the kindness of Dr. Packard that 
I owe the opportunity of utilizing my observations for this 
article. ; 

I will merely remind the reader that the anatomy of the locust 
may be most readily understood by saying that its body is 
formed by an outer wall, including the external crust and the 
underlying muscles, and an internal tube, the digestive canal, the 
diameter and course of which are very irregular, as is shown in 
Fig. 1 of the accompanying plate. Between the body walls and 
the alimentary canal there is a large cavity in which various 
internal organs, notably those of circulation, respiration, and 
reproduction are situated. 

` Now, all these parts are composed of minute cells, and the 
examination of almost any one of them will suffice to show cells 
that are very characteristic. Let us take for instance a male 
grasshopper. The sexes may be readily distinguished by the 
position of the claspers at the end of the abdomen, which is 
straight in the female, while in the male it is curled upwards, so 
that the end of the abdomen appears club-shaped and the claspers 
seem placed on the back. 

Opening the insect along its back, and spreading out the sides 
So as to expose the internal organs, almost the first things that 
Strike the eye are the numberless glistening silvery threads, the 
ramifications of the tracheal tubes. These must be torn asunder 
in order to lay bare the reproductive organs, which form a large 
mass overlying the stomach in the anterior part of the abdomen; 
trace these organs downwards, following them around the sides 


of the intestiné to the ventral and posterior part of the abdomen, ; : 
and there will be found numerous long white tubes; these are the 


342 A Lesson in Comparative Histology. [June, 


vestcule seminales, which open into the long ducts of the sperma- 
ries and end blindly. If one of these be isolated, and then colored 
with hzmatoxiline or carmine, and examined in a drop of glyc- 
erine with the microscope, its walls will exhibit a great many 
minute colored dots of oval shape; these are the so-called nuclei 
of the cells; it is evident that they form but a single layer, for in 
no part of the wall of the tube do they lie over one another. By 
looking carefully it is possible to distinguish a faint polygonal 
outline around-each nucleus; these outlines correspond to the 
surfaces by which the cells abut against one another. Thus we 
learn at once that a cell is a very minute body with granular 
contents, and a distinctly differentiated central portion, the nucleus, 
and moreover that the cells are laid close against one another, and 


cemented together by thin intervening layers known as the zu/er- . 


cellular substance. But every vesicula consists of a wider upper 
portion, which is usually found filled with spermatozoa in the 
mature animal, and the walls of which are composed almost 
entirely of the layer of cells just described; and a narrower por- 
tion enclosed in a sheath of muscular fibres. This difference can 
be most plainly recognized by preparing transverse sections, 
which may be made with a razor from tubes that have been har- 
dened in alcohol. The operation has already been described in 
the Naruratist for July, 1877, and to that the reader is referred. 
A section through the upper part is represented in Fig. 1. e 
single cells, each with its darkly 
stained and coarsely granular nu- 


They are all of about the same 
height, and form a single continuous 
layer. Every layer of this kind that 
lines any cavity whatsover is called 
an epithelium. A section through 


e SHES HPAP 
Fic. 1.—Section of upper part o : 
Vesicula seminalis. presents quite another appearance, 


though they form but a continuation of the same layer. 
this we learn that cells vary greatly in size, but the limits are 


much further apart than is here indicated. Outside the epithelium | 4 
is a very thick and powerful coat of muscular fibres, Mu, which 


cleus, lies close against its fellows. a : 


APN SY Sack OES a Pe REET Nee Ie ae 


1878. } A Lesson in Comparative Histology. 343 


encircle the canal. Among the fibres occur elongated nuclei. 
Each muscular fibre in fact is a greatly eine and peculiarly 
modified cell. But into this matter I 
cannot enter here; but I wish to point 
out that the lining membrane of the 
canals and ducts of animal bodies 
is generally if not always an epithel- 
ium, and that we frequently find the 
epithelium surrounded by a muscular 
coat. Thus may etree facts be 
observed on a single or 

In the body of the aed there te 5 Aus ot lees alk 
are long tubes, often pigmented, of Vesieida: scuba 
and opening into the digestive canal in the hind end of the 
stomach—they are the Malpighian vessels, so named after their 
illustrious discoverer. They make very beautiful preparations, if 
merely picked out, colored with carmine and mounted in glycer- 
ine, and are interesting to us because they have an epithelium 
which is very different from that above described. An optical 
section of part of one of them is represented on Plate II, Fig. 2. 
There is a very delicate external membrane which is hardly 
noticeable, though it forms a continuous external coating. In- 
side the epithelium is very distinct, but the cells which compose 
it instead of being high in proportion to their breadth are com- 
pressed ; the nucleus is rounder, and the cell itself different from 
those of the seminal vesicle. The mass of matter which sur- 
rounds the nucleus is termed the protoplasm. Now, in the 
epithelium under examination the protoplasm of the cells is 
charged with coarse spherical granules. We naturally regard 
these peculiarities as somehow connected with the special function 
of these tubes, but in the majority of cases we are still unable to 
trace the relations of histological appearance to the physiological 
functions of organs. We have now made the acquaintance of a 
second kind of epithelium, and have learned to recognize cells by 
the presence of the nuclei, which, as far as we know, always have 
the property of being more darkly stained by various dyes than 
any other part of the cell. Moreover, each nucleus corresponds 
to a single cell, and there are never two nuclei in one cell. 
There are, however, some exceptions; thus the nervous cells 
(ganglia) of the sympathetic ganglia of vertebrates and of the 


344 ~ A Lesson in Comparative Histology. [June, 


ureters of mammals (Englemann) frequently have two nuclei, and 
Dr. E. L. Mark, in his very valuable memoir on the Cuoccide, 
states that in the malpighian vessels of those insects he has like- 
wise found cells with two nuclei. 


The height of epithelial cells may be still further diminished, 


so that in some cases it may be said to have nearly disappeared, 
the cells assuming the form of a thin lamella. This is the case 
upon the-air tubes. If one of these be colored and mounted in 
the usual way, the flattened epithelial cells may be easily recog- 
nized by their oval nuclei, Fig. 3 6. Each nucleus contains one or 
sometimes two minute spherical 
dots, eccentrically placed; these 
are the nucleoli. We have now 
seen the three constituent parts, 
u which probably always enter into 

Fic. 3—Small air tube from the the composition of every cell; 

ae these are the protoplasm, the 

nucleus and the nucleolus. In addition we often find that the 
outside layer of the protoplasm becomes hardened and more 
resistent, and it is then called the membrane. 

In every epithelium we distinguish two kinds of surfaces on 
each cell, those which lie against other cells, and those which are 
free, facing the cavity. On the free surfaces the membrane 15 
often considerably thickened, and the thickened portions are then 
so joined together that they form a continuous lamella, which is 
called a cuticula. Now the flat epithelium of the air tubes forms 
a very curious cuticula, which lines all the trachee, and = 
remarkable for being thickened in some places more than ” 
others, thus developing a spiral thread, which can be seen in Fig. 
3, underneath the nuclei. The spiral filament was observed very 
long ago, but its real nature was only recently discovered. For 
a more detailed account the reader is referred to the NATURALIST 
for July, 1877. 

It is hoped that these illustrations will suffice to exemplify the 
more important features of epitheliums, tissues which are found 
in all animals except the protozoa, and represent one of the 


simplest and most frequent modes in which cells are aggregated. 


I propose to add a brief account of the structure of the digestive 


: ee ch 
canal, in order to show some of the further modifications whic a 


epitheliums may undergo. 


1878.] A Lesson in Comparative Histology. 345 


Fig. 1 of the plate represents a longitudinal section through 
a whole grasshopper, magnified three times. The cavity of the 
mouth, M, is not very large. The first segment of the digestive 
canal extends through the head and thorax, and is composed of 
two divisions, the narrow cesophagus, Oe, and the enormous crop, 
which is itself formed of two parts, an anterior, (71, with trans- 
verse, and a posterior, C°, with longitudinal ridges; this last 
terminates in a narrow portion, P, which corresponds to the 
proventriculus of other insects. This segment of the alimentary _ 
canal is especially characterized by its thick and hard cuticula, 
which almost completely obscures the underlying epithelium, 
outside of which, however, there is a powerful coat of muscular 
fibres of the kind called striated. The cuticula is thrown up 
into ridges and armed with fine but sharp spines that point back- 
wards. The obvious function of these parts is to grind up the 
food: they are organs of mastication. The features in question 
are well shown in Fig. 4 of the plate, which represents a trans- 
verse section through the posterior part of the crop, magnified 
forty-five diameters. The ridges, id, are small and numerous, 
and upon them can be seen the little spines, s s, and they are 
covered by the cuticula, which is very thick. The epithelium 
does not appear distinctly by this magnification, nor do the longi- 
tudinal muscles, Z, but the transverse or circular muscles form a 
very thick layer, muc. C. Where the ridges are transverse, as in 
the front part of the crop and the cesophagus, we find the trans- 
verse muscles less developed and the longitudinal the most 
powerful. 

The middle segment of the alimentary canal consists of the 
large ventricle, vex, known in German as the “ Chylusmagen,” 
with six blind sacks or diverticula appended to its anterior 
extremity; only one of these, however (Dzv), appears in the sec- 
tion Fig. 1. In this segment the cuticula is very delicate, but the 
epithelium undergoes another kind of modification, being thrown 
up into folds. In the diverticula there are twelve longitudinal 
folds, the structure and arrangement of which can best be seen in 
a transverse section colored with hematoxiline, Fig. 8, Plate II. 
The folds are high and thin, and covered by the epithelium, which 
is everywhere of about the same height. Outside there is a thin 
layer, muc, of muscular fibres, which do not enter into the com- 


. Position of the folds, Between the muscles and the epithelium 


— 346 A Lesson in Comparative Histology. [June, 


there intervenes another kind of tissue, called connective, which 
also extends into the centre of each fold, separating the epithelium 
of the two sides. These three layers, the epithelium or ‘unica 
mucosa, the connective tissue or tunica submucosa, and the muscles 
or tunica muscularis, are the primary constituents of the digestive 
canal throughout the animal kingdom. It is always the epithe- 
lium which is the active agent of the secretion of the digestive 
juices as well as of the absorption of the food; hence it is 
important to make the surface of the epithelium which is to come. 
in contact with the food as large as possible, and it is by the 
formation of folds of various shapes that this is accomplished. 
The third and last segment of the alimentary tract consists of 
three divisions: first, the ileum, Plate , Fig. 1, which is as large 
in diameter as the stomach, for a part of which it was formerly 
mistaken; second, the very small colon, which bends forward and 
upwards (co/), and opens dorsally into the larger and horizontal 
rectum, Æ. The whole of this segment is traversed by six longi- 
tudinal folds of the epithelium, which are broad with flat surfaces 
in both the ileum and rectum, but narrow and irregular in the 
intervening colon. Each of the six folds ends at the front end of 
the ileum in two rounded protuberances, making twelve in all. 
They have hitherto escaped notice. I propose for them the 
name of gastro-ileal valves. When viewed from their inner sur- 
face they have the appearance indicated by Fig. 7, being rounded 
in front and gradually fading out posteriorly. They are strongly 
pigmented. In transverse section, Fig. 10, we recognize the three 
characteristic layers, the epithelium which alone contains the pig- 
ment, the very distinct coat of connective tissue, and externally 
the muscular fibres. Examined with a higher power, Fig. 6, the 
epithelial cells will be found filled with round granules of various 
sizes of brownish color; which are the pigment; moreover, there 
is a thin but quite resistent cuticula armed with minute spines. — 
In the ileum we find the cells modified in still another way, aS 
shown in Fig. 5, which is a surface view of part of the edge of | 
one of the folds. The cells in the middle are quite large, but 
their size diminishes towards the edge, until at the edge itself 
they are comparatively diminutive. Fig. 9 is a transverse section 
through one of the furrows between two folds. Æ is the furrow; 
Ep the epithelium, the cells of which are smallest in the furrow. 
The epithelium rests upon a layer of connective tissue, conn, 


| 


do OO tanta oe aes T 


s 


u a e o e a a a 


FS e eaoat 


EEN 
ae ties Ca e 


eg aa eee 


1878. ] Rambles Round Sah Francisco. 347 


which is separated from the muscular layer by a wide interspace, 
the muscular coat uc. C being attached to the connective only 
underneath the furrows, where there is also a single bend of 
longitudinal muscles, Z, placed outside the transverse muscles. 

Finally in the rectum, as shown in a transverse section, the 
epithelial cells are differentiated into two kinds, larger ones of 
the ordinary form, and smaller ones which lie higher up and pre- 
sent a circular outline. In’ vertebrates this differentiation of 
adjacent epithelial cells is carried to a great extent, and is espe- 
cially connected with the development of glands; but the discus- 
sion of these is foreign to our present purpose. 

In conclusion I will give a summary of our observations: 
Animals are built up of cells; each cell consists of a protoplas- 
matic body, a nucleus and a nucleolus; the cells are often grouped 
together so as to form a single continuous layer, which is called 
an epithelium; the free surface of such a layer is often covered by 
a thickened membrane, the cuticula, which is formed by the under- 
lying cells. The cells of an epithelium may be modified, first as 
to size, second as to form, third, character of the cuticula, fourth, 
position, size,and shape of the nucleus and nucleolus, fifth, presence 
of granules or pigment, and sixth, differentiation of adjacent cells 
into two or more kinds. The epithelium may be modified by the 
formation of folds and pits of various forms. 

oim 
RAMBLES ROUND SAN FRANCISCO. 
BY W. N. LOCKINGTON. 
NO. I. THE OCEAN BEACH. 

HE peninsula of San Francisco does not offer a very inviting 
field to the naturalist. A wilderness of rocky hills and sand- 
dunes, bearing no vegetation larger than a scrub oak, and swept 
by the winds and fogs of the great ocean, it lies, between the 
Pacific and the Bay of San Francisco, a bare and naked spot in 

the long wooded coast-line of California. 

Yet, here as elsewhere, he who seeks with willing and educated 
eyes, will not fail to find much to interest him. The sand-dunes, 
the cliffs that border ocean and bay, and the rounded sandstone 
hills have each their special flora; many species of gulls, ducks 
and divers, herons, pelicans and cormorants visit the bay and the 


[June, 
marshes in the winter months; and the shores of the ocean and 
the bay, though poor in species compared with points either 
northward or southward along the coast, have each their charac- 
teristic forms of life. . 

Pleasant it is, when the clouds have rolled away, and the green 
hills and bay and ocean lie spread out before us in the glorious 
sunshine of a Californian spring morning, to leave the city’s 
wooden sidewalks and ramble away to the ocean shore. On 
such a trip let us now start; let us feast, Barmecide fashion, on the 
good things of nature, bringing together, as those who feast in 
such fashion may, all the delicacies of the season to adorn our 
table. 

In the centre of the peninsula, at some distance from any other 
hill, rises a conical elevation covered with loose sand and sur- 
mounted by a tall cross. Around it lie the cemeteries of the city, 
once far out of town but now becoming gradually surrounded by 
houses. Near the foot of this “ Lone Mountain ” we alight from 
the horse-car and strike out over the sand-hills toward the ocean, 
stopping, however, to pluck the flowers and to rummage among 
the old roots of the blue lupine (Lupinus albifrons) and the low 
bushes of groundsel-tree (Baccharis consanguinea) for the living 
treasures hidden there in the form of lizards and frogs which have 
not yet left their winter retreat. A pretty long-tailed black and 
white lizard (Gerrhonotus multicarinatus Blainv.) is our first prize, 
soon followed by a small tree frog (Hyla regilla). Another 
search brings to light a pair of “ swifts,” not birds but iguanine 
lizards (Sceleporus undulatus Harl.) and two or three more 
tree-frogs. 

Our lizards are cold and sleepy, for the warmth of the sun has 
not yet penetrated to their place of concealment, but after 4 
few minutes in our hands, exposed to the sun’s rays, they became 
more lively, and ran off a short distance. The long slender 
Gerrhonotus, with his tail trailing along the ground, is strikingly 
different from the bluff-bodied conical-tailed Scelepori, with their 
rough-scaled gray backs lined with undulating short stripes of 
black, and displaying the bright blue of the sides of the 
abdomen. 

Don’t touch the Gerrhonotus incautiously when he gets lively, 
for if you catch him anywhere except just around the neck, he 
will surely either bite your finger sufficiently hard to make you 


348 Rambles Round San Francisco. 


1878. ] Rambles Round San Francisco. 349 


drop him, or he will drop off his own tail and leave you a spoiled 
specimen. The Scelepori are not so fond of throwing off their 
tails, nor nearly so apt to bite, but in summer time when they are 
` active they are exceedingly hard to catch. They are not called 
swifts without reason. 

What is the color of a tree-frog? Green for the most part, 
certainly, yet it varies greatly. The black marks upon the back 
are very distinct in some, quite faint in others, and one of our 
specimens is brownish, while another inclines to yellow. These 
fellows we have caught under the bushes are, in one sense, not so 
“green” as those we will find among the leaves at a more 
advanced season. 

But our low bush furnishes us with insect as well as with rep- 
tile life. It literally swarms with “squash-bugs,” big black milli- 
pedes (Fulus) lie coiled among the decaying leaves, a long bright- 
red Scolopendra hurries away from our invading hand, and hunt- 
ing spiders run to and fro in hot haste. 

We are now onarising ground at the edge of the Presidio 
reservation. Below us, in a little valley encircled by hills, lies a 
small fresh-water lake known as Mountain Lake, a line of shrubs 
beyond this marks the course of the stream which runs thence to 
the ocean, and the view is closed by the cliff-encircled bay outside 
the Golden Gate, forming the entrance to the harbor of San 
Francisco, Away on the farther side of the bay is the white 
lighthouse of Point Bonita, and oceanward a line of breakers 
marks the dreaded bar. 

We hasten down to the lake, hoping to find there, as we have 
found before, numerous specimens of the fresh-water snails of the 
genera Limnophysa, Physa and Helisoma, as well as the tiny flat 
Gyraulus vermicularis Gld. But we have forgotten the thirty 
inches of rain that have fallen since we visited the spot in Sep- 
tember last. The lake that was then so low that we could explore 
much of its bed, and so clear that we could see the bottom, is 
now a broad sheet of turbid water, in which the shell-fish are lost 
to sight. The spot where we picked up the flat-whorled Helisoma 
in shallow water, full of confervz is now far from the shore, and 
the beach, once strewed with the shells of the fresh-water clam 
(Anodonta wallamatensis, sweet name this), is now lake bottom 
again, 

The yellow water-lilies (Nuphar advena) whose tops and mas- 3 


350 Rambles Round San Francisco. [June, 


sive thick roots, marked, like the Sigillaria of the coal measures, 
with the scars of former leaves, which were in September either left 
high and dry, or in very shallow water, and from the under side 
of whose leaves we picked water-snails, together with a small 
crustacean (Hyalella dentata Smith), are now entirely covered by 
the water, and we can no longer grope our way among the long 
blades of the tule (Scirpus lacustris) sufficiently far to frighten out 
the grebes (Podiceps californicus) that make their home there. In 
revenge, we will gather flowers on our way to the ocean, and 
take notes on the vegetation of February. The blue nemophila 
(N. insignis), a garden favorite in England, abounds among the 
grass, the yellow sanicle (Sanicula arctopoides) is coming into 
flower, the blue lupine is budding, we pass a bush of the flower- 
ing currant (Ribes sanguineum) gay with its fragrant pink racemes, 
and the Californian poppy (Aschscholtzia californica) flaunts its 
yellow blossoms in the shelter of the bushes of Rhamnus croceus, 
whose blackberries are still abundant. The soft blackberries of 
the Rhamnus have each two large seeds, flat on one side, con- 
vex on the other, and not unlike a coffee-berry in shape; this 
resemblance has deceived many good people who know the 
roasted coffee-berry better than they do the coffee-plant, and has 
been the cause of oft-repeated stories in the Californian papers 
about the “ Discovery of the coffee-plant in California.” ‘ 
The poisonous liliaceous plant, Anticlea fremonti, is thickly 
spread over the hillsides in many places, but its spikes of pale- 
yellow flowers do not attain half the height of their kindred on 
the eastern side of the bay. The common storks-bill, “alfileria” 
(Erodium cicutarium), is everywhere, and, in wet places, another 
introduced plant, Cotula coronopifolia, crowds out the natives. 
But we are now approaching the ocean, and it is low tide, so we 
must hurry on if we wish to gather from the rocks the chitons, 
limpets, barnacles and other marine forms. Among the sand- 
dunes, near high tide level, is a small pool of perfectly fresh 
water, overgrown with duckweed and the pretty Azolla caroliniana, 
which dots the pool with spots of brownish-red. Here we gather 
Hyalella dentata in abundance, and we know there are some 
fresh-water snails here also, but cannot stop to gather them. 
The shore, where we reach it, is sandy, but close by, to the left, 
commences the sinuous line of cliffs, enclosing several small 
coves, which terminates to the south-west of us at Point Lobos. 


PRS S ee ee eee 


e78 Rambles Round San Francisco. 351 


Below this line of cliffs lie detached masses of rocks of various 
sizes, and some of the smallest of these, near to us, are exposed 
at low tide sufficiently for our inspection. 

Upon the farthest away and largest of these detached rocks (out 
of our sight now, hidden by the southern cape of the bay), is the 
home of the sea-lions; sea-wolves or Lobos marinos of the 
Spaniards. On our right the sandy shore continues for about 
three quarters of a mile, when the rocks again approach the sea, 
fringing it as far as Fort Point, where stands the brick fort built 
to defend the Golden Gate, but superseded now by extensive 
earth-works on the hills above. We can see also the fortifications 
of Lime Point, on the Marin county shore of the entrance to the 
harbor, 

The rocks nearest the water are literally covered with stalked 
barnacles (Pollicipes) in bunches the size of the fist, and among 
them, conspicuous at a distance from their bright coloration, are 
groups of the common five-rayed starfish of the coast (Asterias 
equalis Stm). This stoutly-built starfish is remarkable from the 
fact that about half the individuals are of a bright purple tint, 
while the other half are an equally bright gamboge yellow. Out 
of several hundreds that I have seen, none were intermediate 
between these two types of color, and none, so far as I remember, 
showed spots or blotches of the two colors. Inside the harbor of 
San Francisco this starfish is abundant, and another species, 
Asterias gigantea, which attains a diameter of two feet, is also 
occasionally found, but I am not aware that the common pen- 
tagonal starfish of the coast, Asteropsis imbricata, has ever been 
taken within the heads, and the large twenty-armed Pycnopodia 
helianthoides does not occur so far south. On the rocks near 
Fort Point, adhering to the surface and of the same green tint 
with the seaweed around it, I have found a small Asteroid which 
I believe has not yet been scientifically described. It usually has 
six arms but some specimens have fewer, its surface is more even 
than that of A. ochracea, and in size it is a very dwarf, measuring 
about an inch across the arms. 

But we must return to our examination of the rocks or the tide 
will soon bar our access to them. We secure several specimens 
of two species of chiton, Mopalia hindsii and Katherina tunicata, 
but it takes close looking to find them, as they lie close in cran- 
nies and among mussels and barnacles, and, moreover, are not 


352 Rambles Round San Francisco. [June, 


unlike the rock in color. In the last-named species the valves of 
the shell are almost entirely hidden by the thick mantle; nothing 
is visible but a row of little black bucklers along the median line 
of the animal. . 

The sculpturing of the surface of Mopalia hindsii is, like that 
of many of its relations, very delicate. Its nearest congener, 
Mopalia muscosa, and its gigantic relative, Cryptochiton stelleri, 
which when alive measures nearly a foot in length and is fully 
four inches wide, are not to be found on the peninsula of San 
Francisco, though they occur a few miles to the northward. 

As we step upon the rocks we are saluted by numerous little 
jets of water, which take their origin from soft and seemingly 
shapeless masses beneath our feet. A more careful glance at 
these shows us that they are sea-anemones, for we catch sight of 
some that are partially expanded, and on searching a little farther 
we come upon a rock pool containing numerous individuals in a 
state of complete expansion. Beautiful objects they are, bright 
green tentacles on a bright green disc, and fully four inches 
across. It is curious that this large sea-anemone, together with 
two or three smaller species common in and around the Bay of 
San Francisco are still undescribed, unless they should prove iden- 
tical with species described by Prof. Verrill from points northward 
or southward of our locality. 

Two species of sponge gathered from the under sides of the 
rocks, some limpets (Acmea), Purpura saxicola, Chlorostoma fune- 
brale, and a small Litorina make up our total catch at this spot 
before the rising tide drives us back to the cliffs, where, in 4 
recess damp with percolating water, we may capture four or five 
specimens of the rare Isopod, Lygia dilatata Stm. Everywhere 
upon the rocks, and in many places among the débris cast up by 
the tides, darting about swiftly in the sunshine and hiding in the 
crannies on our approach, we find its near relative Lygia occident- 
alis Dana; but L. dilatata is rare even in this locality, the only one 
in the neighborhood where I have met with it. 

The stream running from Mountain Lake is made use of by 
the Spring Valley Water Co., and the flume conveying its water 
to San Francisco is carried along the face of the cliffs, bridging 
the ravines to Fort Point, and forms a convenient though narrow 


_ footpath. Along this route, a little later in the season, the sloping 


portions of the cliffs will be covered with the sweet-smelling wild ~ 


1878.] Rambles Round San Francisco. 353. 


wall-flower, Cheiranthus capitatus Dougl., and the pretty red rock- 
cress, Arabis blepharophylla, but now, the rains just over, we only 
find green leaves. 

In a hollow between the hills, where a tiny rillet is bordered 
with willows and dwarf shrubs of the blue ceanothus (C. thyrsi- 

florus), we see a flock of blue-birds, and pick up several red- 
bellied salamanders (Diemyctylus ma as they awkwardly 
sprawl among the wet herbage. 
. Descending to the beach at the fort we pick up among the 
débris cast up by the tide two species of those little jumping 
amphipodous crustaceans commonly called sand-hoppers, one 
kind (Orchestia californiensis Dana) is stoutly made, and is not 
found except near high tide level where it burrows in the sand in 
great numbers and hides beneath the wet débris; but the other 
species (QO. żraskiana St.) is more terrestrial in its habits, and may 
be found under heaps of dried grass and straw, dry horse-drop- 
pings, etc., at some distance from the beach. 

On the under sides of the flat stones, wriggling along the wet 
surface and jumping actively when touched, we find a much 
smaller amphipod, less than half an inch in length, some of these 
we place in a bottle of sea-water, and on examination under the 
microscope at home are struck with the beautiful plumes of hairs 
which adorn the under side of the joints of the antennæ, and 
know that it is A//orchestes plumulosus Sb. 

Along the edge of the rising tide we pick up two small jelly- 
fishes. They have little beauty and apparently little life when 
picked up, but after a few minutes in a large bottle of sea-water 
they begin to expand and contract their bells, a circlet of bright 
purple spots (ocelli) becomes conspicuous around the margin of 
the bell, and the tentacles all contracted when we pick them up, 
lengthen out until they reach from two to three times the height 
of the bell, which is about an inch. It is Polyorchis penicillata 
A. Agass., one of the loveliest of jelly-fishes. Large specimens of 
Aurelia labiata, a Discophorous medusa fully a foot across, with 
large purplish ovaries showing through the transparent bell, are 
floating upon the tide or stranded on the shore. 

Leaving the shore we walk along the edge of a large pool in 
the salt-marsh between the Presidio and the sea; here a large flock 

| of gulls is swimming; there are two species, one is the common 
2 yellow-billed Larus eccidedalis, but the other, conspicuous from 


354 Phosphorescent Insects. Their Metamorphoses. (June, 


the pure black and white of its plumage and its black bill, is 
Chrecocephalus philadelphia or Bonaparte’s gull. The long slen- 
der bill and long pointed wings of this species give it a great 
resemblance to the terns, or sea-swallows, which it rivals in grace 
and beauty. From the farther end of the salt lake rises a beau- 
tiful large snowy-white bird, with long bill and lengthy legs trail- 
ing behind, this we believe to be Herodias egretta var. californica 
Baird. We watch its flight to the other end of the lake, where it 
alights and recommences its business of feeding on small crus- 
tacea, etc. 

Evening is now closing in as we approach the cars at Harbor 
View, the little grebes scud homewards over the bay in squads of 
eight or ten, the brown pelicans flap heavily towards their roost- 
ing places, and the cormorants, one after the other, form a 
retreating line as they make off to their haunts on a more wooded 
part of the bay. 


PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS. THEIR METAMOR- 
OSES: 


BY MRS. V. O. KING, 


NIMAL metamorphosis is so uniform in its manifestations 
within certain limits,as to impart to its processes an apparent 
character of permanency. Whenever, therefore, we first observe 
any one of its phenomena which is beyond our experience, the 
curiosity is excited at what is rare, and we are led to inquire 
whether this new feature is anomalous, or whether it is not rather 
an exponent of capabilities hitherto dormant, but agreeably to law 
responding at the proper time to given conditions in the animal 
economy. The remarks of Mr. Wollaston, a few years since, on 
the relations existing between the apterous forms of insects and 
their atmospheric surroundings, and the further elaboration by Mr. 
Darwin of the method by which such results as the gradual mod- 
ification of structures, etc., are attained, naturally occur to the 
student of these apterous phases of metamorphosis. 
Among articulata representing the apterous types, t 
probably no species more interesting than those embraced in the 
family of Lampyride, since they exhibit great diversity in their 
metamorphic traits. By their phosphorescent habit they enable 


here are 


A 


p 
3 
3 
> 
i 


1878.) Phosphorescent Insects. Their Metamorphoses. 355 


the inquirer to follow them throughout their developmental 
career to ultimate perfection in the imago; and in them also may 
be seen to commence anew the life cycle dating from the deposi- 
tion of ova. This rare privilege of tracing insect metamorphosis 
is not afforded however, even under the most favorable circum- 
stances, without great risk of self deception on the part of the 
investigator. 

Of phosphorescent Lampyride in the south-western part of the 
Atlantic district I am acquainted with eight species; two of these 
have apterous females, which are also distinguished by other 
peculiarities. In this article I shall assume their origin from a 
common type, which by a series of progressive and retrograde 
` steps have given rise to their present forms. 

Buffon’s assertion that “nothing in nature is so permanent as | 
type,” is well sustained in the known tendency of both plants and 
animals, when not influenced by extraneous causes, to return to 
an original model; while on the other hand this very inclination 
to resume a certain form implies a capability of change. 

. “Whenever,” says Humboldt, “a new element develops itself 
in the feelings of mankind, it may almost invariably be traced to 
an earlier, deep-seated, latent germ.” What this great writer said 
of the emotional nature, will probably apply with equal force to 
the development of physical structures and functions. The 
capability of adapting or evolving these is the “ deep-seated, latent 
germ ” which is a positive power residing in animal forms, only 
awaiting the given conditions of its action to produce apparent 
anomalies, and in some instances masked representatives of seem- 
ingly extinct races, constituting a reversion to their primitive type. 
This assumption of new powers is witnessed in the metamor- 
Phosis of any insect, and has led to a close scrutiny of life in its 
earlier or embryonic forms with a view to discover whether all 
the parts of the imago are present in the earlier period; many 
students of nature, perceiving the impossibility of effects without 
something more definite than a name for a cause, have thrown 
great light upon the subject. 

Oken illustrates the gradual elevation in the scale of powers in 
the articulata by the metamorphosis of the Lepidoptera, which he 
Says are born as worms, represent the crustacea in the pupa stage 
and finally attain true insect perfection in the imago. 

Beginning at the lowest te of animal perfection as assumed _ 


VOL, XIT—NO VI. 


356 Phosphorescent Insects. Their Metamorphoses.  [June, 


in the apterous female of Lampyris, we may suppose this to be 
intermediate between the true larva anda higher form, the winged 

Coleopteron, of which latter Agassiz says, “ they are scarcely more 
than worms, with certain structures and functions to suit their 

needs.” . 

These aptera having a latent capability for higher development, 
in consequence of certain influences, differentiation begins, any 
apparent change having been preceded by imperceptible ones, 
such as the gradual concentration of nerves and muscular fibre 
in the wing-bearing segments. Rudimentary wings and elytra . 
resulting from their fusion under constantly favoring circum- 
stances, attain the maximum of their development in the hardier 
types of winged Lampyride. Ata certain point we have male 
. and female fireflies as the typically perfect insect. 

Once having acquired wings an insect might by prolonged 
flight change its relations, and may thrive for a while in its new * 
habitat. But either suddenly or by slow process its surroundings 
are changed. Climatic influences, after a time, test the powers of | 
the winged articulate. Many insects may be presumed to perish, 3 
others modify their structures and functions, by non-use of some 


and development of others. By this course, which must be at- — 
tended with great loss to individuals, incident to race preserva- 
tion, some attain a degree of conservative perfection. . 
In some instances the more robust individuals which are able — 
to contend successfully with the elements, like sturdy gymnasts 
who develop their muscles by muscular effort, gradually assume 
a still hardier habit, which is transmitted to their progeny in the 
larger and more powerful organs of flight, stronger manducatory 
organs and more fully developed eyes and feet. This evidently ` 
progressive phase may be coincident with apparently retrograde 
metamorphosis in some of the feebler members of the same 
family. The first tendency to degradation may be preceded by 
what is termed “an accident,” a deformity occasioned by the 
insect’s wings having been mutilated when rudely tossed against 
resisting objects by the winds. This peculiar feature appears m 
the offspring as an inherited shortening of the wings, it bemg — 
well known that peculiarities acquired, or losses sustained, are not — 
only transmissible to the progeny but frequently in an exags®™ 
ated form. The transition of an insect from an arial life to that — 
of an apterous creeper would, if gradual, be coincident with cor- 


1878.] | Phosphorescent Insects. Their Metamorphoses. 357 


responding alterations in many of its parts in conformity with the 
new conditions of its existence. In accordance with the laws of 
adaptive evolution, large eyes, embracing great areas, either in 
pursuit or avoidance of rapidly-moving objects on the wing, being 
no longer of use in this degraded position, where they could 
neither aid the insect’s flight nor assist it in procuring sustenance, 
would gradually be replaced by less globular ones with smaller 
lenses suited to nearer views. If this degradation were sudden 
it would be attended with great mortality; hence we find few 
beetles to be apterous, indicating, in my opinion, one of two 
probabilities, either that they are unable to sustain the rapidity of 
the change, or that being a comparatively recent evolution they 
have not yet attained numerical importance. 

According to Mr. Felix Plateau, the centre of gravity differs in ' 
the larva and imago of insects, being effected by the coincident’ 
enlargement of the thoracic and the diminution of the abdominal 
segments. This fusion of segments and their ganglia, in view of 
the part they play in supplying the legs and wings with their 
suitable nerves of sensation and motion, having adapted the cen- 
tre of gravity to given conditions, there would be a proper equi- 
poise in all the parts. It can easily be seen that upon a change 
from the winged to the apterous type, if this were comparatively 
sudden, the body would be unwieldy, and the disproportion be- 
tween the parts, rendering the creature’s motionS heavy, would 
tend to the non-use of the feet, and the consequent enfeebling of 
these members. Being unable.to travel far in quest of food the 
insect would from necessity have less opportunity of feeding,.thus 
aborting the manducatory organs from want of use. The chances 
of individual life being thus diminished the apterous female 
would no longer exist for herself but, supporting life , from 
material probably stored up in the more active larval stage until 
she had deposited her eggs in a suitable nidus, would then expire, 
having completed her mission of race-preservation. 

In thus treating of what might be expected from an insect 
having certain powers of adaptation, I have followed the order as 
indicated in the different characters seen in Lampyris., I have 
traced it in its supposed evolution from an apterous to that of an 
«rial being, and back to earth again as a creeper with heavy dis- 
proportioned body, feeble feet and mandibles, small eyes, and 
brilliant terminal segments. 


? 


358 .  Phosphorescent Insects. Their Metamorphoses. [June, 


As illustrating another phase of metamorphosis, I will mention 
a short-winged male which still retains the larger eyes and more 
brilliant pigment after they have probably ceased to be of service, 
pointing to its comparatively recent degradation, and illustrating 
what Dr. J. LeConte calls “ a structure which has outlived its 
usefulness.” The eyes are no doubt retained for awhile by inherit- 
ance, but we may safely conclude to be eventually modified. 

The preceding remarks have applied only to structures and 
functions, but at each stage of change in these, corresponding 
variations have taken place in the coloring of different parts, from 
black to pale yellow. 

In one species the strong-winged male is of a dirty brown, coarse- 
ly porous, and finely pubescent on the elytra. The apterous female 
is a pale buff, glabrous, concolorous; thus, in accordance with the 
laws appertaining to the different conditions, evolution was ar- 
rested in the apterous imago at the color series which belongs to 
the larva, apparently a simpler process than that which a change 
of color would imply. This possibility is intimated by Agassiz in 
his “classification upon embryological data” when he says that 
the beetle preserves the character of the larva of other insects, 
assuming only wings and more fully developed legs without 
reaching other successive metamorphoses. There are lesser 
stages as represented by the different species, enabling us to link 
the family in a successive chain from an original pair to this seem- 
ingly new creation. This is probably the resultant of an effort at 
race-preservation, a product of the wear and destruction of indi- 
viduals into conditions which enable them to perpetuate their 
race until such time as shall favor their reversion to the original 
type. The more interesting phenomena of phosphorescence wit- 
nessed in this sub-family will be the subject of another article; 
and it may be proper here to remark, that the researches of the 


writer, both in the field and the laboratory, have been made, not 


with a view to fortifying any particular theory, but for the pur 


_ pose of discovering truth as it is manifested in nature, and apply- ‘ l 


ing it to the ever-varying phenomena of insect life. 


iat eae REST EES sch eee a A e Ey 
o TaN gh ee EER RO nce ee epee e a cng a pe eee eam Sse 2 Seats 


gee he 


Be gh iy te Ne Ne AE cea eT ia a aac a 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants, 359 


ON THE GENEALOGY OF PLANTS. 
BY LESTER F. WARD, A. M. 


Gr of the most remarkable anomalies, which the history of 
science and that of the human mind affords, is to be found in 
the appreciation which has been shown of the relationships which 
the different forms of life present. There has been no lack of 
acumen in discerning these relationships, in detecting the differ- 
ences or recognizing the affinities, but there has been frequent 
failure to comprehend their meaning. The term relationship has 
been employed in a sort of metaphorical or metaphysical sense, 
as denoting mere resemblance wholly disconnected from any idea 
of natural dependence; as if the objects of nature were arbitrarily 
grouped into classes, orders and genera by the operation of some 
law of “pre-established harmony.” It might be supposed that 
the term relationship, constantly in use in this sense, ought to 
have suggested the analogy to family, or consanguineal relation- 
ship among men, and led naturalists to seek to account for the 
resemblances observed among plants and animals on some such 
principle as that on which family resemblances are explained. 
Yet this simple deduction proved too profound for the human 
mind, and botanists and zodlogists went on accumulating facts 
down to the time of Lamarck, and most of them to that of Dar- 
win, without perceiving their most obvious meaning. And there 
are still many who fail to perceive it, and who POY, reject it 
when pointed out to them. 

It is perhaps but proper to add that this state of things has 
not been wholly due to an inability to make rational deductions, 
but has been in part brought about by the existence of precon- 
ceived ideas which were sufficient to preclude all attempts to 
reason towards the true conclusion, however plain this course 
might appear to the unbiased mind. 

But now that it is becoming generally recognized that the 
present forms of life are the true descendants of antecedent forms, 
and that the observed resemblances are the physical result of real 
or genetic relationship identical with that which makes children 
resemble their parents, it is but natural that old systems of classi- 
fication should require to be entirely recast and moulded into har- 
mony with this fundamental truth. Such, indeed, is the case, 
and already marked progress has been made, especially in zoology, _ 


360 On the Genealogy of Plants. ‘June, 


in which department chiefly, nearly all the most advanced workers 
in this field have concentrated their efforts. 

In addition to other and greater benefits, this revolution has 
had the effect to relieve the systematists of the odium which 
naturally attaches to the apparently useless labor of classifying 
objects conceived as independent of one another. A dependence 
once established, classification becomes a vital process, and the 
only means of solving the highest of all scientific questions, that 
of the genesis of organic beings. Every fact in morphology or 
physiology, hitherto regarded too much as ends in themselves, 
now becomes an additional link in the chain of evidence which is 
to establish the genealogical history of a plant or an animal. 
Thus classification, formerly regarded as simply a means for the 


more convenient study of living things, becomes the highest a 


object and chief end of biological investigation. , 

It is a matter of common remark that in the sudden advance of 
biological science which has taken place during the last eighteen 
years, it has been left for botany to bring up the rear. Prior to 
1859 it was generally conceded that the. science of plants occu- 
pied a considerably more advanced position than that of animals. 
This was due in the main to the impetus which it received at the 
hands of the Jussieus, who, following up the labors of Tournefort, 
had given to botany its so-called “ Natural System.” 

But the Jussieus understood relationship only in the metaphori- 
cal sense, and maintained the fixity of species, and the system 


they established could not of course satisfy, in all respects, the: 2 
law of genealogical descent. Its worst vice was the weighty 


authority which it acquired, and which became a serious barrier 
to its extension and rectification. But there are other reasons, 
existing in the nature of the two departments of biology, am 
which need not here be stated, that have contributed to permit 
-our study of the vegetable kingdom to be outstripped by that of 


the animal kingdom. There has not, however, been wee : 
deep sense of the inadequacy of the so-called Natural System oF | 


Plants, and in quite receat times its imperfections have become 


too obtrusive to be longer disregarded, even though greatly — 


reduced by the labors of Lindley, DeCandolle, Hooker, Gray 


and others; and an effort has already been commenced, especially : 
on the continent, to subject that system to a thorough criticism, d 
with the aid of the new light which the modern school of biology 


has kindled in all its departments. 


e RE r E a ES S 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants. 361 


I do not propose in this paper either to review the literature of 
this subject, which is already becoming voluminous, or to attempt, 
among the many conflicting theories advanced, to reconstruct the 
natural system; but shall seek rather, in the light both of the new 
facts and the new principles already accepted, to state some of | 
the objections to the received classification, and sketch, in its 
most general outlines, the form and direction which I conceive 
that the approaching reform is most likely to assume. 

Probably the most objectionable feature of the system of classi- 
fication proposed by Jussieu and still adhered to in nearly every 
systematic work on botany, is the position of the Gymnosperms. 
These constitute a sub-class of the Exogens and are made 
co-ordinate with the sub-class Angiosperms, which only embraces 
the Dicotyledons proper, or true flowering Exogens. 

This arrangement and terminology involves a number of grave 
inconsistencies. In the first place the so-called Endogens or 
monocotyledonous plants are as truly Angiosperms as are the 
plants to which that term has been thus specially applied, the 


pistil consisting in both cases of a closed ovary. The Gymno- 


sperms, therefore, in the present system are placed between the 
two great divisions of the Angiosperms and made to interrupt 
the natural series. The most casual observation, both of the 
foliage and the flowers, shows how awkward this position is, and 
indicates without closer scrutiny, that the Gymnosperms are out 
of place. Moreover, the enclosure of the germ is what chiefly 


` “distinguishes the pheenogamic from the cryptogamic series, and 


” 


the degree to which this is accomplished should mark the degree 
of advancement from the cryptogamic state. But we shall pres- 
ently look deeper into this phase of the question. 

In the second place, the reason assigned for the position of the 
Gymnosperms is the exogenous structure of their woody tissue. 
This argument might have some force if only the Conifere were 


embraced in the sub-class; but when we consider the Cycadacee, 


which equally belong there, a difficulty arises. Here the woody 
tissue assimilates almost altogether that of the endogenous palms 
or cryptogamic tree-ferns. 

Again, the wood of the Conifere is by no means identical with 


- that of the true Dicotyledons. It is destitute of the continuous 


vessels called ducts with their minutely porous joints, so charac- 
teristic of the former. The secondary wood consists, with the 


362 ae On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


exception of the medullary rays, entirely of large tubes, called 
tracheides, occupied with large prosenchymatous cells, which latter 
are nearly of uniform shape, while in the true Dicotyledons the 
tissue is in part parenchymous and the cells much more numer- 
ous and varied in form; moreover, the small circular areas 
enclosed between the walls of adjacent cells or źracheïdes are 
much more numerous and pronounced, especially in old tissue, 
in the Conifere than in the Exogens proper. 

There is still a third important respect in which the Gymno- 
sperms differ from the remaining Exogens in a marked manner. 
This is in the number of cotyledons, which is here usually more 
than two and sometimes as many as fifteen, while in true dicotyle- 
donous plants the number is uniformly two; only a very few 
exceptions having ever yet been found; as, for example, in Ranun- 
culus. ficaria, which usually has but one, and in some species of 
Phaseolus, which sometimes have a whorl of three. 

The objections above enumerated to the position of the Gym- 
nosperme in the prevailing system are quite independent of any 
recent facts pointing to their origin and derivation, and would be 
equally applicable under the old metaphorical conception of 
relationship. It is, therefore, all the more strange that it should 


ave survived so long and should have required the argument ) 


from descent to finally break it down. 

Evidence of this nature, however, is not now wanting, and it 
very plainly points to the direct filiation of the Gymnosperms 
upon the Cryptogams. This evidence concerns two important 
sets of characters, the woody tissue and the reproductive organs. 
As regards the former the close resemblance of the Cycadace@ to 
the arborescent ferns is very obvious from a glance at a cross 
section of each. If this character, therefore, possessed the 
importance which is claimed for it, it would be found more diffi- 
cult to pass from the Cycadacee to the Conifere than from the 
latter to the Dicotyledons. And we shall hereafter see that great 
liberty has been taken in thus grouping the Cycadacee and Con- 
ifere together. 

If we consider the Conifere alone there is one class of facts 
recently brought to light which possesses an unusual interest. 
The investigations of Prof. Williamson! have shown that the 
trunks of Lepidodendron, exhumed from the coal beds of England, 


1On the Organization of the fossil plants of the coal measures. Phil. Trans., 1872. 


Tt 


‘ 


1878. | On the Genealogy of Plants. 363 


exhibit a species of exogenous growth. This differs not only 
from that of the existing pines and from that of the true Exo- 
gens, but also from that now known to take place in certain 
monocotyledonous plants and constitutes a sort of fourth type. 
It consists, so far as understood, in the formation of a layer of 
growing tissue with dividing cells (meristem) around each fibro-" 
vascular bundle, the continuous division of whose cells necessi- 
tates a radial or centrifugal increase of the entire stem. A simi- 
lar structure on a small scale occurs in certain now living crypto- 
gamic forms, as in Botrychium, Isoëtes, etc. This form of exog- 
enous growth may perhaps be regarded as marking a transition 
from the endogenous structure of most cryptogamic stems to the 
form of exogenous structure which prevails in the Conifere, but 
which has not been transmitted to the branch from which, on the 
hypothesis of descent, the Cycadacee have been developed. 

The transition in the reproductive system is far more obvious 
and remarkable. What is known as “alternate generation,” so . 
long familiar to zodlogists, is now found to prevail throughout 
the greater part of the vegetable kingdom. It is most apparent 
in the higher Cryptogams, especially in the mosses, ferns, Ægui- 
setacee and Lycopodiacee. In all these the final stage is the pro- 
duction of a plant or “ generation” capable of déveloping spores, 
which are of both sexes, and produce the sexual plant. Among 
the vascular Cryptogams there are two orders, one the Rhizocar- 
pee@ in the fern group, the other the ZLzgu/ate in the club-moss 
group, in which the final spore-bearing stage is sexually differ- 
entiated. These produce two kinds of spores, called respectively, 
from their relative size, sacrospores and microspores, the former 
of which develops a female, and the latter a male prothallium, or 
sexual plant. This protha/lium, which in most vascular Crypto- 
gams is an object of considerable size, and which corresponds to 
the entire leafy portion of the mosses, liverworts and other cellu- 
lar forms, continues to diminish as the degree of organization 
increases; the spore-bearing generation, on the contrary, increas- 
ing ina omero ratio; the large fronds of a fern repre- 
senting only the seta and capsule, or fruiting portion of a moss. 

n the Rhizocarpee and Ligulate, whose macrospores and micro- 
spores indicate a higher organization, this reduction of the sexual 
generation is carried so far that the prothallium scarcely protrudes 
from the spore, or is wholly confined within it. Hoffmeister’ has _ 


1 Vergleichende Untersuchungen, 1851. 


\ 


long ago pointed out the true significance of these facts, and 
shown that we have only to continue this same process a step 
beyond what it has already reached in Sa/vinza and Tsoétes to 
arrive at the condition presented by. the existing Gymnosperms, 
the Cycadece@ and Conifere. Here the macrospore exists under 
the name of embryo-sack, while the microspores are the’ pollen- 
grains. The so-called macrosporangia of these highest Crypto- 
gams thus correspond to the ovules! of the Phanerogams, while 
the anther-cells of these latter are homologous with the micro- 
sporangia of the former. The prothallium is readily traced to the 
- Gymnosperms, especially in the fertile flowers, where it re-appears 
under the name endosperm, and constitutes the albumen or reserve 
material of the future seed — one of the finest examples in 
biology of the fundamental identity of the reproductive and 
nutritive functions. In the staminate flowers the prothallium may 
be considered as represented by the pollen-tube (the elongated 
cell that descends from the pollen grains into the ovary and fer- 
tilized the germ), although a careful study of the microspores of 
Tsoétes, in which one cell remains sterile while the rest develop 
the spermatozoa, may leave some doubt as to whether the 
homology is here quite complete. The greatest differentiation 
has gone on in the microspores; the microspores and the plants 
and organs bearing them, still presenting, in many cases, 4 
striking resemblance. In the Cycadacee, for example, the anther- 
cells are sessile and single or in groups upon the lower surface 
of the broad filaments like the “fruit dots” on the back of a 
fern. In the Conifere the stamens are less leaf-like, but the 
pollen-sacks are often solitary and scattered over the under sur- 
face of the flattened filaments. 

An interesting similarity also exists between the male aments 
of certain Taraceæ, as in the yew and the juniper, and the spikes 
of Equisetum, the horse-tail or scouring-rush. In these cases it 
is said that nearly all the morphological homologies are satisfied. 

In general it may be said that in all these respects the Cycada- 
cee resemble most the group of true ferns, the Conifere proper 
(pines, firs, etc.), most the club-moss group (Dichotomes), and the 


1Sachs (Yahrbuch der Botanick, 4 Aufl. S. 481) justly objects to the term ovule (OF 
little egg) as entirely misleading in its etymology, and as tending to perpetuate the 
~ error that gave rise to its use, and proposes the term seed-bud (Samenknospe) a5 4 
substitute. — 


364 On the Genealogy of Plants. | [June, 


ai eh teak Sie ese th a hoe Bir 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants. 365 


Taxacee, most the Eguisetacee; a fact of great importance for 
the genealogy of plants, and to which we shall have occasion to 
refer again. 

Upon the whole, therefore, it seems to be no longer open to 
serious doubt that both of these widely dissimilar orders of the 
Gymnosperme (Coniferæ and Cycadacee), as also probably the 
Gnetaceæ, have been directly developed out of lower forms of 
cryptogamic vegetation. They should, therefore, certainly occupy 
a position at the base of the phzenogamic series. Whatever may 
be ultimately accepted as the mode of transition from the Gymno- 
sperms to the Angiosperms, it seems to be established that the 
former have actually descended from the latter, and they should 
therefore be all assigned a higher place in the scale of organization. 
- It is one of the misfortunes of botanical science that above the 
cellular plants no classification based on histological structure can 
be made; so nearly identical are the forms of structure through 
which all classes of vegetation pass. It is therefore necessary to 
depend in the main upon differences of the reproductive system, 
as affording the best characters by means of which to trace the 
development of vegetable forms. The Gymnosperms, no less 
than the Angiosperms, have both classes of structure, and we may 
almost say the same for the Cryptogams. But from the Crypto- 
gam to the Gymnosperm, and from this to the Angiosperm, there 
is a continuous advance in one direction toward the complete pro- 
tection of the germ as it is accomplished by the perfect ovary. 
It is indispensable, therefore, that all plants possessing this 
important character should be erected into one great group or 
class, and that from this group all plants to which this character 
does not belong be rigidly excluded. The terms endogenous 
and exogenous being common to both Angiosperms and Gymno- 
sperms, should be excluded from the classification, or only 
employed to mark the subordinate divisions. The two systems 
of classification for the pheenogamic series may therefore be thus 
compared : 


366 On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


OLD SYSTEM. 


Polypetalze 
Angiosperms Monopetalze 
Apetale 
Exogens 
netaceze 
Gymnosperms Coniferze 
Phznogams Cycadaceze 
Endogens 
NEW SYSTEM. 
: Monopetalz 
Dicotylee Polypetalze 
(exogenous) Apetalæ 
Angiosperms 
Monocotylæ 
(endogenous) 
Phænogams 


a 
Gnetacez : 
exogenous ‘a 


Gymnosperms / Coniferæ 


Cycadaceæ (endogenous) 


The terms Monoctyle and Dicotyle are preferable to Endo- 
gen and Erogen, for the Angiosperms, since they lead to no 
confusion with the class Gymnospermæ. In this classification 
the terms conform to the strict rules for definition, each being ja 
wholly exclusive of all the rest. The reason for transposing the =<] 
Polypetale and Monopetale will be given in another paper. 4 

Before proceeding to consider more especially the manner in a 
which the Angiosperms may have been derived from the Gymno- 
sperms, it will be necessary to glance once more at the nature of 

_ the cryptogamic vegetation from which we suppose the latter to 
a have descended. And for our purpose we may conveniently 
divide it into three gronpe: Ist, the group of true ferns; 2d, the 


PR a ee La ee ee OER OR Re re 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants. 367 


group of the club-mosses; and 3d, the horse tail group, or Eguise- 
tacee. The first of these groups seems to have come down to us 
from the Carboniferous epoch almost in an unchanged condition, 
trunks of tree-ferns quite similar to those still found growing in 
tropical countries having been exhumed from the coal measures. 
The second group must be made to embrace the ancient Lepido- 
dendron, which flourished so abundantly in that luxuriant age, 
and whose resemblance to both our club-mosses, and to the 
proper Conifers has been so frequently remarked. In this group, 
therefore, there must have been great degeneracy, as of it the 
forests of that period seem to have been chiefly composed, while 
nothing now remains but the low herbaceous and moss-like plants 
that form our Lycopodiacee} To the third group belonged the 
famous Calamites of the coal beds, and these too have dwindled 
into insignificant rushes. 

Such is in fact the fundamental division of the cryptogamic 
series, and is based as well upon differences of internal constitu- 
tion as of external aspect. If we associate these three classes of 
Cryptogams, respectively, with the three orders of the Gymno- 
sperms, Cycadacee, Contfere and Gnetace@, we shall be able to dis- 
cern many remarkable resemblances which, while they may really 


signify nothing, are sufficient at least to suggest an hypothesis. In 


the first group, or that of the true ferns, we have in the existing 
Rhizocarpee, to which our Azolla belongs, and of which the 
genera Salvinia, Marsilia, and Pilularia have been carefully studied, 
an undoubted transition towards the general condition presented 
by the Cycadacee. It is not unfavorable to this theory of transi- 
tion that the existing forms indicating it are small and humble 
plants. The slight differentiation of the sexless spore into the 
Macrospore and microspore could of itself have scarcely given 
the new form a special hold upon its environment, and we may 
almost wonder that this intermediary stage should not have suc- 
cumbed altogether, as all the later ones probably have done. 
But the true pheenogamic or flowering state once. reached, per- 
manence was acquired, and with it the power of attaining a higher 
development. It is remarkable that this differentiation affected 
the reproductive system only, and has left the woody tissue and 
also the foliage of the fern and the Ay to a great extent 
unchanged. 

1 In the Sunda eke Pits is a Lycopod that attains a diameter of six inches and- 


a height of twenty-five fe 


368 On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


That the Conifere proper (Adietinee) have descended from the 
second or club-moss group, seems even better established than 
that the Cycads have sprung from the ferns. 

The affinities of the extinct Lepidodendron with this group have 
always been recognized. Those who claim for Lepidodendron a 
Coniferous character only strengthen this view by showing how 
closely the two groups approached each other in those ancient 
times. The Araucarian pine of the southern hemisphere is even 
now covered with scales over its entire surface, and presents no 
small analogy with the Lycopodiacee and with what is known to 
have been the character of Lepidodendron. We must, therefore, 
regard Araucaria as our nearest living representative of the early 
transition form through which the Pine family was derived from 
the Carboniferous Lepidophytes. And it is especially interesting 
to remark that it is just this Araucarian group of true Conifers 
which we find associated with the arborescent cryptogamic vegeta- 
tion, and whose scaly trunks lie side by side with the equally 
scaly trunks of Lepidodendron in the coal formation—a fact which 
shows at how early a period the differentiation began, and how 
little progress has been made within the same group during sub- 
sequent geologic ages. 

With regard to the great advance which must have been made 
in passing from the crytogamic to the gymnospermous reproduc- 
tive system, the evidence has already been briefly referred to. To 
the Rhizocarpee in the fern group correspond the Ligu/ate in the 
club-moss group, in which the asexual spore is completely differ- 
entiated into the sexual macrospore and microspore. In this 
order the only two genera thus far known, /soétes and Selaginella, 
have been faithfully studied by the foremost botanists of Europe, 
and the facts repeatedly verified. Hoffmeister’s generalization, 
which is of the highest importance and has been generally 
accepted, has already been adduced, and its direct bearing on the 
immediate question need scarcely be reaffirmed. 

The origin of the Gnetacee is far more obscure, and indeed so 
few positive facts have been brought forward to establish it that 
- all speculation may be pronounced idle. That there is conside: z 
able general resemblance between the genus Æphedra and cadens 
branching species of Eguisetwm, cannot be denied, but this simi- 
larity of habit is not accompanied by any corresponding similarity 
of structure either in the tissue or in the fruiting apparatus, while 


pee 


Fie, 


Ra Eee ow ee 


| 
3 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants. 369 


the few genera which have been grouped under this order vary 
enormously in everything but their mode of inflorescence. 
Whether they have been developed independently from the 
Cryptogams or have been off-shoots from lower Gymnosperms 
must therefore remain one of the problems of botanical science; 
but it is a problem, as we shall presently see, which derives its 
great importance from the special 7é/e which the Gnetacee have 
been made to play, as a connecting link between the Gymno- 
sperms and the Dicotyledons. 

The highest marks of organization in the vegetable kingdom 
are the exogenous structure and the encasement of the germ. 
These may be regarded as the two great ends towards which 
vegetal life is perpetually striving. One of these ends is attained 
by the Monocotyle or endogenous Angiosperms; both of them 
have been secured in the Dicotyle or exogenous Angiosperms. 

Although most of the intermediate stages, from the naked- 
seeded Cycad to the closed ovary of the Monocotyledon, have 
been obliterated, or have not been discovered, the evidence is 
nevertheless abundant that such a transition has taken place. If 
we consider what may be called their phystognomy alone, the 
descent of the true palm from the sago-palm, or both from a 
common ancestor in the Cycadacee would seem in a high degree 
probable. The great divergence in the matter of floral envelopes 
may be accounted for on the supposition that the differentiation, 
as is known to be frequently the case, was chiefly confined to the 
reproductive system and only slightly affected other characters. 
The absence of intermediate stages in our existing flora could 
then be explained by the now well understood law of the ephe- 
meral nature of transition forms. In fact the Cycad is itself a 
transition form connecting the Cryptogams with the true flowering 
plants, or Angiosperms, and as such it is doubtless a compara- 
tively ephemeral state. So far as general aspect or physiognomy 
is concerned, the ordinary observer, without trained scientific 
insight, naturally and instinctively classes the palm, the sago- 
palm, and the tree-fern in one and the same group, little imagining 
that botanists class them each in such a widely different group, — 
Language itself builds on so obvious a resemblance. What we 
call the sago-palm, connecting it with the higher type, the Ger- 
mans call the palm-fern (Pa/m/farn), connecting it with both the 
higher and the lower types of vegetation. Should further study- 


>: ME E, 


370 On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


of these forms, in the light of the broadest principles of classifi- 
cation, lead the technical botanist to a recognition of their genetic 
relationship, and thus bridge over the two great chasms in the 
vegetable series, it would not be the first time that vulgar obser- 
vation has been found to accord with true science after a long 
period of unmerited disdain. 

The fact that the leaves of the Cycadacee grow from a terminal 
bud like the palms, while they unfold from the circinate apex like 
the ferns, shows that this resemblance to both palms and ferns is 
not altogether fanciful or purely superficial; in fact their genetic 
development from the latter, as already shown, is established by 
other evidence of the most vital character based on the mor- 
phology of the reproductive organs. It is therefore probable that 
the Cycadaceeé are not only more nearly related both to the 
Palmacee and the Filices than is generally supposed, but that 
they are less nearly related to the Conifere than is implied by 
their position in the received system of classification. 

; he wood of the Cycadacee, as already stated, consists of a 

mass of sheathed fibres in a large central pith composed chiefly 
of large prosenchymatous cells, and if not identical with that of 
the palms and arborescent ferns, certainly. resembles this far more 
closely than it does that of the exogenous Gymnosperms. The sim- 
ilarity in thé mode of flowering without which such a position could 
never have been thought of, may perhaps have been accidental, 
the two widely divergent lines of vegetation passing through some 
of the same transition stages in their progress towards the ideal 
type of vegetal perfection. The evidence already adduced of the 
derivation of the Conifere from a distinct stock of Cryptogams, 
to which the Lepidodendron belonged, would seem to corroborate 
this view, and this quite independently of the real origin of the 


Dicotyle. Nor should botanists despair of still finding plain traces, — 
in the transformations of the floral organs, of the descent of the — 


Monoctyle from the Cycadacee, and with this view the embryo- 
logical study of the Pa/macee cannot be too strongly urged. i 

The proper origin of the Dicotyle, notwithstanding their 
possession of a closed ovary in common with the Monoctyla, is 4 
problem which presents the gravest difficulties to the genealog- 
ical systematist. Their derivation from the latter, though not 


< wholly without legitimate evidence, is far from established, and 
„may have to be altogether abandoned. The facts which support : 


: : __ this hypothesis may be thus briefly summed up: 


A. «Uy 


Peps ee 


RRS ge tee ee ee 


1878. ] On the Genealogy of Plants. 371 


The endogenous structure of monoctyledonous stems is of two 
classes. In the palms, as in the Cycadacee and arborescent ferns, 
the foliage springs from one terminal bud which attains its full 
development before expansion, after which no further lateral 
enlargement of the stem takes place. This may be regarded as 
the normal form of endogenous growth. But another form is 
found in the trunks of the arborescent Likiacee, as in Dracena, 
Yucca, Aloé, etc., which may be regarded as representing an 
advance in the direction of an exogenous structure. The stems 
of these tree-like Li/iacee actually undergo increase in size, or 
radial growth, after emerging from the bud. This takes place by 
the formation of a growing tissue (meristem) within the outer bark 
at certain distances below the terminal bud, which increases in 
thickness for some time before passing into permanent tissue, and 
effects an enlargement of the stem on all sides. A cross section 
of one of these trunks reveals a number of rings of this modified 
tissue, some of which are far internal, though at the time of their 
formation they must have formed the inner bark of the tree. 

Although this is clearly an advance towards the true exogenous 
structure, it seems to be rather by way of analogy than of direct 
progress, the same end (power of strengthening the trunk to 
resist the force of gravity and of the elements and thus to render 
greater size and longevity possible) being attained, but .by the 
adoption of a somewhat different means. 

There is another group of plants, wholly, different from those 
just described, which also afford considerable evidence of forming 
a transition stage from the endogenous to the exogenous struc- 
ture. These are the aquatic plants. Sanio observes that in Pota- 
mogeton and other aquatic and submersed Endogens, “an axial 
bundle extends continuously through the stem, the bundles from 
the leaves only subsequently uniting with it,” “a condition,” says 
Sachs, “quite anomalous in monocotyledonous plants, but also 
found in dicotyledonous water plants, particularly in the Vymphe- 
ace.” Such a condition found among aquatic plants is certainly 
very interesting in view of the probable aquatic character of all 
primordial vegetation, but whether these facts possess any real 
significance in connection with the question of the origin of the 
Dicotyledons still remains doubtful. 


In the venation of leaves of monocotyledonous plants, which _ 
is usually parallel, there are to be observed marked ie eer a 


VOL. XII—NO. VI. 27 


N 


372 On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


towards the reticulated structure which prevails with the Dicotyle. 
Every one is familiar with many cases of this kind, as in 
Dioscorea, Goodyera, etc., while on the other hand, approaches to 
the parallel venation sometimes occur in the Dicotyle (Plantago, 
etc.). : 

A far greater difficulty is presented by the cotyledons; for 
while there are a few cases in which exogenous plants develop 
but a single cotyledon, I am aware of no case in which an endog- 
enous Angiosperm has been found to develop more than one. It 
is, however, presumable that a more complete investigation of 
this question may reveal transition forms here as elsewhere. 

Such are the principal facts thus far made known which tend 
to encourage the hope of ever tracing the higher class of Angio- 
sperms back to an origin within the lower class. 

Far more satisfactory is the evidence that the Dicotyledons 


have been developed out of the Gretaceæe and perhaps indirectly 


out of the Conifere. The Guetace@, a small but interesting — 
family of only three known genera (Gnetum, Ephedra, and Web 
witschia) possess all the marks of forming a true intermediate link. 
The flowers of both sexes are provided with a sort of half- 
envelope, called the perigonium, which surrounds and protects 
the anther-bearing filament in the male, and the solitary ovule in 
the female flower, and may be regarded either as a rudimentary 
ovary or as a rudimentary perianth. 

It is worth remarking here that the chasm between the Gymno- 
sperms and Angiosperms is at all points greater with respect to 
the floral envelopes (including the ovarian) than with respect to — 
the process and true organs of fertilization. The ovary of the 
Angiosperm is enclosed in an envelope, in the true Gymnosperm — 
it exists but is exposed, in the Gnetacee it is half enclosed and 
half exposed. It matters not whether the perigonium be regarded 
as the homologue of the ovarian envelope or of the outer floral 
envelopes of the Angiosperms, since all the* floral organs, 
including even the essential ones (stamens, pistils, etc.) are simply 
modified leaves. In the passage from the Cycadacee to the Palma- 
cee no such connecting link has yet been discovered, and for the 
truth of such a transition we must rely upon the remarkably 
strong physiognomic resemblance’ coupled with the evidence fur- 
nished by the structure of the tissues and the mode of zstivation 


The Gnetacee, however, while they give us this invincible evi- 


4 
i 


1878.] On the Genealogy of Plants. ` 373 


dence of a transition in the rudimentary ovary, would seem at ° 


first view to afford no pltysiognomic mark to indicate the point 
at which the chasm was bridged over. There is one family of 
Dicotyledons, however, which, though little familiar to the inhabi- 
tants of the northern hemisphere, are none the less likely to have 
completed this transition, and in which there certainly is a strong 
physiognomic resemblance to at least one genus of the Guetacee. 
Humboldt} speaking of the remarkable form of the Casuarinee 
of the East Indies, describes them as “trees with equisetum-like 
branches,” and remarks that “ Plumier’s Equisetum altissimum, and 
Forskal’s Ephedra aphylla of North Africa, are forms nearly allied 
to Casuarina.” This physiognomic resemblance of Ephedra to 
both Casuarina and Eguisetum is certainly very interesting, not 
only as affording a provisional hypothesis for explaining the 
transition from the Gymnosperms to the Dicotyle, but also as 
marking out a line of investigation with a view to determining 
the origin of the Guetacee. But to this we shall revert. 

Not only do the Guetacee thus approach the Dicoty/e in their 
reproductive system, but they also present a corresponding 
advance in the formation of the secondary wood from the struc- 
ture of the Conifere towards that of the true Exogens. Besides 
the wracheides of the former it also contains vessels closely 
resembling the porous ducts of the latter. 

Should the descent of the Dicotyle from the Guetacee be 
accepted as probable, it would only remain to determine the origin 
of the latter in order to complete a rough outline of the entire 
genealogy of vascular plants. 

As already remarked, the attempt to affiliate them upon the 
Equisetacee, as a third independent branch of the Cryptogams, 
cannot be seriously made in the present state of science, not- 
withstanding the singular harmony in the general aspect of 
Ephedra and Equisetum. The fact heretofore pointed out, how- 
ever, that a striking analogy subsists between the spikes of Egui- 
setum and the male aments of Taxus and other allied genera, 
may be taken as a faint indication of what may have been the 
mode of development of these forms. It should at least be 
remarked that within the Conifere there is exhibited no small 
degree of progress towards certain leading characteristics pos- 


sessed by the Dicotyledons. From the lowest to the highest, oo a 


_ lAnsichten der Natur, Stuttgart, 1871, p. 137- 


374 On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


from the Araucarian pines to the yew trees, such progress is well 
marked, and in Sa/isburya, the Japanese Ginkgo, which is related 
to the yew, the foliage comes at length to closely resemble that 
of many exogenous Angiosperms. The suspicion has even been 
expressed that all the genera of the Conifere may not have 
sprung from the same parent stock. 

The origin of the Dicotyle, which constitutes the chief problem — 
in the genealogy of plants, is thus seen to be one which, while it 
admits of several possible solutions, nevertheless, in the present 
state of science, certainly admits of no positive solution. What- 
ever hypothesis we adopt, if we suppose a monophyletic origin for 
all plants, the derivation of both branches of the Angiosperme 
from this common root will involve what may be thought to be a 
violent assumption. If the endogenous Angiosperms have 
developed out of the Cycadacee and the exogenous Angio- 
sperms out of the Guetacee, it requires some stretch of our 
credulity, in view of the bad repute into which all alleged “ anal- 
ogous ” organs have in recent times fallen, to admit that the 
closed ovary, so identical in the two classes of plants, could have 
been arrived at from two such independent sources. To avoid 
this difficulty, which no one knows better how to appreciate, 
Prof. Heckel suggests the probability that the Angiosperms as’a 
class were first developed from the Guetacee, and that subse- 
quently, they subdivided into the monocotyledonous and the 
dicotyledonous branches.! But with due deference to so high an 
authority, it is submitted that this would involve a still more 
violent assumption, viz: that an endogenous structure was derived 
from an exogenous one. Besides, we fail to find a single fact 
either in morphology or in palaontology to support this hypoth- 
esis. Again, if we seek to trace the genealogy of the Dicotyle back 
through the Monocotyle to the Cycadacee, we are driven to the 
equally forbidden presumption that the exogenous structure of 
the Dicotyle and of the Conifere and Guetacee was independently 
reached. There is, therefore, no serial line by following which 
_ all these difficulties can be escaped. a 

Those to whom all these instances of so-called “teleology 
present no serious obstacle, may even find satisfaction in the con- 
ception that not only are the Conifere descended from two) ~ 
different parent stocks and the Gnetace@ from still a third, but 


1Schépfungsgeschichte, Aufl. 5, Berlin, 1874, S. 430. 


1 
a 
a 
Ti 
Z 
A 
z 
4 


~N 


1878.] On the Genealogy of Plants. 375 


that the Dicotyle may themselves be of heterogeneous origin, part 
of them being descendants of the Conifere, part, of the Guetacee, 
and part, of the Monocotyle. Should it ever become generally 
believed that the Dicoty/e are of multiple origin, the interest, 
now so great, in the true arrangement of the families of this class 
of plants would be greatly increased, and more satisfactory 
answers to many puzzling questions might be expected. 

Perhaps the least objectionable of all the theories advanced, as 
that which requires the least extreme or improbable assumptions, 
and affords the greatest relief from the dilemma, is that which 
maintains the two great co-ordinate branches or parallel ascend- 
ing series of the vegetable kingdom intact and independent from 
the’ most remote period to which they are traceable in the past 
history of the globe, and sees in the development of the endog- 
enous and exogenous Angiosperms at the summit of each, 
respectively, the simple attainment in both of one of the great 
ends of vegetable existence, without which the highest functions 
of plant life cannot be manifested. 

If we believe in the evolution of organic forms at all, we 
must accept that of vegetable forms, and if we are convinced 
that the higher plants are the descendants of lower ones, we 
ought by this time to have at least some provisional hypothesis 
as to the way in which this process of evolution has been go- 
ing on in the vegetable world. We should not go on accumu- 
lating facts forever without attempting to make any use of 
them. In this age, when the law of descent has reached, in 
zoology, its exact stage, the stage of prevision and prediction, 
it is certainly time that some of the operations of this law were 
recognized and studied in the cognate kingdom of plants. The 
utmost that can be objected to any present attempt to trace the 
genealogy of plants, is, that the precise truth has not been reached, 
and those who are really competent to raise this objection must 
be competent to present a nearer approximation to the truth, 
which is the very service which science most needs. It is, there- 
fore, with a full sense of the imperfection and inherent objection- 
ableness of the scheme, and an entire willingness to see it super- 


-seded by one which shall better satisfy all the facts of science, 


that the one here rudely sketched is submitted. Stripped of all 
its complicating conditions and qualifications, 


have been referred to and explained, this scheme of genéalogy | 


many of which | 5 


TA 


376 ; On the Genealogy of Plants. [June, 


may be more clearly presented by means of the following rough 
diagram, in which not only are all additional coôrdinate branches 
left unrepresented, but the continuation of each stage beyond the 
point of divergence is, for the sake of perspicuity, removed, leav- 
ing the differentiations only to stand in naked outline. This dia- 
gram presents the two great lines of descent, that of the Lepi- 
dophytes, of which we have the fossil genus Lepidodendron in the 
Carboniferous, and that of the ferns, trunks of whose arborescent 
forms are also found in the same formation. The line of the 
Equisetaceeé is omitted, although it probably had an independent 
existence, and may yet be found to have a genectic connection 
with some of the higher types. ; 


The order of succession here laid down is confirmed by what. 
is known respecting the time at which each of the several groups 
first appeared in the geological history of the globe. The 
primary divergence must have taken place in the latter part of 
the Devonian age, since within this formation occur some remains 
of Lepidodendron, while fossil trunks both of this and of true 
tree-ferns are found throughout the Carboniferous strata. It was in 
this latter epoch that both the ferns and the Dichotomes or Lycopo- 
dites attained their greatest perfection and abundance. Whether 
any of the large trees belonging to either of these groups had 
advanced to the stage now represented by the Ligulate and 
Rhizecarpee, there is no means of knowing, but that this stage 
was reached in both the great lines during the Carboniferous epoch 
must follow from our hypothesis, since it is within this epoch that 


both the Conifere and the Cycadacee first made their appearance, 


and during which they attained to very much the proportions and 
general character which certain forms of them still present. 
These forms advanced at a parallel rate and both reached the 
point of greatest development and supremacy at about the same 
time in the Triassic and Jurassic periods. They, are both at the 
present time clearly on the decline, especially the Cycadacee, 
which are on the open road to early extinction before the march 
of higher types of vegetation. The palzontology of the Guetacee 15 


little known, but they have been supposed to have originated in- 


the later, Permian, or in the Trias. They constitute at best but a 
transition form, and are not sufficiently abundant to be likely to be 


_ discovered in a fossil state. It is a remarkable fact that the ie : 
remains of both the Wonocotyle and the Dicotyle have been founc a 


DIAGRAM SHOWING THE SUPPOSED LINES OF GENEALOGICAL DESCENT OF VAS- 


CULAR PLANTS. 


waovour) 


wsoeproay : : 
‘SNUB4H AHL AO ANIT 
sweodivooziy yy 
Soup 
suredoyd Ary 
Terpiowpg 
weyAydopidey 
IWO yq : 
æye nr 
Lao ‘SHLAHdOCIdaIT AHL AO ANIT 


378 On the Genealogy of Plants, | [June, 


in the same formation, viz: the Chalk, and although their first 
actual appearance may date back into the Jura or Trias, it is 
probable that in point of time the two great classes of Angio- 
sperms had a nearly simultaneous origin. Whether either of 
these great vegetable types has reached its highest destiny on the 
earth it is impossible with certainty to affirm, but the indications 
are that, for the Dicotyle at least, progress in organization is still 
going on. 

In order to complete the systematic survey of the vegetable 
kingdom from the point of view of genealogical descent, the fol- 
lowing logical scheme of classification is appended for comparison 
with the genealogical scheme presented on a preceding page: 


$ 


Dicotylæ (exogenous) 
Angiosperms 


Monocotylæ (endogenous) 


Phænogams < 


Gnetaceæ 
Coniferæ 
Gymnosperms 


? (exogenous) 


f 


Cycadaceæ (endogenous) 


Ligulatæ 


Dichotomeæ 
Lycopodiaceæ 


Lepidophyta 


i Equisetaceæ (?) 
Cryptogams 


Rhizocarpeæ 
Filicineæ 


Filices 


{ 
ee a a S n a a 


. 


1878. ] Extrication of Silkworm Moths. 379 


THE MODE OF EXTRICATION OF SILKWORM MOTHS 
FROM THEIR COCOONS. 


BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 


ITHOUT" having made extended research in the literature 

of entomology, the only account which we have been able 
to find of the mode of extrication of the silkworm moths from 
their cocoons is that given by Kirby and Spence in their chapter 
on the pupa state of insects, vol. iii, pp. 280-283, which is quoted 
below, as it gives a summary of what was known up to the year 1828, 
while so far as we are aware nothing has since then been recorded 
on this interesting subject, except the observations of Mr. L. Trou- 
velot (AMERICAN Natura ist, vol. i, pp. 33, 34); the brief state- 
ment in Lacordaire’s Introduction a l’Entomology (1834, p. 201) 
being evidently based on Réaumur’s observations. 

The texture of the cocoon of the silkworm moth is uniform in 
every part, and the layers of silk are equally thick at both ends. 
The moth makes its way out by cutting or breaking these threads 
at the end opposite to its head ; an operation which, as it destroys 
the continuity of the silk, those who breed these insects are par- 
ticularly careful to guard against, by exposing the cocoon to heat 
sufficient to destroy the included pupa. The question is, what 
instruments does the moth employ to effect this? And this we 
are not able to answer satisfactorily. Malpighi asserts that the 
animal first wets the silk with a liquid calculated to dissolve the 
gum that connects the threads, and then employs its lengthened 
head to push them aside and make an opening. But, as Réaumur 
has observed, besides that so obtuse a part as the head of a moth 
is but ill-fitted to act as a wedge, we find the threads not merely 
pushed to each side, but actually cut asunder. He therefore 
infers that the eyes, which are the only hard organs of the head, 
are the instruments by which the threads are divided—their 
numerous minute facets serving the purpose of a fine file It 
should be observed, however, that Mr. Swayne confirms Mal- 
pighi’s assertion that the silk worm does not cut but merely pushes 
aside the threads of its cocoon, and he informs us that he has 
proved the fact by unwinding a pierced cocoon, the thread of 
which was entire. Yet Réaumur’s correctness cannot be sus- 
pected, and he affirms that from observation there can scarcely 
be a doubt that most of the threads are broken; which is further 
confirmed in an account of the breeding of silkworms published 
in the American Philosophical Transactions, in which it is ex- — 
pressly stated that cocoons out of which the fly has escaped , 
cannot be wound, Analogy, it must be confessed, is against 


Réaumur’s opinion, since other kinds of silkworms make their  — 


380 : Extrication of Silkworm Moths. [ June, 


escape by means of a fuid. Thus we are informed by Dr. Rox- 


burgh that Aźtacus paphia when prepared to assume the imago, . 


discharges from its mouth a large quantity of liquid, with which 
the upper end of the case is so perfectly softened as to enable the 
moth to work its way out in a very short space of time, an oper- 


ation which, he says, is always performed in the night. Perhaps — 


the two opinions may be reconciled by supposing the silkworm 
first to moisten and then break the threads of its cocoon. In 
those that are of a slighter texture, a mere push against the 
moistened end is probably sufficient, and hence we find in so 


many newly-disclosed moths the hair in that part wet and closely — 


pressed down. it be apparently difficult for the silkworm 
moth to effect an opening in its cocoon, how much harder must 
seem the task of the puss moth (Cerura vinula) to pierce the solid 
walls of its wood-thickened case? Here the eyes are clearly 
incompetent; nor could any ordinary fluid assist their operation, 
for the gum which unites the ligneous particles is indissoluble in 
aqueous menstrua. You begin to tremble for the fate of the 
moth incarcerated in such an impervious dungeon, but without 
cause; what an agueous solvent cannot effect, an acid is com- 
petent to, and with a bag of such acid our moth is furnished. 
The contents of this she pours out as soon as she has forced her 
head through the skin of the chrysalis, and upon the opposite 
end of the cocoon. The acid instantly acts upon the gum, 
loosens the cohesion of the grains of wood, and a very gentle 
effort suffices to push down what was a minute ago so strong a 
barrier. 


Our attention was called to this subject by a rustling, cutting 
and tearing noise issuing from a cocoon of Actias luna, the large 
green swallow-tailed silkworm moth. On examination a sharp 
black point was seen moving to and fro, and then another, until 
both points had cut a rough irregular slit, through which the 
shoulders of the moth could be seen vigorously moving from 
side to side. The hole or slit was made in one or two minutes, 
and the moth worked its way at once out of the slit. The wings 
at this time being very small and flabby, and the shoulders being 


alternately much raised, the points stuck up far enough to cut oF 


saw through the cocoon. The wings were at first of a deep buff 
yellow, but in half an hour after, the wings began to expand more 
than before and to turn green. The black points, when the 
_ wings are fully expanded, can be detected, not being entirely cov- 


ered by the hairs at the base of the wing. In this case no fluid — 


=~ was seen to exude from the mouth, and the cocoon was per- 
— fectly dry. 


Oe ee EE I EAS N AA ee E TO UE AA SEN ee 


1878. ] Extrication of Silkworm Moths. 381 


On examining two dry denuded specimens of A. /una, the 
black spine was seen at the base of each fore wing, and external to 
but opposite the end of each patagium. The spine, which may 
be called the sector coconis, is figured by Mr. J. S. Kingsley in the 
accompanying cut. A represents the specimen of A. /una which 
came out of the cocoon and died 
with the wings not expanded. It 4 * 
represents a front view of the moth 
3 with the shoulders elevated and the 
y rudimentary wings hanging down; 
s, the cocoon-cutter ; p, patagium. 
B represents another specimen with , 
fully developed wings; ms, scutum; 
st, scutellum of the mersikondt 
segment; s, the ` cocoon-cutter, 
which is evidently a modification of 
one of the pieces at the base of the fore wings; it is surrounded 
: by membrane, allowing free movement. C and D are different 
i views of the spine considerably magnified, showing the five or six 
irregular teeth on the cutting edge, the spine being sharp, curved 
and conical. It will be seen that it acts like a rude saw. 


A e ee oP ae se hy 


Cocoon cutter of the Zuna moth. 


A number of other members of the sub-family Atéaci were 
examined, and this cocoon-cutter was found to be present in all. 
In Zelea polyphemus it is large and well developed, though 
according to Mr. Trouvelot the moth does not apparently need it; 
still, fresh observations directed to this point may show that it is 
put to active use. In Callosamia promethea, Platysamia cecropia, 
and P. gloverit it is rather small. Its use in this latter genus, 
where the cocoon is left ‘partly open at one end does not seem — 
necessary, still it may come in play while the moth is pushing — 
through the threads which it first encounters. In Samia cynthia, 
and an Attacus from Nicaragua, and Attacus amazonia Pack, 
from Pebas, Peru, the cocoon-cutters are rather small, about one- 
half as large in proportion as in A. /una, yet the spines are black. 


Ae Ei a iS T e 


It is large and well marked in the European Saturnia ee ee, 


minor and Endromis versicolora Linn. 2 
In Bombyx mori the spines are not well marked, and they are 


points,.being acute angles of the .pieces at the base of the wing. r 
Their ors need ceme in alcoholic — via we 


quite different from those in the Aztaci. There are three sharp o 


382 Extrication of Silkworm Moths. [June, 


have not at hand. Still it must be these saws which perform the 
cutting described by Réaumur. No such spines are present in 
Eacles imperialis, 

These observations have been thrown together with the hope 
of stimulating fresh observations among those raising silkworm 
moths. Particular attention should be paid to Telea polyphemus, 
in which the cocoon cutter is so well developed, and where its 
use would seem to be dispensed with, according to the observa- 
tions of Mr. Trouvelot. 

Since the foregoing lines were put in type, I have observed sev- 
eral Platysamia gloverii and one P. columbia either in the act of 
making its way out of its cocoon or immediately after. In no 
case was any cutting or tearing noise heard, though the cocoons 
were all within a foot and a half of my head, on my study table. 
I do not believe that the cocoon-cutters, though well developed, 
are used at all. (In fact, just as I had written the preceding sen- 
tence, a male came out of its cocoon, and my attention was first 
called to it by the rustling it made in creeping over the loose co- 
coons in the box; no noise was heard previous to its appearance 
on the outside of the cocoon.) 

The inside of the cocoons of Platysamia cecropia, columbia, and 
gloverit, is glazed to within about a quarter of an inch of the ante- 


rior end of the cocoon, beyond it is rough and the silk fibres are ~ 


capable of being distended and softened by the copious fluid 
poured out by the moth, The pupa splits along the whole back, 
sometimes to the end of the abdomen. Before issuing from the 
cocoon the wings expand much more in P. gloverii and columbia 
than in A. /una; at least just as the moths work their way out of 
the cocoon, and before they are entirely extricated, the wings are 
nearly an inch long. They evidently pull themselves through 
the aperture by their legs. Previous to extrication they discharge 
from the mouth a fluid which moistens the silk threads, and also 
the hairs of the head and thorax, together with the antenn&. 
This is invariably the case. The insect must with difficulty draw 
itself through the aperture, which scarcely admits the little finger. 
_ The wings expand fully in from fifteen to forty minutes, usually 


about thirty minutes, but the moths are not capable of flying for ' 


an hour or so after. The moth hangs suspended to some object, 
with the wings and antenne drooping down. Though I hatched 


_ out several males and females at a time, at different periods, none 


- united sexually, though the females laid eggs. | 


saute 


» TIN Siege Rh fk TE DINAN E 


a 

? 
Se 
= 
2 
“a 
a 
d 

4 
- 


Or Say CTF pd 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 383 


The cocoon of P. gloverit differs from that of P. cecropia in 
being perhaps tougher and paler, more glistening in hue, though 
of the same form and size. It it always quite distinguishable 
from that of P. cecropia. The cocoon of P. columbia only differs 
from that of P. gloverii in its smaller size, and the more distinct 
patches of silk material scattered on the outside; it is of the same 
form as in the two other species. 

I am indebted to Mr. J. L. Barfoot for a number of cocoons of 
£. gloverit, from near Salt Lake City, Utah, and to Prof. C. H. 
Fernald and Mr. Anson Allen, of Orono, Maine, for the cocoons 
and imagoes of P. columbia. 

-——10:— 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Huxtey’s MANUAL oF THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATED ANI- 
MALS.'—The great advances, within the past ten years, in our 
knowledge of the anatomy of animals, renders the appearance of 
this book timely.. No one is better fitted than Prof. Huxley to 
prepare such a manual, which should be authoritative, compact, 
clearly written, and catholic in its treatment. This book, together 
with Siebold’s Anatomy of the Invertebrates, will form a con- 
densed library for the teacher and student. Prof. Huxley has 
made a good innovation on the plan of similar books in intro- 
ducing detailed and more or less illustrated accounts of the 
anatomy of common types of animals, so that with the aid of 
this manual the ordinary student can, in a measure, become his 
own teacher. As a body of well digested facts, clearly and 


_ elegantly stated, this book is without a rival. 


The classification we should find some fault with, as we do 


beginning of the book, and the Echinoderms near the end; the 
worms, crustacea, insects, the Polyzoa, Brachiopods and molluscs 


384 : Recent Literature. [June, 


in a book like this, in which systematic zodlogy is left out of 
account. The defect is due, we think, to the analytic rather than 
synthetic turn of mind of its author, and not to the want of ade- 
quate knowledge now in the hands of the naturalist. 

Few errors of statement will probably be found in this book. 
We may be allowed to refer to some points to which we should 
take exception: “ Foraminifera,” says our author, “are Monera 
of the Protogenes type.” It is now proved that Foraminifera have 
a nucleus, as stated near the close of this manual, and should be, 
as they always have been, retained among the Radiolaria ; why 
Prof. Huxley should place them among the Monera, which have 
no nucleus, is a ma of surprise. He regards Eozoén as an 
incrusting form of Foaia, not stating the serious objections 
that have been made as to its.animal nature, and then adopts, as 
possible, Wyville Thompson’s suggestion, that “the enormously 


thick azoic slaty and other rocks, which constitute the Laurentian — 


and Cambrian formations, may be to a great extent the metamor- 
phosed products of foraminifera life” !! This really takes our 
breath away. We leave the matter in the hands of the geologists. 
Then it is added anes “And there may be no part of the 
common rocks, which enter into the earth’s crust, which has not 
passed through a living organism at one time or another.” Are 
we not here dealing with a physiology and anatomy not of our 
earth ? 
Shed ane: is stated to be, among sponges, “ the sole fresh-water 
Prof. H. James Clark’s Siphydora echinodes is said by him 
to be common in ponds and streams in the United States (Mind 
in Nature). It is stated that the embryos of Radiolaria are “ pro- 
vided with a single flagellam ;” in Collosphera, however, there are 
two. The young Limulus is said, as “ Dohrn points out” (1871), 
to bear a remarkable resemblance to the trilobite Zrinucleus; 
this was, however, pointed out by Packard, at some length, wit 
_ figures both of young Limulus and T; rinucleus nearly a year pre- 


vious, in this journal for October, 1870. gain, Huxley states, 
speaking of the metamorphosis of Atax bonzi, “The proper vi- 
telline membrane bursts into two halves much as in Le 


and the deutovum Spheres T In Limulus, aa the m 


feeble grasp of the subject. The trilobites are ee with 
the tardigrades and Pentastomida into a division 
ites.” The trilobites by general analogy are obviously to 
associated with the Merostomatd and Limulus, and, since.the pu 


lication of this work, Mr. C. D. Walcott has cpus that they @ 
” and why should 


possessed “four pairs of manducatory jaws; 
_ Trilobita be associated thus with Tardigrada and Peniastonido 
n when both the latter oups are ‘Undoubtedly low ao 


oe ihe j 


1878.] Recent Literature. : 385 


Again, the Arachnida are placed in a division with “ pediform 
Gnathites,” but in what respect are the mandibles and maxille of 
spiders and mites any more pediform than those of insects and 
Myriopods? And in the sucking Myriopods we have an entire 
family with mouth parts not much higher in grade than those of 
the Tardigrades and Pentastomida. 

The author shows a tendency to coin terms for parts already 
named, thus goxapophysis is used instead of Lacaze Duthier’s 
elegant term rhaéddite for the blades of the ovipositor. The term 
Echinopedium is used for the larva of Echinoderms, which. 
exactly corresponds to Packard’s Cephalula, proposed in this 
journal (May, 1875, p. 283, and Life Histories, p. 94) and extended 
to embrace a similar phase in molluscs and worms, as well 
Echinoderms. But these are the merest blemishes in a work 
quite indispensible to students, and the production of one whose 
general accuracy of statement is universally recognized. 


Hunt’s CHEMICAL AND GEOLOGICAL Essays.! — No changes 
appear to have been made in the text beyond the correction of 
typographical errors, but in the preface to the second edition, 
Prof. Hunt takes the opportunity to farther notice the question of | 
the temperature of the earth’s surface in former geological periods. 
He concludes that a reduction in the weight of the atmosphere 
in early geological times, by causes to which he alludes, must 
have produced a considerable refrigeration of climate, and a still 
greater cooling of the globe by the diminution of the proportion 
of carbonic dioxyd contained in the atmosphere. He concludes 
as follows: “ Geographic changes, though a true cause of local 
variations of climate, and adequate to explain the greater refriger- 
ation of certain areas since the commencement of the pliocene, 
are not sufficient to account for the warmer climates of previous 


southern hemisphere lead them to similar conclusions. The nur- 


series of these successive northern floras appears to have been in 


irregular periods, a cooler climate in the northern temperate zone. 


1 Chemical and Geological Essays. By THOMAS STERRY HUNT, LL.D., etc. Sec- : i 
ond edition. Revised, with additions. Salem, S. E. Cassino, Naturalist’s Agency. 
1878. 12mo, pp. 489. _ fs o : u a 


386 . Recent Literature. [June, 


It may even be conceived, as well remarked by J. F. Campbell, 
that such elevations might bring large areas of the earth’s surface 
` into the region of perpetual frost, thus giving rise to local glacial 
phenomena, while a warmer climate prevailed everywhere at the 
sea level. Nordenskidld declares that he sought in vain for 
evidences of ice action in the various sedimentary deposits in 
Spitzbergen. 

“Tn regard to a suggested explanation of former climatic con- 
ditions, the author may be permitted to quote the following 
language used by him in 1876: ‘ Recent speculations have 
revived the old notion of a possible change of the earth’s axis of 
rotation as a way of explaining this change of arctic climate; but 
such a phenomenon is astronomically improbable, and is also 
opposed by the fact that the direction of the oceanic currents, 
which are guided by the earth’s rotation, appears, from the distri- 
bution of marine sediments to have been the same since very 
early periods.’ Dawson has since urged the same argument, and 
reinforced it by recalling the fact that the southward migrations 
of successive floras, not less than the lines of distribution of 


the question of pre-quarternary glacial climates that we have met 
w 
The Taconic rocks are further discussed, and the name Taconian 
suggested for the lower Taconic series. These Taconian rocks 
are regarded by the author as corresponding to “ four great series 
of pre-Cambrian rocks, and mark as many successive periods in 
eozoic time.” With a reference to recent views on the origin of 
crystalline rocks, and a re-affirmation of the neptunean views of 
the author, the preface closes. 


BoranicaL Directrory.—The Botanical Directory for America 
for 1878, will be found exceedingly convenient. Part I gives the 
names of botanists and their state, while their full addresses will 
be found in Part 11, where the names are arranged by states. 
The price of this useful directory is forty cents, three copies for 
one dollar. The list is a large one, and it is only to be desir 
that a larger portion of those whose names appear were so situ- 
ated as to be able to be actively engaged as investigators. 


Watson’s InpEx to Norta American Borany.'—This 1S 4 
compact volume compiled and printed with great evident care, 
and is a laborious and useful work. It is intended to facilitate 


1 Bibliographical Index to North American Botany; or Citations of Authorities for 
Pome F; 


all the recorded indigenous and naturalized species of the Flora of North prey 
sa ‘Ss i i 


y i 
=  Polypetalłæ. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 258. Washington, March, oa 
~ 1878. 8vo, pp. 476. a8 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 39 


Arctic coast on the north, and the borders of Mexico closely 
adjacent to the United States on the south. The citation of 


deal of herbarium låbor, and will give an undoubted stimulus to 
botanical studies. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.—Some microscopical observations of the P 
a T: rd. By Persifor Frazer. (Read before the Am. Philos. Society, jee 
5th, 1877). 8vo, pp. 16. 

The Lattevite Limestones, &c. By Jas. Hall, Aner pumas of New York, 
Vol. V, part 2. Advance e sheets, Nov. 1877.) 4to, 

Studier öfver mjölkdentitionen och tändernas e hos Chiroptera. Af 
Wilhelm Leche. 4to, pp. 47. Pl. 2. Lund. 18 

Studien über das Milchgebiss und die Zah nhomologien bei den Chiropteren, von 
Me “1877 Leche. An abstract of the proceeding i in Archiv f. Naturgesch, xxxxiii. 
Report no Joseph Henry, Seona of the Smithsonian Institution, for the 

8 


y T ashington Gov. Printing Office, 1878. 8vo, pp. 50. 

e Geo ne rai ane of the Ma mmalia, considered in relation to the 
pr Sat Ontolog gical regions of t e Earth, and the lew s that govern the distribution 
of animal li By Joel ro Allen. Bulletin of the U. S. Geolog. and Geograph. 
Surv. IV, N 8vo. 75. Washington, 1878. 


On the Janssen Solar j TERE and Optical Studies. By S. P. Langley. Svo, 
pp- 5. New Haven, 1878. 
\ coiiypaiy a la theory in n ophthalmic Proe disproved by a crucial ex- 
perimen y Henry Hartshorne, M.D. 8vo, pp. (Extracted from the Am 
Tobe Med. Sciences, for April, 1378 
ter Supply = the State of New Je rsey. Report of a Committee, A. R. Leeds, 


Chairman. 8vo 17. Philadelphia, 1878. 
n the hake: Coal Pasi ve shale of the Huron River, Ohio, nes seams 
of Sulphate of Baryta. B eeds, with a geological note by J. S. 


e BVO. 
Notes on the as in hea orth-west, in 1876. By George mE $ G S; 
` &c. (From the Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VIII, No. 7.) 8vo, pp. 7- 18 
On the Mechanical Gene of Tooth-forms. By Jno. A. Ryder. (Eee. Phil. : 
a len Sci. 1878.) p. 36. 
| for a t Bibliography of North American Mammals. By Theodore Gill 
ee Elliot Cou ndix B, extracted from the eleventh volume of the final © 
reports of the aan Si vey. 4to, pp. 131. Government Printing Office, 
Washington, 1877. : 
Original memoirs and clinical lectures. By H. C. Wood, Jr. 8vo, PP: 4- Phil- 
` 


pp. 20. Pied, | 1878. 
Rechercties sur ise fossiles ayn? With de la Nouvelle- a du Sud (Australie); 
par L.-G. De nck, Docteur en Sciences, etc aig Oe ee 


panied by 4to ER hes V_-XXIV. S | 7 3 
Paleontological Bulletin, No. 29, Descriptions of ‘ing Batrachia and Reptilia 

from the Permian Formation of Texas. TDC ae ri shed May 8, 1878.) 
os Trea und Entwikelung des Ostsee- Har ee C. Ku 

i senschafilchen Untersuchung der 

Pp. 


VOL. XII—NO. VI, 


er fans ae 


388 . General Notes. U une, 


U.S. eee PE of the Fortieth ca panjasi voe co 

-charge, , Descriptive Geology, by Arnold Hag d S$. mons. 

Illustrated fe a6 6 pla ates. Washington, 1877. Pi pp- Saat “Vol.” 4, FH I. “pales 
rt o 


The 
stones at the Falls of the Ohio. e a of New \York, V. Par Advance 
sheets. Nov. 1877. 4° pp. 16. 
Supplement to the second edition aie — Geology, ee sa facts 
as to the geologic cal structure, fossil r and mineral resou a Scotia, 
runswick and Prince Tan Island, A W. Dawson, F. ry ‘Sn c. Lon 
«5 18 8° 

Sur la Découverte d'un ortho optere € coureur de la Famille des —— dans les . 
- Terrains supra: RUUS de Commentry. Protophasma dumasii. Par M. Charles 

Brogniart. 

The Distribution ef, the Till in New Hampshire, a iad Long Island. 

By Warren Upham. From the third volume of the F = oe upon the “Geolo: ogy 

of New Bali patine. Concord, N. 1877. 8° pp. 2 

seaming O 
GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 
CLEIsroGAMous FLowers oF Danruonia.—I have been much 

interested in the article in the April number of the NATURALIST, 
by ringle, on the Cleistogamous Flowers of Danthonia. 
D. spicata is very common in all our dry, sterile, or rocky 
woods; occasionally some bunches occur in moist ground, and 
these can readily be pulled out by the roots, with no disposi- 
tion to separate at the lower joints; but when the plant grows in 
dry ground, as it usually does, the culms separate near the root 
without much difficulty. This I have. always considered was due 


region of New Jer. ersey, growing in little tufts; in that respect 
somewhat different in habit from D. spicata. Last June whilst 
botanizing near Egg Harbor City, in this State, I found a large 
number of these tufts, each having from 6 to 20 culms, and sO 
brittle or readily disarticulating at the lower joints, that it was 
with great difficulty that I could secure a decent specimen; On 
endeavoring to pull up the plant, in every instance the separation 
occurred ; the only way to succeed was to dig out the roots with- 
out touching the stem at all, and even then the effort to shake oi 
the loose sand, often caused the culm to break away. sua 
specimens of D. spicata very frequently have a few flowers in the 
axils, but I have never seen any in D. sericea—Jsaac C. Martin- 
dale, Camden, N. F. 

EANS BY WHICH PLANTS ARE PROTECTED FROM ANIMALS AND 
UNFAVORABLE WEATHER, ETC.—Under this title Otto Kuntze has 
ponina a work which has been reviewed in Trimen’ s Fournal 4 of a 


1878. | Botany. 389 


Botany. From animals plants are protected by possession of 
runners ; by close growth (thus effectually banishing animals too 
large to force a passage); by growing under sheltering bushes 
(this applies of course to herbs); by twining habits ; by epiphytic 
habits; by presence of spines and thorns (protection against 
grazing birds); by all forms of trichomes (these, besides hindering 
browsers, prevent crawling up of insects, &c.); by production of 
organs and tissues suitable to ant-habitation ; by growing in water, 
and by having leaves adapted to hold water at their bases; by 
rings of hairs on stems, &c. (against crawling insects) ; by slippery, 
waxy surfaces; by milky sap (this, besides being poisonous to 
grazing animals, by its exudation impedes the movements of small 
climbing creatures); by presence of ethereal oil in all parts, in- 


animals; by development of tubers, bulbs and allied structures ; 
by revolution of leaf margins and of corolla-tips (renders climb- 
ing difficult to ants); by the absence of chlorophyll; by poisonous 
or bitter principles developed chiefly in seeds, these also being 
protected by their hardness, leathery consistence and small size. 

Protections against unfavorable weather are — runners (which 
support plants against over-weight of snow in alpine and polar 
regions, and by admitting of a complete covering of snow are 
enabled to resist the otherwise fatal effects of frost); aériel roots 
—props against land-storms and dash of the waves; gregarious 
habits lessening the force of the winds, a result accomplished 
also by the horizontal position of the branches, by development 
of small scaly leaves, and by possession of leafy crowns, deep 
roots and strong or slim stems; hairy clothing, which protects 
against cold, rain and undue transpiration, and also intercepts and 
retains rain and dew;; irritability to light or touch; possession of 
a waxy outer layer and of a strong cuticle; a thick sap which, 
owing to the hygroscopic property of its solid constituents, keeps 
the circulation active during the period of greatest sun-heat and 
dry season; ethereal oils which gradually evaporating, produce 
resin, a layer of which‘accumulating on the evaporating surfaces, 
lessens the amount of transpiration; the thick sap of plants 
growing in deserts, when the difference between the temperatures 
of day and night is very great, protects them against injury from 
the daily great variations of temperature; phyllodes, and leaves 
occupying the position of phyllodes, being less transpirable, are 
adaptations to a dry climate; presence of corky tissues which 
protects against frost, etc., absence of stomata, which in some 
cases prevents entry of thawing snow ; thickened roots, &c., which 
are stores of nutriment and water, and preserve life during times 
of drought; besides the many arrangements by which the repro- 
ductive organs are protected from rain, dew and wind. 


{ June, 


My Hepaticas.—One of the interesting things for the botanist 
or the gardener to do at this time of year, is to remove to some 
spot in his garden a few of the most attractive wild plants which 
abound in our woods, swamps and fields. Last year, I remove 
some plants of blood-root, tooth-wort, spring beauty, phlox, 
squirrel corn, several species of violets and several varieties of 
hepaticas. ese are near the house and are a constant source 
of delight to the children, visitors, members of the household, 
and I hardly need add to the person who transplanted the flowers. 
These were removed as they were found with a little earth about 
the roots. 

Two or three plants of the hepatica were chosen for the pure 
white of their flowers, others for their delicate pink color, others 
for the large size of their flowers, others for the deep blue of the 
flowers ; still others were selected for their double flowers. This 


390 ` General Notes. 


a full exposure of the bright sun. Here are ferns and grasses, 
some shrubs and some of the most interesting hardy wil 
plants. It is a favorite spot for all who live at the College — W. 
F. Beal, Michigan Agricultural College. 


Botanicat Nores.—The Botanical Gazette for April, contains, 
among other articles, bryological notes by C. H. Austin ; new spe- 
cies of Colorado fungi, by C. H. Peck; late Rhode Island flowers, 
by W. W. Bailey ; Coniferæ of the Crestines, by T. S. Brandegee. 
The bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for March contains de- 
scriptions of new species of North American Uredinei, and an m- 
teresting table showing the dates when the leaves fall, by N. L. 

ritton, who states that “the female in dicecious plants appears 
to hold its foliage longer than the male.” Caruel’s New Botanical 
Journal (Italy x, No. 2), contains an article on the floral structure 
and affinities of various monocotyledonous families. 

In the Quarterly Fournal of Microscopical Science are two 1M- 
portant papers, one by S. H. Vines, on Researches into the Nature 
of Lichens, and a very important paper, well illustrated, by J- 
Ewart, on the life history of Bacillus anthracis. 


ZOÖLOGY.! 

HELIX CHILHOWEENSIS Lewis.—I have lately had the pleasur 
after a pedestrian excursion of nearly one hundred miles, na 
the roughest of mountain roads, to collect this rare species 1n ! 
normal habitat. 

1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Coves, U. S. A. ? 


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1878. ] Zoölogy. 391 


This shell is held by Mr. Binney, if I mistake not, to rank only 
as a variety of the Æ. diodonta Say. In this Mr. Binney is follow- 
ing, no doubt, closely in the line of recent zodlogical testimony; 
but if this species is to be held as a synonym, it will be difficult 
to convince any fair-minded student of our shells, that, under the 
same law of interpretation, Æ. mayor Binney, is not a synonym of 
F. albolabris Say, as held by Mr. Bland; or that Zonites subplanus 
Binney, is other than a variety of Z. inornatus Say ; or Z. capnodes 
Binney, anything but a variety of Z. fuliginosus Griffith. A 
“general resemblance ” in the “jaws” and “linguals” of certain 
groups, so vague as to render the expression “jaw as usual in the 
group ” sufficiently definite, makes a very convenient post about 
which to lash the whip of synonyms; but there are other charac- 
ters, which only the collector can know, that ought, it seems to 
us, to be taken notice of in all our accounts with authors who 
have written upon species. 

The writer first found the large variety of H. diodonta several 
years ago in Whitley County, Kentucky. He has since collected . 
it in numerous localities of the Carboniferous sandstone region of 
South-eastern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee, and it has 
never failed, in a single specimen, to exhibit its normal characters, 
Save in the single particular of size. While shells have been 
found nearly double the dimensions of Maine specimens received 
from Mr. Allen, and nearly treble those of New York examples 
from Dr. Lewis, none have ever been seen, at all approaching, in 
this particular, the smallest specimens of Æ. chilhoweénsis. The 
latter shell has nearly one whorl more than the H. diodonta ; it 
has no tooth on the lower third of the peristome, and at least 
one-half the specimens which I have collected want the parietal 
tooth. My largest specimen measures 39 mill. in diameter and 
20 mill. in height. There is very little variation in the size of 
the specimens which I have seen. The animal is slender, quite 
sluggish in movement, and not timid as is the case with Z. diodonta. 
The surface is roughened with irregular, reniform tubercles, the 
tentacles are very long and delicate, and the foot attenuate and 
keeled posteriorly. : 

It has a habit of greatly flattening and spreading its foot, 
especially after full-feeding, and will in that condition, remain for 

ours upon smooth surfaces of planed boards, pebbles or lettuce- 
leaves, evidently in calm enjoyment of its meal, having, in this 
respect, the exact habit of the European Æ. pomata L. in- 
habits the dense thickets and Kalmia jungles of the Jellicoes, and 
is rare, even in its native habitat. 

The great size of this shell, and that of other species of wider 


range found with it, offers an argument controverting the prevail- 


ng opinion that limestone regions only are favorable to molluscan 
ifi ; 


e. r 
These shells are found in the carboniferous sandstone mountains 


392 General Notes. [ June, 


of Tennessee; and among their northern radices or foot-hills in 
Kentucky, I several years since collected the largest specimens, 
which I have ever seen, of several common Ohio species. It is 
fair to remark, however, that the shells are fewer in numbers, both 
of species and specimens, though so enormously developed in 
size. Exceptions exist, nevertheless, in both cases. During the 


ing 25 mill. in diameter, and specimens of Z. inornatus Say, 
(subplanus ?) measuring 23 mill. Associated with these, however, 
was a variety of the Æ. 4irsuta Say, with which all southern col- 
lectors are familiar, much dwarfed in size, rounded, and approach- 
ing in form the H. maxillata Gould. The H. stenotrema Fer. 
from the same locality is very large,and very abundant, as is also 
the small variety of H. hirsuta. Very large specimens of 
Z. sculptilis Bland, were found, measuring 11 mill. in diameter. 

_ Associated with these shells was, also, the very rare H. weth- 
erbyi Bland. But one living example of this shell was taken 
when the species was discovered. To this one Mr. George S. 
Huntington afterwards added two or three living specimens 


animal is blueish-black and finely granulated; the tentacles are 
very slender and the foot attenuated and sharply keeled behind. 
This interesting species will probably remain rare in collections, 
if we may judge fairly, after various endeavors to find it in greater 
numbers; and the more especially, because a vicious custom pre- 
vails in that country of firing the woods every Spring, to consume 
the leaves fallen from the trees, and encourage a scanty growth 

upon which the half-starved stock of the idle inhabitants 
subsists. Only in sheltered nooks that the fire-fiend never reaches, 
and in the region of springs and mountain brooks are the molluscs 
safe. But even under these discouraging circumstances, the 
Jellico range offers a wide field for future discovery. We foun 
here, growing luxuriantly with the Ka/mia, the beautiful Lygodium 
palmatum Schwartz, the Æpigea repens L., the Gaultheria pro- 
cumbens L. and other plants common in more northern mountain 
regions. Species of rare Coleoptera are not uncommon, and no 
doubt many new species, in all departments of zoology, await the 
explorer who may have the courage and endurance to summer 19 
the foot-hills of the Jellicoes—A. G. Wetherby. — 


1878.] Zoology. 393 


NOTICE OF THE SPIDERS OF THE “ PoLarts” EXxPEDITION.—The 
spiders collected by Dr. Bessels during the Arctic Expedition of 
the “ Polaris,” are, as might have been expected, very few in num- 
ber, only four species (in eight examples) having been brought 
home. Of these four species two belong to the genus Erigone, 
one to Lycosa, and one to Trochosa; only one, a small Erigone, 
appears to be new to science, the other Ærigone, as also the Lycosa 
belong to species that seem to be rather widely spread in the 
Arctic regions. The Trochosa must for the present be left unde- 


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1. Erigone pschychrophila Thor. 
Syn. 1872. Erigone psychrophila Thor., om Arachnider fran 


1Om nagra Arachnider frân Grönland, in Ofvers. af Vet.-Akad. Förhandl., XXIX 
(1872). 

2 Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt in den Yahren 1869 und 1870, etc., II Band, 
Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse, I Abtheil, p. 400-403. 

$On some new and little known spiders from the Arctic Regions, in Ann. and 
Mag. of Nat. Hist. 4 Ser., XX (1877). 

* Thanatus formicinus ? Cambr. and TA. arcticus Thor. are probably the same 

cies. 


5These nineteen species are: Eperra diademata (Clerck), Tetragnatha Græn- 
landica Thor., Linyphia turbatrix Cambr., Erigone psychrophila Thor., 2: whym- 
pert Cambr. or., Æ. frigida id., E. vagi: 
E. modesta id., Steatoda bipunctata (Linn.), Dictyna hamifera Thor., 
Cambr., Thanatus arcticus Thor., Lycosa Graniandica id., L. glacialis id., Z. agui- 
onaris L. Koch, Trochosa insignita Thor., and Æpiblemum scenicum (Clerck). 
these species Zpeira diademata, Steatoda bipunctata and Epiblemum os 
ken i rici Ar. rufipes L 


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394 General Notes. [June, 


_Spetsbergens o. Beeren Eiland, in Ofvers. af Vet-Akad. Handl., 
XXVIII (1871), p. 689. 

Syn. 1877. Erigone psychrophila Cambr., on some new and 
little known Spid. fr. the Arctic Regions, loc. cit., p. 278, Pl. VIII, 
Fi 


g. 4. 

Of this remarkable spider three full grown males and two 
females were captured at Polaris Bay, June 3, 1872. 

2. Erigone penessa, n.—Black, with palpi and legs blackish-yel- 
low, mandibles yellowish, longitudinally striped with black; pars- 
cephalica elevated, strongly convex transversely, lateral eyes not 
contiguous, anterior laterals largest of the eight, oval and oblique, 
area occupied by the middle eyes (of which the anterior are 
slightly smaller than the posterior, and separated by a very small 
interval), rather longer than broad, much broader behind than in 
front; vulva consisting of a shallow transversal fovea, limited be- 
hind by a brown shining costa narrowing from the extremities 
towards the middle, and slightly curved forwards. 9 ad. Length 
nearly 3 millim. 

emale—Cephalothorax inversely ovate, shining, rather shorter 
than tibia and patella of the fourth pair, moderately rounded in 
the sides of the pars thoracica, rather strongly narrowed and 
slightly sinuated at the pars cephalica; the forehead is rounded, 
and its breadth equals about two-thirds of the breadth of the pars 
thoracica; the cephalic furrows are strongly marked; the pars 
cephalica is elevated and transversely very convex, and provided 
with several short hairs between the eyes, and a longitudinal row 
of three longer hairs behind. Seen in profile the back of the ce- 
phalothorax rises gradually from the hind margin to the hinder 
part of the pars cephalica, the back then becoming somewhat 
sloping forwards, and very slightly convex; a slight depression 
is seen between the pars cephalica, and the pars thoracica. The 
front row of eyes is seen from before, nearly straight, but slightly 
curved upwards; the hind row is curved forwards. The four 
central eyes occupy an area slightly longer than broad behind, 
and much broader behind than in front; the lateral eyes of either 
side are separated by a very distinct interval (not contiguous), and 
placed on a protuberance. The anterior lateral eyes are the largest 
of the eight, oval and obliquely posited; the anterior centrals ap- 
pear to be a little smaller than the posterior eyes ; they are prom!- 
nent, only separated by a very small interval, and their distance — 
from the margin of the clypeus is double as great as their diame; 
ter; the interval between them and the anterior lateral eyes 15 
somewhat greater than the diameter of these last named eyes. 
he intervals between the four posterior eyes, which are very 
nearly of the same size, are nearly equal, and at least half again as 
great as the diameter of an eye. Sternum large and broad, con- 
vex towards the margins, shining, sparingly spread with fine hairs. 
-Mandibles somewhat ovate, nearly double as thick as the fore 


1878. ] Zoslog , 395 - 


thighs, more than double as long as broad at the base, shining, 
and somewhat hairy; their back is moderately convex towards the 
base ; their outer side is straight ; on the inner, towards the apex, 
they are gradually narrowing, and slightly rounded; the claw 
furrow is armed with rather small teeth, the claw is long and 
slender. Maxillz rounded on the outer side and at the apex, 
slightly inclined towards the labium, which is transverse and 
broadly truncate. Palpi provided with coarse hairs; their tarsal 
joint is cylindrical and obtuse at the apex. egs slender, wit 


as long as the patella. Abdomen inversely ovate, shining and 
covered, though not thickly, with very fine hairs; the vulva con- 
sists of a shallow transverse somewhat elliptical fovea near the 
rima genitalis, the anterior margin of which here forms an ele- 
vated rather thick, shining costa, narrowing from the rounded ex- 
tremities towards the middle, in front, and thus slightly curved 
forwards, and bordering the fovea behind, and on the sides; the 
hind part of this costa (or the anterior elevated margin of the rima 
genitalis), seen from behind, exhibits two small narrow transverse 
foveæ in front of the larger fovea; the area vulvæ is somewhat 
striated transversely. : 
olor.—Cephalathorax, sternum, lip and maxillæ black, the 
Maxillz a little paler. Mandibles dark yellowish, with three 
longitudinal black stripes. Palpi and legs of a very dull blackish 
yellow color. Abdomen grayish black, somewhat olivaceous on 
the under part; the hairs with which it is covered are olivaceous 
yellow, The area vulvz is black, its hind elevated border brown. 
Length of body nearly three millim.; length of cephalothorax 
three-quarters, of abdomen one and five-sixths millim., breadth of 
abdomen one and one-half millim. Legs I two and two-thirds, 
II nearly two and one-half, III two and one-quarter, IV nearly 
three and one-quarter millim.; pat. + tib. IV. nearly one millim. 
A single female of this obscure species, which appears to be- 
long to the Æ. dongipalpis group, was found at Polaris Bay. 
3. Lycosa glacialis Thor. 5 | 
Syn. 1872. Lycosa glacialis Thor. Om nagra Arachn. fr. Grönland, 
loc. cit., p. 150. o 
1877. 3% 3 Cambr., loc. cit. p. 281. 
One adult female example from Foulke fiord.* 
4. Trochesa inc. spec. : 
oung female of a Lycosoid which belongs, À hink, to the 


t : 
genus Trochosa, was captured at Polaris Bay. The example is 


1 I take this opportunity to 
L. indagatrix and L. impavida, described in my paper, Descriptions of thia Amane 
os Colorado in 1875 by A. S. Packard, Jr. (Bull. of the 

eograph. Survey, III, No. 2, pp. 512, 513), 

L. indagatrix I propose the name Z.dromea ; for L. impavida that of L. tachypoda. 


396 General Notes. [June, 


very much damaged, most of the legs being reduced to fragments, 
and the color of the abdomen entirely lost. The foremost row of 
eyes appears to be slightly longer, or at least is not shorter, than 
the middle row; the interval between the anterior central eyes is 
evidently greater than the intervals between them and the anterior 
laterals, which appear to be slightly smaller than the anterior 
central eyes. The area occupied by the four posterior eyes is 
longer than broad in front, but shorter than broad behind; the 
interval between the two large eyes of the middle row is nearly 
double as great as their diameter; the interval between the two 
eyes of the hindmost row equals the length of the middle row. 
The cephalothorax is brown, its sides covered with coarse ap- 
pressed, olivaceous-grayish hair; all along the back it has a broad 
paler band covered with grayish-white hair, which stretches from 
the middle row of eyes nearly to the hind margin of the cephalo- 
thorax, filling up the area between the four posterior eyes, some- 
what dilated and rounded in the sides just behind this area, and 
then tapering gradually backwards. The sternum and the under 
side of the coxe are brownish-testaceous, clothed with grayish 
hair; the mandibles are piceous, covered with coarse grayish hair 
at the base, black-haired towards the apex. The legs are brown, 
very distinctly black-ringed, covered with shorter grayish and 
longer black hairs. Length of the example: seven millim.; 
length of its cephalothorax three millim.; legs of the fourth pair 
eight and one-half, patella and tibia of that pair three millim. 

By the form of the band along the back of the cephalothorax, 
as also by several other characteristics, this species would seem 
to be identical with Zarentula exasperans Cambr. (loc. cit., p. 283, 
Pl. VIII, fig. 7); but in that species the foremost row of eyes 1S 
said to be the shortest of the three, whereas in the spider before 
us the middle row is as short as, if not shorter than, the foremost. 
—T. Thorell, Genoa, April 8, 1878. 


THELYPHONUS OFFENSIVELY Oporous.—In the Naturalist, X1. p. 
367, the poisonous nature of the whip-scorpion (7) helyphonus 
giganteus) of Mexico and adjoining portions of the United States 
was described. That it emits from its “whip” an extremely 
offensive smell, is stated by Mr. E. Wilkinson, Jr., in a letter to 
the Smithsonian Institution. The animal was found under stones 
near Chihuahua. “After considerable difficulty,” he writes, “ I 
succeeded in capturing him, but not, however, until I had received 
several doses of his powerful effluvia, which obliged me each time 
to retreat and catch a fresh breath.” 


Tue Parer Nauritus IN Froripa—It has been doubted by 
some naturalists whether the Argonaut, or paper nautilus, occurs 
on the Florida coast. Two paper shells have been found here 
this winter, and last winter one was found with the animal entire, 
besides another empty shell. Its habitat is probably in tropical 


ss ake Pc Maat ea de i a OE i coke ia Ne AE AOR oo i ah S T EO ee aR ee EK ce ENE A CESS A. 


See eal Ay 
Dames thai eae tik yw Ca See 
OCIS E E AORTA EM EET a 


1878.] Zoölogy. 397 


seas, but it is sometimes brought to these shores by storms. In 
the Indian Ocean I have seen it in calm weather sailing on the 
surface, as described by old writers, but discredited by closet 
naturalists of these days.—S. C. C. Halifax Inlet, Florida, Feb. 
17, 1878. From Forest and Stream, March 21, 1878. 

The Naturalist, Vol. XI, p. 243, contains a notice by S. Lock- 
wood, on the occurrence of the paper nautilus on the New Jer- 
sey shore. 


BUCCINUM UNDATUM Linné.—I have received many interesting 
specimens of this shell from the lobster-men at this town (Ston- 
ington Conn). They were brought up from a depth of ten to 
nineteen fathoms in lobster-pots attached to the “bait.” The 
shells are very fine, with apex absolutely perfect; and in nearl 
every instance the entire shell is heavily incrusted with Zrthotham- 
nion polymorphum. I have never before observed this nullipore 
on shells, though it is common all along this coast on rocks and 
stones. The incrustation has prevented the erosion of the shell 
and when removed discioses an almost perfect epidermis. The 
locality of the B. undatum obtained is off Stonington, at the 
eastern extremity of Fisher’s Island, where they occur in consid- 
erable numbers. The locomotive powers of B. undatum must be 
quite remarkable, since, in one instance, a lobster-man took be- 
tween thirty and forty from one pot. These, like //yxassa obsoleta, 
are seemingly attracted, oftentimes, from a distance, by the bait 
in the 


TRACHYDERMON (LEPTOCHITON) RUBER Carpenter —Four speci- 
mens of this species were found on the &. undatum taken off 
Fisher’s Island. Its natural habitat is “almost exclusively on and 
among rocks.” Its presence on these shells may serve, in some 
measure, to explain their distribution. The chiton must go 
where the shell goes, but at any point may detach itself or be 
rubbed off and so become “naturalized” at that point. The 
chitons are on the shell, doubtless, because the nullipore with 
which it is incrusted forms their natural food. Their color is 
nearly that of the living Zithothamnion, though one specimen is a 
very dark brown. Their color is, therefore, protective. —R. Ells- 
worth Call. 


Nestinc HABITS OF THE CANADA FLycATCHER.—I have submitted _ 
the eggs referred to in the “ NATURALIST,” Vol. XI, p. 565, under 
the heading—* Red-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta Canadensis)? nest- 
ing on the’ ground,” to Dr. Brewer, for examination, and after 
comparing them with the various similar specimens in his cabinet, 
he thinks that they should be referred to the “ Canada Flycatcher” 
(Myiodioctes canadensis), though even then he would retain the 
obnoxious interrogation point, as in some respects, the described 
nest is much unlike the typical nest of this bird—/rank H. Nut- 
ler, 


398 General Notes. [June, 


Drownep By AN Octopus.—Though in British Columbia at the 
time of the occurence of the incident referred to by Mr. Moseley 
in Nature (vol. xvii, p. 27), I was in the interior, and consequently 
heard nothing of the matter. On reading Mr. Moseley’s letter, - 
however, I wrote to my friend Dr. W. F. Tolmie, of Victoria, and 
have just received from him an account verifying in all essential 
particulars the extract quoted by Mr. Moseley from the Weekly 
Oregonian. 

A party of Makaw or Makah Indians, of Cape Flattery, were 

returning from a visit to the Songish Indians of the vicinity of 
“Victoria, and camped the first afternoon at Metchosin, on the 
south shore of Vancouver Island. A young woman having 
separated herself from the others to bathe, did not return in the 
evening, and after having searched for her in vain the next morn- 
ing, the rest of the party were about to continue on their journey, 
when, on rounding the first point, they saw the body of the wo- 
man as if seated on the sandy sea-bottom, with a large octopus 
attached to it, which, according to the description of Dr. Tolmie’s 
informant, resembled a “ fifty pound flour sack, full.” The body 
was rescued in the manner described in the Oregonian, and when 
brought ashore, still had portions of the arms of the octopus ad- 
hering to it. 

Dr. Tolmie also mentions the case of an Indian woman at Fort 
Simpson, who had, many years ago, a narrow escape from a similar 
death ; also that among the Chimsgau Indians traditions of escapes 
and occasional cases of drowning exist, and further, that among 
these people a story is current that“ a two-masted vessel manned 
in part or whole by men, with obliquely placed eyes and wearing 
queues (at Milbank Sound, Lat. 52°, about seventy years ago), 
was seized by an enormous squid, whose tentacles had to be 
chopped with axes ere the craft was clear of it. The ship is said 
to have been wrecked further south on the coast, in consequence 
of the evil influence of the monster.”—Grorce M. Dawson, in 
Nature. 


Tue HABITS or THE Muskrat.—About the middle of last No- 
vember while walking along the banks of the North Fork of 
Sappa creek, Rawlins county, Kansas, my attention was directed 
to an old beaver dam that had been recently repaired by a musk- 
rat. Mud had been placed on the dam so as to make it water- 
tight, but so far as I could see no sticks had been brought there, 
excepting those used in the first building by the beaver. Some 

was removed so as to allow more water to escape and 
atrap set. The next morning the trap was sprung and the mud 
-partly replaced. No beaver signs were to be found anywhere, 
while the tracks of muskrats were numerous in the mud used in 
repairing, and elsewhere around the dam. A trapper informed 
me that he had frequently observed dams that had been repaired 


-= by muskrats in a simlar manner.— Russell Hill. 


ESSE ae ST R On et ee 


Betis sal at 


1878.] Zoölogy. —. 3099 


IDENTITY OF DIEMYCTYLUS MINIATUS WITH DIEMYCTYLUS VIRI- 
DESCENS.— Last summer I brought home from Sullivan county, 
Penna., a large number of specimens of Diemyctylus miniatus Raf., 
popularly called “little red lizard” or “ red eft,” and after keep- 
ing them in a dark box filled with moss, saturated with water, all 
the specimens have changed their color from bright vermilion to 
the olive shade characteristic ot D. viridescens, and are in all 
particulars identical with the last named species. Although the 
specimens were kept in a moist medium, they were at no time im- 
mersed, and to make the test crucial I dropped three of them in- 
to a tub inclined at an angle with the floor and partially filled. 
Upon their immersion they immediately swam or wriggled vigor- 
ously for land, but after leaving the water and stopping a few 
seconds they turned around and walked back into the water and 
remained there, only coming up at intervals for air. One remained 
thus fifteen minutes before rising to the surface. Some hours 
after, upon watching them again, it was twentv minutes before one 
of them returned to the surface, and as the others seemed disposed 
to remain under a much longer time I was obliged to leave them. 
These specimens have been kept in the house all winter and are 
almost as lively as those I watched at the bottom of the lake in 
the summer. This morning I agitated the water with the tips of 
my fingers, and, upon attracting their attention, saw two of them 
gulp down two pieces of raw meat. Nothing could more satisfac- 
torily demonstrate their entire satisfaction with the element in 
which they had been newly placed. The conclusion then is that 
instead of two well marked species, D. viridescens and D. miniatus, 
or of a species and a variety, we have but a single species 
Diemyctylus miniatus. 


Nat. Hist., Prof. Verrill’s remarks, respecting D. miniatus, “ I can- 
not agree with Prof. Cope in regarding this as a form of D. viri- 
descens.’—Howard A. Kelly. | 
AN EARLY Bird INDEED —On March 21st I was shown a chip- 
ping sparrow’s nest (Spizella socialis) in the midst of a strawberry 
bed on the farm of Mr. John P. Sanborn, near the city of Port 
Huron, Michigan, in which were three newly-hatched little ones 
and an egg. Such an occurrence, even in the middle of April, is 
unprecedented in this latitude. Robins appeared February 11th, 


bluebirds February 18th, blackbirds, song sparrows and golden- 


winged wood-peckers observed February 22d, bob-o-links March 
2d, Darts March 3d.—G. A. Stockwell, M.D.,Port Huron, Mich. 


400 General Notes. [ June, 


ANTHROPOLOGY .! 


LANGUAGE Map or AMERICA.— In the Geographical Magazine for 
March, 1878, the statement is made that Mr. A. H. Keane is collect- 
ing materials for a language map of America. We cannot speak from 
personal experience concerning the difficulties of such an undertak- 
ing for South America; but we can assure any one who attempts 
the task for North America that the impediments are almost insur- 
mountable. The Smithsonian Institution has for twenty-five 
years zealously collected vocabularies and other linguistic mate- 

i ave all been placed in the hands of Major J. W. 
Powell, who has called to his aid most of the eminent philologists 
of our country in adding to and perfecting what has been already 
gathered. The first volume of “Contributions to American 
Ethnology,” already published, is the harbinger of a series which, 
when completed, will exhibit the linguistic geography of our 
aborigines. Dr. Berendt is doing similar work for Middle 
Ameri 


Tue Davenport TABLET.—With respect to the Davenport 
tablet, concerning which a mild caution was ventured in the 
May Narturauist, Mr. J. Duncan Putnam, corresponding se- 
cretary of the Davenport Academy, writes: “This tablet was 
found by Mr. Gass, and is believed to be just as genuine as 
those found a year ago, and they appear to be just as genuine as 
the copper axes, stone pipes, sea shells, etc., found along side of 
them. They may be all “ got up,” but if so the evidence is very 
strong that they were not done by any “wag” of the present 
generation. A full account of this last find will be printed in our 
next number of Proceedings, now in press.” 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—The Rev. Stephen Bowers is lec- 
turing in the western cities upon Explorations in Southern Cali- 
fornia. The labors of Mr. Bowers were confined to that portion 
of the state bordering on the ocean, and to the Santa Barbara 
islands. His contributions to the National Museum equal in 
value and number those of any of its numerous friends. | 

Mr. J. D. McGuire, of Ellicott city, Maryland, in a letter to 
the Smithsonian Institution, speaks of a number of arrow-heads 


rom the pen of Dr. Habel concerning the discovery of sculp- 
tured slabs at Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa, near the city of Gua- 


1 Edited by Prof. Orts T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


1878. | - Anthropology. 401 


temala. Several years ago Dr. Habel resigned a lucrative medi- 
cal practice in New York to visit Central America. While in 
Guatemala he came upon these interesting remains which he 
cleared away at great expense of time and labor, and the sculp- 
tures of which he copied with the greatest accuracy. These 
slabs resemble the best sculptures of Mexico and Central 
America in the objects represented, and in the barbaric exhuber- 
ance of ornament. There are two features which are almost 
unique, the symbol for speech, and for numerals. The speech 
symbol consists of a vine-like ridge proceeding from the mouth 
or neck of the suppliant or of the divinity and winding about in 
various shapes. The staff or ridge is adorned with nodes and 
trefoils in such positions and groups as to give great plausibility 
to Dr. Habel’s belief that the ornamented staff indicates the very 
desire or thought of the speaker. The numeral symbol consists 
of rows of rings accompanied by parallel and cross lines. The 
beauty and uniqueness of these sculptures will make Dr. Habel’s 


entitled, “ Die anthropologischen Sammlungen Deutschlands: 
ein Verzeichniss des in Deutschland vorhandenen anthropolo- 


i 
The Blackwater, Missouri, Mounds, zd.; Soapstone Quarry in 
Providence county, R. IL., éd.; 
ique, La Nature, March 


, 


Berücksichtigung. mexicanischer Sculpturen, I, H. Fischer, 
Archiv, x, 4; Lebensweise und Geräthe der süd-chilenischen Ind- 
lianer, Correspondensblatt, 1878, I. 


402 General Notes. June, 


Foreign papers of general interest are: Finlandische Archaolo- 
gische Literatur von 1745 bis heute, Dr. J. R. Aspelin in Hel- 
singfors, Archiv, x, 4; Mittheilungen aus der Anthroplogischen 
Literatur Belgiens im Jahre 1876, Prof. L. von der Kindere, 
Brüssel, zd.; Mittheilungen der russischen Literatur über Anthro- 
pologie, Dr. Ludwig Stieda, z@.; Archzological Researches at 
Carnac, in Brittany, James Miln (David Douglas, Edinburgh) ; 
Ueber die achte Jahresversammlung der deutschen anthropolo- 
gischen Gesellschaft, Graf Wurmbrand, Mittheilungen der Anthro- 
pologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 1877, 1 10; Ueber neue Aus- 
grabungen auf den alten Gräberstätten bei Hallstatt, Dr. Ferd. von 
Hochstetter, zd. 11; Zur Ethnographie Noricums, Dr. Fligier, 
id. 10 (a very scholarly paper made more valuable by the abund- 
ance of references to authorities); Die Ethnographie der Balkan- 
Halbinsel im 14 und 15 Jahrhundert, Prof. G. Hertzburg, Peter- 
mann’s Mittheilungen, L iv; Die Anfänge des Staats-und 
Rechtslebens, Das Ausland, April 1st; Growth of Ideas and Cus- 
toms, E. B. Tylor a lecture before the London Institution April 
1th; Die Urgeschichte der Menschheit, Otto Caspari, 2d edition, 
Leipzig; On c Human Hair, Prof. Schwalbe, Correspondenzblatt, 

1877, 2; On the Influence of Climate upon the Development of 
Art, aii Architecture, Prof. Portlage, zd. 


InpIAN Foop Customs.—When an Indian is out of food he 
goes to those who have plenty, and it is considered a breach of ` 
etiquette not to feed the hungry. The provident are often im- 
posed upon in this way. The Indians think it very. strange that 
some whites have a superabundance of food while others have 
none at all. The females provide most of the food. They are 
the gatherers of nuts, seeds, roots and fruits, and convert them 
into bread and mush, while the men provide the meat. The labor 
of collecting these vegetable products is very great, the women 
being compelled to wander miles from their homes to obtain 
them. They are often seen on their homeward march with 
astonishing loads, so bulky at times as to conceal them entirely. 
They wander about all day in the grain fields picking up head 
by head until they have secured a load. A merchant of Tucson 
informed me that he had bought from some Papago women three 
sacks of wheat secured in this manner. The Indians formerly 
made two kinds of bread, one is a small flat cake or biscuit 
baked in the ashes, the other is as thin as a wafer, and made in 
the following manner. Meal or flour from any native product is 
mixed with water and a little salt to the consistency of dough. 
The cook then takes a piece in her hand, pulls it and flattens it 
out until a large, thin, round cake is formed. This is baked on a 
flat, hot stone, first on one side and then on the other. Much of 
their flour and meal is eaten as mush or gruel, which eas relish 


S - TT | much ——Ldward Palmer. 


* 


1878. ] Anthropology. 403 


Te then made a small torch about half the size of one’s little 
finger by twisting some pieces of rags together rather tightly. 
Selecting a spine from the water and placing it between the ends 
of the wrapped thumb and finger, the torch was lit and held in 
the left hand close to the spine, the workman dexterously 
changing the position so as to impart the same amount of heat to 
all portions at once. Occasionally he moistened the spine in his 
mouth. By this application of heat and moisture he tempered 
the spine, and at thë same time applying a gentle pressure by the 
end of the wrapped finger he was soon able to produce a very 
fair and strong hook. As soon as a sufficient curvature is 
oor aa it is secured by fastening a string from the point to the 
shaft. 

The fish of the Colorado river, eaten by the Mohaves, do not 
nibble the bait, but bolt it, hook and all, and are killed by the 
wounds which are made in their gills. This cactus-spine hook 
would be of no use in catching fish that nibble, as there is no 
barb. The Indians fasten the bait below the hook, before throw- 
ing it into the water. The iron hooks obtained from the whites 
now take the place of their old-fashioned ones—Edward Palmer. 


INDIAN SreatiTE DisHEs.—A very interesting discovery has re- 
cently been made by Mr. H. N. Angell, of Providence, R. 1., 
showing how the Indians formerly manufactured steatite dishes. 
As he was quarrying about a ledge of rocks near his home, early 
in the month of February, he came upon a bed of soapstone, © 
which bore evident traces of having at one time been artificially 
worked. Cart loads of steatite dust and chippings were removed 
before the ledge could be uncovered, when it presented a very 
peculiar appearance, being covered by protuberances and depres- 
sions. A number of finished vessels were obtained and many 
more in a partial state of completion, The pots were first rudely 
carved out of the rock with slate or stone khives and chisels, 


VOL. XIL=-N0 VI. 29 


404. General Notes. [ June, 


bed of steatite had been lowered several feet by the removal of 
the stone, and it is certain that great numbers of vessels were 
fashioned at this quarry. —Z. A. Barber. 

urgeon John H. Janeway has presented to the Army Medical 
Museum five crania from the shell-heaps near St. Augustine, 
Florida. These crania are especially remarkable for the position, 
shape and size of the foramen magnum, and for the great size o 
the basilar process, occasioned by the extremely backward posi- 
tion of the foramen magnum. The museum has also received 
from Second Lieutenant C. A. H. McCauley a cranium from the 
ruins of Mesa Morasis, on the Rio de los Animos, near its 
mouth. This is the fourth cranium from these cliff structures, 
‘furnishing a good beginning for a comparative study. It is to be 
hoped that this splendid collection, now under the charge of Dr. 
Otis, will be fostered by anthropologists in all parts of our 
country. The Quartermasters Department have orders to trans- 
mit all specimens to Washington, free of charge. 

r. Spofford, of the Congressional Library, is now publishing 
a complete catalogue in one alphabet of everything in the library, 
with titles complete, including the Smithsonian additions, under 
the names of societies. 

In the Magazine of American History for February, Dr. Charles 
Rau publishes the paper on the Dighton Rock Inscription which 
he read before the American Anthropological Society last 
September. 

Mr. E. A. Barber communicates the fact that in the “ Museum of 
the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art,” in the Memorial Hall, 
Philadelphia, isa collection of relics from the Swiss Lake Dwellings. 
We shall be glad to publish the location and special character of 
public and private collections of merit in our country. 

The following works and papers have appeared: Mound Ex- 
plorations in South-eastern Missouri (in Madrid county), by C. 
Crosswell, Trans. of the Acad. of Sciences of St. Louis, Vol. 11, 
No. 4; Antiquity of Caverns and Cavern Life in the Ohio valley, 
by Prof. N.S. Shaler, Boston Soc. of Nat. History; Les Esquimaux 
(based on the presence of a group of them in the Jardin d’Acclima- 
tion de Paris), Révue Scientifique, Jan. 26th; Colored People consid- 
ered scientifically and socially, by D. H. Jacques, Phrenological 
Fournal, Dec.; The Southern Negro as he is, by George R. Stetson 
(A. Williams & Co.); Cuban Antiquities: the Caneys of the 
Dead, by Antonio Bachiller, Magazine of American History, Dec.; 
The Second Conquest of Peru, by C. P. Mackie, Penn Monthly, 
Feb.; Pottery: How it is Made, by George Ward Nichols (G. P. 
Putnam’s Sons); A Hand-book of Ceramic Art, by M. S. Lock- 
wood (id.); Bibliotheca Americana, by Robert Clarke & Co., Cin- 
cinnati. 


| Foreicn.—An interesting course of lectures has been inaugu- 
_ rated in connection with the new museum of ethnography at Paris. 


1878. ] Anthropology. : 405 


Nearly every afternoon is appropriated to a discourse by some 
eminent savant on topics illustrated by the collections in the 
museum. 

The German Emperor has presented to the ethnographical 
department of the Royal Museum at Berlin, a collection of 
weapons from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Flores, Amboyna 
and other islands, made by Herr Erdmann, German Consul at 
Samarang, Java. 

On Friday, February 15th, the Rev. W. E. Cousins read a 
paper before the London Philological Society on Malagasy, the 
language of Madagascar, a short sketch is given in Zhe Academy 
for March 2d. 

Dr. Stuart Eldridge sends a copy of his pamphlet on the crania 
of the Botans of Formosa, read before the Asiatic Society of 
Japan, March 14th, 1877. The first few pages are occupied with 
a résumé of the science of craniology. The researches of Dr. 
Eldridge were made on four skulls. The Botans, or Motans, are 
one of the aboriginal tribes of Formosa, having a fine physical 
development, and distinguished by the following characteristics : 
They are, courageous, frank and impressible; straight haired; 
complexion varied, but always of a brown tint, never black; 
having some knowledge of agriculture, cultivating tobacco, root- 
crops and rice; domesticating buffaloes, pigs, dogs and poultry; 
living under a patriarchal organization; fond of the chase; having 
some slight knowledge of certain arts, and a rude form of relig- 
gion, the cultus of which is, at least to some extent, in the hands 
of priestesses who are highly reverenced. There are no signs of 
artificial distortion in any of the skulls; when held at arm’s 
length the malar bones are visible on either side, and all are 


_. dolichocephalic. In all, the upper edges of the zygomata are 


somewhat convex, the temporal ridges are strongly marked, the 
processes are highly developed, the mastoids are about the 
average, the external auditory foramina are oval, the arch of the 
palate is low and flat, the external opening of the nose is large, 
the frontal sinuses are small, and the ethmoidal ridge of 
frontal large and prominent. They are almost uniformly orthog- 
nathous. The orbits in Nos. 1 and 3 are somewhat square in — 
outline, while in No. 2 the orbit is elliptical, the axis being 
directed downward and outward. The occipital foramina of Nos. 
I and 4 are rather more oval than common, those of Nos. 2 and 
3 being about normal in shape. The sutures of Nos. 1, 2 and 4 
are distinct and ununited. In No. 3 all the sutures save the 
Squamous and a part of the lambdoidal are obliterated. The 
pamphlet closes with a tabular view of the measurements of the 
Skulls according to the scheme of depen from which a few are 
extracted: Length 7, 6.95, 7.15, 7.02 inches for the four skulls 
respectively; breadth 5.45, 5.35, 5-38, 5-28; height 5.30, 5-27, 
_ 9-52, 5:26; cephalic index 78, .77, 75, 75) facial angle 76.3 o 
805°, 84.3°; capacity 84.82, 91.34, 83.43, 75-90 cubic inches. 


406 General Notes. [June, 


GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY. 


A NEW OPistHocceLous Dinosaur.—I have recently received 
from the Dakota beds of Canyon city, Colorado, a number of 


bones of a new and remarkable extinct reptile allied to Camara-: . 


3 s (= Titanosaurus and Atlantosaurus Marsh nom. nud.), an 
Streptospondylus. The dorsal vertebre are strongly opisthoceel- 
ous, and are without lateral fossa or foramen of the centrum. 
The arch is freely articulated with the latter, and is not much 
elevated, and possesses no hyposphen. The neural spine is 
transverse; the diapophysis is supported on narrow buttresses, 
and the neural arches generally lightened by fossz as in the two 
genera named. A strong parapophysial tubercle near the ante- 
rior convexity receives the head of the rib. Each zygapophysis 
of one side is separated from that of the other by a deep con- 
cavity. e genus so characterized may be called Epanterias. 
and the species E. amplexus. The latter has a rather low an 

wide dorsal neural arch with small fore and aft diameter, and 
with a neural spine divided into three obtuse apices. There are 
three fossæ at the base of the diapophysis, the anterior one ver- 
tical; and a very deep one between the posterior zygapophyses. 
The cup of the centrum embraces the ball extensively, and the 
neurapophysis overlaps the side of the centrum behind. Length 
of centrum m..115; diameters behind, transverse, «120; vertical 
108. Elevation of neural arch .290; width of neural spine 083, 
of both diapophyses .400. This saurian was much smaller than 
the Camarasaurus supremus, and perhaps equal to the Hadrosau- 
rus foulkei. It may be associated with the former in the Cama- 
rasauride. With Amphicelias is probably in like manner to be 
arranged Tichosteus; while the carnivorous form /ypsirhophus 
represents a third type—£. D. Cope. 


. S à r 
Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy for 1875, p- 404 2 
paper on this type of vertebrates commences, where some of 
_ the leading characters of the reptiles are pointed out. In the 
_ Proceedings of the AMerican Philosophical Society for May, 
> 1877 , Several new species are described from the same formation, 
_ and in the same journal for November, 1877, other species are 
added, making the whole number up to twenty-one. These 


wes os E a Sl E 


e eT lies ca: tg ee aR ces atic pM a, 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 407 


papers Prof. Marsh has had the opportunity of seeing. Two fur- 
ther notices of the vertebrates of the American Permian appeared 
on April 22d of the present year, in the May number of this 
journal, pp. 319, 327. As the corresponding number of the Amer. 
Jour. Sct. and Arts was not issued before May 5th (perhaps a 
day or two sooner), Prof. Marsh had the opportunity of seeing 
these also. They include references to seven new genera, for 
most of which the characters are clearly pointed out. 

The features common to the genera of the Permian, described _ 
by Marsh, are stated by him to be those characteristic of the 
order Rhynchocephalia; as I have already shown to be the case 
with the forms described by me in the earliest as well as later 
papers of those cited. Another characteristic is said to be the 
presence of the intercentrum, a statement agreeing with my own 
in the May number of this journal. It is also observed that there 
is a double tubercular rib-articulation of the centra, a structure I 
have already described in the genus Diplocaudus Prof. Marsh’s 
Statement that the mode of implantation of the teeth is similar 
to that of the “ Mosasuria” is probably incorrect. 

As the author of the paper does not think it necessary to 
allude to published sources of information, it is too much to 
expect him to give credit for ideas communicated to him verbally. 
All of the above mentioned, and additional characters cited by 
Marsh in his two opening paragraphs? (l.c. 409) as belonging to 
the Permian Reptiles, with others, were explained by me before 
the National Academy of Sciences, with Prof. Marsh as an atten- 
tive listener, at its last meeting in Washington, April 18th, more 
than two weeks before the appearance of the paper here criti- 
cized. The characters to, which I refer are “the separate pre- 


_? Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1877, p. 187. 

* Except that mentioned previously under Diplocautus. a 

i 3 Which I referred to the Rhynchocephalia in 1870; see Proceed. Am. Ass. Adv. — 
Sci. xix, p. 242. we ee 


408 : General Notes. [June, 


tebral bone, Prof. Marsh’s knowledge of the former term must be | ; 


ascribed to some other source. The fact that the Amer. Journ. 
Sci. Arts appeared a good deal later than its usual date of publi- 
cation, may be considered in this connection.—£. D. Cope. 


Fossor1AL RepriLes.—Prof. Cope has recently described some 
reptiles from the Permian formation in which the humeri possess 
many of the characters of those of the mole and other fossorial 
Mammalia inthe great development of the muscular insertions and 
epicondyles, and the presence of a supracondylar foramen. They 
are referred to five species of three genera of Pelycosauria, a tribe 
of the order Rhynchocephata, 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 


RicHTHOFEN’s CuinA.—The portion of this great work relating 
to the loess, so wonderfully developed in parts of China, was 
noticed, at some length, by Prof. Whitney in the December num- 
ber of this journal. We will’merely run through the table of 
contents, to show the breadth of the researches made by the 
learned author, so well known in this country for his investiga- 
tions in the geology of California. The general features of China 
and Central Asia, the loegs formation in Northern China, the 
structure and formation of the salt steppes of Central Asia are 
discussed at length. This portion is followed by chapters on the 
transition region of Central Asia, on the distribution of desert 
and loess-covered regions in other parts of the earth; the pla- 
teaux of Central Asia, embracing the Tién-shan, Kwen-lun and 
the mountainous regions in Southern Asia. The second part 
relates to the development of our geographical and historical 
knowledge of China. The wood-cuts are in many cases full-page 
illustrations and, with the maps and general elegance of the 
typography and paper, in addition to the text, render the work of 
a high order of interest. -a 

Tue Bic Horn Canon.—Gen. Brisbin has given an interesting 
account of the Powder river country, extending from the sources 
of the Big Horn and Powder rivers over the Big Horn mountains 
and the plains as far as the Missouri river, a country unknown to 
white men until 1866. “It contains,’ says Judge Daly in his 
recent address to the American Geographical Society, “one © 
the greatest natural curiosities of our continent, the Big Horn 

afion, which rivals the famous gorge of the Colorado.” 

Tue Istamus or DARIEN.—A valuable map and notice of 
recent surveys, especially those of Lieut. L. N. B. Wyse in 1876 


1 China. Ergebnisse eigener Reisen, und darauf gegriindeter Studien. VO F 
von RICHTHOFEN. Eister Band. Einleitender Thiel. Mit 29 wood-cuts and II 
maps. Berlin. D. Reimer. 1877. 4to, pp. 758. 


1878.] Microscopy. : 409 


GEOGRAPHICAL Notes.—The Geographical Magazine for April 
contains a colored map, giving the proposed changes in the ter- 
ritorial boundary of European Turkey, as stated in Articles I, III 
and VI of the preliminary treaty of peace. Mr. J. Boyer has 
lately ascended Mount Ararat, which is 17,000 feet high. Large 
beds of snow extend down toa height of 11,000 or 12,000 feet. 


. The last part of the ascent was upon a slope of rotten rock, which 


crumbled under foot, making the ascent very fatiguing. He 
found not a fragment of Noah’s Ark. 


MICROSCOPY. ! 

A Nover Sranp.—A microscope stand, recently made for Dr. 
Blackham, of Dunkirk, by Mr. Tolles, of Boston, combines with 
the usual excellencies of that maker’s work, some peculiarities 
designed to fit it especially for optical experiments. The stand is 
made on the Jackson model, and the slide behind the body, 
which focal adjustment is made, is furnished with a scale and 
vernier by which the werking focal distance of the objectives 
used can be measured with facility. Dr. Blackham claims this — 
device as his own, though the claim has brought to light repre- 
Sentations that the device has been previously used or suggested 
by Mr. Geo. E. Fell, of Buffalo. The most conspicuous peculi- 
arity of the instrument is the method of mounting the mirror 
and sub-stage. Back of the stage and between it and the curved 
arm that supports the body, is a brass disc three-tenths of an 
inch thick and nearly five inches in diameter. This disc is arranged 
vertically between the body and the curved arm, with its center 
in the horizontal plane of the object. On the face of this plate, 
and near to its circumference, is a deep circular groove in which 
slides a radial arm which bears the sub-stage, mirror, etc. This 
gives, with great smoothness, the rotation of all the sub-stage 
apparatus around the object on the stage as a center. Though 
made last year, Mr. Tolles claims that this expedient was de- 
signed by him in 1871, thus anticipating the introduction of simi- 
lar devices by other inventors during the last few years. 


Mr. E. W. Blatchford, at Chicago, on the 8th of March. This 
conversazione was one of the most notable scientific events that 
have ever occurred in the city. Though given in the name of the _ 

1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


410 General Notes. [ June, 


State Society, the invitations were not limited to its members, the 
spacious residence being so thronged during the evening that 
fully 700 people are believed to have participated in the reception. 
Among the guests were many of the leading citizens of the 
town. Over fifty microscopes were in use, on. tables distributed 
through a number of rooms, the whole house being given up to 
the entertainment. The arrangements were under the direction 
of Messrs. Henry W. Fuller, president, H. F. Atwood, secretary, 
and B. W. Thomas, treasurer of the society, assisted by Prof. S. 
H. Peabody, of the Academy of Sciences. A _ well-selected 
variety of popular objects was shown by members of the society, 


the ioe In addition to the instruments owned in the city, a 
variety of Beck and of Gundlach microscopes were loaned to the 
society by Messrs. Walmsley and Bausch & Lomb. Variety was 
contributed to the entertainment by experiments with electricity 
and the telephone. Both socially ind scientifically the reception 
was most creditable and encouraging to the society. 


Microscopicat Society ELections —The biological section of 
the Indianapolis Lyceum of Natural History was organized Feb. 
28, 1878, the first officers being Henry Jameson, M.D., president, 
and W. Webster Butterfield, M.D. Aad Meetings occur on 
the first Tuesday evening of each month. 

The State Microscopical Society of Illinois, at its annual meet- 
ing held April 26th, elected the following officers: President, 
Henry W. Fuller; vice-presidents, Harvey M. Thompson and H. 
F. Atwood ; secretary, Prof. S. H. Peabody ; corresponding sec- 
retary, James Colgrove; treasurer, B. W. Thomas; trustees, Prof. 
E. S. Bastin, Dr. Soke Curtis, E. W. Blatchford, Samuel J. Jones 
and W. H. Summe 

At the annual eiie of the American saree TAR Society 
of the city of New York, held Tuesday even ing Marc 26, 1878, 
the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: pd, 
John B. Rich, M.D.; aoe E Wm. H. Atkinson, M.D. ; 
secretary, O. G. Mason, - Bellevue Hospital ; treasurer, T. 
d’Oremieulx ; curator, Jolia: Frey. 


Microscopica CoxcreEss.—The invitation to the Microscopical 
Congress at Indianapolis, next August, has been accepted by a 
number of societies as well as prominent workers with the micro- 
scope, and the meeting promises to be large, and most interesting 
. to those who participate. Particulars in regard to the arrange- 
ments will be ready shortly, and can be obtained, in form of a cir- 
cular, ed addressing Dr. W. W. Butterfield, Indianapolis, Indiana. 


Ernst GUNDLACH. eds well-known optician, who has been 
with the Bausch & Lomb Opt. Co., daring the past two years, 


EE 
PET a A e 


4 ‘ 
1878.] Scientific News. 411 


announces his withdrawal from that company and his establish- 
ment of a factory in Rochester, in his own name, devoted entirely 
to microscopical work. He offers stands, with all his former 
improvements and with some minor advantages now added, and 
objectives of increased angle and reduced price. His higher 
powers will be on the four-system plan, and claim the excessive 
aperture of 150 degrees in water. 

_ Excuances.—Isthmia nervosa, rich specimens 2 situ on alge, 
in exchange for any good mounted objects. M.A. Booth, Long- 
meadow, Mass. 

Leaves with very beautiful stellate hairs and also a variety of 
marine objects, from the Bahamas, in exchange for mounted or 
unmounted objects. C. C. Merriman, Rochester, N. Y. 

WantTED—Some well posted diatomist to give the names of 
diatoms, arranged, on a few slides, in exchange for the slides. 
C. M. Vorce, Cleveland, Ohio. 


:0:— 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Science in America has met with an irreparable loss in the 
death of the honored and revered Prof. Joseph Henry, secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution since 1846, and president of the 
National Academy of Sciences. e was born in Albany, N. Y., 
December 17, 1797, and died May 13, working at his post, 
engaged, until a few days before his death, in arduous and respon- 
sible duties. We have but space, at this time, to record briefly 
the decease of this eminent investigator and able administrator. 

— Ina recent letter from Edward Desor, of Neuchatel, Switzer- 
land, he states “ that he has been diverted from his ordinary pur- 
suits by that mischievous beast which has invaded us from North 
America, viz: the Piylxera. We have some hope that we shall 


infested viper, viz: by guid sulphurous acid, which has been 
applied recently with success at Geneva. Besides that I am | 
prosecuting my investigations on some geological and pre-histori- 
cal problems, especially the cups and archaic signs on the erratic 
boulders.’—F. V. H. 

— The Annual Report of the Vienna Imperial Geological 
Institute shows that the usual activity pervades this model insti- 
tution. Additions to the special map of the empire have been 
carried on in the Central Alps, and from the Alps to the Venetian 
plain, as well as in Eastern Galicia, North-eastern Hungary and 
the Dneister region, while still other local surveys have been 
carried on in Austria. Collaberation with other geologists in 
Bohemia and Hungary has gone on, while the museum an : 
library have been re-arranged in part, and heavy accessions made, —— 
(From a letter to Prof. F. V. Hayden by Count Marschall.) 


412 Scientific News. [June, 


— In a late number of Schultze’s Archiv fiir Mikroskopie, 
Dr. A. Stecker describes the origin of the germinal layers in the 
chilognathous myriopods (thousand-legs). Oscar Schmidt de- 
scribes the larval stages of two sponges (Ascetta primordialis and 
clathrus). W. Breitenbach describes some peculiarities in the 
maxillz or tongue of Vanessa and Catocala sp., Egybolts vaillan- 
tina and an Australian moth allied to Ophideres, as well as the 
latter genus also, whose maxillz are armed with stout spines. 


— A good deal of fear and a stoppage in the sale of the shad 
in New Jersey and New York, has been occasioned by the dis- 
covery of ascarid worms about an inch in length occurring in the 
flesh and on the gills of these fish. On examination of specimens 
sent us by Mr. Apgar of Trenton, we find that the worms belong 
to Ascaris, or a closely allied genus. They are closely related to 
the ordinary ascarid or round worms which are abundant in the 
intestines and flesh of the cod, hake and haddock, and which we 
have always supposed to be rarely if ever injurious. ` Cases of 
sickness supposed to be due to the shad-worm have been reported 
in the papers, but it is doubtful whether any disease would show 
itself in so short a time. Similar, but much larger worms are 
common in the intestines of man and the domestic animals. 


— Professor C. Semper of Wiirzburg, Germany, is desirous of 
obtaining specimens of North American salamanders, newts, 
hellbenders, mud-puppies or “ fish-on-legs,” alive, for use in his 
laboratory. Any specimens collected should be sent alive packed 
in wet moss, to Mr. Elmenhorst, care of Messrs. Matthiessen, 
Wiechers & Co., Jersey City, New Jersey, who will take them in 
charge and forward them to Hamburg. 

— We have seen specimen copies of Vaturen, an illustrated Nor- 
wegian monthly journal of the size of the English Mature, edited 
by Hans H. Reusch, and published at Christiania, Norway. It 1s 
devoted to the natural and physical sciences, is fully illustrated, 
and well supported by the leading Norwegian scientists. 

— Butler University Scientific Expedition and Summer Tramp, 
will leave Indianapolis, June 20th, going by rail to Livingston, 


Ky., then on foot via Rock Castle River, Wild Cat Mountain, — 


Cumberland Gap and Clinch Gap to Morristown, Tenn., exploring 
the caves and seining the rivers; thence up the Big Pigeon River, 
over the Great Smoky and Great Balsam Mountains, summits 
higher than the White Mountains: and far more beautiful and 
wild; thence over the mountains of Chilowee and Nantahala 
(see Christian Reid’s “ Land of the Sky ”) up the Little Tennessee 
River to Estatoah Falls, through Rabun Gap to Tallulah Falls, 
the wildest and most beautiful series of cascades east of the 
Rocky Mountains. At Toccoa Falls, Georgia (about July 17 th), 
the party will divide, a portion “ marching through Georgia” to 


i MeO TST ke a MR Sey 


ee eS ee ee eee ee a ee eee eS rae 


collect fishes, the others remaining in the mountains, returning 7 


1878. | Scientific News. 413 


as they please. Objects : Natural History, Health and Scenery. 
Full instructions in Field Geology, Zoology, Botany. The two 
previous trips have been eminently successful, forty species of 
animals new to science having been obtained. For account of the 
last see Harper's Magazine for March. Tuition, $15.00. Board, 
$1.00 per day (average). Total expenses about $70. Eastern 
students join at Morristown. Address, Prof. D. S. Jordan, A. W. 
Brayton, C. H. Gilbert, Directors, Irvington, Ind. 

— Judging by its bulletin for 1877 the Minnesota Academy 
of Natural Sciences is in a very flourishing state. Following the 
address of the President, Hon. R. J. Baldwin, is an essay on the 
Mycological. flora of Minnesota, by Dr. A. E. Johnson, compris- 
ing 100 pages; a report on ornithology, by P. L. Hatch, M.D.; 
an article on Tornadoes and Cyclones, by Gen. T. L. Rosser, and 
the report of the Curator, A. F. Elliott. 

— Prof. C. V. Riley, chief of the U. S. Entomological Com- 
mission has been appointed Entomologist to the Department of 

_Agriculture. The fitness of the selection is manifest, and new 
energy and scientific activity will be infused into this important 
branch of applied science. 

— Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zodlogical Garden: 1 ruffed 
grouse (Bonasa umbellus), purchased ; 8 garter snakes eee sir- 
talis); 2 water snakes (77 vopidonotus sipedon), presented ; om- 
mon bitem (Botaurus minor), presented; 1 red fox (Pubes ful- 
vus), presented ; I rufous rat-kangaroo (Hypsipr ymnus rufescens), 
born in the Garden ; 1 gray fox (Vulpes virginianus), presented ; 
2 horned toads (Ehrynosoma cornutum), presented; I cat bir 
(Mimus carolinensis); 1 robin (Turdus migratorius); 1 kingfisher 
(Ceryle alcyon), presented ; I p -billed Grebe (Podilymbus podi- 
ceps), purchased; 1 pinche monkey (Midas ædipus), presented ; 


giganteus), born in the Garden; 2 S Celt Sa ial ae 
niger), purchased.—Arthur E. Brown, Gard. S 

— The Smithsonian Institution is at oe engaged in the 
preparation, for exhibition in the National Museum, of a series 
of plaster casts of American reptiles taken from the living or re- 
cently dead specimens, and carefully colored from nature. 
this Pe Ses it respectfully invites contributions of the following 
objec 
ira Specimens of any of the turtles and terrapins found in 
your vicinity, with information as to whether the collection em- 
braces all the species known; and, if not, whether others may be 
looked for hereafter 

Second. The largest pooma specimens of serpents, with the _ 
exception of the poisonous kinds (such as rattlesnakes, copper- 
heads, and moccasins), in reference to the transmission of which, 
further and special correspondence is requeste 2 

Third. The various kinds of salamanders, “water-lizards, or 


ga Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [June, 


ground puppies, to include the large hell-bender of the western 
waters; the mud pup or water-lizard of the northern lakes, or 
Menobranchus; the congo eel or ground puppy (Siren and Amphi- ` 
uma) of the southern rice-fields, etc., as well as the smaller kinds 
found in damp places under stones and logs. A series of the 
frogs will also be acceptable. 

All these animals should be suitably boxed and transmitted, as 
far as possible, alive; or, if dead, packed in ice, so as to insure 
their coming in good condition. The serpents require no special 
precautions in the way of packing; if of nearly the same size 
several may be sent together. If the disproportion be very great, 
there is, however, danger that the larger may devour the smaller. 
No rattlesnakes, copperheads or moccasins should be transmitted. 
The turtles should be wrapped or sewed up in some kind of cloth, 
so as to prevent friction. They should not be sent loose with the 
softer objects. Serpents require no moisture; frogs and salaman- 
ders should be packed with wet moss. Among the turtles should 
be included the soft-shell species, the true terrapins, the land tor- 
toises, etc. Single specimens of any living reptiles, as well as 
larger numbers, including duplicates, will always be gladly re- 
ceived, and due acknowledgment made for the same. The largest 
procurable representatives of each species is desirable. Trans- 
missions may be made by any express company, freight to be 
paid in Washington. Address the Smithsonian Institution. 

— Prof. Semper during his late visit to the United States gave 
us the following recipe for a writing fluid for labels for 
alcoholic specimens. Use India ink dissolved in strong acetic 
acid; write and let it dry. It will stand for years. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


APPALACHIAN Mountain Crus, Bosron.—March 13. Prof. 
Edward S. Morse gave an account of a mountain excursion in 
Japan, adding incidentally much information in regard to the 
manners and customs of the people of that country. The recital 
was listened to with close attention, and Prof. Morse then 
answered many questions propounded by those present. A re- 
cess was taken to permit the club to reorganize as an incorporated 
body. Prof. Niles was chosen temporary clerk, and the necessary 
steps were taken to perfect the organization upon its new basis. 
A series of by-laws was adopted, differing in no essential sense 
from the old constitution, and the old board Of officers were re- 
elected without change. 


1878. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 415 


the last week in March. The exhibition opened Tuesday, March 
26, at 10 o'clock, A.M., and closed on Friday, the 20th, at r0 
o'clock, pM. Pictures of scenery among the mountains of New 
England were exhibited. 

April 4, a special meeting was held to hear and discuss a paper 
by Prof. H. F. Walling on some recent views of mountain struc- 
ture, 

April 10, a communication from Prof. A. Lakes, on an ascent 
of Long’s Peak, was read and an account of some barometrical 
observations in the White Mountains was received from Prof. F. 
W. Clarke. 

CINCINNATI Society or Naturav Hisrory.—This Society held 
its regular meeting in its building, corner of Broadway and Arch 
streets, on Tuesday evening, 3d inst. This was the occasion for 
annual reports by the retiring officers, and the election of their 
successors. The report of the Treasurer showed a balance in 
the treasury of over $40,000, so invested as to produce an annual 


gratifying results. The Society owns its own buildings, and has 
no outstanding debts whatever. 

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows: 
President, V. T. Chambers; Vice-Presidents, ae 
and S. S. Cotton; Treasurer, I. A. Wright; Recording Secretary, 
Florien Giasque ; Corresponding Secretary, I. W. Hall; Libra- 
rian, I. C. Shroyer; Custodian, Dr. I. H. Hunt. The Curators 
elected were as follows : Mineralogy, Dr. R. M. Byrnes; Palæon- 
tology, Ed. O. Ulrich; Botany, Davis L. James; Conchology, 
Prof. A. G. Wetherby ; Entomology, I. W. Shorten ; Ornithology. 
Charles Dury; Icthyology, Dr. D. S. Young; Herpetclogy, Frank 
W. Langdon ; Comparative Anatomy, Dr. A. J. Howe; Astrono- 
my, Prof. Ormond Stone; Physics and Chemistry; Prof. R. B. 
Warder: Meteorology, Prof. Geo. W. Harper; Microscopy, Fred. 
Eckstein ; Archeology, Dr. H. H. Hill. The Society will now 
issue a regular quarterly journal of proceedings, the editors being _ 
Prof. I. F. Judge, Prof. G. W. Harper and Prof. A. G. Wetherby. 
The buildings are situated at the corner of Broadway and Arch 
Paice mecinnati, Ohio, and are always Opes to the public— 
A. G. 


yaoi GEOGRAPHICAL SocieTy.—March 21. W. Wright 
Hawkes, LL.D., delivered a lecture on the eaid Celtic monu- 
ments of Britta any 34 

ELMIRA Acapemy oF Scrence—March 15. Dr. W. H. Gregg 
remarked on time and the evolution theory, and F. Collingwood 
made a communication on the new moon of Mars versus the neb- _ 
ular hypothesis. Scientific progress in 1877 was then discussed, a = 
phonautograph was exhibited, and singing and talking with Bloss- . : 
burg by telephones was listened to by the members. a 


af 


416 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [June, 


NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SclENcES.—This body convened in 
Washington at the Smithsonian Institution, on Tuesday, April 16, 
and remained in session four days, adjourning on Friday the roth. 
The following papers were read before it: 

“ Formation and Structure of Alacrane Reef in the Yucatan 
Bank,” by Prof. Alexander Agassiz, of Harvard College, Cam- 
bridge, Mass.; the Theory of Water-Spouts,’ by Mr. William 
Ferrel, of the United States Coast Survey; “ Report on the 
Orbits of the Satellites of Mars,” by Professor Asaph Hall, of 
the Naval Observatory; Mr. Raphael Pumpelly read a paper 
on “the Relation of Loess and Drift to Secular Disintegration ; ” 
“the Characteristic Invertebrate Forms of the Central Zoo- 
Geographical Province ” by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr. rf B 
Hilgard, on “ An: Optical Ocean Salinometer.” ‘“ Plan -fog 
Measuring the Velocity of Light,’ by Prof. Simon New- 
comb, of Washington; “On the Force of Effective ae i 
Action, ” by Prof. Wm. A. Norton, of New Haven, Conn.; “ Re- 
marks on the value of the result obtained for the Bae: Paralia 
from the English Telescopic Observations,” by Prof. C. H. F. 
Peters, of Clinton, N. Y.; “On the Vertebrate Sw of the 
Permian Period of the United States, by Prof. E. D. Cope, of 
Philadelphia, Pa.; “ On the discovery of Oxygen in the Sun,” by 
Dr. Henry Draper, of New York City; “ On Complex Inorganic 
Acids, by Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, of Harvard University, Mass. ; “ On 
improvements in methods of deep sea dredging, by Mr. Alexan- 
der Agassiz; “ On Boyle’s and Mariottes Laws,” by Prof. Wolcott 
Gibbs ; “ On the Abrasions of the N. W. Coast of America,” by 
Prof. Geo. Davidson, of San Francisco, Cal.; Photometric com- 
parison of the Components of Close Double Stars,” by Prof. E. 
C. Pickering, of Cambridge, Mass.; “On the Duplication of 
Geographical Names,” by Dr. F. V. ' Hayden, of Washington; 
“ Characteristics of some of the Lower Spectral tanes, by Prof. 
S. P. Langley, of Allegheny, Pa.; “A New Element of the 
Cerium Group, Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, Kec se 
the Primary Zoo-Geographical Divisions of the Globe and ee 


Relations,” by Dr. Theodore Gill, of Washington; “On the 
Law 


ws Governing the Movements of the Rocky Mountain Locusts,” 


by Prof. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of the Department of Agri- _ 


culture; ‘Photometric Measures of Certain Faint Stars and 
Satellites,” -by Prof. on C. Pickering; “ Recent Displacements in 
. K. Gilber 


At the conclusion of Mr. Gilbert’s paper, the Secretary read 


-the address of the venerable and revered President, Professor 


iss cp no notice on the paper whence came the inner 
_. Satellite of Mars?” read at the October session, 1877, by t 
- venerable iep Stephen Alexander, of the Coll ege of New 
J. 


Fey, Princeton, N 


1878. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 417 


On the evening of the 17th, Prof. Arnold Guyot, of Princeton, 
. read a paper on the Life of Louis Agassiz in America. 

Dr. Elliott Coues, in the absence of the Pon read a Memoir 
of Prof. Jeffries Wyman, by Dr. A. S, Packar 

Communication was made by a representative of the subscribers 
to the fund, amounting to $40,000, presented to Professor Joseph 
Henry as a testimonial of their high appreciation of his services 
and his unselfish devotion to the cause of science, the principal of 
which is finally to go to the National Academy of Science, to 
form a fund to be known as the Joseph Henry Fund, the interest 
of which is to be devoted to assist the original research, The 
_ academy now holds a similar fund, “the Bache fund,” the princi- 
pal of which was left to the academy by its first President, Prof. 
A. Dallas Bache, and the income from it has been applied to the 
assistance of investigators in many of the most important branches 
of science. The list of contributors to the “Henry” fund, which 
is made up mainly in sums of $1000, embraces the names ‘of well 
known persons in the large cities of the United States 


‘eu A MEETING of the Jewett Scientific Society of Lockport, 

, Jan. 25, 1878, Mr. A. F. Goodman read a paper on the 
ee fish and its habits. Dr. S. F. Clark presented a paper re- 
cording his observations on ants. Feb. 8th, Mr. M. S. Burnett 
delivered a lecture on evolution, and Dr. A. W. Tryon remarked 
on the process of petrifaction. 

APPALACHIAN Mountain Crus, May 8.—Prof. C. E. Hamlin 
read an account of Mt. Katahdin, Maine, illustrated by a model 
of the mountain. The councillors presented reports of their 
plans for the summer’s work. A meeting of those wishing to 
form a section of exploration was held May 11th. On Saturday, 
May 18, 1878, an excursion was made to Blue Hill, Milton, Mass. 
On Wednesday, July to, 1878, a field meeting will be held at 
the Fabyan House, White Mts., N. H. 

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, April 16th.—Elial F. Hall — 
read a paper entitled Gerard Mercator, his life and works, while 
addresses were made by the President of the Society, and ‘others 
upon the state of geographical knowledge before Mercator. : 

SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF THE JonNs Hopkins UNIVERSITY, 
April 3—The regular exercises were contributions towards a 
history of Maryland Cambari, by Mr. Uhler; a paper ‘on Nitro- — 
ares Acids, by Mr. Hart; Theory of Groups, by Dr. 
Stor 

Ee: Society or Naturat History, April 17.—Mr. Richard 
Rathborn made an address on the late Prof. C. F. Hartt, and his 
Brazilian explorations. ‘ 

Troy SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, April 15—Dr. R H. Ward ma = 
a paper on microscopic BEE and engraving: : ee 


418 i Scientific Serials. - [June. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND Arts, May.—Descriptions 
of new genera and species of Isopoda, from New England, by 
O. Harger. Notice of new fossil reptiles, by O. C. Marsh. 


BULLETIN OF HaypeEn’s U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TER- 


RITORIES. ,1V, No. 2. May 3.—The geographical distribution of | 


the mammalia, considered in relation to the principal ontological 
regions of the earth, and the laws that govern the distribution of 
animal life, by Joel Asaph Allen. Description of new extinct 
vertebrata from the Upper Tertiary and Dakota formations, by 
E. D. Cope. Notes on a collection of fishes from the Rio Grande, 
at Brownsville, Texas, by David S. Jordan, M.D. A catalogue of 
the fishes of the fresh waters of North America, by David S. 
Jordan, M.D. Description of a Fossil Passerine Bird, from the 
insect-bearing Shales of Colorado, by J. A. Allen. (Plate L) 
The Coleoptera of the Alpine Regions of the Rocky Mountain, 


- by John L. LeConte, M.D. On the Orthoptera, collected by Dr. 


Elliott Coues, U.S. A., in Dakota and Montana, during 1873-74, 
by Prof. Cyrus Thomas. On the Hemiptera collected by Dr. 
Elliott Coues, U. S. A., in Dakota and Montana, during 1873-74, 
by P. R. Uhler. On the Lepidoptera, collected by Dr. Elliott 
Coues, U.S. A. in Montana, during 1874, by W. H. Edwards. 
An account of some insects of unusual interest from the Tertiary 
rocks of Colorado and Wyoming, by S. H. Scudder. 


Tue Geotocicat Macazine. April—The age of the world as 
viewed by the geologist and the mathematician, by T. M. Reade.. 
Geological time, by C. L. Morgan. What must be explained 
before the preservation of deposits under till is explained? by J. 
Young. Note on Peneus sharpii, by H. Woodward. 


QUARTERLY JouRNAL OF Microscopicat Scrence.—April. On 
the phenomena accompanying. the maturation and impregnation 
of the ovum, by F. M. Balfour (with an important résumé o 
latest discoveries). Notes on the structure and development of 
osseous tissue, by E. A. Schafer. On the endothelium of the body- 
cavity and blood-vessels of the common earth-worm, as demon- 


strated by silver staining, by D'Arc Power. Experimental 


contribution to the etiology of infectious diseases, with specia 
reference to the doctrine of Contagium vivum, by E. Klein. On 
the nature of fermentation, by’J. Lister. 


ZEITSCHRIFT FUR WHISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZooLoGiE.— March 7. 


F. E. Schulze continues his researches on the structure and devel- 


opment of sponges (family Ap/ysinide). The development of 


feathers, by T. Studer. Fertilization of the egg of Petromyson 


DSN a 


planeri, by E. Calberla. On the formation of the egg and the _ 
amles of Bonellia viridis, by F. Vejdoosky. ; aq 


ONE ib Gees SOOO a te gern sre 


a peace i E es te eP A iS yi a ke im Si AAN 
` 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xir. — JULY, 1878. — No. 7. 


DIAMONDS. 
BY F. M. ENDLICH. 


(Fony G the words of Pliny we can say: “Maximum in rebus 
humanis, non solum inter gemmas, pretium habet adamas.” 

As far as our reliable records reach back into the dim and mys- 
tic ages, we find the diamond occupying a prominent position in 
the estimation of man. Above all other of its qualities, which at — 
present determine its value, the superior hardness to all sub- 
stances then known, seems to have impressed the Ancients. 
There appears to be but little doubt, that at very early ages the 
East Indians and the original inhabitants of the Chinese Empire 
knew the value of diamonds over all other gems. It is supposable, 
too, that the art of cutting was known to them, although it was — 
not employed in the western countries until many centuries later. 

Some doubt may appear whether the ancient Hebrews really 
possessed the diamond. In translations the word “shamir” is 
rendered as diamond. We find that the breast-plate of the High 
Priest contained a “diamond” in the second row of precious 
stones. We farthermore find, however, that these twelve stones 

“ were according to the names of the children of Israel,” 

“like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, Second. 
ing to the twelve tribes.” It seems improbable that they should — 
have been able to engrave the diamond. Other passages occur 
Where the diamond is used asa symbol of greatest hardness. 
One allusion is made that shows its application in the art of en- 
graving; Jeremiah says: “ The sin of Judah is written with a pen _ 
of iron and with the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the — 
table of their heart.” Corundum was known to the Hebrews, and 

1 Among all human things, not only among gems, the diamond is the most pre- oS 
10us, Á 


VOL. XII.——No VII. 30 


420 Diamonds. [July, 


the comparative paucity of direct references to the diamond may 
lead to the supposition that some one of the corundum minerals 
_was thereby meant. Ifa diamond was really spoken of, then this 
is one of the oldest reliable mentions made (600 B. C.). 

~ Among the Greeks, Homer (1000 B. C.) uses the word 
“ Adduas,’ but in his writings it signifies steel. There is no evi- 
dence that the precious stone known 600 years later, under the 
name of adamas, was among those with which Homer was ac- 
quainted. 

Hesiodus, living about an hundred years later than Homer, 
uses the same word, but it merely designates some—to his mind 
—indestructible metal. Thus the sickle of Chronos, the helmet 
of Heracles, the chains binding Prometheus, and other similar in- 
struments were composed of adamas. Roman poets and other 
writers have copied the idea and have constructed the gates to 
Hades and other durable objects from the same material. An in- 
teresting analogy, although a purely poetical one, may be found 
in the fact that the first seal rings, Sphragides of the Greeks, 
were manufactured from the chains confining Prometheus. The 
stones set into them were obtained from the rock to which the 
unfortunate thief was bound. Thus did man honor him who con- 
ferred a lasting boon by stealing fire from the irate Jupiter. 

Later on, the term adamas was applied to the diamond. There 
is evidence extant showing that the cutting qualities of diamonds 
were utilized in Greece and Asia Minor about 400 years before 
Christ. Owing to the fact that no mineral or metal could pro- 
duce any graven impression upon the diamond, it took the name 
above given, which literally means “not conquerable.” Pliny 
adopted it, as did others of the more recent Roman writers. The 
former furnishes a learned description of the gem and its peculiar 
qualities, while the latter use the word to express a very high 
degree of hardness. 

Pliny (born A. D. 23), states that six species of adamas are 
known. Of these five are probably only minute flakes of gold 
contained in some other mineral. The last one, however, he men- 
tions as not occurring with gold, but found in India, in the form of 
crystals. From his description of the crystalline forms, the speci- 
mens he had under consideration might as well have been quartz 
as diamond. As he was acquainted with rock-crystal, however, 
_ and describes it elsewhere, we may conclude that he meant the 


1878. ] Diamonds. 421 


diamond. Pliny had a very thorough appreciation of its hardness, 
and repeats the fable then current, with reference thereto. He 
states that an adamas laid upon a new anvil, and struck with a 
new hammer, will shiver both, while the gem remains intact. 
Only by sprinkling it with the fresh blood of a male goat, can the 
excessive hardness be conquered. When the adamas is thus 
broken, however, it is shattered into innumerable small fragments 
so minute, indeed, that they can scarcely be seen with the naked 
eye. Bishop Albertus Magnus, of Southern Germany, in 1260, re- 
peats the same statement, and sententiously adds, that the blood 
of the animal became far more efficacious, if he had imbibed sour 
wine and eaten some parsley just before being killed. 

Owing to the rarity of the mineral this fable could be per- 
petuated for more than 1400 years, in countries far removed from 
those where the diamond was originally found. 

After expressing his surprise that so disagreeable an animal as 
the goat should have so great a power over this most precious 
Stone, Pliny states, that small splinters of diamond are set in iron 
holders, and used for the purposes of engraving and drilling. This 
shows a remarkable coincidence with the utterances of Jeremiah 
more than 600 years earlier. 

At the time of Charles the Great (768 to 814) diamonds were 
highly prized as ornaments, and ever since that time they have 
steadily advanced in demand until the present day. During the 
reign of Louis XIV, in France, diamonds were much sought after, 
and some were brought to light that are famous for their beauty 
even now. Having at that time made an enormous stride in the 
favor of all people admiring mineral ornaments, diamonds have 
since then maintained their position. To-day they are a staple 
article in the market, and although new discoveries may some- 
what affect their value, the demand is sufficiently great and con- 
stant to render them one of the most valuable among the precious 
stones. 

Of all the countries which have furnished diamonds, India has 
been known as a prolific source for the longest period of tite. 
Perhaps the most famous of all diamond fields there are the Gol- 
conda Mines. Thousands of people have found and many still do 
find employment there, although much of the wealth has already 
been exhausted. During the reign of Louis XIV, Tavernier 


visited the Orient to collect diamonds and precious stones for his o 


422 oo Diamonds. [July, 


king. At that time (about 1680) he found 60,000 persons en- 
gaged in searching for diamonds in the mines of Ellore, in India. 
Next to India in importance is South America. The mines in 
Brazil were opened in 1727, and the best of them are situated 
north of the Rio Janeiro. On the Rio Jequitinhonha and Rio 
Pardo the most remunerative fields are found. Other placiers 
have yielded very good diamonds, however. 

On Borneo, in the Ural Mountains, and in Australia, diamonds 
have been found. In the United States they have been collected 
at several localities, but only in comparatively isolated specimens. 
Diamonds have been obtained from North Carolina, Georgia, 
Virginia and California. The notorious occurrence of these pre- 
cious stones in what was termed the “Arizona diamond fields,” 
Situated in North-western Colorado, is probably still too fresh in 
the memory of everybody to require special mention. Diamonds 
were certainly found there, but, to use a popular phrase, “they 
had not grown there.” 

Recently discoveries of extensive diamond fields have been 
made in Africa. They are situated on and near the Orange and 
Vaal Rivers, and are being worked with energy. Although their 
discovery dates back but a comparatively short time, it appears 
that the existence of diamonds there was already known during 
the last century. According to Dr. J. W. Morton, the natives 
have for along time used diamonds from this locality to drill 
their stones, and eRe made periodical visits to replenish their 
supply of material. 

As is frequently the case, the present impetus in that region to 
mining operations was givén by the accidental discovery of a 
diamond. It was found in the hands of some children who were 
playing with the pretty pebble. 

Wherever diamonds are found, they occur in redeposited ma- 
terial. River-drift or boulder-clay may contain them. No matrix . 
for them has been recognized with certainty as yet, although it is 
claimed that the Itacolumite (flexible sandstone) of Brazil con- 
tains them. This assertion is scarcely proved, however, and even 
if it were so, this very Itacolumite is but the product of re- deposi- 
tion. It may be regarded as a significant fact, perhaps, that the 

localities of North Carolina and Georgia, where diamonds have 
_ been found, are not far removed from occurrences of flexible sand- 


. stone. In the South African diamond fields the gems are con- 


BS Pi gue ha i th ke eee 
Paci acs EEN oe ag tre: 


18 78.] Diamonds. : 423 


‘tained in a conglomeritic mass. . It is composed mainly of volcanic 
material, but has evidently been deposited by water. In its general, 


physical character it may be compared to the “blue cement” 
of California, which is auriferous. 

Of all these localities mentioned, India has produced by far 
the greatest number of celebrated diamonds. The largest 
diamond of which we have any knowledge, is mentioned by 
Tavernier. It was found in 1550, was in the possession of the 
Great Mogul at the time of Taverniers visit, and weighed 900 
carats (1 Parisian carat = 205.5™8":). The present “ Great Mo- 
gul” weighs 279 carats, and may be a portion of the original one. 

‘0-hii-noor.—Tavernier gives the weight of the original Ko-hi- 
noor (“ mountain of light”) as being 787% carats, but other re- 
ports place it a little higher. Weighing 18634 carats it came into 
the possession of the British crown, but was considerably reduced 
by cutting. Lately it has been recut, from rosette form to that 
of a brilliant, and now weighs only 106 carats. 

Orloff—The Orloff, weighing 19434 carats, is in the possession 
of the Russian crown. It was purchased by Katharine II, for 
450,000 silver roubles and 4000 roubles annuity. This diamond 
is cut in rosette-form. 

The Persian—In 1832 a diamond was found in the hut of a 
Persian peasant, by a traveler. It was there utilized for the pur- 
pose of striking fire. He purchased the stone and sold it ata 
high price. The weight of the “ Persian ” is 130 carats. 

In connection with these three diamonds a very interesting ob- 
servation was made by Mr. Tennant. The Ko-hi-noor, in its first 
cut, showed two natural planes of cleavage, the Orloff still shows 
one, and the Persian one. By reproducing as nearly as possible 


` the original shapes of these diamonds, it was found that they 


probably are three fragments of one very large one. The ag- 
gregate weight would be 510% carats. It is quite possible, 
therefore, that these three formed the original Ko-hi-noor, the 
pride of Eastern nations. Tavernier mentions the fact that it had 
been cut down from its original size, which might account for the 
difference in weight. Few, if any gems have so prominent a 


position in legendary history as the original Ko-hi-noor. More — 


than 5000 years ago the East Indian hero Kama, is said to have 


worn it in the “great war” (Maha Bharata). The discovery of 
the Persian led to the above results, as it was, toa certain extent, mee 


the incentive to the comparison. 


$ 


ly of the Napoleonids, who sold it to the Emperor of Russia for a 


. a a is cut in rosette shape. 


424 Diamonds. [July, 


Regent—By far the most beautiful diamond of the French 
treasury is the “ Regent” or “ Pitt.” From its original weight 
of 410 carats it has been cut down to 136 1%. Its absolute purity 
and the elegance of its cutting (brilliant) for a long time placed 
it highest in rank among all the known diamonds. Its earliest 
history is somewhat obscure. According to tradition a slave found 
it in 1702 in Golconda. In order to hide it from the eyes of his 
employers he wounded himself in the thigh and placed the huge 
diamond within the wound. Having confided the secret of his 
treasure to a sailor, he accompanied him to sea. The sailor, 
however, stole the diamond and threw the slave overboard. In 
England the sailor sold it for 1000 pounds, lived merrily until his 
money was all gone, and then hung himself. Louis XV. of 
France bought it for two and a half millions of francs ($500,000). 
During the French Revolution, September. 17, 1792, the crown 
diamonds were stolen, the Regent among them. Through the 
agency of an anonymous letter they were again discovered, hid- 
den in a ditch in the Champs Elyseés. Although the Regent and 
‘many others were thus recovered, some of the most valuable 
stones could not then be found, among them the Sançy. After that 
the French Republic placed it in pawn with a merchant in Berlin. 
Napoleon Bonaparte recovered it again and had it set into the 
hilt of his favorite sword. Since that time it has remained in 
possession of the French government. 

Sancy.—The Sancy first appears as the property of Charles of 
Burgundy. He lost the diamond in the battle of Nancy, 1477. Soon 
after this it came into the possession of Count Nicolas de Sancy. 
During 1589, Count de Sancy was in Switzerland, at a time when 
Henry III of France required securities for some loans he was 
then making. His loyal vassal immediately dispatched a trusted 

` servant with the Sancy diamond as an offering to his king. Noth- 
ing was heard of the servant for a long time. Investigations 
showed that he had been waylaid and murdered. As his last re- 
source, however, to save the property of his master he had swal- 
lowed the diamond, which was found after his body had been re- 
covered. Later it formed part of the crown-jewels and was stolen, 
together with the Regent in 1792. After having been lost to ob- 
servation for a long time the Sancy again reappeared in the fami- 


TEN 
PER ey a hPL tar eee RT Ee EE AE E 


ik ile eta a ase col wa a 


P z3 At a iE ETAREN 
in aii e a a aa aiara aa ee ne A e ae T S 


PAEA NEE ites 


half million francs, in 1830. This diamond weighs 53% carats 


ee 


1878. ] : Diamonds. 425 


Among the most prominent diamonds of earlier times are sev- 
eral that are noted for their color. 

Florentine Diamond —This stone is of a lemon-yellow color 
and weighs 133 3-5 carats. It was at one time the property of 
Charles of Burgundy, who wore it in his helmet. In the battle of 
Granson, on Neufchatel Lake, he lost it. A Swiss soldier picked 
it up and sold it to a priest. Pope Julius II. finally obtained it 
for 20,000 ducats, and eventually it was acquired by the,Austrian 
crown, where it is to-day. 

Dresden Diamond —A very handsome green diamond is owned 
by the Saxon crown, and is preserved in the Green Vaults at Dres- 
den. The color is a bright green with a bluish tinge; its weight 
31% carats. 

Hope Diamond. —Banker Hope, of Amsterdam, possesses a fine 
blue diamond of 4%.carats. It is cut in brilliant form, and close- 
ly resembles a deep blue sapphire in color. Formerly a blue 
diamond of 67 carats was among the crown-jewels of France, but 
it disappeared during the revolution. 

Within recent years the two largest diamonds have been found 
in Brazil and Africa respectively. 

Star of the South—This diamond was found in Brazil in 1853, 
bya negress. Its original weight was 247 y, carats, but by cutting 
it was reduced to 125 carats. The “Star of the South” has a 
slight pink tinge. 

Star of South Africa—About ten years ago this diamond was 
purchased from a native, and sold at once for 56,009 dollars. 

Cutting —It is evident that a large proportion of the value of 
a diamond depends upon the preparation it undergoes, in order to 
develop its beauty. No evidence is on hand to show that any 
of the ancient nations, East Indians and Chinese excepted, were 
acquainted with the art of diamond-cutting. From its very 
superior hardness, it is natural that it can be cut by no other 
material. In 1373 there was an association of “ diamond-pol-— 
ishers” at Nuremberg, in Germany, but not until 1456 was cut- 
ting and polishing carried on as an art. Louis van Berquen, in 
Holland, at that time proceeded to rub two diamonds together, 
and finally prseanes a gray surface. The French word equivalent 
to our “cutting” is “ égriser’””—to make gray—based upon the 


first experiments. For a long time Holland had the entire 


monopoly of cutting diamonds, but finally other nations entered ae 


426 | oo Diamonas. [July, 


into competition. In 1660, during the reign of Louis XIII, Car- 
dinal Mazarin had the first diamonds cut for the French crown. 
Within late years the machinery for cutting diamonds has been 
greatly improved, so that the Ko-hi-noor was re-cut in the space 
of thirty-eight days, while the cutting of the Regent had 
required two years. 

Two styles of cutting are employed in shaping the diamond, 
the rosette and the éri/éant. The foundation for the former is the 
number two multiplied by three, for the latter the number four. 
A complete rosette cut will cover the entire diamond with faces 
of equal, triangular shape, whiie the brilliant presents a flat sur- 
face, surrounded by facets and a deep pyramidal or conical 
body. Numerous combinations of faces are added to increase 
the action of refraction. As will readily be seen from the most usual 
forms of crystallization of smaller diamonds, the brilliant cut can 
be executed with the least loss of material. It certainly presents 
the stone to best advantage. 

Turning aside from the historical associations of the diamond, 
we have yet to consider its chemical and physical properties. 

Among all minerals the diamond is by far the hardest. Next 
to it are the various corundum species, ruby, sapphire and others. 
This alone, to a mineralogist, is sufficient to distinguish it. Its 
specific gravity is 3.5295, about the same as topaz. The index of 
refraction is 2.439. Expressing the power of refraction in a 
more tangible manner, we may say that if we have a glass lens 
of certain dimensions which magnifies five diameters, an equal 
lens of diamond would magnify eight diameters. Upon being 
rubbed the diamond exhibits vitreous electricity. By passing an 
electric spark over a diamond, the stone may be rendered phos- 
phorescent, and retains this quality fora short time. This fact, prob- 
ably, has given rise to the popular supposition that all diamonds 
must “shine” in the dark. When looking at a cut diamond it is 
a good plan to have a dark back-ground, as the brilliancy of the 
flash thereby becomes more prominent. 

Diamond crystallizes in the isometric system, and shows 

“numerous combinations. Most frequently occurring is the 
octahedron with many combinations. Dodecahedra are found 


simple and in combination. Perhaps no other mineral exhibits 
_ so many different forms belonging to the isometric system as this. 


ne. Twins and hemihedral crystals are frequently found. Char- 


Rea t 


1878. } Diamonds. ey 


acteristic of the diamond we may regard the curving of the 
crystalline faces. This occurs to so great a degree, that not 
unfrequently the specimens are nearly spherical. 

Physically, we may distinguish three varieties of diamond: the 
crystal, the carbon and the anthracitic diamond. As seen above, 
the specific gravity of diamond is 3.52, while that of carbon is 
3.01 to 3.40, and that of anthracitic diamond only 1.66. They 
show slight impurities, as compared with the crystals, but are 
chemically diamonds as also in their hardness. The: carbon is 
put to practical uses, on account of its comparatively low price and 
great hardness. Instead of being colorless it is black, or gray, 
translucent only in very thin slabs. / 

Chemically, the diamond is carbon. Ata high temperature it 
will burn, and be completely consumed, giving off carbonic acid 
gas. In an atmosphere. of pure oxygen it will burn on, if once 
ignited. Between carbon points of a heavy battery, the diamond 
will become spongy, and turn to coals. In 1694 the first experi- 
ments of burning it were made. This was accomplished by means 
of a very powerful lens, concentrating the sun’s rays. Much 
speculation became rife as to the behavior of diamonds under the 
action of great heat. Emperor Francis I, of Austria, conceived 
the brilliant idea of converting or melting a number of small 


_ diamonds together into one large one. In 1750 he placed a 


quantity of them, and some rubies, into a crucible, and subjected 
them to intense heat for twenty-four hours. After cooling, the 
rubies were found to be intact, but of the diamonds not a trace 
remained. Shortly before the French Revolution a Parisian 
jeweller asserted the possibility of exposing diamonds to a 
very high degree of heat without injuring them. He made 
his experiments before the famous chemist, Lavoisier. Maillard, 
the jeweller, had carefully surrounded his diamonds in the cruci- 
ble with pulverized charcoal, and they withstood the fire perfectly. 
So long as the oxygen of the atmosphere can be excluded, the 
diamond cannot burn, and the only harm that might befall it would 
be a cracking from the heat. This, however, occurs compara- 
tively rarely. Lavoisier, fully convinced by the demonstration, 
first offered a correct explanation of the phenomenon. 

Impurities in diamonds are partly of a physical, partly of a 
chemical nature. Among the former must be classed cracks and _ 
cavities. The latter generally manifest themselves in discoloration _ 


- 


428 Diamonds. [ July, 


unequally distributed. Yellow, green, brown and gray are the 
colors most frequently observed. According to Brewster, many 
of the diamonds showing cavities under the microscope afford 
evidence, upon polarization, of having been subjected to pressure 
near these cavities at the time the diamond was crystallized. 
Such cavities, and slight accumulations of coloring matter were 
at first erroneously designated as chlorophylloid substances. 
Yellow and brown diamonds owe their color probably to avery © 
minute percentage of hydrated ferric oxide. It is an expensive 
amusement to analyze a quantity of diamonds sufficiently great 
to determine this point, so we are forced to base an opinion upon 


other than analytical proof. In the beginning of the nineteenth 


century a Parisian jeweler heated a brown diamond for some 
time, and, upon taking it out of the crucible, found that it had 
burned pink. This color, however, only lasted for about ten days, 
when the stone turned brown again. Since that time the experi- 
ment has been repeatedly tried, often with the same result. The 
chemical action in this instance consisted simply in driving off 
the water, so that the iron was contained in the diamond as ferric 
oxide. This imparts a pink color. Upon exposure to ordinary 
atmosphere, the original hydrated ferric oxide was again formed. 

Green diamonds probably owe their color to an indefinitely small 
quantity of ferrous oxide. Whether the Dresden diamond is 


‘colored by the same material may remain an open question. The 


shade of green it exhibits is not one that would probably be pro- 
duced by ferrous oxide. Possibly some organic salt of iron may 
produce the effect of color. 

Gray diamonds usually owe their lack of transparency to the 
presence of innumerable microscopic cavities. 

What the coloring matter of the Hope diamond may be can 
scarcely more than be guessed at. From analogy we know that 
certain salts of iron, organic matter and cobalt produce the same 
color. Which of these it is will most likely remain a secret. Ata 
venture, the salts of iron might seem the most probable, consider- 
ing the uniformity of coloring and the shade of the blue. 

Regarding the formation of diamonds much has been said and 


written, and many- well-conceived experiments have been made. 


More than any other agent, heat has been employed to reproduce 


i, : these treasures of nature’s laboratory. Thus far all experiments 
have failed to attain any available result. Some of the most emi- 


1878. ] Diamonds. 429 


nent chemists of the present century have expressed the opinion 
that diamonds owe their genesis not to the action of heat, but to 
an organic process. Newton, when studying the optical quali- 
ties of diamond, came to the conclusion that it must be a 
“coagulated oil.’ By means of electricity very minute crystals 
of carbon have been obtained, but all efforts to reach greater 
size have been baffled. Liebig regarded the formation of dia- 
mond as the result of organic decomposition. Though this view 
may not be perfectly tenable, it commends itself to the poetical 
mind from its allusion to the rejuvenated phcenix rising from his 
own ashes. With an ever-increasing knowledge of chemistry 
and the constant improvement of mechanical appliances, we may 
yet, some day, be able to produce diamonds that will compare 
favorably with those fashioned by the skillful hand of nature. 

Practical uses of Diamonds—Dependent upon its physical 
properties, the diamond is put to various uses. Perhaps the most 
prominent is that of drilling. The comparitive cheapness of “ car- 
bon” makes it possible to utilize this material for such purposes. 
Diamonds with sharp, crystallized edges are used for cutting glass 
and small fragments, and splinters are used to arm graver’s tools. 
Dust is employed in cutting other stones as well as the diamond 
itself. Wherever a substance of very great hardness is required, 
diamond answers best. On account of its high power of refrac- 
tion, diamond-lenses were formerly prepared, for the use of very- 
high power instruments. The application of diamonds for purposes 
of personal or artistic ornamentation, may perhaps be considered 
a practical one in a certain sense. For such use the total absence 
of color and the high degrees of refraction and dispersion of light, 
place the diamond in the most prominent position among all 
precious stones. : 

Imitations —1It is natural that a stone so valuable as the diamond 
should frequently be imitated. Pastes are manufactured to-day, 
which only a very experienced eye can detect as frauds Admix- 
tures of lead and, recently, thallium, impart to paste a high angle 
of refraction, thus producing “flashing” effect very near that of 
the diamond. Colorless quartz crystals and topaz are frequently — 
cut and are destined to simulate diamonds. Zircon, if heated for 
a short time, turns colorless from a bright blood-red, and is cut. 
This too, in smaller settings supplies the place of the diamond. 


Quartz and Zircon-can readily be detected by the difference of — of 


Specific gravity. The former is 2.65, the latter 4.30, while poe 


430 : Diamonds. [July, 3 


diamond is 3.52. Besides the specific gravity the hardness will | 
be decisive, both can be scratched by topaz. Topaz is more 
difficult to distinguish. Its specific gravity is 3.40 to 3.65, very 
near that of the diamond. In this instance, as well as in those 
of quartz and Zircon, an optical test is the most convenient. In 
1858, the Brazilian ambassador Lisboa, presented a “diamond ” at 
the court of Vienna. It had been admirably cut in Paris, and 
weighed 819 carats. By experts it was valued at more than fifty 
millions of francs. One of the mineralogists called in consulta- 
tion applied a very simple optical test, and found the stone to bea 
topaz. He placed a lighted candle upon a table, walked about 12 
to 15 feet away from it, and looked at the light through the 
diamond, which he held close to his eye. In every facet two 
little flames appeared side by side. As only those crystals have 
single refraction, which belong to the isometric system (in which 
_ the diamond crystallizes) the specimen under question, having 
double refraction, could not possibly have been a diamond. When 
looking in this manner at a candle, the diamond, as well as the 
paste will show but a single flame in each cut face. Paste can 
readily be distinguished by its inferior hardness, as opar will 
scratch it. 

Price —The price of diamonds is one that fluctuates, jeeni 
upon the demand and supply. Within certain limits it may be 
regarded as definite, but when the value of very large stones is to 
be estimated, the same rules for its determination cannot be fol- 
lowed. Diamonds are usually separated into three classes, and 
they are termed as being “first water,” &c. Besides these three, 
there is the boart and carbon. These two latter varieties are 
utilized for purposes of cutting, sawing, drilling, &c. They are 
sold by the carat as other diamonds. One carat of carbon costs 
-about 6 dollars. 

Diamonds used for purposes of ornamentation advance very 
rapidly in price as their size increases. If, for instance, one carat 
should cost 100 dollars, six carats will not cost 6 x 100 dollars, 
but 6 x 6 x 100 or 3600 dollars. This rule does not apply to 
inferior stones, but is followed, within certain limits, in determin- 
ing the value of the best class of diamonds. 

Independent of its high price, however, which is always a 


= recommendation to the favor of civilized man, and woman too, 
-~ the diamond will ever hold its own prominent position, on account 


7 its (em intrinsic value. . 


1878. ] Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 431 


MOUND-MAKING ANTS OF THE ALLEGHENIES 


BY REV. HENRY C. MCCOOK. 


poke following notes are substantially extracts from an article 
printed in the Transactions of the American Entomological 
Society.) They relate to the familiar mound-making ants which 
inhabit the mountain regions of the Atlantic States, An 
Pennsylvania. These are insects in form s 
as represented in the accompanying fig- 
ures, the head and thorax being of a fal- 
low or reddish color, the abdomen a 
glossy black. There are three forms of 
workers, the major, minor and dwarf, by 
whom the entire external economy of 
the formicary, and for the most part the — 
internal also, is conducted. The females — 
closely resemble the workers-major, but yy, 1. Worker: Major, The 
are larger, more robust, and in the virgin Jines beneath the latter figure 
state are winged. The males are winged, show the natural length of the 
are smaller than the ` females, from ‘ee worker forms. 
whom they are further readily distinguished by the smaller head, 
an additional segment to the abdomen and the different form of 
the same. In the original paper these ants are referred to as 
Formica rufa, the name which they bear (identified by Frederick 
Smith, of the British Museum) in the collection of the Entomo- 
logical Society. They very closely resemble these ants, but on 
the authority of Dr. Auguste Forel, the author of the “ Swiss 
‘Ants” (Les Fourmis de la Swisse), to whom specimens were sent, 
they are referred to in the following notes as Formica exsectoides 
Forel, a new American ally of F. exsecta. Their habits do- 
not greatly differ from those of F. rufa of Europe, but are nearly 
if not quite identical with those of Z. exsecta. 
It is further premised that the observations given below 
were made while, encamped in the midst of a colony, or “ant 
city,” of more than 1600 nests, situated upon the eastern slope of 
Brush mountain, Pennsylvania. These nests are conical eleva- — 
tions of various sizes, the largest measured being fifty-eight feet _ 
around the base, twenty-four feet over the top, and forty-two 


1 Vol. VI, 1877, p. 253, sqq. The entire pare is published ee by John a l À 
A. Black, 1334 Eu ie Phila Paes 


432 Mound-Making Auts of the Alleghentes. [July, 


inches in height. The mode of building the hills, which are 
honey-combed with regularly placed tubular galleries, is as fol- 
lows. The mason work was greatly stimulated by a shower of 


Fic. 2. Female. Fic. 3. Male. 
rain, and was indeed scarcely observed (beyond excavations of 
the underground galleries) before the rain-fall. 
building Galleries —1, Fig. 4 represents a covered way or gallery 
six inches long, which started on the foundation three or four 
inches below the surface of the field, and rose up toward the half- 


Pe 
Fic. 4.—Covered Galleries.—1, horizontal gallery; 2, vertical gallery. 


cone at an angle a little less than 45°. When first seen it was an 
open gallery or ditch, and was observed until it was entirely cov- 


1878. | Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 433 


ered over except one door or round hole near the top. The 
work progressed by the continuous addition of earth pellets 
to the outer edge. The pellets were carried in the mandibles of 
the ants, and were usually pressed into position. The springing 
of the arch was plainly seen, the two sides slowly approaching 
each other in irregular lines as shown at aa. Gradually two 
points drew nearer and nearer, until they well-nigh touched. It 
was quite exciting to watch now the delicate manipulation of the 
architects. Here comes a worker with pellet of larger.size; she 
climbs the arch, reaches over, holding the while by her hind 
feet, and drops the ball of soil into the breach. The bridge is 
made. And now with surprising rapidity it is widened until the 
roof of the arch assumes the appearance indicated at 6 4. Circu- 
lar openings or doors are habitually left in the work, through 
which the ants are moving back and forth, apparently working 
upon the inside to strengthen the arch. As sections of the build- 
ing are completed these doors are closed, so that they are 
plainly but temporary arrangements for the convenience of the 
masons. 

On other parts of the foundation similar structures were going 
up. At 2, Fig. 4, was a section of a vertical column, one side of 
which had been cut away. It was two inches high, and one inch 
across. The ants were working upon this in the same manner as 
described above. They built not only from the bottom up, but 
from the sides across. The central opening in the figure was 

finally closed, leaving, when the work ended, the opening at the 
foot of the column. The circular gallery thus enclosed was one- 
half inch in diameter, which is about the usual dimensions. The 
work of construction was not confined to the space which, as in 
the above cases, was the original site of the cone. Having occa- 
sion to lift up a fragment half the size of one’s head, which had 
been thrown to one side, I saw that the section had already been 
made the nucleus of a new mound. Columns, corridors and 
halls, corresponding closely with those outlined upon the under 
face of the fragment, had been erected, which were thus quite 
united to the fragment. In one of the halls was a small collec- 
tion of dead ants. The greater portion of one day was spént in 
studying and recording the work upon this one hill. Other draw- 
ings were made from different positions, but the method and 
result were the same. As the activity occasioned by the shower 


434 Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. [July, 


continued for the remainder of our stay, I had full opportunity by 
Sa observations to verify my notes. 

Fig. 5 is another example of architecture drawn from the same 
broken hill. The figure represents a double gallery which was 
built up against the perpendicular side H of a hole cut by the 
spade in removing the cone. The gallery æ a a was carried along 
the base of the side three inches, and then upwards toward the 
surface. The gallery was widened at two points, c c, to one and 
a half inches, as though intended to serve as store-rooms for 
cocoons. Galleries opening downward communicated with these 
enlargements. At ¢ ants were arranging pellets along a projec- 
tion on the side, for what purpose was not apparent. 

My attention was next directed to a large hill, which with its 
surrounding hill-cluster was on my regular “ list.’ I took this 
plan of keeping several hills under regular, daily, and indeed 
for much of the time hourly observation, for the obvious reason 
that thus I could become “acquainted” with the workers, 
could trace the work done, and confirm or condemn previous 
conclusions as the case might be. In this hill a track had been 
made by one of a herd of cattle grazing in the field. The foot of 
the steer had left an irregular depression measuring nine inches 
each way, in depth eight to nine inches, the lower margin being 
six inches from the base of the hill. 


Fic. 5 TERPS a porri gallery a a a, and chambers ¢ c c. 
Engineering —The lower part of this track is shown at Fig. ©, 


A 
re 
3 
ag 
a 


1878. ] Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 435 


in order to exhibit what seems very much like a deliberate and 
well planned system of engineering, in filling up the hole. The 
drawing is one-half natural size. At A, a, the original hill is 
shown, marking the southern limit of the foot-print. The work 
of filling up against this had begun. From the lower point A, 
marking the outline of an arc, were the following works: 4, a 
circular column one inch high, from the upper base of which, a 
broad bifurcated plateau was being extended; next to this was an 
oblong mound c, one-half inch high, and beyond that, marking 
the opposite limit of the track, a lunette d, one inch high. Beyond 
this, toward the base of the hill, and parallel with the arc å, c, d, 
was thrown an arc of like but smaller lunettes z, 7,2 At e and f, 
were lunettes similar to d, and at g, a scolloped mound. These 
elevations, with that at 4, &, surrounded the cavern 4, which was 
the deepest part of the cattle-track. The plan of operations is 
very plain; from the little raised columns and mounds figured 
above, the work of covering in could proceed with the greatest 
advantage. The elevations 4, c, d, were evidently guaged by the 
height of the edge of the hill at A, thus marking the depth of the 
track on that line. The diminishing depth was met by a corres- 
ponding lowering of the lunettes f, 2, 7, and at other points in the 
excavation the same facts held good. 


terre ee ey 
9 L men, ri 
Ma f ee Nor a a "melo 

cs ie cc i e 


: Fic. 6.—Engineering work ; filling up a break. 
The above operations began on Saturday morning; on Monday 
Morning the cavity was two thirds filled. Very strangely the 
work did not connect with the face of the break towards the sum- 


VOL. XII.-—No, VII, 31 


goo Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. [July, 


mit of the hill, but a deep trench or gallery had been preserved 
all the way across, the wall being maintained intact. Nor was 
there any appearance here of the formation of the galleries above 
described ; it was dead filling in. In one of the little hollows the 
shells of cocoons, out of which antlings had just been delivered, 
were piled up, apparently to assist in the filling. I had before 
observed these being carried from this hill and deposited on the 
stones outside. A number of straws were worked into the 
columns, evidently as'braces. A few feet from this large mound 
was a small hill, one of its off shoots, which even before the rain 
had shown much activity in construction, for the surface was cov- 
ered with fresh pellets. The shower had inspired the inmates of 
this young community with amazing zeal. 

Underground Galleries —Thus far we have been dealing with that 
part of the formicary which is above ground and is apparently 
the most considerable. There is, however, a hidden portion which 
is immense in extent, and must have vast importance in the 
economy of the community. Every hill furnishes a fair measure of 
the extent of the underground system of galleries connected there- 
with; for it is reasonably certain that the entire bulk of soil in 
each mound has been excavated and brought up from the galler- 
ies beneath the surface. The average width of the upper galler- 
ies is about three-eighths of an inch; the maximum width not 
exceeding one-half inch. The underground galleries are proba- 
bly of the same size. A glance at these mounds, therefore, at once 
gives indication that an extraordinary system of subterraneous gal- 
leries must be connected with each formicary, though I made no 
satisfactory examination into the arrangement of this system ; this 
might have been done, perhaps, by sinking a deep trench close 
to a mound and extending it for some distance. But the soil is so 
very full of stones that even thus the results might not be satisfac- 
tory. No doubt the ants descend to considerable depths, utilizing 
the stones in various ways, for example for roofs and walls, as 
they do upon the surface. It would hardly seem possible to pre- 
serve any great regularity in the course of these underground 
ways which must constantly be diverted by the stones. But they 
undoubtedly can be held to a general course, and are carried with 
great directness from point to point, when it is desired to commu- 
nicate with the trees and feeding places. I was able in one case 


to trace the extent of the galleries near the surface in the follow- ; 


: 


 1878.] Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 437 


ing way. Tapping upon a hill whose inmates were ina particu- 
larly “ nervous ” condition, the ants issued in excited hordes not 
only from the doors of the mound, but from various points on the 
surrounding surface. Taking a principal centre of excitement, 
four or five feet distant, a stone underneath which was an entrance 
to the galleries, I again agitated the ground. The ants as before 
issued from the surrounding surface, chiefly upon a line run- 
ning eastward, up the slope. At the limit of excitement, which 
was something less than before, I once more agitated the stones 
and earth with like results. Thus I traced this surface gallery 
eastward about 60 ft., where the excitement under the above treat- 
ment ceased at an oak tree. I am satisfied that as a rule the cen- 
tral formicary or hill communicates with the trees which serve for . 
feeding grounds, by galleries as long as or much longer than this. 

Adding Stories —On the east and west sides of the hill, several 
inches from the top, deep fissures had been cut, looking like sun 
cracks, the lower edges of which were being built up, and the up- 
per bent over. An additional story was thus being added to the 
cone. Here grass-straws were strewn over the summit, and others 
which I threw upon the’ hill were dragged into place and utilized 
with skill. This story was well nigh completed by Monday morn- 
ing. The building was carried forward (and such was the case on 
the large hill and on others observed), by erecting warts or small 
cones upon the surface and around the openings or doors of the 
galleries, and filling between them. I could trace the evident 
outlines of galleries laid out. . 

Entrances or Doors.—The principal entrances to the formicary 
are at the foot of the hill, They are commonly placed around 
the entire circumference of the mound, and are arranged in two, 
three, or more circular rows, one above another. At certain points 
where, apparently, there is need of an especial vomitory, the gates 
are much multiplied. Besides these, there are openings at irregu- 
lar intervals upon the entire surface of the cone. These are not 
numerous, but sufficiently so to allow easy approach to and exit 
from the more elevated portions of the mound. The main depend- 
ence appears to be upon the lower gateways. It would seem, at- 
first thought, that there could be no real necessity for so many 
doors; but one who has witnessed the rapidity with which the 
myriads of workers swarm upon the surface when their nest is 


attacked will at once perceive the economy of these numerous a 


438 Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. [July, 


gates. The doors are simply the surface openings of the galleries 
with which they correspond in size. 

_ Huber declares it to be one of the fixed habits of the fallow ant 
(F. rufa), of Switzerland, to close the gallery-doors ‘at night and 
re-open them in the morning. The most careful attention could 
discover no such behavior among the ants at Camp Riddle. At 
no time during the whole week was there observed any sign of 
attempt to close up the galleries. Even during the heavy storm 
of rain referred to, the doors which were closely examined at 
various hours of the night, remained open. It would have been 
more satisfactory could an observation have been made during a 
fall of rain in the day time, but I have little doubt on this point, 
. and none at-all on the ordinary night-condition of the doors. 
This is certainly a remarkable variation in habit. It may possibly 
be accounted for by the presence in Switzerland of some nocturnal 
enemy, from which the American congeners are free. 

Before taking up in detail the life habits of our mound builders, 
a comparison and contrast may be allowed which may give a 
popular illustration of the immense labors of the fallow ant. I 
have calculated the cubic contents of one of the largest hills to 
be, in round numbers, two millions of cubic inches. Let us 
estimate the bulk of an ant equal to that of a cylinder three- 
eighths of an inch high and one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter at 
the base. We have thirty-five one hundred thousandths of a cubic 
inch as the bulk of a single ant, or two thousand eight hundred and 
sixty insects to the solid inch. The size of the builder is there- 
fore to the size of the edifice as one to fifty-eight thousand millions, 
Let us compare this with a corresponding estimate of the work 
of man (taking his bulk at four cubic feet), as wrought upon the 
great pyramid, reckoned to contain two hundred and seventy-six 
millions of cubic feet. 
Man’s bulk to his building is as 1: 69 millions. 
The Ant’s Et a u fedo T 


The figures are given roundly, without strict verification ; they 


show vastly in favor of the mechanical energy and industry of the . 


insect, if such comparisons may be allowed to show any thing, 
which is perhaps doubtful. They may serve however to impress 
some minds more vividly than other methods, with the immense 
= activity which marks the wonderful realm of insect life. The 

-~ advantage is yet more striking when the period of time consumed 


SO 


ER 


1878. | Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. . 439 


in erecting an adult hill, from 3 to 7 years, is compared with 
the thirty years which one hundred thousand men spent in build- 
ing the pyramid. Moreover, as will also appear, the superstruc- 
ture or hill, is by no means the whole of the formicary. A vast 
system of subterraneous galleries penetrates the earth to unknown 
depths and distances, requiring labors which in magnitude may 
well be compared with those which excavated the catacombs of 
Rome. 


Sentinels—I observed on the tree-paths a movement that had the 
appearance of some policy of police. Workers, with the normal 
round black abdomen, were scattered at intervals along the trunk. 
They did not seem to belong to the line of ascending foragers, 
but rather to be stationary, as though they were sentinels or 
policemen. They were active in challenging with their antennz 
the repletes who were on the return, and were quick to resent any 
interference made by intruding a finger or straw upon the path. 
This statement is made with reservation, as I was not able fully to 
Satisfy myself that the facts revealed a fixed habit. The point, 

owever, is well worthy of future investigation. There is at least 
a probability, from analagous habits of the ant, that the individ- 
uals referred to above were indeed sentinels as their behaviour in- 
dicated. It is a well established fact, in the economy of ant hills, 
that’ sentinels are posted at or near entrances, and common ave- 
nues of approach. I satisfied myself of this by very many observa- 
tions and experiments, which it is not necessary to relate in detail. 
It will suffice to say that on every occasion of approach of any 
object to a hill or entrance, workers instantly sprang upon the 
surface. These sentries were constantly seen lurking just inside 
the gallery doors, whence they issued with every mark of intense 
vigilance and excitement the moment a finger was intruded or the 
Smallest object dropped near them. Frequently they patrolled the 
Vicinity of the gates. They attacked every intruder with the ut- 
Most promptness and intrepidity. It gave subject for great won- 
der to note the rapidity with which an alarm was communicated — 
throughout a large hill. Two hills in particular, whose inhabi- 
tants were for several days in a condition of high nervous excite- 
ment, attracted attention. Standing a yard or more from the base, 
I would agitate with my foot a stone which evidently had com- 


munication with the interior of the mound. There was scarcely 


an appreciable interval of time ere the whole surface of the cone- 


440 . Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghentes. [July, 


was covered with insects. The black and red masses whirled in in- 
distinguishable mazes, producing a very perceptible buzzing sound 
by their rapid movements. Even for several feet beyond the hill, 
on the opposite side, the excitement extended, and was manifest 
with almost equal rapidity. 

Tree-paths.—The word tree-path, as used above, perhaps needs 
a briefexplanation. It was observed that the ants ascending and de- 
scending the trees invariably kept to a beaten track, two or more 
inches in width. In many cases this track or tree-path was stained, 
the entire length of the trunk, a brownish-yellow color, caused 
doubtless by the formic acid which the ants secrete. The position 
of these tree-paths is determined by the situation of the hill to 
whose domain the tree belongs, for each community has its own 
special feeding grounds upon which intrusion is rarely if ever 
made. The tree-path is located habitually upon that part of the 
trunk which directly faces the hill. This was verified by observa- 
tions upon a very great number of trees. 

Winter Habits—There are several inferences, more or less con- 
clusive, concerning the winter economy of the fallow ant which 
we may draw from the facts. First, the ants dwell within their 
formicaries during winter, and make no attempt to modify the 
surface surroundings. Second, the vast majority of the com- 
munity, together with the fertile queens, larvae and cocoons oc- 
cupy the underground galleries. This appears from the fact that 
but one young queen and comparatively few workers of the 
various classes were found in the hill galleries. Third, the com- 
position of the mounds is such as to ensure, in the central parts, 
a good degree of protection against ordinarily severe winters for 
the few ants that occupy them. Fourth, the vitality of the ants 
is sufficient to keep them active within the hills during all ordi- 
nary seasons. Fifth, it is yet more evident that the occupants of 
the underground galleries are not torpid during ordinary winters, 
if ever, but exist in a state of considerable activity. Finally, it 
would appear that the ants are able to spend the winter in the 
active state without regular and ordinary supplies of food. 

I do not advance this last opinion with any great degree of 
confidence. The mysteries of the underground galleries still veil 
the facts that would solve the question completely. But all the 
known facts point to the above inference. I had thought that 

the tufts of grass which grow upon many hills, and which evi- 


1878. ] Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 441 


dently grow at the ants’ consent, might be preserved, not only to 
_ strengthen the architecture, but to furnish at their roots sustenance 

for aphides. Accordingly, at a visit made October 26, 1876, a 
cold, snowy day, I carefully searched for aphides upon the roots of 
the grass, but found none. Mr. Kay’s search was equally fruitless. 
The roaches found in such numbers by Mr. Kay, and also by 
myself, are doubtless simply squatters upon the emmet territory. 
However, it. must be considered as still unsettled whether our 
mountain mound-builders feed during winter, and if so, what are 
the sources of their food supply. 

Beetles—The possibility that the beetles, certain species of 
which are well known to frequent the nests of ants, might be in 
some way concerned in this interesting query, did not escape my 
attention. But I was never so fortunate as to take any beetles 
in the hills either during the summer or fall visit. This was 
doubtless chiefly owing to my ignorance at that time of the size 
and appearance of the insects, and the best mode of capturing 
them. I hope at another visit to remedy this deficiency. Dr. 
_ Horn informs me that the spring is the best season to search for 

these domesticated beetles. Among the ants collected in mid- 
winter by Mr. Kay, and sent to me as specimens, I found one 
beetle, It is a small insect, about one-tenth of an inch in length, 
of a dark claret-brown color, quite closely resembling in this re- 
spect the ants among whom it dwells. It is determined by Dr. 
Horn as Zimesiphoris costalis LeConte, and belongs to the, Clavi- 
geridæ. The discovery of this beetle in midwinter, together with 
the fact that the beetles are found in abundance with the ants in 
early spring, show these insects to be closely connected with the 
winter life of the ants, if not with their winter food supply. 

Dr. John L. LeConte, so widely distinguished for his thorough 


knowledge of the Coleoptera, has shown me the following species 


collected by himself from ants’ nests. Two of these, taken from 


formicaries of our Allegheny Mountain mound-builders, I have. 


been permitted to figure. They are drawn in order simply to 
give a general idea of their appearance, and not for systematic 
description. The most interesting of these is perhaps Fig. 7, 
1, Atemeles cava LeConte, which, like the Clavigerida, is fur- 
nished with tufts of hollow, hair-like tubes, on the sides of the 


abdomen. From these tufts a sweet secretion exudes, upon - : 
which the ants feed, as upon the honey-dew of the aphides. 


. 


442 _  Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. [July, 


A, cava is a brown-colored insect, about one-fifth of an inch in 
length. Specimens were found with fallow ants in Columbia 
Co., Pa.; in Michigan, Maryland and 
Illinois. Those from Illinois were found 
in nests of F. rufa (?) in large numbers. 
One of the ants taken with the beetle 
still holds in its mandibles, firmly clasped 
a even in death. one of these household 
Fic. 7.—Beetles found in nests treasures. The other specimens figured 
of F. Exsectoides. No. 1, Ateme- are destitute of the hair-like tufts, and 
tes cava LeConte. No. 2, Cedius probably serve simply as scavengers, 
Ziegleri LeConte. . - tee 
or are permitted to remain as “ squat- 
ters” in the formicary, for some purpose, the economy of 
which is unknown. Cedius ziegleri LeConte, Fig. 10, 2, was 
taken in a hill of F. exsectoides at Bedford, Pa. It has short elytra, 
the color is brown, the length is one-tenth of an inch. On each of 
the first pair of legs are two spines, one situated (apparently) at 
the base of the femur, the other on the trochanter. The remain- 
ing specimens were also taken at Bedford, Pa., and are an un- 
described species of Homalota, and an unnamed species of 
Oxypoda. They are small brownish insects, with a slight pubes- 
cence. 


Lepidopterous larve with Ants—I introduce here as bearing 
upon the general matter of ant-food, and the relation of ants to 
myrmecophilous insects, the following observation. During the 
early summer of 1877, I had frequent opportunity to note the 
habits of a large colony of black, shining ants, Formica fusca, 
whose formicary is established at the edge of a grove on the 
farm of Mr. George B. Lownes, Delaware Co., Pa., nine miles 
from Philadelphia. The ants were found scattered through the 
woods, within a circuit of many rods from the nest. June 18th, 
I observed a column of these ants ascending a young wild-cherry 
tree, near which grew several tall stalks of the black snake-root 
er bug-bane, Cimicifuga racemosa. While watching the ascend- 
ing column I noticed an ant moving upon the round blossoms 
of this plant. Attracted by some peculiarity in its movements I 
_ fixed my attention upon it, and saw it to be in attendance upon 4 


oe small green grub about one-half inch long, which proved to be 
= the larva of a butterfly, probably some species of Lycænidæ. The 
ae se lower segments of the abdomen were continually gently stroked 


en aR OE eee ee ye ee age eee ye St ee ee er a 


Tis St ae pe Oy phe ee, aR OR RS al ts te ene ot ge eae ee ee 


1878. | Mound Making Ants of the Alleghenies. 443 


by the antennz, in the familiar manner of ants when soliciting 
honey-dew from aphides. This novel behavior was of such in- 
terest that I placed the ant under close continuous observation 
for more than two hours. During this time the strokes were re- 
peatedly interrupted by short excursions up or down the plant, 
the ant always returning and renewing the solicitation. The ant 
always occupied a position below the grub, and directed her 
strokes toward the head, which, however, generally fell upon the 
lower part of the body. The larva did not remain stationary, 
but several times moved its position, slowly creeping around the 
stem. I ceased observation at noon, and returned to the grove at 
4P.M. The grub was in about the same position, and was at- 
tended by the same (or another) ant which was accompanied by a 
companion. The same behavior observed in the morning was 
continued until 5 P. M., when I captured ants and grub and took 
them home. A number of the same larvæ in different stages of 
growth were found on the same plant in various parts of the 
grove, I was only able to observe that the -ant continued to 
attend the grub under confinement just as in the woods. But 
preparations for a journey to Texas, compelled me to suspend 
observations. Although satisfied that the object of the ants was to 
secure some kind of refreshment from the larve, I was not able- 
to note any secretion on the grub, or anything like the actual 
taking of food by the ant, although the mouth organs were ap- 
plied to the last segments. 

A casual mention of my discovery was the means of opening 
communication with W. H. Edwards, well known for his valuable 
works upon the Lepidoptera, who later in the summer (as I infer), 
had observed the same fact. In comparing notes it was found 
that the larva observed by him in West Virginia, was also of the 
Lyczenidze (Lycena pseudargiolus), and that it was domiciled upon 
the same plant (Cimicifuga racemosa). Two species of ants were 
-~ Seen attending the larva, one of which was sent to me and proves 
to be identical with the European Prenolepis nitens Mayr. Mr. 
Edwards kindly communicated to me the details of his own ob- 
servations, which he has since given to the public in the Canadian 
Entomologist. As examined by me under the microscope, the _ 
larvae prove to be possessed of organs upon the upper part of the 
last segments, apparently designed or fitted for the exudation of S 
some fluid. Mr. Edwards also directed my attention toa paper 


444 Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies. [July, 


by M. Guenée, in the “ Annales de la Société Entomologique de 
France,” Ser. iv, tome 7, 1867, pp. 665—668, which I have con- 
sulted. The paper is brief but exceedingly interesting, and gives 
a full description, illustrated by figures, of organs found upon 
the eleventh segment of the larva of the butterfly (Lycena 
betica), whose protrusion from two openings near the ninth 


and last pair of stigmata, was observed, and the action’ 


_ and organ figured and described. At the summit of the tenth 
segment the author found another single opening, placed trans- 
versely, and surrounded by a projecting border around which the 
granulations which cover the whole body of the larva are especi- 
ally massed. Out of this sort of button-hole, and at the middle, 
rises, at the will of the grub, a species of hemispherical, transpar- 
ent vesicle, which gives passage to a serous liquid sufficiently 
abundant to form a large drop, which is reproduced whenever it 
is removed. The larva does not secrete this liquid except when dis- 
turbed, imitating in this respect the Cucullia and many other larve 
which disgorge at the mouth a colored liquid, with the intention, 
doubtless, of repelling those who molest them. M. Guenèe ven- 
tures no opinion as to the economy of this exceptional structure. 
_ But, his description throws great light upon the behavior of the 
_ants as recorded above There can be little doubt that the gath- 
ering of a serous liquid, like that observed by M. Guenée, upon 
Lycena’ betica, was the object of the attendance of the ants of 
Formica fusca upon the Lycænid larva as observed by myself. 
This larva (in alcohol) was placed in Dr. Leidy’s hands for ex- 
amination, under the microscope. He found on 
each side of the two (or three) last segments, on the 
dorsal surface, a prominent, circular, brown- colored 
glandular looking body, with a central depression. 
These glands were quite distinct from the spiracles, 
which are not represented in. the accompanying 


situated upon one side of the terminal segments. 
Pic.8. Gl a h ts are here 
ison Cévminal ee is possible that the last three segments a s 
segments of Ly- represented, the last (twelfth) being contracte 
cenid larva, at- Dr, Leidy found no opening at the summit of the 


tended by Formica tenth or other segment, corresponding with the: 


fusca. 


button-hole-like secretory gland described by 


cut. Fig. 8 shows the appearance of these glands ° 


S 4 — ee above facts are = of very great interest, and sai < : 


1878. ] The Smallest Insect Known. 445 


prove to be another important factor in solving questions concern- 
ing the food supply of ants under both ordinary and extraordi- 
nary circumstances. Mr. Edwards is now pushing his observations 
upon the Spring larve of this butterfly, assisted by the micro- 
scopic skill of Prof. J. Gibbons Hunt, M. D., of Philadelphia. 


O: 


THE SMALLEST INSECT KNOWN (PTERATOMUS 
PUTNAMII). 


BY HON. J. D. COX. 


{hag minute size of this species, which is said to be the smallest 

insect known, is probably the reason why it has been so little 
observed, and will justify a somewhat detailed description of a 
Specimen which was caught and mounted in balsam last July. 

was examining the scissor-like mandibles of a leaf-cutter bee 
(Megachile centuncularis), when I noticed upon the surface of the 
water in which the larger insect was dissected, a mere mite which 
_ Seemed to have life. Upon transferring it to a smaller cell of water 
and putting it under the microscope, it proved to be one of the 
most beautiful little creatures of the insect world, and a rarity 
which made it no ordinary prize. 

Whilst it was not difficult to identify it as the Preratomus Put- 
nami from Prof. Packard’s description in the “Guide to the 
Study of Insects,” it was also evident that the specimen which the 
Professor had before him in making his drawing and description, 
had been injured, and shorn of some of its parts, and that some- 
thing might be added to our knowledge by putting the “ winged 


_. atom” in shape for permanent preservation. 


The first suggestion as to method was acted upon at a venture, 
and it turned out a rather lucky hit. A clean slide and cover, 
and the soft balsam were at hand. Her littleness was taken 
` carefully on the point of a needle, dried against a bit of blotting 
Paper, immersed in a drop of balsam and the cover put on, leavipg 
the arrangement and display of the parts almost wholly to the 
effects of capillary attraction. 

The cut is from an accurate tracing by means of the camera, 
- and except as to the position of the wings, will give at once a 
Correct idea of the little creature. The wings were forced some- 
what out of place in the mounting, but with the aid of: the binoc- 


446 The Smallest Insect Known. [ July, 


ular microscope there was no great difficulty in seeing the proper 
connection and natural places of the parts. 5 

The body was found by micrometer to be twelve thousandths of - 
an inch in length, the antennæ, twenty thousandths. The head is 
comparatively large and plump, the longitudinal diameter being 
to the transverse as eight to five. The compound eyes when 


PEN E S LEPI ee MT EEAS 


nd a Ge Sj h. m E d 
TE S E E PE EEEN N ne A 


g 


seen in outline show eleven facets in section from front to rear; | 
they are of a bright brownish-red color. Three ocelli or stem- 
mata are seen on the top of the head, the middle one lunate in 
shape with concave side toward the front. These are separated 
from the forehead by a bow-shaped band having alternately dark 
and light divisions. The under side of the head with the mouth 
parts are shown at B in the woodcut, and these last are exceed- : 
ingly minute. All that can be clearly made out are two curved 
and pointed mandibles with faint traces of mouth opening, butno 
projecting ligula or proboscis. 

The antennz are very slender, consisting of ten joints, of which 
the first curves outward, with a distinct tooth on the inner side 
near the upper end; the second is oval, being only half the 
length of the others and broader; the remaining joints do not 
seem to be perfectly round, but rather four-sided, with points oF 
teeth at the upper end of all except the last, which terminates 1n 
a tapering tip. 

The thorax is the largest part of the body, equaling in bulk 
the head and abdomen together. The prothorax, mesothorax _ 
and metathorax are nearly equal in size, as may be seen bythe f 
= divisions of the back which are shown i in the figure. 


1878. ] The Smallest Insect Kuown. 447 


The wings are linear, of sigmoid curvature, with three or more 
longitudinal lines of minute hairs on the faces, and fringed at the 
edge with comparatively long ones, which have a black medulla 
or pith in the greater part of their length, but the inrier part, next 
the body of the wing, is so transparent as to be hardly visible, 
and gives to the fringe the appearance of being separated from 
the wing, though with high magnification the hairs can be traced 
through their entire length. In mounting this specimen the 
wings of the left side were partly torn from their place and re- 
versed, so that the foreswing is that which is seen in the figure 
nearest the rear of the body, and the hind wing is that which ap- 
pears to have its socket nearest the head of the insect. Their 
proper origin is in fact at a, whilst at 4, careful examination shows 
a slight projection or shoulder on the fore wing where a corres- 
ponding part marked 4’ on the hind wing articulates with it when 
both are in proper position. 

The legs are nearly as long in proportion to the body as those 
of the common mosquito. The tarsi are five-jointed. The tibial 
spurs are large and strongly developed on the fore legs, as shown 
at c and c’ in figure, and opposite them on the first joint of the 
tarsus the fringe of hairs is very noticeable, which is sometimes 
called the “ comb” in larger insects. The tibial spurs are insig- 
nificant on the other legs. The foot-pads or pu/villt, with the claws 
are so minute as to be scarcely distinguishable even under a power 
of four hundred diameters. 

The abdomen is pediceled, and is very short and obtuse, its 
longitudinal diameter being. rather less than its transverse. It is 
So opaque that the rings can only be well seen at the edge where 
they appear as in section, and where they have a pronounced ap- 
pearance of being telescoped, the edges passing beyond each other 
as if the abdomen had been flattened in the direction of its length. 
I should have thought this an accidental condition of the present — 
Specimen, but for the fact that Prof. Packard found it the same in 
the one described by him. Five rings can be distinctly made 
out, with the probability of a sixth, and perhaps a seventh. 
Upon the under side of the abdomen a long spike-shaped ovipos- 
itor is seen, whose form and dimensions are shown in the second 
outline of the abdomen at C in the figure. 

This description of the Pteratomus, of which all the parts have 
been carefully verified, corroborates collaterally the opinion of 


448 The Robin's Food. [July, 


Prof. Packard, as to its abitat as a probable egg-parasite upon the 
Megachile or pon another parasite of this bee, and agrees with 
the measurement he made of its size and the description of such 
parts as his probably damaged specimen enabled him to deter- 
mine, except in an important particular of the wings. In the 
example before me I find the wings entire, not fissured. This 
would have induced doubts as to the species had not Prof. Packard 
himself seen this specimen and concurred with me as to its iden- 
tity. - 

It is not improbable that the dissection of other leaf-cutter bees 
in water, might lead to the washing off and securing of other 
specimens of this minutest of Hymenoptera, and the beauty of 
the little insect itself, with its rarity, would well repay the natural- 
ist for some pains in adding it to his collection. 


:O: 


THE ROBIN’S FOOD. 


BY DAVID ALEXANDER LYLE. 


N the morning of May 28th, of last year (1877), I found a 


robin’s ( Turdus migratorius) nest, about 27 feet from the ground, 


ina fir tree. It was placed on horizontal twigs near the top. The 
materials of this nest were the dried blades and roots of grasses. 
` A string over four feet long was found looped around one of the 
limbs on which the nest was built, but no part of its length was in- 
corporated in the structure. Notwithstanding the protestations of 
the old birds, I took the ugly-looking ‘thrushlet from the nest and 
carried it home, with the intention of rearing it to maturity if 
possible. I procured a large rectangular wire cage, in which, 
with all due tenderness, I installed my foundling. I furnished 
him plentifully with stores of boiled eggs and mashed potatoes, 
mixed as prescribed by those paragons of female character who 
are self-constituted authorities upon the subject of avian cuisine, 
I placed conveniently for his use a bath of pure water, and also 
filled his water-cup. Yet, in the midst of all these delicate atten- 
tions, my baby bird steadfastly maintained an air of utter indiffer- 
ence. He neither ate nor drank, but sat, all drawn up on the bot- 
tom of the cage, giving vent to an occasional weak chirp. I 
tried to make him eat by taking little pieces of bread and hard- 
boiled egg in my fingers and approaching them to his bill after 


Be SSP E A Oe TEA EAS T E ERNE BT Pe 


` ; 
1878.] The Robin's Food. 449 


the manner of the old bird, but to no purpose, his mandibles 
seemed to be hermetically sealed. 

Finding all attempts to coax this ec Aa l bird to eat in 
vain, I concluded to forego moral suasion, and try what virtue 
there was in physical coercion. I opened his mandibles and put 
small pieces of bread, potatoes and boiled egg so far down his throat 
that he had to swallow them. I quenched his thirst in a similar 
‘manner by pouring a few drops of water at a time into his pharynx. 
This treatment revived the patient somewhat, but did not give 
entire satisfaction; I then began feeding him on raw beefsteak 
three times a day, morning, noon and night, ‘giving him bread 
and egg in the intervals. 

The effect was magical, his eyes brightened, his chirping 
became loud and vigorous, he would hop about briskly, and con- 
tinually attempted to get out of the cage between the wires. I 
found that after eating he became very wild and would not allow — 
my hand to approach him. 

He soon learned to open his mouth to receive the food I 
offered, and henceforth gave no trouble in feeding. I next began 
to feed him with common earth worms, permitting him to eat 
nothing else for two or three days. He would eat until his crop 
could contain no more, then he would retire to his perch, draw 
down his neck as if suffering, close his eyes, drop his wings a 
little, and sit perfectly still for about fifteen or twenty minutes. 
At the end of that time he had digested the worms sufficiently to 
be ready for another meal. A strictly vermicular diet did not 
seem to agree well with him, it apparently acted as a laxa- 


tive. I then alternated between raw beefsteak and earth worms, 


and found that when he could get beefsteak he would refuse the 
worms. It being the proper season for June beetles, and as they 
were easily collected in great numbers, I tried this species as a 
food, and learned with pleasure that he preferred them to any- 
thing else. 

Forthwith I procured a wide-necked pickle bottle, and every 
night had a quantity collected for his daily rations. Henceforth, as 
long as these Coleoptera could be found in sufficient numbers, 
they were his sole food. 

When they were given him alive he would seize them with his 
bill, and by vigorous shaking and pounding upon the bottom of — 
his cage, would kill them and remove the elytra before DERT 


"450 The Robin's Food. [ July, 
them. The delay necessitated by these operations made the time 
of feeding very long and tedious. When I puta live beetle down 
his throat he would swallow it, but would exhibit such evident 
signs of distress that I decided that this process was cruel and 
unnecessary. I then found that by excision of the prothorax 
and the removal of the elytra that the operation of feeding was 
much facilitated. When the beetles were treated in this manner, 
he would eat from eight to fifteen as fast as I could prepare them. 
After this he would take a few sips of water and return to his 
perch, lapse into silence,.close his eyes and remain motionless for 
about fifteen minutes, when he would suddenly become very 
active and sprightly, hopping about the cage and chirping with 
much animation. I soon learned that this activity indicated that 
_ he was ready for another supply of bugs if offered to him. 
From the date of his retention upon an exclusively coleopter- 
-ous bill-of-fare the change was marvelous. His feathers grew 
rapidly, he increased in size and cheerfulness, he became more 
‘tractable and would allow himself to be petted and handled; but 
unless he was pressed by hunger he would not touch an earth 
worm. His mental faculties—if such they may be called—also 
developed rapidly. He would recognize me in the distance as I 
approached and would fly to the end of the cage nearest me, 
calling out in an eager excited note, and would try to get through 
the wires of the cage. 

He seemed to know that he was about to be fed, when he saw 
the bottle with its store of beetles, and would scream with delight 
when I approached with it in my hand. 

After I had given him three or four he would mount his perch 
and wait until I could prepare another, all the while watching the 
operation with evident interest. He would throw back his head 
and open his mandibles to their fullest extent to receive the prof- 
fered beetle from my fingers. His appetite knew no bounds. I 
was astonished at his voracity. Every day he consumed from 
forty to fifty of the large beetles commonly known as “June 
bugs.” One morning at seven o'clock I gave him fifteen; I 
returned from the office at 12 o’clock, and from that time until 
sunset that evening I fed him all he could eat. During this time 
he disposed of seventy-two of the large beetles! I have no 
doubt if I had fed him during the morning he would have eaten 
a hundred! 


1878. ] The Robin's Food. 451 


By the second week in July the supply of “June bugs” 
becoming scarce, I had to seek some new edible for my charge. 
As cherries were abundant I fed him upon this delectable fruit; 
when hungry he would eat them greedily, but they did not 


_ Seem to appease his appetite, and were speedily rejected when a 


few Coleoptera or a piece of raw steak appeared in sight. When- 
ever supplied with beef or his proper insect food, fruit was inva- 
tiably discarded. Raw mutton and veal were next added to this 
bill-of-fare, he cared for neither, and the latter produced the same 
effect upon his digestive apparatus as did earth worms. 

Diurnal and nocturnal Lepidoptera were swallowed with appa- 
rent zest, but it was impossible to procure enough of them to 
Satisfy his hunger. Every day I had to eke out his subsistence 
with beef. On the 25th of July I concluded to set him free, 
and accordingly, after giving him a small meal of raw beef, I 
opened the door of his prison and let him go out. He did not 
go far from the house, but flew around from tree to tree and 
upon the roof; busying himself catching flies and what small 
Coleoptera he could find. He evidently made poor progress 
catering for himself, for about twelve o'clock he flew into the 
piazza, perched upon the balustrade and appeared very hungry. 
My wife got a piece of meat and he instantly flew to her, perch- 
ing upon her shoulder as if imploring something to eat. She 
placed him in his cage once more, and until August 7th he was 
not allowed egress. From that date until August 25th he was 
allowed to spend every day out doors; he always returned to- 
ward evening for his beefsteak and was put back in the cage. 
Although other robins were in the vicinity he evinced no desire 
to go with them. I noticed, however, that every day he was out 
he became more timid and appeared to be gradually regaining 
his feral nature. During the early part of August I collected 
great numbers of grasshoppers, of which he appeared very fond. 
The number of Orthoptera he would devour in a day was simply 
astonishing. He now appeared to be fully grown. — 

. August 25th was a damp, cloudy day, with frequent light 
Showers, He was let out of the cage at the usual time, about 
eight o'clock, and was not seen again. Whether he had been 


frightened off to some distance and did not know the way back — 


Or whether he had concluded to trust his chances in-the “ wide, 
Wide world,” I never knew. 


VOL, X1I—No vit. 32 


452 The Robin's Food. [July, 


I observed that when at large and hungry, this robin would eat 
flies, moths, ants and worms, but never seemed to be able to ob- 
tain enough to satiate his inordinate appetite. 

When I found my search for beetles so poorly rewarded, I 
directed my attention to observations upon the feral members of - 
the genus Turdus, to learn, if possible, whether or not their ex- 
ertions were more fruitful. I found that they had about as much 
difficulty in procuring a livelihood as I had for my feathered 
ward. I also noticed that they were only- frugivorous when 
driven by hunger and the lack of an adequate supply of insects. 
That robins were strictly insectivorous as long as the supply was 
equal to the demand, and that they did not like Colorado beetles 
as an article of food. And, lastly, for every cherry or grape. 
they ate, they destroyed thousands of injurious insects. 

In the Armory grounds twenty-three pairs of robins were 
known to be nesting in one month. And since the young robin 
whose gastronomical feats have been narrated above, was found 
capable of eating seventy-two large beetles in one day, it is not 
unreasonable to assume that each bird would destroy at least 
one hundred insects per day, taking them as they come, small and 
large. Therefore, the forty-six birds known to feed on these grounds 
and vicinity, would require 4600 insects per diem, or in thirty. 
days they would despatch the large number of 138,000 insects! 
This quantity at first glance may seem to be a very large. esti- 
mate, but when it is remembered that each pair had a nest con- 
taining from one to four young which required food, and that 
have not been included in the above, it will be apparent, that it is 

rather an under than an over-estimate. 

Taking into consideration the rapid, and in many species mar- 
velous reproduction and increase of insect life, it will be seen 
that robins must exercise a considerable influence upon the ento- 
mological world, by preventing an undue increase of those species 
upon which they feed. When driven by hunger, and then only, 
in the opinion of the present writer, do these beautiful, sprightly 
birds attack our small fruits, 

Upon a small cherry tree near my house, to which these birds 
had undisturbed access, only about one cherry in twenty was 
found to be molested. Even had the loss been greater, how small 
would it be in comparison to the myriads of noxious insects 
destroyed annually by these feathered guardians alone. Still, we 


1878.] ` The Runners of Erythronium Americanum. 453 


hear the crack of the gun wielded by the wanton hands of 
thoughtless boys and ignorant men, which announces to our ears 
the painful fact that another of our most useful friends has been 
murdered. It is none the less murder, because it is called “sport.” 
It is to be hoped that the efforts of our naturalists will event- 
ually be successful in rendering apparent to our law makers the 
necessity for more stringent protective laws with provisions for 
the sure and speedy punishment of the avicide. 
~——10: 
THE RUNNERS OF ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM. 
BY EDWARD POTTS. 
HE botanist or amateur flower collector who wanders at this 
season of the year (early in May) along the woodland stream or 
loamy hillside, can hardly fail to observe numerous colorless stems, 
forming, as it were, little loops three or four inches in length, on or 
near the ground, both ends being buried beneath the surface. If 
his curiosity should lead to a closer examination, he will find 
that while one end is firmly rooted, the other yields readily to his 
effort to withdraw it, and proves to be, not a root, as he may 
have at first supposed, but a stem, smooth and of uniform 
diameter, excepting at the end, where it enlarges into an oval 
knob, which, later in the season, is further developed as a true 
bulb, and ultimately planted by the growth force of this slender 
stem at the depth of three or four inches in the loose wood- 
mould. If he should trace the same stem backward, carefully 
loosening the earth to avoid breaking it, he would find that it had 
its origin with two or three others, in the lower extremity of a 
similar bulb, pear-shaped, somewhat flattened, perhaps one-half an 
inch long by one-quarter in thickness, to the upper end of which 
may still cling a single withered leaf. Should he visit the same 
locality a few weeks later, he will find that leaf and stems have 
both disappeared and that the little bulb he saw in the process of 
being planted by such a deft and delicate finger has thrown out 
a radiating group of roots from zear the lower end and, showing 
no other signs of growth, has evidently settled itself to await the 
developments of another Springtime. 

A whole year is a long time for our botanist to wait the solu- 
tion of his problem as to genus and species ; so we will anticipate 
the result of his observations next year. The April sun will 
hardly have begun to warm the south fronting hillsides, ere our — 


454 Mode of Extrication of the American Silk-Worm Moth. [July, 


sleeping bulb will waken and reach up into the moist spring air 
a single glossy leaf, spotted or blotched all over with spaces of 
darker shade, which he will then recognize, or any child could 
tell him, is the sterile condition of his misnamed though favorite 
Dog Tooth Violet (Erythronium Americanum). 

Soon after the leaf has fully developed, spreading forth its rich 
juices to the influence of sun and air, three or four stolons or 
runners, such as already described, will protrude at the lower 
extremity of the bulb, and, promptly turning upwards, will be 
seen bursting through the surface of the ground, reaching up an 
inch or two into the air and then in a wavering, uncertain way 
burying themselves again in the earth to plant the bulb that shall 
repeat the same process next year. 

As is well known, in its single leaf condition this plant never 
blooms. In this second year of its existence, therefore, the bulb 
cannot have fulfilled its whole mission; if, and we admit it to 
be an assumption not proven, the law of nature would give to 
every individual at least the chance to reproduce itself by means 
of perfected seed. By the “rd year, then, we presume the bulb 
will have attained the strength necessary to enable it to send up 
two leaves and a flower stalk and become what it should have 
been called, a lily indeed, with its pendulous golden bell. 

In the lily family, propagation by means of lateral or axillary 
bulbs (as a compensation, perhaps, for the frequent failure to 
perfect their seeds) is familiar to every one; but I cannot find 
that these partially aerial runners of the Beythroniom, by which 
it projects its bulbs sometimes to the distance of a foot from the 
parent plant, have been previously noticed. It may be well to 
add that these’ observations refer especially to one locality in 
what is known as Sweet Briar Glen, Fairmount Park, Philadel- 
phia; that the mode of propagation described, is the universal 
habit of the plant, the writer is not prepared to assert. 


:0: 
THE MODE OF EXTRICATION OF THE AMERICAN 
SILK-WORM MOTH. 

BY D. C. MCLAREN. 
HORTLY after reading Dr, Packard’s article in the June num- 
ber of the “ NATURALIST,” it was the writer’s good fortune to 
observe the entire process of extrication in the case of a large and 

fine male specimen of Telea Polyphemus. 


1878.] Mode of Extrication of the American Silk-Worm Moth. 455 


My attention was attracted by a rustling in my box of cocoons. 
The noise was traced to a cocoon which had been nearly flattened 
out during its previous sojourn in my coat-tail pocket, and whose 
development was, therefore, a surprise. I carefully cut an open- 
ing about a half an inch long, and a quarter wide on the top of 
the cocoon. The same method, I afterwards found, was employed 
by Mr. Trouvelot. I did not cut the flap entirely off, but left it 
so that the cocoon could be opened and closed at pleasure. All 
the motions of the chrysalis could be distinctly seen and studied. 
The back of the pupa had just begun to split. The positions of 
the “cocoon-cutters” were plainly marked by a pair of black 
protuberances on the shoulders. The end of the cocoon was 
well moistened. 

The first motion was up and down. The chrysalis resting on 
its head and tail, arched its body so that the middle of the ab- 
domen was thrust upwards. The object of this seemed to me to 
be the loosening of the moth from the pupa skin. This motion 
lasted about an hour, at the end of which the second motion be- 
gan; this consisted of a rotatory movement. Now, for the first 
time, the head was pressed against the end of the cocoon. The 
gloss was rubbed off of the moistened portion, and the strands of 
silk much loosened by this boring process. Both these motions 
were accompanied by a slight rustling, largely due, I think, to 
the crackling of the cast-off larva skin. 

All the preparations for exit having thus been made, the re- 
maining steps were quickly taken. The body of the moth came 
to rest, its wings were drawn up from their cases by a shrugging 
of the shoulders, if I may use the expression, which describes the 
motion exactly. The shoulders were then drawn together as 
nearly as possible, and, while pressing against the cocoon, thrust 
apart with considerable violence. A tearing sound was now 
heard, entirely different from any which had preceded it. The 
cocoon-cutters, though not visible from my “ coign of vantage,” - 
could be distinctly felt through the wet cocoon. Turning a little, 
the operation was repeated. After several repetitions, a weak 
spot was found, where the cutters were forced through. The 
small opening was quickly enlarged, the back of the thorax and 
the shoulders were thrust through, followed by the head, antenne 
and fore-legs, in the order named. The remainder of the task 
was readily accomplished, and the perfect insect emerged two © 
hours from the beginning of my observations. | 2 


aso Moqui Food-Preparations. [July, 


I am by no means positive that the silk was actually broken 
by the cutters. It may have only been pushed aside. Without 
the aid of these little instruments, however, it is difficult to see 
how our moth could have forced its way through the prison 
walls of its own construction. It was a noticeable fact that the 
legs took no part in the process of extrication, but remained 
folded inactive on the breast. The cocoon-cutters might easily 
have escaped the notice of one not expecting their appearance, or, 
if seen, they might readily be mistaken for legs, by one who did 
not know of their existence. 

The moth was much longer than usual in developing its wings, 
so that the period assigned for this extrication may be above the 
average. 


— 0 ' i 
MOQUI FOOD-PREPARATIONS. 
BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 


A hase pee-kee (piki) or Moqui bread is a thin tissuey substance of 

a greenish-blue color; the sheets measure about two feet by 
a foot and a half, and are usually folded twice, at right angles. 
The successive bundles or horizontal layers resemble, more 
than anything else, piles of blue silk of a coarse texture. This 
fiki is brittle and very palatable, but a great quantity is required 
to satisfy one’s hunger. 

The flour or meal, of which the giki is made, is usually 
ground by.the women. The mills consist, in almost every in- 
stance, of three stone boxes, probably a foot and a half square, 
and about eight inches in depth. In each compartment is a 
smooth stone, fitting the bottom, but inclined from the back to the 
front. Behind each of these mills (mzetates) a woman, by means 
of a long grinding stone, rubs the grain which is placed on 
the mefate. The grinders are usually a foot in length, four or 
five inches in width and an inch or two in thickness. The corn 
flour, or “ ngum-ni,” as it is ‘called, is of two qualities; the pink 
or bluish, and the white. The corn raised by these people scarcely 
grows to the height of two feet and the ears are short and small, the 
grains being either white, or red and blue, somewhat resembling 
that which we call here Mexican or pop-corn. The white corn is 
converted into a white flour, which compares favorably with our 
finest brands of corn meal; the red and blue corn is ground into 
-~ a coarser powder, of a pinkish tint, for ordinary use. From this 


1878. | Moqui Food-Preparations. 457 


latter the pik is generally made, although it is occasionally made 
of the white, and, in fact, is produced of every intermediate shade 
of color. In all of the houses, I noticed large quantities.of corn, 
dried and stowed away like cord wood, or hung from the rafters 
in great bundles. This precaution is taken in order to prepare 
for a famine, as the ordinary means of subsistence of the Moquis 
is precarious at best. Being an industrious race, they are, as a 
consequence, provident, so that in time of long protracted drought 
their-supplies of corn, dried fruits, vegetables and meats would be 
ample to carry them safely through the siege. 

The labor of making piki falls to the women, and is indeed a 
singular process. The female, after grinding the meal, mixes it 
with water in a large earthen bowl, when a thin blue paste is ob- 
tained. Into this is sprinkled a small quantity of cedar ash. The 
baker then sits or kneels before a stone oven, with the vessel con- 
taining the batter by her side. The oven consists of a large, flat, 
polished stone slab, some two feet long, a foot and a half wide and 
three or four inches thick, placed horizontally and raised a few 
inches from the floor. Under this a fire is kindled, and when the 
stone becomes hot it is ready for use. First it is greased, and 
then the woman dips her hand into the substance and smears it 
rapidly over the entire surface of the stone in a thin layer. Ina 
few seconds this is peeled off and placed ona corn-husk mat. 
When a number of these sheets have been baked, and while they 
are yet warm and pliable, they are folded together twice and con- 
stitute a loaf. Many of these loaves are made at one baking, and 
when they are finished are placed on a shelf, ready for use. I have 
observed one woman make as many as a dozen heaping baskets 
of piki in a short time. In eating it, pieces are broken off with 
the hand, as it is two brittle to cut. It has a peculiar taste, 
although the corn flavor is prominent, and a relish for it is soon, 
if not immediately, acquired. Another food preparation which is 
made by this interesting tribe, is a mixture or hash of dried fruits, 
chopped meal and straw, which is formed into little flat, circular 
cakes, four or five inches in diameter, and these are then placed 
on-the roof to dry. This toom-e-loch-e-nee (tum-i-lak-i-ni) is the 
most repulsive looking conglomeration conceivable. 

During the summer, pumpkins and melons are cut up and 
dried, which, when used, are said to be pleasant to the taste. 

One evening I had the opportunity of attending a Moqui repast, 


458 Recent Literature. [July, “3 
: i 


having been invited by the cacique or governor of the town of Gualpi. 
As soon as we had ascended to the roof of the first story of the 
house, we were directed to be seated on robes, and forming a cir- 
cle with our legs tucked under us, Turk-fashion, a huge earthen 
bowl of dried pumpkin soup was placed before us. Into this, 
each of us thrust the first two fingers of either hand, in turn, 
and raised it to our mouths. The second course consisted of the 
piki, which was followed by dried fruits and meats. 

The manner in which corn is sometimes served is an excellent 
one. When in the milk, it is cut down raw and the pulp made 
into little cakes and rolled up in the husks. This is then either 
boiled or placed in the ashes to roast, but in either form it is par- 
ticularly agreeable. In every house we entered, we were treated 
in a most hospitable manner. The Moqui bread was invariably 
set before us, after robes had been spread for us to sit upon. 


:0! 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


JORDAN’ s MANUAL OF THE VERTEBRATA!—This work fills a 
unique place in our educational and scientific literature, and our 
formerly published anticipation that a new edition would soon be 
called for, is now realized. It is simply the only book which can 
be used by the teacher or scholar in imparting or acquiring a 
knowledge of perhaps the most important branch of biology, as 
represented in the north-eastern quarter of the United, States. It 
does not aim to do more than furnish a basis for the simple recog- 
nition of the species of the Vertebrata of this region, together 
with the groups of all ranks into which they naturally fall. In 
this effort the author is mainly successful. The definitions are 
concise, and generally exclude all but essential features. This is 
a merit not to be lightly overlooked, in view of the proneness on 
the part of many writers to mingle the non-essential with the 
essential, and to produce a prolixity very confusing to the student. 
Of course, where the author adopts names which do not represent 
things or ideas—which in some instances he does, in deference to 
authority, we suppose—definition is impossible. In these, and in 
some others where there is some practical difficulty in the obser- 
vation of the true characters, definitions of a trivial nature are 
employed. We allude especially to such generic definitions as 
consist of qualities of color and size; characters which are essen- 
ea specific, and must always be so. This has been done in 

nual T the Peiris = the e n dige States, east of the meeenga i 
river aa north of North C na and Tennessee, exclusive of Marine species. 
Sg D. S. aca 8vo, i poy Chicks Toni McClurg & Co. 2d n 


ease ia eS te a ae oat Ee is tb 
y nae cers 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 459 


some families of the birds where the genera have been too greatly 
multiplied; e. g., in the Stigide, Icteride, Fringilhde, Hirundin- 
ide, Corvide, Tyrannide, Ardeide, Anatide, etc. As a model o 
really diagnostic analysis we refer to that of the Falconide (p. 
110), where the divisions, whether all generic or not, receive the 
characters which belong to them in the system. 

The most valuable part of the book is that relating to the 


fishes, where the ichthyologist, as well as the beginner, can 


obtain important information. Prof. Jordan’s origińal work having 
been chiefly in this field, where he has added materially to the 
science, we have here the latest results as to species and genera, 
and their distribution. This work is, then, the only apes 


incompetency of amateur writers has been especially displayed in 
the literature of this popular genus. Fifty-three nominal species 


_ are here reduced to seventeen, the reduction being greatest in the 


Pacific coast salmon, where Suckley wrought such confusion. 
We are also glad to see those myths, Salmo confinis, S. symmetrica, 
S. toma and S. adirondacus finally laid. We wish we could say 
the same for the barbaro i 
Salmones. Such names as “gorbuscha,” “ nerka” and “keta” 
should have a very good diagnostic basis to admit them to tolera- 
tion. A similar synopsis of the species of Coregonus follows, 
These are referred to four genera, a proceeding, as appears to us. 
not warranted by the facts. 

We recommend this work to teachers and students of North 
American zodlogy as a sine gua non in this department. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHIL- 
ADELPHIA, September to December, 1877——This number forms 


as follows: List of members, correspondents and officers, 4 
pages; indices 18 pages ; reports of officers 69 pages ; short verbal 


A. Ryder, of the relation existing between the structures and 
uses of the incisor teeth of rodents. The list of contributors of 
papers during the year 1877, includes twenty-two names, of whom 
seven are resident members of the Academy, and four of whom 
appear to have based their work on specimens in the museum of 
the Academy. 

A novel feature introduced into the proceedings during the last 
few years, has been the “Report of the President.” An annual 
President’s address, which gives a review of the progress 
Science during the year, is a usual feature of the publications 


* 


* 


460 Recent Literature. [July, 


of scientific bodies, but the present “ Report” consists chiefly of 
a discussion of the financial condition of the society, a duty which 


is usually left to the treasurer to perform. As to its subject mat- 


ter, we have to observe that little or nothing is said respecting the 
fostering of scientific research, in any practical way ; but money 
is asked for, to be expended in erecting a new building, and in 
payment of persons to catalogue the books and to label and 
catalogue the specimens in the museum. No notice is taken of the 
comparatively inconsiderable additions to the museum during the 
year, as indicated by the reports, nor of the fact that the determi- 
nation and labeling of the specimens has been mostly confided 
to persons having little or no knowledge of the necessary depart- 
ments of natural science. The president remarks: “ Promptly 
mounting, labeling, and displaying specimens in the museum as 
fast as presented, can no longer be safely confided to volunteer 
and gratuitous labor alone. There is constant occupation for two 
or more experts for whom a reasonable compensation is essen- 
tial.” There is a zaïveté in these expressions which is sur- 
prising as coming from a president of what was once the most 
efficient scientific body in this country. The supposition that 
specimens in any department of natural science which has not 


been thoroughly exhausted, can be “promptly mounted, labeled `. 


and displayed,” could scarcely be entertained by the humblest 
student of science; and the expectation that even “experts” 
would pursue scientific research for the purpose of “ displaying 
specimens in the museum as soon as presented,” shows that the 
president of the academy is in a state of Jamentable ignorance 
as to the real object of its existence. The idea that it is a show 
museum, appears to have entirely excluded the true view of its 
founders, and of all of the scientists who have built it up, viz: 
that it is an institution of original research. With this fact in 
view one can understand how the “volunteer and gratuitous 
labor” of its scientific members cannot be “safely confided” 
in, and how the places of such members have been supplied by 
employés who maké no pretensions to scientific knowledge or 
reputation. 

It also explains how the only moneys available for the payment 
of salaries, have been devoted to the employment of such persons, 
while tens, nay, fifties of promising young students or mature 
men of science throughout the country, who are struggling with 

overty, would consider such positions as placing within their 
reach the realization of their highest aspirations. 

In view of these facts the President’s remarks on the subject of 
Professorships (p. 324) impress us as inconsistent. e is prima- 
rily in error in stating that one of the objects of such an officer 


= would be to give “ systematic courses of instruction,” .if by this, 


complete courses such as are required by our schools, is meant. 


The object had in view by the proposers of this part of the organ- 


+ 


N Se see 


4 
; 


i 
, 


1878.] Recent Literature. 461 


ization was simply to offer to those meritorious scientists who 
were performing volunteer labor in connection with the Institu- 
tion, positions which would enable them, each in his department, 
to develop his science, and at the same time the collections and 
publications of the Academy. Endowment, while very desirable, 
was not regarded as more indispensable now than in the past, 
which had been adorned by numerous able volunteer laborers. 
The fact that the expenses a little exceed the receipts in the case 
of the single gentleman appointed to a professorship, does not 
demonstrate, as the President thinks, that the scheme as adopted 
two years ago, cannot be realized; for his conclusion is at least 
forgetful of the gentlemen who subscribed the small deficit. 

To the latter class, the liberal citizens on whom progress so 
much depends, we would say :—that if the Academy is to oc- 
cupy the position as a means of development of the natural 
sciences which she ought to hold, it will not be by the adoption of 
the policy maintained in this report. The results of that policy, 
as seen in the collections and publications of the Academy, are , 
sufficiently well known. Endowment of original research does 
not mean creation and maintainance of show museums, or the 


building of fine houses. It can only be accomplished by putting 


right men in their right places, and furnishing them with the 
means of making the requisite collections, researches and publi- 
cations. And in order that these means be expended in profit- 
able directions, scientific institutions must be officered by scien- 
tific men. To pay salaries to unscientific men to do scientific 
work, or to pay for the publication of such reports as go to make 
up the bulk of the volume before us, is, in our estimation, a diver- 
sion of money from its proper object. 


THE Ancient LIFE History OF THE EARTH, BY Dr. NICHOL- 
sON.— This book is, as stated by its author, primarily intended 
for the student, but the style has been adapted as far as possible, 
to the wants of the general reader also. While the former object 
is quite attainable in a work like the present, the latter is more 
difficult of accomplishment. Popular paleontology implies a 
greater knowledge of zodlogy than the general reader usually 
possesses, and the subject can only be rendered intelligible by a 
greater amount of zodlogical analysis or statement, than 
we find in the present work. The excellent illustrations given by 
Dr. Nicholson do a great deal towards rendering the names in 
the text comprehensible to the reader of this class. The general 
remarks, both preparatory and final, are sound, and the references 
to the literature of the subject extend the opportunities of the 
student beyond the field to which the work is necessarily con- 
fined. We only notice two faults, viz: the omission of the strati- 


14 comprehensive outline of the principles and leading facts of Paleontological —— 
By H. AL of. Na i po 


Science. y 


. ALLYNE NICHOLSON, Prof. Nat. Hist. Univ., St. Andrews. D 
Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 408. s , 


462 Recent Literature. [July, 


graphy of the interior of the North American continent ; and the 
adoption of some of the pseudonyms of American vertebrate 
fossils, which have latterly become current in some quarters. 
Such are Dinoceras and Brontotherium, which it is well known in 
this country have never been distinguished as genera from the 
old Uintatherium and Menodus. 


MATERIAL FOR A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN MAM- 
MALS. — This work covers 132 pages of closely printed quarto of 
the series of final reports of the Hayden Survey. It includes 
references, by page and date, to all works and papers, large and 
small, which relate to the Mammalia of North America, both 
recent and extinct. Such a work as this, if well prepared, must 
be, it is easily perceived, most invaluable to the student in this 
extensive department, as well as to all persons desiring access to 
any part of it. After a critical examination of its contents we can 
say that it fully justifies the reputation of its authors for fullness 
of research and accuracy of statement. Its arrangement is well 
calculated to meet the needs of the student. The first division 
includes general works; the second, those on faunz and distri- 
bution. Then follow the orders of the class, each constituting a 
division; and papers received or discovered during the compila- ` 
tion of the preceding part of the work, complete it. In the case 
of extinct vertebrata, lists of species described in the respective 
papers are given, which is an obvious convenience; while the 
arrangement is chronological. The date of publication is usually 
given to the day, but a few omissions in this regard are noticeable. 

e recommend this work as an index to the subject of Mammal- 
ogy, which no student can be without. 


Kino’s GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF THE FORTIETH PAR- 
ALLEL.—The second and fourth volumes, and atlas of geological 

aps of this important Survey, have lately appeared from the 
office of the United States Engineers, War Department. 1877. 
Volume ii. is entitled Descriptive Geology, by Arnold Hague and 
5 F mons. It is illustrated by twenty-six photographs of 
the more remarkable scenery along the Union and Central Pacific 
Railroads, from Wyoming and Colorado to the Sierra Nevada, 
and is of particular value as giving a detailed description of the 
geology of a region often visited by travelers and scientists, while 
the work will eventually prove of great economic importance. 

The fourth volume contains, Part i., Palæontology, by F. B. 
Meek; Part ii., Palæontology, by James Hall and R. P. Whitfield ; 
Part iii., Ornithology, by Robert Ridgway. We have noticed the 
latter work elsewhere. The posthumous work of Mr. Meek is 
illustrated by seventeen plates, representing fossils from the 

1 Appendix B of the Monographs of the North American Rodentia, by Dr. COUES 
and Mr. ALLEN, or vol. ix. final Report U. S. Geol. Survey Terrs. under Dr. F. V. 
Haypen. By Prof. THEODORE GILL and Dr. ELLIOTT COUES. 


| 
$ 


1878.] Recent Literature. 463 


. Silurian to the Tertiary ; while the portion by Messrs. Hall and 


Whitfield refer to Palaeozoic, Triassic and Jurassic fossils, and is 
illustrated by seven plates. The atlas of maps is of great beauty 
and value, and worthy of this famous Survey. 


Unirep Srates Fish Commission.—The report for 1875-76 of 
Prof. Baird, U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, forms a 


son reports on the fisheries of Chicago and vicinity; Livingston 
Stone on the salmon fisheries of the Columbia river; Dr. C. C. 
Abbot on some fishes of the Delaware river; R. Hessel on the 
carp and its culture, and its introduction into America; J. W. 
Milner reports on the propagation and distribution of shad; C. 
E. Atkins on the collection of eggs of Schoodic salmon in 1875 
and 1876; and Livingston Stone finally states the results of opera- 
tions on the M’Cloud river in salmon breeding in 1875 and 1876. 


Lruckart’s Human Parasires.'—We feel sure that we shall 
do some one a favor, even at this late hour, in calling attention 
to this valuable and exhaustive work on parasitic worms. It is 
the most recent and trustworthy work the physician can obtain, 
and it is to be hoped that an English translation will soon appear, 
though Cobbold’s Entozoa is most excellent in its way, and the 
best English work on the subject. 

RECENT RESEARCHES ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF THE HYDRO- 
ZOA."—The work before us is one of the most important contribu- 
tions to our knowledge of the nervous system of the pelagic Me- 
dusz that has ever appeared. The investigations were principally 
confined to the Geryonide, Trachynemide, diginide and A:quoride. 
The conclusions which the authors arrive at are of the highest 


Significance in relation to the question of the origin of the jee 


ous system and sense organs in the higher forms. They find 
here, as Schulze has proved in the case of the higher animals, that 
the terminal elements of the sense organs—touch, hearing, etc., are 
of epithelial origin, and also that the ganglionic and intermediary 
fibrillar system is of ectodermal origin ; further, that the termini of 
the motor nerve system were likewise primarily epithelial and at 
first formed part of the ectodermal covering of the animal 

The delicacy of the tissues that these investigators have had to 
deal with renders their manipulation difficult, but the results at- 

1 Die Menschlichen Parasiten und die von ihnen herriihrenden Krankheiten. Ein 
Hand und Lehrbuch fiir Naturforscher und Aertze. Von Prof. RUDOLF LEUCK- 
ART. 2 Bande. Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1863-1876. 8vo, pp. 766, 882. With 
numerous woodcuts. : 

? Das Nervensystem und die Sinnesorgane der Medusen Monographisch darge- 
stelt. Von Oscar und RICHARD Hertwic. 4to. pp. 186. Taf. 10. Leipzig, 1878. : 


* 


: £ Jagem ragiona, By Oscar Harger. Brief Contributions to canny a m 


464 Recent Literature. i 


tained are best appreciated by reference to their very excellent - 
plates, where the relations spoken of can be readily seen. The 
resemblance of the peripheral sensory cells to the analogous or- 


- gans in the vertebrates is very striking, and shows in a most forci- 


ble manner that organs which subserve similar purposes, even in 
widely separated classes of animals, are developed in very simi- 
lar ways and into very similar forms. The fact of their epidermal 


the rest of the nervous system. 


Pai ENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. Tee tha Sipon of the Entomological Son 
Ontario, for the year 1877. By W. Saunders, Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, B. Gott 
A Williams. Toronto, 1877. Su, pP. 59. i 
Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum, No. 10. Contributions to North Ameri- 
can Ichthyology, based primarily on the collections of the U. S. National Museum 
8v o 


es. 
uperficial Geology of British Columbia. By G. M. Dawson. Ue the 

Giler Journal of the Geological Society of London. Feb., 1 
Notes on the Oceanic gat osonigades from the Apae to mel Nares’ 
forthcoming Arctic se n Days Dredging at Oban, (Ex- 
tracted from the Quart ae tes a: =à Conchology. Nov., 1877.) $00, PP: 4- Os 
the new British Nudibouchiae: Mol (From ve Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History = Dec., 1877.) vo p. 3. Note on Telaginopsis (Polycerias 
Hincksii); and on the Cortilanackat Distribution of piket Hydrozoa. (From the 
PUETI ee nd Magazine of Natural History for March, 1877.) 8vo, pp- 4- By Rev. 

orm 


Bulletin € the eas of California, No. 32. On the agers of the 
Gro iS eee oy the use of Bi-sulphid of Carbon. April, 1878. ByE W. Hil- 
gar 


Bulle A N University of California, No. 31. The Rainfall Rs California, its 

Danibuede: its Periodicity, and i e Probabilities, Feb., 1878. y G. F. Becker, 

B a È .D. 8vo, pp. 10, with yaad a: : 
abies nus Actinometra Miill., with a Morphological Account of a new Species 


a oa Aa) from the Philippine Islands. By P. Herbert Carpenter, B.A. 
(Extracted fo the Linnean Society’s Journal. Zoology, Vol. xii a 8vo, pp- 17- 
s ie Kometenform der Seesterne und der Generationswechse Echinodermen. 


Vor ee Haeckel. (Abdruck aus der esa ift fiir oe Ska Zoologie; 
XXX, ' Bd. S uppl.) 8vo, pp. With a Plat 

On some Points in the Ana of Pentacrinus and Rhizocrinus. By P. Herbert 
Ne eas B.A. (From tbe ci of Anninog, and Physiology, Vo 
PP 

Die ao ie fliegenden Fische durch die Luft. Von Karl Möbius. $v, 
pp. 40. With a 

Notes on the Pet riip of Quincy and Rockport. By M. E. 
(From the Aree eas of the Boston Society of Natural By Ae Vol. xix 
1878.) 8vo, pp. 8. 


yana 
Feb., 


ee die. Schmuckfarben der Daphnoiden, Von August veme 


i of new Genera and Species of Isopoda, from New England and ad- r 


ire 8vos 


(Sepa a 
_ abdruck aus Zeitschr f. Wien Zoologie, xxx, Suppl. 1.) 8v9, PP: 43 
Win a Plat 


the RA 


ee OTR SOO ee tee ole ete oe ee 
TIE 2 ee x TEL 


E OA EE on E A AE LOS 


e 


 1878.] Recent Literature. 465 


T E Korte (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol, xv. May, 
157 Te 


east of pe Mississippi and north of North Ciro and Tenness see, exclus a- 
rine Species. By David S. in an, Ph. Sec e Edition, vised. ake en- > 
arge Pp- : kaet 1878. 


Memoirs of the Geologic ai Survey w India. Palontlogica ‘ip oa Indian 
Tertiary and Post-Tertiary Vertebra Vol. i, 3. Ser. x, 3: Crania of Ruminants. 
By R. Lydekker, B.A., of the Geo logical Survey of India. 4to, ee 84, with Pls. 
RAVIS Calcutta, "Government Pre 1878. 
= Di metenform der Seesierne un ad ea Generationswechsel der Echino here 

Von “oe Haeckel. (Abdruck aus der Zeitschrift fiir Wissenschaftliche Zoologie. 
— Band. Suppl.) Mit Tafel XX. 8vo, pp. 424-425. 1878. From 

On > arial longipennis, from the Eocene Clay of Sheppey. By Prof. Owen, 


C.B., ERS, (Abstracted from the Quar. Journ. of the Geolog. Society for Feb- 
ruary, 1878. Vol. xxxiv.) 8vo, pp. 124-130. With Pl. VI. From the author. 
Some Microscopical Obeesiutions of the Phonograph record. By Persifor Frazer, 


Jr, A.M. Also, Some Tables for the tareconverion of Metie and English Units, 
by the By author, (Both read before the American pernaan Society, April 
F 


5th, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 531-538, eer table. From the 

Or Geodes ” of the Keokuk Formation, on ve os enus poeg with som 
species, vali gig sae ey pr oo kuk. (Fro e Am. Journ. of Science aad 
Arts. Vol. 3 878.) 8vo, pp. 5. Fro wien au ee 


On the Intr a Nai ure of ih Triassic Trap Sheets of Nes Jersey. By LC. 
Russell, Pisin Ge Am. Journ, of Science and Arts, xv. “April, 1878.) Sr, pp- 
277-280. From the author. 
On the ae ois y pane see Slat and their Peculiarities, with a Restoration. 
D int A. Ryd (From the Popular Science Monthly, June, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 
9-145. a the co 
A Cata en ie oa Fishes of the Fresh Waters of North America. By David S. 
Jordan. Soe d from the Bulletin of the U.S. Geological and Geographical 
Survey. Vol. i w. Noi Washington, Government Printing Office, May 3, 1878.) 
8vo, PP. 407-442. From the author. 
Notes on a Collection a n from the Rio Grande, at Brownsville, Texas. By 


‘David S. Jordan. (From the U. S. Ge ney and Geographical Pana Vol. iv, 
No. 2.) 97-4 From the 


Washington, May. 3, 1878. 8vo, p 
An Account of some Insects = Unusual Interest from the Tertia ary parah of Colo- 
rado and Wyoming. By $. H. Scudder. (From engi of the U.S. Geological 
and Geographical pi oa. iv, No. 2. Si nae , Government Printing 
Office, May 3, 1878. Svo, pp. 519-543. From the author 
Letter from the Secret y of the Interior in response to a resolution of the Hou 
of aa ages joo, the Report of pakao Hayden upon he vsti oni 
Sevgraphical Surveys. With Map. (Ex. Doc t, No. 81, 45th Congress, 2d 
on, $ 8vo, pp. 22. Washington, Gofemment Printing ro Pa 878. 
eo oe Water Fishes of the United States. Dy David S. 


of Fresh 
fordan, M.D. utler University, Indianapolis, Indiana. Pie m the A of T the 
Read D 


Ptr ks pe Sciences. Vol. i, No. 4.) Rea 1876. 8vo, pp. 92- 
120. From the author 
Tropical Nature, ea ae Essays. By Alfred R. Wallace. Macmillan & Co., 
London. 1878. gvo . 356. Price $3.50. 
Mision Scientifique au Mexique et dans L’Amerique Centrale. Recherches 
Zoologiques publiées sous le direction de M. H. Milne Edwards. an partie. 
i s Batr s, par MM. Aug ril et Bocourt. 
4t0, pp. 281-360, (8 plates.) Quatrième Partie. Etudes sur les PIR, par MM. 
Leon Vaillant et Bocourt, 4to, pp. 41-120. (5 plat vette pi Imprimerie Na- 
1878. 


; tionale, 


Musée Géologique de Lausanne in 1877. Par E. Renevier, por Neige Soc. 


Le M 
Vaud Sc, Nat. xv.) 8vo, pp. 267-272. Lausanne, 1878. From the 


466 General Notes. ee 


‘Sur la Géologie des Environs de Bex, par E. Renevier, professeur, (Ext. 
Actes de la 60° Session de la Soc. Helv. des Sc. Nat. Bex. Août t 1877.) 8vo pes Pr 
From the author. 

ayir EeP ique du Massif du Simplon 4 apropos du Tunnel Projeté, par E. 
eoe ier. (From the Bulletin de Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles. Vol. 

, No. aa Ea aas, Librarie Rouge et Dubois, 1878. 8vo, pp. 281-304. 
Set 20-21.) From the author. 
quelques Batraciens de Chine, par M. H. E. Sauvage. (Ext. du Bull. as x 
eee, Philomathiqu e de Paris 7° série ti", No, 3.. 12. Mai, 1877-) 8vo 
From the author. 


Sur les ck de aoe enasi chez Sciénoides, par M. H.. E. Sauvage. xt. 
du Bull. de la Soc. Philomathique m pa Ms aig orle ages Dia note sur 
les Sparus desfontainii, a Te le o, pp. From t 

Remarques sur la Aoao et Tu a ea iproques Pee ee par 
M. Leon Vaillant. (Ext. du Bull. Soc. Reena id Pars, 7e série, t I, No, 

10 Mars, 1877.) 8vo, i 5, planche 54. Fro uthor 

A List of the rT of the Tribe Parma Family Aphi idee, found in the United 
ee wee ke ve been heretofore name h descriptions of som ew species. 

By eonek Ph.D. (Ext. Bull. No. 2: yH. State Lab. of Nat. Hist.) Printed 
Dec. 13, 1877. 8vo, pp. 16. From the author 

eat or on the Natural History of Fort Macon. “ee C and vicinity. (No. 4.) By 

Elliott Coues and Dr. H. C. Yarrow. (E . Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., f hila., 


ie) 8vo, pp. 21-28. From the authors 
The Electric Constitution of our Solar Syste em. ByJacob Ennis. (From the Pro- 
sean. eA of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila., 1878.) 8vo, pp. 19. From 
the oe 
On dentity of certain ee species of Sigillaria with Sigillaria lepidoden- 
arifolia Brogni art. By Herman L, Fairchild. (From the Annals of the New York 
ademy of Sciences. Vol. i i, ‘No 0.5.) 8vo. pp. 129-133, with a plate. From the 


author, 
—0:— 
GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 
THE Mycotocicat FLORA OF MINNESOTA. —Dr. A. E. Johnson 


contributes to the Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of Natural 
Sciences, an essay of a hundred pages on the fungi of that State. 
He has collected and determined 559 species all new to the State, 
two of which are new to science, and the report is the result of 
the examination of more than ten thousand specimens. The 
essay is mainly an enumeration of the species, and must prove of 
much assistance to local botanists, and though we are unable to 
pass a critical judgment on the quality of the work, it evidently 
reflects credit on the Society and State from which it emanates. 


Licneous Frora or Iowa.—In a page reprinted from the 
Valley Naturalist, Prof. J. E. Todd gives a list of the trees and 
woody shrubs and vines of South-western Iowa, a region varying 
in altitude from about 1000 to 1300 feet above the sea, the pre- 
vailing soil being that of the loess. 


On THE Growra or Coccutus INnpicus—I have noticed that 
the termini of the branches on a plant of Cocculus indicus, in the 


Horticultural Building in Fairmount Park, were coiled to the left 


about objects that came within reach. These terminal coils, which 


* 


a COSTE REIN IET E A PIAR. AELA E RG A ee em 


1878] Botany. 467 


simulated tendrils in form, would, if straightened out, measure 6 + 
to 8 inches inches in length. The buds upon them appeared to 


marked, and some were not very different in habit from ordinary 
twiners, as, for examples, Menispermum canadense. Aristolochia, 
it has sčzce been discovered, exhibits in a slight degree a similar 
tendency.— Fno. A. Ryder. 
BoranicaL News.—Francis Wolle concludes (Bulletin of the 
Torrey Botanical Club, April) that MVostoc, which has generally 
been considered a perfect plant, is not so, but the “ matrix ” of 
Scytonema, from which many forms of the latter genus are evolved. 
he paper is illustrated by a full page cut. In the Botanical Ga- 
zette Charles Mohr notices the foreign plants introduced into the 
Gulf States. Mr. R. Burgess records a case of natural radical 
grafting, “ potting two plants of the deer’s tongue and rat-tail 
Cactus, resulting in a profuse crop of the latter issuing from the 
extremity of the leaves of the former.” 
Trimen’s Journal of Botany contains a notice of Rodier’s 
second note on the spontaneous and regular movements of Cera- 
tophyllum demersum. In general when examined at about six in 
the morning, a movement of torsion from left to right is proceed- 
ing ; this then stops and gives place to a movement from right to 
eft, which continues up to about 11 A. M., that is for about five 
hours; the experiments showed a mean of about 36° per hour, 
t. e., of 180° or half the circumference during the whole time. 
The reverse torsion from left to right commences immediately 
the former ceases and goes on at the rate of about 12° an hour— 
one-third that of the morning; estimating its duration at 7% 
hours, its amount is 90°, or one-half that of the morning. Tables 
are given of these results, and show that there is by no means 


Starch and rounded. In short, we have here produced winter 
Vi eg 


OL. XII.—NO, VII. 33 


, 


468 General Notes. [July, 


- buds by which the plant is propagated. They are very easily de- 
tached from the old stems, and then readily float, and are carried 
by stream. . 

S. E. Cassino, Salem, Mass., announces the publication, June 
roth, of Ferns in their Homes and Ours, by John Robinson, to 
be illustrated with eight chromo-lithographs of rare ferns with 
other illustrations. 


ZOÖLOGY.! 


CHANGE BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS OF A LAND TO AN AQUATIC 
SALAMANDER.—Some very interesting experiments have recently 
been made by Madame von Chauvin, regarding the change, by 
artificial means, in the Alpine salamander of a land to an aquatic 
life. From a translation of the paper in Vadure, we take the fol- 
lowing account, often word for word. The former success of 
Madame von Chauvin in inducing the development of Amblystoma 
from the Mexican axolotl by gradually accustoming it to live inair, 
induced her to attempt to change the habits of Salamandra atra. 
This is an ovo-vipiparous species, and although its young possess 
large gills while within the body of the mother, they are born to 


begin a land-life immediately, while Salamandra maculata brings . 


forth its young with gills, and they live for some time in water 
before taking to land. The problem to be solved was whether 
the young of the black salamander, taken from the mother before 
the normal time of birth, and placed in water under favorable 
conditions, could become adapted to an aquatic life. Out of twenty- 
three larve of the Alpine salamander (S. atra) one, unlike the 
rest, appeared at ease when placed in water and made no attempt 
to get out of it, and was fed regularly. The gills, too delicate and 
thin for life in the water even, dropped off: by the third day, but 
soon a second smaller set of gill-fringes grew out, which appeared 
to perform the work of respiration perfectly ; the creature remain- 
ed completely beneath the surface of the water, without ever 
coming up to breathe air. While the new gills were being de- 
veloped the larva remained at rest as if dead, only eating the 


earthworms when they were offered. When the gills had attain- , 


ed a length of 2.2 mim., the larva became lively, and concurrent 
with this was the completion of another transformation. The 
delicate and transparent swimming membrane of the tail was lost, 
and replaced by a less transparent and stouter one, of greater di- 
mensions. Finally, after six weeks’ residence in the water, the 
skin began to be shed. Fourteen weeks after having been placed in 
the water, when six centimetres long, the gills began to shrink, 
and the tail to assume a rounder form, and in three days the skin 
was shed, revealing the normal black and wrinkled skin of the 
land salamander. At last it crawled out of the water, and on the 
1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Cougs, U. S. A. 


ni SE e T PE ESI EE OSA PETS ANT EE EE S E ea ESE P I EAEE Fos TS 


Ye. PERE ge at ae AE, 


= 


J 
i 
F 
j 
4 
; 
; 
{ 
k: 
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1878. ] Zoology. - 469 


fourteenth day the gills were completely absorbed and the gill- 
clefts absorbed. The remaining larger larve of this experiment 
lost their primary gills less satisfactorily and in a greater length of 
time. New gills began to bud, but the animals were gradually 
destroyed by fungus-growths attacking various parts of their 
skin. The fact that they were altogether more advanced in their 
metamorphosis rendered them unable to adapt themselves 


aquatic life. It was thought from these experiments that the 
spotted and Alpine salamanders were at no very distant period 
of time one species, and that as physical conditions became 
changed one variety became more and more adapted to more ele- 
vated and rocky regions, where water for the early life of the larvæ 
was not commonly to be met with. Thus gradually the birth of 
the young was postponed, and they became terrestrial; concur- 
rently fewer and fewer of the many eggs were developed. The 
spotted salamander, meanwhile, became more and more specialized 
to inhabit the lowland district. The bearings of these facts on 
evolution are of much pertinence. 


Ripeway’s ORNITHOLOGY OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL.—The 
ornithology, by Mr. R. Ridgway, of the route explored by the 
U. S. Geological Explorations of the Fortieth Parallel, Clarence 
King in charge, has been latély published. e region investi- 
gated lies between Sacramento, Cal., and Salt Lake City, and the 
work is based on field work from June, 1867, to August, 1869, 
inclusive; 769 skins and 753 nests and eggs having been col- 
lected. This is in fact a work on the avifauna of the Great Basin, 
and the subject is discussed under four subdivisions: arboreal, — 
terrestrial, mural and aquatic avifauna. Although the Great 
Basin forms a “natural province of the western region,” Mr. 
Ridgway states that the Sierra Nevada and main Rocky Moun- 
tain Range form “ much less of an actual barrier to the distribu- 
tions of the species than might be supposed,” and he thinks that 
the deserts check the distribution of the species. The author 
shows that Western birds “ have a tendency to extend eastward 
during their fall migrations, thus spreading over the whole of the 
Western Region at this season, though in summer their habitat 
may be confined strictly to the area of Pacific coast drainage.” 
He also discovered that several species supposed to be peculiarly 
eastern, really inhabit the entire breadth of the continent. The 
work is a store-house of novel discoveries regarding the distribu- 
tion and habits of the birds of the Central Province of the United 


t 


470 General Notes. pe » [July, 


A Two-HEADED SNAKE.—On page 264 of your journal for 
April I notice an account of a two-headed snake—Pityophis sp., 


and as I have recently discovered one in the reserve series of 


reptiles of the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 
I venture to forward a description trusting it may possess some 
little interest to your readers. 

This specimen, No. 7276 Smith. Coll., was presented by Miss 
Marshall, of Port Tobacco, Md., and is the specimen known 
as Ofphibolus getulus (Linn.) Cope, the common’ chain or 
king snake. It has two perfect heads, both possessing the scale 
formula which characterize the species. The length of the speci- 
men from the extremity of the right head to the end of the tail is 
9 7-10 inches, length from extremity of left head to tip of tail 10 
inches, by which it will be seen that a slight difference exists. 
The left head and neck and continuation although somewhat 
smaller ear right, appears to be the snake proper, the right a 
sort of graft on the main trunk. The two heads are 11-16 of an 
inch apart sod 1⁄4 an inch from the end of each nose a fold of 
skin commences on the inner side of each neck, this being on a 
level with the commissure of the mouth. The color of the two 
white rings on each head posterior to the occipital plates, which 
are normal, are produced across this fold of skin, and a secon 
white ring on the left head also passes down to the fold. This 
extends backwards 5-16ths of an inch from its anterior border 
and then the two spinal columns are welded together. The two 
cesophagi terminate in a common one a little posterior to the line 

of union. In all other respects the specimen is a typical, O. getulus. 
The scutella below and behind the fold of skin run directly 
across both necks and bodics, no median line separating them, 
but become normal a little posterior to the juncture of the heads. 
When the two heads are compressed laterally together, the left 
one is found to be slightly longer than the right, which is a trifle 
larger. There are two white rings on each neck, the posterior 
one on the right a little behind the corresponding one on the 
left. This is the only two-headed snake in the enormously large 
collection of reptiles in the Smithsonian Institution, which I have 
lately gone over.—/7/. C. Yarrow, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- 
ington, D. C., April 3, 1878. / 


Eee ON TuRrEE Rare Birps or Minnesora.—Within the last 

w years ornithologists in and about Minneapolis, Minnesota, 

Sve found three species of birds conceded to be ea the least 
familiar forms of our American feathered populati 

ne of these is the Bohemian Chatterer, or pote Wax- 

vog Lanp garrulus) For the past five years at least, this 


bird has been a regular winter resident here, arriving early in 


Sake and taking its departure in March. It is rarely ob- 


served op in large flocks, which are almost incessantly astir. 


1878. ] Zoology. 471 


The food of the species in this latitude consists for the most part 
of berries, especially the fruit bf the well-known snowberry bush, 
although it is frequently seen feeding upon bread crumbs, apple- 
parings and similar kinds of kitchen “refuse. It is also remarked 
in early spring to regale itself on certain coleopterous insects 
which then begin to show themselves, capturing eo on the 
wing somewhat after the manner of the true fly-catc 

e s carry themselves more fearlessly among a scenes 
of civilinio than this one, notwithstanding that its career is 


with the marked beauty of its plumage and briskness of its ways, 
receives no little complimentary notice. 

Occasionally one finds this bird caged in Minnesota, as in our 
severe winter weather it is readily taken in a common quail trap 
baited with apple. The species is, however, but poorly adapted 
to a life of captivity, as while it partakes regularly enough of food 
under these circumstances, loss of exercise ere long impairs ‘its 
assimilative powers, and it succumbs to fatal emaciation. Al- 
hough christened garrulus, the title seems a great misnomer as 
applied to this species, or at all events as it occurs in Minnesota ; 
for while the species is known to very many observers hereabouts, 
ew of these have any knowledge of its note. 

My next note is on the evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona ves- 
pertina). Like the preceding this straggler has for the last half 
decade taken up his winter quarters in Minneapolis and its vicin- 
ity with almost unbroken regularity. 

This also proves to be a gregarious species, seldom being seen 
save in troops, sometimes comprising several scores of individuals. 
Its usual haunts hereabouts are groves of sugar maple, the buds 
of which, together with the kernels of the seed of the box-elder, 

constitute almost its only food. It is observed with us to be even 
` less suspicious of man than the chatterer; as it unhesitatingly 
establishes itself in the town shade trees, and on rare occasions, 
as if from motives of pure curiosity, it is seen to ramble over the 
housetop and up and down the porch after the manner of the 
wren. From its strangely ejaculatory as well as harshly piping 
quality, the song of the species can scarcely be compared with 
bird-music as one commonly understands the term. Yet notwith- 
standing its demerits, much of the bird’s leisure time is spent in 
its practice both as a soloist and chorister. 

The collector adds to his store the skins of the fully developed 
males of this Grosbeak with signal satisfaction; as from the 
sharply contrasted disposition of their leading hues —white yellow 
and black—it is questionable whether the uniform of a y of our 
native birds is on the whole more striking. In enero over the 


_ skins of the females taken hereabouts, they mostly disclose aoo 2 


472 ‘General Notes. [July, 


whitish edging on the inner ag of the tail feathers to which the 
standard authorities fail to refe 
The third bird on my list is Li Conies bunting (Coterniculus 
Leconteit). The discovery that this little known species is to be 
included among the birds of Minneapolis is the latest ornitholog- 
ical novelty of which the district can boast ; being first indisputably 
noted only during the past summer. But his presence is still far 


date he has rigidly confined himself to one particular spot. This 
is a large tract of meadow just outside the city limits, which, 
despite the close proximity of a railroad and several other scarcely 
less noisy highways, proves to be a great resort for many birds, 
am m the species in question. It has been observed on 
sundry occasions during the last season, and taken both in juve- 
nile and adult stages. 
One of the smallest of the sparrows, and likewise one of the 


least noticeable in point of attire, it is also the fate of this species 


to lead a career of the utmost unobtrusiveness and humility; 
being for the most of his time buried deeply in the grass, where 
he gleans the lesser grubs and more delicate seeds found to con- 
stitute his fare. In his style of flight, as well as in his song, he is 
almost undistinguishable from his yellow-winged brother sparrow 
(Coturniculus passerinus); in short, it may be described as the 
yellow-winged sparrow transferred to low grounds and marked 
by Sie constant characteristics brought about by the change. 

While the young of the bird were procured in severąl instances 
in the cae to which I have alluded, the nest remained unde- 
tected, doubtless being hidden so securely i in the grass that its 
whereabouts could only have been brought to signe by the 


. luckiest chance.— W. L. Tiffany, Minneapolis, Minn} 


Mone oF DISTRIBUTION OF FRESH-WATER Mussets.—On April 
17, 1877, the writer, while exploring that portion of the Erie 
Canal known as the Wide Water, near Mohawk, N. Y., unexpect- 
edly came across Unio rubiginosus Lea. Five specimens in all 
were secured during this and two succeeding expeditions. The 
species has not hitherto been found on the Atlantic slope, but 
belongs to the Ohio basin, ànd, hence, E the western fauna. It 
has been recorded at Buffalo (teste Prof. C. Dewey), and at Roch- 
ester (zeste T. Robinson) in Western New York, but only in 
streams flowing into the great Lakes. Between Mohawk and the 
latter localities is a ridge or water-shed sloping to the West and 


the East. The Erie canal passes over this ridge, and through it 


the species has probably been introduced and colonized. My 

friend, Dr. Lewis, of Mohawk, informs me that about eight years 

ago he found in the canal, a single specimen of Unio nae 
1 The nest and eggs of C. Leconéei are unknown, and Mr. Tiffany would do 


to berm thorough search for them on the spot where the species thus noatornht 
o be abundant.— Æ. C. 


Stee as 


; 
F 
A 
= 
; 
: 
i 
k 
; 


1878. | Zoölogy. ` 473 


Barnes. Through the same medium other western species may 
be introduced. r 

Unio pressus*Lea, was also found by the writer, near the same 
locality (within three miles) in May, 1877, but under conditions 
that preclude the possibility of its introduction in a like manner. 
Two specimens were taken from a small lake near Herkimer, N. 
Y. The lake lies between high hills and receives a$ its water- 
supply an artificial branch of West Canada Creek, a mountain 
stream having no connection with the Erie canal, or any stream 
that could possibly reach it from the west or south. It empties into 
the Mohawk, but over a very rocky bed, and after a considerable 
fall. The species is essentially western, but is recorded at Troy, 
N. Y. (Vide Lewis in Bulletin Buf, Soc. Nat. Sci: Aug. 1874, p 
127). Its occurrence in the latter locality may be explained, 
perhaps, in a manner similar to the preceding, though at no known 
intermediate localities has it been found. The problem to be 
solved is: How came this western species in this isolated eastern 
lake? Mr. Darwin, (in “ Origin of Species,” p. 344, Ed. 1877) has 
conjectured a probable mode of distribution, relating particularly 


' to certain fresh-water univalves. hat Mr. Darwin conjectured 


sion, to which is attached a bivalve shell, the former caught and 
firmly held by the latter. pee 

The young of Uniones, since they are capable of swimming 
freely about, may be distributed in the manner suggested by Mr. 
Darwin; viz: attaching themselves to pond-weeds, the latter 
being often carried away by water-fowl. That Lznnaee and* 
Planorbis do thus attach themselves every collector knows. What- 
ever the manner or cause of its introduction Unio pressus is found 
in the above lake, absolutely foreign to any stream through which 
the species might have been introduced, This species, as well as 
the preceding, may yet become colonized in the Mohawk River. 
The fact of its occurrence now and its probable recent introduc- 
tion in the locality mentioned, under conditions that seem physi- 
cally impossible, may be of interest when the geographical 
distribution of the Unionidae comes to be more fully studied.—A. 
Ellsworth Call. 4 


sr hE S 
that this water is the ordinary urine of the reptile, voided in this 


4 


474 General Notes. [July, 


manner in consequence of the muscular action occasioned by his 
sudden fright. But I once saw a common garter or striped snake 
spring suddenly after a frog in an attempt to seize him. These 
snakes are reasonably active when they proceed in the ordinary 
style; but when they are attempting to seize their prey their mo- 
tions are so quick that the eye must be very intent to follow them. 
In this case the frog was just a hair’s breadth of time too quick for 
the snake, making a high and vigorous leap forwar s he 

sprang the usual evacuation of water fell from him, sisi the 
snake fairly on the head, and most probably filling its open mouth. 
One or two more leaps in instantaneous succession carried the 
frog out of danger, and he was not madea meal of. But the 
snake was evidently blinded by the urinary discharge, for he 
wriggled and twisted, sprang wildly around from side to side, and 
was completely thrown off the track of his game. My sympathies 
were with the frog, and I thought in regard to that obfuscated 
snake, “served him right.’ The in cident was, of course, an 
amusing one, and thinking of it afterwards, it occurred to me 
that this habit of the frog might very properly be classed as a 


defensive one. The snake is its usual, most frequent and most . 


relentless enemy. Having glided noiselessly through the grass 


“to its eyes, and of course 
cannot quickly correct ine blinding effect which even pure water 
suddenly dashed upon its head would necessarily produce. The 
light must be ot baci, and images failing upon the 
retina very badly mixed up and distorted. In the “noise and 
confusion ” thus arising, the frog makes good his escape. While 
the secretion and discharge of the urine isan ordinary physiolog- 
ical process, its use in this manner may be none the less a means 
of defense The force of the ejection, doubled by the action of 
the snake in nimbly darting from the opposite direction, the 
amount ejected and the circumstances attending the act, all seem 
to justify the inference that this, aside from concealment in the 
green herbage, is about the sole means of defense provided 
i developed ”—by nature to aid the harmless and inoffensive 
frog in evading the clutch of its alert and nimble enemy.— Chas. 
Aldrich, Webster City, Lowa. 


REMARKS UPON ALBINISM IN SEVERAL OF OUR Birps.—During 
the autumn of 1876, I saw a pet crow (Corvus americanus) bear- 
ing rather strange markings of a grayish color over the rump, 
sides and abdomen, as well as about one-half of the tail feathers. 
Upon the approach of winter the bird accidentally had the tail 
pulled out; when about two months later, it was replaced by 
feathers of a pale gray tint. During the coming moulting season, 
the parts which had previously been of a grayish color, now be- 
came white, and in addition several quills in both wings. I 


Pe EE Pe ee er ee 


- 
Ey 
fi 
; 

7 
; 


ate, Hea 


1878. ] i Zoölogy. r 475 


became the possessor of the specimen and kept it for several 


months, when the bird grew sick and died. The disease affected 
the skin and feathers to such an extent that it was unfit for 


preparation; although the specimen was for some time a matter 


of public curiosity. An instance of total albinism occurred some 
years ago in Lehigh County, Penna., where the bird was kept 
for a number of years as a bar-room pet. Another example oc- 
curred during the winter of 1873-74, in Montgomery County, 
Penn., where the specimen was secured while a hunting party 
happened upon a rookery during the night. A great many birds 
were shot and amongst them the albino. 

Several instances of total and partial albinism in 7urdus 
migratorius, have come under my observation in Pennsylvania. 
In several of the supposed cases of total albinism, a pale yellow- 
ish tint could be discovered upon the tips of the feathers over the 
breast and sides, which was replaced upon the back by a slight 
grayish or ashy shade ; although at a short distance they appeared 
perfectly white. 

female Hirundo horreorum was secured in the summer of 
1875, near Reading, Penna., which had patches of white upon 
either side, extending upwards and forwards to the base of the 
wing. The left wing also contained several white secondaries. 

From the spring of 1874, to the summer of 1877, four differ- 
ent specimens of Passer domesticus have come under my obser- 
vation which were partly white. The markings were irregular 
and included parts of the wings, rump and abdomen, or as in one 
instance, the tail feathers. One specimen of total albinism was 
seen in the streets of Reading for several months, when all of a 
sudden it disappeared from its usual haunts, no doubt being se- 
cured by a collector for the adornment of his cabinet. 

There is at present in a collection in Reading, an example of a 
nearly white Buteo borealis. The only defect consists of pale 
yellowish brown transverse markings near the tip of the tail 
feathers. There are visible upon close examination, delicate ashy 
tinted median lines in the feathers of the head, neck and back. | 
In all other respects the bird is certainly interesting. 

Partial albinism in Age/eus phæniceus is not of uncommon oc- , 
currence, when one is on the lookout for such specimens. In the 
collection before referred to,are several males with the deep red and 
yellow colors upon the wings, but which in other respects appear 
very different. The color at a short distance appears yellowish- 
brown, which upon closer inspection, results from that color tip- 
ping all the feathers overthe body. In another specimen, the red 
of the wing is replaced by deep orange. . 

Frequent specimens of Sturnella magna occur which would 
readily be taken for neglecta, were the observer ignorant of the 
locality. They resemble the latter very closely, but do not have 
the characteristic note of the western variety. There are more 


476 . | General Notes. [July, 


than half a dozen specimens in the aforesaid collection, all having ` 


similar markings and shade 

In addition to the above, Calamospiza bicolor frequently varies. 
Odd white feathers are scattered indiscriminately over the neck or 
breast, as was noticed in a number of specimens secured on Heart 
River, Dakota Territory. One specimen in my collection, has 
but a single white feather on the throat, though that appears 
rather prominently upon the black back ground.—W. F. Hoff- 
man, MD. 


Mopbe oF MOULTING OF THE LINING oF CROP AND STOMACH IN 
Insects.—Attention has been lately directed to the mode of 
moulting by German a sapesially from the histological 

stand-point, with interesting results. Dr. Braun has published an 
article on the histological occurrences in the moulting of Astacus 
fluviatilis in Semper’s Arbeiten (ii. p. 120, 1875). In the same 
Journal and volume Cartier gives the results of his studies on the 
finer structure of the skin of reptiles, Kerbert has recorded his 
observations on the skin of reptiles and other vertebrates in 
Schultze’s Archiv. für Microscopische Anatomie (xiii), and, during 
the past year, Dr. Wilde has made known his observations on the 
mode of moulting in the grasshoppers and locusts (Wiegmann’s 
Archiv). 
In the reptiles as well as in the craw-fish (Astacus), moulting is 
effected by the growth of fine cuticular hairs of temporary growth 
which originate on the new skin, and grow up, thus loosening 
and pushing off the old skin. When this is accomplished these 
deciduous hairs disappear. This has been observed in the reptiles 
as well as in Astacus. a to this rule only occur in the 
reptiles on certain parts of the body, as for example the under 
side of the scales, the capsular skin of the eyes; in the crawfish 
the faceted cornea of the eye, the eyestalk itself, and the inner 
lamella of the fold of the carapace over the gill-openin 


gS. 
It has probably been noticed by many that in moulting, the: 


crayfish and lobsters cast off the solid chitinous lining of the 
crop and fore-stomach (proventriculus) the large teeth lining the 
latter remaining within the cast skin. It is so with the chitinous, 
teeth- -bearing lining of the crop and fore-stomach of insects. 


r. Wilde maintains that the moult of the crop and proventric- — 


ulus (fore- stomach) follows that of the integument, and according 
to Braun the formation of a new cuticle in the stomach of the 
crayfish results at rather a late period after the change of skin. 
In the Orthoptera (grasshoppers and locusts) as soon as the 
moulting has taken place, the old cuticula of the crop and fore- 
stomach has disappeared. Wilde found that in several species, 
when about to moult, in all cases the old chitinous layer of the 
crop and fore-stomach was separated from its under layer, a new 
cuticula already being present. If we cut open the crop longitud- 


ia BN on Fa sass | ‘ie ci aaa 


r AA 


Pe: Se! ee 


i 
; 


1878. ] Zo0logy. | , 477 


‘inally we can remove the old cuticle without difficulty, a proof 
that it is cast off 72 Zoto. 


raun has maintained that the solid hairs and their modifications 
in the crop and fore stomach of the crawfish, are comparable with 
the cuticular hairs of the same animals; i. e. are merely for orna- 
mentation, but Wilde considers that the homologous spiny hairs 
in the crop of the Orthoptera triturate the food (their function is, 


_ however, evidently to prevent the food from regurgitating into 


the mouth, together with the peristaltic action of the crop and 
digestive canal). That these hairs lining the crop and fore-stomach 
are useful in throwing off the old cuticle is plain, but this is only 
a purely secondary use. Wilde says he has observed the process 
of moulting in Locusta viridissima, Decticus verrucivorus and Gryllus 
campestris in the clearest manner, favored in part by the peculiar 
inner structure of the crop in the last. All the hairs and hair-like 
growths in the crop and proventriculus of the Orthoptera, take 
their origin not from cell-tubes, as is mostly the case in Astacus, 
but they are in the Orthoptera much more solid, and originate - 
like spines on the chifine cells, like the projections on the flame- 
like cells (flammenzellen) of the walrus, as observed by F. E. 
Schulze. In no case is the moulting, in Orthoptera, performed as 
in Astacus and the reptiles, where two or three solid bristles are 
developed in a cell, by which the old cuticle is loosened. In the 
Orthoptera it rises simultaneously throughout its extent, so that 
the new cuticle rising under it, whether in the form of hairs or 
flattened, hairless chitinous growth, elevates the old cuticle as it 
keeps on growing (Fig. 23). As soon as the old cuticle is stripped 


_ off, the new cuticle completely formed is to be seen under it. It 


is, indeed, completely hyaline, and reminds one of the cuticle in 
the orthopterous larva, just after exclusion from the egg. Yet it 
takes on, after a few davs, probably through the influence of the 
air, which passes through very fine tracheal twigs under the layer 
of epithelium, the characteristic yellow-brown color of the chitine. 
The secretion of the new cuticle must proceed with great rapidity. 
It does not take more than one, or at least two days to develop. 
Wilde does not state how the cast chitinous lining of the crop 
and proventriculus passes out of the narrow cesophagus and 
pharynx. : 

ORNITHOLOGICAL Nores.—The habit of laying in other birds’ 


nests is a well-known peculiarity of the cow-blackbird (Molothrus 


ecoris Sw). , It seldom happens, however, that the intruder is 
Successful in depositing more than one egg in a nest, yet I found 
a grass-finch’s nest last summer which contained five eggs, three 
of which had been laid by the.cow-bird. On the plains of Colo- 
rado I have frequently found single eggs of the latter deposited 

On the bare ground, and this fact was accounted for by the 
absence of timber in which birds might find suitable conditions 


for nidification. In one day I picked up ‘wo eggs of the owo o o 2 


. 478 ~ General Notes. [July, 


bird at widely separated points, and an examination discovered 
them to have been recently laid. In the absence of the nests of 
other birds, therefore, the cow-bird will drop its eggs indiscrim- 
inately in times of sudden or unexpected delivery. 

I met also, a few years ago, with a singular case of the ovipos- 
iting (or reproductive parasitism, I could not determine satisfac- 
torily which) of the meadow-lark (Sturnella magna Bd.), in some 
degree analogous to that of the yellow-billed cuckoo. One nest 
which I found near Parkesburg, Penna., contained five eggs which 
had been laid at two distinctly separated periods, and, to all 
appearances, by two different individuals. Three of the eggs were 
smaller than the ordinary eggs of this bird and were so far 
advanced in the stages of incubation that I found it impossible to 
remove the contents without destroying the shells. The remain- 
ing two, however, were much larger and perfectly fresh. There 
was no doubt, however, that all were of the same species.—Z. A. 
Barber. 

ANTHROPOLOGY.! 

ON THE PROBABLE USE OF DiscorpAL Stones.—There is one 
class of pre-historic relics which has been treated or referred to 
by nearly every writer upon archeology, with nearly as many 
theories and conjectures as to the probable use. Schliemann 
devotes many pages to illustrations, most of the specimens bear- 
ing exquisite designs in ornamentation. England, Ireland and 
several continental localities have yielded numerous examples of 
the same style of relics with less ornamentation. The mounds 
throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys have furnished many 


highly wrought specimens, but rarely any with any attempt at . 
$ 


ornamentation. hese relics occur of various materials, such as 
diorite, syenite, quartzite, novaculite, greenstone, jasper, and in a 
few cases catlinite. They are circular, concave on either side 
sometimes, and I might say generally have a hole in the middle, 
varying from one-eighth to one-fourth of the total diameter. The 
periphery is seldom flattened but usually slightly convex, showing 
no trace of wear, but on the contrary, perhaps more highly pol- 
ished, if that be ‘possible, in many of those found. 

There are two predominating sizes; specimens of the first 
class averaging from three to six inches in diameter, while those 
of the second are generally less than two inches. These may 
again be subdivided according to their perforation, ornamentation, 
etc., but it is not our purpose to dwell upon these points. The 
smaller specimens, which are found to exceed the larger in great 
proportion, were no doubt used in games, similar to tossing pen- 
nies and winning upon certain pre-arranged agreements. There 
may have been some colors used to distinguish one side from the 
other, and as colors, manufactured and applied by aboriginal 
races are easily removed, we can readily account for their absence 


1 Edited by Prof, Orts T. Masox, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


AA EA Oe NE Cae aL a ty Sp ee Rea Soy 


1878.] Anthropology. 479 


after years of exposure or burial. Many of our American tribes 


play games in which four, five, or even six small bodies are 
employed, upon one or both sides of which lines or other char- 
acters are cut or burned to serve the purpose of ready identifica- 
tion. The Dakotas make beautiful specimens from the seeds of 
Prunus virginianus, upon which lines are burned so as to give the 
stone the appearance of a beetle. 

These stone relics were not employed in hunting, by throwing 
at birds or game, as some have ventured to suggest, as the time 
and labor employed in their manufacture would have been more 
than lost. 1 doubt if any were suspended as ornaments or 
charms, as the constant wearing of a cord would eventually leave 
its impression upon the sharp edges, and then for a warrior to be 


among a sub-tribe of Utes in south-western Colorado. The 
Specimen is little more than half an inch thick, having a perfora- 
tion in the centre around which are cut a series of narrow circles 
extending nearly to the outer edge. The opposite side is per- 
fectly smooth. As this was used in gaming, by tossing into the 
air and betting upon the side to turn up, we are led to suppose 
that Similar relics were used by other tribes for similar purposes. 
That the relics of the mound-builders are of much superior 
workmanship is granted. None of the implements of the mod- 
ern Red race will compare with them, therefore we can scarcely 
expect to find any relics of this class in as good condition, or as 
perfectly finished. ; 

The larger discoids were used for another style of amusement. 
The materials employed in their manufacture are usually of the 
hardest species öf stones or rocks, as they were in greater danger 
of being broken. These larger discoidal stones were undoubtedly 
used in playing what is now termed the chunge or tchunge game. 
To illustrate my reason for the supposition I shall submit some 
remarks and references from a recent report made to Prof. F. V. 
Hayden.! Catlin? gives a description of the “hung-kee game as 


1 Miscellaneous ethnographic observations on Indians inhabiting Nevada, Califor- 
nia and Arizona, W.J. Hoffman. U.S. Geolog. and Geog. Survey of the Terri- 
tories. 1876, . 461-478. : 

2 Illus. of the ea” Customs and Conditions of the N. American Indians, etc. 
loth edition, Vol i, p. 132, pl. 59. London. 1866. 

* Travels in the interior of North America. London, 1843, p. 358. bese 
_ *Seven years residence in the Great Deserts of North America. Vol. ii, p. 197. 
„ondon. 1 i ; ; 
5 Hist. of Am. Indians, etc. Page 401 ef seg. London. 1775. 


480 General Notes. as [July, 


name of rie and gives a de billed description. Jones? says, 
“The great game upon which the Southern Indians stake both 
personal reputation and property was the chungke game.’ For 
further reference to this game, and the tribes by whom it was 
played, I would refer the reader to works by DuPratz,? Bracken- 
ridge? Lewis and Clark,’ Turner Morgan® and Prickett.” I saw 
a game of this sort played by the Coyotéro Apachés, which will 
be described farther on. As far as I am able to learn, it is indulged 
in, to-day, only by this tribe. The Cuchanos (Yumas) played 
a game of this kind until recently; which they called mo-upp, the 
Mexicans termed it redondo Lieut. Whipple? in speaking of the 
Mojaves says, “Some of the young men selected a level spot, 
forty paces in length, for a play ground, and amused themselves 
in their favorite sport with hoop and poles. The hoop is six 
inches in diameter, made of an elastic cord. The poles are 
straight and about fifteen feet in length. Rolling the hoop from 


. one end of the course, two persons chase it half way, and at the 


same instant throw their poles. He who succeeds in piercing the 
hoop wins the game.” 

As far as I was able in ascertaining, this game was not played 
by the Mojaves in the immediate vicinity of Camp Mojave e (ACT) 
in 1871, at which time I had occasion to visit that locality in : 
scientific capacity. 

Since enterprising traders and sctilers have established them- 
selves at or near all the Indian reservations in the country, the 
aborigines have almost entirely discontinued the manufacture of 
implements and weapons of stone, substituting such articles as 
can be purchased to answer the requirements of the game. Thus 


` instead of spending days of patience and labor on a stone ring or 


discoid, one can be constructed of twisted raw-hide or wood "ih a 


four feet. Tw alge the game, and the necessary materials re- 
quired are a pole for each of the players, and a hoop made of a 


1 Antiq. of the Southern Indians, Paid p. 96. 
2 Hist. of Louisiana, se ee 
Ohad of te na; p: 255; 2 

4 Lewis and yy k (by Paul Allen) ae pie rg 1814. Vol 


143. 
5 Traits of Inc n Character. Vol. 1836, p. 168. [Extracted (in sh eked from 
or Jackson's * Civilization of the Indians. " 
6 Third Ann. Rep. of the Regents of the Univ. of N. Y., 1850. 2 81. 
7 History of Alabama, ae. , Charleston. ee Ria? i, pp. 141-143. 
8 Emory’s Report. U.S x. Bound. Sur. Vol. i, p. 1 See also ‘ Bartram’ s 


Travels in N. and S. Carolina,” etc. Philadelphia : 1791. "London (2 vols.) : 1794- 
an Ss vols.) an vil 
C R. R Rep. Vol. iii, 1856, p. 114. 


Te ee at ee er AN Eg ce gets Hee re en eee eee, en a oe EC eae ANN Gor 


OW oe A ee to en eg: we ae 
3 fa piel 


t 


1878.] Anthropology. ` 48i 


branch of tough wood nearly an inch thick, which is formed into 
a ring having a diameter of about six or seven inches. This is 
sometimes wrapped with raw hide or sinew. en there are two 
cords running horizontally across the inner space, intersecting two 
similar ones attached vertically, giving the middle the appearance 
of the cross-wires in an engineer’s transit. The poles are each 
about fifteen feet long, consisting of spliced pieces of cottonwood, 
and having the general appearance of a good sized fishing rod 
with the thin end slightly turned upward. When the players are 
ready, they take their positions at one end of the course, and one 
of them placing his forefinger on the periphery of the hoop and - 
grasping the sides with his thumb and fingers, rolls it with 
sufficient force to drive it to the other end of the course. When 
it is half way the players start abreast, pushing their poles on the 
ground before them. When they reach the middle of the course 
the poles are pushed ahead so as to pass through one of the 
Spaces between the cords, the game resulting upon some previous - 
agreement as to what was required in counting. This is repeated 
rom the end where the first attempt terminated, and continued 
for hours. I have seen men lose blankets, horses, bows and ar- 
rows, and in fact almost everything of which they were possessors. 

Similarities between this and closely allied games formerly 
practiced might be noticed, but it is not the object of the writer 
to more than refer to the probable use of the discoids as men- 
tioned in the beginning —W. F. Hoffman, M.D. 


TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA, BY STEPHEN Powers.—In the May num- 
ber of the Naruratisr attention was called by a brief note to the 
third volume of contributions to North American Ethnology, 
edited by Major J. W. Powell, and especially to the portion of it 
written by Mr. Stephen Powers. The great merit of Mr. Powers’ 
work demands for it a more extended notice. In addition to 
acute powers of observation, great tact in dealing with the Indians, 
and a genuine sympathy, the author enjoyed during a portion of 
his three years the official recognition of the Interior Department 
and of the Smithsonian Institution. He speaks, therefore, as one 
having authority. Taking Herbert Spencer's descriptive sociology 
as a guide in estimating the exhaustiveness of any ethnographic 
work, commence necessarily with Mr. Powers’ account of the 
environment of the California Indians. On this point the author 
is extremely lucid and exhaustive, seizing as if by intuition the 
relation of the people to the land, and expressing it in language 
exceedingly terse and attractive. The reader will be especially 
charmed with those sentences in which the winds, the sky, the 
storm, and the darkness are brought into relation with savage 
life and feelings. The tone of sadness with which the great 
depletion of former populations under the blighting effect of the 
worst element of our civilization is narrated, is thought by some 
to be gratuitous; but Mr. Powers in his letter to Major Powell — 


482. oo. ` General Notes. [July, 


t 


(with a generosity as rare as it is refreshing, quoted in full in the 
opening address to the Secretary of the Interior) remarks charac- 


‘teristically, “If any critic, sitting in his comfortable parlor in New 


ork, and reading about the sparse aboriginal populations of the 
cold forests of the Atlantic “tates, can overthrow my conclusions 
with a dash of his pen, what is the use of the book at all ? 

Upon the next point, the physical characters of the California 
Indians, the work of Mr. Powers will be unsatisfactory. s to 
external characteristics, stature, color, &c., he is sufficiently ex- 


_ plicit, and frequently quite original in his method of description ; 


but the comparative anthropologist demands more than this now. 
The volumes of instructions issued by the Société d’Anthropologie, 
by the Anthropological Institute, by the German government to 


the merchant marine, by the Austrian government, and by other an- ` 


thropological societies, attest the anxiety of leading savants to 
reduce every investigation to absolute measurement. ith 
reference to the psychological characteristics of the various tribes, 

r. Powers is more explicit; indeed the author is again at home 
and leaves nothing to be desired as he lays bare, in order, the 
good and the bad that are in the Indians whom he is describing. 
This discriminating power is be illustrated by a remark of Mr. 
Powers concerning the Wintun, p. 229. “With that toughness 
and tenacity of life ori some of the lower order of be- 
ings, they have lived on and possess their homes while better 
and braver races have gone to oblivion. 

In the culture-historical portion of the work, the author is 
decidedly in his proper element. Nothing has escaped his eye. 
As he proceeds from tribe to tribe, we have recorded for us every 
article of diet and drink throughout the year, and all the herbs 
that enter into their pharmacopeeia; the size and shape, the 

material, and the mode of construction of their dwellings, together 
with their furniture, vessels, and appurtenances; the style of dress 
of both sexes, and of all a ages, classes, and occasions ; their im- 
plements of every craft with the manner of using them; their 
games and pastimes, especially their gambling, of which they are 


besiege nici fond; their music, over which the author grows, 


nce at least, quite sentimental, p. 212; their domestic life in the 
marriage relation and ia the management of children, including 
the discussion of prostitution and adultery, and the curse, of in- 
fanticide; their social system and customs, together with their 
governmental organization and administration ; last of all their 
religion, which has no “idea of the ‘Great Spirit,’ forthese people are 


realistic and seek to personify everything,” nor of “happy hunting ` 


grounds,” for the indolent Californian, reared in his balmy clime 
knows nothing of the fierce joy of the Dakota hunter, but believes 
in a heaven of “hedonic ease and luxury.” A valuable addition 
to the work is the collection of vocabularies made principally by 
Mr. Powers and Mr. George Gibbs and collated in the appendix. 


1878. | ' Anthropology. 483 


The remarks of Mr. Powers upon these dialects, both in the 
introduction and throughout the volume add greatly to the value 
of this linguistic material. The following table will give some 
idea of the contents of the work and of the accompanying voca- 
bularies. 


. LINGUISTIC Stocks : 


1 Tinneh, Chapters VI.—IX., XI., XIII. 

2 Yurok. s IV. and V. Vocabularies page 460. 
3 Karok. " ks © aon 8 8 $ ai 447- 
4 Chimariko. No description. Re a 474- 
5 Wishosk. Chapters X., and XI. a3 p 478. 
6 Yuki. Ml Va XV and XXL “ gh: 
7 Pomo, " VI.—XX. and XXII. n s 491. 
8 Wintun, "e XXHL—XXVv. 2 “516; 
9 Shasta aE RVI. ss 1 Oey: 
Io M $ a XANH., i none 
11 Achomawi. it RAVIL Core ee 
12 Maidu. u > EXX XXX > Some 
13 Mutsun. “o XXXI n E 
14 Yokuts. RSS. s X 570. 

' I5 San Antonio. No description. P “568. 

16 Santa Barbara. “ . A ve 560. 
17 Washo. Located on Linguistic Map. 

18 Shoshoni. “ s je 

19 Yuma. “ce “ec éé 


Accompanying the volume is an excellent colored map pre- 
pared under the immediate supervision of Major Powell, and 
locating each of the nineteen stocks as nearly as it can be done, 
considering the fickleness and migratory habits of the Indians and 
the crowding of the white settlers. 


h 

the works of Padre F. Pareja, in the Library of the N. Y. His- 
torical Society. In one of the volumes Mr. Gatschet found a 
loose sheet of paper on which a Mexican had carefully tran- 
scribed the Lord’s Prayer from a volume entitled “ Explicacion — 
de la ‘ Doctrina’ que compusó el Cardinal Belarmino por man- ` 
dado del Señor Papa Clemente VIII. Traduida en lengua Flori- ° 
dana por el Padre Fr. Gerorio Muoilla, &c., &c., Mexico, 1635.” 

No. 318 of the Smithsonian Publications is an illustrated quarto 
brochure of 35 pages and 10 plates, entitled “On the Remains 
of Later Prehistoric Man obtained from the caves in the Catherina 
Archipelago, Alaska Territory, and especially from the caves of 
t by W. H. Dall. In the first part of the 


, or typical Eskimo tribes, and the Aleüts, or Aleu- 
tian Islanders. He then refers to the burial customs of the latter, 
especially at the time of their first discovery by the Russians. 

he chief attraction of the contribution is the illustrated descrip- 
tion of the collection of mummies or desiccated bodies from a 


VOL. XIL—NO. VII. 34° 


484 General Notes. [July, 


cave in the island of Kagamil, one of the group known as the 
Islands of the Four Mountains, or Four Craters. These mum- 
mies were deposited in the National Museum in 1874, and quite 
extended notices were published at the time; but Mr. Dall’s pub- 
lication has brought the information into a permanent form. The 
heliotype plates are beautifully executed and greatly help the 
understanding of the text 

It gives us great pleasure to welcome the first number of Zhe 
American Antiquarian: A Quarterly Journal devoted to Early 
` American History, Ethnology and Archeology. Edited by the 
Rev. Stephen D. Peet, and published by Brooks, Schinkel & Co., 
Cleveland, Ohio. The leading article is upon Ancient Garden 
Beds of Michigan, by Bela Hubbard, illustrated by four plates, 
which the binder has carelessly inserted in the wrong order. The 
articlé of next importance is by the editor, upon the Discovery 
of the Ohio: Early Maps of the Great West. The other articles, 
which our space does not allow us to particularize, are all valua- 
ble materials to be worked up eventually into a comprehensive 
work on North American Archeology. 

Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Entrega 3°, contains 
two archeological papers: “Un cincel de bronze de los antiguos 
Aztecas,” Sr. D. G. Mendoza, and “Codice Mendozino: Ensayo 
de descrifacion geroglifica,” per Señor Don Manuel Orozco y 
Ber 


la: the February number of the Yournal of the Anthropological 
Institute is a communication entitled “Customs of the New Cale- 
donian Women belonging to the Nancaushy Tiné, or Stuart’s 
Lake Indians, Natotin Tiné, or Babines, and Nantley Tiné, or 
Frazer’s Lake Tribe, from Information supplied by Gavin Hamil- 
ton, Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company Service. The 
same journal contains the report of the Anthropometric Com- 
mittee, with color-plates; The Ethnology of Germany, II; The 
Germans of Cæsar, H. H. Howorth; The Migrations of the Sax- 
ons, Part III, id.; The Croats, id.; Flint Flakes from Egypt, 
Capt. R. Burton; Notes on Socotra, Capt. F. M. Hunter; Aus- 
tralian Languages and Traditions, Rev. C. C. Greenw a Thomas 
Honery, Mr. McDonald, John Rowley, Dr. Creed, C. H. E. Car- 
michael. 

Mr. Francis Galton read a paper before the London Anthropo- 
logical Institute, April 30th, on composite portraits made by 
combining those of various persons into a single resultant figure. 
A good report of the method is given in The Academy, May II. 
In the same number is a brief report of a paper by Mr. C. Stani- 
land Wake on “The Origin of the Classificatory System of Re- 
lationships used among Primitive People.” The author takes 
issue with Mr. Morgan’s explanation of the classificatory system 
as. saving originated in the practice of marriage among con- 
sanguine 


Path NSS ea ce TE a i i al ae or ia ai a ai, diei 
z aE aaa A Se at ES ia a SMS Sp eee is 
fa s 


1878.] ‘A nthropology. 485 


The latest advices from Paris bring word that instead of the 
“Seances plénières internationales,” there will be a congrès inter- 
national des sciences anthropologiques, beginning June 24th, and 
continuing three days. The latest advices report over three hun- 

red French exhibitors and nearly as many foreign. 

By some misdirection of the subscription we have been deprived 
of the Revue d’ Anthropologie for a year, but the numbers for 
January and April of the present year come to make amends for 
the loss. The January number opens with a paper by the editor 
upon the brain of the gorilla. The author admits that the pro- 
gress of research has taken this investigation somewhat away from 
anthropology. “ Les transformistes s'accordent généralement a 
reconnaitre que homme ne peut descendre d'aucun des anthro- 
poides connus, ni même d’aucun autre genre vivant.” The second 
paper is by A. Hovelacque upon the classification of languages 
in anthropology. The author first examines the geographical, 
physiological and psychological methods and rejects them. 
then seeks to divide languages by structure simply without any 
regard to relationship. “Two idioms may be monosyllabic, 
agglutinative or inflected, without having any bond of relation- 
ship. The Basque and the Japanese are both agglutinative, but 
their roots are entirely distinct. The natural classification of 
language does not accord in any way with the anthropological 
classifications which the present state of the science presents. 
Originally, language corresponded to race, that is to say certain 
races have given birth to linguistic systems similarly diverse, but 
the revolutions of time have broken up all that. The unfortunate 
maxim “ Like race, like language,” has retarded the progress of 
anthropology and linguistics. 

The article by Dr. E. Hamy, upon the First Inhabitants of 
Mexico, has already been noticed in the NATURALIST. 

. In the Revue Critique the work of Dr. Boudin upon Patho- 
logical Anthropology is extensively noticed. The author en- 
deavors to trace out the relation between race and diseases, such 
as pulmonary phthisis, variola, syphilis, malarial fevers, yellow 
fever, cholera, and the bite of serpents, and also the amount of 


ciation last summer upon the fossil races of Western Europe. 
The number closes with the Bibliographical Bulletin. The work 
is really the anthropologists’ vade mecum, and it is hoped will re- 
ceive the liberal patronage which it deserves. 

hose interested in the relation of the phonograph to phonology 
will find interesting articles upon the subject in Nature, almost 


486 a General Notes. [July, 


every sagt = something from such able men as Mr. 
A. J. Ellis 

The third Cian of Matériaux contains the following articles 
of general import: Tombeaux du temps des habitations lacustres 
en Suisse, Rodé; Huitieme congrés annuel de la Societé Alle- 

mande d’ ‘anthropologie, by Graf Gundaker Wurmbrand; L’age 
de la pierre dans les souvenirs et les superstitions populaires, E. 
Cartailhac; Armes et Objets de parure des cabinets de |’Univer- 
sitié jaguellone à ao, Ernest, Chantre; Le Musée des an- 
tiquités nationales de Saint Germain-en- Laye, H. Mazard. 

Attention is called to the following titles: An inquiry into the 
reputed poisonous nature of the arrows of the South-sea Island- 
ers, by Dr. A. B. Messer, Jour. of the Anthrop, Institute, Feb., 
1878; The Ethnology of Germany, Parts II and III, H. H 
Howorth, id.; Australian Languages, &c., several papers, id. ; 
Flint Flakes from Egypt, by Capt. R. F. Burton, id.; The Spread 
of the Slavs, Part I: The Croats, by H. H. Howorth, id. ; Notes 


the Malayo-Polynesians, by the Rev. S. J. Whitmee, «id. ; 
Amusements of the English People, by G. Turner, Ninri 
Century, Dec.; English Folk-lore, Peika Hour, Jan.; La Chro- 
nologie prehistorique, &c., Revue Scientifique, Jan. 19; L'histoire 
de la p et la science < la nature, by M. DuBois Rey- 
mon ; Primitive Property M. La aveleye, translated by G. 
RE "Marriott and published T McMillan & Co.; The Verhand- 
lungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie Ethnologie, 
und Urgeschichte for 1877, contains very important contributions 
to general anthropology; Einige Bemerkungen über die urge- 
schichte Nord deutschlands, Das Ausland, No. 8, 1878; Review 
of Schliemann’s work, id, No. 7; Les trois premières Années de 
l'Enfant, by Bernard Perez (Balliére, Paris); The Art of prehis- 
toric Greece, by A. H. Sayce, Academy, March 2d; Art-weaving 
among ‘the ‘Ancients, by T. Nelson Dale, Penn Monthly, Feb.; 
Le Khedive et L'Egypte, by M. Van der Berg; Révue Scientifique, 
Jan. 26th; War rites of the Zulu-Kaffirs, United Service Magazine, 
Nov. 3d; The Leading Religions of the World, by Sir P. Col- 
quhoun, a paper read “before the Royal Society of Literature, 
Feb. 27th; Die orientalische Frage als cultur-Frage, by Fredrich 
von Hellwald, Das Ausland No. 5,6 and 7; Primitive culture of 
the Babylonians, by W. >t. Chad Boscawen, reviewed in Academy, 
March oth; Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen, by 
A. Von Kremer, reviewed in Academy, Feb. 2d and March 16th ; 

pee in Northern Hindustan, by J. Muir, /ndian Antiquary, 
Nov., 1877; Slavonians and Rajpoots, by Sir Henry Maine, 
Nineteenth Century, Dec.; Tableau des Progrés faits dans l’etude 
. des a de |’ one et des traditions religieuses de l'Orient 
pendant les annees 1875 and 1876, by Ernest Renan, Annales 
Oe Goines Nov. 12th; New Zealand and the South- 


1878. ] Geology and Paleontology. 487 > 


sea Islanders, by Sir Julius Vogel, London Colonial Institute — 
Otis T. Mason, Washington, D. C. 

The publishers of the Naruratist furnish the editor of this 
department with a few separate impressions of the Anthropological 
Notes, and he will cheerfully supply copies to contributors of 
short sketches if they will send their address. 


GEOLOGY AND PALAZONTOLOGY. 


GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN British CotumsiA.—In a recent pam- 
phlet, entitled “ On the Superficial Geology of British Columbia,” 
Mr. G. M. Dawson draws fresh attention to the moraines, glacial 
grooves and ice marks in north-western America. His conclusions 
which we append are of a good deal of interest in connection 
with the former statements made as to the lack of glacial de- 
posits in Alaska and neighboring regions southward. ` 

1. Thecl ter of tl k striation and fluting on the south-east- 
ern peninsula of Vancouver island shows that at one time a great 
glacier swept over it from north to south. The glacier must have 
filled the Strait of Georgia, with a breadth, in some places, of over 
fifty miles, and a thickness of ice near Victoria of considerably 
Over six hundred feet. Traces of the glaciers are also found 
on San Juan island, and the coast of the mainland. 

2. The deposits immediately overlying the glaciated rocks, be- 
sides hard material locally developed, and probably representing 
moraine profonde, consist of sandy clays and sands, which ‘have 
been arranged in water, and in some places contain marine shells. 
These, or at least their lower beds, were probably formed at the 
= „foot of the glacier when retreating, the sea standing considerably 
higher than at present. 

3. Observations in the northern part of the Strait of Georgia, 
and the fjords opening into it—where the sources of the great 
_ glacier must have been, show ice-action to a height of over 3000 ` 
feet on the mountain sides. The fjords north of the Strait of 
Georgia show similar traces. Terraces along the coast of the 
mainland are very seldom seen, and have never been observed at 
great elevations. 

4. In the interior plateau of British Columbia there is a system 
of glaciation from north to south, of which traces have been ob- 
served at several localities above 3000 feet. Subsequent glacia- 


clay, hold many water-rounded stones, with some glacier-marked, 
and occurs at all heights uptoover 5000 feet. The latter character- 
ize nearly all localities below 3000 feet, and are most extensively 
developed in the northern low country, where they appear as a fine 
white sill or loess. a 

. The interior is marked with shore-lines and terraces from the 


488 General Notes. [July, 


present sea-level up to 5270 feet, at which height a well-marked 
beach of rolled stones occurs on It-ga-chuz mountain 
- 7. Moraines occur in great numbers. Some of the moraine- 
like accumulations may have been formed in connection with 
the north-to-south glaciation. Most of those now seen, however, 
mark stages in the retreat of glaciers towards the various moun- 
tain ranges. The material of the moraines resembles that of the 
Boulder-clay, but with water-rounded stones even more abundant. 
-~ S. The sequence of events in the interior region has been: 
glaciation from north to south, with deposit of Boulder- clay, for- 
mations of terraces by lowering of water-surface, accompanied 
or followed by a warm period; short advance of glaciers from 
the mountains contemporaneously with the formation of lower 
. terraces; retreat of glaciers to their present limits. Glaciation of 
Vancouver island may have occurred during both the first and 
second cold periods, or during the second only. 

g. If the north to south glaciation has been produced by gla- 
cier ice, it must have been either (a) by the action of a great 
northern ice-cap (against which grave difficulties appear), or (4) 
by the accumulation of ice on the country itself, especially on the 
mountains to the north. In either case it is probable that the 
glacier filled the central plateau and, besides passing southward, 
passed seaward through the gaps and fjords of the coast range. 
The Boulder- clay must have been formed along the front of the 
glacier during its withdrawal, in water, either that of the sea, Or 
of a great lake produced by the blocking by local glaciers of the 
whole oe the valleys leading from the plateau, to a depth of over 

fee 


10. ie general submergence to over 5000 feet be admitted, the 
Japan current would, flow strongly through Behring’s Strait, and 
over part of Alaska, while Arctic ice-laden water, passing south 
across the region of the Great Plains, would also enter the central 
plateau of British Columbia, accounting for the north to south 
glaciation and simultaneous formation of the Boulder- clay. 


THE SPECIES OF RHINOCEROS OF THE Loup Fork ErocH.— 
Prof. Cope recently exhibited to the American Philosophical 
Society the crania of three species of rhinoceros which he had 
obtained from the Loup as beds of Kansas and Colorado. 
Two of them which were new to science, he named <A/phelops 
fossiger and A. nedkaiarhaein Of the third species, the A. megal- 
odus (Cope), two crania were exhibited, one of them in a remark- 
able state of preservation. Three crania of the A. fossiger and 
one of the A. malacorhinus furnished their distinctive characters. 
The A. megalodus is the smallest species, and about as large as 
the smaller race of the Rhinocerus sondaicus according to Cuvier. 
It has a narrow elevated occiput, long and smooth nasal bones, 
a contracted preorbital region, and one large infraorbital foramen. 
The A. malacorhinus is a very peculiar species. It has very short 


1878] Geology and Paleontology. 489 


and small nasal bones, a broad front and a narrow and high 
occiput. The preorbital region is concave, and there are three 
infraorbital foramina. It is as large as the existing Atelodus 
bicornis. In the A. fossiger the occipital region does not rise. 
above the level of the front, and is laterally expanded. The pre- 
orbital region is wide and convex, and there is one large infra- 
orbital foramen. The size is about that of the A. malacorhinus, 
but the molar teeth are larger than those of the Rhinoceros indi- 
cus. They are peculiar in the great vertical depth of their fossæ, 
and the isolation of the posterior notch as a pit. This species 
was quite abundant during the period of the Loup Fork epoch, 
and were contemporaries of the Mastodon campester and several 
species of horses. 


Hicu AnD Low WATER IN THE St. Lawrence River.—Unlike 
most rivers the St. Lawrence is not subject to sudden or very 
noticeable fluctuations in respect to the depth of its waters. It 
is stated, however, by residents in the vicinity that once in about 
seven years the water rises two or three feet above its ordinary 
level. There is no question but that this is the case in certain 
years, although it may be doubted whether the period of unusual 
rise commonly given is according to the fact. Two years ago, 
in the summer of 1876, the extraordinary height of the water in 
Lake Ontario and in the river above the rapids was a subject of 
common remark. The rise and subsidence are both gradual, con- 
tinuing several months in the year mentioned, lasting throughout 
the entire summer and autumn. Iam not informed in regard to 
the existence of any special records of observations made to deter- 
mine the cause of this somewhat striking phenomenon. If it is 
due to an unusual fall of snow the preceding winter, causing an 
increase of water throughout the immense territory drained by - 
this river, the fact can be determined directly from the Weather 
Reports furnished by the Signal Service Bureau.—JZ. A. Veeder, 
Antwerp, N. Y. 


Its interest lies in its curious resemblance to a belemnite. Some 
ime ago it was announced that a belemnite had been discovered 


490 General Notes. ee 


in Tertiary rocks in Australia, an announcement which of course 


created much surprise, since it had previously been an article of 
geological faith that belemnites were exclusively mesozoic fossils. 
Prof. McCoy now suggests that the fossil taken for a belemnite 


present decade, or some other very similar fossil. Another 
notable Victorian fossil noticed here for the first time is an eared 
seal of Pleistocene age, to which the name of Arctocephalus wil- 
famst is given—Academy. ` . 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. 

GEOGRAPHICAL Notes.—The Geographical Magazine contains 
a map showing the Himalayan explorations of Mullah, one of the 
explorers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. Dr. 
Kirchhoff, President of the Halle Geographical Society, has discov- 
ered, in the library of the University, a copy (apparently) of part of the 
original log book of Captain Cook, during his voyagein1772. The 
book was bequeathed to the library referred to by John Reinhold 
Foster, Cook’s companion, who died in Halle. Lieut. Wyse 
at last accounts was exploring the Isthmus of San Blas, the nar- 
rowest point between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 


Deloncle of Lyons, concludes from documents in his hands, that (1) 
Lake Tanganyika was not known tobe in existence at the time of the 


1878. ] Microscopy. ` 491 


Feannette (Pandora) will be ready for sea in a short time, and 
then sail for Havre, where a temporary crew will be shipped, 
when she will leave for San Francisco. Mr. Bennett hopes the 
expedition will sail for the North in June, 1879. It will go by 
the route through Behring’s Straits. Prof. Nordenskiold’s ex- 
pedition for the north-east passage sails in the Vega, in July. 
The vessel Eothen, with twenty-five men, will sail from New York 
-in July for the Arctic regions in search for the relics of Sir John 


Franklin. 
MICROSCOPY .! 


DETERMINATION OF ROCKS BY THE Microscope.—At the regular _ 


meeting of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, May 16th, 
Mr. Melville Atwood presented twenty-two rock specimens illus- 
trating a new method of preparing the same for determination, 
and read a very interesting paper on the subject. He is aware 
that looseness in petrological nomenclature is the rule and not 
the exception, and that many geologists are found writing of 
totally different rocks under the same name. But he is still more 
impressed with the ignorance of the miners in regard to the rocks 
which form the boundaries of the different mines. He does not 
value much any distinction between rocks which cannot be 
applied in the field, and he found, while making a collection of 
rock specimens prepared in different ways, that what was most 
wanted was a method to make it easy for his fellow-miners to 
understand and distinguish the enclosing and wall rocks of the 
different lodes they were working—these rocks having so much 
. to do with the productiveness of the lodes. To prepare rocks so 
that they can be easily studied with a pocket lens or a low power 
of the microscope and accurately identified by comparison with a 
collection of foreign types, they are prepared as follows: “First 
wash the specimen clean, using a brush to get rid of any clay and 
dirt; then select the side or part you wish to examine, and grind 
it down on a piece of sandstone (a shoemaker’s sharpening stone) 
until a perfectly flat surface is obtained. This will occupy but a 
few minutes unless the rock is very hard. The surface should 
then be worked down still finer with a-square emery file, using 
water, and after you have obtained a sufficient polish, wash the 
rock again and then let it dry gradually, either on a stove or, 
what is better still, a little brass table with a spirit lamp, the same 
that is used for heating slides. When perfectly dry heat it again 
to a point so that you can barely handle it; then varnish the pol- 
ished side while hot with a mixture of one part of Canada bal- 
sam to three parts of alcohol, which must be warmed before 
applying it, and laid on with a camel’s hair brush. It will soon 
dry, and if left for a day or two will harden, so that you can han- 
dle it without injury.” This simple and rough treatment is 


1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


- 


492 Scientific News. [July, 


described as remarkably successful in making plain the character- 
istics of the rocks. 


OLEOMARGARINE.—Mr. John Michels has recently studied this 
substance, and drawn its appearance under the microscope. The 
abundant fat globules and occasional crystals of common salt 
which are found in real butter are almost entirely wanting, and in 
their place are found an abundance of large feathery crystals and 
of fragments of animal tissues. As the fat is merely liquified and 
set free by a heat not exceeding 120° Fahrenheit, and manipu- 


lated so as to have the general appearance of butter, any germs | 


of disease or embryos of parasites it may have contained are lia- 
ble to be preserved alive and transferred to the systems of those 
who make use of the substance. He therefore considers the 
oleomargarine, though for cooking purposes an excellent substi- 
tute for any fat previously used, to be eaten in a raw state as a 
substitute for table butter only at considerable risk. ; 

Mr ickson described atthe San Francisco Society the char- 
acter of oleomargarine cheese. Thecream fromthe milk is removed, 
_ and then liquid oleomagarine stirred in to replace the fat thus taken 
away. The mass is agitated, and rennet enough added to form a 
curd quickly before the oil can separate from the skim milk, in 
order to form an emulsion of oil and a menstruum of solid casein, 
like that which exists in cheese from natural milk. This process 
has succeeded so well that chemical analysis has shown the arti- 
ficial cheese richer than the genuine, and so great an improve- 
ment on skimmed cheese that large quantities are sold in New 


York and shipped to Europe. Under the microscope this artificial 


preparation, on account of the imperfect emulsion formed, shows 
_ cavities of irregular shape in which the artificially introduced fat 
was imprisoned when the curd was formed, instead of the smooth 
mixture of fat globules found in cheese from full cream milk. 


A Rare Sate.—The microscopes, objectives, accessories and 
objects of the late distinguished and critical microscopist, John 
_E. Gavit, are now offered for sale by his son, W. E. Gavit, of 
Stockbridge, Mass., from whom catalogues and particulars can be 


obtained. 


Excuances.—The San Francisco Microscopical Society is now 


enabled, by the kindness of the State Geological Society, to offer ; 
=~ return exchanges of Pacific Coast diatomaceous deposits on re- 


— ceipt of any valuable microscopical material. 


a 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


797. At the end of a course of study at the common 


s 


a Professor Joseph Henry, of the. Bar thioniii Institution, : 


lied May 13th, at Washington, of Bright’s disease of the kidneys. — . 
rofessor Henry was born in Albany, N. Y., on the 17th of De- 


1878. ] Scientific News. 493 


_ schools he entered the Albany Academy, where he displayed a 
marked taste for scientific and mechanical branches, and he fol- 
lowed a natural bent when he afterward learned the watchmaker’s 
trade. In 1826 he laid aside his business to become an instructor 
at the Academy, and the next year began a series of experiments 
in electricity which introduced him to the notice of the world of 
scholars. Among his earliest discoveries was the fact that in the 
transmission of electricity for great distances, the power of the 
battery must be proportioned to the length of the conductor, and 
he was the first to magnetize a piece of iron ata distance or make 
use of electro-magnetism as a motor for machinery. In the last 
instance an oscillating iron beam was surrounded by a conductor 
or insulated copper wire. A current of electricity was sent 
through this in one direction, which caused one end to be repelled 
upward and the other attracted downward by two stationary mag- 
nets. The downward motion of the one end of the beam near 
its lowest point brought the conducting wires in contact with the 
opposite poles of the battery, which produced the reverse motion, 

so on continually. In a later arrangement the velocity of 
motion was regulated by a fly-wheel, and electro-magnets substi- 
tuted for the permanent magnets at first used. 

„In 1829 Prof. Henry prepared some electro-magnets of a power 
higher than any yet produced, and one which he afterwards con- 
structed on the same plan, and which will sustain thirty-six hun- 
dred pounds with a battery occupying only a cubic foot of space, 
Is still exhibited in the cabinet of the College of New Jersey. 
Continuing his investigations, he at length astounded his friends 
by applying the principle which we now see in use every day in 
the electric telegraph—making a bell to ring at one end of a wire 
a mile long by the transmission of a current from the other end; 
and in a paper printed in Silliman’s American Fournal of Science 
in 1831, he pointed out the possibility of employing such an 
agency for the instantaneous conveyance of intelligence from one 


494 Scientific News. [July, 


of important discoveries in astronomy, till he has perfected a sys-  ~ 
tem by which an announcement is flashed from any part of 
America to the Smithsonian Institution, and thence to the observa- 
tories in Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna, all in a time scarcely 
long enough to estimate and without drawing a dollar from the 
proverbially low purses’ of the star-gazing fraternity. The same 
year witnessed the completion by the Royal Society of London 
of a “Catalogue of Scientific Papers "—a compilation of incalcul- 
able usefulness to scholars—mainly in response to a suggestion 
made by Professor Henry in 1858. To him we owe, perhaps, 
more than to any one man, our present position as a nation in the 
domain of meteorology; it was he .who devised our system of 
weather despatches, and who forsaw the importance of tabulating 
them and preparing the daily maps now in use. As an astrono- 
mer he was a leading figure as early as 1845, when he published 
his observations on the temperature of the sun, which were con- 
firmed by Secchi seven years later, and have remained unshaken 
in their passage through a score of hands since. As a topogra- 


of making standard measurements. It was he who, at the age 


Tyndall as an investigator of the questions involved in the 
perfection of fog signals for use on the ocean coasts. Thus m 
every domain he enters we find him an enthusiast and a master, 
his whole soul given to the advancement of the good of his race 
by practical means. : ye 
His place will be difficult to fill in many ways, but his loss will 
be especially felt on account of the influence of his noble moral 
character. He was a man of the clearest sense of justice, and 
would tolerate no wrong; yet as a good man he was not prone to 
suspect evil in others. His rectitude was equalled by his charity; 
but this virtue did not, as too frequently, impair the decision of 
his acts. He was essentially free from partisan spirit, and although 
his own views were broadly liberal, he had no sympathy with the 
methods of some of the modern apostles of liberalism, who while 
= they destroy, fail to offer satisfactory substitutes. The young 
scientists of this country of the present generation, who have 50 — 
often found him a friend in the past, are fortunate in the posses- 
sion of his example for the future. 
ce — The distinguished invertebrate palwontologist, Wm. 
= Gabb, died May 3oth, in this city, of consumption. He was b 
_ January 20, 1839, and was consequently in his fortieth year. 
had returned home but a short time previous to his death from 
Santo Domingo, where he had so ably labored in his chosen pur 
suits—geology and paleontology. He began his career as ge0'0” 
in the capacity of chief of the Geological Survey of Califor 


ni 


1878.] : Scientific News. 495 


= nia, to which post he had been assigned by Prof. Whitney. He 
made extensive geological and geographical explorations along 
the west coast, California, Oregon and Nevada; he also engaged in 
a survey of the peninsula of Lower California, of which it is said 
he made the most accurate map extant. His principal work, 
however, was his explorations in Costa Rica, and especially Santo 
Domingo, to the topography and geology of which he had given 
much study, and the results of which he embodied in his quarto 
report published by the American Philosophical Society. Numerous 
_ other papers on the secondary fossils of the United States, Santo 
Domingo’and Peru were contributed by him to the Proceedings 
and Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences and to the 
Transactions and Proceedings of,,the American Philosophical 
Society. American science sustains a severe loss in his death in 
the departments in which he labored, and to which he had con- 
tributed upwards of fifty papers up to the time of his death. 

= North Mountain Camp of Physical Culture,so success- 
fully established by Dr. J. T. Rothrock in 1876, and continued 

ast summer by Messrs. Taylor and Frank, will be open during 

the coming, months of July and August, and will be conducted 

upon the same general plan as that of previous years. 
_ The primary object of the Camp-School is physical culture. No 

stated lessons from books will be required, nor will close mental 

application be allowed, though a part of each day will be devoted 

to instruction, which will consist of lessons in Geology, Botany, 

General Natural History and Drawing from Nature. 

The location of the camp is near a mountain lake in the south- 
astern part of Sullivan Co., Pa., at an altitude of over two thou- 
sand feet above tide. 

As a rule, boys from twelve to seventeen years of age only will 
__ be admitted, though in exceptional cases it may be found proper 
_ to admit others. 

For the term of two months the charge is $100. This includes 
boarding, washing and tuition. While it is desirable that pupils 
remain during the entire term, they will be received for-any part 
of the term, and will be charged in proportion to the time spent 
in camp. In all cases, however, one-half of the sum must be 
paid on entering, and the remainder when the pupil begins the 
latter half of his term, of whatever length it is decided that 
Shall be. 

i The better route to reach the camp is by the Lackawanna and 
i Bloomsburg Railroad to Shickshinny, and thence by stage to the 
North Mountain House. 

For further information address L. H. Taylor, University of 
- Pennsylvania, Box 2838, Philadelphia, prior to July 1, 1878; after 
that, Shickshinny, Luzerne Co., Penna. 

— The Bridgeport Scientific Society was organized last year 
with H. N. Powers, D.D., president, and Clarence Sterling, cura- 


Pe iin Gare AT ae ee Oe ee Oe ee ee IE ee aes ce Oh ede tn eae 
Mees, eS E ee err oe Bes peat. 


490 Scientific News. (July, om 


tor, and has issued a circular calling attention to the desire on 
the part of the society of establishing a museum to illustrate the 
natural history and archeology of Western Connecticut. Cor- 
respondents and donors should address Clarence Sterling, curator 
Scientific Society, Bridgeport, Conn. 

— The Cincinnati Society of Natural History has issued the | 
first number of its journal, the subscription price of which is $2. 

— The Chesapeake Zodlogical Laboratory of Johns Hopkins 
University opened June 15th for a two month’s session at old 
Point Comfort, Va., under the direction of Dr. W. K. Brooks. 

— Mr. J. W. Groves, of the South London Microscopical Club, 
after cleaning glass slides for mounting microscopical objects, by 
one of the usual processes, fastens them together by their edges, 
after the manner of the well-known artist’s sketching blocks. : 
This is easily done with a pile of slips, by fixing around their 
edges a piece of ready gummed tissue-paper, ten inches long,and 
of a width suitable to the number of slides, so that, although they 
are firmly bound together, their surfaces are left uncovered. The 
block is left to dry, when each slip may be detached by running 
the thumb nail round its edges. The surface next the adjoining 
slip should be used for the preparation to be mounted on, as 1t 15, 
of course, quite clean, although the exposed one may have 
become dirty; the fragments of tissue-paper are removed after 
the mount is completed.— Quarterly Fournal of Science, London. 

— Under the title of Essai sur le Classement des Animaux qui 
vivent sur la Plage et dans les Environs de Dunkerque, M 
Terquem gives a catalogue, illustrated with five excellent plates, 
of the Foraminifera which live on the shores of Dunkirk, 
Belgium. 

— The total production of silk-cocoons in Europe amounted 
upon an average to 58,000 tons per year during the last five years. 
Italy stands first in the list of silk-producing countries, pro- 
ducing 39,000 tons per year; France produces about 10,000 tons, 
Turkey 4000; Spain 2200; Austria 1900; Portugal 250; Greece 
200; Russia 150; Germany 100, and Belgium and Switzerland 
only 100 tons together.—Nature. e 2 

— Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zodlogical Garden: I spotted — 
sandpiper (Tringoides macularius); 1 zebu (Bos indicus) d', born 
in the garden; 2 lizards (Holbrookia maculata and Crotaphytus 
collaris), Texas; 2 Carolina parrakeets (Conurus carolinensis); 1 

corn snake (Coluber guttatus); 1 mountain black snake ( Coluber 
obsoletus); 1 blue-jay (Cyanurus cristatus); 1 ring-necked snake 
Diadophis punctatus); 9 prairie dogs ( Cynomys ludovicianus), born 
in the garden; 1 broad-winged buzzard (Buteo pennsylvanicus); 1 
spreading adder (Heterodon platyrhinus); 1 pine snake ( has 
anole] 1 glass spake (Ophi 


s 

1 uty op. 
lanoleucus); 1 glass sna phiosaurus ventralis); 1 oposs 
a idelphys virginiana) ; 1 scarlet ibis (/bis rubra), S¢ 

ds (Ancistrodon contortrix); 1 great 


. ae ene paper is Dr. Horn’s 


1878. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 497 


owl (Budo virginianus); 2 gray foxes ( Vulpes virginianus); 1 rac- 


coon (Procyon lotor); 1 garter snake (Zutenia sirtalis); 1 wood- 
chuck (Arctomys monax); 5 alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) ; 


_ 2wild boars (Sus scrofa), North Africa. 


— A new industry has recently sprung up in parts of Minne- 


sota, namely, frog culture; it is a simple matter, consisting 


chiefly in the protection of eggs and tadpoles from birds and other 
enemies, by means of wire screens. The product, thus far re- 
-ported, amounts to 3,000 dozen of frogs’ legs, of which about two- 
thirds have been shipped to St. Louis. The average quotation of 
prices is 20 cents per dozen. 


:0: : 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SociETy.— May 14.—Mr. Jesse Young 
read a paper upon his recent journey of exploration as the as- 
tronomer of the Giles Expedition across the continent of Aus- 
tralia, with descriptions of the deserts, native races and the 
natural history of the country. 

ay 28.—Gen. C. Chaillé Long lectured on Egypt, Africa and 
Africans, embracing the following subjects: Egypt’s annexations ; 
the results of his expeditions in Central and Oriental Africa ; his 
discovery of Lake Ibrahim and two hundred miles of the un- 
nown White Nile; the source of the Nile; M’tse, King of Uganda; 
the Niam-Niams ; Akka, or Ticki-Ticki, and the Anthropophagi 
and pigmy tribes. 
_ Bosron Society or Natura History.—May 15.—Mr. Richard 


_ Rathbun read a Description of a Coral Reef in the Bay of Bahia, 


Brazil. Mr. J. A. Allen spoke on the Fossil Birds of North 
America, and Dr. T. Sterry Hunt remarked on the-Taconic Rocks 
of North America. 


eeraa, È Pamen 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS? 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— 
The last numbers (1 and 2 of vol. vii.) of the Transactions 


a the North-American genera of Cicindelide, also of Dicelus, with 


498 fx Scientific Serials. [July, 1878. 


- THE GeroGRAPHICAL Macazine.—May. Prejevalsky’s Ex- 

plorations in Central Asia (with a map showing his route from 
Kuldja across the Tian-Shan to Lob-Nor and the Altyn-Tag, 
1876-77). Himalaya explorations (with a map of the Mullah’s 
new explorations in the Chitral Valley, and along the course of 
the Indus). The Cossacks, by C. A. G. Bridge. Salang Island, 
by A. de Richelieu. Droughts and climates at the Cape of Good 
Hope, by W. J. Black. 

Tue GerorocicaL MacGazinE—May. Geological Time, Part 
IL, by C. L. Morgan. Erratics at high levels in North-western 
America—barriers to a great ice-sheet, by G. M. Dawson. Denu- 
dation—rain and river, by H. O. Forbes. The fossil-fish localities 
of the Lebanon, by G. R. Lewis. Occurence of a fresh water 
sponge in the Purbeck limestone. 


SIEBOLD AND KĶKÖLLIKER’S ZEITSCHRIFT.—April 23. Form of . 
the crystalline cone in the eyes of arthropoda, by O. Schmidt. 
On Anomia, with remarks on the comparative anatomy of the 
muscles in Lamellibranch Molluscs, by H. V. Ihering. The poison 
apparatus and anal glands (secreting an odorous fluid) in ants, by 
A. Forel. Separation of the order of Oscines from the Clama- 
tores, Scansores and Columbidz by the structure of the egg-shell, 
by W. von Nathusius. Contribution toa knowledge of the postem- 
bryonal formation of the limbs in insects, by H. Dewitz On the 
ornamental colors of Daphnide, by A. Weismann. 

May 7.—On the structure of sponges (Reniera), by E. Keller. 
Contributions to a knowledge of the urinary vessels of insects, by 
E. Schindler. 

Supplement to May 7.—On the Amphipods and Isopods (struc- 
ture of the antennz, gills, &c.), by F. Leydig. On the develop- 
ment of the testes and on alternation of generations in Salpæ, by 
W. Salensky. On the method of Zodlogy, by P. Kramer. On the 
reproductive organs of some ectoparasitical marine Trematodes, 
by C. Vogt. The movements of flying fish through the air, by 
K. Moebius. Faunistic studies in the fresh water lakes of Switz- 
erland, by F. A. Forel. 


_ Canaoran Entomotocist.—April. Notes on Grapta comma 
and ixterrogationis (relates to dimorphism) by W. H. Edwards. 


CANADIAN NATURALIST.—April 10. Notes on some Scottish 
Devonian Plants, by J. W. Dawson. Traveling notes on the Sur- 
face Geology of the Pacific Slope, by G. M. Dawson. On some 
Jurassic fossils from the Coast range of British Columbia, by J. 
= F. Whiteaves. Notes on the Locust in the North-west, in 1870, 

_ by G. M. Dawson. The mechanical effects of Arctic ice in pro — 

ducing ocean currents, by H. Y. Hind. © : ; 


THE | 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xu.— AUGUST, 1878. — No. 8. 


— — 


THE INELIGIBILITY OF THE EUROPEAN HOUSE 
SPARROW IN AMERICA. 


BY DR. ELLIOTI COURS, USA, 


T is very regretable that the “sparrow question,” which has 

already become a matter of national moment, should have 
degenerated into such a miserable personal controversy between 
the sentimentalists who misrepresent the facts and the ornitholo- 
gists who understand them, that a prudent person, whatever his 
views, might refrain from having anything to do with it. But it is 
With me a matter of conscientious discharge of my duty to place the 
facts properly before the people, that they may be informed and 
warned in time, before the pest shall have become ineradicable. 
I do not write for ornithologists; for, so far as Iam aware, there 
is not a scientific ornithologist in America, among those who 
have expressed any decided opinion, who are in favor of the 
wretched interlopers which we have so thoughtlessly introduced, 
and played with, and cuddled, like a parcel of hysterical, slate- 
pencil-eating school-girls. I have held a tight rein on this con- 
troversy from the first, and probably know more of its inside 
history than any other person; and I am in position to affirm 
that the sneers, the invectives, the ridicule and abuse, and the 
Wild assertions of the leader or leaders of the pro-sparrow fac- 
tion, result from a frantic despair in the face of the facts which 
_ Ornithologists coolly adduce. The fact that the sparrow is a 
~ Nuisance in a variety of ways, that it does not do any appreciable 
Sood, that it does a very obvious amount of damage, that it 
harasses, drives off and sometimes destroys useful native birds, 


_ and that it has no place in the natural economy of this country, 


3 are patent to every one who will take the trouble to see for him- i 
_ Self. These. same facts, some or all, are disagreeably obvious to 


VOL, XI1.—wno VIII. 35 


500 Lneligibility of the European House Sparrow. (August, 


many persons, especially agriculturists whose fields and gardens 
are assailed. All of these same facts are admitted by competent 
ornithologists generally. None of them are publicly disputed, so 
far as I know, by any person or persons whose authority has any 
weight in a question of this kind. 

The friends of the sparrow in this country fall in the following 
categories: First, those who know nothing and care nothing 
particularly about them, except that they “rather like” the pert 
and brusque familiarity of the birds—a class composed chiefly of 
children, women and old fogies. Secondly, those who are or 
were instrumental in getting the birds here, and are interested, 
either in reputation or in pocket, to keep them here. Thirdly, 
quasi-ornithologists who have been misled into hasty expressions 
of opinion to which they feel bound to stick. Fourthly, the 
claquers of the last, who play a sort of “ Simon-says-up” game. 
Fifthly, a very few intelligent and scientific persons, but not prac- 
tical nor professional ornithologists, who recognize fully what 
little good the sparrow undeniably does, and shape a favorable 
argument mainly from the undisputed advantages which result 
from a certain just and proper number of sparrows 7 Europe. | 

Most of my antagonists in this matter—those that fall in the 
first four categories above named—are of course not worth serious — 
attention, for they either have no decided opinions of any sort, or else 
they are not open to instruction. But I have a particular word 
to say to those who draw an honest argument, not without some — 
show of reason, from the state of things in Europe. I grant, if 
they wish, everything they adduce, from Prévost (who by the way 
is a great tally-ho! for the members of the third category above 5 
to the last investigator of the contents of sparrows’ crops; and : 
I simply reply that the argument does not apply to the case of the ‘ 
sparrow in America. In Europe these birds are part and parcel n 
of the natural fauna of the country. They are not,as I under- 
stand, petted, pampered and sedulously protected from their natu- — 
ral enemies as they are here. They shift for themselves, find 
certain sources of food supply, have a fair share of natu 
enemies, and are kept within due bounds of multiplication e 


— play, and they play it; they have their natural checks, and their | 
_ increase is naturally checked. They are useful birds; and 


1878. ] Lneligibility of the European House Sparrow. 501 


after somewhat excessive multiplication, from any cause, they 
have been injudiciously exterminated in certain districts, it has 
been found necessary to re-stock such districts at great trouble 
and expense. All this, I believe, is admitted on all hands. 

But the principle of mutatis mutandis does not apply to the 
Sparrow in America. The things that would have to be changed 
to make the sparrows fit here cannot be changed. The comple- 
ment of our avifauna was made up without these birds. There 
is no room for them ; and if there is any work for them, time has 
shown that they slight it, or neglect it altogether. The only 
way to make the sparrows eat the worms they were im- 
ported to destroy, and which they seem to specially dislike, 
would be to starve them into such unpalatable fare. Instead of 
that, we sedulously feed them from our tables till they are grown 
too fat and lazy to think of worms. And if we did not do so, it 
would be useless to expect them to take to a diet they do not 
relish, when the streets are full of manure, of which they are 
Specially fond, and the trees of our orchards and lawns are full of 
fruit-blossoms, and the gardens are full of small fruits, and the 
fields are waving with grain—all these things being the xatural 
food of birds of the sparrow tribe, to whom an insectivorous diet 
is only an occasional and temporary variation. 

Again, the matter of the limitless multiplication of these pesti- 
lent famine-breeders presents itself very differently in this 
country. They are extraordinarily prolific. A single female has 
been known to lay over thirty eggs in a season. They ordinarily 
raise three or four broods a year, and may have half a dozen at a 
time. They are safely housed from their natural enemies; rather, 
they have no special enemies in this country, and such enemies 
as their excessive abundance might raise up against them have, 
in at least one case, been summarily disposed of, as in the silly 
action of the Bostonians regarding the shrikes. There is thus 
Practically zo check upon their limitless multiplication, and they 
are insidiously multiplying at a rate that perhaps few suspect. 
A short ten years ago a sparrow was something of a sight any- 
Where; now, the millions we have are countless, The sparrows 
have played mischief enough already, I know; but I say deliber- 
ately, that this is nothing to what the next decade or two will 
. Witness if this desperate sparrow-mania goes on. We may have 
fore long people knocking at the Congressional gates for an 


502° Lneligibility of the European House Sparrow. {|August, 


appropriation for a Sparrow Commission, like the Grasshopper 
Commission now sitting, to consider if there be any available 
relief from the scourge. When the sparrows overflow into all 
the country—and they are beginning to do so already—and settle 
in hordes on the grain fields,a good many will doubtless be 
destroyed- by the birds and beasts of prey; but it may then be 
too late. At present, an occasional stone from some idle boy, or 
an occasional cat on the woodshed, are all the sparrow has to 
look out for. 

I think it will be evident that the argumentum ad Europam 
cannot logically apply here. I have dwelt upon it because it is 
the only show of reason I find in my worthier opponents; yet it 
is fallacious, thoroughly fallacious. The crude asseverations of 
the less worthy, the misrepresentations and tergiversations of inter- 
ested persons, and all the vociferations of the pyrgitomaniacs are 
wasted in a case like this, or are not wasted only in so far as they 
serve to dress up a melodramatic spectacle, at seeing which well- 
informed persons usually smile. The philopasserites may be 
reminded that sentiment is not science, the present being a ques- 
tion of applied or economic science; that satire, ridicule and 
sophistry, however potent in the political or theological arena, 
are impotent in the field of science. 

For the common good, as well as for the benefit of those who 
may care to defend the sparrows, I make the following specifica- 
tions of my general charge against these birds. 

1. They neglect entirely, or perform very insufficiently, the 
business they were imported to do. In spite of some good ser- 
vice at one season of the year, in a few particular localities, 
against some particular kinds of insects, the state of our shade 
trees remains substantially as it was before their introduction. 
Some of the decrease of noxious insects at times is due to their 
periodical decrease, with which the sparrows have nothing to do , 
and in spite of assertations to the contrary, people are still scraping 
trees, and employing the usual defenses against insects, in pre- 
cisely those places where it was said that the sparrows had done 
the business. 

2. They attack, harass, fight against, dispossess, drive away and 


sometimes actually kill various of our native birds which are 


much more insectivorous by nature than themselves, and which 
might do us better service if they were equally encouraged. This 


_ 1878.) Lneligibility of the European House Sparrow. "503 


fact is suppressed, explained away, or flatly denied, according to 
the disingenuousness, the aptitude for quibbling, or the audacity 
of the third and fourth categories of persons above described. 
It is attested, however, by numberless competent and veracious 
eye-witnesses. 

3- They commit great depredations in the kitchen-garden, the 
orchard and the grain-field. We are only as yet on the very 
threshold of this matter, yet how obvious it is! And what may 
be expected, when, instead of a few hundred million sparrows, we 
have the millions of millions which will be ours in a few years, 

_ if we persist in this folly. 

4. They are personally obnoxious and unpleasant to many 
persons. For myself, I “ rather like” them too; they rather 
amuse and interest me, and are not at all disagreeable, as long as 
I can keep their disastrous results out of mind. I am not a deli- 
cate woman, nor yet a squeamish man, to be shocked by their 
perpetual antics during the spring and summer ; being something 
of an anatomist I can stand it without embarrassment ; but all are 
not thus constituted. Neither am I a nervous invalid, to be 
fretted and annoyed into positive illness by the incessant turmoil 
at the window; but others are. Nor do I, I regret to say, own a 
house where the steps and window-sills and: trellis-work and 
lawn are so befilthed that none of my servants will stay if 
they have to clean up after the birds; others, however, are in 
such case. I grant that this is all a matter of taste, rather than 
of science; but such as it is, it is largely against the sparrows. 

5. They have, at present, practically no natural enemies, nor 
any check whatever upon limitless increase. This would be 
undesirable, even in the case of the most desirable birds. As the 
Case stands we are repeating the history of the white weed and the 

orway rat} 

I have to make one suggestion and to offer two recommenda- 
Dois * 

Itisa fact, that with all this talk and counter-talk about the 
Jood of the sparrow, and to what extent it may feed upon insects - 
injurious to our fruit and shade trees, nobody has yet made the 

_ €Xperiments obviously necessary to determine exactly what the 
1A writer in the London Garden says: “It may be remembered that in one of 


_ the back numbers of the 4 Garden,” I mentioned that the introduction of the spar- 
Tow would turn out to be a great mistake, and they are now finding this out.” 


504 Ineligibility of the European House Sparrow. (August, 


birds eat in this country. I would, therefore, suggest the obvious 
propriety of finding out exactly, in the only proper and scientific. 
way, instead of sawing the air any longer in such futile way. I 
suggest, that, at the height of the insect season, at the time when 
the sparrows should be eating the bugs if they ever do, in some 
places fairly infested with the bugs, a sufficient number of spar- 
rows be killed and examined in respect to the contents of their 
crops. Let the authorities of any of our large cities, preferably 
Boston, where the birds are said to have done so much good, and 
where the sparrow combination talks loudest, furnish to proper 
persons, say five hundred sparrows, whose stomachs shall be 
examined by some competent botanist and entomologist together. 
If noxious insects should be found to form the greater portion, 
or even any considerable portion of the food of these birds, I 
would yield the case as far as this particular count is concerned. 
At present I continue to believe that the scraping and other occu- 
pation of the city-forestering Othellos is not gone. 

As to my recommendations: I am often asked, “ Would you 
then have sparrows exterminated ?” While I am not prepared to 
advise such an extreme measure as this, I do not hesitate to 
declare that prompt and stringent measures should be taken, as 
a matter of national economy, to check the increase of the birds. 
We have enough already. Without unnecessary cruelty, the 
numbers might be kept down, if not diminished, by the following 
gradually and continuously operating means :— 

I. Let the birds shift for themselves; turn them loose and put 
them on the same footing as other birds. That is, take down the 
boxes and all the special contrivances for sheltering and petting 
the birds; stop feeding them; stop supplying them with building 
materials; let them take care of themselves. 

II. Abolish the legal penalties for killing them, The birds are 
now under the arm of the law, which protects them from most O 
the natural vicissitudes of bird-life. Let the boys kill them if 
they wish; or let them be trapped and used as pigeons or glass 
balls are now used, in shooting matches among sportsmen. 
Vast numbers of pigeons are destroyed in this way ; there are 
even “sparrow-clubs” in various cities, which make a business of 
practicing on various of our small birds, for which the European 


~ sparrows would be an admirable substitute, answering all the con- 


ditions these marksmen could desire. In this way the birds a 


1878.| Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. 505 


might even be made a source of some little revenue, instead of a 
burden and a pest; they are to be had in practically unlimited 
numbers, and could be sold by the city to such persons as might 
desire to use them for sporting purposes. 

The present article is to be regarded as a mere outline of the 
important subject. I have collected a voluminous mass of testi- 
mony during the past two or three years, which I intend to 
digest, in order to place the whole matter in its true light on per- 
manent record, in treating of the species in the “ Birds of the 
Colorado Valley.” For the plague has spread even to that 
remote portion of our much be-sparrowed country. 


10: 
WALKS ROUND SAN FRANCISCO—THE BAY SHORE. 
BY W. N. LOCKINGTON. 


ecg of the city, on the shore of the bay, lies Mission creek, 

once no doubt as attractive a spot as any to be found in the 
neighborhood, but now converted into an exceedingly mal-odor- 
ous mud-flat, the recipient of the refuse of factories and of the 
drainage of the city. Right across the mouth of this creek, or 
rather bay, the Southern Pacific railroad has constructed a broad 
mole of earthwork, leaving no entrance save a narrow channel 
crossed by a drawbridge, over which runs the road leading to the 
part of the bay shore we have chosen for our excursion. Cross- 
ing the Potrero peninsula’ by a deep cut through the hill, we 
emerge upon the trestle-work spanning Islay creek, and after run- 
ning the gauntlet of the powerful scents of Butcher-town, are at 
last deposited on the slope of the hill behind South San Fran- 
cisco, 

In front of us the San Bruno mountains stretch in a dark green 
line from bay to ocean; on our right runs a range of low hills, 
over whose tops the city is slowly advancing, throwing out the 
sentinels of scattered houses, and to our left spreads out its 
glorious Bay of San Francisco, glowing under the summer sun. 
The bay is broad here, and the coast range of Alameda county 
looks very distant and misty. Far away to the south, beyond 
the San Bruno hills, beyond the long stretch of lowland, backed 


: . by tree-clothed heights that lie behind them, till the shores grow 


indistinct with the distance, we can see the outline of this 


: | inland sea (for such it is), the shores drawing closer and closer as 


506 Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. [ August, 


they recede. In the far distance a thin line of smoke marks the 
position of a steamer ez route to or from San José. 

The shore of the bay in our vicinity is much indented by rocky 
peninsulas alternating with valleys, the outlets of which are filled 
either with a marsh or a lagoon, produced by the little streams 
that find their way from among the round-topped hills. Hunter's 
point, which is in our rear soon after we leave the cars, runs out 
into the bay two or three miles, then follows a marshy tract on 
which are placed the butts of a rifle company, then an isolated 
mound rising close to the edge of the bay, then a valley with a 
lagoon, and south of this, a lofty hill with serrated outline ter- 
minating baywards in a precipitous promontory, with a needle- 
rock as an outlier. This lagoon, the serrated hill and the beach 
around it are our hunting-ground to-day. We are armed with a 
spade and intend to dig for clams. Luckily it is low tide, a large 
area of silt is uncovered in front of the lagoon, and we hasten 
onwards to try our chances. Not that there is much risk of 
missing the clams when they spout beneath the feet at every step, 


and when every spadeful throws up at least two or three, The- 


most abundant clam at this spot is the ubiquitous Mya arenaria, 
which also has possession of the entire beach near Oakland, on 
the Alameda county side of the bay; but the native Californian 
Schizotherus nuttallii, a monster of a clam when full grown, reach- 
ing.a length of about seven inches, is also found here deep in the 
mud. Its ugly black siphon is as thick as a finger, and its gaping 
shell is clothed with a black epidermis. Along with the Mya a 
few individuals of the cockle, Cardium corbis, and of the Tellinoid 
clam, Macoma nasuta, are occasionally turned out by our uncere- 
monious spade. Here is a large round burrow, with the sides as 
smooth as if plastered. This we know to be the dwelling-place 
of one of those fossorial cray-fish of which some four or five 
species occur along the Pacific coast, and we dig on, hoping to find 
a Callianassa, a genus that we are assured is found in the bay, but 
which we have never been so fortunate as to procure there, though 
we have found it in abundance at Tomales, some fifty miles to the 
northward. Out he comes at last, a fellow about six inches long, 
with a hairy rostrum and two pincers of equal size, swimming away 
for dear life. It is only Gebia pugettensis Dana, the commonest of 
~ common species. Whether living in the mud, in the sand, among 


rs stones, it is all the same to G. pugettensis. The dredging machines 


a 
‘ag 


1878.] Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. 507 > 


in the entrance of Oakland harbor brought it up in abundance, 
and the deep-water specimens appeared to be larger than those 
found above low tide level. Attached to the swimmerets of Gebia, 
in the spring months, will usually be found a parasitic isopodous 
crustacean, Phyllodurus abdominalis St., an odd-looking creature, 
the two sexes of which differ a good deal in form. I have never 
found more than two upon a single Gebia, and these two are 
usually male and female, sometimes there is a female alone, but as 
the male is smaller and blessed with greater locomotive powers, 
he may in those cases have been overlooked or have escaped. 
The female is literally nearly as broad as she is long, with seven 
little pairs of legs ending in hooked claws tucked under her lob- 
sided body. The male is long and slender, symmetrical, with 
the segments of the body well separated, and is very much 
smaller than his unwieldy spouse. 

Very often a small bivalve mollusc, Pythina rugifera Carpenter, 
is attached to one of the swimmerets of the larger Gebias. A 
large Nereis, about twelve inches long, gay with iridescent tints 
when placed in clear sea-water, completes the list of the silt- - 
inhabiting creatures at this spot. All the cockles found are very 
small, yet shells of the species three inches across lie upon the 
beach, and at times the Chinese colony located near the lagoon is 
in possession of many a sackful of large individuals. An “old 
inhabitant” who has been clam-digging, volunteers an explana- 
tion of this. The bed of these cockles, he says, is below low 
water, and they are only washed ashore after a storm, “It puz- 
zled him somewhat ” at first, to find out where they came from. 

A little farther on, as we leave the lagoon, the banks gradually 
rise into precipices, the beach is strewn with loose rocks, with here 
and there a larger boulder rising high among its fellows. We over 
turn a number of the smaller rocks, thinking it possible that we 
may find beneath them the large red Cancer productus, which is 
common enough in the bay, and which we have found in abund- 
ance at this season, in similar situations in Tomales bay. But — 
either we are a little too early in the season to catch them so 
high out of the water, or they do not, in this locality, venture 
beyond low-water mark. Certain it is that we have not found 
them alive, with the exception of a straggler or two on the beach — 
near San Francisco. But if, in July, we return to this spot, we 


Shall find beneath many of these stones, each in a little puddle of 


508 Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. [ August, 


sea-water, many individuals of a singular fish belonging to the 
family Batrachide or toad-fishes. If we attempt to catch it, it will 
salute us, if we are not careful, by thrusting into our hands the 
sharp spines with which its gill-covers are armed, at the same 
time emitting a most characteristic grunt, which though not very 
loud is rather alarming to one unacquainted with the fish, and 
usually causes him, in conjunction with the wound from the 
spines, to drop it zzstanter. A glance at the under side of the 
rock which once roofed in her abode, will show us, covered as it 
is with ova about the size of a pea, that she comes to the shore 
to spawn, This fish, Porichthys notatus as it was named by 
Girard, is sufficiently ugly when looked at above, but its under 
side sparkles with rows of shining pores, emitting the mucus 
which covers its body and renders it as slippery as an eel. 

Under every loose rock we turn over there is a colony of a pale 
greenish little crab, with a square carapax and whitish pincers 
which are uplifted menacingly at the unwelcome intruders as 
their owners scuttle off to hide themselves under the nearest 
shelter. This species, Heterograpsus oregonensis Dana, is com- 
monest at this point, but it is often accompanied by the almost 
equally common and much prettier Heterograpsus nudus Dana, 
which attains larger dimensions, and has a carapax and legs 
beautifully marbled with red and purple brown. The first species 
is extremely abundant in the brackish creeks which permeate the 
marshes round the bay. 

In the crevices of the larger rocks, up to quite high-water mark, 
another square crab, dark-green in color, and with the last joints 
of its four pairs of walking feet armed with spinules, by which it 
holds tightly to the slippery surface, may be found in consider- 

able numbers, but it is rather difficult to secure entire, not only 
from the difficulty of reaching it in its hiding places, but from the 
extreme readiness with which it throws off some of its limbs 
when escape proves impossible. This is Pachygrapsus crassipes 

andall. Farther on still, where the loose rocks are larger, the 
large Cancer magister Dana, the species usually eaten by the prac- 
tical carcinologists of San Francisco, is occasionally found, having 
_ presumably retired from the deeper water to shed his plate-armor 


ie _ in peace. But it is too early in the season for him, and we 
~ encounter nothing new until, between two rocks, we see an eight- 


wee pni crawling along, the arms united by a membrane, sO 


i 
a 
4 
é 
ae 
; 
; 


1878.] Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. 509 


that it looks like a walking umbrella, the handle supplied by the 
elongated oval body which rises from the center of the disk. At the 
base of the body, next the arms, are a pair of goggle eyes, which 
seem to wear anything but an amiable expression as we cautiously 
seize him by the body and introduce him forcibly into a jar of 
sea-water, taking care that he does not clasp his sucker-covered 
arms around our hands as we perform the operation. 

Small and comparatively innocent is this Octopus punctatus 
Gabb, for he does not measure more than two feet from tip to 
tip of arms, but even he, could he get our finger between the 
parrot-like jaws which lie deep down inside the umbrella, would 
make us think we had caught a tartar. This, and the six others 
we see before our excursion is ended, are all baby Octopi, but in 
the market of San Francisco occasionally hangs a “devil-fish ” 
of the same species with arms from five to six feet long, an un- 
canny object when dead, and one to be avoided when alive. Not 
long ago in the Straits of Fuca, near Victoria, an Indian woman 
was drowned by an Octopus probably of this species. John Keast 
Lord tells us that the Indians of Vancouver's island fish for them 
with a spear and a knife, each at the end of a pole some fifteen 
feet long. Driving the spear into the body they hold the Octopus 
at a safe distance while, wielding the knife with the other hand, 
they sever one by one the formidable arms, whose double rows of 


Suckers would, could they but once lay hold, never leave their 


Victim till he was brought within reach of the jaws, An old 
Frenchman who comes along with one of these octopi impaled on 
a stick tells us he is taking it for a treat to his wife and family. 
Finding a second, he grows ecstatic as he pounds its head (as he calls 
the body) on a rock, apostrophizing it meanwhile in terms of min- 
gled dislike and contentment. They surely must be good. 
Frenchmen eat them, Spaniards think “gibiones” a delicacy, 
Italians do not disdain them, Chinamen devour them; why not 


_ Anglo-Saxons? But the Anglo-Saxon, and the Celt also, have 


much to learn yet in the way of food, and must surely learn 
much as the world becomes more crowded, unless they wish to 
be “improved ” away from the face of the earth. 

We have now rounded the point, and reached the valley beyond. 


a There is the usual sandbar, backed by a small lagoon, from which 


a rillet flows across the beach. Here we leave the shore and 


_ ascend the hill, gathering the wild flowers as we go. Patches of : 


510 Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. [ August, 


Lupinus micranthus and Orthocarpus erianthus fleck the hillside 
with blue and white, but the show of the flowers is not on this 
southern side, exposed to the rough westerly blasts of the Pacific 
as they sweep through the valley, but on the moister and com- 
paratively sheltered north-eastern slope. One of the most 
abundant of flowers, here and in the whole vicinity of San Fran- 
cisco, is the Œnothera primuloides, a stemless plant with yellow 
blossoms, each on its own peduncle, reminding us of the primrose. 


Another flower, plentiful on this hill, but very local in its distribu- — 


tion, is the purple and white Collinsia bicolor, belonging to the 
same order with the Mimuli, two kinds of which, Mimulus luteus 
and M. glutinosus, may be found near by, the former by the 
water-courses and in the wet places which abound after the heavy 
rains, the latter on the dry hillsides. . The great yellow daisy-like 
Layia platyglossa, with its ray-florets tipped with cream-color, 
from which it has earned the name of “ tidy-tips,” is to be seen 
here and there, but does not show as it does across the bay, at 
Oakland, where whole fields are golden with its blossoms. 

The Zschscholzia californica is here, of course; there is not a 
month in the year when it cannot be found, but now it is in its 
glory, its gorgeous orange petals inducing every urchin that comes 
along to gather the “ lilies,” as he calls them. 

Another of the poppy-tribe the little “ cream- “clip,” Platystemon 
californicum Bentham, may be. found if looked for, for it is modest, 
unlike poppies in general. Orthocarpus is a very conspicuous 
genus in California generally, on this hill-side we gather, besides 
the white one already mentioned, the purple and yellow O. castille- 
jodes, and the tiny-flowered O. pusillus. 

Nemophila insignis is almost out of blossom, yet we find 
a few, and among the loose stones high up the hill we find one 
of its rarer relations, the rough, almost prickly, Phacelia loasifolta 
Torrey. The more common Phacelias, P. circinata, with its coarse 
foliage and cat’s tail-like curled flower-spikes, and the more 
delicate P, tanacetifolia, we do not meet with in this ramble. 

The rose order is represented only by one plant, the humble 
Acena trifida, a near relation of the Sanguisorba or Burnet. 

Almost the only shrubs to be found are a dwarf oak and the 


: os poison oak, Rhus diversiloba Torrey-Gray, the latter unfortunately 
: only too common, as we find to our cost next day, when our 
a wrists inflame and become covered with the pustules pene 


1$78.] Walks Round San Francisco—The Bay Shore. 511 


by its juice. It lurks in every bunch of tall herbage, its glossy, 
green leaves and greenish racemes of flowers mingled with the 
vetches, phacelias, and other innocent plants in so intricate a way 
that it is almost impossible to collect them without contact with 
it. On the hillsides it is low and straggling, its roots running to 
great distances under the surface, and throwing up stems and 
: leaves in unexpected places; in the copses it forms large bushes, 
= alone or mingled with other shrubs; but in the forests it is a huge 
Climber, mounting the tall pines and firs and strangling them. 
When a climber, its leaves are much larger and lighter in color, 
and it is usually believed to be a different plant from its humbler 
brethren of the meadows, being distinguished as Poison ivy. 

There is but little of animal life on the down, for there is no 
Shelter for birds, or thicket-loving mammals. The ground-squir- 
tel, Spermophilus beecheyi, is present here as it is in every green 
field and every hill-side round the bay. 

Man has killed off its natural enemies, the smaller carnivorous 
mammals and the birds of prey, and has planted the once wild 
country with seeds that suit its appetite, so that it flourishes and 
increases in spite of poison, traps, and guns, till it is a terrible 
Nuisance to every farmer. The only other wild quadruped we 
find is not a mammal, but a lizard. We come upon two individ- 
uals among a heap of stones, and after quite a chase, capture one, 
a fine fellow, in a livery of reddish and yellowish-brown mixed 
with darker tints, It has quite a long tail as it is, yet it has evidently 
been mended at the tip. It is Gérrhonotus grandis. 

: We are now at the foot of the hill, close to the Chinese colony, 
_ from whose huts arises a most unsavory smell of rotting fish. 
Here we have John Chinaman at his lowest, dwelling in squalid 
huts with ground for the floor, yet even here his virtues of per- 
sistent industry, economy, and quickness to lay hold of every- 
thing which can be turned to account, are clearly evident. All 
the day these fishers work, their unwieldy flat-bottom boats are 
Scattered in all directions, and their nets are spread for big and 
little fish alike, spite of laws against the destruction of fry. The 
little fish disdainfully thrown on the shore and left to rot by the 
Italian fisherman, are by the Chinese gathered carefully up and 
dried. While the white laborers assemble by thousands to hear 
incendiary speeches, with occasional adjournments to the 
nearest saloon, John calmly works on. If the capitalist employs | 


5 LS. I Re ee 
Be ik eatin o 


aS 


i 


512 Characteristics of the Central Zob-Geographical | August, 


him, he does his duty; if left without employment from others, 
he finds out work for himself; he runs a laundry; he fishes; he 
peddles vegetables; he hunts up rags and bones; he turns gar- 
dener, choosing all the little valleys between the sand hills, irriga- 
ting them, and raising large crops where the white man raised 
nothing ; all the time serenely confident that as long as his prices 
are lowest, he will find plenty of customers, some of the best 
of them among the very men who shout so loudly “the Chinese 
must go.” Truly, unless the government promptly pass some 
law to restrain the Chinamen from free access to these shores, 
the poor white man even if sober and industrious, will soon find 
life growing very hard, for what chance has he, with his ideas of 
comparative luxury in house, food and clothing, probably a wife 
and family, and often some intellectual tastes also, against a rival 
who lives in an unfloored hut, feeds on rice, stuffs his blouse with 
hay when the weather is cold, has only himself to keep, and never 
troubles his head about literature, science, or politics, yet all the 
time keeps a keen eye on the main chance, earning and keeping 
every cent he can, and scarcely ever resting from labor except for 
the needful sleep. : 

Note.—In my last paper I referred the Planorboid shell found in Mountain lake, 
S. F., to the genus He/isoma, but I find it to be a genuine Planorbis. The tiny little 
flat shell from the same pond is Menetus opercularis. Prof. Verrill has informed me 
that the small starfish mentioned as probably new is the Asterias equalis of Stimpson. 
It is rare and local in this neighborhood. 


:0: 
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CENTRAL ZOO- 
GEOGRAPHICAL PROVINCE OF THE UNITED 


STATES} 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 


ie recent studies on the extent of the native breeding places of 
the Rocky Mountain locust, my attention, while in the field 
and afterwards in working up some of the results then obtained, 
has been directed to some of the faunal characteristics of the 
Central province ; my own observations bearing especially on the 
distribution of certain insects and especially the Phyllopod 
Crustacea, whose distribution west of the Mississippi presents some 
points of considerable interest. 
a 1 Read at the last April meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, Washing- 


EN ton. 


E ae 
ESE acs 


a 1878.] Province of the United States. 513 


The first attempt to divide the United States as a whole into 
zoölogical provinces was in 1859, by Dr. LeConte, in his 
- “ Coleoptera of Kansas and Eastern New Mexico (Smithsonian 
Contributions, 1859).” He divided the Coleopterous fauna of the 
United States into three great zoölogical districts, distinguished 
each by numerous peculiar genera and species, which, with but 
few exceptions, do not extend into the contiguous districts. He 
named them the Eastern, Central and Western divisions; so that 
to him is due the credit of first distinguishing the Central 
province. 

In 1866, Prof. Baird, from a kadr of the avifauna of the 

United States, concluded that “the ornithological provinces 
` of North America consist of two great divisions of nearly equal 
size in the United States, meeting in the vicinity of the tooth 
meridian, the western half divisible again into two, more closely 
related to each other than to the eastern, though each has special 
characters. These three sections form three great provinces to 
be known as the western, middle and eastern; or those of the 
Pacific slope; of the great basin, the Rocky mountains and the 
adjacent plains; and of the fertile plains and region generally, 
east of the Missouri.” 

In 1871, Mr. J. A. Allen? divided the avifauna of the United 
States into two provinces, the eastern and western, the latter em- 
bracing the Pacific coast. (Since this paper was read Mr. Allen’s 
late essay has appeared, in which he adopts Prof. Baird’s division 
into three provinces. The geographical distribution of the 
mammalia, etc. Bulletin of Hayden’s U. S. Geographical and 
Geological Survey of the Territories, May 3, 1878). 

-In 1873,3 Mr. W. G. Binney published a map of the distribution 
of our land shells, dividing the molluscan fauna into the Eastern, 
Central and Pacific provinces. 

In 1875, Prof. E. D. Cope in his check list of North American 
Batrachia and Reptilia divided the Nearctic realm of Sclater into 
the Austroriparian, Eastern, Central, Pacific, Sonoran and Lower 
Californian regions. He remarks that “the Pacific region is nearly 
related to the Central, and, as it consists of only the narrow dis- 
trict west of the Sierra Nevada, might be regarded as a sub-divi- 

1 American Journal of Science and Arts, January and March, 1866. 
* Bulletin of the Museum of Com mp. Zoology, kaf 1871. 
_* Catalogue of the Terrestrial Molluscs of North America. 
* Bulletin U. S. Nat. Mus., Washington, 1875. Bull. Mus. Comp. dou. 1873. 


514 Characteristics of the Central Zoé-Geographical [ August, © 


sion of it. It, however, lacks the-mammalian genera Bos and 
Antilocapra, and possesses certain mae genera of birds, as 
Geococcyx, Chameaand Oreortyx. ... There are some genera 
of reptiles, ¢. g. Charina, related to “the Boas, Lodia, Aniella, 
Gerrhonotus and Xantusia, which do not occur in the central sub- 
region. There are three characteristic genera of Batrachia, all 
Salamanders, viz: Anaides, Batrachoseps and Dicamptodon ; while 
the eastern genera Plethodon and Diemyctylus reappear after 
skipping the entire central district.” Cope adds that “ the fresh- 
water fish fauna is much like that of the central district in being 
poor in types.” Cope’s Sonoran region is evidently a northward 
extension of the Mexican fauna, which sends its outliers into 
southern Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and is not to be taken 
into account in discussing the faunal provinces of the United 
States alone. 

In 1876, Wallace in his “Geographical Distribution of Ani- 
mals,” divided the Nearctic region into four sub-regions, viz: 
the Californian, Central or Rocky mountain, Alleghanian and 
Canadian. His Central sub-region extended to Lat. 25° N. 

It will be seen from this review that by general consent the 
fauna of the Pacific slope is on the whole regarded as belonging 
to a separate province from that of the Rocky Mountain plateau, 
` whether we regard the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphilia, Cole- 
optera or land shells. 

Botanically, as observed by those who have traveled across the 


plains to California, the flora of the great plains is quite different | 


from that of the Eastern States, and the Pacific flora is as distinct 
from the central flora. This has been clearly shown by Sir J. D. 
Hooker and Prof. Asa Gray in their preliminary notices of the 
results of their botanical researches in connection with Dr. Hay- 
den’s U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. 

In traveling last summer, in pursuance of the work of the US 
Entomological Commission, I passed rapidly over a large area of 
the Central province lying north of the fortieth parallel, including 
Colorado, Wyoming, Northern Utah, Western Idaho, Central and 
Northern Montana, and was thus enabled to observein a superficial 
-way the general features of the flora and fauna nearly up to the 
- British line. I was impressed with the resemblance of Central 
and Northern Montana to Northern Utah, the insect-fauna being 


E TOS AE COSY 


apparently nearly identical. Doubtless this. insect-fauna extends 


En 

Be 
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Ber EE CES I Tae egies inet al le ene ee 


PIA a ee ee ee ee ee Re wae ke er ae Ln Ai, So eee a at SR Se ee ont nl Oe a ee a ee Pee TO a See see | 


Cie) S382 2 Saabs he Wen ee ee te N 
Fe, eee UATE or eRe eS 


ie 


1878. | Province of the United States. 515 


northwards into the Upper Saskatchewan valley as far as the 
southern limit of trees, there being much less intermixture with 
Canadian forms than might be expected. ,Then crossing the 
Sierra Nevada, and going overland to Oregon, I was able to trace 
the gradual passage of the Californian insect-fauna into the 
Oregonian, with some Canadian forms; and by passing up the 
Columbia river to Wallula, here as well as at Reno in Nevada, 
to perceive the great differences between the fauna of the Pacific 
slope and that of the plains and deserts of the Central province. 

In briefly reviewing the different orders of insects, other than 
Coleoptera,which have been so fully elaborated by Dr. LeConte, 
and certain groups of Crustacea, we will begin with the Hymen- 
optera, and point out a few characteristics distinguishing the 
Central from the Pacific provinces. In 1865 and 1866 a large 
number of Coloradian fossorial Hymenoptera passed under the 
writer’s hands, Mr. Cresson having previously described from this 
material a large number of Coloradian Hymenoptera of all families. 
The richness of the hymenopterous fauna of Colorado struck me, 
and I was impressed with its distinctness from that of the Eastern 
States. I have seen few of these forms from California. Among 
the family of ants (/vrmicide), there is one form characteristic of 
the plains which does not occur on the Pacific slope. This is the 
Pogonomyrmex occidentalis (Cress). I have seen its large hills at 
Brookville, Kansas, and observed them in Colorado and Utah and 
in Reno, at the base of the Sierra Nevada, but not west of that 
point. It ranges, according to Mayer, south into New Mexico, 
and San Luis valley, Colorado. Its nest forming large elevations 
in cleared spaces sometimes six or eight feet in diameter, is one 
of the characteristic sights on the plains. 

Among the Lepidoptera, family Bombycide, there are several 
forms peculiar to the central district, notably the genus Dirphia 
(Coloracia), Hxleucopheus, Gloveria (Mesistesoma), Hemileuca 
Funoand Hera, and Platysamia gloverit. The family is feebly repre- 
sented in the Central province, but richly so by numerous species 
on the Pacific slope, which do not appear east of the Sierra Nevada. 

The Phalenide, or geometric moths, are richly developed in 
the Pacific province, and but poorly in the Central province, 
owing to the absence of deciduous trees; of those found in the 


_ latter some occur west of the Sierra Nevada, and some are peci 


liar to the plains and Rocky mountains. 


VOL. XII.--NO. VII. 36 


516 Characteristics of the Central Zv6-Geographical, &c. [ August, 


Of the Orthopera there is a large number of species peculiar to 
the plains which I did not observe in the Pacific States; of these, 
Caloptenus spretus is thoroughly characteristic of the Central 
province. It does not occur in the Pacific and only breeds tem- 
porarily in the Eastern province, and its natural limits define 
well those of the province itself. It ranges up to lat. 53° N. on 
the North Saskatchewan and south to Southern Utah and Colo- 
rado. The exact limits of its distribution are given in the First 
Annual Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission. 

While we are still ignorant of the distribution of insect life 
between the hundredth meridian and the Pacific ocean, there 
seems good reason, from what we do know, and from the great dif- 
ferences in the flora, and the soil and climate, especially the rain- 
fall east and west of the Sierra Nevada, to regard this lofty range 
as the general point of separation defining two grand zodlogical 
provinces. Many groups of insects abounding west of the 
mountains do not occur east, except in isolated cases. Of a 
number of Myriopods found on the Pacific coast none occur east, 
and so of the Arachnida so far as known, and Dr. Thorell, who 
has worked up some of the spiders of Colorado, was struck by 
the general similarity of some forms to those occurring in the 
plateau of North-eastern Asia. Among the insects there are a few 
Pacific forms which closely resemble European species, and which 
are not represented east of the Sierra Nevada. It should be borne 
in mind, however, that the Sierra Nevada does not present an 
absolute barrier, as a considerable number of species occur on 
each side of it, and it is well known that the Rocky Mountains 
_are but a slight barrier to the distribution of the animals on either 
side, the fauna of Colorado, Northern Utah, Wyoming, Montana and 
Idaho being quite homogeneous, and the fauna of these Territo- 
_ ries the same on each side of the high mountain ranges traversing 
them. : 

Among the fresh-water Crustacea the Astaci of the Pacific 
slope, as is well known, belong to the European genus Astacus, 
those east of the Sierra Nevada to the genus Cambarus, which is 
so richly developed in the Eastern provinces, especially in the 
Mississippi valley. 
~ The distribution of the fresh-water Phyllopoda is of peculiar- 
_ interest. The family Afodide is restricted to the Central prov- 
ince: none are found in the Mississippi valley, and none in Cali- 


elk We ie ee ae Be 


1878. | B jological Nomenclature. 517 


fornia. Of the four species of Apus all inhabit the Central 
province; Apus egualis lives on the plains of the Rocky mount- 
ains, and also at Matamoras, in Mexico. It is a curious fact that 
Apus lucasanus Pack., not only occurs at Cape St. Lucas, Lower 
California, but is also an abundant species at Ellis, Kansas. This 
is a parallel case to the presence of certain birds at Cape St. 
Lucas which, as observed by Prof. Baird, belong to the Central 
rather than to the Pacific province. Of the genus Lepidurus there 
are two forms (ZL. couesii and L. dilobatus) characterizing the plains. 
L. couesii occurs in Northern Montana, and is allied to a recently 
described Lepidurus from Archangel, Russia, according to 
Lilljeborg. 
The eastern limits of the Central province extend to near the 
97th meridian in Kansas and Nebraska, according to the writer's 
observations. 
——:0:— - a 


THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERI- 
CAN ASSOCIATION OF 1876 ON BIOLOGICAL NO- 
MENCLATURE. 

BY E. D. COPE. 

P the year 1842 the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science took into consideration the question of zodlogical 

nomenclature, and through a committee made a report, which 


embodies a series of recommendations in the form of rules. In 


1863 another committee of the British Association revised these 
rules and reprinted them with various additional recommenda- 


tions. This report was republished in this country with a few 


additional suggestive notes by Prof. A. E. Verrill, in 1869." 
Since that date the question has been discussed by the American 
entomologists Scudder, Edwards and LeConte. 

The rules issued at the earlier periods above mentioned dealt 


: largely with etymological and literary questions, while admitting 


in general terms the necessity of observing the law of priority of 
date. The energy of some of the resurrectionists of obsolete 
Works in bringing to light old names, however, soon drew atten- 
tion to the importance of ascertaining the real nature of priority 
of date; and the close coincidence of date of some modern pub- 


lications, has brought up the question from another side. The ee vs 


> + Amer, Jour. Sci. and Arts, July. 


518 © ; Biological Nomenclature. [August, 


entomologists first began to handle the subject critically, the 
most practical article with which I am acquainted being that of 
W. H: Edwärds.! 

In order to establish a basis of definite action in this matter, 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its 
meeting in Buffalo, in 1876, appointed a committee “to obtain an 
-expression of opinion from the working naturalists of America in 
regard to the nature of a set of rules for facilitating the decision 
of questions relating to nomenclature,” etc. The committee 
consisted of Capt. Wm. H. Dall, of the U. S. Coast Survey, and 
the results of his work are now given. To my own mind the 
method pursued by Capt. Dall was excellent, and the results are 
very satisfactory as displaying a degree of unanimity among 
American naturalists so complete as to constitute their opinions, 
as embodiedgin Capt. Dall’s report, a set of rules which no one 
can safely disregard on the one hand, or hesitate to follow on the 
other. : 

Capt. Dall’s prefatory remarks are as follows: 

In accordance with the undefstanding and resolutions of the 
Section, by which this duty devolved upon him, your Reporter 
prepared a circular which was printed under the supervision of 
the permanent secretary and circulated by the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, a copy of which is appended to this report. 

The circular was sent to all who, within the last five years, 
might be included under the designation of publishing naturalists, 
and of whom the address could be obtained. This list included 


to all those who might desire to express an opini 

he responses received to date (August Spee are forty-five 
in number. While a few honored names, to whose views all 
would attribute due weight, are not on the list, yet it includes 
most of those whose contributions are familiar in the Proceedings 
of American Scientific societies, and an unquestionable majority 
of the best working naturalists of the coun try. The views of 
several of those from whom no response was received, have been 
incorporated in the appendix by means of citations from their 


The queries contained in the behat relate chiefly to certain 
points, concerning which a diversity of opinion has existed among 
- naturalists; the general principles of nomenclature not being in 
questio n. "The responses are divided into y affirmative, negative 


Canadian Entomologist, February, 1873. 


1878. | Biological Nomenclature. S 


and doubtful, while in individual cases some queries received no 
response. The answers classified as doubtful, comprise those 
which by their tenor indicated that the purport of the particular 
query had not been clearly understood, and some in which the 
person replying avowed his inability to express a preference for 
any one of several modes of proceeding. 

The gratifying unanimity which is exhibited in the responses 
to certain of the more important and clearly defined questions at 
issue, indicates that a thorough study of the more complicated 
questions by the light of the general principles of nomenclature, 
would result in a practical agreement on the part of American 
naturalists in relation to nearly all the matters in debate. 

It is evident from the responses of naturalists, that their opin- 
ion is generally adverse to any attempt to limit, by arbitrary 
rules, the right of publication in the most convenient direction, 
and against any statute of limitations in regard to scientific names. 
This seems to be in accord with the principles of justice, equity 
and general usage in nomenclature, though at times inconvenient 
in its results. It may be confidently expected that the majority 
of authors, when their attention has been drawn to it will, for 
their own interest as well as that of science, avoid in future pub- 
lications, the methods (or want of method) which in the remote 
past sowed so many germs of present difficulty 

The circular with replies is preceded by the Bieda note by 
Capt. Dall: 

NOTE. 

The question with which the working naturalist is most fre- 
quently brought face to face—and in the decision of which so 
much trouble is experienced and such diverse opinions are elicited 
—are chiefly those which involve the'right of any one of several 
names to be considered as properly proposed and entitled to take 
precedence of others, provided its priority in time of application 
be established. 

The rule that names eee unexceptionable) which are - 
prior in date, are to be accepted in nomenclature to the exclusion 
of all others, is r a by all naturalists. 

The rules recommended by the Committee on Nomenclature 
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, have — 
been generally adopted; though in certain details they are re- 
garded by many naturalists as defective. Nevertheless they have 
largely contributed to ue uniformity which is so desirable in 
the matter of nomenclatyr 

It has been thought xe a similar recommendation on the part 
of the American Association might reach many who are not con- 
_Versant with the British rules and tend to produce in the works 


EF ese, 


RU Se te Poe Ce en SSE eT kr, os Si eee ee 
stg oe RE eg SES andes hoes heer T 


-ficial agreement, 


_ Of the rising generation of American naturalists a similarly bene- : 2 


520 - Biological Nomenclature. [ August, 


The differences of opinion which have arisen, are chiefly in 
matters of detail and intrinsically of very slight importance. 

One of the most serious in its effect upon nomenclature is that 
in regard to what names shall be considered as really binomial ; 
another as to what is necessary to eee establish a name in 
order that if prior to any other it may be-accepted as properly 
proposed; and most of all as to the te to be adopted as that 
of the beginning of binomial nomenclature. This latter question, 
as to facts, on m Spa of De Candolle, stands as follows : 

A series of rules for nomenclature was to some extent fore- 
shadowed by tauibas in his Fundamenta Entomologia of 1736. 
These rules were first definitely proposed in the Philosophia botani- 
ca, which appeared in 1751. These rules, however, related almost 
exclusively to the generic name or nomen genericum. In 1745, 
he had employed for the first time a specific name (nomen triviale) 
composed of one word, in contradistinction to the polynomial 
designation of a species (nomen specificum) which was previously 
the rule among naturalists. That which now seems the most 
happy and important of the Linnzean ideas, the restriction of the 
specific name as now understood, seems to have been for a long 
time only an accessory matter to him, as the xomina trivialia are 
barely mentioned in his rules up to 1 765. 

In 1753, in the /ucrementa botanices, Wee ty expatiating on the 
reforms which he had introduced into the science, he does not 
even mention the binominal nomenclature. ti the Systema Nature, 
Ed. X, 1758, for the first time the binominal system is consistent- 
ly applied to all classes of animals and plants (though it had been 
partially adopted by him as early as 1745), and hence many 
naturalists have regarded the tenth edition as forming the most 
natural starting point. The system being of slow and intermittent 
growth, even with its originator, an arbitrary starting point is 
necessary. In the twelfth edition (1766-68), numerous changes 
and reforms were instituted, and a number of his earlier specific 
names were arbitrarily changed. In fact, Linnzeus never seems 
to have regarded specific names as subject to his rules. 

The last was recommended by the British Committee as the 
starting point. They have since, however, receded to the extent 
of admitting to recognition some ichthyological works printed 
between the dates of the tenth and twelfth editions. 


The circular with the appended replies is as follows: 
QUESTIONS TO WHICH AN ANSWER IS DESIRED. 
I. What date shall be taken as the commencement of the 
inomial era in nomenclature? For Ed. X,18. Ed. 
XII,17. 1736,1. Botanists, 1753,2. No answer, 7. 


Il. Shall phrases composed of two words which may ap- 
apent in the publications of naturalists whose works 


1878. | Biological Nomenclature. 521 


receded, or who did not in such works adopt the 
binomial system of nomenclature, be considered as 
binomial names? No, 32. Yes, 5. No answer or 


doubtful, 8. 
II. If so, shall the first word of the said hee be Soe 
to recognition as a generic name? No, 32. es, 5- 


No answer or doubtful, 8. 

IV. If an author has not indicated his adoption of the 
binomial system by discarding all polynomial names 
in a given work, are any of his names therein entitled 
to recognition otherwise than in esap P. No, 
18. Yes, 18. Doubtful 4 Noa 

Example. Da Costa in his work on the Concholo ogy of Grea 
Britain, varies se binomial to polynomial in his designations ot 
species, and some of his “ generic” names contain two or three 
words, while stins apparently — to the Linnzan system. 
Should any of these names be retain 

V. Does the reading of a paper a a scientific body con- 
stitute a publication of the descriptions or names 
of animals or plants contained therein? No, 39. 
Doubtful, 2. 

VI. Is a name in the vernacular of the publishing author, or 
a vernacular rendering from a classical root unaccom- 
panied by a Latin or Greek form of the name, oe 
to recognition except in bibliography ? 6. 
Doubtful, 2. Yes, 4. No answer, 3. 

VII. Is a name applied to a group of species without a speci- 
cation of any character possessed by them in common 

(that is, without any so-called generic diagnosis or 
description), entitled to recognition as an established 
generic name by subsequent authors? No, 38. 

Doubtful, 3. Yes, 3. No answer, 1 
VIII. Is a generic name applied to a single (then or previously), 
descr ibed species without a generic diagnosis or de- 
scription of any kind, entitled to recognition as above, 
by subsequent authors? No, 37. Doubtful, 3. Yes, 
No answer, I. 

IX. Is a name, when used in a generic sense, and otherwise 
properly constituted, subject to have its orthography 
changed by a subsequent author, on the ground that 
a proper construction from its classical roots would 
result in a different spelling? No, 21. Doubtful, 3. 
Yes, Ig. an 

X. If the previous question be answered in the affirmative, 
it may be further enquired whether an author has a 
right to assume that a given name is derived from 
classical roots, when the cues of the name did not. 


522 Biological Nomenclature. [ August, 


so state, and on this assumption to proceed to change 

the said name to make it agree with the assumed 

proper construction in any case? and especially when 

by the asserted reformation the generic name becomes 

identical with one previously proposed for some other 

animal or plant, and hence will fall into synonymy ? 

0,25. Doubtful, 2. Yes,6. No answer, 12. 

xample. Schu ans Severin a genus which he called Paxy- 

don, giving no derivat subsequent author described a genus 

s Arait giving yin ilok A third writer assumed that Schu- 

macher d the same e derivation as Pachydon, and that both, 

if correctly writen, would Pachyod The last mentioned then 

proposed a new name for AF E me which he nes ge made to ap- 

se apii ed. ` Was this allowable? No. 26. Doubtful, 3. 

, 8. No answer, 8 

XI. Should a generic name, otherwise properly constituted, 

ut derived from the specific name of its typical 

species, or similar to that of one of the species in- 

cluded under it, be rejected on that account? No, 40. 
song: 4 Yes; F 


Ne s proper to state that this is an piade pre since 
Linnæus elar and others, PEET many gen in this 
manner, and a large number of such names are éil ae 


pose er in botany and among waviehidte animals. 


XII. Shall a rns author be permitted in revising a 
composite genus (of which no type was specified when 
it was described) to name as its type a species not in- 
cluded by the original author of the genus in that 
latter author’s list of species given when the cies 
was originally described? No, 37. Doubtful, 
Yes, 5: No r, I. 


xamp very fev 
species. After many species had been deastibed others, a later 
i umber of 


appellations. 


XIII. pews an old genus without a specified type has been 

ivided by a subsequent author, and one of the old 

species retained and specified to be the type of the 

NEPS genus bearing the old name, —is it competent 

a third author to discard this and select another 

of the original species as a type, when by so doing 

changes are necessitated in nomenclature? No. 39- 

Doubtful, 4. No answer, 2. - 

XIV. Shall an author be held to have any greater ara over d 

or greater privileges with relation to nam of his : 

own proposing, after the same have Sa duly 

_ published, than any other subsequent author? No, 
Foo? Doubtful, 2. Yes, 2. No answer, I. 


XVII. 


XVIII. 


XXII. 
XXIII. 


Biological Nomenclature. 523 


. For instance, when an author describes a genus and in- 


dicates a species as its type, is it allowable for him 
subsequently to substitute any other species as a 
foundation for his genus, or to use the original type 
as a foundation for another new genus? No, 38. 
Doubtful, 1. Yes, 2. No answer, 4. 


. If an author describes a genus and does not refer to it 


any then or previously described existing species, can 
the genus be taken as established? No, 33.. Doubt- 
ful, 7. Yes, 1. No answer, 4. 

If an author applies a specific name to an object without 
referring it to some then or previously described 
genus, is the specific name entitled to recognition by 
subsequent authors? No, 33. Doubtful, 4. Yes, 7. 
No answer I. 

When a generic name has lapsed from sufficient cau:e 
into synonymy, should it be thenceforth entirely re- 
jected from nomenclature? or should it still be ap- 
plicable to any new and valid genus? Reject, 19. 
Accept, 23. Doubtful, 1. No answer, 2 


. Should a name which has been once used in one sub- 


kingdom, and has lapsed into synonymy, be considered 

` available for use in any other if not entirely rejected 
from nomenclature? No, 20. Doubtful, 1. Yes, 18 
No answer, 


. Should a name be liable to be changed or a later one 


substituted for it, if the original be supposed to be 
inapplicable or contradictory of the characters of the 
species or genus to which it was applied? No, 28. 
Doubtful, 3. Yes, 13. No answer, 1. ; 

Example. A fish without teeth was named Polyodon, which name 
had come into use; when a later author substituted Spatularia on the 
ground that Po/yodon was inapplicable. 


. Is it advisable to fix a limit of time, beyond which a 


name which had been received without objection 
during that time shall be held to have become valid, 
and no longer liable to change from the resuscitation 
of obsolete or uncurrent but actually prior names ? 
No, 28. Doubtful, 1. Yes, 13. No answer 3. 

If so, what shall this period be? No answer, 35. The 
others range from 10 to 100 years, 

Should it be permitted to alter, or replace by other and 
different appellations, class, ordinal and family names, 

n 


become uncharacteristic ? Yes, 30. Or should these oe 


524 Biological Nomenclature. [ August, 


also be rigidly subject to such rules of priority as 
might be determined on for generic or specific names? 
No answer, 4. Yes, II. 

XXIV. Should or should not absolute certainty of identification 
be required before it be permissible to reject a modern 
and generally adopted name in favor of a prior but 
uncurrent designation? Yes, 38. Doubtful, 2. No 


answer, 5. 
Note.—Many of the A asikae 4 sag a Perre for iden- 
tification when few speci e kno ee ely insufficient at 


the apane, vag i distinguish öves sener s. Should, there- 
for cifi ith a recog aible paara be made 
to yield t sh an ober name gk the identification can be made be eyond 
any cavil? 

XXV. Is it desirable to adopt any classification of periodical 
iterature by which certain exclusive channels for 
publication of descriptive papers in natural history 
shall be designated for use by authors who desire to 
secure the rights of priority for new names proposed 
by them? No, 26. Desirable but impracticable, 9. 

es, 8. No answer, 2. 
Note rmative answer will imply that names which m 
be pr pene ed through other than the designated channels, after mel 
latter shall have been decided upon, shall not be entitled to recogni- 
` tion in questions of priority. 

XXVI. Is it desirable to adopt any analogous rule in relation to 
the character or extent of distribution of any inde- 
pendent publication or pamphlet to which it must 
conform, on pain of losing its right to recognition ? 
No, 21. Desirable but impracticable, 10. 

ve.—If the answer to either or both of the two ee ques- 

tions be affirmative, a note specifying the nature ie e proposed 
classification or restrictions may be Grendel to this lis 

XXVII. ge har a series of rules be recommended o adoption 
b e Association, would you be guided’ by these 
sd ane tions in cases where they might not 
agree with your own preferences? Yes, 29. Yes 
with reservations, 15. No, I 


LIST OF NATURALISTS FROM WHOM REPL vg TO THE CIRCULAR 
HAVE BEEN RECEIVE 
J. A. Allen, Museum of Gersa n. 
W. G. Binney, Burlington, N 
Richard Bliss, Jr., Cambridge, Mas 
Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, Boston Society of Natural History. 
Dr. P. P. Carpenter, McGill University. 
SP Clark, Johns Hopkins University. 
T A Conrad, GOE Academy of Natural Sciences. 


1878. ] Biological Nomenclature. 525 


Dr. J. G. Cooper, California. 
Prof. E. D. Cope, Philadelphia. 
W. H. Dall, Smithsonian Institution. 


W. H. Edwards, phas appre 
S. W. Garman, Mus of CoS Zoology. 
Die LN Gill, Sefpao Institut 
Dr. Asa Gray, Harvard University. 
A. R. Grote, Buffalo Academy of Scien 
Dr. Herman Hagen, Museum Cornara Zoology. 
Dr. Geo. H. Horn, Philadelphia. 
Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, Boston Society of Natural History. 
Ernest Ingersoll, New York. 
W. ames, Cincinnati, Mia 
Prof. D. S. Jordan, India 
DE F L. LeConte Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 
Dr. Joseph Leidy, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 
Dr. James Lewis, Mohawk, N. Y. 
Theodore Lyman, Museum of Comparative Zoology. 
. L. Mead, New York. 
34A Miller, Cincinnati, Ohio 
DAS Packard, Ji, Peabody Academy of Sciences. 
F. W. Putnam, Museum of Comparative Zoology. 
Prof. C. V. Riley, U. S. Entomological Commission. 
Prof. C. Rominger, State Geologist, Michigan. 
Dr. J. T. Rothrock, ven of Pennsylvania. — 
S. H. Scudder, Cambridge, Mass 
Prof. N. S, Shaler, State Geologist of Kentucky. 
Herman Strecker, cares a. 
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, U. S. Entomological Commission. 
Geo. W. Tryon, "Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 
P. R. Uhler, Peabody Institute, Baltimore. 
Sereno Watson, Harvard University 
Dr. C. A. White, U. S. Surv vey of thie Territories 
J. F. Whiteaves, Palaontologist to the Canadian ‘Geol. Survey. 
Fofi R P Whitfield, Amer. Museum of Natural Hist., N. Y. 
Dr. H. C. Yarrow, United States Army. 
Two accidentally unsigned. 


526 The Ancient Puéblos, [ August, 


THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS, OR THE RUINS | OF- THE 
VALLEY OF THE RIO SAN JUAN. 
BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 
PART I. 

S early as the sixteenth century, about the year fifteen hun- 
dred and thirty-nine (1539), some of the deserted cities of a 
pre-histeric people (which have since been found to be so numer- 
ous all through a portion of the Pacific slope of North America, 
were observed by several of the Spanish expeditions which had 
penetrated into the country north of Mexico, known then under 
the general name of New Mexico, including the present Terri- 
tory of Arizona. Many of the towns of this section were at that 
early date found to be in ruins, presenting every indication of a 
great antiquity ; while others, which now lie mouldering in the 
cafions of the far west, were found by these old explorers, at 
that time, to be occupied. The course of the Spaniards, headed 
by Coronado and others, lay to the south of the San Juan river, 
passing through the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte, on the 
Atlantic slope, the seat of the so-called Puéblo Indians, and west- 
ward through Zuñi, then known as Cibola, and so on to the 
ancient province of Zusayan, or our modern Mogut, on the Pacific 

or western slope of the Rocky mountains. 
ntil the past year or so, however, the great stretch of country 
lying west of the Range, including portions of Southern Colo- 
rado and Utah, and much of Arizona and New Mexico, was 
entirely or almost unknown. Our only knowledge of it con- 
sisted in the inconclusive and contradictory reports of expeditions 
or individuals which had crossed the borders of the ancient 
domains; and from their casual discoveries we were made aware 
of the existence of a multitude of ruins which extended as tar 
north as the thirty-ecighth degree of latitude. Unsatisfactory as 
this information was, it served to arouse a latent interest and to 
create a thirst for more facts among cultured circles, and opened 
a new and vast field for scientific research. During the summer 
of 1874 a pioneer corps was sent out by Prof. F. V. Hayden, of 
the United States Geological Survey, to photograph any ancient 
_ structures which might be discovered in South-western Colorado 


=~ and South-eastern Utah, thus preparing the way, as it were, for a 
-1Extracts from a paper written by the author and read before the Congrés des a 


Américanistes, at Luxembourg, in September, 1877, with additions. 


See 


—-1878.] - The Ancient Pucblos. $27 


_ more thorough exploration of this country during the next sea- 
son. The results of this expedition were so flattering, and the 
report of the photographist, Mr. Wm. H. Jackson, so full of © 
interest, enthusiasm and valuable information, that several parties 
were ordered to the field in the summer of 1875. 

_In passing through this portion of the west, the traveler is first 
impressed with the great extent of the territory over which the 
ancient remains occur. Generally speaking, they occupy the 
great valleys drained by the San Juan river and its tributaries, the 
-Rio Grande del Norte, and the Colorado of the west, covering an 
area of probably 200,000 square miles. 


Pica fuk WF ee 


The communities, it is evident, sprung up along the banks and 
valleys of the once well-watered streams, and as many of these 
= are now entirely dry, this fact would suggest the idea that the 
entire character of the country has undergone a great physical 
change. A calculation as to the time required to effect such an 
alteration might assist us in arriving at the approximate age of 
_ these remains. On further investigation, it will be discovered that 
not only the larger water-supplies have failed since these struc- 
tures were occupied, but the lesser ones also, in the form of 
springs, reservoirs and lakes; because in the majority of instances 
to-day,nota drop of moisture exists within a radius of twenty-five or 
thirty miles from many of the more important ruined villages. The 
entire country must at one time, and during the prosperity of the 
race, have been well-watered and fertile. The beds of the 
parched flood-washes must formerly at times have conveyed the 
= Waters of overflowing torrents, as everything yet indicates, and 
_ the valleys were productive of corn and the indigenous vegetables, 
for the very farms and torn-fields are still traceable in the river- 


Oe Re ee oe eee ee te ee eee eae ee 


_ growth of a hardy species of Helianthus. A great blight must 
_ have swept over the land, scorching and parching every green 
thing, and lapping up every particle of moisture, transforming the _ 
luxuriant valleys into deserts of rocks and sand. : 

The ruined buildings of this portion of the west may be 
_ arranged under two general heads: First, Valley Remains; Sec- 
ond, Chiff Houses. Sigh 

The former class consists of those which were built on level 


-Cafions; and these may be subdivided into two classes : KF irst, : 


bottoms, laid out in rectangles, and well defined by the dense _ 


round, either in the river-bottoms or at the feet of ravines and ) 


528 The Ancient Pucblos. [ August, 


Puéblos or towns, and secondly, Defensive structures. Valley ruins 
were by far the most extensive, sometimes covering miles of bot- 
tom land, in an almost unbroken series of huge buildings, but 
they were not nearly so numerous as the cliff houses. The 
ancient tribe or tribes congregated together along the water- 
courses for sociability (man being a gregarious animal) and for 
mutual protection. 

The cliff-houses are of three sorts: First, dwellings; secondly, 
watch-towers ; and, thirdly, caches or store-houses. These were 
built among the sandstone bluffs and crags of the cañons ; at 
every altitude and in every conceivable position. From the base 
of an almost vertical wall, up to the very summit of the mésa, a 
distance, sometimes of over a thousand feet, these human eyries 
are perceivable, perched sometimes on almost or quite inaccessi- 
ble shelves, or on the very pinnacle of some isolated bowlder, 
whose sides look down perpendicularly for hundreds of feet. In 
every imaginable condition of location, they existed and the 
beholder is impressed with a feeling of awe, in simply gazing on 
the works of the intrepid architects ; on the places where human 
beings once dwelt; places which now are wholly out of reach of 
the explorer. The walls of the buildings are sometimes built 
along the ledges of rock, on the horizontal foot-holds which oc- 
cur among the cliffs; but far more frequently, the natural caves 
and hollows (formed by the erosion of the atmosphere) were 
converted into dwelling places. 

One of the most noticeable features of all of these cliff-struc- 
tures, was the evident desire on the part of their proprietors to 
conceal them from view, and this is shown in the prevailing cus- 
tom of building in secluded spots, and in imitating, as accurately 
as possible, in the architecture, the general appearance of the 
surrounding rocks. In many cases, indeed, this simulation 
of texture and color has been rendered so perfect, that the ruins 
are entirely over-looked, unless brought to view through a field- 
glass. | 
Clearly, then, there must have been a cause for these precau- 
tions. The empire was invaded by a foreign foe, and the people 


- gradually forced southward; fleeing to the rocks at first, for 
_ refuge, but finally retiring before the advance of a powerful and 


cruel enemy. This fact is made more evident by the presence 


es numbers of aap pone and war-like weapons, in the ay 7 


1878. ] The Ancient Puéblos. 529- 


immediate vicinity of all of the larger remains. Great battles 
had been fought, and each stronghold was given up only after a 
prolonged and valiant resistance. 

In the extreme south-western corner of Colorado stand the 
ruins of a once populous settlement, which we will call Aztec 
Spring. The débris of the destroyed city, covers an area some 
600 by 800 feet in extent. The majority of the walls of the 
smaller houses near the out-skirts have crumbled away and now 
present nothing to the view but scarcely distinguishable mounds, 
or lines of original foundation. The houses had been built 
of different shapes, usually quadrilateral or circular, and were 
generally of small size, containing as a rule but one room. At 
the northern end of the puéblo or town, however, portions of the 
walls of two immense parallelogramic valley structures are still 
standing, whose surroundings seem to indicate that they had been 
erected with a view to the mutual protection of a large number 
of people, and for the purpose of resisting a protracted siege. 
They had been placed side by side, facing almost due north, with 
a space between them of several hundred feet. The northern 
circumvallations at present, reach a height varying from eight to 
eleven feet, while the remaining sides and the interior partitions 
lie in a jumbled mass of decay. This is owing to the fact 
that the latter were constructed of adobe. The northern faces, 
only, were built of stone. (See Plate III, for ground plan 
of the village. This and the other illustrations were kindly 
loaned by Prof. Hayden.) 

Over all, a gnarled vegetation has sprung up, consisting of- 
Cacti, Artemisia or sage-brush, and almost impenetrable thickets 
of grease-wood. 

The stones had been cut symmetrically into rectangular blocks, 
and evenly dressed with stone implements; the pieces averaging 
a foot in length, four to six inches in thickness, and half a foot in 
breadth, being usually so laid that those of one layer, would 
break joints with those of the next above and below. The 
mortar with which the walls had been cemented, was simply an 
adobé clay, but as this contained some calcareous dust from the 
powdered limestones which occur in this locality, it has in time 
become as hard as the stones which it joins together. The edges 


of the blocks, as well as the surface of the plaster have been _ | 


wearing away for centuries beneath the disintegrating action 


[August 


The Ancient Puéblos. 


530 


PLATE HI 


RUINS 


_ | “AZTEC SPRING” 


c 
Gs 


ay 
Naat 
Wy 


FARES aay Cas ia? ee eae a ea ae eats 


é 
$: 
i 
J 
À 

3 
= 


1878. | The Ancient Puéblos. 531 


of the elements, yet the remaining walls, which measure nearly 
three feet in thickness, are as firm as ever, and will in all probabil- 
ity thus continue for hundreds of years to come. In the 
distance, the great Mesa Verde (the green plateau) rises a thousand 
feet and stretches away for many miles to the north and east. 
It was from these cliffs that the blocks of stone in the neighbor- 
ing ruins were cut and carried a distance of two or three miles. 

A short distance below these remains and in the dry arroyo or 
cañon, locally known as the Rio McElmo (or, more properly, the 
Rio McElmell) is noticeable, in passing along the trail in the 
valley, the lower portion of a dark-brown circular tower, built far 
up among the rocks of the neighboring bluff, on a large bowlder, 
at the brink of a sheer precipice, oe I). 


k 
ao > 
a S \ : 


Fig. 1. Watch Tower on the gis McElmo. 


A very ancient path, now almost obliterated, leads up to the 
ruin. The structure, as well as the rock on which it stands, is 


VOL, XII—NO VII. at 
r 


ae discover another large ruined structure, built on a miniature mesa 
= pee in the center of the valley, rising to a height of fifty 
On this the walls Of å fortress or community errog aT 


532 The Ancient Puéblos. [ August, 


about ten or twelve feet in diameter, and the walls of the former 
may still reach a height of ten feet. This was undoubtedly used 
as a watch-tower by its builders, and the situation chosen for it 
was an admirable one for overlooking the gulch many miles both 
above and below. From this point, signals could be telegraphed 
to distant stations, in times of danger, while the miniature castle 
itself was so sheltered by the surrounding trees and débris as to 
escape the notice of careless observers. 

The natural depression through which winds the parched bed 
of the Rio McElmo is particularly rich in all varieties of these 
architectural relics. In the vicinity of the ruins just described, 
and near the Utah border, is a peculiarly interesting cluster 
of fortifications. A mass of dark-red sandstone, a hundred feet 
in height, stands in the midst of an open plain, on the top of 
which the remnants of several walls are still visible. Around the 
base of the jagged butte are other indications of masonry, but 
the most perfectly preserved portion of the group is a rectangu- 
lar apartment, built half-way up in the northern face of the bowl- 
cer, which has been named Battle rock or Legendary butte, because 
a legend exists amongst some of the tribes of that section relative 
to a great battle which had been fought there (Fig. 2). 

In the immediate neighborhood of Battle rock may be seen a 
series of diminutive cave dwellings or store-houses. The natural 
caverns of the crumbling sandstones, formed by atmospheric 
erosion, were utilized by the Ancient Puéblos as they retreated 
southward. Little hollows scarcely exceeding six feet in diame- 
ter, were walled up at the mouths and occupied possibly as 
dormitories, or, more probably, as magazines or caches, in which 
provisions were stored for safe keeping. Scores of these are 
found through all of the adjacent cañons, and in many instances 
they are situated hundreds of feet above the beds of the streams 
and were originally approached by niche-steps cut in the perpen- 


dicular cliffs, but which have been so worn away by time that they 


no longer present foot-holds for the adventurous climber. 

If we advance in a westward direction some fifteen miles, to 
the dry valley of the Hovenweep (the name signifying, in the 
euphonious tongue of the Utah Indians, deserted cañon) we shal 


aS 


1878. | The Ancient Puéblos. 533 


— 


heaped together, extending for a horizontal distance of two hun- 


‘IG. 2.— Battle Rock. 


dred and seventy-five feet. At some 
points they still remain standing twelve 
feet in height, whilst at others they 
have entirely fallen away. Many of 
the external corners of the rooms 
were neatly and accurately curved, (see 
Fig. 14, Plate IV). In the plaster, the 
impressions of knuckles, finger-tips and nails are quite distinct, 
and in some instances, the very delicate lines of the epidermis 
are distinctly visible in the prints. 

We cannot doubt that a multitude of workmen were employed 

in masonic labor, for in order to construct such huge edifices, a 

great amount of manual labor would be required, in the trans- 

portation of stone for many miles, trimming it into blocks, laying 

it in the walls, preparing the mortar, cutting cedar beams and 

rafters, plastering the external or internal walls with a coating of 

adobe, etc., and these operations may have required, in many cases, 

years for the completion of a single building. When we consider 


534 The Ancient Puéblos. [ August, 


the difficulties with which these pioneer architects had to contend, 
resulting from the imperfection of their stone implements, in the 
absence of any metal tools, we are filled with wonder and admi- 
ration in viewing the results of their patient labor. 

A remarkable cliff-house was discovered in the cafion of the 
Mancos river, a northern tributary of the San Juan, in the sum- 
mer of 1874. Mr. W. H. Jackson, the photographist of the 
expedition, thus describes it: “Just as the sun was sinking 
behind the western walls of the cafion, one of the party descried 
far up the cliff, what appeared to be a house, with apertures indi- 
cating two stories, but so far up that only the very sharpest eyes 
could define anything satisfactorily, as we had no field-glass with 
the party. The discovery of this, so far above anything heretofore 
seen, inspired us immediately with the ambition to scale the height 
and explore it. The house stood upon a narrow ledge, which 
formed the floor, and was overhung by the rocks of the cliff. 
The depth of this ledge was about ten feet, by twenty in length, 
and the vertical space between the ledge and overhanging rock 
some fifteen feet. It was perched up in its little crevice like a 
swallow’s nest, and consisted of two stories, with a total height of 
about twelve feet. The only sign of weakness was in the bulg- 
ing outward of the front wall, produced by the giving way or 
removal of the floor beams. Most peculiar was the dressing of 
the walls of the upper and lower front rooms; both were plas- 
tered with a thin layer of some firm cement of about an eighth 
of an inch in thickness, and colored a deep maroon-red, with a 
dingy white band eight inches in breadth, running around floor, 
sides and ceiling. In some places it had peeled away, exposing 
a smoothly dressed surface of rock.” (Plate IV,.Fig. 12). 

Such are the outlines of a pen picture of an isolated ruin which 
has attracted, since its discovery, much attention, both at home 
and abroad. A number of clay models have been recently made 
of it, which have been placed in several of the most famous 
museums in Europe. It already figures in some of the standard 
works on the aboriginal inhabitants of North America, and is 
: considered one of the most unique specimens of ancient archi- 
tecture thus far discovered in this section. The illustration will 
give a general idea of the house itself, but in order to realize its 


cae position in the cañon, a vertical distance of 800 feet must be 


1 Vide Bancroft’s Native Races of the Pacific States, Vol. IV, p 721. 


The Ancient Puéblos. 


PLATE IV. 


535 


rp 


srs 
l 


HENI ia 
[i 


i ny “iI 
Fa Aera 


TE Gi 
ERa 
AN ; 
UE J 

lj 


5360 The New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularie. [August, 


imagined, separating it from the level of the Mancos river flowing 
at the foot of the precipice. 

The remains of an old tower are to be seen in the valley below, 
the walls of which are several feet in height, having the plaster 
crumbled almost entirely away from the interstices between the 
stones. The mounds of decay which lie within and without, 
show conclusively that the building at one time was many times 
as high as it now appears. In the vicinity quantities of highly 
glazed and ornamented pottery lies scattered around, but all of it 
in a fragmentary condition. 

Through the neighboring cafions occur thousands of these 
interesting mural remains, but space forbids the mention of more 
than a few of the most characteristic. 


:0: 
THE NEW CARPET BEETLE—ANTHRENUS 
SCROPHULARI#! 


BY J. A. LINTNER. 


URING the summer of 1874, notices appeared in various 
newspapers of the ravages of a carpet-beetle, quite different in 

its appearance and in the character of its depredations from the 
well-known carpet-moth, Tinea tapetzella, which for so long a 
time had been the only known insect depredator on our carpets. 
Its habitat was stated to be beneath the borders of carpets 
where nailed to the floor, eating in those portions numerous holes 
of aninch or morein diameter. Occasionally it made its way ant? 
the crevices left by the joinings of the floor, following which, 
entire breadths of carpet would be cut across as by scissors. In 
several instances carpets had been destroyed—new ones as 
readily as older—and it was questioned whether their use could 
be continued, in view of a prospective increase of the alarming 

ravages, 

The insect was new to every one, and no one could form 4 
rational conjecture as to what order of the Insecta it belonged. 
‘It was described as a small ovate object, about one eighth of an 
inch in length, thickly clothed with numerous short bristle-like 
__ hairs, and terminating in a pencil of these, forming a tail. It was 
- exceedingly active in its motions, and when disturbed in its con- 
- 1 From advance sheets of the Thirteenth Annual Report on the New York State a 
Museum of Natural History. sa n 


E 
‘ 


ih Pag ABA ono be US wae aka |! 2 ee 6 8 abel, 
SSS ete 


SP enter ae Ge age al! ee Meee toes Tesh 


18 78] The New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularia. 537 


cealment would glide away beneath the base-boards or some 
other convenient crevice so quickly as in most instances to elude 
capture for its closer inspection. They were found only during 
the summer months, 

In 1876 it was reported in many dwellings in Schenectady, and 
in the month of July examples of it, for the first time, came under 
my observation, taken, upon search having been instituted, under 
the carpets of my residence at Schenectady, where its presence 
had not been suspected. It was evident, on the first inspection, 
that it was the larva of a beetle, and in all probability a member 
of the very destructive family of Dermestide, which comprises 
several of our most injurious depredators on animal substances. 

A number of the larvae were secured and fed upon pieces of 
Carpet in order to rear them. In September they had evidently 
matured, and had assumed their quiescent pupal state within the 
skin of the larva, first rent by a split along the back for the 
escape of the perfect insect. At this stage they presented char- 
acters which led me to refer them, in all probability, to the genus 
Anthrenus. 

In October, the first perfect insect emerged. Being entirely 
new to me, they were sent to Dr. LeConte, the distinguished 
coleopterist of Philadelphia, for determination. He returned 
answer that they were the Anthrenus scrophularie Linn —a spe- 
cies well known in Europe for its destructiveness, but now for | 
the first time detected in this country 

Notice of the discovery was communicated by me to the 
Albany Institute at its meeting of October 17, 1876, and a report 
of the same published in the A/éany Argus of October 21st. 
Owing to the interest attached to the introduction in our country 
of another addition to the already formidable list of injurious 
insects of European origin, the paper, or extracts therefrom, 
appeared in several of the journals of this and adjoining States. 
Through the publicity given it, I became informed of the pres- 
ence of the insect in many localities in New York and other 
States. Examples of a beetle, believed to conform to the brief 
description which I had given of A. scrophularig, and known to 


: _ possess the like habit of feeding upon carpets, were sent to me ae 
by Mr. A. S. Fuller of the Rural New-Yorker, for eee a 


The species had been in his cabinet for some time, under tl 
name of Anthrenus ssn LeConte, ming received the first 2 


538 The New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularie. |August, 


examples from Oregon in 1871 or 1872. Later, in 1874, speci- 
mens referred by him to the same species were found abundantly 
in a dwelling in Market street, New York, and thereafter in 
various parts of the city and neighboring localities. The exam- 
ples reared by Mr. Fuller from larvae taken in New York city 
were clearly identical with A. scrophularie. Upon informing Dr. 
LeConte that examples of this species were in cabinets under the 
name of A. /epidus and requesting. an explanation, he wrote me 
that the latter name had been given by him to a form which he 
had found on flowers at San Francisco and San Jose in 1850;' 
that it differed from the A. scrophularig of Europe in its sutural 
line being white instead of red; but that in all probability it 
should only be regarded as a variety of the European species. 

Dr. LeConte suggests that it may have been imported into 
California from Southern Europe during the Spanish occupation 
of that country. The eastern invasion of the insect, he believes 
to have been within a few years through the importation of car- 
pets at New York. 

The accompanying figures, very faithfully drawn by Prof. 
Riley, represent A. scrophularig in three of its stages, viz: æ the 
larva, c the pupa, and d the imago or beetle. At ġ the skin of 
the larva, after the beetle has emerged from the fissure on the 
back, is shown. The figures are enlarged, the lines beside them 
representing the natural size. 


Fic. 1.—The New Carpet Beetle. 


The larva—the form in which it is usually found when pursu- 
ing its ravages beneath the carpets—measures, at maturity, about 


1 A. lepidus, breviter ovatus, supra niger, thoracis lateribus albo-squamosis, gutta 
~ mga inclusa, elytris fasciis tribus angustis suturaque albo-squamosis, macula antica 
_ suturali aureo-squamosa ornatis, basi parce PONTIA Long. .11 in San Diego, 
o Acad. Nat, Sci., Phila., 1854, p 


1878.] Zhe New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularie. 539 


three-sixteenths of an inch in length. A number of hairs radiate 
: from its last segment in nearly a semicircle, but are more thickly 
: clustered in line with the body, forming a tail-like projection 
almost as long as the body; this terminal pencil of hairs is not 
shown in its full extent in the figure, doubtless taken from an 
immature individual. The entire length of the insect, including 
the pencil of hairs, is, in the largest specimens, nearly three- 
eighths of an inch. Measured across the body and the lateral 
hairs, its breadth just equals the length of the body. An ordi- 
nary magnifier will show the front part of the body, where no 
distinct head is to be seen, thickly set with short brown hairs, and 
a few longer ones. Similar short hairs clothe the body—some- 
what longer on the sides, where they tend to form small tufts. 
Towards the hinder end may be seen on each side three longer 
tufts (thrice as long) projecting laterally ; but these are not always 
visible, as the insect by the aid of a peculiar muscular arrange- 
ment, has the power of folding them out of sight along its sides. 
The body has the appearance of being banded in two shades of 
brown—the darker band being the central portion of each ring, 
and the lighter, the connecting portion of the rings, known as the 
incisure. By turning it upon its back, the six little legs, of which 
it makes such good use, can be seen, in vigorous efforts to regain 
its former position—its struggles while in this condition some- 
times producing a series of jumps of about an eighth of an inch 
in length. 

Having attained its full growth, it prepares for its pupal change 
without the construction of a cocoon or any other provision than 
merely seeking some convenient retreat. Here it remains in a 
quiet state, unaltered in external appearance, except somewhat 
contracted in length, until it has nearly completed its pupation, 
when the skin is rent along its back, and, through the fissure, the 
pupa is seen. A few weeks having passed, the pupal skin in its 
turn is split dorsally, and the brightly colored wing-covers of the 
beetle are disclosed. Still a few additional days of repose are 
required for its full development, when the now fully matured 
beetle crawls from its protective coverings of pupal case and lar- | 
val skin, and appears in its perfect form—its final stage. 

The earliest beetles emerge in the month of October, and con- 
_ tinue to make their appearance during the fall, winter and spring 
= months. Soon after their appearance probably, they par, and ee 7 


540 Lhe New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophulane. | August, 


fernales deposit their eggs for another brood of the carpet-eating 
larvee. 

The beetle is quite small, smaller than would ordinarily be 
expected from the size of the larva, being only about one-eighth 
of an inch long by one-twelfth broad. An average of five exam- 
ples before me gives, length .125 inch, breadth .085 inch. Its form 
is almost a perfect ellipse as seen from above; its back and under 
surface are quite rounded. When turned upon its back, it often 
for a few moments counterfeits death, with its legs so closely 
folded to the surface as scarcely to be seen, and in this state the 
ordinary observer might be at a loss to know the lower from the 
upper side. 

It is a beautifully marked little insect in its contrasting colors 
of white, black and scarlet, arranged as follows: The edge of 
each wing-cover, where they meet on the back, is bordered with 
red (forming a central red line), with three red projections from 
it outwardly, one on the middle of the back, and one other toward 
each end. Take a straight line and divide in four equal parts 
by three cross lines, and we have nearly the position of these pro- 
jections. At the extreme tip of the wing-covers is a widening of 
the bordering line, making almost a fourth projection from it. 
The first projection, near the head, is connected with a white 
spot, running upwardly on the middle of the front border of the 
wing-cover. On the outer border of the wing-covers are three 
white spots nearly opposite the red projections.. The interme- 
diate spaces are black. The segments of the body beneath are 
covered with pale red scales, and the thoracic region (which bears 
the legs) with whitish scales. The above description, although 
not presented as a scientific one, will suffice for the identification 
of the beetle when met with. The detection of this insect adds 
to our fauna another species of the dreaded genus Anthrenus, 
which there is reason to fear will equal in its destructive agency 
the well-known museum pest, the A. varius (formerly known as 
A. museorum), the obtrusive guest of all our collections of nat- 
ural history, whose ravages it seems impossible fully to guard 


ioe against, and so exceedingly difficult to control. 


It does not confine itself wholly to carpets, but it also infests 
< ‘andi injures various articles of wearing apparel, hanging in closets 
or lain away in drawers. An instance has also been stated, but 
vaits confirmation, of its preying upon cotton fabrics—a habit 
ged to either the clothes or ese moths. 


Pa 


A 
$ 
. 


ED Ae ey ee ee a, 


1878.] Zhe New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularia. 54I 


It is known to have become almost ubiquitous in a house 
which had been for some time occupied by it, notwithstanding 
the persistent efforts made for its extirpation. Its exuviæ were 
encountered in trunks, boxes, tied-up packages, drawers, beneath 
floor oil-cloths, etc. Late in the season (October) clusters’ of 
twelve or more of the full-grown living larva were disclosed, to 
the disgust and dismay of the housekeeper, in turning over a 
paillasse, the borders of which they had selected as a safe retreat 
on which to undergo their final transformation. 

I have this present year found that a convenient place in which 
to discover the beetle, is upon the windows of the infested rooms 
during the day. In the latter part of April examples were taken 
upon the windows of my residence in Schenectady. After the 
middle of May, a systematic search instituted for them, gave sev- 
eral examples each day. In the six days from May 17th to 22d, 
forty-four specimens were taken from the three windows of two 
upper rooms. Should investigation show that the beetle is drawn 
to the windows before the deposition of its eggs, their ready cap- 
ture and destruction at this time will offer an easy method of 
preventing their increase. 

Should this insect continue to increase until its complete natu- 
ralization shall make it as common as A. varius (a dozen or more 
of which may sometimes be seen feeding on a single flower), it is 
difficult to conceive how, under such a visitation, the comfort of 
carpets can still be indulged in within our homes. Even now, 
when it has barely commenced its ravages, it is reported as having 
inflicted very serious pecuniary losses in several instances, where 
carpets have been entirely ruined ; and such terror has its pres- 
ence imparted, that not a few prudent housekeepers have already 
abandoned the customary nailing of their carpets to the floor, 
that frequent examinations may be made during the summer 
months for the discovery and destruction of the unwelcome 
guest. 

The remarkable invasion of a dwelling in Cold Spring, N. Y., 
in the summer of 1874, after a twelve months’ absence of the 
family in Europe, was by a larva of Anthrenus (as determined by 
Dr. Packard), which is now believed to have been this species. 
According to the statement made, “ they took complete posses- 
sion, from the cellar to the attic, in every nook and crevice of the 
floors, under matting and carpets, behind prerureh,: and ang 


542 Lhe New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophularie. | August, 


everything in their way.” From this account we may infer an 
almost incalculable capability of increase if left to itself, and draw 
the lesson of the absolute necessity of combatting its invasion by 
every Means in our power. 

It will unquestionably prove an exceedingly difficult pest to 
dislodge. The ordinary applications of camphor, pepper, tobacco, 
turpentine, carbolic acid, etc., are powerless against it. It has 
even been asserted that it “ grows fat” on these substances. An 
effectual means of destruction, and preventive against new inva- 
sions, is still to be discovered. The free use of benzine has been 
recommended in some of our journals, to be used in the satura- 
tion of cotton, with which to fill the joinings of the floors and 
crevices beneath the base-boards. This is to be done during the 
winter months, at which time the insect will be occupying these 
retreats, either in its perfect beetle form, or as eggs deposited-for 
another brood; to either of these the direct application of ben- 
zine would be fatal. To some of my correspondents I have sug- 
gested the pouring of kerosene oil in the crevices of the floors, 
and filling of all places of retreat with cotton saturated with the 
oil. I would regard this as less dangerous in its use than ben- 
zine, and equally efficient.. 

The recommendation recently made in several of our news- 
papers, of the Persian insect-powder for the destruction of the 
insect, I believe to be of no value. I have not deemed it worth 
the trouble of experimenting with, but I have been told by those 
who have given it a trial that it has been found to be of no avail 
whatever. 

The insect has not as yet become sufficiently abundant in New 
York to be found resorting to plants for its food. The variety 
Anthrenus lepidus, which was introduced in California sufficiently 
long ago to permit its complete naturalization, was discovered 
there, in numbers, feeding upon some of the Composite. The 
Anthrenus varius is often found, in its perfect state, taking its food 
from the blossoms of different plants in the garden or field. I 
have met with it abundantly on peonies. It has also been found 
to frequent the rocket flower, Hesperis matronalis, a fragrant and 
showy perennial. If the plants known to be attractive to the A. 
varius can be introduced into our houses, and made to flower 
during the months of April and May, I believe that the carpet- 
beetles would be drawn to them in preference to windows, per- 
ee as soon as does emerge from the pupe. 


1878.] The New Carpet Beetle—Anthrenus Scrophulané. 543 


We are unable to give at the present any precise statement of 
its distribution. It is known in Oregon, as well as in California. 
It is believed to be distributed throughout most of the western 
States, and it is known to occur in various portions of the State 
of New York. It is announced as having appeared in considerable 
force in Syracuse. In Utica it has inflicted serious damage in many 
dwellings. From Brockport the information is received that “ it 
has been very destructive for the last three years. In spite of all 
the means which can be used, it is increasing in number, and 
threatens to destroy the carpets and all other woolen goods.” It 
has occurred at Buffalo, but not so abundantly as to have 
originated the name sometimes applied to it—the Buffalo bug—a 
name given to it on the Pacific coast probably, from a fancied re- 
semblance to that animal. Its presence has also been detected in 
Albany, but no serious ravages have been reported. It has occa- 
sioned much alarm in several places in the State of New Jersey. 
Without doubt it is committing its depredations in many localities 
where its work is ascribed to the carpet-moth, than which it is a 
far more pernicious insect. 

A lady to whom I was relating the destructive capabilities of , 
the new pest, congratulated herself that her carpets were free 
from it. The following morning her husband brought to me a 
beetle which he had taken from his face during the night, which 
proved to be the creature that I had described to her the previous 
evening—the abundant presence of which in her home, she had 
not suspected. 

From the serious nature of its depredations as above referred 
to but in part, the secrecy with which it conducts them, the ex- © 
treme difficulty with any known appliance of eradicating it—it 
becomes very important, as a preventive against its alarming in- 
crease, that it should, from the outset, be combatted by all the 
means known to be efficacious against its allied forms, or which 
may give promise of success as against a new foe. 

It may be interesting, in connection with the above notice of 
this last importation, to recall the fact that nearly all of our most 
injurious insects have been introduced from Europe. Of a long 
catalogue given by Professor ova in one of his valuable reports, 
a few may be mentioned here 

The Hessian-fly (Caidos destructor), the wheat-midge (L- 
ex tritici), the cheese-maggot (Piophila casei), the ee 


544 Recent Literature. _ (August, 


(Musca domestica), the currant- worm (Nematus ventricosus), oyster- 
shell bark-louse (Aspidtotus conchiformis), several species of plant- 
_ lice (Aphides), the cockroach (Blatta orientalis), the croton-bug 
(Ectobia germanica), the meal-worm (Tenebrio molitor), the grain- 
weevil (Sitophilus granarius), the bee-moth (Galleria cereana), the 
codling-moth of the apple (Carpocapsa pomonella), the cabbage- 
moth (Plutella cruciferarum), the carpet-moth (Tinea tapetzella), 
the clothes-moth (Tinea vestianella), the fur-moth (Tinea pelio- 
nella)> the currant borer (Ægeria tipuliformis), and within the few 
past years, the asparagus-beetle (Crioceris asparagi), and the well- 
known destructive cabbage-butterfly (Pieris rape). All of these, 
and the formidable list might be greatly extended, we have 
received from Europe, while very few of our native insect pests 
have been sent in return. Should our late exportation of the 
Colorado potato-beetle (Doryophora decemlineata), prove as in- 
jurious in Europe as in this country, which there is much reason 
to doubt, we shall still be very far from having made a commen- 
surate return. While the few American species which have been 
introduced in Great Britain and on the continent have not spread 
to any great extent, in almost every instance where injurious in- 
-sects have been brought thence to this country, their number and 
their ravages have been greatly increased. Thus, while the re- 
cent advent of the Axthrenus scrophularig has brought consterna- 
tion in many of our homes, we have been unable to find any 
record of its preying upon carpets, or other woolens, in the Old 
Worid, where it has been so long known. Even special inquiry 
made by me of one of the leading Entomologists of Europe, has 
failed to elicit any such information. It is said there to infest 
dried meats and similar substances. Perhaps its fondness for 
carpets is a new taste which its transportation hither has developed. 


:0:- 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


Emerton’s STRUCTURE AND Hasirs or Spipers.2—This is 
eminently a book for boys and girls who are i way 
interested in natural history, as it is a simple, readable, thoroughly 
intelligible account of the external and internal structure © 
_ spiders, with their classification; while, as an account of the more 


_ 1 Mr. V. T. Chambers finds differences in these two species from the European 
ones (Canadian Entomologist, 7, pp. 124, 1 25). 
__ ? American Natural History Series, vol. 2. Zhe Structure and Habits of - gos $ 


yJ. H. T Hlust rated. Salem, S. E. Cassino, niare Agency, I sie 


EEEE 


Bt Re ae 


Se Grae E 


De hes Carag ete 


1878. ] ` Recent Literature. i 545 


striking habits, indoors and out, of these interesting creatures, it is 
oS best and mọst original book i in- our lan nguag e. Lending a 


cocoons for.housing the eggs. e naturalness of the drawings, 


- especially those of the spiders standing on tip-toe (viz: Figs 40, 


41, 42); of the spiders laying eggs (Figs. 56, 57, 58, 59, 60), have 
certainly never been surpassed. In all these matters our author's 
many years’ observations of spiders and their ways, and his facile 
pencil, as seen not only in the drawings of the entire spiders, but 
also the pope details, aS this little book the air not only 
of the work of an adept in the difficult art of observation, which 
makes the book thoroughly a ei and interesting to the young, 
but it is really, in its way, an admirable, authoritative monograph. 
The figure (8) on page 20, illustrating i in a general manner the 
internal eee of a spider, is a most weil drawing, and 
not surpassed for clearness and intelligibility. We congratulate 
the author on the success of his first literary venture, and the 
publisher on the beautiful and tasteful dress of the book, and trust 
that the remainder of the series will add to the number, now so 
small, of American books for American boys and girls, which 
shall not only instruct but attract them strongly to the study of 
nature in the fields and woods, or at least out of doors. 
ur main cause for fault- finding with Mr. Emerton’s book is 
that there is not more of it. At times heis too brief; fifty pages 
more would have added to its value, and in some places he might 
have entered into longer explanations without wearying his 
readers. On page 12 we should have preferred the word cephalo- 
thorax, or head-thorax, instead of thorax. There is little in the 
book which is not original, most of it will be quite new to 
naturalists, and we anticipate that it will give a fresh stimulus to 
the study of spiders, which have such highly-developed reasoning 
powers, and which, the more we know them, become the more 
E despite their repulsive exterior and often disagreeable 
manne 


THE NATURALISTS’ DIRECTORY FOR 18781—The title given 
below so well characterizes this useful publication that we need 
but call attention to a new feature in the work, n the addition 
of a list of scientific societies, clubs, museums, , in the United 
States and Canada, with the addresses of ae Pree and 
Secretaries. Thou ugh on casual examination we notice one or 
two errors, the work of compilation, difficult enough to perform 

theres ae fer 1878, containing ay names of the Naturalists of 
Amerie north of , arrang oe teesi r by departments; also a list 
of s ientific pren per a wAn ogue of o sara scientific books, arranged by 
dited by asa E. Cassi g - Salem, Naturalists’ Agency, 1878. 


~ 


546 Recent Literature. . _ [August, 


without omissions, has been apparently well done, and it remains 
for those whose names are mentioned in it to keep the Editor 
informed as to the changes in residence, &c.; in this way a work 
in which all are interested may be well maintained. 


HAYDEN’S GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL ATLAS OF COLO- 
RADO.\—The publication of this noble work is appropriate at the 
present time, as indicating that our government, although subject 
to the vicissitudes so incident to its popular form, does not forget 
the highest interests of the people. The great survey under 
Hayden, of which the present atlas is the latest product, appeals 
in it to the public interest in the most direct manner. Nothing 

n be more desirable for a community to know than the material 
constitution of their possessions, and in no way is this knowledge 
more quickly and exactly communicated than by the geological 


map. 

This atlas consists of sixteen folio maps, in two series. The 
first of these consists of four maps on a scale of twelve miles to 
the inch ; the second of twelve sheets on a scale of four miles to 
the inch. the second series, six maps are topographical and 
six geological. The maps of the first series include a drainage 
map and a map indicating the distribution of vegetation. The 
importance of the latter to the emigrant is alone ‘worth the cost 
of the atlas. The topography is expressed by contour lines 
representing intervals of two hundred feet, which is the best mode 
of expression of surface configuration. The various types of 
country are thus perceived at a glance; the craggy peaks, the 
FIA and the cañons being as well marked as in a birds-eye 
vie 

la the geological department Dr. Hayden’s work is promi- 
nently displayed. The vast series of Mesozoic and Tertiary 
strata which form the seated district of our continent were first 
distinguished, located and stratigraphically defined by the author, 
who has now the satisfaction of seeing his prolonged labors set 
forth in a form commensurate with their importance, so far as 
regards the great State of Colorado. No more extensive area, 
horizontally or stratigraphically, ever fell to the lot of a single 
geologist to translate into the language of science, than has been, 
or the past twenty-five years, the heritage of Dr. Hayden. The 
randeur of the result may be estimated by remembering that 
the present atlas covers a very small fraction of the area explored 
and digested. An examination of the present series of maps will 
furnish some idea of the labor and energy expended in the work. 


We have here the results of the studies of Dr. Hayden’s able 
_ corps of assistants as well as of his own. Of these gentlemen it 


would be invidious to select any for special mention. The suc- 
1 Geological and io spose’ Atlas T a oe ai aes ns of adjacent territory. 
ue . V. HAYDEN, U. S. Geologist-in-c ment of the Interior, Un ited 

oe and Geographical Savers of Fy Territories, 1877. 


TSE Ce tae a FEES SS ok 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 547 


cess of the atlas as a work of art reflects equal credit on the 
artist and engraver. An especial feature of the work, as of many 
of Dr. Hayden’s reports, is the analytical landscapes of Mr. 
Holmes. These representations, which conclude the atlas, enable 
the reader to realize, ay a vertical projection, the teachings of the 
preceding maps and charts. 

Every citizen of our ales will feel increased respect for his 
government, which fosters works like the present; and the com- 
plaint that a republican form is discouraging to the development 
of science within its limits is shown every day to be without 
foundation. 


Tue Penn Monruty for June, 1878—This magazine deserves 
well of the thinking community as an enterprise for the dissemi- 
nation of fact and argument in all questions of the highest 
moment. The present number contains an article which interests 
us especially, entitled, “The relation of the Mosaic Cosmogony 
to Science,” by C. B. ‘Warring, Ph.D. It is another attempt to 
reconcile the account of creation, given by Moses in the first 
chapter of Genesis, with the facts which have been ascertained by 
iavestigation, and which form the branches of science known as 
geology and paleontology. 

Mr. Warring approaches the subject in a jude apri and 
with an evident desire to ascertain the truth of the r He 
is careful to disavow responsibility for the ESE g Ta any 
friends of the Mosaic record, which cannot be GA ated by 
the text. He also admits the validity of the conclusions attained 
by scientific men in physics and geology. These conclusions he 
arranges under twenty heads, commencing with the former 
department and RFEA with the latter. These are fairly stated, 
but we leave to our friends the physicists the assertion that light 
is the primal form of motion and force, and the new theory pro- 


of the subject, which is derived fam Dana, is open to such 
doubt as to be invalid as evidence: it is, that “ every fish, bird, 
reptile and mammal of the Tertiary is now extinct.” 

he general coincidence of the Mosaic account with these 


ever, the coincidence is sufficiently exact to warrant the high esti- 
matè placed upon it by many theologians, and the assertions 
made as to its supernatural origin, is avery different matter. In 


discussing this part of the subject, our author is not free from 


C VOL, XIL—NO. VII. 38 
s s 


548 Recent Literature. [ August, 


bias, which we think he displays in a disposition to see more 
scientific precision in the language of Moses than a plain reading 
of the text will permit. 

First, as to the statement that the Mosaic account “ does not speak 
of any vegetation, except seed-yielding herbage and trees whose 
fruit enclosed the seed.” We think that the text will not bear 
this restricted interpretation. It says, “ Let the earth bring forth 
grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after 
his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.” It is, to our 
mind, a gratuitous assumption, that the language “ whose seed is 
in itself,’ signifies vegetation “ whose fruit encloses the seed,” or 
angiospermous plants. But even supposing this to be the render- 
ing of the text, the seeds of gymnospermous plants are enclose 
in the unripe cones for a considerable time, and to ordinary obser- 
vation the opening of the cones at maturity does not differ from 
the same process in a seed vessel. By claiming too much morpho- 
logical meaning for the text, Mr. Warring taxes our credulity too 
seriously. What he further understands by the language “herb 
yielding seed,” will appear later; for us, it means any kind of 
vegetable whatever. 

cond, we note the relation of this Mosaic statement to the 
facts of vegetable paleontology. The author of the article, find- 
ing that the angiospermous plants have not yet been found below 
the Cretaceous horizon, concludes that Moses referred to this 
period when describing the creations of the “third day.” He 
evidently thinks that Moses intended phænogamous plants in the 
expression, “ herbs yielding seed,” that is, that he distinguished 
seeds from the spores of cryptogamic plants. Here again he 
goes beyond the legitimate use of the text. For us, Moses 
describes the creation of all kinds of vegetation, cryptogamic as 
well as phzenogamic, and that any relation of the text to the his- 
tory of the Cretaceous period is imaginary. Indeed, the ancient 
record is better supported by the liberal interpretation which we 
give it. But this coincidence of the enlarged interpretation with 
geologic history is not so remarkable as to be incapable of 
explanation on rational principles. In the Mosaic text the crea- 
tion of plants very naturally follow the first elevation of land, as 
it could not have taken place earlier; and it precedes its occupa- 
tion by animals, in plain accordance with the necessary existing 
relations of the two forms of life, as open to the view of any 
observing person. 

Thirdly, a greater significance than the language admits of, 1s 
discovered by the author under consideration, in the verse with 
which the account of the third day’s work opens. It reads, “ Let 
the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one 
place,” “ a remarkable statement,” says our author, “ to come from 
one who knew only of separate bodies of water and nothing of 
their real connection. We now know that the oceans are all one.” 
For us, the latter is the more remarkable statement of the ai 


SP rece, Sy AEE Rg a AT i ead a inert a cs EE i ie eS Ce NN Sie ar ee a ann eee a aag Be 


1878.] | Recent Literature, 549 


implying an obscurity in the mind of its author as to the meaning 
of the words “ one place,” etc. 

Fourthly ; but supposing Moses to have referred to the Creta- 
ceous period in his account of the third day, our essayist labors 
under the difficulty of having admitted that the creation not only 
of plants but of all the greater and many of the minor divisions 
of the animal kingdom took place before that of the sun and 
moon on the fourth day. And if we allow the utmost freedom 
to the commentator and risiagen the text to mean before the 

-appearance of the sun and moon to the inhabitants of the earth, 
we have an equally ni posaible proposition 

he author leaves for another article his explanation of the 
relation of the “days” to the geologic record. ere he will 
have a more difficult task before him than that which he has 
already attempted. The order of succession indicated by Moses 
is, in general, correct, but the division into epochs is not only not 
in accordance with the facts now in our possession, but is not 
consistent with itself. Thus the introduction of “fowl” on the 
first day of the animal creation is far from justifiable, as is also 


- the creation of “ whales” at the same time. These forms were 


comparatively late creations, and if the language “ every living . 
creature that moveth, that the waters brought forth,” means the 
first animals, as its place i in the same text indicates, then we have 
another serious anachronism. If, on the other hand, this sentence is 
to be disregarded, then there is no narration of the origin of ani- 
mals. Then again, the time of origin of “ everything that creepeth 
upon the earth after his kind,” whether reference is made to insect 
or reptiles, comes on the sixth day, and after the creation of birds 
and whales, instead of anterior to them, as the science of palzon- 
tology clearly shows to have been the case. In fact there is no 
general difference between the proceedings of the fifth and sixth 
days beyond that indicated by the habitat of animals, z. e., whether 
they be aquatic or terrestrial ; and this distinction is only valid as 
relates to one class, the fishes, but has no significance otherwise, 
and least of all any agreement with the geologic recor 
HAECKELĽ’s Protista-KINGDOM.'—This is a strong Healficciation’ 
in popular language, of Haeckel’s belief in a kingdom of organisms, 
comprising certain protophytes and the Protozoa, which forms neu- 
tral ground between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. It seems 
to us to be an unnatural and unnecessary combination, though from 
some points of view useful at this time. The illustrations are ex- 


cellent. The right of Bathybius to be regarded as an organism is 
= Stoutly maintained. The pamphlet deserves translation into En- 


glish, for whatever Haeckel writes is worth reading, whether all 
his conclusions are accepted or not. He is a force in the scien- — 


__ tific world; certainly not a protist. 


at Das Protistenreich, nn Taare nN über das Formenge ebiet der niedirstih - 
Lebewesen. Mit e chaftlichen Anhang; System der Protisten. Von E. 


= Mit takiri chei be holzschnitten. Leipzig, 1878. 8vo, pp. 104. 


550 Recent Literature. [August, 


ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY FOR 1877.1—While 
this year’s volume is less bulky than its predecessors, it has lost 
none of its distinctive features as a useful summary of the pro- 
gress of science in all departments, with especial ia Aea to the 
wants of the specialist who must be informed as to progress 
in general science, as well as of the general reader who needs 
some handy, condensed year-book of this sort, to supplement the 
encyclopædia and other books of reference in his library. The 
work seems to be admirably classified and condensed and in all 
respects as useful and rather more compact, and cheaper than the» 
previous ones. 


Coox’s MANUAL OF THE APIARY.2—This manual of bee-keeping 
is in point of style not equal to Langstroth’s or Quimby’s, but still 
is excellent in its matter and will prove a reliable and practical 
guide to the beginner. The illustrations are in most cases good, 


P 
theories. The index is copious and convenient. 


THORELL’s STUDIES ON THE SPIDERS oF Mataysia3—The first 
part of this series of descriptions of the Arachnid fauna of Malaysia, 
and of the Celebes especially, forms a volume of 294 pages, with 
an index, and must comprise when completed a quite full descrip- 
tion of the spiders of Malaysia and Pupuana. The descriptions 
are detailed and in Latin. 


= 


RecenT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.—Brehm’s Thierleben. Band x. Heft 7-10. 
Leipzig, 1878. New York: B. Westermann & Co. 8vo, 40 cents a Heft. 

Die europäischen Encyrtiden. Von Gustav Mayer. Wien, 1878. 8vo, pp. 104. | 

Beiträge zur Schmetterlings-Fauna von sniege II. Von N. B. Möschler. Wien, 4 
1878. 8vo, pp. 72, 3 plates. From the a A 

Sonen ogical Te No. ons RA Lintner. From the Thirtieth 4 
Annual Report on ba New Yor k State kama of Nat. Eat, for the year 1876. 
Printed i in advance o gen Sean bany, June, 1875. 8vo, pp. 142. 

Studi sui Ragui M Papuani tsai T. Thorell. I. Genova Tipografia del 
R. Instituto mie Bettis r577. 8vo, pp. 297. From the author 

American Club List Sportsman’s aps hi ry. By Charles Hallock. New 
York: Facet and presi Pobi ing Company. 1878. 8vo, pp. 90. 

Two interesting American Diptera, Gidas A and Ep vibates apr Sack- 
enii. By Edward Burgess. From the Proceedings of the Boston Socie halo 
vin ‘History Vol. xix. we bry 27. 1878. Svo, pin 2, a a plate. yia 


gra on the Insecta (including Arachnida) collected by Captain Feilden and Mr. 
- Hart between the parallels of 78° and 83° north latitude, during the Recent Arctic 
1 Annual Record of oe aie and PRS for 1877. Edited by SPENCER F.B D, 
with the assistance of Eminent Men of Science. New York, Harper & iri 
í 1878. 12mo, pp. 4 
_ "Manual of the Apiary. B A. J. Cook, Professor of Entomology in the Michigan 
, State icultural College. beroni edition, hema S gee gee phoney and 
_ beautifully illustrated ‘Chichgos Phen, Oc Newman & Son o, pp. 286. — 
-3 Studi sui Ragni Malesi sian Per T. cas I. ERE ae 8vo, 
PP: 294, "e index. ; 


1878.] | Recent Literature. 551 


Expedition. By Robert McLachlan, F.R.S., F.L.S. (Extracted race ag Linnæan 
Society’s Journal—Zodlogy. Vol. xiv.) 8vo, pp. 25. the 

Das Protistenreich. pae populäre Uebersicht über das Fonmengeie e er nieder 
me Lebewese Mit einem wissenschaftlichen Anhange: System der ri tisten. 

Ha Leipzig Ernst Giinther’s Verlag, 1878. Bro, pp. 10 Mit 

bl car ga Holzschnitten 

Die europäischen Cynipidengallen mit Ausschluss der auf Eichen vorkommenden 

rten. Von Dr. Gustav Mayer. (Aus dem 15, Jahresberichte der Rossauer Com 
munal—Obe ahe. in We ca bes Mie Nolder, k. k. Hof-und Univer: 
sitats- Buchhandler , 1876. 8vo, 

irs Gan a = shes ig the British Carboniferous Formations, PY Ramsay H. Tra- 
quair, M.D ti. Paleoniscidee pp. I-60, plates i-vii. (Palzon- 
trawl Saly, FPN ) Volume for re. Poon the aut ol 

Beiträge zur Fossilen Flora Spitzbergens, gegründet auf die Sammlungen der 
Schwedischen Expedition T r 1872 auf Hig Von Oswald Heer. 4to, pp. 
141, plates 32. Stockholm, 1 From the au 

Paleontographica, Beiträge zur eens der Vorzeit. 25te Band is 
oy olge. Erster Band 4te Lieferung. 4to, pp. 141-174, plates xix-xxii. Cass 


; ae the ago and a Saray of the Skull in the Urodelous Amphibia. Part 
y Wm tchen Parker, 4to, pp.529-597, plates 21-29 (From the 
Philosoph reeuecnons Roy. aoe VoL 167, part 2.) London, 1877. From the 


r Sta mmes-geschichte der Spongien. Von Prof. Karl A. Zittel. 4to, pp. 2 
(Read on the Fiftieth Anniversary of C. Th. von Siebold’s Acadèmic Doai.) 
Munich, 1878. 

Studien über Fossile e el Zweite Abtheilung: Lithistidæ. By Prof. Karl 
A. Zittel. 4to, pP a x. (From the Abhand. der K. bayer. Akad. d. 
Wa di Clo» d.) encode 1878. From the author. 

Description at te Fossil Reptilia of South Africa in the Pag of the British 
Museum. By Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S. 4to, Ra pp. 88, accompanied 
by a 4to atlas, Vol. ii, of yee plates. From the author, 

The Ancient Life-History of the Earth: a comprehensive outline of ae principles 
and eating fact s of Palæontologi Science. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., ¢tc. 
12m0, pp. 407, fi ures 270. D. at ppleton & Co., New York, 18 

The Nat gi reniir T Perpa the names of the Naturalists north 

of Mexico, a list of Soci ekon etc. d by S. E. Cassino. I2mo, pp. Na w 
uralists’ A Acces, Salem 

Ferns of rE By John Williamson. 12mo pe I par and sixty plates drawn 
by shia: er Joh Morton & Co., Louisville, Ky., 1878. 

oe et Myologie pith Manchot w iea e par M. M. kg Gervais et 
E. Alix. 8vo, pp. 48, pls xvii. , 1878. From the autho 

nes Pees State Laboratory z pen = Natural History of ikos Bul- 
le o 8vo, pp. 92, I plate. Bisbal Illinois, 1878. 

The Palzontolip N N ae Jae editor. 8vo, pp. 8, No. r. Cincinnati, July 2,1878. 

e Law of Population. Its conse. very and its bearing upon human conduct 
and morals. By Annie Besant. 12mo. 47. New York: Asa K. Butts, 19 Dey 
street, 1878, 

On the Influence of the Advent d a higher form of life in gige the struc- 
ture of an older and lower form y Prof. Richard: Owen, F.R vo, pp. 
e maS eee (From the Quart. Journ. y fie Soc. of London for Mey, 1878.) From 
the auth 

Rema pa on New Zealand Fishes. By Albert Ganther, F.R.S. &8vo, pp. 
PA ne (From the Ann. and Magazine a P Natural History, May, rate From 

e auth 


and New Britain. By Dr. Albert Günther, V.P.Z.S. (Proc. Zoél. Soc. of Aonde 
“eb, Pi 1977, 2 pij From the author. i 


Ona EA of gie and Fishes from Duke- of-York st New Trekin ote 


i 


552 General Notes. [ August, 


See shi on new Fishes Collected in ep i the Expedition of 
H.M.S. “ Challenger.” By Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S the Ann. and Mag 
Nat. History, Now 1877.) 8vo, pp. 433-446. From the pore 

Account of the Zodlogical Collection made during the visit of H: MS: (St Petrel” 
to the Galapagos islands. Communicated b y a Giint her. (From Proc. Zodl. Soc. 
London, Feb., 1877.) 8vo, pp. 64-93, 3 plate 

Notice of two large gael re formerly inhabiting the Mascarene islands. 
By Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., (From the Linnzean Soc. Journ. Zodlogy, Volume 
xiii.) 8vo, pp. EPA Piom the author 

Notes Sur les Schistes a Meletta de Froidefontaine. Par MM. Oustalet & Sapin bs 
Karia i Bull. Soc. Geol. de France. 2me Ser. t. xxvii, Janvier, 1870.) 


y sE ings of the Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. xix, part iii, May, 
1877 to March, 1878. 8vo, pp. 223-334, plates 8, 9. Boston, May, 1878. From the 
Societ 

Pieeviptions of new song . ee a pee “te the parie and 
Upper Silurian rocks of and Ind By A. White, M.D. (from 
Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1878.) ge the atoi. 

The ancient Outlet of Great Salt Lake. By A. C. Peale. oan Journ. Science, 
Vol. xv, Tapi, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 439-444. From the author 

Descriptions of Seven New —— of oS from PE Island of St. Vincent, ve 
Indies. By George N. Law (Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sciences, Vol. i, No. 5 
1878.) Pages 147-153. fon. the a SS 


Description of a new species of Parrot of the genus Chrysotis. By Geo N. 
Lawrence. (Ann. N. Y. Acad. of Sciences, Vol. i, No. 4.) Pages 125, rea roti 
the author. 


ista Meteorológica Mensual, Marzo, 1878. Also Boletin del Ministerio de 
Posio de la pu lenas Mexicana, June, 1878. Mariano Bárcena, Director, Mex- 
ico, Mex 
Proc sistin of the Aberia Philosophical Sinton 3 No. 101, July 8, pp. 455, 
Philadelphia. 


10: 
GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


INSECTS NEEDED TO FERTILIZE UTRICULARIA AND PyXIDAN- 
THERA.—In a short paper read at the~American Association, in 
Buffalo, in 1876, I showed some of the neat arrangements by 
which across-fertilization of flowers was secured in several species 
of several genera of plants. I now present an illustration of one 
of the best of these. It is the common bladderwort, Ufricu/aria 
vulgaris, which is common in stagnant ponds. Aside from the 


a 


Arai under MSEE S there are several other things 


1878. | : Botany. 553 


time the insect is ready to withdraw, the side of the stigma which 


t 
ag An enlarged front larged, show Fic 2.—Side view of the 
vie a a gaya of A cula- ing the larger flower Brig the position of the 
ria perna s, outsi ar the stigma a few larger stigma before it has bee 
larger sensitive wi ghee it seconds after it touched by an aaa 
has a nor nder ene has been dis- 
the c A. a, a ow- turbed. 


er tip, a E iai a 

“is ready to receive bollir is hidden or covered. Hardly any 
method can be more admirable for securing a cross-fertilization 
of flowers. 

Some time in April I received from the pine barrens of New 
Jersey a large plant in flower of Pyxidanthera barbulata. This 
was placed near the window on a dinner plate containing some 
water. The plant continued to produce an abundance of fresh 

Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 


Side view of 
stamen. ; 


_ Flower of Pyxidanthera 
Poe enlarg a 
Tw the ak are 


rem The two 
: baked aha Toye 
between the petals. 


Sowers for ten days or more. The small white flowers when . 


554 General Notes. [ August, 


open look much like a small phlox, to which the plant is nearly 
allied. There are five stamens alternating with the lobes of the 
corolla, to which they are attached. The anthers are about as 
high as the stigma, towards which each one projects two short 
beaks. On pressing these beaks down with a pin, a mass of 
pollen oozes out of each transverse slit of the anther. After re- 
moving the pin, the beaks will again and again resume their 
places and the opening will close. After they were well open, I 
marked several fresh flowers and watched them two or three times 

no case did any pollen escape 
from the anthers. These finally withered and shrunk up con- 
siderably, and the whole corolla, stamens and all, seemed to be 
lifted above the rest of the flower by the elongation of the calyx 
or some other cause. 

This case seems to be dependent on insects for aid in fertiliza- 
tion. It is possible that fresh plants in their native place would 
not behave as did these sent by mail, but I think they would. 
If so, this queer plant is another of the hosts of plants which have 
a special contrivance by which insects are needed to aid in trans- 
ferring pollen—FProf W. F. Beal. 


Worf AND HALLS List oF THE MosseEs, LIVERWORTS AND 
LicuEns oF ILLINOIs.—This list appears in Bulletin, No. 2, of the 
Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. It is simply a dry 
list, without any remarks such as would seem to be in place re- 
garding variation, &c.; but will prove undoubtedly of use to local 


botanists. 
ZOOLOGY. ! 

INTELLIGENCE IN CHIMPANZEES.—Some observations recently 
made on the mental faculties of the pair of young chimpanzees 
(Troglodytes niger) in the Zoological Garden, indicate the posses- 
sion by those animals of the power of ratiocination to a very con- 
siderable degree. 

ooking-glass having been placed in the cage they proceeded 
to investigate the novel phenomenon presented to them, but with- 
out much success until one of them, being engaged at the 
moment in munching a crust of bread, appeared to be struck by 
a similarity in the occupation of himself and of the figure before 
him. Withdrawing the bread from his mouth, he looked first at 
it and then at its reflected image, and then proceeded to place 1t 
in various positions, watching carefully the figure in the mirror, 
until he seemingly became satisfied that what he saw was, in some 
manner to him incomprehensible, himself, after which he passed 
some time sitting in front of the glass watching his own motions 
with much satisfaction. 
_ A snake being placed in the room the animals manifested great 
The departments of Ornit . ELLIOTT 
fon A vey hology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. E ; 


1878. | Zoology. í 555 


terror, climbing at once to the top of the cage and uttering inces- 
santly their peculiar cry of alarm. So great an impression was 
made on them that after the snake was taken away they remained 
aloft for fully two hours, and not even the sight of the dish and 
spoon with which they were familiar was enough to bring them 
down, although they gave evidence by their outstretched hands 
and their expressive faces that it would afford them great pleasure 
to have it handed up to their place of refuge; still they would 
not come down, and did not until their regular attendant, to whom 
they are much attached, came on the scene, when they promptly 
descended and embraced him fondly. He was then directed to 
place them near the glass front of the cage, and the snake was 
shown to them from the outside, but that which was so frightful 
at a distance of ten feet in the same room, lost much of its ter- 
rors when only six inches away but on the other side of an inch 
of plate glass ; they merely uttered their hoo-hoo of displeasure 
and pointed at it with the forefinger. 

To make certain that they had not merely become accustomed 
to its presence, it was agajn thrown through the door, when the 
two animals, panic stricken as before, fled wildly up the ropes. 

In this connection an interesting fact was observed. Mr. Wal- 


strange object, as a man, both the male and female ascend the 
trees, but that it is the female only who sounds the note of alarm 
and casts down fruit and branches to the ground. This would 
appear to be likewise the case with the chimpanzee, for when 
frightened by the snake the male laid down on the cross-beam 
where they took refuge, and only turned himself over occasion- 
ally to fix an eye on the enemy and to utter his expressive %00- 
hoo, while the female placed herself directly over the snake, 
repeating constantly an entirely different sound, something like 
whey-whey, in a high shrill key, meanwhile leaning down towards 
the snake and violently striking against the beam with the palm 
of her hand. These actions are undoubtedly a part of the - 
maternal instinct called forth in all animals with whom the female 
is charged with the duty of taking care of the young and pro- 
tecting them frem dangerous intruders. 

In contemplation of the mental processes performed by the 
chimpanzees in clearly discovering their own identity with the 
figure reflected by the mirror, and in relying on the protection 
afforded by the glass front of their cage against their dreaded 
enemy, it is hard to see on what but the flimsy basis supplied by 
prejudice, can be founded such statements as that, for instance, 
made by Mr. Mivart, to the effect that the difference between the 
minds of man et the higher apes, “ is a difference of kind and 
not one of degr: (Man and Apes, p. 149. 

The writer, Sori one, fails to see wherein these processes differ, 


550 General Notes. [ August, 


except somewhat in degree, from the lowest efforts of the brain 
of a savage; indeed it is doubtful if the undirected faculties, those 
given by nature alone, of a human child of the same age—about 
four years—would produce results of a much higher grade. 
When to these, however, is added, by the art of man, the faculty 
of language, the human infant develops with amazing rapidity 
into the man of intellect, leaving far behind its late rival which 
grows only into greater bulk and force of muscle, the growth of 
the individuals thus epitomizing into a few years the whole his- 
tory of the vast progress and the brutish immobility of the two 
races which they represent—Arthur Erwin Brown, Fune 20, 1878. 


Is THE Rocky MOUNTAIN SHEEP COVERED wiTH WooL ?— 
_ Two questions are very frequently asked of western hunters: 
ts te * bighorn’ covered with wool?” and “Do antelopes shed 
their horns?” If a vote were taken on these two subjects both 
questions would probably be answered in the negative. 

During a number of years I have had occasion to travel over 
the low country of the West, as well as through some of its most 
elevated portions. Within the latter I have often met with the 
Rocky Mountain sheep, or bighorn (Ovis montana). As the high 
mountains where these beautiful animals usually occur are not 
accessible during the cold seasons of the year, I never saw the 
sheep otherwise than covered with hair, somewhat resembling 
that of the antelope. It is neither so fine nor so straight as that 
of the deer, but very nearly of the same color. In the summer of 
1877 my work carried me to the Wind River mountains, 
Wyoming Territory. On July 17th I found myself quietly resting 
on a rock, amid large fields of snow, atan elevation of about 12,000 
feet above sea level. While studying the surrounding scenery 
I was aroused by the sounds of rapidly approaching steps. ~ 
Looking up I saw four mountain sheep running towards me. At 
first I scarcely recognized the species of the animals, They were 
ofa a, different color from any I had seen before, and seemed 
to have a very rough skin. By the time I had completed my 
ahaa verane the sheep (female) had done likewise, and were 
moving off in an opposite direction with considerable speed. A 
shot =- after their retreating forms wounded one of them, but 
all e 

July pes a party of four of us ascended a high peak near the 
southern termination of the range, in north latitude 42° 40’ 
(approximately). As we reached timber-line, about 11,200 feet 

sea level, we saw a band of more than one hundred mountain 
sheep. Several were secured by the aid of our rifles. Upon 

_ dressing them we found that the “hair” was shorter than usual 

—about three-quarters of an inch in length. It was apparently 

growing rapidly, and was pushing before it a layer of very fine 
wool, about half an inch in thickness. In other words, the sheep 

: se their wool. This latter i is exceedingly fine, and of 


1878.] Zoology. 557 


a light gray color. Somé portions of the body were already clear 
of it, but it still remained on the larger part thereof. This 


the sheep I had seen a week before. A foetal animal belonging 
to this species, which I had occasion to examine in 1875, showed 
a similar character of its covering. The skin was no longer fresh 
when I obtained it, and the proof was not so positive as in this 
instance, 

The second question is not so readily answered. During the 
summer of 1877 | I saw several thousands of antelopes, and passed 
through regions over which they had roamed for years. There I 
found quite a number of hollow antelope horns, lying on the 
ground. Each time I made careful search, in order to discover 
other bones of the animal, but in eight instances could discover 
none. It may be that coyotes dragged the horns to the places 
where they were found, but in this case other portions, either o 
skin or skeleton, would probably have occurred near the spot. A 
young male antelope fell a victim to one of my bullets, cp upon 
examination I found that one of his horns had been injur 
slight exertion, only, sufficed to remove the horn from its ‘ “core” 
If antelope do Shed their horns, a supposition to which I incline, 
they probably do it at irregular intervals, and perhaps only as the 
result of disease or injury. Not being a professional zoologist, I 
am unable to point out the affinities of these animals, which 
would render the shedding of horns either more probable or less, 
in accordance with their present taxonomic position —/. M. 
Endlich. 

(Note by the Editor). After several years familiarity with the 
prong-horned antelope in a wild state, I may say that I have 
never met with an pidet case of shedding of the horn sheath. 
Shed horn-sheaths are not common where these animals abound, 
as they should be, were the phenomenon usual. ` Their Ste 
ance on the animal at times indicates that they may be shed, and 
I suppose that the evidence is sufficient that the shedding occurs. 
But it is not periodical nor even frequent—Z£. D. Cope. 


Discovery OF TWO REMARKABLE GENERA OF MINUTE Mvnia- 
PODS IN FarrMoUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA—It has been my 
good fortune to detect Polyxrenes and Pauropus in our splendid 
_ Park, thus adding two hitherto unnoticed articulates to the fauna 
of Pennsylvania. The former I regard as the P. T of 
Say, and is about one-tenth of an inch long. Its detailed 
is reserved for a future article. The Pauropus appears to be etei 
with P. huxleyi of Lubbock, at least after a most careful — 
copical scrutiny of a number of specimens, I could find no char- 
acter that would warrant specific distinction; the pyriform body 
between the two styles which surmounts the shorter of the two last. 
_ Segments of the antenne being sessile as in the aforementioned 

Species. The habitat was in the decayed roots of an old om Boo 


a E 


558 ; General Notes. [August, 


the passage ways and galleries of a nest of Termites or white ants, 
and I think it likely that this and FR situations will turn out 
to be their favorite haunts. e singular activity of the little 
creature as compared with that of te small Collembola and crus- - 
taceans which were its companions was very striking and ren- 
dered it very evident that we had encountered an organism which 
until then had escaped our observation. The little fellows when 
roughly handled rolled themselves up and “played possum,” as 
do some Diplopods. They also seemed to be very sensitive to 
contact with a pointed style with which I frequently touched 
them, and which I think they perceived by means of the long 
lateral bristles of which there are four on each side as well as by 
means of the antennz. Much more active and quick in move- 
ment than Polyxenes, resembling in this respect the Chilopods, I 
am inclined to think that they are undoubtedly Myriapoda. Also 
the fact that I found many specimens with but three and four 
leg bearing segments is also evidence that they moult several 
times, as do their immediate allies, in passing from the immature 
to the adult state. As Lubbock has found the spermatozoa, and 
also noticed most of the other facts here mentioned, I would 
merely state that I have been so explicit only because desirous of 
confirming what seems to me to be that naturalist’s just conclu- 
sions in regard to its myriapodal affinity. The species which I 
have found is white and is about 1-25th of an inch in length, which 
_ renders it a good subject to try the eyesight of a collector. With 
a magnifying power of a thousand gees the styles or bristles 
which terminate the antennæ are seen to be made up of a great 
number of superposed disks or rings, ee rT have been unable to de- 
cide whether they are mere annular processes encircling the central 
axis of the style, or whether they are separate segments, though 
= flexibility of the styles would indicate that they were seg- 
ented. The clavate hairs are in like manner annulated— vo. 

i g der. 

[The discovery of Pauropus (P. Lubbockit Packard) at Salem,, 
Mass., was announced in the NATURALIST in 1870 (vol. iv, p. 621). 
Polyxenus fasciculatus Say is not uncommon about Salem, Mass., 
under the bark of trees.—£ds. | 


MODE oF CONSTRUCTION OF THE Cocoons OF MICROGASTER.— 
The construction of the cocoon of Microgaster, one of the Chal- 
pae may be best observed under a moderate magnifying 


The paterpilacs. most kaned to be infested with these d'on the 


e taken, one or more will most idy be found to be infested 
the Bre of Chalcidians. 


sd every morning with fresh leaves of the vine from which they 


OE oe 
b4 7 


I 873.] - Zoölogy. i : 559 


The first appearance of the parasite is represented in Fig. 1. 
A warty excrescence appears on the back of the caterpillar, which 
slowly emerges until it is seen to be a larva enclosed in a delicate 


transparent membrane, as represented in Fig. 2. This it soon 


succeeds in bursting, and rising to its full length, balances itself a 
moment as in Fig. 3, then bending double it ejects from its 
mouth a glairy liquid, which instantly changes to silk and fastens 


E ed ee eed 


Fics. 1-13.—Ichneumon (Microgaster) spinning its Cocoon. 


the posterior end to the skin of the caterpillar, as shown in Fig. 
4, side view. It now begins to spin its cocoon by attaching ¿ a 
silken thread to the silky mass by which it had previously fas- 
tened itself to the caterpillar, and forming a series of loops of 
uniform size, first from right to left and then back again from left 
to right, as represented in the front view, Fig. 5, and better in the 
enlarged view Fig. 5 a, the arrow-heads 
showing the direction in which the head of 
the larva moved while forming the loops. 
The ends of the series, numbered 1, 2, 3,4, 
are fastened to the edges of the ventral 
side of the body, which thus serves as a 
measure of the width of the cocoon and | 
also acts as a support for the frail fabric in $ 
the first stages of spinning. After the 2 
larva has fastened the fabric as far x on == 

its ventral surface as it can, conveniently, Fic. 5 a. 

it then begins to spin free, as shown in the side view, Fig. 6, 
where it is represented as just completing the first half of its 
cocoon which resembles in form a slipper. is accomplished, ; 
the larva ceases to spin for the time being, bends its head, as in 
Fig. 7, towards its ventral surface and pushes the half cocoon free 
from its body. The form of the silken fabric enables it to stand 
unsupported, while the larva, sliding its head down to the base, 


holds on firmly until it swings it posterior end into the toe of the oe 


slipper. os 
Fig. 8 shows it in the act of changing end for end, and in Fig. 
ae larva is seen erect, beginning at the base to complete the: 


560 : General Notes. [ August, 


other half of its cocoon. Fig. to shows the larva contracting its 
body as it spins upward for about half the length of the cocoon, 
when it again changes end for end, as shown in Fig. 11, where it 
is beginning at the upper part to unite the two sides, finally 
enclosing itself as represented in Fig. 12. 

It may now be seen, under the microscope, through the meshes 

of its cocoon actively engaged in lining the interior with layers 
of very fine silk ejected from its mouth in great abundance. One 
half of the cocoon is first lined by a forward and back move- 
ment of its head, and then reversing its position it lines the other 
half in a similar manner. 
_ In one case the larva was disengaged from the skin of the 
caterpillar, after beginning its cocoon. It, however, began again, 
and spun a portion while lying on the table. This was removed, 
when it began a third time and completed its cocoon. 

In about ten days the insect made its appearance through a 
hole in the upper end, as represented in Fig. 13. The top was 
_ eaten off in a perfect circle and hung by a few threads, so as to 
resemble a lid as it was thrown back. . . 

One caterpillar observed had between three and four hundred 
cocoons on its back and sides, and another was dissected after 
more than thirty larvee had escaped, and a hundred and thirty 
were discovered in the soft integuments of the back. : 

T gures from I to 13 are magnified five diameters, but in 
order to observe the spinning of the cocoon a power of fifty 1s 
required.— Fohn P Marshall. 


ARGONAUTA TUBERCULOSA.—It should have been reported long 
ago that I had discovered a very fine and perfect shell of medium 
size, of the above, which was picked up August, 1876, from the 
surf washing at Point Comfort, New Jersey. This, in addition to 
the one obtained alive at Long Branch the same month and year, 
which I described in the American NATURALIST for April, 1877, 
p. 243, increases the probability that the geographical range of 
the species is enlarging. I am satisfied now that both are the same 
species. Considering the frailty of the shell, and its exquisite per- 
- fection, no doubt can be held that its tenant was alive not many 
hours before the finding. The sheet containing drawing and 
=- measurements is mislaid, and the vain hope to find it has caused 

` the delay in this communication.—S. Lockwood. 


ANTHROPOLOGY.! 


_ ON THE PUNISHMENT OF PROSTITUTION AMONG THE ABORIGINES. 
—During the time of my trip through Arizona several years since, 
as a member of the U. S. Topographical Expedition for the Ex- 


ploration of that region, I had an opportunity of seeing several 
Edited by Prof. Oris T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


1878. ] Anthropology. re 561 


Coyotéro Apaché women who bore the brand of punishment, in- 
flicted for prostitution. As the custom was then but seldom 
practiced, and has probably fallen entirely into disuse by this time, 
it may not be amiss to describe it. In his “ Notes on the ‘Tonto’ 
Apaches,” (Smithsonian Report, 1867, 417-419), Dr. Smart says, 
“he saw women who had the cartilaginous portion of the nose cut 
off, and this was apparent only amongst those who had any preten- 
sions to beauty.’ 

This statement was read at the time of its publication without 
giving it further thought, than that it might be merely a cus- 
tom peculiar to the tribe, for some reason similar, for instance, to 
head-flattening, tatooing, or perhaps to puncturing the lips, or 
ears. But, when upon inquiry I was informed that all those who 
were so disfigured had been guilty of adultery, it appeared strange 
that so severe a punishment should have been in practice, and 
confined to so small an area, as none of the tribes immediately 
surrounding the territory of this sub-tribe of Apachés are known 
ever to have imitated them in this respect. But we find it to 


Arizona. In his allusion to this custom as practiced by the Com- 
manches, Gregg says (Commerce of the Prairies, 1844, II, 308. 
309), “ The husband seems to have complete power over the des- 
tinies of his wife and piete For adultery, his punishment is 
most usually to cut off the nose or ears, or both, and he may even 
take the life of his unfaithful wife with impunity. The squaw who 
has been mutilated for such a cause is, zpso facto, Se and 
it is said forever precluded from marrying again.” In reference 
to this tribe, Bancroft quotes (Vol. I, p. 515, Authors Copy) from 
the “ Revista Cienti ica (L57) ‘Las faltas conjugales no se cas- 
tigan por la primara vez; pero á la segundo el marido corta la 
punta de la nariz a su infiel esposa, y la despida de su lado.” 

Gregg (Ibid. p. 308) also states that “this custom prevails 
among the Creeks to ka prear day, and was anciently prac- 
ticed by other southern nation ‘Among the Miami’s,’ says 
Father Charlevoix, ‘ aid husband has a right to cut off his wife's 
nose if she runs away from him 

Captain Roman’s says that this custom prevailed among the 
Indians inhabiting Florida. (Concise History of East and West 
Florida, 1775, p. 98). Bancroft (II, 466) says that in Itztepec 
(Me exico) “the er a woman’s husband cut off her ears and nose, 
thus branding her as infamous for life.” (Las Casas. Hist. Apol- 
ogética, flix cap. ccxiii ; Mendieta dz sup.). 

“Among the Miztecs, ‘ says Bancroft (I1, 466), “when extenu- 
ating rareta could be proved, the punishment of death 
-Was commuted to mutilation of ears, nose, and lips.” (Herrera, 
Hist. Gen., dec. III, lib, ITI, cap: xii.) oe 
i. This singular punishment extended far down into Central 
America, but among many of the races inhabiting H that country, as 
death was the pena ity. a 


562 © General Notes. [August, 


In Nicaragua the guilty wife was repudiated, while the guilty 
man was severely beaten with rods by the woman’s relations. In 
regard to punishing the guilty man, the Egyptians had a similar 
custom. Diodorus Siculus says (Lib. I), “In case of adultery, 
the man was to have a thousand lashes with rods, and the 
woman her nose cut off.’ This seems a strange similarity, and 
I doubt not that many others could be found who practiced this 
custom among their respective tribes.— W. Y. Hoffman, M.D. 


Tue DiminutivE Mounps of Oregon Indians alluded to in the 
May number, page 322, can be seen and investigated at the present 
day near the former homes and haunts of the several Kalapuya 
tribes, although the majority of the natives were removed over 
twenty years ago (shortly after the Government treaty of 1855) 
to the Grand Ronde Reserve in Yamhill and Polk Counties. The 
Tuálati name for these earthworks is “ażtúdshtp.” Many of them 
are visible about six miles west of Forest Grove, on the eastern 

of a wooded hill, which slants down towards McCloud’s 
Farm and the track of the narrow-gauge railroad. Low elliptic 
or oblong ditches include four five, six, or even seven of these 
rounded, paraliel moundlets. This location was the ancient home 
of the Tuálati, or, as they call themselves, Atfálati tribe, who 
derived a portion of their daily food from the “wild potatoes ” 
(or wapatu in Chinook jargon) growing at the bottom of the 
neighboring Wapatu Lake. It is the root or bulb of the Sagit- 
taria sagittifolia and was gathered by the women of the tribe, 
who ca ught it between the toes, or by pressing both feet together, 
and had to stand in water up to the waist all day during the ripen- 
ing season. 

Although the custom of throwing up atúdship is gradually dis- 
appearing among the Indians on Grand Ronde Reserve, some 
mounds of this “description are still to be seen ona high hill 
north of the agency buildings. On this mountain top they 
awaited the rise of the sun after having exerted themselves during 
the night in carrying up-hill heavy rocks in Sisyphus fashion, 
and rolling them down again. Other hillocks are thrown up in 
the hush of night by the female portion of this Indian com- 
munity, who seem more interested than the males in keeping up 
this antique custom of their forefathers, on a flat-topped eminence 
_ about one mile east from the seat of the Grand Ronde Agency.— 
A. S. Gatschet. 


ATTENTION is called to the following titles of papers and separate 

_ publications: Les sepultures de l’âge du renne de Solutre, Lou- 
_ vain, 1878, 54 pp., Extrait de la Revue des questions scientifiques, 
by Adrien Arcelin; “ Ethnographic Parallels and Comparisons,” 

Dr. Andree, Stuttgart (the object of this publication is to bring 

: rom all parts of the world evidences of the existence 

and i use of the same implement or custom, as, for instance, meas- 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 563 


ures of value, mothers-in-law, the umbrella as a mark of dignity, 
&c.); Die Ethnographie Russlands, Erganzungsheft 54 to Peter- 
mann’s Mittheilungen; Die Erhaltung der Turkei und die Volker- 
cultur, Das Ausland, 14; Through the Dark Continent, Henry 
M. Stanley, Sampson, Low & Co.; Anciens ateliers de taille de 
silex dans le chott de Ouargla (Sahara Occidental), pp. 104- bs 
dans le Bulletin de la Société Polymathique de Morbihan, C. 

Cadoudal; Studii anthrepe ce ict ed etnografici i sulla Wages 
Guinea, Firenze, 1877, 82 pp.; Die Gastfreundschaft auf niederen 
Culturstufen, Das Ausland, 15: Considerations sur les differents 


nungen, Dr. M. Much, Gea, ath Heft On the Origin and Growth 
of Religion, Max Müller, Contemporary Review, May; L’ethnolo- 
gie et le dixiéme chapitre de la A dans la Revue des 
Questions Historiques, t, xxiii, 1878, 64 pp., Louis Rioult de 
Neuville; Ein cutlurgeschichtlicher Roman, Das Ausland 15. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


A NEW SPECIES OF AMPHICCELIAS.—I have recently received 
from my indefatigable friend, Mr. O. W. Lucas, the almost entire 
neural arch of the vertebra of the largest saurian I have yet seen. 
It was found in the Dakota formation of Colorado, near Can- 
yon city, in the same bed that has thus far produced the known 
species of Camarasaurus, Amphicelias, Fypsirophus, etc. In the 
extreme tenuity of all its parts, this vertebra exceeds those’ of 
this type already described, so that ticks care was requisite to 
secure its preservation. It exhibits the general characteristics of 
the genus Amphicelias, in the hyposphen, antero-posteriorly 
placed neural spine, and elevated diapophysis for the rib articula- 
tion. The diapophyses are compressed and supported by a supe- 
rior and inferior, and anterior and posterior, thin buttresses, sepa- _ 
rated by deep cavities. As compared with the Amphicelias altus, 
this reptile differs in the greater elevation and attenuation of the 
neural spine, as well as its different form; also in the generally 
more laminar character of its buttresses and walls The double 
rib of the anterior border of the spine of the A. altus is here rep- 
resented by two laminæ which extend on each side, so as to give 
a horizontal section of the spine a T shape. The posterior zyga- 
pophyses have less lateral expanse than in A. a/tus, but they con- 
tinue as horizontal lamina with a deep cavity above and below: 


their superior surfaces contract into two ridges, which are sepa- __ 


rated by a deep groove. These ridges, unlike the anterior ones, 
‘approximate to each other closely on the border of the spine 


Summit of the spine is wanting. The measurements are: > tol a= 


elevation of neural arch preserved, 1500 m.; elevation of poste- 


‘VOL. XIT.—NoO. 30 


rior HEE 585; transverse expanse of posterior zyga- — : — 


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aie Es x p a, 190; vertical diam- 

e Be j eter of base of diapophysis, 
ERY 390. These figures show that 

the total elevation of this ver- 

tebra, when complete, was not 

less than six feet, and probably 


ore. 
Since in A. altus and C. su- 
premus ne pea of the fe- 
ur is twice the elevation of 
the dorsal cera we may 
surmise that the length of the 


exception 
among the 
Saurians of 
the Dakota 
epoch: Itis, 
that che size of 
the vertebra ts 
„1 direct pro- 
oe 7” portion to the 


, attenuation of 
walls. Thi 


thie and other species, 

resembles nothing 
much as what is seen 
in deep sea fishes, as A/- 
pidosaurus, etc., and sug- 
gests that these beasts 
may have walked in deep 
water and browsed on 
precipitous shores. 

The species hernia de- 
, scribed may be called 
\ Amphicelas frag illus. 
\ The dimensions 

\ vertebrae much exceed 

\ those of any known land 


\ animal.—Z. dD. Cope. 


w 


r 
+ 


ww “eu, 
` 


o 


LES. 
recently directed atten- 
tion to the adaptive char- 
Ao + acter of the modifications _ 
`e- a of structure which have 


eee 


f 


1878.] Geology and Paleontology. 565 


- taken place in the course of development of the ETSE SSRS order. 


These changes consist in the advance forwards of the external 
nares, the more posterior location of the hens tates tie 3 in- 


teeth, and the change from amphiccelous to proccelous vertebral 
articulations. 

Prof. Owen proposes that these changes were concomitants of 
a gradual restriction of aquatic and increase of terrestrial habits, 
and the gradual diminution of a purely fish diet, and the adoption 
of land animals as food. The capture of the latter and their 
retention below the surface of the water until devoured, directly 
relate to the uses of, and hence necessity for, the new structures 
in question, 

A new Diapecres.—This very singular pan of supposed 
Saurians, is represented by a third species from the Permian of 
Texas. The teeth are more completely molar in tiei character 
than in the species already described, being in the unworn condi- 
tion as broad across the crown, as the latter is high. In the 
transverse direction the crowns are two and half times as long as 
wide. The extremities are rounded, and there is a median cusp 
extending across the crown; on each side of the cusp, the face of 
the crown is slightly concave. The enamel is strongly but finely 
wrinkled. The tooth series terminates abruptly in a tooth of 
half the transverse extent of the penultimate. Length of space 
occupied. by penultimate and ante-penultiniate teeth M. .021 ; 
length of base of pART a; width of do. .024; elevation 
of crown, least .006; do. at c , 009. 

This species is larger than fice heretofore described, and the 
teeth are adapted for crushing harder bodies—having perhaps a 
use like those of Placodus or Pycnodus. It is called D. molaris. 


EOLOGY OF THE BRITISH Arctic EXPEDITION.—Geological 
investigation in the Polar regions is beset with difficulties of so 


grav character that very few collections have hitherto been 
brought home by Arctic explorers, and these have necessarily 
been meagre uring Sir George Nares’ expedition, however, 


a fact worth mentioning, se some s othar fine collections have 
been lost to science through the mishaps incident to Arctic trav- 
eling. The recently formed collections, and the results deduced 
from their study, were lately laid before the Geological Society. 
In working out the stratigraphical results, Captain Fielden 
has had the benefit of Mr. de Rance’s aid, and in the palæontolog- 
ical department that of Mr. Etheridge. The fundamental rocks 


_ * American Naturalist, 1868, May, p. 327. 


566 General Notes. [ August, 


of the area under examination consist of gneiss which is probably 
of Laurentian age, the Canadian rocks extending into Polar area. 
These are followed by unfossiliferous slates and grits, known as the 

ape Rawson beds’, which are evidently older than the fossil- 
bearing Upper Silurians. It is proved, indeed, by the recent ex- 
pedition, that Lower Silurian rocks exists in Grinnell and Hall 
Lands, thus disproving Murchson’s view that the Polar area was 
dry land during the Lower Silurian period. Sixty species of fos- 
sils have been determined by Mr. Etheridge, ranging from the 
Lower to the Upper Silurian, and including some characteristic 
forms of Llandecilo and Wenlock age. The cream-colored dolo- 
mites found in abundance by some of the previous explorers are 
believed to represent the whole of the Silurian, and perhaps part 
of the Devonian period. True marine Devonians have been dis- 
covered for the first time in Grinnell Land. Here, too, the 
carboniferous limestone was found rising to a height of 2000 feet. 
This formation extends to the most northern point yet reached, 
and probably strikes beneath the Polar Sea to Spitzbergen. About 
thirty species, chiefly Brachiopods and Polyzoa, were procured . 
from the carboniferous limestones of Cape Joseph Henry, the 
most northerly of the twenty localities from which fossils were 
collected. . 

Mr. Etheridge points out the greater resemblance of the Arctic 
palzozoic fauna to that of America than to that of Europe. No 
mesozoic rocks are known until we reach the cretaceous strata, 
which are represented in Greenland by plant-bearing beds that 
indicate by their fossils a warm climate something like that of 
Egypt at the present day. The vegetation of the miocene beds 
in the Arctic regions points to climatal conditions about thirty 
degrees warmer than those which at present prevail. The 
miocene beds of Grinnell Land contain the common fir (Pinus 
abies) the birch, poplar, and other trees similar to those which 
occur in Spitzbergen. A seam of miocene coal, thirty feet in 
thickness, was discovered by the expedition at Lady- Franklin 
. Sound.— Academy. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.! 


COLONEL PREJEVALSKY’S THIRD Journey.—This distinguished 
Russian explorer has sent, under date of August, 1877, to the Rus- 
sian Geographical Society, a report of a third journey in Central 
Asia. Translations of this report have been made by Dr. Petermann, 
_ published as a supplement to his Mittheilungen, with the original 


-~ route maps and an Uebersichts-Karte of his journeys from 1872 
to 1877; and also by Dr. R. Kiepert for the Glodus. At the 


meeting of the Berlin Geographical Society, on the 6th of April 
last, Herr Von Richthofen read a very interesting paper upon the 
sults of this journey. Colonel Prejevalsky was most fortunate 


Edited by Eus II. YARNALL, Philadelphia. 


1878. | Geography and Travels, 567 


in making this exploration at a period when this region was 
held by Yakub-beg, at that time the ruler of Kashgar, who was 
assassinated about the middle of last year, and his kingdom over- 
_ thrown by the Chinese. Neither a year earlier, nor at the present 
time, would such an expedition have been practicable. Leaving 
Kuldja, August 12th, 1876, he traveled in a general south-east 
direction, crossing the eastern Tian-Shan by a pass 9800 feet in 
height, called the Narat, and found that the rain-fall was plentiful 
on the north side where are abundant forests and game, but wholly 
deficient on the south side. He then entered upon an extensive 
plateau called Yuldus, about 8000 feet above the sea. Both in birds 
and mammalia the Yuldus is very rich. By a pass 9300 ft. in height 
he descended from this plateau, and before entering Korla (2600 
feet, population 6000), on November 4th, 1876, he left behind the 
last spurs of the Tian-shan. Proceeding to the Valley of the 
Tarrim he passed a stony strip of country, probably the shore of a 
former sea, while beyond is a desert consisting of clay and sand. 
The clay is impregnated with salt, and on both sides of the Tarrim 
salt marshes are found. On December 18th he arrived at 
Charchalyk, between the Lob-Nor lake and the lofty mountains 
of Altyn- -tag. He explored the northern slope of this range, 
which rises precipitously, as an immense wall, to the height of 
12,000 to 14,000 feet. South of the Altyn-tag, it was ieamen; isa 


estand most desolate region Prejevalsky had ever set eyes on. He 
then explored the northern face of the Altyn-Tag range which 
forms the northern escarpment of the Tibetan plateau.. The 
mountains are about 14,000 feet high. These mountains, says the 
account in the Geographical Magazine, are characterized by great 
sterility, and it is only in the valleys and ravines that vegetation 
grows; yet, nevertheless, large swarms of locusts are here to 

seen. In the summer of 1876 they committed great ravages, and 
rose to a height of gooo feet in the mountains. The climate of 
the Altyn-Tag is characterized on its northern side at least 

great cold and little snow. In summer, according to the natives, 
it rains frequently and is very windy. In this mountain region 
and the adjacent Kum-Tag desert secs are a few wild camels, 
which twenty years ago were said to have been very cammon. 
They seek the upper valleys of the Altyn-Tag in the summer and 
the most inaccessible deserts in the winter. Their sight, sense of 


568, General Notes. [ August, 


exploration was made just before the ‘invasion of the Chinese, 
the inhabitants being of Aryan stock and of the religion of 
Islam. 

The Lob-Nor lake is elliptical in shape, is 90 or 100 versts 
in length and 20 versts in breadth. It is 2200 feet above the 
sea level. It is much overgrown with weeds, and, though sur- 
rounded by salt marshes, the water is clear and sweet. 

The flights of birds of passage which make a be of 
Lob-Nor in their migrations, were very carefully observed by 
Prejevalsky, millions during February passing on their way across 
the desert. None came from the south across the lofty and cold 
plateau of Tibet, but cross it where it is narrowest, 7. e., in the di- 
rection of Khotan. The region explored by Prejevalsky lies to 
the north of Tibet. The article is illustrated by a ma 

On all sides, this great depression, forming a basin surrounded 
by the loftiest mountains of the globe, has been approached by 


intelligent travelers. On our maps this basin of the Lob-Nor has 
been placed far beyond the great central mountain range of the 
Kuen-Lun, and nearer the Tian-shan system ; whereas, according 
to Prejevalsky, it lies at the foot of the Altyn-tag, which he 
believes is, without doubt, the northern rampart of that mighty 
region of mountain and plateau, whose southern boundary rises 
over the plains of India, and thus extends in breadth over 
nearly thirteen degrees latitude—a distance equal to that from 
Naples to Hamburg. 

- In concluding his examination of the results of this very suc- 
cessful exploration, Herr Von Richthofen remarks that new dis- 
coveries bring new problems, as, for instance, the existence of a 
body of fresh water in a spot where all former accounts tell of a 
great salt sea, and where every theoretical conclusion would con- 
firm us in the belief that such was the case. Count Béla Szécsenyi 
has already departed from Shanghai with the expectation of reach- 
ing the southern side of the Tarrim basin. 

Meanwhile Col. Prejevalsky left Kuldja on August 28th, 1877, 
for Guchen, intending to penetrate into Tibet by Hami, Tsaidam 
and the upper course of the Yang-tse. Unfortunately, after reach- 
ing Guchen, sickness obliged him to return to Zaissan, and he is 

-= now on his way home to St, Petersburg. 

_A more recent journey by Captain Gill, in Western China, sup- 
plies, states the Geographical Magazine, an interesting confirma- 
_ tion of the apparent existence of a belt of exceedingly moist 
_ region between the Tibetan plateau and the lands encompassing 
_ it on its north-eastern and eastern sides. Prejevalsky, in his 
“ Mongolia and Tangut Country,” notices this feature while as- 
cending the mountains south-west of Tajing; the Père Armand 
erya oe it during his residence at } Mupin, north of Ching- 
Mr i While ohte his way from the last- named 


1878. ] Geography and Travels. 569 


placeinto eastern Tibet; and Captain Gill’s testimony now supplies 
us with a link between the observations of Prejevalsky and David, 
as he speaks of the wonderfully moist and semi-tropical character 
of the vegetation on the eastern side of the plateau, between the 
valleys Sung-pan-ting and Ling-ngan, on the extreme northern 
border of the province of Se-chuen. 


Durcu Arctic Exprepirion.—The Willem Barentz, a two- 
masted schooner of eighty tons, built expressly for this service, 
with a crew of fourteen men, three officers, a zoologist, a doctor, 
a photographer and Ser sailors, sailed from Ijmuiden on the 
5th of May, upon what may be regarded as an experimental voy- 
age to Jan Mayen Island, thence to eer Yi yma the 
edge of thë ice en rou ite, and calling at Amsterdam Island. 
Afterwards they: hope to visit Novaya Zemlya sad the Barentz 
Sea, returning home in October. Deep sea soundings will be 
made, and observations taken of the fauna, and flora; strength, 
and direction of currents; in magnetism, and meteorology. The 
expedition is supported by the contributions of Dutchmen. 


GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The last (June) number of Peter- 
mann’s Mittheilungen contains a very interesting account of 
the application of the process of helio-gravure, by the Austrian 
Military Geographical Institute, to the production of the new 
maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The maps are pre- 
pared on a scale of 1-60,000, and reduced photographically 
to a scale of 1-75,000. The (sun) eg Hehe upon copper by 
the new process requires only about four weeks, whilst the 
engraving by hand would need Piel th monii The first 
sheets of this new map were issued in 1873; and, at the end of 
1877, 271 were published, and it is expected that the whole num- 
ber (715) will be completed within 10 or 12 years from the com- 
mencement of publication ; whereas by the usual method a period 
of fifty to sixty years must have elapsed before the accomplish- 
ment of the work. The cost of the new process is only one-fourth 
that of the old. As regards the artistic appearance of these maps 
a specimen given in the Mittheilungen is most favorable; the im- 
pression being clear and sharp, and likely to deceive even an en- 
graver. 

The first volume of Dr. F. Ratzil, on the Geography o of the 
United States, relating to physical ‘geography, has lately been 
published. A second volume, on Social Geography, will next 
appear. 

The Geographical Magazine, for June, gives the results of 
Nares’ Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-76. 
Also a very complete map of the African Lake Region, with a 
notice of the advance sheets of Stanley’s book. The map marks — 
an era in African cartography. The review closes with this para- | 
graph “ Great as the value of Mr. Stanley's Pie OE ee aS 


570 General Notes. [ August, 


es are, and absorbing as is the interest excited by his narrative, 
we are inclined to attribute equal importance to the ethnological 
portions of his first volume. He has been most assiduous in col- 
lecting and arranging information respecting the habits and 
modes of life of the people, their arts and manufacture, and his 
account of the kingdom and people of Uganda, especially, is most 
valuable. 

Mr. Alfred R. Wallace writes to Mature, June 20, 1878, to 
correct an error “in almost every detailed map of Australia, in- 
cluding some of the latest,” consisting of a note placed at the 
head of the Alligator river in about S. Lat., 13 14°, and E. Long., 
133°—“ steep walls, 3800 feet.” He shows the absurdity of the 
existence of such precipices in a country where there are no im- 
portant mountains, and only moderately elevated plateaus, and 
the fact that the supposed authority for the remarks, Leschardt's 
Journal, contains no such statement. - 

The failure of Congress to make an appropriation for Captain 
Howgate’s Expedition to the Arctic regions, will compel Captain 

. Tyson and his advance party, sent out last year, to return, as they 
were instructed to do, if the pee expedition did not arrive at 
Disco by the latter part of Augus 

From dispatches to the New York Tribune and the Philadelphia 
Press, we learn, that this season Major Powell’s labors will be 
mostly within the limits of Northern Arizona and Southern 
Utah. He expects to survey the region south of the grand cañon 
of the Colorado river, including the plateau country where the 
Moqui towns are situated. Of the seven rectangular sections 
shee. about 12,000 square miles each), included in his field 

labor, maps of four have been completed, and it is hoped to 
acu the remaining three this year. 

r. F. V. Hayden’s corps will be engaged in Idaho and Montana. 

The. area to be surveyed includes the Yellowstone National Park 

and the country lying to the south and south-east about the head 

of the Green, Snake, and Mud rivers. This will be an extension 

of the work of last year. Within this area is what is regarded as 

the true apex of the continent, its three greatest rivers, the 
_ Missouri, the Columbia and the Colorado rising in a peak in the | 
northern end of the Mud River range. Lieutenant Wheeler’s 
corps will be divided into three sections known as the Colorado, 

_ Utah and California sections. 

_ The Colorado section will carry on its work chiefly in New 
oe along the valley of the the Rio Grande to the Mexican 
- r, and between that and the Pecos. The Utah section, owing 


operate along the Sierras, to join the triangulation from'the base 
dag Sey, to that from the base of Los Angelos to the 
th The California section will move north from 
i ell and will examine an area of oe miles into 


1878. | Geography and Travels. 571 


the Columbia River basin. Another portion will move south 
rom Carson, Nevada, and occupy triangulation points on the 
Sierras, and survey a portion of the ra nge south of Mono Lake. 
A party is assigned to the Washoe mining region. 

The Atlas of Colorado has now been completed by the U. S. 
Geological Survey, and gives the results of the riche of Dr: E. 
V. Hayden, and his corps, in geography and geology. 

Colorado is now better known topographically than any other 
State. 

In an article in the Geographical Magazine, on the productive 
zones of Russia in Europe, five of these regions are enumerate 
There are, starting from the north, the zvzdras, then the forest 
and agricultural region (forming three zones), and the steppes. 
The ¢unxdras, those bare, damp Arctic wastes, are as a rule to be 
found between the Arctic Circle and the Polar ocean. They are 
frozen in winter and generally thaw to the depth of a foot or so 
in summer. Turf moss (Sphagnum) and reindeer moss (Cladonia 
rangiferina) are both to be found, and the latter is a product of 
economic importance, though in eight or ten days a herd of rein- 
deer will generally exhaust a pasture of it. These animals yield 
so little milk that it takes at least a hundred of them to support 
one family. The entire area of the tundras in Europe amounts 
to about 144,820 square miles (English). 

The two-masted schooner Eothen, of 102 tons, a sixteen-year 
old whaling vessel, recently refitted, sailed from New York on 
the toth of June for Repulse Bay. She has on board the mem- 
bers of the Franklin Search Party, consisting of the commander 
Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, U: S. A., Col. W. H. Gilder, Joseph 
Eberling—* Esquimaux Joe,” of the Polaris Expedition, — 
Henry W. Klutchack and F. F. Melvers. At Repulse Bay they 
are to be reinforced by seven Esquimaux, and, as soon as there is 
sufficient snow, they go by sledging to a point near Cape Engel- 
field, where they expect to find a cairn containing relics of the 
Franklin expedition. They are to return during the winter of 
1879-1880 to Repulse Bay. They take with them a valuable 
equipment of scientific instruments and are directed to take daily 
observations. Dr. John Rae, in a letter to Chief-Justice Daly, 
Aiei of the American Geographical Society, published in the 

w York Herald, again expresses his disbelief in the pes 
of. this cairn for the “following reasons I. at it is most i | 
probable that any of the crew of Franklin's ships should abe 
reached the locality mentioned, situated a distance of 300 miles 
over the very rough and parti ally open ice of Boothia Gulf and 
where no aid could be obtained. (2.) That in 1854, when he 
visited the regions between Repulse Bay and Boothia Gulf, he 
examined the Esquimaux of this region, but heard nothing of the _ 
existence of this cairn, although they knew of the cairn erected 
by him near Cape Englefield in 1847 and of the cache left oy 5 


SACE TS 


572 General Notes. [August, 


Ross at Victoria Harbor in 1832. (3.). Capt. Hall, in 1868, was 
within thirty miles of the reported position of the cairn, but 
heard nothing of it. 

MICROSCOPY. ! 


MicroscopicaAL Section, Troy SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.—A 
regular meeting of this Society was held on Monday evening, 
May 6th, the Chairman, Dr. R. H. Ward, in the chair. 

Dr. Ward gave a discussion of some recent experiments in 
microscopic ruling, an account of which will be published shortly. 
Rev. A. B. Hervey, Vice-Chairman of the Section, gave a very 
clear summary of the classification of alga by means of fructifi- 
cation, and illustrated the six principal groups into which the Red 
sea-weeds are divided by the following preparations: No. |, 
Ceramium rubrum Ag., showing in its various stages of develop- 
ment, the fruit produced by the simple subdivision of the cell- 
contents of a fructified mother-cell; No. 2, Callophyllis Parimat 


a 
developed, filling the cystocarp with a mass of sub-angular spores, 
all the cells of a given spore-thread appearing to develop simul- 
taneously, but some of the threads in these sections, not having 
been fecundated and developed, appearing in their ori iginal state and 
form; No. 4, Curdiea laciniata Harvey, showing characteristic 
fruit of the series where a mass of fine, closely packed, moniliform 
“spore threads,” arising from a basal placenta, form the spores by 
e successive ripening and falling off of the end cells of the 
fecundated threads; No. 5, Gelidium cartilagineum Grev., 
illustrating the series having an immersed cystocarp, a pla- 
centa central as in this species or more frequently basal or 
eet and club-shaped spores developed at the end of very 
short spore threads; and No. 6, Polysiphonia fibrillosa Grev., hav- 
ing the cystocarp external and somewhat aigh y developed, and 
-~ the spores large and club-shaped. The specimens were mounted 
= in sea-water and glycerine, by the TA EE method Seeche 
in the May number of the NATURALIST, and showed the typical 
 fructification of the different series with great distinctness. After 
_ study and discussion by the section, the . series of slides was ten- 
a dered as a special box to the “ Postal Club.” 
__A regular meeting was held Monday evening, June 3d, Dr. 
Nard in the chair. The chairman presented a box of slides pre- 
pared for the section by Mr. C. C. Merriman, of Rochester, CoP Me 


This ¢ incom is edited tby PER >, WARD, A N. Y. 


ding member. The slides were mainly the result. of Mr. 


1878. ] ) Microscopy. i 573 


Merriman’s scientific work during a recent visit to the Bermudas, 
and were prepared with some originality of method, and with 
exquisite workmanship. After study of the objects, a vote of 
thanks was passed to Mr. Merriman for his donation. 

Mr. C. E. Hanaman made some remarks in regard to 
methods he had found most convenient for cleaning and owas 
slides and cover-glasses. 

For cleaning slides as received from the hands of the dealers, 
a solution which has long been used by photographers for clean- 
ing their ENDS, plates and glass vessels, is as efficacious as the 
nitric acid bat wholly free from its disagreeable odors. The 
mixture este ‘of a cold saturated solution of bichromate of 
potash in water, to hare about one-eighth its bulk of strong 
sulphuric acid is a the mixture being made in a porcelain 
or thin glass vessel, as ae heat evolved would be likely to break 
a bottle, “and the vessel See kept outside a window until the 
mixture is cool, after which no more injurious vapor will be 
given off, and the liquor will be ready for use. A gross or two 
of slides may be cleaned in an incredibly short time by sliding 
them one by one into a porcelain vessel containing some of this 
liquid, tilting the vessel about a few moments to cause the liquid 
to flow through the mass, and then pouring off the liquid and 
placing the vessel under the stream from an open tap for a few 
minutes. They are then wiped dry with soft linen cloths, and 
spread upon a clean sheet of paper, each slide being gently 
breathed upon on both sides, and the most perfect surface, which 
exhibits the most perfect film of moisture, being placed down- 
wards. They are then centered on a self-centering turn table, 
upon the upper or poorest side, by a dot and a ring of india ink; 
they may then be placed on their edges in a box or drawer, an nd 
aes ee contact by little strips of blotting paper placed between 
their en 

The cover glasses, after being treated with the cleaning liquid 
and thoroughly washed with distilled or filtered water, are picked 
out with the forceps, one by one, and dried by laying each on one 
corner of a soft linen cloth on the table, and gently rubbing first 
one side and then the other with another part of .the cloth. 
The cloths (worn out handkerchiefs, &c.), used for this purpose 
should be first cleaned by boiling with carbonate of soda and 
rinsing in hot filtered or distilled water. If the covers are finally 
arranged, edge upwards, in a box or drawer between strips of 
thick white blotting paper, they will be kept clean and the selec- 
tion of any desired thickness will be greatly facilitated. The 
strips of blotting paper should be cut two thirds as wide as the 
cover, should reach from side to side of the drawer, and should be © 
separated at the ends by squares of the same paper, thus forming _ 


which they can be readily picked out. 


a rack in which the covers can stand, edge upwards, and from oe 


574 ; General Notes. [August, 


He recommends that one or two grooved blocks be kept on 
the working table, in which covers that have been selected for im- 
mediate use may be similarly supported on edge, and from which 
they can be easily taken by the forceps. Such a block is prepared 
by setting a circular saw so as to cut only 34th of an inch deep, 
and then passing over it several times a block of white wood, in 
such manner as to cut a series of parallel grooves on the side 
which is to be used as the top of the block. Standing covers in 
these grooves is a great improvement on the common method of 
leaning them against the base of the microscope or some other 
convenient but unsuitable object. 


New MicroscopicaL JourNaLs.— The Journal de Mirail 
` published monthly in Paris, under the very able editorial manage- 
ment of Dr. J. Pelletan, has already achieved, within a few months 
from the time of its first i issue, a character of its own, not only as 
‘a successful business enterprise, but also as a powerful, independ- 
ent and original scientific organ. It treats with equal ability and 
prominence both the theory and use of the microscope, and, in 
addition to original papers on the subject, gives a thorough and 
judicious summary of papers and progress in other countries. It 
is really occupying a field in which it has no competitor in any 
part of the world, and our only selfish regret about it is that there 
is not an edition in the English language which would render it 
useful to a larger number of readers in this country. It is pub- 
lished by > Masson, 120 Boulevard St. Germain, Paris, France, 
at $6 a yea 
Prof. koyi Hitchcock proposes to begin the publication, 
about the first of November, of a new journal to be called 7he 


American Quarterly Microscopical Journal. It will be published © 


at three dollars a year, and will give, in addition to illustrated 
a articles, asummary of the progress of the science, gathered 
from all available sources. The support of many promi- 
nent microscopists has been promised, and the eu -will of all 
will be extended to the attempt to establish a journal of a class 
which has hardly attempted before to live in this country. The 
address of the Journal is P. O. box 2335, New York City. 

New American Opjectives.—Mr. Frank Wilkins, who formerly 
worked for the Ross House, of London, but now is with Mr. John 
Roach, of San Francisco, is making objectives which the mem- 
bers of the San Francisco Society consider equal to a good grade 
of English lenses. Our Pacific friends are much pleased at this 
_ notable addition to their local resources, 


MINERALS FOR THE Microscopr.—Mr. Chas. H. Denison, 531 


me California street, San Francisco, is supplying by mail specimens 
- suitable for the microscope, selected from the characteristic min- 


= aoe 


rals of the Pacific coast. Of course the various forms and com- _ 
binati tions of gold, silver and cinnabar are made prominent E 


yi 


1878. ] Scientific News. 57 5 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Under the title of Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord 
Amerika, Erster Band. Aan ei Geographie und Natur 
character, Dr. F. Ratzel, of München, has written a voluminous 
octavo of 667 pages, illustrated with five colored maps. After 
discussing the geology and physical geography, the author 
describes in a general way our river-systems and lakes, with the 
climate, and under the caption of the epesble world, the rela- 
tions of the vegetation and climate to those of Europe and Asia, 
the distribution of our forests, prairies and plains or steppes; in 
two appendices the author enters into the vexed question of the 
origin of prairies, and other botanical subjects. The last chapter . 
is devoted to the animals of the United States, giving a general 
view of the distribution of animal life, and a view of our charac- 
teristic mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibia and fishes, molluscs, : 
insects and lower an nimals; and the work closes with a series of 
sketches of our forest scenery, the Hudson river, the scenery of 
New England, the Alleghenies, the pine barrens, the Floridian 
tropical scenery, Niagara Falls, and a glance at the Roc 
Mountains and California. 


— The first Annual Report of the U. S. Entomological Com- 
mission has recently made its appearance, and forms a volume of 
about 750 ages, e main report contains chapters on a 
variety of subjects, and is copiously illustrated with lithographic 
plates, three maps and woodcuts. Naturalists will perhaps be 
interested in the chapters on the distribution, metamorphosis and 
anatomy of the locust. The report is mainly practical in its 


further appropriation was made at the last session of Congress 
for the completion of the work. 


— In view of publishing a work on the Antiquity of Smoking 
and the Aboriginal Art of Pipe Making, Mr. E. A. Barber, West 
Chester, Pa., requests the co-operation of archzologists. Any 
notes, references, accurate sketches, with explanations, or other 
information bearing on the subject, will be thankfully received 
and fully credited. Drawings, cuts, or photographs of unique or 
odd pipes, snuff-boxes, etc., of aboriginal tribes, are more espe- 
cially desired. The object of the work will be a more careful 
review of the history of smoking and its dissemination among 
different peoples, particularly among pre-historic nations. 


— A finely illustrated work, entitled ae pent 
orum in statis Sueciz Siluricis fossilium ctore N. P. elin. 
_ Opus postumum edendum curavit Regia Acsdenia Scarce 
Suecica, Cum tabulis xxis, Holmiz, 1878, will interest American _ 
students of Silurian Crinoids. There are thirty-four pages of © 


text, and the twenty-nine folio plates are. beautifully draen, ie 


576 ; Scientific News. [ August, 


There are a good many details given regarding the arrangement 
of the plates of the calyx, and a number of Cystideans are illus- 
trated. 

— Prof. Edward Forbes and his Country, is the title of an inter- 
esting sketch of this gifted naturalist, and of the Isle of Man, his 
birthplace, prepared by Robert Garner for the Midland Naturalist, 
the journal of the associated natural history, philosophical and 
archzological societies and field clubs of the midland counties of 
England. We have seen several numbers of this journal sent to 
Hayden’s U. S. Geological Survey, and American naturalists 
would find it to be a readable, attractive periodical. 


— The Chicago Academy of Sciences = a good record 
5 progress during the past year. The total number of specimens 
n the Museum is 30,049, the shells egr to 15,000, and the 
inseri to 6,000 specimens. The list of papers read numbers 21 
titles. Explorations in Florida have been made by Messrs. Velie 
and Calkins. One hundred and ten foreign societies and thirty 
American ones send their publications. 


— The appointment of Prof. Spencer F. Baird to the Secretary- 
ship of the Smithsonian Institution, is in every way appropriate. 
Prof. Baird’s familiarity with the workings of the Institution, to- 
gether with his wide acquaintance with the sciences, and with the 
needs of scientific men, are guarantees that a continuation of its 
prosperous career awaits the Smithsonian. 


- — Entomological Contributions, No. iv., by Mr. J. A. Lintner, 
extracted from the thirtieth annual report of the New York State 
Museum of Natural History, for the year 1876, contains a variety 
of articles relating chiefly to the Lepidoptera; a few of them are 
of a practical, economic nature. 


raccoon pone Meee ae sed snakes an Han 
thinus); 2 chain snakes (ophibolus doratis triangulus) ; r scarlet 
ringed snake T S coccinea); 1 milk snake (Coluber 
obsoletus confinis); 7 colubers (Coluber salads: 2 black snakes 
(Bascanion constrictor) ; 3 water snakes (Zropidonotus apea ; 
1 copperbelly snake (T. sipedon erythrogaster); 4 garter 
snakes (Eutenia pone 2. anr eng (E. sirtalis taney: 
1 young snake (Bascanion [?]) from Indiana; 1 copperhea 
(Ancistrodon contortrix); 2 milk aisle (C. obsoletus con- 
nis); 1 pine snake (Pitvophis melanoleucus); 14 prairie ee 
-~ (Cynomys ludovicianus), born in the garden; 4 ruffed grouse 
 (Bonasa umbellus), born in the garden; I spotted cavy (Calogenys 
paca); 1 mule deer (Cervus macrotis), born in the garden ; 2 gray 
ophers eee franklinii); 2 common marmosets (Hassale 
hus); oat (Putorius erminea); 1 fallow deer (Dama vul- 
vana born in the s 1 lizard Le : 


; cule 


1878. | Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 577 


song thrush (Turdus musicus), England; 1 robin (Turdus paies 
torius); 1 gray fox (Vulpus virginianus); 2 prairie wolves (Canis 
latrans); 2 swift foxes (Vulpes "e I spider monkey oe 
belzebuth), Brazil; 1 coati (Nasua narica), red var., Brazil; 
opossum and It young (Didelphys virgina); 


:0: 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCITIES. 


APPALACHIAN Mountain CLUB.— June 12.—The reports of the 
Councillors of Topography and Art presented their report. Mr. 


Campton, N. H.; Miss M. F. Whitman read a paper entitled 
“ Moat Mt. Experiences.” 

June 22.—The Club made an excursion to Mt. Wachusett. 

July 10.—The fifth field meeting was held at the Fabyan 
House, White Mountains, N. H. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder spoke 
of the insects of high altitude in North America. Prof. C. H 
Hitchcock exhibited a model of the White mountains, and read 
an explanatory paper, including the results of recent explorations. 


ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.—The annual meeting of the Club will 
be held at St. Louis, Mo., on Tuesday, August 20, 1878, at three 
o'clock, P. m. All entomologists who are interested are invited 
to assist, and will report at the headquarters of the Association 
at the Lindell Hotel, on the 19th or 20th, where they will be in- 
formed of the exact place of meeting. The meetings of the As- 
sociation will begin on the morning of August 21. Prof. J. K. 

ees, at St. Louis, will give information to members about car 
fares and accommodations. B. Pickman Mann, Secretary. 


10: 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


THE PaLaonrotcoaist, Cincinnati, July 2, 1878; U. P. James.— 
We have received the first number of this publication, which 
appears in octavo size, and is very neatly printed. We are 
informed on the title page that it will be issued whenever there is 
sufficient material in a state of preparation to warrant it. Its 
object is stated to be to insure “early publication of scientific 
memoirs in geology and palzontology, in order to avoid the fre- 
quent delays when depending on the regular serials, journals and 
proceedings of societies.” This number containing a paper by- 
Mi U. P. es, on extinct Jnvertebrata from the Lower Silurian 
formation, and includes descriptions of twenty-nine species. 


We 
always regret the ce mata of a new scientific journal unless __ 


ave to remark on the advent of this publication, that- oe 


578° Scientific Serials. [ August, 1878. 


it be well supported by the “sinews of war,” or have a field not 
already occupied. by an existing one. Nevertheless, the method 
which marks the primitive stage of scientific organization of 
allowing incompetent persons to have charge of the issue of 
scientific serials, must result in independent publications. So 
whatever the raison d'etre of the publication before us, it offers 
an example of the only way of escaping various abuses. 


ZEITSCHRIFT FUR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZOOLOGIE, Supplement 


Protozoa, by A. Schneider. On the form and significa- 
tion of organic muscle-cells, by W. Flemming. Remarks 


primigenius), b rzesniowski. On the unity of structure of 
he brain: in the different orders of insects, by J. H. L. Flogel. 
Archigetes sieboldi, a sexually mature Cestode nurse, by k. 
Leuckart. The Epiphysis in the brain of Plagiostomes, by E. 
Ehlers. . 


ARCHIV FUR NATURGESCHICHTE, Yahrgang 44, Heft. 3—Her- 
petological studies, by J. von Bedriaga. Contribution to anatomy 
_of the integument of mammals, by H. Ribbert. Attempt at a 
“natural classification of the spiders, by G. Bertkau. Reflections 
on the theory by which season dimorphism in butterflies may be 
explained, by P. Kramer, Contribution to a knowledge of her- 
maphroditism and the spermatophores in the nephropneutic Gas- 
thopods, by G. Pfeffer. 


ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES, March 20—Observa- 
tions on the structure of the eyes of crustacea and worms, by J. 
Chatin. Observations on the Notommata dees: and its para- 
-sitism in the tubes of Vaucheria, by M. Balbia 


_ JENAISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FUR NATURWISSENSCHAFT, March 15. 
—Individuality in “ene a E Haeckel. The Leptomedus 
of Heligoland, by R. B 


PSYCHE, Jan., Feb.—Recent Progress of Entomology in North 
America, by S. H. Scudder. Bibliographical Record. 


x ER .—Page 351, line 18, for egualis Stm. read ochracea Brandt. Page 353, line 24 for S 
} read Stm ely 209, line to, for ra y read surely, Page 211, line 15 from bottom, for true iby 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xu. — SEPTEMBER, 1878. — No. 9. 


THE SENSORY ORGANS—SUGGESTIONS WITH A 
VIEW TO GENERALIZATION! 


BY FRANCIS DERCUM, M.D., PH.D. 


ERHAPS in the whole range of physiological and anatomical 

studies, no subject is invested with a deeper interest than that 
of the sensory organs. It is by means of them that we first 
become aware of our own existence; it is by means of them, in 
other words, that consciousness is first awakened in us, and it is 
through them that we subsequently continue our acquaintance 
with the outer world. It would be of great importance, were it 
possible, to arrive at some general conclusion regarding their 
morphology—some general view regarding the essential elements 
or the essential conditions of their structure. Judging from our 
knowledge at present it may seem that an attempt in this direc- - 
_ tion would be fruitless. Notwithstanding there are several prime 
facts which do not seem to have attracted the general attention © 
which their. importance deserves, and these when placed in their 
proper relations may give a new character to the subject, and 
perhaps open new avenues for investigation. 

It will be interesting, therefore, to hastily review what is known 
_ regarding the constant elements of the various sensory organs. 
Under this head, of course, it will be unnecessary to consider the 


= more or less mechanical arrangements by which force is con- 


ducted, and we will adhere, therefore, to that part of the litera- 
_ ture only which treats of the ultimate structures by which impres- 
sions appear to be received. 
1 Read before the Alumni Society of the Auxiliary Department of the University 
2 o a T March 29, 1878. 


VOL. XIL.—NO. 


, 


580 The Sensory Organs. | September, 


_ It will be found most expedient to commence with the organ 
of hearing. 

Here the percipient structure is either situated in, or consti- 
tuted by, the epithelium of the maculz acustice of the ampulle 
and saccules, and by Corti’s organ. Concerning //7s there can be 
no doubt, and were we to analyze the subject no farther, it would 
be sufficient for our purpose. The epithelium of the macule 
acusticæ, as we know, is made up of several kinds of cells. 
Prominent among these is one bearing a hair-like structure on its 
peripheral end, and possessed of central out-runners or processes. 
Now regarding the distribution of nerve-fibres to these acoustic 
spots we may hold the following views: either that the nerves 
end in plexuses and loops zz or immediately dencath the epithel- 
ium, or that they are directly continuous with either the cylin- 
drical, the stellate or the hair-bearing cells. Almost any one of 
these suppositions would suffice for the main points of the gen- 
eralization I have in mind, but when we turn to the literature 
bearing immediately on this point, we learn that the constant or 
essential element of the macule acustice, and in fact of the 
organ of hearing, appears to be a cell bearing a central and a 
peripheral process. This cell is constant throughout vertebrates 
and, as far as known, throughout invertebrates. The entire liter- 
ature makes it also more than probable that these cells are 
directly continuous with nerves. Thus, Max Schultze already in 
1858 (Muller’s Archiv), in speaking of the ultimate nerve ter- 
mination in the ear of the petromyzon, ray, pike, etc., advanced 
strong grounds in support of this view. Deiters, in 1860 (M.A.), 
described the hair-cells of birds, and considered their connection 
with nerves probable, while in 1862 U) he described the hair- 
cells of amphibians, and in the “lagena” believed them to be 
directly continuous with nerves. About this time, also, F. E. 


= Schulze claimed to have seen the direct transition of nerve fibres 


into the auditory hairs of young sea gudgeons. In 1867, Hasse 
(Zeitsch. d. Wissensch. Zoölogie, Bd. xvii) described the hair-cells 
of birds, and said that he clearly made out the entrance of the 


=~ nerve-fibres into them. He said that he frequently traced the 
~ central processes of the cells for long distances in the course of 

_ the nerveé-fibres, and vice versa, he traced the nerve-fibres in the | 
. direction of the central processes. Odenius, 1867 (A. f. M. A), 


Ivocates or man the same Me He says, that all cnapan 


1878. ] The Sensory Organs. 581 


researches point to that conclusion; that the fibres of the auditory 
nerve do not end in loops, that they do not become continuous 
with the blunt-ended cylindrical nor the stellate cells. The only 
remaining element is, therefore, the hair-cell, and this in every 
way supports the view of its nervous connection. It not only 
becomes stained with osmic acid (Waldeyer, Stricker’s Hdb.), 
similar to nerve fibres, but its central process presents the same 
appearance as the latter. In 1868, Hasse (Z. f. W. Z., Bd. xviii) 
investigated the ear of the frog, and strongly expressed the same 
view as maintained by the previously mentioned authorities; in 
fact, in one instance he believes to have really seen the nerve ter- 
minating in the hair-cell (stabchenzelle), but does not lay too much 
stress upon it. Waldeyer, 1868 (Stricker’s Hdb.), claims the 

nervous continuity of the inner hair-cells of Corti’s organ as a 
positive fact. He says, “the inner radial (nerve) fibres pass, as I 
have often been able to prove, directly through the granular layer 
and terminate in the pointed ends of the inner hair-cells.” Gott- 
stein, 1872 (A. f. M. A.), like Waldeyer, says, that the inner radial 
nerve-fibres enter the inner row of hair-cells, while the outer are 
supplied by fibres stretching directly across the, tunnel formed by 
Corti’s arch. Ladowsky, 1876 (A. f. M. A.), expresses emphati- 
cally the same conclusions maintained by Gottstein. He asserts 
notwithstanding the purely negative results of Nuel (A. f. M. A. 
viii), the nervous connection of the hair-cells strenuously as fol- 
lows: “I assert, along with Boetcher, that the connection between 
nerves and cells can nowhere be demonstrated so clearly as in the 
EAN ss. Boetcher says, that he could, with some animals, 
as the hedgehog, find the connection of the nerves with the end- 
cells in almost every section.” 


The Organ of Smell——This, when analyzed, appears likewise to 
consist of a cell with a central and a peripheral process. The 
‘outline of the literature is as follows: 

In 1857, Ecker described the epithelium of the olfactory 
region (Z. f. W. Z. Bd. viii), but did not claim any nervous con- 
nection with cells. Later investigators, however, J. L. Clark and 

Max Schulze, strongly advocated the view of the direct nervous 
- Continuity of the so-called “olfactory” cells. Clark, 1862 (Z. f. 

= W. Z. Bd. xi), traced the nerves into a fine sub-epithelial plexus, 
and thence believed them to become continuous with the central 
_ Processes of these cells. Max Schultze, 1863, (Abde. dQ. 


582 The Sensory Organs. | September, 


Naturges. zii Halle, vii), described the olfactory cells of fishes, 
amphibians, birds and mammals, and strongly argued for their 
direct continuity with nerves. His theory rests on the complete 
chemical and morphological analogy between the central ends of 
the olfactory cells and the nerve fibrilla. Prof. Babuchin, 1868 
(Stricker’s Histology), says that he possesses a chloride of gold 
preparation from a tortoise, in which can be observed the imme- 
diate passage of the nerve fibrille into the epithelial layer, “ where 
they can be followed into the nuclei of the olfactory cells.” He 
says, “this might raise M. Schultze’s hypothesis to an actual fact 
if we possessed in the chloride of gold a substance which stained 
only nervous elements, and if this re-agent.were not so very 
uncertain in its action.” Von Brunn, 1875 (A. f. M. A. xii), 
describes, in addition to the epithelial and olfactory cells described 
by Clark and Schultze, a homogeneous membrane covering the 
olfactory region of mammals, and which is pierced by the per- 
ipheral processes of the olfactory cells. This arrangement would 
seem to exclude the epithelial cells from immediate contact with 
any substance inhaled into the nostril, and confine such contact 
entirely to the peripheral ends of the olfactory cells. This would 
go very far to establish the fact that the olfactory cell is the es- 
sential or percipient structure of the organ of smell. At any rate, 
it is a cell peculiar to the olfactory region, is constant throughout 
vertebrates, and like the corresponding structure in the organ of 
hearing, the weight of evidence is in favor of its direct nervous 
continuity. 


. 

The Organ of Taste—Here we meet with a peculiar dif- 
ficulty at the outset, and one to which the consideration of other 
organs is not subject. Itis at first a matter of doubt as to what 
structure really constitutes the organ of taste. From the litera- 
ture of the subject, however, I think it may be fairly attributed to 
the so-called taste-buds, as is almost unanimously done by the. 
investigators of these organs. The taste-buds are distributed 
most thickly where the sense of taste is most acute, and less 
thickly on parts of the tongue where the sense of taste, per se, is 
less but where the general sensibility is greatest, as the tip and 
i anterior part of the dorsum. What gives the most ground for _ 

_ doubt regarding their gustatory function, is that Verson has found _ 
them on the lower surface of the epiglottis and Krause on the 
ee of the same, The latter oT does not consider axes 


ea 


1878. | The Sensory Organs. 


an objection to their being concerned in the sense of taste, while 


C. Davis (1877 A. f. M. A}, who describes these organs as exist- 


ing in the upper parts of the larynx, says that whatever we con- 
sider as their function we must regard them as terminal organs of 
the glossopharyngeal nerve. He says that Vingtschau and Hö- 
nigschmied have given experimental evidence that the buds at 
the dorsum of the tongue are terminal organs of the glosso- 
pharyngeal, though he neither says in what the experimental evi- 
dence consisted, nor gives any references where it might be 
found. Leaving you to form your own views, I will briefly pass 
over the pertinent literature of these organs. They have been 


found in fishes, amphibians and mammals. Waller appears to 


have been the first to investigate the epithelium of the fungiform 
papillæ of the frog, while Leydig first described the “taste-disks ” 
of fishes, and was disposed to consider them as tactile organs 
(1851, Z. f. W. Z. Bd iii, also 1857, Lehrb. d. Hist). Billroth, 
1858 (M. A.), and Hoyer, 1859 (M. A.), both described the. 
peculiar epithelium of the taste-papillz of the frog, and while the 
former thought a connection between it and nerve-fibres prob- 
able, the latter described the nerves as terminating bluntly 
beneath it. Axel Key, however, 1861 (M. A.), described the 
same structure and pictured the nerve-fibres as directly entering 
certain cells, which are designated by the term “ taste-cells.” His 


results were attacked by Hartman, 1863 (M. A.), who, although © 


he could assign no definite termination to the nerves himself, sup- 
posed them to end in plexuses beneath the cells. Beale, however, 
1865 (Phil. Transactions), strongly supported Axel Key in the 
essential points. He showed that Hartman had destroyed the . 
finer structures by his method of examination. Speaking of the 
nervous connection of these cells, he says: “ In many specimens 
I have seen, and most distinctly the delicate network of fibres (in 


the body of the papilla) continuous with the fine nerve-fibres in 
the summit of the papilla, and I have demonstrated the continuity - 


of these fine fibres with the matter of which the outer part of 
these peculiar cells consists... 4... .<. 5. pon the whole, I 


- am justified in the inference that there is a structural continuity 


between the matter which intervenes, between the masses of ger- 
minal matter at the summit of the papilla and the nerve-fibres in 
its axis, and I consider that an impression produced upon the sur- _ 


| face of these peculiar cells may be conducted by continuity Ok 2 


584 The Sensory Organs. | September, 


tissue to the bundle of nerve-fibres in the body of the papilla.” 
In 1869 (Quart. Journal Micr. Science), Beale reiterated the same 
statement. In 1867, Engelman (A. f. M. A., iv) investigated 
the taste epithelium of the frog, and in the essential points of a 
cell with peripheral and central processes, and of the last being 
continuous with nerve-fibre, he agrees with Axel Key. Dr. Mad- 
dock, 1869 (Monthly Microscop. Journal), also investigated the 
same structure. He describes the taste-cells or rod-cells, as he 
calls them, and strongly supports the view of their direct nervous 
continuity. He says that the sensory nerves of taste do not ter- 
minate in free ends, “ but in terminal organs consisting of nerve 
matter surrounding a germinal mass or nucleus; in fact,” says he, 
“ I regard them to the plexus of nerves beneath the papilla in the 
same relation as the retinal rods to the optic nerve.” 

In 1863 (Z. f- W. Z., Bd. xii), F. E. Schulze redescribed the 
taste disks of fishes and laid great stress on the fact that these 
structures are found in greatest number just where the glosso- 
pharyngeal nerve is most thickly distributed. They are found on 
the gums, the tongue rudiment, the inner side of the gill arches 
and the barbels, but also in lesser numbers on the lips and skin 
of the head and body. These last, as Schulze supposes, are 
probably for the purpose of perceiving at some distance sub- 
stances dissolved in the water. He describes the taste-disk as _ 
consisting essentially of two kinds of cells, one being merely a 
supporting structure, and the other the percipient structure. The 
latter bears a central and peripheral process. In 1867, the same 
observer (A. f. M. A. iii, p. 152), states that the peripheral pro- 
cess bears a small hair as it does in mammals. In 1870(A. f. M. 
A.), he also described the taste-discs of the tadpole, and remarked 
their close resemblance to those of fishes, which might almost 
have been predicted. 

In 1868, Schwalbe (A. f. M. A. iv,) and Loven (Ibid.) de- 
scribed almost simultaneouslye and independently the taste- 
buds of mammals. Their descriptions agreed in all essential 
points; namely, in there being two kinds of cells, one having the 
value of a protective or supporting structure, and another which 


_ had a central and peripheral process and which was probably 
- continuous with nerve-fibre, which in its chemical reaction it re- 


sembles (Engleman in Strickers’ Hdb.). Subsequent investigators 


have merely corroborated the results of the preceding. Thus, von 4 


1878. ] The Sensory Organs. 585 


Wysen, about 1870 (A. f- M. A. vi); von Ajtai in 1872 (A. f. M. 
A. vii); Honigschmied in 1873 (Z. f. W. Z. xxii), who also noted 
the occurrence of taste-buds on the free or upper surface of cir- 
cumvallate papilla, though their presence here was not constant 
and they were generally smaller than those found onthe sides. 
He says, also, that there can hardly be any doubt regarding the 
continuity of the taste-cells with nerves. In chloride ‘of gold 
preparations from the cat he traced the nerves directly into the 
buds, and what is worthy of remark, the cover cells were mot 
stained by chloride of gold, while the taste-cells were. 

Before proceeding any farther, it will be necessary for the cor- 
rect understanding of the view I wish to present, to consider 
some organs not possessed by man. 

In fishes and amphibians we find a set of organs whose sensory 
character was first claimed by Leydig in 1850 (M.A). I refer to 
the so-called “mucous canals.” In 1861, F. E. Schulze (/did.) 
re-described these organs as containing small cellular elevations, 
from which arise a number of stiff parallel hairs, which reminded 
both him and Leydig of the auditory hairs. A profile view of- 
the typical structure, according to Schulze, reveals a hyaline cyl- 
inder generally much longer than the hairs, which it encloses and 
to which it allows free access of water. In speaking of the rela- 
tion which the nerve fibres bear to the cellular elevations, he says: 
“In the lower layer I see round cells . . . . . These I take to be 
connective tissue cells. Between these last we see in fishes of a _ 
certain degree of development (15 mm. and over), sharply con- 
toured nerve fibres which are given off from the nerves approach- 
ing the elevation. After they have passed between these cells 
they terminate by means of a “ conical narrowing” in the above 
mentioned hairs. This is most readily seen by fixing the eye 
upon a single hair and then following the inward continuation of 
the same. In so doing we recognize as the base of the hair a con- 
ical body which protrudes over the epithelial surface. . . . This 
little ten-pin-shaped body (Kegel) we again recognize as the nar 
rowing of a nerve fibre lying between the epithelial cells....... 

In 1870 (A. f. M. A.), F. E. Schulze re-investigated these organs, 
and made some important additional statements. What he had 


_ previously described as a ten-pin-shaped narrowing of the nerve | 
_ fibre into which the hair is inserted he now describes as a nucle- 


ated cell; 7, e. he now describes as the ultimate sensory ere 3 


t 


586 The Sensory Organs. _ [September, 


in the mucous canals or side organs of fishes and amphibians 


certain nucleated cells bearing hairs and connected with nerve 


fibres, His conclusion regarding the function of these structures 
is as follows: That the side organs “ represent a sensory appa- 
ratus especially adapted to presence in water, and for the purpose 
of appreciating mass movements of the surrounding medium 
against the body of the fish or of this against it, and also to per- 
ceive coarse waves which are promulgated by the water and which 
have longer periods of vibration than those appreciated by the 
organ of hearing.” 

Transitional forms between such of the side organs as have 
large, hyaline cylinders and which stand out directly from the 
body of the fish, and the completely covered mucous canal, are 
present. Some are described in which.the cylinder is small, rudi- 
mentary or absolutely wanting. Others still which are situated in 
a groove or depression of the surrounding skin, and some in 
which the edges of the groove overlap and thus form the transi- 
tion to the covered mucous canal. The significance of this is 


_ unmistakable. In 1868, Franz Boll (A. f. M. A. iv) investigated — 


the mucous ampullz of the snout of the shark and the Torpedo 
marmorata, and described and pictured as the essential and per- 
cipient structures of these organs cells with central and per- 
ipheral processes, and argued for the nervous continuity of the 
same. Langerhans, 1873 (A. f. M. A. ix), described the side 
organs (or organs of a sixth sense as Leydig calls them) of the 
larva of Salamandra maculosa. His results agree in every par- 
ticular with those of F. E. Schulze. Malbranc, 1876 (Z. f. W. Z. 
xxvi), also supports the results of F. E. Schulze and Langerhans 


completely. Previously the side organs had been described only 


in Jarval amphibians, but Malbranc also found them in the adult 
forms of Proteus, Siredon, Triton cristatus and teniatis. 

That the essential or percipient structure of the. side organs 
can be expressed in the same terms as the auditory, olfactory and 
taste-cells, seems indisputable, nor can we. fail to appreciate the 


_ significance of this fact. Indeed, already in 1862 Max Schultze 
expressed views regarding the identity of the nerve terminations 
in the organs of hearing, smell and taste; and in speaking of the 


common sensation of fishes, he says (Sitzbericht d. Niedl’d. Ges. 
zu Bonn. 1862), “ Here there are places in the skin where the 
nerve-cells not P E themselves into the epidermis, | but — 


1878. ] = The Sensory Organs. 587 


also carry hairs which extend beyond the epithelial surface, as in 
the ear. They serve probably as tactile organs of the most deli- 
cate character in order to take note of movements of the water 
which would not be appreciated by ordinary organs of touch.” 

In man the character of the medium in which he lives and the 
dryness of the epithelium, would seem to forbid such a structure, 
yet it becomes a very interesting question whether in mammals in 
which the necessary external conditions are present such a struc- 
ture reappears. Indeed, our interest is perhaps augmented when 
we find that Camper, about 1822; discovered innumerable open- 
ings on the lower jaw of the whale, which were like the mucous 
canals of the pike. Concerning their structure and even their 
presence in other Cetaceans nothing is known. 

There are certain great facts of embryology - which ` might 
almost lead us to suspect from an “a priori” point of view some 
bond of union between sensory organs. In the first place, the 
nerve epithelium of the ear, the olfactory region and the taste- 
buds, are developed from one and the same layer, namely, the 
epiblast of the embryo. Again this layer is the same as that 
from which the central nervous system is developed, and this fact 
alone would naturally lead us to look for the ultimate sensory 
apparatus in the epithelium. These organs being developed in fhe 
same layer, we might expect to find some morphological connec- 
tion or relation between them. The ear, as we know, is formed 
by an inflexion of the epiblast, while the nasal and oral cavities 

‘are lined by the same layer. Therefore, if,as we have seen, there 
are sensory cells in the epithelium covering the body, the cavities 
formed by the inflexion of this epithelium would contain these 
sensory cells. 

For the ear, even additional evidence is furnished by the Savian 
vesicles of the torpedo, These are closed fibrous capsules, con- 
taining an interior granular substance, and supplied by a nerve 
twig. They are arranged in linear series bordering the anterior 

_ part of the mouth and nostrils, and extending over the surface of 
the fore part of the electrical organs (Owen, Comp. Anat.; and Boll 
M. A. 1875). Max Schultze was the first to investigate the his- 
tology of these organs. He tells us that they contain an epithelium 
bearing stiff, non-vibratile hairs, and he expresses the opinion that 
the nerves bear the same relation to it as in the ear, nasal m. m. : 
etc. Boll (M. A. 1875) re-investigated the Savian vesicles and 


588 The Sensory Organs. [ September, 


described them more minutely. He corroborated the general 
statements of Max Schultze with regard to the hair-bearing epi- 
thelium, stating that the hairs are so very perishable that they can 
only be observed in fresh preparations. He finds on the floor of 
the vesicle three small eminences lying in the direction of the 
fibrous attachment, the middle one being the larger. These are 
constituted by cylindrical epithelial cells and the perceptive cells, 
while the rest of the vesicle is lined by a flat epithelium. The 
nerves are distributed exclusively to the emznences, and are, as 
Boll thinks, probably continuous with the perceptive cells. These 
bear peripheral and central processes. 

Regarding these organs Max Schultze (Abh’dl’g. d. N. ges. zu 
Halle. 1863) makes the following interesting remarks: “As they 
are closed vesicles and lie somewhat deeply hidden, we can look 
upon them as the transitional forms between feel-hairs ending 
freely in the water and which are possessed by fishes and naked 
amphibians, and the nerve-hairs of the ampulle of the organ of 
hearing. In this last, the arrangement of the nerve-endings for 
the perception of sound waves from the endolymph, is evidently 
so similar to the structure in the Savian vesicle, that the question 
might arise whether the latter belongs to the sound perceiving 
organs. As the electric ray possesses very well-developed organs 
of hearing in the shape of otolith saccules and semicircular canals, 
there are no grounds for ascribing yet another organ of hearing 
to it. Therefore we adhere to the supposition that the Savian 
vesicles are a special modification of the organs of common sen- 
sation. .. .” Further on, he says that they probably appreciate 
coarse waves or vibrations in the water. 

A very significant fact, and which probably brings the side 
organs or mucous canals, the Savian vesicles and organ of hear- 
-ing into the same category, is the following: The Savian vesicles 
are supplied by the fft% pair of nerves, while the mucous canals 
or side organs are supplied by the lateral nerves, which again are 
made up largely of the fifth, in some fishes almost entirely; and a 
most remarkable fact, but one which is entirely explainable by 
l embryological datá, is, that in one fish, the skate (Owen, Comp. 
a my the y nerve is apparently a primary branch of the 

JJA! 


Now, while bearing the facts with regard to the sensory organs 
in th ee of fishes and amphibians in mind, let us see 


1878. | The Sensory Organs. 589 


what is known regarding sensory structures in the epithelium of 
mammals. At once the well-known results of Connheim 
(Virchow’s Archiv xxxviii, 1867) and Hoyer (M. A. 1866, also A. 
f. M. A. ix 1873) with regard to the nerves of the cornea occur 
to us, which prove that the nerves really enter the epithelium. 
Besides this, Langerhans (Virchow’s Arch. xliv, 1868), demon- 
strated in man the entrance of nerves into the epithelium covering 
the body. He describes the nerves as entering the rete mucosum 
and then passing upward between the epithelial cells. He 
describes also peculiar stellate. bodies which he thinks are very 
probably continuous with the nerves, on account of their chemi- 
cal reaction. Podocopaew (A. f. M. A. v. 1869) confirms the 
results of Langerhans for the rabbit in all essential points. 
Eberth (A. f. M. A. 1870) likewise supports the investigations of 
Langerhans in the important particulars, and believes that no 
terminal network exists, but that the nerves end free in the epi- 
thelium, Chrschtschonowic (Sitzbericht. d. Wiener Acad., Feb., 
1871) says that the nerves enter the vaginal epithelium and there 
form plexuses. Elin (A. f. M. A. vii, 1871) says that the nerves 
enter the epithelium of the mucous membrane of the mouth and 
join cells “in the upper part of the rete mucosum” fibres, also 
passing to the upper part of the epithelium. Eimer (A.f. M. A. 
viii, 1872) described the nerves as entering the epithelium of the 
teat of the cow, and believes them to be continuous with the 
“ Langerhansian bodies.” Perhaps more interesting than all, how- 
ever, are the results of Eimer (/ézd. vii, 1871) with regard to the 
snout of the mole. This investigator describes the nerves as 
entering the epithelium covering the snout and passing upwards. 
The epithelial cells immediately above the entrance of the nerves 
are arranged in a circular manner, so as to present somewhat the 
form of a cylinder, thus producing a specialized structure. Eimer 
tells us that whenever a nerve-fibre passes one of these cells, it 
presents a bulbous enlargement or swelling, and finally terminates 
by such a swelling in one of the cells. 

Now, whether the nerves end free, end in plexuses, in the Lan- 
gerhansian bodies or the cells of Eimer, of one thing we are cer- 
tain, and that is that the ultimate sensory structure is ¿x the epithe- 
lium, & ae aes: which, it is needless to say might have been | 
_ predicted on “ a priori” ground. : 


I think it well now to present the interesting results of Meckel _ : 


590 The Sensory Organs. [ September, 


(A. f. M. A. xii), as at least a possible, if not a probable method, 
of explaining the touch-bodies ; z. e., the corpuscles of Krause, of 
Meisner and Wagner and the Pacinian bodies. Koelliker tells us 
that they are all probably modifications of one and the same thing, 
as intermediate forms exist all over the body. Now Meckel de- 
scribes cells as existing in birds and mammals into which he 
directly traces nerve-fibres. He designates them as “ touch-cells” 
and describes their transition into touch bodies. The touch-cells 
are situated ordinarily deneath the epithelium, but in the bill of 
the pigeon they present every transitional stage between cells en- 
tirely buried in the sub-epithelial tissue, cells partially extending 
into the epithelium, and cells éntirely enclosed by the epithelium. 
Again, in the snout of the hog the “touch-cells.” are a% in the 
epithelium, though in its lowest layers. They are larger than nerve- 
cells generally, and frequently two or more become joined so as to 
form twin cells or a more complex arrangement. These last are 
found deneath the epithelium. Then he also describes structures 
made up of a larger number of cells, but in which the nerve-fibre 
still supplies each individual cell. Then he describes others 
which are still more complex and in which the separation into 
cellular elements is still less apparent. All the complex forms 
are beneath the epithelium, only the single cell is found in the 
latter. 

If the results of Meckel are correct, we have a link between the 
sensory structures of the epithelium and the touch-bodies, and 
the latter might be looked upon as epithelial structures in reality, 
but which have become displaced in the progress of development. 
The legitimacy of such an inference, however, would be rendered 
highly doubtful by the existence of the Pacinian corpuscle in the 
mesentery of the cat. To these last structures Arndt (Virch. A. 
lxv, 1875) ascribes a very peculiar significance, but which is 
_ hardly satisfactory. From observations on foetal cats he comes to 
the conclusion that the Pacinian corpuscle is an outgrowth of 
. the vascular system of the mesentery. 

Let us now turn our attention to a field that has been thus far 
T neglected ; namely, the organ of sight. The retina, though not 

developed from the epithelial layer of the embryo, is yet pro- 
duced by an outward growth of another portion of the same 
layer. To this, however, I think we should not attach too muai 


1878. | The Sensory Organs. 591 


In all the retinze of vertebrates two elements among others ap- 
pear to be constant, namely, the layer of rods and cones and one 
corresponding to the layer of external granules. Each rod and 
each cone is thus connected with a cell element, and certainly it 
requires no great stretch of the imagination to see here a struc-. 
ture corresponding to a hair-cell. We have a cell with a central 
and peripheral process which last bears an apparatus to receive 
the immediate impression of force. Besides evidence by no 
means ends here. In those invertebrates whose eyes approach 
and even exceed in their complexity those of vertebrates, as the 
gastropods and cephalopods, the same elements remain constant, 
namely, the rods with their cells (Schultze, A. f. M. A. v, 1869), 
(Babuchin, Würzburg Verh’dlg, 1865) (Hensen Z. f. w. LH, 
1865). 

We must be: also that in the eyes of molluscs the re- 
lation of the rods to the eye is exactly the reverse of that in ver- 
tebrates ; namely, they point directly forwards and constitute the 
innermost layer of the retina, while in vertebrates they point 
directly backwards and constitute the outermost layer. This fact 
assumes great significance when we learn what is known concern- 
ing the development of the eyes of molluscs. Hensen says (Z. 
f. W. Z. xv., 1865), that the eyes of cephalopods probably origi- 
nate in the same manner as the ear and nose of vertebrates, 7. e., 
by an inflexion of the epithelial layer. In the nautilus, he says, 
it is evidently the case, while for the gastropods this has. actually 
been observed in a pulmonate snail of the Phillipines; by C. Sem- 
per’ (quoted by Hensen). 

When we are told by Boll (A. f. M. A. v, 1869, supplement), 
that the epithelium of molluscs everywhere contains hair- 
cells continuous with nerves, it would seem to place the morpho- 
logical value of the rods and cells in these animals beyond a doubt. 
Boll describes what he calls the “ neuro-epithelium.” He pictures 
stiff, non-vibratile hairs, distinct from vibrating cilia, and sur- 
mounting elongated nucleated cells. They occur all over the sur- — 
face of gastropods and cephalopods, being more thickly situated 
in parts used for apprehension or contact, as the arms of the cuttle- 
- fish and the edges of the foot of the snail. Flemming (Ibid. v, 1869 
and vi, 1870) corroborates Boll’s statements in the main points, 
_ though he differs from him in the detailed description of the hairs, - 


a2 Semper has written a separate paper on molluscan eyes, which I could not obtain. -o 


ve ; á K ie ‘ eri’ Li ; 
=~ was a sincere conviction in the truth of such principles that led 


592 The Sensory Organs. [September, 


Boll also, although he determined the direct nervous continuity of 
the hair-cells in the ears of these animals, did not establish the 
nervous connection of the hair-cells in the epithelium. Flem- 
ming described long central outrunners, which can be drawn out 
from the sub-epithelial tissue to a comparatively great length, and 
which become more or less varicose in preparations treated with 
potassium bichromate and osmic acid. He also describes the 

. sensory cells of pulmonate snails, but in these the hairs do not 
reach above the surface of the epithelium, apparently a modifica- 
tion to suit external conditions. 

Judging from the above, we have, to say the least, good grounds 
for including the percipient structure of the organ of sight in the 
same generalization as that of the other sensory organs. As re- 
gards the other layers of the retina, may they not be simply of 
ganglionic value? The comparative simplicity of the retina of 
molluscs seems, in cephalopods, to be counterbalanced by the ex- 
istence of a ganglion just before the optic nerve enters the eye. 
Again, the ganglionic character of the olfactory lobes may be of 
equal value. Indeed, this comparison might assume importance 
when we remember that both the olfactory lobe and the retina 
are processes of the cranial vesicles. 


4 


Conclusion —In casting a last glance at the sensory organs they 
seem to arrange themselves more or less readily into groups. 
Thus, the side organs or mucous canals, the Savian vesicles and 
the organ of hearing, seem to constitute a sub-division by them- — 
selves. The organs of taste and smell seem to constitute another, 
while the eye seems to occupy a third sub-division alone. With 
regard to other sensory structures it would be hazardous to make : 
any suggestions. ; 

-On the ground of certain principles that I have expressed, and- 
of others even far more general, we may be led to suspect from the i 
very beginning the common genesis of sensory organs ; and it 


me to read the literature bearing immediately upon the subject, 
and to learn in how far such an opinion is supported by fact. 
= How much it is supported by the results of the investigators 
which I have adduced, and the possible relations I have pointed 
_ out, I will leave you to judge. ; oe 
{Nore. : The literatur: referred to in thi paper is that only whic 
ains directly to the questions in point. One or two pap 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 593 


have been unable to obtain and have quoted them from others. I 
have knowingly omitted none that seemed important or the results- 
of which seemed to contradict the general views suggested by the 
writer, with perhaps the single exception 6f the paper of C. B. 
Reichert (A. f. A. and Ph., 1871), who thinks that the early differ- 
entiation, in the embryo, of the epithelial layer and the central 
nervous system destroys all probability of the nerve endings being 
in the epithelium. How much his opinion is supported by fact, 
the more recent literature as adduced will enable you to judge. 
He rejects, in consequence, altogether the nérve-termination in the 
organ of hearing, as held by most observers, and even denies that 
the nerves pass through the openings in the zona perforata! a fact 
which every investigator with whom I am familiar admits and 
which I have myself witnessed. Reichert is the only one to my 
knowledge who so radically denies the results of the other in- 
vestigators. To me the general agreement among so many ob- 
servers, in such varied fields of research, seems to point unmis- 
takably to some one underlying truth.) 


—:0: 


PLANTS USED BY THE INDIANS OF THE UNITED 
SIATES 


BY DR. EDWARD PALMER. 


The first paper upon this subject by the writer was published 
in the Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1870. The 
present paper will embrace all the additional matter that has since 
come under his observation. 

Fruits and Nuts.— Funiperus pachyphlea Torr., one of the finest 
ornamental Junipers, its wood being excellent for cabinet work ; 
height about forty feet, and diameter from two to three feet. 
Abundant in Arizona. Its fruit, a staple article of food among 
the Indians, is sweet, having but little of the juniper taste. As 
soon as ripe the Indians commence to eat the nuts raw, and to — 
lay up great quantities for winter use. They are then ground 
fine and made into bread. / 

Californica, a dwarf but showy evergreen. Southern 
Californian Indians consume immense quantities of the fruit 


‘The writer wishes to acknowledge his obligations to Prof. Asa Gray; Mr, 


_ Sereno Watson, of sree Mass.; Dr. C. C. Parry, Davenport, vs = e 
S Vasey, Department of Agriculture, for PERA? determining the spe 


594 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [September, 


which is sweet and is eaten as soon as ripe. When the fruit is 
dry it is either ground fine and made into bread, or boiled in 
water to the consistency of mush. It must be nutritious, as the 
Indians get fat on it.» 

` F. Californica var. Utahensis attains a height of twenty or 
twenty-five feet in Utah, and a diameter of twelve inches. The 
Utes eat the fruit raw or made into bread. As in the former 
species, the taste is quite sweet. These Indians use what they call 
Noo-ahn-tup, or what appeared to be excrements of insects left in 
hollows of the junipers, said to be ground and used for mush by 
the Pah-Ute Indians. The fibrous bark of this tree is made into 
saddles, breech clouts, skirts, and mats to sleep on. The bark is 
rather brittle and not so good for domestic purposes as that of 
Cowania mexicana. 

F. occidentalis —The berries of this tree are gathered and 
consumed for food but have more of a juniper taste than the 
former species. 

Pinus torreyana,a very rare pine, on hills of Solidad, South- 
ern California, only. The nuts are large and wholesome. Only 
the Indians near by gather them, as they are not in great 
abundance. : 

P: monophylla—The common pine on. the border of Lower 
California. It is a very productive tree. Its seeds, though rich, 
and good when fresh, are more digestible after being roasted, be- 
sides in that condition they will keep fresh dlong time. Heat dis- 
sipates the oil property of the kernel and renders the hull brittle 
and easily removed. It is astonishing how many of these nuts an 
Indian can eat. From morning until night, as long as they last, 
cracking and eating go on. The Indians get very fat during a 
good pine nut harvest. They remove the hulls by putting 4 
number of the nuts on a metate, and by rolling a flat pestle 
backward and forward until the hulls are loosened. The mass is 
then put into a flat basket tray and the hulls are blown off. The 
kernels are now ready to be eaten, or ground on the metate to- 
flour, which if made into bread or mush is a palatable and nutri- 
tious dish. The interior of the young cone is also eaten. 
-As soon as the pine cones begin to open the Indians assemble 
o for their great feast and camp among the pine trees during the nut ` 

harvest. The fruit upon the ground is gathered up by the chile. 7 
en, while the females pnd from the trees the poopie fruit, 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 595 


which they place in a net. Draw strings are tied around the 
neck of the net which, when full, is let down by means of a long 
rope fastened to the centre of the draw-string. Some one on the 
ground empties the load, and the net is drawn up to be re- 
filled. Thus for many days this gathering goes on until the sup- 
ply is exhausted, or they have satisfied their wants. To hasten 
the opening of the cones, they are thrown on hot ashes for a few 
minutes. The seeds are at once removed and put into an earthen 
pot over a slow fire. After a few stirrings they are sufficiently 
parched to render the hull brittle, so as to be easily removed, 
while the oil in the kernel is set free. By this process the kernel 
is rendered more digestible and will keep for a long time. If 
not parched, the seeds would soon become rancid and mouldy. 


Algarobia glandulosa or Prosopis juliflora, in Texas, Arizona, 
New Mexico, and Sonora, grows from twenty to forty feet high, 
and eighteen inches in diameter. Charcoal is manufactured from it, 
and it is also made into handsome furniture, the grain being very 
fine. It flourishes where no other fruit tree would grow, and is 
one of the most useful trees of the deserts. It yields a gum 
nearly indentical with gum arabic for. medicinal and technical 
purposes, especially in the preparation of mucilage, gum drops, 
jujube-paste, &c. In parts of Texas great quantities are gather- 
ed for exportation. The Indians have long been acquainted with 
its valuable properties, for they not only eat it but mix it with 
mud and cover their heads with it for two or three days. When 
washed off, the hair of the oldest is not only jet black, but the 
unwelcome visitors that previously lodged therein are all dead. 
The leaves of this plant are used by the Indians of Southern 
California to give the blue color to their freshly tattooed faces, 
the spines of a species of cactus being used to puncture the skin. 
The moistened leaves are then rubbed over the markings and 
the desired color is obtained. 

The fruit of this plant is one of the leading articles of diet with 
_the Utah; New Mexico, California and Arizona Indians. It is 
gathered and housed with great care. Last winter I watched the 
process of converting the seed-pods of this plant into bread. A 
female squatted herself on the ground by a wooden mortar, the 
_ lower end of which was some distance in the ground. With a 
= long stone pestle she pounded the hard seed-pods into meal. _ 
She then tosk from her beea a small conical hat, and — a 


VOL. XII.—NO 


596 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. | September, 


little water on the inside, then a little meal alternately, until the 
hat or bread tray was filled. After being patted on the top, it was 
set on the ground and exposed to the direct rays of the sun for 
some hours, or until it would turn out a solid cake or bread. So 
little water had been used to wet the meal that it seemed to me 
it would not stick together, but possessing a large percentage of 
sugar, little water was necessary. This was rather chaffy-looking 
bread, not unlike that made of corn meal with all the bran in it; 
nevertheless, it was very sweet. The Indians keep fat as long as 
this bread lasts. 

Quercus emoryi, a rather common tree in Arizona, but the 
wood is of no use except for fuel. This tree as well as other 
varieties in the same region, however, yields abundance of food. 

In the Smithsonian collection at the Centennial Exhibition was 
a sample of sugar from the mountain oak, at McCloud river, 
sent by L. Stone. The sugar or manna-like substance was in 
small irregular lumps of a dull color, and very brittle. 

Q. undulata var. pungens—This is a dwarf, compact bush, 
and very prolific. Its fruit is as sweet and as pleasant as fresh 
chestnuts, and is considered a great delicacy by the Lower 
California Indians. So ripe are the nuts before they fall, that 
nearly every one germinates while still in the cup. 

Q. chrysolepis, the finest of Southern California evra 
oaks, produces the largest acorn and cup, but, though much 

used as food, the nuts are not considered as good as some others. 
` `Q. sonomensis ; a common deciduous oak of the hills about 
Julian, Southern California, very productive, affording much 
choice Indian food. 

Q. agrifolia ; this beautiful evergreen oak is very abundant in 
Southern California. When deprived of its branches, it will 
sprout again as freely as a willow. Its fruit is considered by In- 
_dians superior to all other acorns. The failure of the acorn crop 
is a serious loss, and drives the Indians of Southern California to 
` hunt up every kind of substitute for them. In preparing food 


_ from acorns, the first thing is to take off the hulls. This is done 
_ in a mortar by a few slight strokes. The hulls are then removed, 


and the kernels reduced to a very fine meal. As all acorns, with 
few oon Colon possess a bitter, astringent property, which renders __ 
unfit for food until it is removed, the Indians accomplish 
laying a coarse flat basket or strainer on a Te of a : 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 597 


with a drain underneath. Rather fine gravel is now scattered 
thickly over the bottom, and up the sides of the strainer, and the 
meal laid thickly over this gravel. Water is added, little by 
little, to set free the injurious matter. When the water ceases 
to have a yellowish tinge, the deleterious property has been sepa- 
rated. The meal is removed by the hand as much as possible, 
after which water is poured over the remainder, so as to get the 
meal together. It is then scooped up by the fingers, very little 
being wasted in the operation. The meal is cooked in two ways: 
First, by boiling it in water, as we do cornmeal mush. When 
cooked by this process, it is not unlike yellow cornmeal mush in 
appearance and taste. The second mode is to take the meal, as 
soon as it is washed, and make it into small balls which are 
wrapped in green corn leaves. These balls are then placed in 
hot ashes, some green leaves of corn are laid over them, and hot 
ashes, placed on the top of sufficient thickness to bake the cakes. 
These are considered extra nice by Indians. Females not only 
gather and store the acorns, but perform all the work necessary 
to convert them into food. 


Rhus aromatica var. triloba (Squaw berry),so named because the 
Indian women gather large quantities of the berries which are 
used as food. They are of a red color, and excessively sour, but 
very much used while fresh, during the summer months. The 
berries when macerated makes a very pleasant drink, and they 
are also dried for food. The young twigs of this plant are used 
in the manufacture of baskets. The wood exhales a peculiar 
odor, which is always recognizable about Indian camps,and never 
leaves articles made from it. It grows loosely in mountain ra- 
vines, and attains a height of five to eight feet. 

In Utah, Arizona, Southern California, and New Mexico, the 
Indians depend solely upon this plant for material out of which 
to make their baskets. It is far more durable and tougher than 
the willow, which is not used by these Indians. The mode of 
preparation is as follows: The twigs are soaked in water to 
soften them, and to loosen the bark, which is scraped off by the 
females. The twigs are then split, by the use of the mouth and 
both hands. Their baskets are built up by a succession of small 
rolls of grass stems over which these twigs are firmly and closely 
_ bound. A bone awl is used to make the holes under the rims of 
_ grass for the split twigs. Baskets thus made are very durable, __ 


- 


598 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [September, 


will hold water, and are often used to cook in, hot stones being 
dropped in from time to time until the food is done. 

Cerasus ilicifolia—Indians eat this fruit and save the seeds which 
they consume raw, or ground and cooked into mush, They are 
dried whole or split. This is a very common plant in California, 
and is very productive. Its fruit is of a yellow color, with a pink 
tinge, and has the shape of gage plums, but possesses little pulp. 
The seeds are large, affording much food. 

C. demissa—The wild cherry of Southern California, a dwarf 
bush, but very productive. Its fruit is palatable, either fresh or 
dry, and in both conditions it is largely consumed by the Indians. . 

Sambucus glauca (White elderberry) ; S. racemosa (Red elder- 
berry).—The fruit of both these species is eaten by Indians. In 
Southern California the red species is preferred, being more fleshy 
and juicy than the white. 

Mesembryanthemum acinaciforme (called strawberry). Its fruit 
resembles the strawberry in taste. This is one of the common 
plants along the sea-coast of Southern California, growing on 
sand beaches. It is very productive, and is eaten not only by 
Indians, but by Mexicans and other Whites. 

Lycium pallidum, with scarlet fruit; L. berlandieri, Arizona, 
with fruit of a red color.: 

L. andersoni —Fruit bright red, or amber color; Central Arizona 
and South-eastern California. The berries of these Lyctums are 
eaten by Indians of Arizona and California; in fact, Whites relish 
them also. They are quite agreeable to the palate, being of a 
sweet, mucilaginous substance, and adapted to warm climates. 
The clear bright-colored berry has a very tempting look, and 
when dried, resembles in taste dried currants. 

Brahea armata—This fine palm, found at the bottom of the 
Big cañon of the Tantillas, Lower California, grows from fifty 
to sixty feet high, its long, graceful, pendant branches of fruit 
making it a beautiful object. The Cocopah Indians consume 
large quantities of this fruit while fresh, and dry it for winter use; . 
they also eat the base of the young leaves. 

Pritchardia filamentosa—This tree, from forty to fifty feet in . 
height, is not so beautiful as Brahea armata, but its fruit is better 
Se containing more pulp, being much. larger and of'a more 


great e the leaves eens be aoe to seca use- s 


le taste. Cocopah Indians consume the fruit fresh and 


1878.] Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 599 


ful purposes. In the spring the base of young leaves is eaten 
raw by the Indians. The seeds of both these species of palms 
are ground fine and eaten, and are not inferior to cocoa-nut. 

Shepherdia argentea (Buffalo berry), grows by water courses in 
mountainous districts of Central Utah. The habits of the tree 
are similar to those of the elderberry. It grows from ten to fif- 
teen feet high, bears abundantly, fruit red, small, roundish, sour, 
but has a pleasant taste. 

Amelanchier alnifolia (Service berry). aTh fruit of this bush is 
much esteemed by both Indians and Whites. 

Rhus integrifolia, produces abundance of red berries that are 
= very acid. Indians of Southern California place them in water to ` 
form a cool acid drink. 

Ribes mensiesti—Fruit very thorny, but Indians scald them to 
make them eatable. 

Simmondsia californica—The nuts of this plant yield a very 
-fine oil. Indians of Southern California use them as an article 
of food 

Arctostaphylos tomentosa, Manzanita of the Spanish.—The fruit 
is produced in clusters, and resembles a small apple. It is of an 
agreeable acid sweet, and is consumed largely by Indians and 
Mexicans, both in the ripe and dry state. Indians dry the berries 
in great quantities, and prepare a favorite drink from them. A 
quantity of the dried fruit is slightly pounded until the pulp is 
separated from the seeds and outer rinds, the flour or finely pounded 
pulp is separated and mixed with water which is allowed to stand 
until fermentation takes place, when it becomes intoxicating: This 
fruit, flour or dust is also eaten dry. The seeds after being 
deprived of their covering are ground fine and made into mush. 
A favorite mode of using the dried fruit is to grind it up fine and 
after mixing the flour with water, to form the mass into thin flat 
cakes which are baked in hot ashes. This bread is sweet and not 
disagreeable to the taste, though it has a repulsive, clay-like 
appearance of a reddish-brown color. All the western Indians 
relish this fruit in whatever way it is prepared. The Pah-Ute ` 
Indians use the leaves as tobacco and for medicine. 

Photinia arbutifolia—A beautiful tree whose: berries are eaten 
by Indians of California, ane first parched and proust; and then 


- made into mush. 


Vitis arizonica, V. californica.— Indians of California, Arizona and i : 


600 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. | September, 


Southern Utah consume large quantities of both species of grapes 
in the ripe state. They dry them also for winter use. The seeds 
_ of the ripe fruit are saved and ground fine and eaten in that con- 
dition; they sometimes also grind up the dried grapes and cook 
them. The Pah-Utes at St. Thomas, Nevada, had several sacks 
of dried grapes for sale last spring. 

Comandra pallida—This plant yields a small nut which is eaten 
raw by the Pah-Utes and the white children of Utah. If eaten 
too freely it produces nausea. 

Roots and Tubers—Apfios tuberosa, common throughout the 
Northern and Southern States. It is known under the name of 
- Saa-ga-ban by the Micmacs, by whom the pear-shaped roots are 
used as an article of food. The tubers are about the size of cher- 
ries, resembling common potatoes in taste, shape and odor. The 
skin is of a rusty or blackish-brown color. They contain a large 
per cent. of starch, which resembles that of wheat, and are very 
wholesome. 
~ Zamia integrifolia (coontie root)—From the tubers of this 
` plant the Florida arrow-root is made. It is abundant in the 
southern part of the State. The tubers are large, frequently a 
foot long and three inches in diameter, rough and dark on the 
outside, but white inside and yield a large per centage of starch. It 
possesses an acid, poisonous ingredient which has to be washed 
out in the process of converting the root into starch. The Indians 
of the Everglades consume a great deal of starch as food, pre- 
pared by their rude processes, and also sell some, but it is inferior 
to that prepared by Americans with improved machinery. 

Hesperocallis undulata, (White lily)—The bulbs of this beauti- 

ful plant are used as food by the Indians of Arizona. 
_ Sagittaria simplex—The Mojave Indians of the Colorado river, 
Arizona, as soon as the.water subsides in the spring, dig the bulbs 
of this plant, which resembles the crocus root. It is exceedingly 
farinaceous and palatable, whether raw or cooked with other 
substances. 

Cnicus occidentalis ?—The roots, which are about the size of 
carrots, are sweet and well flavored, but require a long prepara- 


= tion to fit them for use. A favorite food of the Pacific coast In- 


dians. 
a Carum gairdneri —The tuberous roots of this plant are much 
eaten bes the Indians of the Pacific coast, either raw or boiled 


1878: ] Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 601 


with other substances. When raw it has a nutty taste but when 
cooked assumes a carroty flavor. Its outer surface is grayish, 
but its interior is white and farinaceous. 

Milla capitata var. pauciflora, commonly called by the Mexicans 
of Sonora and Arizona, Corvena. It is rather a small bulb, 
resembling the crocus both externally and internally. Its taste is 
agreeable, sweet and mucilaginous, and is considered very nutri- 
tious, even by Americans. 

Amoreuxia schiedearia; Himajins of the Papajos; Saya of the 
Pimos. It furnishes to the Indians of Arizona just named, an 
edible root. They eat it roasted or baked in hot ashes. It is 
- quite palatable, with a slightly bitter tang. 

Camassia esculenta.—Wild hyacinth, a very common plant in the 
upper Mississippi valley. Indians and Whites eat this root and find 
it very nutritious, with an agreeable, mucilaginous taste. 

Valeriana edulis —The root of this plant is eaten raw or dried; 
it is also ground into flour and made into bread or mush by the 
Pah-Ute Indians. . 

Claytonia lanceolata—The roots of this plant, though small, 
are prized by the Pah-Utes as food, having a pleasant, crisp and 
nutty taste. 

Psoralea castorea Watson, new species.—This plant grows in 
exposed sandy localities between Beaver Dams, Arizona, and 
St. Thomas, Nevada: The tuberous roots are large, very white, 
and farinaceous. The Pah-Utes eat them raw, or cooked in hot 

ashes, or ground up and made into bread or mush. 

Psoralea mephitica Watson, new species.—The leaves of this 
plant yield a very disagreeable smell, but the tuberous roots, 
though small, are farinaceous and are consumed as food after be- 
ing prepared as mentioned for Psoralea castorea. It is abundant — 
on the low places between the hills south-east from St. George, , 
Southern Utah, and the Pah-Utes resort there to collect its roots. 

Roots of carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips and parsnips are eaten 
by Pah-Utes. These Indians have acquired the taste for the 
tubers of all these plants and they consume them in great num- 
bers, either raw or cooked, without being cleaned. They place 


them in the hot ashes and devour them when cooked, skins, dirt 


and all. When boiled, not only are ei tubers eaten but the 
water in which they were boiled is dran se 
Seeds .—Corn, Native Indian; Awe of the Pah-Utes. This : 


602 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [ September, 


variety has been grown by the Indians since the recollection of 
the oldest person among them. Well preserved kernels and cobs 
are found in the mounds of Utah. This species of corn grows 
from two and a half to three feet high and is cultivated by the . 
Indians on the river bottoms, maturing in sixty or seventy days. 
The ears come out of the stalk five or six inches from the ground. 
Corn is a staple article of food with these Indians. In 1873 a 
Pah-Ute Chief, Tutzegavet, brought some very fine corn of his 
own raising to the agricultural fair, held at St. George, Southern 
Utah, and the first premium for that product was awarded to him. 

Helianthus petiolaris, H. lenticularis, native sunflowers, Aw% of 
the Pah-Utes. The seeds of these plants form one of the staple 
articles of food for many Indians, and they gather them in great 
quantities. The agreeable oily nature of the seeds render them 
very palatable. When parched and ground they are highly 
prized and are eaten on hunting excursions. The meal or flour 
is also made into thin cakes and baked in hot ashes. These 
cakes are of a gray color, rather coarse looking, but palatable and 
very nutritious. Having eaten of the bread made from sunflow- 
ers I must say that it is as good as much of the corn bread eaten 
by Whites. 

Mokeack Sunflower —A Pah-Ute chief obtained some seed of the 
large, cultivated sunflower and planted them, raising a large crop. 
Now many of the Indians plant this sunflower, and it goes under 
the name of the Chief Mokeack. 

The native sunflower of Utah yields an exudation from the 
stems of creamy white color, nearly tasteless, but of a gummy 
nature. It is eaten by the Indians and white children of Utah, or 
rather chewed in place of pine gum. 

Portulaca oleracea-——The seeds of this plant after being re- 
duced to flour are eaten in the form of mush. The plant when 
tender is cooked as greens by the Pah-Ute Indians. 

Sporobolus cryptandrus, or Quaque of the Pah-Utes, a species of 
` grass, the seeds of which are much used by the Indians as an ar- 
ticle of food. After being parched they are ground and mixed 
with water or milk and made into mush or biscuits. The flavor 
_ is good, and food thus prepared is very nutritious. The leaves 
_ yield a short, fine fibre, adapted to the manufacture of paper. It is 
_ abundant about St. George, Southern Utah. 
~ Sporobolus airoides, Eragrostis purshii, Panicum crusgalli and — 


> = western Indians use these seeds unmixed as food. 


1878. ] Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 603 


Vilfa asperifolia are very abundant grasses in Southern Utah, 
and their seeds are gathered in great quantities for food by the | 
Indians, who first parch, and then grind them to flour, which is 
-eaten either dry or in the form of bread or mush. It is healthful, 
nutritious and more agreeable in flavor than buckwheat. 

Atriplex californica —This plant grows in ravines and has large, 
long roots which are much used by. Indians and Mexicans of Cali- 
fornia as a substitute for soap. After being pounded and mixed 
with water, it is said to be especially good in cleaning woolen 
fabrics. The seeds of this plant are also gathered, parched, re- 
duced to flour, and made into mush or bread. At other times the 
seeds are ground without parching and used as if parched. 

A. powellii, A. lentiformis, A. expansa, A: confertifolia, A. 
nuttallu, A. canescens —All these yield abundance of seeds, which 
are gathered by the Indians of Utah, Arizona, and California. The 
seeds are ground into flour and made into bread or mush. 

Sarcobatus vermiculatus, “ Grease wood ” of the plains.—It pro- 
duces abundance of seeds, which are prepared for food in the 
same manner as those of Atriplex, and eaten by the western In- 
dians. 

Audibertia polystachya, white sage of California, is a very com- 
mon plant in many parts of the State. From its flowers the bees 
make the celebrated honey for which San Diego is famous. In- 
dians gather the seeds and use them cooked with other substances- 
to impart flavor, as we do parsley. 

Halostachys occidentalis, called Tub-ġo-welts by the Pah-Utes.— 

he seeds are ground fine and made into bread or mush. Itis 
one of the regular articles of diet. 

Amarantus leucocarpus, A. powellii, Camoot of the Pah-Utes.— — 
The seeds of both these species are highly prized as food products. 
They are regularly cultivated by the Pah-Utes and are also found — 
abundant in the wild state on river bottoms. The plants are very 
prolific in seeds, which are very nutritious and of an agreeable 
taste. Bread or mush made of the meal is very good and not 
to be despised. 

Lepidium fremontit, L: intermedium, Sisymbrium sophia, S. canes- 
cens—The seeds of all these plants are ground up with other 
seeds to impart flavor, and cooked into bread or gruel. Some- — 
times they are eaten separately or even in soups. Many of the 


oe 


604 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [September, 


Salvia columbarie ; Chia of the Mexicans and Indians of Arizo- 
na, and New Mexico.—The seeds are used by them as food and 
medicine. Steeped in water they form a very nutritive drink for 
the sick. In the form of mush they resemble flax in properties 
and taste. In Mazatlan, Mexico, a drink prepared from the seed 
is sold in the streets. The meal forms a fine poultice for 
wounds, &c. 

Medicago sativa, the introduced plant, alfalfa. The Pah-Utes 
use the seeds ground up and cooked into mush or gruel. The 
Indians and white settlers gather the tender branches and cook 
them as greens. 

Miscellaneous.—Scirpus validus (Tule plant). The Indians of Cali- 
fornia make bread out of the pollen of this plant, and the root is 
eaten by many tribes either raw or made into bread. The leaves 
are woven into mats and are used to cover their huts. 

Typha latifolia (cat-tail rush). The Pah-Utes eat the flowering 
ends, in the spring, raw or cooked. When boiled in water they 
are very tender, making good soup, which is considered a great 
delicacy. 

Eriogonum inflatum.—The tender stems of this plant are rather 
acid, they are eaten raw by the Indians of Southern Utah. 

Porphyra vulgaris, a sea weed commonly called Laver on our 
eastern coast. It is found in nearly all parts of the world at low 
tide. Many of the Indians along the Pacific coast eat this plant 
cooked as greens or with meat. It is much relished by China- 
men and is quite an article of commerce. The Chinamen residing 
along the coast, at low tides, gather this plant, which is easily 
taken from the rocks. It is then placed in round masses to dry, 
after which they are baled and sent to China. It sells from_five 
to eight cents per pound in San Francisco at wholesale, to be 
shipped to China. 

Caulanthus crassicaulis and -Stanleya pinnatifida are eaten raw 
in the spring by the Pah-Ute Indians, the young plants being 
tender, and when cooked taste like cabbage. For this reason 
these plants are called cabbage by the settlers of Utah. The In- 


: = dians gather the seeds and after reducing them to flour make 


Them into mush. 


‘these plants in spring are eaten raw by the Indians of Southern 
liforni aa their ui succulent nature causes them to be prized 


Cotyledon lanceolata, C. pulverulenta, &c.—The tender leaves d 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 605 


by some white people. As they grow in places not contiguous. 
to water, the moist leaves are used to quench thirst. 

Aphylion californicum and A. ludovicianum, are parasitic plants 
that grow upon the roots of many species. All the plant except 
the bloom grows under ground, and consequently is nearly all 
very white and succulent. The Pah-Utes consume great numbers 
of them in summer while on their hunting excursions after rab- 
bits. Being succulent they answer for food and drink on these 
sandy plains, and, indeed, are often called “ sand-food.” 

Flemizonia fasciculata, Tar-weed—This plant in case of hun- 
ger is eaten by the Indians of Southern California after being 
cooked in the following manner: A quantity of the plants are 
boiled down until the liquid is of a thick tarry consistency, when 
it is ready for the stomach of the Indian. Its tar-like taste is 
objected to by some. A youthful brave was very careful to 
inform me that young Indians never eat that stuff. If the pro- 
curing and cooking of the same depended upon the young 
Indians (males), they would go hungry a long time, for their lazi- 
ness scarcely stimulates them to collect food; even if hungry they 

. expect everything to be done by the older females. 

: Madaria elegans—The seeds of this species of tar-weed are 
ground into flour, made into thin cakes, and baked in hot ashes by 
the California Indians. When cooked the bread has a gray but not 
very inviting look, yet the Indian eats it without complaint though 
he prefers corn bread. 

Arundo phragmitis, a species of cane growing along water 
courses and about springs in Southern Utah. Numerous small 
insects puncture the leaves of this plant and a liquid exudes. 
While in a soft state it is scraped off by the Indians with their 
long finger nails and eaten. At first it has a paste-like softness, 
but hardens like gum arabic, with ‘a sugar candy density and 
color, having a rather sweet, gummy, licorice taste. When the 
exudations are sufficiently hardened the cane is cut and laid in 
bundles on blankets, the manna-like food is then easily shaken — 
off. This substance if mixed with water forms a pleasant, nutri- 
tious drink, highly prized by the Indians who call it Pah-gump- 
pea-abbah. 

Honey.—Since the introduction of bees to the Pacific coast the 

` Indians have acquired a taste for honey. The climate being mild | 
_ the bees increase rapidly and many swarms yearly escape to trees — 


606 The Ancient Puéblos. [ September, 


and rocks, thus giving the Indian a chance to obtain the honey. 
Some California Indians have domesticated the wild bees. In 
Southern California the Indians cut down the trees containing 
bees, put them in a sack, carry away the honey to eat and sell the 
bees for one dollar a swarm, the purchaser taking all risks of get- 
ting a queen. ‘Bees in a sack, for sale by an Indian, are surely a 
novel article of trade. 


[ Zo be Concluded. | 


70% 


THE ANCIENT PUÉBLOS, OR THE RUINS OF THE 
VALLEY OF THE RIO SAN JUAN. 


BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 
PART IL. 


MOST peculiar style of architecture prevails in the Monte- 
zuma cafion, in south-eastern Utah, which is entirely dif- 
ferent from anything that occurs elsewhere. For instance, on a 
little island-plateau, rising from the middle of the valley to a 
height of forty feet, are the walls of a considerable edifice. Long 
narrow stones, measuring from four to seven feet in length and a 
foot or so in their other dimensions, have been set up like posts 
in a fence, standing at different distances apart, from two to ten 
feet. Between these the spaces have been filled in after the usual 
style of masonry. Some of the slabs are now standing at an 
inclination of several degrees, having been pushed outward by 
the accumulating dédris inside. These are imbedded in the earth 
only to a depth of a few inches or a foot (See fig. 1, plate v., 
also fig. 1, plate vi). 
Ruths down the cañon a somewhat similar ruin may be seen. 
Along the eastern side of a great parallelogram stand seven of 
_ these upright stones, some of them measuring, above the surface 
of the soil, nine feet. In their general appearance they some- 
what resemble the dolmens or sacred stones of the Eastern Hemi- 
_ sphere, but evidently they had not been used for religious pur- 
ee poses. They had been built in the walls like pillars for the 


‘plate v). 


~ 


of strengthening the original structures (See fig: 2, 


The pinged ie on this as (3), represents a group = 


1878. | The Ancient Puéblos. 607 


PLATE V. 


ali il 


j 


yP 
aq 
E AE a a 


SSS 
RE oe 
ae in SS” 


‘608 The Anctent Puéblos. | | September, 


ancient Puéblo graves, marked off by stones set on edge in the 
earth. 

In one of the side cafions, near an isolated group of mountains, 
in south-eastern Utah, called on the map the Sierra Abajo, some 
diminutive store-houses or caches are perched in the bluffs, 
between the layers of rocks. They are. supposed to have once 
been used for the storage of supplies, as their small size pre- 
cludes all possibility of their ever having been occupied as 
places of abode. They have been made to resemble the sur- 
rounding rock-formation so closely that only the’ sharpest 


eyes can detect them, and then only when in the closest- 


proximity. Nothing can now be discovered in them save the 
mouldering bones and débris of small animals, and in some 
instances traces of fire. If their builders left anything when they 
departed, all such objects have been removed by the vandal 
Indians who still infest the country. 

In passing down the valley of the Rio San Juan, some miles 
below the mouth of Montezuma cañon, a most interesting 
structure may be observed on the south bank of the river. 
This is a long, narrow building, extending around the back, of a 
hemispherical cave, two hundred feet in diameter. The house con- 
sists of a number of rooms arranged around the arc of the semi- 
circumference of the cavern, and the walls in some places still 
attain the height of two stories, which, together, measure about 


twelve feet. Above the masonry, on the sand-stone walls, many _ 


pictures or outlines of human hands had been painted. These 


were accomplished by placing hands against the rock and spat- +. 
tering mud around them. This was evidently done by the labor- 


ers in idle moments as they rested from their work. In one of 
the small compartments, a circular fire-place, two and a half feet 
in diameter, had been cut in the stone floor. In an open space 
separating two of the rooms, four post holes had been drilled in 
the rock, in which, doubtless, the looms of the inhabitants had 
been placed (See fig. 3, plate vi). Many fragments and impres- 
sions of corn-cobs were observed in the mortar, and cedar twigs, 
bent in the form of loops, were still protruding from the external 


: walls, from which, formerly, water-vessels and other utensils | - 


Jide “ American Antiquarian,” Vol. i No, rL- 


small apertures about eighteen inches square, while there were 


The Ancient Puéblos, 609 


PLATE VI. 


n 


“Ny 
Mg, 


g" 


TOTT TTT 
TTA 


yw 
Aua 
iy, iy 


s 
antos, 


ce 
a an oie me 00x 30 feet 
diameter and 40 nt in Seabee 


SONU Leena MNCTATUL BAGEN y yy 


ALG e in 


hneyyanumutmuuensourninamn fh 
gane ininannin n, 


AUN- 


Total leng 


12 feet a 
iameter; 8x12 


a 
L 
i Walls much 

broken down 


alana: 


{ 
Y ANY 
NNI 


FIG. 2. 
RUINS UPON THE 
RIO SANJUAN 


"lez, 


Spon 


È 


158 feet 
MIHE E ITT ve 
Sn F Š 
Ss 


ZIIP) 


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y 


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waaa ead putter 


4 Söin 


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A HA if) ati deg. we rA 
AGN 


WX 


610 | The Anctent Puéblos. [ September, 


no indications of door-ways. The rooms were connected inter- 
nally by openings, but the building was entered from the exterior 
by ladders placed against the walls. We named the place Casa 
del Eco (the house of the echo) from the discovery that words 
spoken below the building, at the-mouth of the cave, were dis- 
tinctly repeated, producing at first a most startling effect. 

Near the Casa del Eco and on the northern bank of the Rio 
San Juan, another important group of buildings was discovered, the 
ground plan of which may be seen in fig. 2, plate vi. The walls had 
entirely disappeared, scarcely one stone standing on another, but 
the plan of the original structure could be readily traced. 

Thus far I have confined my descriptions, with one exception, 
to some of the mouldering ruins which are to be found in the _ 
cafions and cliffs of the zorthern tributaries of the San Juan river. 
To the south of this stream and in the valley drained by it, these 
same remains occur numerously in New Mexico and Arizona. 
‘Along the Rio de Chelly, for instance (an intermittent arroyo 
which penetrates northwardly through Arizona and joins the San 
Juan at the head of its cañon), there are many ancient structures 
which present some novel and striking features in pre-historic | 
architecture. About eight miles from the mouth of the Chelly is _ 
a collection of cliff-buildings. which extends uninterruptedly for a 
distance of nearly six hundred feet along a rock-recess, fifty feet 
above the river-bed. The walls of some of the dwellings are 
still standing ‘¢hree stories high, and one of the houses is so per- 
fectly preserved that its wooden roof, constructed of cedar poles, ` 
still remains intact. This Pucblo de Chelly is the most extensive | 
cliff-settlement yet discovered in this region, and photographs of 

. it could be only obtained in sections. Fig. 3 of plate vii repre- 
sents the southern or eee end of the communal building: 


re 


while photographing the ruins, nearly a hundred beautifully fash-; ; 
ioned arrow-points and several fine specimens of pottery were. 

-~ picked up. Across the channel of the stream, in the open val 
le . 


places of the departed have been marked out in the Pueblo man 
ner by "a songs ME on edge. In some instances the hear. al 
graves have been indicated ee Se tall headstones. 


PLATE VII, 


611 


ž x 
g ; 

RS 

“X 

À 

™ 

x 

X 

S 

S 

N$ SSS h oe RE s g 
RS i , ‘ $ 

a 


Le, 


T eJ” A i 
f MARA 


e 


if 


VOL, XH—NO, IX. 


1878. | 


612 The Ancient Puéblos. [September, 


In the preceding pages of this article I have simply attempted 
to give a general idea of the main features in the ancient Puéblo 
architecture. Many other equally interesting ruins might be 
described, but it is unnecessary to pursue the subject farther at 
present. These ruins are similar to those of the Chaco cañon to 
the south, in New Mexico, which were first brought to light by 
Lieut. Simpson in 1849. In writing of these latter, Mr. W. H. 
Jackson remarks: “In all the ruined puéblos, the most remark- 
able feature was the skill with which the stone walls were built, 
and which has enabled them to withstand, for hundreds of years, 
the ravages of human hands and the slower work of the elements. 
Beginning at the foundation with a width of thirty-two inches, 
each succeeding story was built a little less in thickness, until the 
walls of the fourth floor were about eighteen inches through, 
giving them a pyramidal shape, and of such solidity that in some 
cases, although the floor has been crushed down and the cross 
walls fallen, they yet remain firm and plumb nearly forty feet in 
height. They had three methods of laying the stones: by regu- 
lar sandstone blocks of the size of two bricks, cut and ground 
uniformly; by alternate layers of these blocks with ‘very small 
anG thin pieces of sandstone, generally three courses of the thin 
_ to one of the thick; and last by laying the entire wall of these 
excessively small pieces of thin sandstone. As an example of 
this last kind, I measured off a square yard on the northern wall 
of the Puéblo of Chetho Kette, and counted the number of stones 
forming the surface. There were 450, laid so closely together 
that a knife-blade could not be pushed between, and not 
a particle of mortar of any kind appeared at the surface This 
entire wall was 400 feet long and originally fully forty feet high 
and averaged twenty-four inches thick. Imagine the industry and 
patience of such builders. Every doorway and window was 
_ framed with scrupulous exactness, and it would appear as if the 
plumb and square had been faithfully used in all their work.” 

In reviewing the above stated facts we would naturally be 
_ inclined to doubt the high antiquity of these works of art. But 


od it must be remembered that the conditions were exceedingly 
7 favorable for the indefinite preservation of mural constructions. 


> equability of the atmosphere and the aridity of the soil must 


taken into consideration. It is true that we find among these 
uins traces of timber which, under ordinary circumstances, is 


A 


1878.] The Ancient Puéblos. 613 


exceedingly perishable; but the wood which occurs is generally 
of the most durable sort, such as cedar and artemisia. The 
exsiccating properties of the desert atmosphere would be emi- 
nently conducive to its preservation, and it might remain intact 
for many centuries. On the other hand, we must not lose sight 
of the fact that in the majority of instances the wood-work of 
these structures has entirely disappeared. Only in exceptional 
cases do we find traces of vegetable fibre in the ancient remains. 
This fact alone would be sufficient to prove conclusively the great 
age of the buildings. Ina country where scarcely a drop of rain 
falls from one year’s end to another, and where the temperature 
varies but a few degrees throughout the 365 days, a great length 
of time would be required for the gradual disintegration of the 
most durable woods and particularly of solid rock. Yet there 
existed at one time thousands of stone and adobe structures 
throughout the San Juan valley, which can at present only be 
traced by inconsiderable mounds of dust. It is now generally 
held that the ancient Puéblos were a progressive branch of the 
so-called Mound-builders, forming a connecting link between the 
latter and the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico. 

Frederick von Hellwald; in an article on “ The American Mi- 
gration,” aay 


the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, and then have directed 
their steps through the present States of Louisiana and Texas, 
probably along the edge of the gentle acclivity which, under the 
name of the Sierra Guadalupe, stretches from the Rio Grande to 
the — P towards -the banks of the great Rio Grande 
del Nor 

a There are many indications, moreover, which lead us to be- 
lieve that this was not the only route- by which the northern- 
tribes made their way to the south. A part of them seem to 


projected themselves towards the south-east into Florida, the 
seat of a higher civilization, whence they eventually proceeded 
to Cuba and Yucatan; while- a branch of them traversing _ 
the whole length of Cuba and the great arch of the Carib- — 
_ bean islands, descended finally to the banks of the Oronoco. 
This fraction of the migratory population may, of course, have — 


1 Smithsonian Report, 1866. Translated by C. A. Alexander. 


eo: 


614 The Ancient Puéblos. [ September, 


been small and its impetus inconsiderable, since the necessity of 
maritime transport, though only from island to island, woul 
naturally impair its force. In the opinions of others, and among 
them Humboldt, even the Rocky Mountains in their extension 
northward may have led similar branches of emigrants to adopt 
a different path in their progress towards the south. Whether 
these branches originally issued from the lake regions, though it 
is not impossible, is difficult to determine. They must at any 
rate, in departing from their homes, have taken a directly west 
or at least south-west direction. Although no substantial reasons 
can be assigned why any race of those latitudes should have 
given a preference to the toilsome defiles of the Rocky mountains, 
when the fair and commodious plains and prairies of the south 
lay before them, yet too many points of apparent connection pre- 
sent themselves to admit of our consigning their adoption of 
such a route to the category of impossibilities. 

“Tt is from the Rio Gila that we are first enabled to perceive 
definite traces of the course of the migration into the regions of 
the south; the indications of the different stages of its progress 
increase with its entrance upon Mexican territory, but we yet 
possess only sparingly the means of identification. The first 
immigrants who appeared in the north of Mexico brought with 
them the so-called Toltecatl civilization, the work of the races of 
ane great Nahoa family. F ~ 7 F 

“If we admit that the age of the civilization indicated in the 
region of the Mississippi reaches back 2,000 years, it is not im- 
possible that the Nahoas were also the builders of the earth- 
mounds in North America, or at least belonged to the race from 
which these works proceeded. As regards the stone structures 
of the great casas of El Zape and La Quemada, we cannot but 1n- 
fer that their builders must have been long permanently settled in 
those districts, which accords much better with later researches 
than the assumption of many that the immigrating tribes had 
merely halted in the places for a few years, perhaps a quarter of a 
century, and in that time had erected these monuments.” 

_ A. Marlot observes, in his “ General Views on Archeology,” “Itis 


finally worthy of remark that the ‘mound-builders,’ as the 


mericans call the race of the copper-age, seem to have preceded 
and prepared the Mexican civilization, destroyed by the Span- 
iards; for in progressing southwards, a gradual transition 1s 
noticed from the ancient earthworks of the Mississippi valley to 
the more modern constructions of Mexico, as found by Cortez. 
(Translated by Philip Harry, Esq., for the Smithsonian Report 


_ for 1860.) 


In concluding the subject, I wish to extend my thanks to Prof. 


= F. V. Hayden, through whose courtesy the illustrations for these 


c papers have been furnished, © 


1878. | An Interesting Case of Natural Selection. 615 
AN INTERESTING CASE OF NATURAL SELECTION. 
SAMUEL F. CLARKE. 


N the early part of last spring I obtained a large number of 
the gelatinous egg-masses of one of our native salamanders or 
newts (probably Amédlystoma opacum). They had been deposited 
in a small pond of clear water, in the edge of a wood just out- 
side the city. 

These egg-masses, or bunches of eggs, vary greatly in size, the 
smallest being no larger than an English walnut and containing only 
from five to eight eggs, while the largest bunches are from six to 
eight inches long, more or less oval in shape, and contain from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred eggs. The bunches are usually 
attached to some water-plant or to an overhanging blade of grass, 
and the gelatinous matter is so translucent that the dark, opaque 
eggs may readily be seen through it. Each egg is surrounded 
by two membranes, between which there is quite a space; and as 
this space, as well as that within the inner membrane, is filled with 
fluid, an admirable arrangement is thus secured for protect- ` 
ing the embryos from any injury to which they might be exposed 
by coming in contact with any hard, unyielding body. 

The eggs were kept in large glass jars and developed quite 
rapidly, the rate of growth seeming to depend upon the purity 
and temperature of the water. After their gills and balancers 
were developed, they emerged from the eggs and began their 
active life in the water. And now I found trouble in keeping them, 
for I was unable to find what they wanted for food. I tried vari- 
ous things but did not succeed in pleasing them. Upon watch- 
ing them closely I soon found that they had developed cannaba- 
listic tendencies and were eating off one another’s gills. _ This led 
me to study their movements still more closely, when I soon dis- 
covered that among the many there were a few, who although 
they came from the same parents and were subjected to the same 
conditions while in the egg, were yet gifted with greater vigor and 
energy than most of their brothers and sisters or cousins. These 
few stronger ones eat off the gills of many of the weaker ones 
and at the same time were enabled to protect their own from mu- _ 
tilation or destruction. 

These favorable conditions, the large supply of food and the © 
_ better aeration of the blood, soon began to show their influence _ 

~ Upon the growth of the individuals thus favored. Within a week 


616 Recent Literature. [ September, 


or ten days from the escape from the egg, these favored few were 
fifty per cent. larger than their weaker comrades who were born 
upon the same day. Their mouths had by this time increased so 
much in size that they were no longer satisfied with nibbling off 
the gills of their brethren, but now began to swallow them bodily. 
This great increase in the supply of food soon produced a marked 
effect upon those who were-thus supplied; so that in ten days 
from the time that they began to feed in this way they were from 
ten to twelve times the length and bulk of those upon whom they 
were feeding. Developing at this rapid rate; they arrived at the 
stage when the gills are re-sorbed and the abranchiate form leaves 
the water for the marshy land or old, damp log, where it usually 
. makes its home and where it would find a supply of more natural 
food-material. 

Here then was a very interesting case of natural selection, by 
survival of the fittest. All the weaker individuals being destroyed 
and actually aiding the stronger ones by serving them as food 
until they could pass through their changes and escape to other 
-regions where food was more abundant. 

cH 

RECENT LITERATURE. 

-FLOGEL ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN IN DIFFERENT OR- 
DERS OF InsEcts.—The Supplementary Heft for May 28th of 
Siebold and Kolliker’s Zeitschrift fiir Wissenschaftliche Zoologie 
-= contains an elaborate article by J. H. L. Flogel, illustrated by a 
number of micro-photographs. This and Dietl’s excellent paper, 
published in 1876, are the only treatises on the minute structure 
of the brain of insects, Owskianikof having studied that of the 
spiny lobster (Palinurus) several years ago, while Dietl studied 
the brain of Astacus. Flogel establishes three points as the re- 


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1878. | Recent Literature. 617 


we, on the other hand, are acquainted with the finer structure of 
the organs of hearing in the Orthoptera, and know that they have 
no such constituted brain-centres as the olfactory lobes 

Thirdly, Flogel draws attention to the wonderful and so little 
understood facts that in insects, where the lobes (“ bechers ” of 
Flogel, “lappen,” “ gestielte > körper,” etc., of Dietl) and the sub- 
stance around it (gerüst) constitute the greater part of the brain, 
there is indeed no connection of the nerve-fibres to be found with 
the remaining parts of the brain, and consequently also with the 
cesophageal commissures. The opinion that the ganglionic cells 
are in direct relation through fibres with the organs of the body 
is provisionally unfortuné itely contradicted. But where are the 
intermediate stations? he asks, 

Finally, the author claims that the essay indicates the outlidas 
of a future brain- -topography for insects, and shows that the single 
parts of the brain have their homologues in the different orders ° 
of insects ; consequently a ground- plan i in the organization is not 
to be mistaken, and thus a comparative anatomy of the brain of 
insects is outlined comparable with that of the vertebrates, as 
established by the researches of Stieda. 

Barrotis’ EMBRYOLOGY or Bryozoa.A—The author of this elab- 
orate and beautifully illustrated memoir is well-known for his able 
and thorough work on the development of the sponges and 
nemertean worms. A large number of typical forms of Polyzoa 
or Bryozoa, as the German and French call them, have been 
studied, and the different stages figured, including the genera 
Loxosoma, Pedicellina, and several genera of higher marine 
orms. We will give the general results of our author’s work 
condensed from the résumé général. A study of the different 
groups of E pa a MAR and i e PUP eters Polyzoa, shows that 
their development present s the same phenomena, characterized 
by the great regularity of the segmentation (orula) and giving 
rise to a dlastu/a, in which the advanced morula is composed of 
two distinct halves (oral and aboral) separated by a crown of cilia. 
Then the gastrula Far FIG. 2 
state is assumed and 
afterwards the me 
soderm arises. 
the moment otbirth, 
he embryo always 
withdraws the ab- 
oral end within the 
crown and thus as- 


aspect, but it can Fic. 1.—Blastula of eee at we Fic. 2.— 

undergo this > Gastrula ot ieee ame ; veginn € 

cess much more rapidly, previous to the appearance of the fur- 
1 Recherches su oe -yologie des Bryozoaires. Par J. BARROIS, Lille, 1877. 

4°, pp. 305, with 16 plat 


618 : Recent Literature. | September, 


row, so that we are led to distinguish in certain types, the pres- 
ence a little after the gastrula stage of a stage with an aboral mass 
and extended or widened face separated one from the other by 
the furrow (Fig. 3, sd). Hence he distinguishes two fundamental 
orms; that which presents in the em- 
bryos the division into an aboral and 


Escharine or sessile form. Barrois con- 
siders that the latter is the original 


‘to the closure of the blastoderm in Clepsine and in Euaxes. The 

Ectoprocts pass during the period of their development through an 
Entoproctous condition in which the part which represents the 
intratentacular space or basilar plate, which separates the digestive 
cavity from the cavity of the sheath, contains the two openings 
of the digestive tube, and is completely encircled by the tentacles. 

Barrois thinks, contrary to Allman, that it is much more 
‘ natural to consider the Ectoprocta as organisms throughout com- 
parable to Entoprocta, but in which the anus curves within the 
tentacular crown, as he had shown to be the case at the time 
when the tentacles bud out; and it is very improbable that the 
transitory state in which the crown is interrupted on the anal side 
is the point of departure of the formation of the lophopore; we 
shall thus have a general phylogeny of the class of Polyzoa, 
based on the evolution of the tentacular crown, and disposed as 
follows: Entoproctes—Lophopodes—Gymnolemes. 

He considers that all the different larval forms of Polyzoa may be 
reduced to a single type composed of a gastrula with two opposite 
faces or ends separated by the crown, one (aboral) bearing in its 
centre the buccal opening, and capable of being covered so as to 
form the vestibule; all the larva possess a median muscular or 
fatty layer (#7), which is generally composed of a portion formed by 
the oral face (labial mesoderm) and of a portion dependent from 
the aboral face ; this last is more constant, more voluminous, and 
constitutes the essential portion of the mesoderm; it is derived 
in most cases from a simple delamination of the exoderm, but 
in the Entoproctes, the intestine appears also to take part in its 
formation ; it is even possible in Pedicellina that it is derived from 
a fold at the end of the intestine, and that we may find in the 
Polyzoa some traces of an enteroccele. 

_ From this primitive type, already very complex, the larve of 
the Entoproctes are derived by a differentiation of the mesodermic 


` 1 In all the figures o indicates the mouth; sé and si, the furrow; c, the crown of 


= Cilia, má, aboral mesoderm ; c, ciliated crown ; est, stomach, 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 619 


masses, which place themselves in relation with the skin at three 
different points to form the three tactile organs. The larve of 
the Cyclostomes are formed 
by an extension of the crown 
in the form of a mouth on 
the aboral face, and finally 
the larvæ of the Chilostomes 


aboral face into two parts, 
the cupping glass-like part 
(ventouse) and. lower part, 
resulting from the with- F 
drawal of this same face. larva. 
Our author then compares the larval form of Polyzoa hie 
those of the Rotifera, and compares their ciliary crown with t 
rotary organ of Rotifers, the thoracic segment of Backo 
larvæ and the cil- 


.4.— Third derived form of Chilostome 


— 


sphere of mol- 
luscs andworms, 
and find a strong 
similarity be- 
tween them. He 
accepts the Tro- 
chosphere-forms 
of Rotifers, Poly- 
ZOa. radhio 
podes, Molluscs 
and Annelids, and thinks that there are 

Fic. 5—A Rotifer. essentially two forms, the first giving rise to 
the Polyzoa, the second to the Brachiopods, Molluscs and An- 
nelids; the first group having the ciliary crown placed below 
the mouth, and the second and last having the crown of cilia 
placed above the 
mouth. He is of 


the opinion that 


Fic. 6.—Annelid larva 


lic. 7.—Polyzoan larva. the 
semblance of the Fic. 8.—Branchiopod larva. 
larve of the entoproctous Polyzoa to the Rotifers he concludes 


620 Recent Literature. [ September, 


that they have the most intimate relation with the latter. After 
swimming about as ciliated larve, the shell or ectocyst develops 
and the larva becoming stationary, soon assumes the mature 
Polyzoan condition. 

The description of the metamorphosis and mode of budding 
of the polypite in the different forms is fully detailed and illus- 
trated by beautiful figures. As seen 
in Phalangella flabellans (Cyclo- 
stomes) the larva, after becoming 
fixed to some object, consists of a 
white pyriform mass, closely envel- 
oped by an ectocyst, with numerous 
fat globules between ‘the latter and 
the white mass. The ectocyst swells 
into a discoidal sac, with endocyst, 
ectocyst, and an external anhistic 
zone, while the internal whitish mass 
transforms into the polypide. The 

Hic. 9—Molluscan larva. discoidal sac formed by the endocyst 
constitutes simply the basal disc of the primitive cell. The future 
opening of the cell appears on the upper surface of the cell. The 
budding out of the secondary cells of the polyzoarium is then 
described. It begins by the appearance of a cell placed in front 
and below the primitive cell, and which borders it on each side ; 
its secondary cell then divides into two, each 
of which gives successively origin to three cells, 
and we thus arrive at an Idmonea stage, and 
finally the Phalangella stage is reached, the pro- 
cess being a dichotomous mode of budding quite 
analogous to that which produces the cormus, 
spread out in plates, of Escharina. : 

The development of Membranipora pilosa 1S 
given with much detail. The larva of this spe- 
a ies: cies is provided with a bivalve shell, so that it 
levis, primitive cell was by Semper and Claparède considered as 4 
SOT a ae Lamellibranchiate larva, but was proved to be 
poupide feet a young Polyzoan by Schneider, in 1869. Bar- 
spines; o/, opening rois finds it impossible to compare the shell of 
of the cell. this larva to that of the Lamellibranchiates, and 
considers its metamorphosis as like that of other Chilostomes. 

The work must be considered as the most important general 
treatise on the development of Polyzoa in existence, that of 
Nitsche being less complete, though of a high order of excellence. 


FRAZER'S REPORTS OF PROGRESS IN THE DISTRICT OF LORE 
ADAMS, CUMBERLAND AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA. — 
Reports C of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, and 

* Second a Survey of Pennsylvania. Published by the Board of Com- 


$ = 


missioners. J. B. Pearce, Secretary; J. P. Lesley, State Geologist. 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 621 


CC, CCC, etc., relate to the counties lying in the south-east angle 
of the State, which have been assigned to Prof. Frazer. 

Report C, 1874, is devoted to a study ia York eis Adams 
counties, but more particularly the form ages 0 77 
describe 126 ore banks, both new and old (at that date), and 
their correct location on the general map renders apparent for the 
first time a law governing their position in definite horizons. 
Pages 78 to 87 describe Section 1. The description differs from 
the same section as given by Rogers in some important particu- 
lars. In it the first reliable measurement of the perpendicular 
thickness of the “ Auroral” limestone, made during the survey, 
finds place. Prof. Rogers took the clearly marked planes of fine 
lamination for cleavage and occasional joints of low angle for that 
of fine bedding; by which means he reduced the total thickness 
of the measures very muc n the synclinal, whose axis lies 
very near the Wrightsville—Columbia bridges, the thickness 
appears as 2800 feet + 

It may be rem arked, as a new feature in delineation, that the 
symbols characterizing the different strata are continued for about 
3000 feet above the line of ocean level as well as below it, the 
present surface being indicated by a profile. This permits a more 
comprehensive view of the differences between penanam, empha- 
sizes faults, and hints at the possible amount of e 

Section No. 2, across the mesozoic beds, is P atecaation as 
exhibiting an anticlinal on their southern margin. On pp. 104- 
114 some chemical and structural differences are shown a raisin 
among the limestones united under the name of Auroral. Later 
we have an interesting chemical and anes analysis of the 
dolerytes of Adams county, in which they are shown to differ 
from those of Connecticut, in having two Bok Labradorite and 
one of Pyroxene. 

Prof. fesser's view of the origin of the limonites is favorable 
to their derivation, in the main, es the pyrite and carbonate of 
_ iron among the hydro- mica schis 

eport CC continues the SRE of the survey of York and 
dams counties with part of that of Franklin. The important 
magnetic ore of Dillsburg is described, and some striking illus- 
trations of the manner in whic ch the ore and rp occur in these 


a geometrical method, as poai to their structure, he reaches the 
conclusion that the measures of the New Red have not been dis- | 
turbed by uplifts, as has generally been assumed. 

horough explorations of limited areas, such as are described 
in the present reports, furnish the most exact knowiedge irene = 


622 - Recent Literature. [ September, 


for scientific generalization as well as for economic statistics. 
From both points of view the volumes before us justify the wis- 
dom of the creation and support of the Second Geological Sur- 
vey of Pennsylvania. ; 


FOURTEEN WEEKS IN ZoöLocy, BY J. DormMAN STEELE.—The 
following facts in Natural History, which will be new to most 
readers of the NATURALIST are taken from Steele’s “ Fourteen 

eeks in Zodlogy,’!a work by a “born school-book writer,” 
lately published to “ meet the popular demand” for instruction in 
Zoology. 

“ Lophiide (crested)—The Fishing frog has the ventral fins 
forward of the pectoral. The latter serve as legs and enable it to 
hop about upon the beach. Upon the head are three spines—the 
first, with a shiny membrane at the tip, fastened by a ring-and-staple 
joint and able to move in every direction; the other two turning 
‘only backward and forward. The sluggish creature lies in the 
mud at the bottom of the water, and waving the first spine, . 
attracts the curious fishes with this glistening bait; but, as they 
nibble, the rear spines knock them into its capacious mouth ” 


p. 190). 

“ Percide (dusky)—Ferch are found both in salt and fresh 
water. Their operculum is so constructed that they can be kept 
alive in the air for hours by occasionally pouring water upon 
their gills” (p. 191). ; 

“ Siluride—The Cat-fish, or Horned pout, has a naked skin, 
and the mouth surrounded by tentacles” (p. 195). , 

“The Hydrozoa (water-dragon animals) or Jelly fishes, have no 
mesenteric spaces, and the eggs are developed on the external in- 
stead of the internal surface of the body wall. Interspersing the 
tentacles and other parts of the -body are cells containing long, 
spirally-coiled threads, barbed and serrated, which dart forth with 
inconceivable velocity to lasso their prey. * * * Mere trans- 
parent masses of jelly and only visible because of their brilliant 
colors, they move through the water rapidly and lasso their prey 
with great precision” (p. 271). And so on wherever one opens 
the book. 

It seems to me, that we who believe in the study of nature as a 
“means of grace,” ought to protest earnestly against such bur- 
lesques on science as this work and its companions. “I told them 
that I was not the man for such work, and I told them, too, that 
the less of such work that is done the better. It is not school- 
=- books we want, but students. The book of nature is always 
open, and all I can do or say shall be to make them study that 
_ book and not to pin their faith to any other ” (Acassiz).—D. ST 

| Fourteen Weeks in Zoölogy. By J. DORMAN STEELE, Ph. D., F. G. S., author of 

the Fourteen Weeks Series in Natural Science. A. S. Barnes & Co. New York, 
go and New Orleans, 1877. __ ; 


© 


1878. | Recent Literature. 623 


RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS.—Les Enchainements du Monde Animal =- 
se temps geologiques, geek One ot bed Albert Gaudry, Prof. de Paleo 
oy? 


u Mus. d’ Hist. Natu ear = Paris. Avec 312 gravures dans le texte. 8vo, 
Past 1878. From the author. 

Se to Paleontology, N y S. A. Miller and C. B. Dyer. 8vo, 
pp. 11, pls. 3and 4. Cincinnati, fiy A 1398 From the authors 

The Sixth Annual 1 Repor of the Board a Directors of the Zoölogical Society of 
Philadelphia. 8vo, 28. From the society. 


A Catalogue of e Flowering Plants and Higher Cryptogams growing without 
cultivation within thirty miles of be le College. Published by the Berzelius Society. 
8vo, pp. 71, and map. New Haven, 1878. i 

tic Development of on Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior. By 
Raphael faites (Abstract from the Proc. Am. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 
xiii.) 253-309. 

Rep Ra Me State Commissioners of Fisheries for the year 1877. 8vo, pp. 38. 

Habba i 8. 
The Columella and Stapes in some North American Turtles. Bý Sarah P. Monks. 
(hood. before the Am. Philos. Soc., March 1, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 335-337, pls. 16 and 
m the antl oress 
On the Respirat Bot: Amia. By Burt G. Wilder, of Ithaca, N. Y. (Proc. Am. 
< ASSOC:, ae ille. pions 1877.) 8vo, pp. 306-313. From the author. 
Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento de la República Mexicana. cessed a 
ilesi Repo ort.) Folio, pp. 2. Mexico, 1878. From M. Bárcena, Direct 

Mexican Contributions to the Bulletin of International PEE S prU 
tions, talen simultaneously on March, 1878. Mexico. Fro . Bárcena, Director 

A further Se to the knowledge = ie existing Suna ‘While, pew 
Mesoplodon. By William Henry Flower, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. (From the "Tra 
. Society, Vol, ee Phe ix, 1878.) 4to, pp. 416-437, pls. lxxi-lxxiii. Londen. 
1878. Tae the au 

Bibliography of see American Invertebrate Palontol ogy; being a ae upon 
the publications that have hitherto been made upon t re invertebrate paleontology of 

orth America, including the West Indies and Greenland. By C. A. White, M. D., 
and H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., DS c. (Miscel. Publications No. 1 oU 
Surv. of Territories.) 8vo, pp. 132. Washington, 1878. From the ‘Desert ‘of the 
Interior 

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territo- 
ries, Vol. iv, No. 3. 8vo, pp. 544-745. Washington, 1878. From F. V. Hayden 
LE ae 5 Geologist. 

New Specimen from the gan lime gropi at. alg oe N. Y. By A. R. Grote and 


WR. Pitt, of arias N.Y. (PG A , Nashville, Aor 1877.) 8vo, 
300-3 m the a 
Notice By the D iscovery of the position of the Crural Processes in the genus 
Atrypa. William a (Rea before Am. Phil os. Soc., March 1, 1878. om 
Pp- "387-338, and plate 14. From the author, 


n the Annual Deposit of the Missouri river ea ring the Post-pliocene, By J. E. 
Toad, of sieaas a. (Proc. Am. Ass., Nashville, August, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 287- 
gri Fro saa 


escriptive Tikiló ogue of Photographs of North American Indians. By W. H 
Jackson, Photographer of the Surv er ps Miscel. Baa, No. 9, U. S. Gesiog’ 
of 


e Semion) 8vo, pp. i-iv, 124. ashington, 1877. From. F. V 
Baie, U. S. Geologist 
Preliminary naan rt of the Field bia of the U. S. Geological and Geographical 
sog of me Bole sug be or the Season of 1877. 8vo, pp. 35. Washington, 1877. 
From F, V. n, Geologist- do Chigi, 
Repot of Fe aE and nan, scape fe of the a Mountain Re- 
gion. By J. W. Powell. 8vo, pp. 19, with map. m the auth 


Preliminary Report on the aaae of the ere ‘Hills, “i PR. £ Whitfield, 


r 


624 General Notes. [September, - 


Containing descriptions of new species of fossils from the Potsdam, Jurassic and 
oe ages IE of the Black Hills of Dakota. 8vo, pp. 49. Washington, 1877. 
ey well. 

ae iach au Mémoire sur les Phénomènes de la Digestion chez les 
thcsctes ibli en 1874). Par Felix Plateau, Bruxelles, 1877. 8vo, pp. 25. From 
the author. 

Recherches sur la Structure de Appareil Digestif et sur les Phénomènes de la 
Digestion chez les Araneides Dipara Par Felix Plateau, Bruxelles, 1877. 
8yo, pp. 136, 3 pe From the author 

PS aloes des Insectes, Peut- it étre mis en Défaut par des Fleurs Artificielles ? 

y M. Felix Plateau, Date 1876. 8vo, pp. 6. 

Association pae T a des Sciences, Congrès de Clermont— 
Terrand. Séance du 21 Août, 1876. 

‘Geo paria Sar rvey of Canada. Report of Progress for 1876-77. Alfred R. Sel- 

n, Director. Montreal, 1878. 8vo, pp. 515. Maps and illustrations. From the 
iatbor: 

Notes on or forint res ge ner in the Museum of the Peabody Academy 
of Science, Sal Mass. By J. S. Kingsley. (From the Proc. of ip Academy 
of ai ral ae of Philadelphia.) Ae pp. 19. From the autho 
: mological Notes. VI. By S. H. Scudder. Sig the BRS of the 
pace Society of Natural History, Vol. xix, 1877-78.) 8vo, pp. 51, 1 plate. 

Smithsonian Pha mot ons to eee On the Remains of Later Pre 
Historic Man, obtained tide caves in the Catherina Archipelago, Alaska Territory, 
path especially rs the caves a the Alsolia Islands. By W. H. Dall Washing- 

8 0, I 
n Distomum crassicolle Ru a. ; with brief notes on Huxley’s proposed Classifi- 


ened of Worms. (Memoirs read before the Bonon. cow ety of Natural History, 
February 21, 1877. ) By Charles ŝa o 4to, pp. I plat 
On the Respirati ion of A t G. Wilder. “(iro he Proceedings of 


» American Association ay Pes Aan of Science, Nashville Meeting, 
August, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 8. 
er the Annual i of the Missouri river, during the Post-Pliocene. By J. E. 
m the eedings of the American Association for the Advancement 
of § Sae, Vol. xxvi, pes st, 1877.) 8vo, pp. 5. 
Jahres-Berichtdes Naturhistorischen Vereins von Wisconsin für das Jahr, 1877- 
78. Milwaukee, 1877. 8vo, pp. 17. 
no Thierleben. Ba ad 4, Heft 1-3. Band ro, Heft 11. New York, B. 
Westermann & Co. 8vo, 40 cents a Heft. 
Wolica of the Discovery of the position of the Crural Processes in the genus 
trypa. By William Gurley. (Read before the American Philosophical Society, 
March, 1878). 8vo, pp. 2, 1 plate. 
Cotton and the Principal Insects. etc., frequenting or injuring the Plant in the 
_ United States. Written and etched by Townend Glover. Washington, 1878. 
_ pp- 21, 22 plates 


= 


Gain Y YE hiia a 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 
ERNS, IN THEIR Homes AND Ours.!—We have often deplored 


a in in thei oe and Ours, By John. Robinson. Salem, S. E, Cassino. 


1878. j Botany. 625 


tent men. Mr. John Robinson, long and very favorably known 
in New England as an amateur cultivator of ferns, an enthusiastic 
collector, and a pleasing teacher, has initiated a series which ma 
supply the needed want. In the narrow limits of small pages and 
in an easy style, the author has brought before the reader a fund 
of information respecting ferns and their habits. There is little 
to criticise in the creditable accomplishment of this praiseworthy 
task. The volume is a timely contribution to a neglected portion 
of the field. Of late, we have been much favored by new books 
on Ferns: Prof. Eaton’s Ferns of North America, Mr. William- 
son’s Ferns of Kentucky, Mr. Meehan’s Native Flowers and 
Ferns, are all heartily welcomed. They admirably fill their several 
places, but are not one whit encroached upon by Mr. Robinson’s 
rns. His work, in a manner, supplements all the rest.— 
G. 


A TREE witH Two Stumps.—This would be nothing remark- 
able in the home of the banyan and mangrove, but in higher 
latitudes and especially in the dryer regions of the Mississippi 
valley it is strange enough to interest all observers. 

Near Tabor, ‘Fremont Co., Iowa, on the farm of Mr. John 
Rhodes, there ‘stands a Basswood: (Tilia americana), presenting 
the anomalous form of a vigorous trunk seventy-five feet high 
rising from two perfectly distinct stumps, about ten feet apart. 

The stumps are of nearly equal size, and are narrower seen 
from the north-east. About six feet from the ground the cross 
section is fifteen by eighteen inches. The centers of the stumps 
are about ten feet apart at the surface of the ground. The 
timber has been cleared from around the tree so that it has 
attracted more attention recently, but Mr. Rhodes informs the 
writer that when he came into the country twenty-five years ago, 
the features of this tree were the same as at present, except that 
the whole was smaller. The upright stem was then only four’ or 
five inches in diameter. Two smaller trees connected with it have 
been cut down. 

w may this strange growth be explained? The idea that it 
may have resulted from a seed sprouting upon a large log and send- 
ing roots down on both sides is forbidden by the height and breadth 
of the arched base. Logs of such size are not “known in this 
country. It could not have been produced by any washing away 
of the soil, for it is on a nearly even and uniformly sloping hillside. 
The idea of its being formed by the growing together of two 
trees is extremely improbable, considering the angle at which the 


stumps un ye There seems but one other supposition possible, 


viz: that a young tree was in some way bent over till its top was 
rooted in the earth, while one of its branches embodied the 
upward vigor of the tree. This theory is strengthened by the 


fact that the eastern stump sends out more prominent roots, Loss 


Mase 


626 General Notes. [ September, 


appears at the surface of the ground, also by the leaning of the 
lower part of the trunk toward the west. 

What caused such a planting of the top of a tree in the ground 
can only be conjectured. It was done before any white man’s 
axe felled a tree to crush it down. Perhaps some early trapper 
bent it down fora night’s shelter, but more probably the wind 
overthrew the tree, which forced the young bass-wood to the 
ground and held it there. This case shows, as is not often seen, 
how the functions of the stem may be completely reversed, as in 
the western half of this arched base. It is the more interesting 
in every respect, because it is probably the work of natural forces 
unaided by man.— F. E. Todd, Tabor College, May 2, 1878. 


Boranicat News.—Messrs. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., 
have issued Professor Gray’s Synoptical Flora of North America. 
Vol. II. Part I. Gamopetale after Composite. It forms the first 
installment of the long expected continuation of Torrey & Gray's 
“ Flora of North America.’”——Two parts have appeared of Mee- 
han’s “ The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States,” the 
plates printed in colors by Prang & Co., Boston, from designs by A. 
Lunzer. The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for June, 
contains notes on Vitis by Dr. Engelman ; on Botrychium simplex 
in Massachusetts, by G. E. Davenport ; Mr. Britton contributes a 
table of observations on the appearance of the leaves of shrubs 
and trees on Staten Island. A notice of Williamson’s Ferns of 
Kentucky, speaks favorably of it as a convenient and excellent 
work.—tThe Botanical Gazette for June contains notes on the 
vitality of the seeds of Datura tatula, by T. C. Porter; on the 
plants of Indian Territory, by A. Wood; on polygamous flowers 
in Populus, by G. E. Davenport; on the distribution of certain 
plants in Missouri, by G. C. Broadhead (concluded in July num- 
ber); and on Monotropa uniflora, by R. E. Kunze. The July 
number prints a letter from A. Fendler, on the, botany of the 
Island of Trinidad. Mr. G. J. Lemmon contributes an amusing 
article on honorary names in scientific nomenclature. The same 
number contains advance descriptions of two new species of Bap- 
tisia, B. calycosa Canby, from St. Augustine, Fla., and Z. sulphurea 
Engelmann, apparently from Missouri. The August number 
contains a list of the plants of Indian Territory, by G. D. But- 
ler. mong the articles in Trimen’s Journal of Botany is a 
new key to the genera of Amaryllidaceze, by J. G. Baker. An 
Arabis and a large Cincus were found growing, by F. V. Dick- 
ens, among the cinders almost at the summit of the volcano 
of Fusi in Japan, which is 12-13000 high. The number of 
= visits paid during the year 1877, to the herbarium of the Brit- 

-ish Museum for scientific inquiry or research was 1297. Caruel’s 
Vegetable Morphology is noticed as being fresh and original, 
with figures mostly original. At a meeting of the Linnxan 


1878. | Zoology. 627 


ociety, April 4th, a paper was read by M. C. Cooke, on a 
aes of fungi, from Texas, collected by Mr. Ravenel some 
years ago; the series was small. Grevillea for June contains 
Ravenel’s American Fungi, including, the species issued in the first 
and second centuries of Ravenel’s “ American Fungi,” with other 


distribution. Two elaborate monographs on the vine disease; one, 
published in Italy, by Pirotta, and the other in Austria, by Baron 
Thalmen, are noticed critically. A valuable article on the salmon 
disease, due to Saprolegnia ferax, which is common on the gold- 
fish, in aquaria, by W. G. Smith, is reprinted from the Gardener’s 
i The last (20th) volume of Memoirs of the Société 
National des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg, only lately re- 
ceived, contains a life of the eminent botanist, Thuret, by Dr. E. 
Bornet, with researches on the development of buds in the 
Equisetaceze or horse-tails, by E. de Janczewski, while the same 
author contributes notes on the development of the cystocarpe in 
the Floridez, a contribution to the study of the mode of fecunda- 
tion of the alge. An essay of one hundred pages, on the indus- 
trial plants of Oceania, by Mr. H. Jouan. possesses a good deal of 
practical interest. 


ZOOLOGY.? 
NOTES on A New JERSEY CARPENTER-BEE.—A species of car- 
penter-bee (Xylocopa virginica) is very abundant in southern New 
ersey, gnawing its tunnels most often in rails or fences, but 
frequently in parts of houses, so that it sometimes becomes a 
nuisance. As many as fifteen holes I once counted in a single 
rail, but these were the accumulation of years. The main part of 
the tunnel runs lengthwise with the grain. There are usually two, 
but sometimes three, branch tunnels, having a common. opening. 
have often wondered how the insect, when fully developed, 
escapes from the nest in which it has’ undergone its transforma- 
tions. Since the egg first laid is in the bottom cell, if the insect 
from this egg develops soonest it would have to gnaw its way 
out through the wood (as Reaumur states is the case with the 
*rench species X. violacea), or, scramble through the tunnel to 
the opening, to the dismay perhaps of the other bees. On 
examining a nest in Tae 1877, containing five bees, fully 
formed, I found that the bee nearest the o pening was o 
darkest color—there being a regular gradation in color from this 
bee to the lightest colored one at the termination of the tunnel. 
I also noticed that the bees were in a similar. position, bacl 
upwards and head toward the opening, and, although the partitions 
were destroyed, the raspings composing them lying on the lower 
side of the horizontal tunnel, the bees did not appear to have 
`- moved out of their original cell limits. : 
iThe oe of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLiorr 


Cougs, U 


VOL. X1I.—NO, IX. 3 


628 General Notes. [ September, 

According to Reaumur, Xylocopa violacea so constructs its tunnel 
that the terminal cell ends very near the surface of the wood. 
This makes escape easy; but no such provision exists in any 
specimens of nests of Xylocopa virginica that I have examined, 
and I have never seen but a single opening in nests from which the 
bees had escaped. rom the preceding facts it would appear 
probable that the insects escape from the original and only open- 
ing of the nest, and in order of position. I notice that there is a 
gradation in the length of the cells—the terminal or bottom cell 
being the shortest. The greatest number of bees I ever found in 
a nest was eleven. Woodpeckers seem to prey to some extent 
on the larva, or pup, as would appear from certain conical- 
jagged holes opening into successive cells. A specimen of such 
a nest may be seen in the Entomological Laboratory of Cornell 
University.—fenry Turner. 


Tue Skunk EATEN BY THE Lynx.—Observing in a late number 
of the NATURALIST, the note “Food of the Skunk,” reminds me 
that I have lately seen that the skunk is itself food for at least one 
animal. Dissecting a wild cat (Lyx rufus) two days since, I found 
bunches of woolly hair in the intestine. These had no perceptible 
odor. Upon opening the gullet, however, near the stomach I found 
aroll of skin and hair which at once announced its proper belong- 
ings by a stifling wave of the peculiar mephitic stench of the 
skunk. I did not. look further, but contented myself with the 
reflection de gustibus, etc. 

The lynx is said to feed upon rabbits, rats, squirrels and upon 
such birds as roost or breed on the ground, varying its diet from 
time to time with fish and frogs. The unusually mild winter - 
through which we have passed and the absence of snow forbids 
the idea that hunger drove it to partake of skunk—besides which 
the lynx was very fat. The bunches of hair in the intestine may 
have been the remnants of some previous meal, or they may have 
been of the skunk but deodorized by bile. Perhaps- strong alkal- 
ies may be found to destroy the odor of this stinking beast’s secre- 
tion—B. W. Barton, M.D., 117 W. Madison Street, Baltimore, Ma. 


__ has been recently revived in some of the English scientific jour- 
nals, and still more lately Miss S. P. Monks has made the same 


the structure of the intestines indicates, vegetable feeders, but 
priate any organic matter in a state of maceration. 


servation at Cold Spring, New York. Tadpoles are primarily, — 4 


1878. } | Anthropology. 629 


ANTHROPOLOGY.! 

ANCIENT OLLA MANUFACTORY on SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, CAL. 
—During my explorations along the Pacific coast I pai d much 
attention to the discovery of the workshops of one of the most 
beautiful articles of true aboriginal workmanship. It is the o//a, 
a cooking vessel made of a species of steatite, the pot stone, or 
lapis ollaris of old, of which Theophrastus and Pliny speak as a 
material used for the manufacture of vessels among the ancient 
eastern nations. My observations and notes, which I made while 
working on the mainland, pointed to the islands in the Santa 
Barbara channel as the locality i in which the manufacture was 
carried on. I expressed the opinion in my report to the Smith- 
sonian Institution (Hayden’s Bulletin, Vol. iii, p. 50) that the site 
must be looked for on Santa Catalina islan During my last 
year’s visit to that island, on behalf of the Peabody Museum, I 
discovered the first quarries’ in the locality eee Pots valley. 
The pits and quarries revealed the busy hand of the aborigines, 
among the débris, and in the partly-covered nie where cooking 
vessels were found in all stages of finish, from the boulder but 
partly worked out from the rock and still firmly attached to it, 
the globular form Ae ce rounded, the boulder in which the 
excavation has already en commenced, and so on to the 
smoothly finished pot. All the implements with which the task 
was accomplished were also found, and by observing progress 
_ of the work in the many specimens discovered, it was not diffi- 
cult to ascertain the mode of manufacture, the aek of which I 
made a subject of an essay accompanied by illustrations (Report 
of the Peabody Museum, 1877). Not only were cooking vessels 
extensively manufacture d on this island, but also flat dishes 
(which the Mexicans call Coniáles), cups, pipes, stone rings which 
were used as weights for digging-sticks, and all kinds of trinkets. 
These articles constituted the money of the people of Santa Cat- 
alina, like the shell-beads of the neighboring island of Santa 
Cruz, where they were extensively manufactured by the aborig- 
ines, and whence they were distributed far along the coast, and 
to some extent into the interior. The quarries are more abundant 
in number towards the south-eastern end of Santa Catalina 
where for about two miles square not less than three hundred 
quarries and pits were discovered during my last visit, with a 
large number of pot-boulders, sherds, tools, etc.—Paul Schu- 
macher. 

ABORIGINAL BurtaL.—A very singular case of aboriginal eke 
was brought to my nce recently by Mr. Wm. Klingbeil, of 
Philadelphia. On the New Jersey bank of the Delaware River, 
a short distance below Giaa city, the skeleton ofa man was 
found buried in a standing position in a high red sandy clay bluff 


_ ‘Edited by Prof. Orts T. MAson, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


630 General Notes. [ September, 


overlooking the stream. -A few inches below the surface the 
neck bones were found, and below these the remainder of the 
skeleton, with the exception of the bones of the hands and feet. 
The skull being wanting, it could not be determined whether the 
‘remains were those of an Indian or of a white man, but in either 
case the sepulture was peculiarly aboriginal. A careful exhuma- 
tion and critical examination by Mr. K. disclosed the fact that 
around the lower extremities of the body had been placed a 
number of large stones, which revealed traces of fire, in con- 
junction with charred wood, and the bones of the feet had un- 
doubtedly been consumed. This fact makes it appear reasonably 
certain that the subject had been executed, probably as a prisoner 
of war. A pit had been dug, in which he was placed erect and 
a fire kindled around him. Then he had been buried alive, or, at 
least, if he did not survive the fiery ordeal, his body was imbedded 
in the earth, with the exception of his head, which was left pro- 
truding above the surface. As no traces of the cranium could be 
found, it seems probable that the head had either been burned or 
severed from the body and removed, or else left a prey to raven- 
ous birds. The Skeleton, which would have measured fully six 
feet in height, was undoubtedly that ofa man. This forms an 
interesting example of the cruelty practiced by the aboriginal 
tribes on their prisoners. In the neighborhood of this grave 
many stone implements have been found and the remains of ex- 
tensive Lenni Lenape encampments can be traced.—£. A. Barber. 


AnrTHRopoLoGIcAL News.—Mr. A. F. Berlin, Reading, Pa., calls 
attention to polished arrow-points similar to those mentioned by 

; uire in our last number. It may be that these so- 
called arrow-points were knives. Major Powell sent to the Na- 
tional Museum, three years ago, a collection of Pai-Ute flint 
knives glued in wooden handles, the blades of which would be 
taken for arrow-points. They are figured and described in Dr. 
Rau’s work on the Archxological Collection of the U.S. National 
Museum, No. 287 of Contributions to Knowledge, page 2. : 

The circular issued by the Smithsonian Institution recently, 
calling for information relating to the permanent archzeological 
remains of North America, has met with a hearty response from 
many quarters. Dr. G. S. B. Hempstead has prepared a revised 
chart of the Portsmouth Works at the mouth of the Ohio River, 
containing many more details than plate XXVII of Squier and 
Davis’ work. Other enthusiastic archeologists have promised 
to do the same for their respective counties. As the descrip- 
_ tions are received they are filed away in the name of the con- 
tributor, who will receive, in the summing up, credit for the work 


ae | 
on Mr. Frank C. Cushing, the enthusiastic young assistant in the 3 
Ethnological tment of the National Museum, has recently 
i d an old soapstone quarry on the farm of Mr. John B. 


1878. | _ Anthropology. 631 


Wiggins, near Chulu, Amelia County, Va. He not only suc- 
ceeded in finding the localities where the ancient workmen had 
operated, but discovered in the neighborhood the quartz bed 
where they had obtained their implements for working the pot- 
stone. Mr. Cushing, to test their method, — a quartz 
pick and detached with it a mass of steatite. made an accu- 
rate survey of the quarry and has reproduced in sister a Miniature 
model of it similar to the plaster representations of the cliff dwell- 
ings prepared by Mr. Jackson, of the Hayden Survey. A large 
number of pots, in mauls, tomahawks, &c., were also secured 
for the National m. 

Mr. Edwin A. ka, of West Chester, Pa., is collecting mate- 
rials for a work upon pipes and smoking customs in all ages and 
nations. In order to make his work exhaustive he desires to know 
of every article ever written upon that subject. e also wishes 
sketches, photographs, cuts, electrotypes of aboriginal pipes, an- 
cient and modern. Chewing and snuffing will come in for their 
share in the description. Inasmuch as we cannot get together often 
in our country, owing to the great distances, and talk over those 
matters which are interesting to all, the next best phe is to make 
the NATURALIST our medium of communication. shall be 
glad to publish the name of any anthropologist hos is working 
in a special field. 

Dr. Theodor Poesche, of Washington, has published through 
Costenoble of Jena, a volume of 240 pages, entitled “ Die Arier, 
Ein Beitrag zur Historischen Anthropologie.” The author has 
collected a great deal of evidence to show that the theory of the 

ndian origin of the Arian races is untenable. The relationships 
existing between the various European races of that stock is 
traced and the author is inclined to believe them to be autoch- 
thonous so far as we know anything about them. 

Part second of the Revue d’ Anthropologie opens with a learned 
paper from the pen of Dr. Broca, upon cerebral nomenclature, 
including the names of the divisions and ar ae ot of the 
hemispheres as well as their anfractuosities. Those us who 
grew up in the notion that the human brain was a mass of con- 
volutions, having no more order than the viscera ora dish of 
maccaroni, will be pleased to see what progress has been made in 
the investigations originated by Gratiolet, and since prosecuted 
by eminent anatomists, among whom M. Broca occupies a high 
rank. The object of this study is to localize and name the parts 
of the brain so that cerebral topography may become a useful 
part of anthropological study. The Revue always contains a large 
amount of useful matter edited by the most distinguished men in | 
France under the titles: Revue Critique, Revue Préhistorique, 
Revue des Livres, Revue des Journaux, Extraits et Analyses, and © 
‘Miscellanea. The Bulletin Bibliographique, a very valuable fea- 

Dur 


=~ ture, is conducted by M. 


632 General Notes. | September, 


Parts ii., iii. and iv. of the Bulletins de la Société d’ Anthropologie 
de Paris for 1877, come to us all at once. The operations of this 
society are so important that the entire contents of the numbers 
will be given, in the hope that some of our readers will light upon 
something for which they have been searching. 

art ii—De la circoncision des filles [continued from Part i.] ; 
Reprise de la discussion sur la religiosité; Rapport sur les 
archives du Musée national de Rio de Janeiro ; De l'astigma- 
tisme visuel ; de la prostitution et ses rapports avec la dépopu- 
lation ; Corses et Albanais, Types bulgares; Des dialectes 
berrichons ; Sur la technique microskopique dans ses applications 
etude de la chevelure dans les races humaines; Sur les 
mariages consanguins ; Sur la fécondité des prostituées ; Sur la 
cerveau a l'etat foetal; Sur la montagne de |’Espiant ; Caverne de 
Cravanche-Belfort ; Topographie cérebrale comparée de homme 


Haeckel; Squelette humain a onze paires de cotes; Gravure et 
sculpture des os avec le silex; Amulettes des grottes oF Menton. 
. Part ii Continuation of Gravure et sculpture, &c.; Sur une 
amulette en schiste talgueux de Menton; Sur les SRS one de 
la baie de Penhouet ; Sur l’origine des Oromo et la durée d'une 
generation ; Sur l'angle orbito-occipital; Sur le tatouage par 
incision et torsion de la peau ; Sur les crânes Savoyards ; Sur les 
origines de fer; Sur la langue vei ct la race Kruman ; Sur un cas 
d’hémitérie héréditaire ; Sur le Grand Chaco; De la trépanation 
du crane sur un chien vivant ; Sur une statistique des Apophyses 
styloides vertébrales chez Vhomme ; De la plagiocephalie chez le 
singe ; Transformation de loreille chez les vertebrés, Responsi- 
bilité des sourds-muets; Crane tartare, Pli transversale de la main 
du singe chez homn me ; Sur un cerveau de gorille, Sur la 
statistique des naissances gémellaires et leur rapport avec la 
taille. 

—Sur le cerveau de gorille; Fouilles en Andalousie ; 
Mensuration chez les conscrits; Indiens de Paya; Deformation 
syphilitique du crane ; Croyance à à l'immortalité de l'âme ; De la 
vue humaine; Sur les Celtes; L’espéce humaine ; Type de 
Penfant dans Part et dans la science ; Textes relatifs aux Celtes ; 
Collection préhistorique de Buda apest ; Les Penongs Piates; 
Maladie des Scythes; Fouilles de Caucase ; Perforations crani- 
ennes du Perou ; Explorations dans le Sahara ; Cranes d’anciens 
cimetières ; Rapport sur les Esquimaux du Jardin d’Acclima- 
tation ; Les Esquimaux d’ Asie; Recherches craniométriques ; 
. Anciens peuples de l’ Europe Centrale ; Questionnaire sur le 
aoe shite Synostoses craniennes j Nomenclature cérebrale ; Des 


(878. | Geology and Paleontology. 633 


GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY. 


THE VERTEBRA OF Racuiromus.—This genus of esas 
donts was chia in this journal for May, 1878 (p. 328), 
from vertebre. that date, the reception of other specimens 
enables me to add some points to the definition already given. 

There is an element representative of the centrum wedged in 
between the superior external angles of adjacent intercentra, as 
in Zrimerorhachis. These, as well as the intercentra, differ from 
those of that genus in their greater degree of ossification, which 
is so far complete as to greatly contract the canalis cord@ dorsalis. 
The central elements of opposite sides do not unite on the middle 
line, although in contact. The neurapophysis is produced down- 
wards and outwards, terminating in the simple diapophysis, with 
rib articulation. The inferior articular faces of the arch are two 
on each side, one for the central element in front, and the other 
for the one behind it. The whole is surmounted by a continuous 
neural spine, which is expanded at the summit in the known 
species. The ilium is a subspatulate flat bone, with its rather 
thin oval proximal extremity directed backwards, and extending 
across three centra 

It is probable that the vertebra: of the genus Lryops (Pr 
S. 1878, 520), and perhaps those of all the true Labyrinthodontia, 
are constituted as in Rhachitomus —E. D. Cope. 


THE Positrion OF Diprerus.—Dr. R. H. Traquair has recently 
studied the structure of: Dipterus and has determined several 
points which are essential to a knowledge of its Sasi posi- 
tion. He finds that in its suspensorial apparatus it agrees with 
Ceratodus as well as in its palopterygoid bones. He infers that 
the character of the pectoral fins is identical with that of Cerato- 
dus. The skull differs from that of the genus in question in the 
greater degree of ossification of all its parts. Dr. Traquair places 
Dipterus definitely among the Dzpxoi, as already done BEBET 

y Günther. He also regards Paledaphus as a mem 
same sub-class; and discovers that Chirodus is aod on the 
splenial tooth of a Platysomid fish. 


A FOSSIL WALRUS DISCOVERED AT PorRTLAND, MAINE.—The 
larger part of the skeleton of a walrus, including the skull with 
tusks over five inches long, and all but two of the teeth, has 
lately been unearthed from the Quaternary Clays of Portland, 
Maine. It was partially imbedded in a layer of blue clay a foot 
in thickness, overlaid by a layer of lighter clay two feet two 
inches thick, ‘containing casts and shells of Mya arenaria, Macoma 
subulosa, Mytilus edulis, Cardium (Serripes) granlandicum, Astarte 
striata , Saxicara distorta, n antigua, Leda tenuisulcata, L. 
truncata, Natica clausa, and pusilla, and Balanus. The skeleton 

n the museum of the Portland Society of Natural History. 


1 See Proc, Amer. Philos. Soc., 1878, p. 526. 


634 General Notes. | September, 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.'! 

THe Amazon.—The U. S. corvette Enterprise, Commander 
‘Thomas O. Selfridge, arrived off Para, Brazil, on the 24th of 
May, having been ordered to make a survey of the Amazon 
river as far as Manaos, and the Madeira as far as San Antonio. 
From a correspondent of the New York Herald we learn that the 
Enterprise started up the river on the 3d of June. Passing the 
mouth of the Tocantins she entered the first narrow canal. These 
natural canals or furos resemble the artificial channel made by 
Capt. Eads at the mouth of the Mississippi—the heavy growth 
of, aquatic plants and the thick interlacing of the roots of the 
trees forming in these narrow passages barriers similar to the 
mattresses used by him. A frigate may pass through these natu- 
ral jetties of the Amazon without fear, for the rush of water 
keeps the way clear. 

Two serious accidents to the machinery caused considerable 
delay, but the survey had been conducted successfully at the 
rate of about sixty miles a day up to the date of this letter, on 
June 15th, off Serpa, thirty miles below the mouth of the 
Madeira. No triangulation is undertaken, but simply a track 
chart is to be made. The points noted are the depths, the pro- 
file of the shore, the position of the islands, the courses steered, 
` the bearings of prominent points, the fixings of landmarks, the 
strength of the current, the character of the banks, the compass 
deviations, the meteorological changes, the barometric altitudes 
and the latitude and longitude of the towns, villages, bars, shoals 
and rocks of the river. Hees 

A correspondent of the New York World gives an interesting ` 
account of the Island of Marajo, the largest in South America, 


variety of valuable timber, medicinal plants and a great number 
of India rubber trees (Syphonia elastica). The prairie is devoted 


| 1878. ] Geography and Travels. 635 


FLUVIAL INTERSECTIONS OF Mountain Rances.—In an article 
upon the Himalayan System, included in the Proceedings of the 
Berlin Geographical Society, Herr Von Richthofen remarks (as - 
translated in the July Geographical Magazine): In the history of 
orography three styles may be distinguished. As hydrography 
generally precedes topography, so water-partings come to be 
hypothetically regarded as mountain ranges; those between the 

, principal. rivers being considered as ranges of the first degree, and 
those between minor streams as ranges of lower degree. By the 
knowledge of the elevations and depressions of a country we 
arrive at the second stage and find that the mountain ranges do 
not always coincide with the water-partings. Some of the ranges 
are found to be intersected by rivers and the most general features 

of the structure become apparent. A third stage is reached when 
we have obtained from the geological composition not only a 


features. The transition from the first to the second stage can ` 
be seen most distinctly in those mountain systems which have 
only in our own time become ieee as, for instance, in the one 
of the Tian-Shan and the Pam r Mountains, where in the un- 
explored districts, the water- artes system still regulates the 
drawing of our maps; whilst, in all districts which have been 
surveyed more accurately, range after range appears distinctly 
with frequent fluvial intersections. 

continuous function of water- -parting is not the necessary 
mark of a mountain range. In the case of the Himalayas the 
incipe adopted long ago from a purely geographical point of 

y geologists, Jr rarely admitted by geographers, is triumph- 
auth established, z. e., that mountain ranges are to be considered 
independently of o uiton and intersections by river valleys 
and that the latter are only to be regarded as solutions of con- 
tinuity of a secondary importance. 


GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The U. S. Coast Survey steamer Blake 
returned about the 1st of July, from dredging operations in the 
Gulf of Mexico. Capt. Patterson of the Coast Survey, states 
that the extensive and accurate soundings of the Gulf, taken by 
the improved scientific methods on this voyage, do not tend to 
confirm the belief, long held, that the equatorial current, after 
rushing from the Caribbean Sea through the channel formed by 
the West Indian islands and the northward projection of Yucatan 
makes the whole tortuous circle of the Gulf close by the shores 
of Central America, Mexico and the southern coast of the United 
States, before emerging into the Atlantic, between the point of 
Florida and the Bahamas. The observations tend rather to prove 
that the force of the incoming equatorial stream extends itself in 
the direction against the mass of the Gulf long before it reaches" 


Texas coast and then turns directly towards and re-issues into _ 3 


636 7 General Notes. [September, © 


the ocean. Col. Prejevalsky, an account of whose last journey 
to the Lob-Nor was given in the Natruratisr for August, writes 
from St. Petersburg (London Academy, June 29th), that he is 
obliged, on account of his health, to take a complete rest until 
December next, when he expects to start for Port Zaizan, 
whence he will depart for Hami and Sha-chan, en route for Tibet. 
Upon his return, probably at the end of 1880, he will set to work 
on the materials he has collected. 

Dr. Behm, in his Monatsbericht (July Mittheilungen), states 
that included in his collections is the skin o ies of wild 
horse named Tarpan, which dwells in the sandy deserts of 

_ Dsungaria, together with (zeden) the Kulan (Asinus kiang) and 
the Djigetai (Asinus hemionus). This specimen was slain by 
the Kirgise at Gutchen. e London Atheneum is in- 
formed that the recent telegraphic determinations of longitude 
executed by the Indian Survey Department have resulted in the 
geodetical connection of Madras Observatory, the pivot on 
which the whole fabric of Indian triangulation rests, with 
Aden and Suez, and hence with Greenwich. The result of this 
measurement is to establish a new value for Madras Observatory 
(80° 14’ 51” E. of Greenwich), which will thus affect all Indian 
meridians and which will have, theoretically, the effect of moving 
India 2000 feet or so further from England. It is hoped to estab- 
lish further geodetical connection with Australia, and ultimately 
that San Francisco on the one side, and the Russian stations on 
the Pacific on the other, may be brought into connection with 
Europe. Dr. Van der Horck, who delivered an address before 
the American Geographical Society, in 1876, on the results of an 
expedition made by him to Lapland, 1874-5, has now gone to 
Hong Kong on a mission entrusted to him by the German gov- 
ernment and the Berlin Geographical Society. He is to organize an 
expedition to traverse the whole of the Eastern Asiatic coast, the 
islands especially; then crossing at Behring’s Straits to follow 
down the western coast of America to Oregon. The objects of his 
journey are scientific investigations, coast surveys, deep sea dredg- 
ings, geological, zodlogical and botanical researches, and, above all, 
anthropological studies concerning the migration of men from 
Asia to America, and to see if remains of an ancient migratory 
people cannot be found on the isolated groups of islands of these 

regions. The means at the disposal of the expedition will be 
liberal, and the time unlimited, and it is expected that the work of 
the expedition will consume three or four years. (Wew York Tri- 

_ ġune)——-Last week we spoke of the generosity of the United States 

Government in the distribution of the publication of their admir- 

able surveys. We regret to see, from a speech in the House ot 
epresentatives by the Hon. O. R. Singleton, that the usefulness _ 

Dr. Hayden’s surveys threatens to be seriously crippled from 
of funds. The appropriation for this survey in 1867, was 


1878. | Scientific News. : 637 


only $5,000, which in 1873 had been raised to $95,000. In 1876 
this was reduced by $30,000, and again, in 1877, by $20,000, 
leaving the appropriation at only 846, 000. The largest sum is 
what is actually needed that the survey may be carried on ‘with 
efficiency, and to reduce it is quite unworthy of a nation so ad- 
vanced and liberal as the United States, and is really re Not 
possible economy. The additions which have been made 


country can be no less great. The mere list of the many admir- 
able publications of the survey is sufficient to prove that the 
money has been well spent; and we trust that the United States 
Government and Congress will be able to rise above all party feel- 
ing, and prove to the world that they have the best interests. of the 
country and the interests of scientific knowledge at heart by re- 
storing the appropriation to at least its old amount. Mr. Single- 
ton truly says that not a small item in favor of these surveys is 
the check they place on mining and land swindles.—Wature. 


OBITUARY.— Admiral Sir George Back, F.R.S., deceased on the 
23d of June, aged eighty-one years. He took part in five Arctic 
expeditions, the most important of which were the “ Franklin Second 
Expedition,” in 1825-27, “ The Arctic Land Expedition to the 
mouth of the Great Fish river and along the shores of the Arctic. 
ocean,’ in 1833-35, and “The Expedition of H.M.S. Zerror” 
in 1836-37. 

John A. MacGahan died at Constantinople, the oth of June, 
aged thirty-two years. He will hereafter, be remembered for his 
wonderful journey to Khiva, in 1873, as related in his admirable 
work, “ Campaigning on the Oxus.” He also wrote an account, 
“Under the Northern Lights,” of his voyage on the Pandora, 
with ee Allen Young, up the Peel strait, in 18 

. T. Cooper, British resident at Bhamo was assassinated at 
that lade on the 13th of May. He was forty-one years of age, 
and was the author of “ Travels by a Pioneer of Commerce,” in 
which he related the details of a remarkable journey from 
Shanghai, through China and the border county of Tibet, to 

unnan. 


:0: 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The sixth volume of the Proceedings of the California 
Academy of Sciences for 1875, has just been received, and con- 
tains a variety of interesting papers on the geology, insects, 
shells and plants of the Pacific slope. Part I, Vol. vii, just pub- 
‘lished, forms a brochure of 174 pages, and contains a number of 
papers on Pacific coast Lepidoptera, by Mr. Henry Edwards, two __ 
articles on Crustacea, by Mr. W. G. W. Harford, and numerous 


638 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [September, 


papers on the same subject by Mr. W. N. Lockington, as well as 
botanical notes and articles by Dr. A. Kellogg. A new mollusc 
(Paludinella newcombiana) is described by Mr. H. Hemphill, while 
Dr. A. Stuxberg makes a preliminary report on the Lithobii of 
North America. The Academy is now one of the most active 
societies in the country, and rapidly developing the physical 
features, natural history and anthropology of the Pacific States. 


— Forest and Stream reports the discovery of Amphioxus lan- 
ceolatus, by Mr. H. J. Rice, off old Point Comfort, Va. We look 
for its discovery on the southern coast of New England, as it 
occurs on the southern coast of Norway. A specimen of the 
skua, or Stercorarius skua, was captured early in July on the 
George’s Bank by a fisherman. The cunner (Tautogolabrus) has 
been hatched artificially at Bucksport, Maine, by Mr. C. 
Atkins. The U. S. Fish Commission have obtained through the 
Gloucester fishermen Chimera plumbea Gill., caught on a trawl 
line at a depth of 275 fathoms, near Sable island; also the third 
specimen in existence in museums of the gredadier, or Macrurus 
rupestris Bloch. Corals of the genera Mopsea and Tsis were also 
brought in by fishermen from the banks. 


— The anniversary address of Prof. Martin Duncan, the President 
of the Geological Society of London, is an interesting résumé of the 
most important results of recent paleontological discoveries, with 
especial reference to the fossil mammalian fauna of Gibraltar, 
Malta and North America, the relative hypothetical position of 
lands in the Tertiary period, particularly in Africa and South 
America, as well as to recent advances in the study of fossil 
sponges, Echini, and the Carboniferous fauna of the Southern 
Hemisphere. 


— The late Col. Stephen S. Olney, of Providence, well known 
for his zeal in the study of botany, has bequeathed an indefinite - 
but probably large sum to Asa Gray, of Cambridge, Mass., and 
William M. Canby, of Wilmington, Del., in trust, to be applied 
in such a manner as, in their judgment, will best and most pro- 
mote the study, advancement and progress of the science of bot- 
any in the State of Rhode Island. 


:0: 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
APPALACHIAN Mountain Crius.—Sixth Field Meeting, North 


Excursions were arrang: 
and Willey, and through the Notch. 


1878. ] Proceedings of Scientifie Societies. 639 


The following extracts convey an idea of the summer work of 
78: 


Natural History—Members of the Club are requested to care- 
fully observe and record any facts, features, or phenomena in- 
teresting to them, which are connected with the Botany, Zoology, 
Geology, or Meteorology of any mountainous region. Oppor- 
tunity will be given at sectional meetings for the presentation and 
discussion of such items, with the hope “that interesting facts may 
be gathered and collated. 

‘or good general directions, the report of the first Councillor 
in this department, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, published in Appalachia, 
No. 1, is heartily recommended. Those interested in Botany are 
requested to use Mann’s Lists and Catalogue, which may be ob- 
tained from the Secretary. 

Any reports, communications, inquiries, or specimens designed 
for use in this department of the Club, may be sent to the Coun- 
cillor, William H. Niles, Councillor of Natural History, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Topography.—t. If inclined to do any work with plane-table, 
camera, micrometer-level, barometer, or theodolite, communicate 
with the department concerning instruments and methods. 
State for how long a time the instrument is desired. It is ex- 
pected that members will keep constantly in use the new topo- 
graphical camera presented to the Club by one of our lady 
members, 

2. Signify willingness to aid, in the event of making a system- 
atic occupation of Moat, Osceola, Willey, Agassiz, or some point 
in the north-east. 

One unprovided with special instruments can accumulate 
much valuable material. 

Note the qualifications of a point. to serve as a station of the 
triangulation. 

Having roughly copied (on a large scale) those points in a cer- 
tain region which are shown on any map at hand, sketch in addi- 
tional details. Make the map a complete memorandum in regard 
to one or more classes of objects, such as pata cols, springs, 
pools, streams, water-shed lines, roads, buildin 

ake eye-profiles, with identifications and Boch etl These 

are valuable whether the point be occupied with the camera or 

not. With the aid of a glass make eye-profiles, on a very larg 

scale, of interesting details. When a camera profile has already 

een drawn, visit the spot with a copy made in uniformly light 

lines, and retouch the lines, giving them proper relative impor- 
tance. Also make additional identifications. 

Set signals, with due provision for finding the exact spot in 


case the signal be overthrown. Pole must be vertical. Erect | 


trees may be used by cutting away the lower branches and sym- 


* 


640 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [ September, 


metrically trimming the top. Notify the department, with full 
particulars, as soon as a signal is set. 

Communicate by mail with the Councillor, concerning 
special work desired in any vicinity, giving information, where 
able, as well as making inquiries. If unaware of his immediate 
location among the mountains, address him at 46 Federal street, 
Boston, Mass. J. Rayner Edmands, Councillor of Topography. 


Art—The department of art invites from members of the Club 
who are interested in this direction, notices of the finest views 
observed during the summer, with discussions of the elements of 
beauty conspicuous in them; also lists of photographs of peculiar 
excellence, and descriptions of interesting pictures. It is desirable 
that a record of the ownership of such pictures be kept, for the — 
sake of future exhibitions. 

The department also solicits correspondence from the members 
of the Art Section relative to the work of the Section. 

Address, after July īst, North Conway, N. H. John Worces- 
ter, Councillor of Art. 


Exploration—While we have a general knowledge of the Ap- 
palachian region, and know something of its topography, geology 
and natural history, there are large areas of which we have no 
specific knowledge. To make observations and collect facts of 
scientific interest in any part of the region where no scientific 
man has ever been comes legitimately within the scope of Ex- 
ploration. For suggestions in the matter of exploration, the at- 
tention of the members of the Club is called especially to Ap- 
palachia, No. 1, p. 49; No. 2, p.117; No. 3, p. 189; No. 4, p. 282. 
In the last, reference is made to a circular which has been pre- 
pared for the purpose of recording observations. Those who ex- 
pect to visit any mountain during the summer are requested to 
obtain copies of this circular from the Secretary. 

Members of the Club have already signified their intention of 
making explorations in the Adirondacks, the valley of the East 
Branch of the Pemigewasset, the region of Mount Katahdin, and 
other interesting localities. ` 

ny member of the Club who intends making explorations 1n 
a region new to them, and wishes information as to what 1s 
already known of the region and the points that seem especially 
desirable to study, will have such questions answered as far as 
the Councillor of Exploration is able to give the desired informa- 
. tion. Address Box 1914, Boston, Mass. J. H. Huntington, 
__ Councillor of Exploration. 
~ Lmprovements.—The following work is proposed : 
= 1. Completion of indications of path by rock signals, one white 
»ck surmounting a triangular base of three rocks of any color, 
above the timber line on the Mt. Adams path and its branches. 
inish cutting the Carter Notch and Carter Dome path. 


1878.] Scientific Serials. 641 


Cut a path up Mt. Willey, along the north bank of the brook 
act 400 metres is mile) south of Moore’s Brook flag station 
on the P.& O, R. R 

4. Cut a path around Frankenstein Cliffs, following up Bemis 
Brook to Arethusa Falls, crossing to the falls above Ripley’s on 
Cow Brook, and descending along the latter brook. 

5. Cut a path from the Ponds, near Greeley’s, Waterville, 
through to Sawyer’s River R. R. , Upper Bartlett, with a branc 
up Mt. Carrigain. 

6. Cut a path to the top of Moosilauke from Woodstock, fol- 
lowing up the Moosilauke River. 

7. Measure and mark, metrically, the new Moat Mt. piik 

8. Construct a camp in King’s Ravine, as near the Head Wall, 
as water may always be found. 

9. Construct a camp on the Mt. Carrigain. branch path, as far 
up as water may always be found. 

10. Mark meridian lines pointing to true north, in White Mt. 
region about 13° E. of magnetic north. 

It is expected that a party, with headquarters at the Mt. Craw- 
ford House, will be at work on Mt. Willey and around Franken- 
stein Cliffs, between July 4th and 1oth, and Appalachians inter- 
prh are invited to assist. 

ncillor may be addressed at Weymouth, Mass. W.G. 
Nowell Cannciltor of Improvements. 


:0: 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


BULLETIN OF Haypen’s U. S. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES —No. 3, Vol. IV. July 29th, 1878. 
Field-notes on Birds observed in Dakota and Montana along the 
Forty-ninth Parallel, during the seasons of 1873 and 1874, by Dr. 
Elliott Coues, U. S. A., late Surgeon and Naturalist U. S. North- 
ern Boundary Commission. Notes on a Collection of Fishes from 
the Rio Grande, at Brownsville, Texas, continued, by D. S. Jor- 
dan, M.D. Preliminary Studies on the North American Pyralidæ, 
E, by A. R. Grote. Palæontological Papers, No. 6. Descriptions 
of New Species of Invertebrate Fossils irom the Laramie Group, 
by C. A. White, M.D. Palzontological Papers, No. 7. On the 
Distebdtion of Molluscan Species in the Laramie Group, by C. 
A. White, M.D. On some dark Shale recently discovered below 
the Devonian Limestones at Independence, Iowa, with a notice 
of its Fossils and description of new species, by S. Calvin, Pro- 
fessor of Geology, State ien A of Iowa. On the Mineralogy 
z Nevada, by W. J. Hoffman, 


+ 


642 Scientific Serials. [September, 1878. 


THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MıcroscorIcaL ScienceE.— july. 
Mr. C. O. Whitman, of Boston, contributes an elaborate and 
lengthy essay on the embryology of Clepsine, a leech-like worm. 
The article is ohe of the most important contributions in this 
difficult field of research. It treats of the origin and growth, of 
the egg, its impregnation and mode of deposition, of the changes 
preliminary to and during cleavage, of the gastrula and “neurula” 
stages, comprising the growth of the germ-layer and the con- 
comitant invagination of the pharyngeal clefts, of the origin of the 
nerve-chain, segment cells, segmental organs and segments, of the 
origin and de evelopment o of the alimentary canal and circulatory 
apparatus. The author believes that the “neurula” of the chick, 
or of. the fish, belongs to the same type as that of Clepsine, and 
the concluding remarks on the identity of type, in this phase, o 
worms and vertebrates, are of a good deal of interest. The re- 
searches were made in Prof. Leuckart’s laboratory. 


BULLETIN OF THE’ AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SociETy.—No. 2. 
1878. Japan: Geographical and Social, by Rev. W. E. Griffis. 
The So-called Celtic Monuments of Brittany, France, by W. 
Wh Ve Hawkes, LL:D. Recent Journey of Exploration across 

he Continent of Australia; its Deserts, Nese Races and Natural 
History, by Mr. Jess. Young, PRS.) ERAS. 


Tue GEOGRAPHICAL Macazine.—July. The Vilayet of the 
Islands of the White Sea (with a map showing the administrative 
divisions). The Country of the White Horde of Kipchak, by H. 

. Ho . Origin of the Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey, 
by S. Mossman. The Marine Survey of India, 1876-77. 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ArtTs.—August. 
Forest Geography and Archeology, by A. Gray. Structure and 
Origin of Mountains, by LeConte. Occurrence of a solid 


hydrocarbon in the eruptive rocks of New Jersey, by I. C. Rus- 
‘sell. : 


PoruLaR Science Review.—July. get globator, by A. W. 
Bennett. The Extinct British Wolf, by J. E. Hasting. On the 
Radiolaria as an Order of the Protozoa, p G. C. Wallich. How 
were the Foces of England | deposited : ? by J. S. Gardner. 


THE Gasiearca. MaGazineE.—July. On the possibility of 
eer in the latitudes of places on the earth’s surface, by 
isher. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. xu.— OCTOBER, 1878. — No. to. 


HOW THISTLES SPIN. 
BY PROF. W. J. BEAL. 3 


HASTY glance at a plant of Cirsium. altissimum, a very tall 
thistle, shows that the main stem, its branches, the midrib 
and prominent veins of the leaf are clothed with soft slender 
hairs. The entire under surface of the leaf is white or gray with 
~ a dense coat of cotton. The scales of the spiny-tipped involucre 
appear as if they were tied together by numerous gossamer 
threads. If the young leaves and buds are pulled apart many 
fine threads spin out an inch or more until the parts are separated 
far enough to break the threads. 

Under a magnifying power of one hundred iene. the 
larger hairs, an eighth of an inch in length, are seen to be com- 
posed of a row of about fifteen 
cells placed end to end. he 
largest hairs are found on the | 
stems and midribs. 

At the top of the jointed hairsis 
a long lash, sometimes an inch in 
length which generally extends 
_ towards the tip of the leaf or stem. 

These hairs are very numerous, 

and stick more or less to each 

other. Fig. 1 isa good represen- 

tation of one of these hairs while 

young, before it has been drawn 

out at the extremity. Fig. 2 rep- ; 
resents a similar hair more highly Seis 
Magnified. In the latter case oe a of Cirsium a al- 


Ol 


up to form the thread-like lash at the PA: 


VOL. XII —No. x, 44 


644 How Thistles Spin. [ October, 


In Fig. 1 the hair appears not to have acquired its growth. 
Near the base the cells are still very short, and not as they appear 
at the base of figure two. Some of the upper cells are slightly 
darker, and are filled with a yellowish-white mucilage. When 
young, the extreme cells are long, smooth and tapering. At that 
time they lie flat on each other, and are sticky and adhere to the 
tips of the hairs which they overlap. As the leaf or stem grows 
in length, the hair-stalks straighten up, and from the tip of each 
a thread is drawn out. In this process some of the cells are 
exhausted and used up in the thread. 

When the flower-bud is an eighth of an inch in diameter and 
one of the surrounding scales the twentieth of an inch in width, 
some of the hairs on the margin of the scale appear like Fig. 3, 

where one short cell is tipped with another— - 
long and slender. These tips are sticky and 
Fiaa may be easily drawn out. As the buds 

Margin young scale expand, the tips of these hairs are caught 
wi Soma and drawn to the right or left by the scales 
next to them. When full grown the heads look as though a 
spider had spun webs round and round the outside. At this time 

SESS the hairs appear like Figs. 4 
D and 5, where there is a long : 
lash with one or two or rarely 
more cells at the base. Fig. 
6-shows the edge of a scale of 
the involucre with one of 


Hairs on the back of a full-grown leaf. 
these hairs, the part of another, and a couple of short prickles. 
_ The webby layer of white or gray on the under side of the 
leaf is composed of cells similar to those last mentioned. They 
appear to grow ina similar manner. As the young leaf spreads 


= and elongates, each hair draws out a thread which helps to cover 


: the under surface with a dense web. This web adheres quite i 5 
closely and firmly to the surface of the leaf. 


1878. ] How T; histles Spin. 645 


‘The leaves of several other plants, like the Concord grape, 
Centaurias, etc., are covered in a manner similar to the leaf of the 
thistle. The branching hairs of the mullein and leaves of button- 
wood, when very young, are like those of the thistle, only the 
extremities are not sticky. 

In the New Testament 
we read, “Consider the 
lilies of the field, how they 
grow: they toil not, neither 
do they spin.” This was 
not said of thistles nor of 
-grape vines. 

The thread of the this- 
tle is single and slowly 
drawn out. Perhaps it 
may be called a clumsy 
affair when compared to 
the delicate cable of the 
spider, with its numerous 
strands. The thread of 
the thistle answers. well 
enough the purposes for ý . 
which it is intended. It Margin of scale of involucre, full grown. 
protects the plant from sudden changes of weather, 
keeps the rain from wetting the surface, and probably 
to some extent keeps enemies from injuring the plant. 

There is one other fact of interest about the thistle 
under consideration. When full-grown the scales about 
the heads of flowers have each an oblong gland just at 


gland. The object of the gland I am as yet unable to Pagers?) 
determine. It may and probably does attract insects. mum show- 
It often entraps them. I have many times seen six to ing E kana 
ten small flies and Hymenoptera, some of them half an 

inch in length, held fast by mouth or legs or wings. Here they 
buzz and twist and pull till strength and life are exhausted. 
Whether this is of any use to the plant for food or amusement, 
to keep away larger insects, or to attract spiders or ants, I have 
not yet ascertained. 


646 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. (October, 


PLANTS USED BY THE INDIANS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 
BY DR. EDWARD PALMER. 
[ Concluded. | 

Textile Plants — Yucca baccata. This is one of the most useful 
plants to the Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern 
California. Its fruit is eaten while fresh and in the dry state. It 
grows from two to eighteen feet in height, and becomes a tall tree 
further southward, varying in diameter from eight to twenty 
inches. The bodies of these plants are very fibrous. The Indi- 
ans and Mexicans when in want of soap cut the stems into slices, 
beat them into a pulp, and mix them with the water in washing 
as a substitute for soap, for which it answers finely. The leaves are 
generally about two feet in length and are very fibrous. In order 
to remove the bast the leaves are first soaked in water, then pounded 
with a wooden mallet, at the same time occasionally plunged 
into water to remove the liberated epidermis. Then if not suffi- 
ciently clean and white it is returned to the water for a time and 
again put through the beating process; generally the second 
course is sufficient. The fibres of the leaves being strong, long 
and durable are adapted for Indian manufactures, and the savages 
of Southern California make therefrom excellent horse blankets. 

All the tribes living in the country where this plant is found, 
use it to make ropes, twine, nets, hats, hair brushes, shoes, and 
mattresses. 

The Diegeno Indians of Southern California have brought the 
uses of this plant to notice by the various articles they make from 
its fibres, and sell to white settlers. In preparing a warp for the man- 
ufacture of saddle blankets, it is first loosely twisted, then when 
wanted it receives a firmer twist. If the blanket is to be orna- 
mented, a part of the warp during the first process, is dyed a 
claret brown, oak bark being used for that purpose. The loom 
in use among the Indians of to-day is original with themselves, 
and not borrowed, as some suppose, from the Spaniards. Itis a 
simple affair consisting of two round, strong, short poles, one sus- 

pended and the other fastened to the ground. Upon these is 
« arranged the warp. Two long wooden needles with eyes are 
threaded with the filling which is more loosely twisted than the 
warp, in order to give substance or body to the blanket. Each i 
time that the Monies is thrust between the threads of the warp by 3 


1878. ] Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 647 3 


one hand, the Indian female with a long, wide, wooden imple- 
ment in the other hand, beats it into place. This tool resembles 
a carving-knife, but is much larger and longer. One edge is thin, 
and in this is made a number of teeth or notches not so sharp as 
to cut. 

This plant so fibrous, and so abundant on land utterly worth- 
less for the growth of anything more valuable, can be had for the 
gathering; and as paper materials are scarce, either alone or 
mixed with straw, would be valuable in the manufacture of that 
article, 

Y. brevifolia—The leaves of this plant are short, and not 
useful for Indian purposes, but it produces abundance of large 
seeds which contain much nutrition; they are ground fine, and 
either eaten raw or cooked in the form of mush by Southern Cali- 
fornia Indians. Vast tracts are covered with it, which assume a 
forest-like appearance about the Mojave river, Southern Cali- 
fornia, having trunks from ten inches to two feet in diameter, and 
twenty-five feet high, with numerous branches. Not only is the 
leaf fibrous, but the body is more so. As raw material for paper 
it is excellent. 

Y. whipplei—tThis plant in bloom is one of the finest garden 
ornaments, very common over most parts of California. The 
young flowering stems while in their tender condition, are 
eaten either raw or roasted by the Indians. The seeds are 
gathered, ground into flour, and eaten. The leaves yield a 
very soft white fibre which is capable of being made into very 
nice thread. Indians use this fibre to form a padding to their 
horse blankets, the outer part of which being made of the fibre 
from the Yucca baccata is very rough. A wooden needle is 
threaded with twine made from the same fibre, and the lining is 
firmly quilted to the saddle blanket forming a soft covering with- 
out which it would injure the animal’s back. 

Y. angustifolia, a very common plant in Utah and Arizona; 
the leaves yield the softest fibre of all the Yuccas ; and, like all of 
them, is adapted to manufacturing purposes, especially for paper. 
The young flowering stems are used by Indians after the manner 
of asparagus ; the same may be said of all the Agaves and Yuccas. 
They are eaten cooked or raw, and are not to be despised. The 
root is used after being pounded up as a substitute for soap. a 
Agave utahense—The Pah-Utes strip the leaves from the heart 


648 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. (October, 


` of the plants of this species, then heat stones, upon which the 
hearts are laid, the youngest leaves are next placed on, then 
weeds or grass, and finally, a coating of earth over all. This kiln 
remains three days, or until the contents are cooked, then it is 
uncovered. The hearts are either consumed as food immediately, 
or pounded fine, and pressed into flat, long, irregular-shaped 
cakes, about ten inches wide and fifteen long. They have a 
pleasant sweet taste, but the dirty black color might be objec- 
tionable to some. It is very nutritious, and the Indians of Utah 
become quite fat while living upon it. The tender inner leaves 
baked with the hearts are pounded and pressed by the hands into 
flat cakes, but are not so sweet or palatable as the hearts, and are 
full of fibres of a brown color. Its fibreus nature adapts these 
cakes for transportation. Indians in traveling or hunting, carry 
them tucked under their belts, and take off pieces as they go 
along to chew, spitting out the fibre or use it for gun wads. The 
hearts of all the Agaves when roasted yield this palatable kind of 
food. 

A. deserti—This is on the whole one of the most useful of 
natural productions to the Arizona, New Mexican and Lower 
California Indians, The heart of the plant after being roasted is 
a nutritious article of diet ; from it is distilled a strong liquid called 
mescal by Mexicans; the seeds are ground into flour and eaten ; 
the leaves are long and very fibrous and are cleaned like those of 
Yucca baccata. Sometimes after the leaves are dead and quite 
dry they are pounded until the epidermis is separated. The fibre 
thus cleaned is not so smooth and white as that soaked first in 
water, but very strong and durable ropes, mats, nets and sewing 
thread are made therefrom. This is a very abundant plant, cover- 
ing many thousands of acres of land, unfit to grow anything 
more useful. A plant that contains so much fibre, surpassing in 
length and strength many other fibres in use for cordage and for 
paper, must some day be cultivated on the desert wastes of the 
United States. 
= A. shawii, one of the finest garden plants, but the fibre is 

only suitable for paper, being short. The Indians are very fond 
of a sweet honey-like nectar found in the base of its flowers; in 


-~ fact it tastes like honey and water. It is only found near San 


Diego, California. 
: Willow ‘trees Those along the Colorado river, Arizona, yield 


1878. ] Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 649 


abundance of long, soft bark, from which the Indians on this 
stream make ropes and twine for domestic purposes as well as 
sandais and mats. The females generally dress scantily, only that 
part of the body from the waist to the knees is hidden from view. 
This custom is observed by most of the Indian females living 
along the Colorado river. They strip off the bark from the wil- 
low trees and bury it in blue mud for a few days, after which it is 
taken out, washed clean and dried. It is now soft, pliable, and 
easily handled. Being cut into requisite lengths, they are fastened 
very thickly to a belt of the wearer. 

The Colorado river Indians are said to make a fine drink from 
the flowers of the willows. 

Apocynum cannabinum.—The Indians of Southern Utah, Califor- 
‘nia and Arizona use the fibre prepared from the stems of this plant 
to make ropes, twine and nets; and before the advent of Euro- 
peans it was used in the manufacture of various articles of cloth- 
ing. In order to remove the fibre the woody stems are first soaked 
in water, the bast with the bark is then easily removed. The 
latter being washed off, leaves a soft, silky fibre of a yellowish- 
brown color, which is very strong and durable. I have seen 
ropes made of it that have been in constant use for years. 

Urtica holosericea—The fibre of this plant is used by the In- 
dians of Southern California to make their bow strings. In order 
to separate the fibre the plant has to go through the same process 
as hemp; its fibre eine: that of the latter, being equally 
strong and durable. 

Cowania mexicana—This tree before the advent of Europeans 
was the great source from which the Nevada and Utah Indians 
obtained the materials for their dress goods. The outer bark is 
rough, but the inner is soft, silky and pliable, and of abrownish color. 
It is removed in long strips, varying in width, a desirable quality 
in a bark that is used in the manufacture of clothing, sandals and 
ropes. These articles were formerly made by braiding strips of 
bark together, or woven with the hand loom. Females made 
skirts from strips of this bark by braiding a belt to which they 
suspended many strips of the same material, hanging downto the © 
knees like a long fringe; the rest of the person was naked in 
summer. Mats were also made from this bark which were used 
as beds. : 
Medicines —Chlorogalum pomeridianum, common soap root of 


650 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [October, 


California, and called by Indians and Mexicans Amole. It pro- 
duces a large bulb which yields a great quantity of saponine, very 
good for washing, for which purpose it is much used by poor 
people and the Indians of California. The rough covering of the 
root is formed into “bunches, tied up and used for hair brushes by 
_ the Indians. 

~ Datura meteloides (Jamestown weed).—The California Indians 
make a decoction of this plant which is given to young females to 
stimulate them in dancing. After the root is bruised and boiled 
in water, the liquid, when cold, is taken internally to produce a 
` stupefying effect, and is much used by California Indians. 

The Pah-Utes call this plant J/ain-oph-weep. They bruise 
the seeds, soak them in water and expose the mixture to the sun's 
rays to cause fermentation. This being effected, the liquid is 
‘drank and has the same narcotic effect as the preparation made 
from the plant, or root with the alcoholic effect added. 

Nicotiana trigonophylla, N. bigelovii, N. attenuata—The leaves 
of all-these species of Nicotiana are used as tobacco by the Indians 
of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Southern California. The 
strength is said to be greater than that of the cultivated variety, 
though the leaves are smaller. 

Ligusticum apiifolium, Angelica of the settlers of Utah, Pah- 
net-snap of the Pah-Utes.—It is a favorite medicine with these 
Indians. The root is bruised and used as a poultice for sprains 
and bruises. A tea is made from the roots and is taken internally 
for pain in the stomach. The Indians if afraid of catching conta- 
gious diseases fill their nostrils with pieces of the root. The 
strong, aromatic, carroty smell may have induced them to believe 
in the efficacy of this plant as a prophylactic. 

Berberis aquifolium or Oregon grape—From the roots of this 
plant a decoction is made in water, or they are steeped in liquor, 
and taken internally. It is a good remedy for general debility, 
_ or to create an appetite, and is considered equal to sarsaparilla in 
its medicinal virtues. It is a favorite medicine with the Califor- 


-* nia Indians. 


-~ Anemopsis californica, Verba Mansa of the Mexicans.—The root 

of this plant is a great remedy among the Indians of Arizona, and 
iora in Mexico, and Southern California. It has a strong pep- 
r taste and odor. A tea made from the roots and a powder 
ed from the same and applied to venereal sores are a great 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 651 


remedy. The powder is advantageously used on cuts and sores, 


as it is very astringent. The leaves after being wilted by heat 
and applied to swellings are a sure cure. 

Achillea millefolium, Yarrow of the settlers of Utah. The Pah- 
Utes make a tea from this plant and take it internally for weak 
and disordered stomachs. It is much used by Whites in the form 
of bitters. : 

Cucurbita perennis, called Chili Cojote by Mexicans.—The 
pulp of the green fruit is used with a little soap to remove stains 
from clothing. The roots of this plant are large and long, and 
when macerated in water are applied to piles, generally with good 
effect.. The seeds are ground fine and made into mush and eaten 
as food by many Indians of Arizona and Southern California. - 

Euphorbia polycarpa, called by Mexicans Golendrina—A strong 
decoction made from this plant and applied to snake bites 
soon produces reaction ; many cures effected in this way are re- 
ported. In fact the Indians of Arizona and Southern California 
rely entirely upon it in such cases. Some years since, being in 
San Diego and wading in the salt water, a fish (St#zg-Ray) 
plunged the bony projection at the base of its tail into my left foot 
and soon the swelling and pain became excessive; a Mexican 
woman made several gallons of a very strong decoction from this _ 
plant and plunged my leg up to the knee into it while hot, and in 
a few hours relief came. 

Ertodyction glutinosum, Yerba Santa of the Mexicans, and a 
great medicine among the Indians of Southern Utah, Arizona, and 
California. A decoction made from this plant and taken inter- 
nally for rheumatism and partial paralysis, or applied externally, 
is an excellent remedy. For affections of the lungs the leaves 
are used by smoking or chewing dry, or a tea is made from them 
and drank. i 

Micromeria douglasii, Yerba Buena of the Mexicans,—This is 
an interesting plant, growing near the sea coast of California, 
having a strong minty smell. It is a favorite medicine with the 
Mexican population of California. The Indians of the same sec- 
tion prepare a tea from it which is used for fevers and colds. In 
case of headache a quantity of the plant is bound round the head. 

Artemisia tridentata, commonly called sage brush.—The Pah- 
Utes make a strong tea from this plant and take it internally for — 


ae headache, colds and for worms. It is also a good stimulant, piee a 


652 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. (October, 


pared either with water or liquor. It yields a pungent oil which 
would be a profitable article of commerce. 

A, filifolia, Southern wood—tThis plant on distillation yields 
a very penetrating oil which is good for liniments, and the Pah- 
Utes make a decoction from it excellent for swellings and bruises. 

A. ludoviciana, A. dracunculoides—The seeds of these two 
species are gathered by the Pah-Utes, ground fine, made into 
mush and eaten. It is anything but a tempting dish, having a 
dirty look and strong taste. 

A, ludeviciana.—This plant possesses medicinal virtues. The 
Pah-Utes make a strong tea of it and use it internally to assist 
child-birth, whenever assistance is required, which is seldom. In 
case of hemorrhage from the nose they stuff wads of the fresh 
plant into the nostrils. 

Oreodaphne californica—This fine evergreen tree of California 
has a very strong spicy odor. + By rubbing the hands and face a 
short time with the leaves a very distressing headache will be 
produced. Hahnemann is not the only discoverer of the fact 
that like cures like; for long before he was born, the Indians of 
California were aware of the power which this plant had to pro- 
duce a headache in those that are well and to cure those who are 
afflicted with it. 

Erythrea venusta, a common remedy for ague by Indians 
and Mexicans of Arizona and Southern California. A tea is 
made of the plant and drank, and is certainly a very good substi- 
tute for quinine. 

Peonia brownii, by Mexicans called Peo-neo.—The root of this 
plant is used by the Indians of Southern California for colds, sore 
throats, and for pain in the chest! It is mealy and tastes some- 
what like licorice. After being reduced to powder, it is either 
taken in that form internally or made into a decoction. 

Grindelia squarrosa—A decoction made from this plant is used 
_ by Mexicans and Indians of Southern California to cure colds. It 

is taken internally. 

Lygodesmia spinosa—This plant produces a short, fine, silky 
substance just at the juncture of the roots with the branches, 


= which is used by the Digger Indians to stop the meeting in gun- 


shot wounds. 
- Perezia arizonica, mee the junction of the branches with the 
ots, and covering the greater part of the former is a soft, silky 


1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 653 


substance which is used by the Apache Indians in gun-shot and 
other wounds, to stop hemorrhages, for which it is well adapted. 

Glycyrrhiza lepidota, called by settlers of Utah, Desert root.— 
Pah-Utes eat it for its tonic effects. In taste it is much like licor- 
ice. Whites sometimes chew this root in place of tobacco. 

Ephedra antisyphilitica, called teamster’s tea, since men travel- 
ing with teams in New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, 
camping among Indians, contract venereal diseases, and use this 
plant abundantly as a remedy, taken internally in the form of tea. 
A quantity of the plant is often taken along in case of need. This 
is a well-known remedy for gonorrhoea among many Indians and 
Mexicans, It is a strong astringent, and may prove valuable for 
- its tonic properties. 

Dyeing Materials —Rumex hymenosepalus,a species of dock, 
is very abundant in sandy localities of mountain districts, 
and along river bottoms in Arizona and Southern Utah. Indians 
use the root for tanning buckskins. Moccasins made from leather 
thus tanned are rendered much more durable, and less liable to _ 
injury from moisture. It is also used in dyeing, as it yields a 
bright brown or mahogany color. Occasionally, Indians orna- 
ment their bodies by using this substance to form designs upon 
their limbs. Males especially, go more or less naked all the year 
round. The people of Utah use the leaf stem as a substitute for 
rhubarb to make pies. 

Sueda californica—At San Diego, California, it is commonly 
called glass wort, from the glassy brittleness of the stem. It 
yields much caustic potash, the ashes of which are used by soap 
makers. Indians gather the seed for food. The plant also yields 
a dark coloring matter. 

S. diffusa, Sah-ap-weep of the Pah-Utes. The seeds of this 
plant are very small; nevertheless, they are gathered in great 
quantities. They are very difficult to clean, but the Indians 
are glad to obtain them. They are ground fine and made into 
biscuits. The seeds have a decidedly salty, potash taste. The 
flour tastes best when made into mush. The Coahuila Indians, 
of Southern California, make a fine black dye by- steeping a 
quantity of this plant in water. For coloring their baskets black 
they take some mature rushes, and steep them several hours in 
this black dye, which is very penetrating, and the color is peated 


a but it has a very fetid, disagreeable smell. 


654 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. [ October, 


Dalea emoryi, D. polyadenta—Branches of this plant steeped in 
water forma bright yellowish-brown dye, and emit a strong rhue- 
like odor. The Coahuila Indians of California, to ornament their 
baskets of a yellowish-brown color, steep the rushes in a dye of 
that color, prepared from these Dad/eas. 

Larrea mexicana, Tah-sun-up of the Pah-Utes——It is one 
of the commonest plants of Southern California, Lower Cali- 
fornia, Arizona and Southern Utah. A lotion made by steep- 
ing branches of this plant in water, and applied to sores of 
man or beasts proves very efficacious, and a powder prepared 
from the dry leaves is good for chronic sores. From the old 
wood exudes an abundance of a gum which is softenedand used 
by the Indians to cement their flint arrow heads into«their shafts. 
The Apache Indians use this gum asa styptic. The settlers of 
Utah often use this plant in dyeing, as it produces a greenish- 
yellow color, and garments thug dyed have the curious property 
of emitting a very disagreeable, resinous odor ever afterwards 

upon being heated. In consequence of the peculiar odor of the 
fresh plant it is sometimes called creasote wood. 

Garrya flavescens—The fruit of this plant yields a violet 

coloring matter which is used by Arizona Indians. The leaves 
are used for ague and for colds, made into a tea and. taken in- 
ternally. | 

 Trichostemma lanatum—By Mexicans and the Indians of 
Southern California, it is called Romero. It is used by them 
to impart a dark or black color to the hair, and to promote 
its growth. A strong decoction is made of the leaves which is 
frequently applied to the hair. It is a very beautiful plant with 
bright blue flowers which emit a strong odor of hops. 

Orthocarpus luteus—This plant yields a delicate pink color, 
which is used by the Nevada Indians. 

Eritrichium micranthum.—The slender roots of this plant yield 
_a delicate yellow paint, used by Indians of Utah. 

Lithospermum longiflorum—The root yields a purple color; it 
is the Puccoon of the Eastern Indians. 
Polyporus officinalis, a fungus which yields a reddish coloring 
matter which at one time was much used by Indians to paint 
their faces. Now vermilion is so cheap that it has to a great ex- 
tent superseded this. — ; 
Evernia’ ies, a lichen which yields the highly prized a 


1878.] — The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. 655 


yellow paint found so frequently among the Western Indians. 
The Apaches of Arizona carry a portion of it carefully in a small 
buckskin bag. It is considered a charm when applied to the face, 
and a cross of this color on the feet enables them to pass their 
. enemies unseen. 


:0: 
THE MAPLE-TREE BARK-LOUSE. 
BY EMILY A. SMITH. 


HE fruit and ornamental trees grown throughout the country 
are affected more or less by insects belonging to the Coc- 
cide family, or as they are commonly known, bark-lice. The elm 
and maple are among the number, the former infested with a 
Mytilaspis and the latter with Leca@nium acericorticis Fitch. 

The first account we find of this insect is from Dr. Asa Fitch, 
of Salem, New York, in the Horticultural report of that State, in 
1859, page 776. From that time nothing further was written un- 
til 1867, when Walsh 
and Riley, probably 
from oversight of the 
former article, together 
with figure 1, re- 
named the species as 
Lecanium acericola in 
the American Ento- 
mologist, vol. 1, page 
14, since which time 
it has been consider- j 
-ed under the latter 
name, but as Dr. Fitch 
has priority to the 
species, I would desire 
re-establishing the first 
name, Lecanium aceri- 
corticis of Fitch. 

Throughout the Fic. 1.—2, Lecanium on Maple; 6, Lecanium on 
Osage Orange. 


eastern and western 
States this insect occurs quite plentifully upon Acer dasycarpum 
and saccharinum, and I have carefully studied its life history, 

which will be published in the Seventh Entomological report of — 


656 The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. [ October, 


Illinois, now in the hands of the printer, from which this article 
is drawn. The illustrations are from the pencil of J. H. Emerton. 

Mr. J. Duncan Putnam, of Davenport, Iowa, has given much 
time and study to the embryological development of this species; 
his valuable paper will appear in volume ii, part ii, of Proc. 
Dav. Acad. of Nat. Sciences, now in press. 

During the winter months the females remain on the under- 
side of the limbs in a dormant state (fig. 2, a), the beak inserted just 
under the bark. The greatest irregularity exists in reference to 
_ the position which they assume on the limbs, the bodies often- 
times overlapping each other, and when greatly crowded lying in 
opposite directions with the exception that they are always found 
lying lengthwise with the limb. 

s They are at this time not 
over 2 mm. in length, much 
the color of the bark, oval 
in form and with a slit at 
posterior end; when raised 
from the limb the legs and 
antennz are plainly visible 
(fig. 2, ó and c). As soon as 
the sap commences to flow 
in early spring, with us near 
the middle -of April, the 
z, insect absorbs nourishment 


Fic. 2.—a, females on limb as in winter; 
dorsal view of female; c, ventral view of the from the tree and by the 
same, 4 and c greatly enlarged. ee of the eggs 


ithin the body t tly distended. Atthis time small liquid 
drops are seen 1 upon the ground and sidewalks underneath the 
fested trees, ‘which is both sweet and sticky. This liquid issues 
_ from the pores of the body and continues until a waxy secretion 
is observed issuing from the posterior portion. This secretion 
issues from the general under surface but n more particularly from 
the thorax and abdomen. 

Projecting from the sides of the body can be seen, under a com- 
mon lens, short thick hairs; from these points and from between 
the abdominal joints a portion of the waxy mass is secreted, but 


from around the anus comes the greater quantities. 


In this cottony secretion the eggs are concealed, the work go- 
in ing on ee since we find the first eggs in the mass shortly 


1878. ] The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. 657 


after it is perceived, and the insect continues partaking of the sap 
during the deposition. The secretion, at first is soft and sticky, 
but solidifies some- 
what by contact with 
the air and remains 
perfect in form on 
the limbs after the 
eggs have all hatch- 
ed (figure 3, a). A de- 
scription is given be- 
laws 

The first eggs ap- 
pear about the end 
of May in this vicin- : 
ty and are concealed 
in the waxy mass, 
the particles divid- 
ing them one from p 
the other ; these is- Fic. 3 —a ise mass of female; 4, dorsal view of full 
sue from the oviduct grown Bii; ; c, ventral view of same; d, view of beak 
which has the open- enlarged. 
ing at the posterior portion of the fissure. When the eggs first 
appear they are soft and pliable, but afterward harden, and as the 
embryos develop the color deepens. The eggs number from 
five hundred to one thousand, the deposition occupying from 
three to six weeks, the process being a gradual one. Some three 
weeks after the first eggs are deposited the first young lice appear 
and thus continue until all the eggs are hatched. The body of 
the female does not shrink in size as is observed in some species 
of Coccide, but continues absorbing nourishment until the ovisac 
is emptied, when she withdraws her beak from the limb and dies, 


1 Lecanium acericorticis Fitch, fully grown female. Dorsal view. Oval with dor- 
sal convex carina; an anal fissure at extremity. Three thoracic and seven abdominal 

segments, Mcigin furnished with short bristly hairs. Eyes absent. Oviduct situ- 
. ated at end of posterior fissure. wou fe somewhat lurid with numerous dark blotches, 
the lines separating the ts darl 

antral view. Adina and legs visible but small. The beak arises from a tu- 

bercle situated at the extreme end of the head which forms a projection extending 
slightly over the thorax. The beak itself is a long thread-like organ composed of © 
four distinct pieces. The first pair of legs are nearly opposite the beak, the head 
and thorax ge es over one half the entire insect. Opening of oviduct at end of 
fissure. Length 


658 The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. [| October, 


the dead body remaining attached to the limb by means of the cot- 
tony secretion. Athough the antenne and legs do not develop 
in the same degree with the body, they are not entirely useless, 
since by removing a grown female in the spring from the limb 
the insect will move slowly, even though in their natural condi- 
tion they cease all movement after settling down in the autumn 
upon the limbs. 

The young lice first appear about the middle of June, and: are 
more than twice as long as broad. They are light sordid yellow, 
translucent, elongated-oval, tapering slightly toward the posterior 
end, with seven abdominal segments,the division lines being darker 
and plainest in the middle. Short hairs project from around the 
margin at regular intervals. 

he antennæ and legs are situated some distance from the 
margin and are inserted on the underside of the body. The an- 
tennæ are armed with several strong spines and are jagged in 
outline. The legs are stout, terminating in a single curved claw 
and four knobbed hairs. 

he beak is a long thread-like organ, very minute, and until the 
young louse becomes stationary is folded in a loop in the abdo- 
men. At thè end of the abdomen, arising from tubercles, projects 
two anal appendages or setæ longer than the entire body which 
disappear in a short time. In the natural condition the young 
insects settle down upon the leaves of the maple within three days 
after hatching, the preference given the underside and near the mid- 
rib, although they are found upon the upper side to some extent, 
probably because the epidermis is more tender on the under side 
and they are there protected from the sun’s rays. The beak is 
at once withdrawn from its retreat and is inserted in the leaf, 
when the insect increases rapidly. 

When in a state of rest the young lice draw the antennæ under 
and parallel with the last joint of the fore pair of legs. The two 
(oa ee pair extending backward. 

Although they seldom leave the first assumed position until 
obiti, they have full use of their legs, since when the leaf is de- 
aoa from the tree, the young lice will withdraw their beaks 

and move quite actively about in search of fresh food. When 
"first hatched the males and females are not easily distinguished 
from each other; they soon, however, present quite a difference, 
3 males becoming longer, lighter in color and somewhat 
gher than the iers, and two anal setæ are seen projecting 2 


1878. The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. 659 
ip 


from the scale. This occurs during the last week in July, and 
although no regular or sudden transition takes place, yet during 
the fore part of August the males appear, leaving behind the 
empty larval scales on the leaf, which are easily seen scattered about 
among the females upon both upper and lower sides of the leaf. 

The male louse is very different from the female. During the 
transformation he has acquired wings for the new sphere into 
which he is about to enter, although he still retains the legs and 
antennz, the beak is abortive, its place represented by two round 
spots. The three parts, head, thorax and abdomen are easily 
distinguished. The first males were observed August 13th, 1877, : 
and continued appearing over two weeks. They are very active, 
flying about the leaves with great rapidity. At this time coition 
takes place, and the ovaries become developed in the impreg- 
nated females, which remain on the leaves drawing .sap con- 
tinually during the entire summer. 

The Male-Louse-——Comparatively few of the male-lice have as 
yet*been discovered by entomologists, and it was with pleasure 
that the male of Lecanium acericorticis Fitch was found during 
the summer of 1877. Their existence is for a brief period, since 
they are not found longer 
than three weeks in the 
year; the probable life of 
each individual not being 


its entire existence—a few 
weeks over one year—the 
males acquire wings and fly 
about. That the males are 
necessary for the perpetua- 
tion of the species is doubted by some authors. I made an 
estimate of the number of larval scales on several leaves, and on 
the trees which had suffered a longer time, and found the average 
number to be greater upon a much infested and thus diseased 
tree than upon a healthy and vigorous one upon which the in- 
sects had not been so violently destructive. It often happens 
that a maple-tree will suddenly revive and outgrow the injury 


Fic. 4.—Lecanium acericorticis, male, 


= Of these insects to an extent, even when no attempt has been 


VOL. XII.—NO. X. 45 


660 The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. | October, 


made to exterminate them. Whether this is due to the greater 
number of the young lice proving to be males or from the visa 
of parasites remains to be determined? 

Wings membraneous, hyaline, dotted with short points extend- 
ing outward, sending out at the base a forked line, one toward the 
upper, and one toward the lower margin. Mons. V. Signoret says 
in his essay on Lecanides, that in the place of the lower wings of 
the male there are two halters or balancers, which I have been 
unable to discover in the mounted specimens before me, 
although it is quite possible that they may be found in fresh 
specimens. The females continue absorbing nourishment during 
the remainder of the summer and return to the limbs at the 
approach of frost in the autumn. In Fig. 1, Mr. Riley has 
illustrated the egg-mass as occurring upon the leaf, which is con- 
trary to my experience in Illinois and Iowa, although were the 
season longer it might be the case, and thus become double- 
brooded since it is well known that the varied temperature | has 
great effect upon the length of time insects remain in their several 
stages. 

‘Three kinds of Lady-birds ( Coccinelide), are found more or less 
numerous upon the infested trees destroying the acericorticis 
during the summer months. The Hyperaspis signata Olivier is 
perhaps the most abundant and valuable. The larva is small, 
light colored,and covered with a peculiar white downy substance. 
They are found inside the waxy mass devouring the eggs, and 
through their assistance many are thus destroyed before hatch- 
ing. The outside of the egg-mass appears entire, but by care- 
fully separating it, the larva can be observed, in the act of devour- 
ing the contents of the egg, by the aid of a common lens. Only 
one larva is found in each egg-mass. When fully grown and 
about to change to the pupa state, they emerge and attach them- 
Selves to the tree. The imago is a small black beetle with one 
bright red spot on each elytra. 

The Chilocorus bivulnerus Muls. (Fig. 5), although not found in 
such numbers as the signata are equally as important since they 

nium acericorticis male, see Fig. 4. Color fuliginous, with the thoracic 

“se oascits darker than the PEIR AE D of the body. Head small, angular in front, an nd 
atthe sides. Antennæ 10- s pp filiform, pubescent, fourth, fifth and sixth longest. 
Color light brown. There are two ocelli between the antenn Thorax large, the 

-~ mesothoracic band distinct, shiny, the metathorax forming an arebat shield extend- 

inga short distance over the abdomen. Legs stout, sparsely covered with hairs, tarsi 


furnished with two claws at the end. Abdomen ends in a tubercle which protects 
De p he entire nearly half as long : as abdomen. 


1878. | The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. 661 


destroy the young lice. The larve are readily recognized from 
the larve of the former by being covered with a large 
number of black spines, they are considerably larger, 
andare not found inside the egg-mass. They are rav- 
enous feeders, and require a great number of lice be- 
fore they complete their. larval state. The imago resembles the 
signata in color, but is much larger and equally voracious with the 
young. 

The Anatis 15-punctata is also beneficial in its destruction 
of the acericorticis,and is larger even than the preceding ones, but 
does not occur so plentifully. 

The larve are furnished with six rows of stout spinulated 
spines along the body, the upper surface of which is black, while 
beneath it is pale, and is nearly half an inch in length. The 
beetle is black on the head and prothorax, having seven black 
spots on the brownish-red elytra, and a black spot on the scu- 
tellum ; it is seven-twentieths of an inch in length. 

The larvae of a species of Chrysopa are found assisting in the 
work of destroying the enemy, but not in any considerable num- 
bers, as also two species of Reduvide and one Acarus. 

The females are destroyed by means of a parasite which live 
upon the fatty substance with- 
out disturbing the vital organs, 
and only destroys the insect 
when changing to the, pupa 


through a cylindrical hole on 
the dorsal side. This parasite 
is double-brooded, the second 
brood appearing the middle Fic. 6.— Coccophagus eani; poy. s 
of August. The “insect: be OPP 6, imago ; hair lines natural size. 
longs to the genus Coccophagus, thanks to Mr. E. T. Cresson for 
its a and appears to be undescribed (figure 6). 


ccophagus lecanii, nov. sp. Fig. 6. Body. pa ar hors color cinereous. Head 
hor 


as tee as the thorax, smoky brown in color, ubesc Antenne Pe eR pa ie 
first joint longest. Thorax nearly black, with a ieee shaped spot ale yellow 
placed crosswise upon the hind part of the thorax. Abdomen elliptical, a little 
longer than the thorax. Legs ligat brown with the femora. dnit, hairy, furnished at 
the apex of tibiæ with a spur ; tarsi wit Si bagged join 
ings membraneous, hyaline, ciliat wings with the rib-vein running 
i and ends in-a 


662 Fire-Flies and their Phosphorescent Phenomena. [ October, 


THE FIRE-FLIES AND THEIR PHOSPHORESCENT 
PHENOMENA 


BY MRS. V. O. KING. 


HE most interesting feature distinguishing these insects is 
their phosphorescent qualities. Light, so universal in its influ- 
ences upon the life processes, and made familiar to us through 
the multiform media of its evolution, is known to result from a 
combustion of dead matter. To this known fact, Lampyris, 
creeping and flying, and at the same time emitting light, would 
seem to present a contradiction. 

This singular fact early attracted the attention of naturalists 
and philosophers. A traveler in Japan, about the middle of the 
15th century, studied its phenomena, discovering two kinds of 
light; and later, Mr. McCartney, by anatomical investigation, 
found two vesicles from which he supposed the more permanent 
light to proceed. Similar discoveries were made about the same 
time by a Polish naturalist. Many distinguished entomologists 
have given attention to the subject; even Arago studied the char- 
acter of the light in connection with that of the sun, and found 
it to exhibit the same species of refrangibility with the light of 
that body. 

Matteucci, who studied this phenomenon from a chemical 
standpoint, concluded that there was positively no phosphorus 
present in the luminous segments, and therefore accounted for the 
manifestation by other means. i 

rof. Pancerri of Naples, a few years since, concluded that — 
phosphorescence in animals is the result of oxidation of certain 
fatty material, composed partly of epithelial cells in a state of 
partial decomposition, a manifestation (as Draper also says) of 
dead matter only; due to a slow combustion by which vibrations 
are excited capable of transmitting luminous rays. This phos- 
phorescent substance, Pancerri finds secreted in glands in all 
cases except noctulica. 

1 The spectrum given by the light of the common fire-fly of New Hampshire 
(Photinus ?) was found by Prof. C. A. Young to be perfectly continuous, without 

trace of lines either bright or dark. It extends from a little above Fraunhofer’s line 
_ Cin the scarlet, to about F in the blue, gradually fading out at the extremities. This 
~ portion is composed of rays which, while they more powerfully than any others affect 
= the organs of vision, produce hardly any thermal or actinic effect; in other words, 
very little of the energy expended in the flash of the fire-fly is wasted. A. 
vung in anoa M Vol. iii, p. 615.—EDITORS. 


1878.]  Fire-Flies and their Phosphorescent Phenomena. 663 


I have examined many of the Lampyridz; the phosphorescent 
segments in the highly organized species contain a translucent 
substance resembling half-cooked starch, situated just behind a 
yellow waxy-looking membrane. This membrane has, on its 
ventral aspect four distinct spiracles for the admission of air. 

Through these spiracles and contiguous parts may be seen at 
times quick brilliant flashes of light, made more rapid and vivid 
when the insect is handled, and followed in its normal state by a 
milder emanation, which may be compared to the embers of the 
previous conflagration. This second light is yellowish and dies 
out slowly. The first appearance of fire-flies in the twilight is 
indicated by a red, followed shortly by yellow, and later by the 
characteristic green light. 

Different species vary in the degree of activity and also some- 
what in the manner of emission. The phenomenon is also sub- 
ject to changes during the metamorphic period. 

The larva in Photinus emits a steady green light from the pos- < 
terior segments on the ventral surface. The pupa light, at first 
green, soon assumes a whiter less brilliant character, diffused over 
the entire body. 

The imago of the apterous female of Pleotomus exhibits greater 
intensity, and over a larger surface than in male forms, but steady, 
and at times disappearing from the posterior segments to be dif- 
fused as a white light over the body. This insect is scarcely 
more than an egg-bag, and its light is never so green as in other 
species. There is almost as great a diversity of degree and man- 
ner as of varieties, each enabling the observer to identify them at 
night. . 
A peculiar odor is perceptible, at times, in fire-flies. An 
English writer first noticed this, but afterwards concluded that he 
might have been mistaken. 

_ The soil which is most frequented by glow-worm larvæ con- 
sists largely of decomposed rocks, and produces a growth whose 
ash is intensely sulphurous to the taste. In these places may also 
be found earth-worms filled with phosphorescent matter, and 
snails, the favorite food of the glow-worm larve, while the Prim- 
ula mexicana, the vegetable diet of adult winged species, also 
abounds. All these features obtain in a moist soil and open air 
of fields, where, according to Ebermeyer, ozone is found in | 
greatest quantities, and oxygen its other form. . 


664 Fire-Flies and their Phosphorescent Phenomena. {October, 


A calcium sulphuret of phosphorus, prepared by heating sulphur 
with calcined oyster shells, is said to give out a yellow light when 
exposed to the sun’s rays, but under decomposed light there is a 
change to green. The decomposition of certain rocks furnishes 
phosphates of calcium to the soil, whence having been appropriated 
by plants it eventually supplies animals. When not oxidized in the 
stomach it is supposed to be absorbed into the system in certain 
oils. Phosphorus in its active state ignites spontaneously in con- 
tact with the air. 

In Lampyris we see changes identical with those presented by 
a calcium sulphuret of phosphorus from the red or yellow to green. 

The emission of the greatest amount of light would also point 
to the presence of phosphorus, this occurring most freely in the 
open air, and when the insect is either flying or excited, when the 
body is presumed to be most fully inflated with air, the spiracles 
on the luminous segments being very favorable for its admission. 

The second light, referred to as of a milder kind and with a 
steadier emanation, would seem to be portions absorbed by the 
translucent substance during the more active evolution of light, 
and reflected from the less permeable inner o of the dorsum 
until exhausted. 

The uses of the light of Lampyris seem as doubtful as its 
nature. As it cannot be of service in the larval state either for 
sexual attraction or to secure food, its presence at this early period 
must be for the benefit of succeeding stages, and especially for 
the imago in the case of the apterous female.. 

he periodicity of the phenomenon may be ascribed to that 
_ property of the ganglia which enables them to give a periodical 
exhibition of an original disturbing cause. 

There is a definite relation between the proportion of light 
emitted, and the color of the enclosing membrane which indicates 
the former’s bleaching power. 

Draper illustrating a truth says, that “ not a shadow falls for an 
instant upon a wall but it leaves an ineffaceable stain,” thus by 
his shadows bringing the power of light into bold relief. If a 
ray of light falls, however softly and but for an instant, upon an 

object, we may presume that a change, whether by chemical or 
_ mechanical means, ensues. Flowers and fruits by their irregular 
_ surfaces break the sunshine into specific hues, thus acting as 
- shadows to themselves. Animals also respond in coloring to the 
influence of tight, 


1878. ] Physiography. 665 


In Lampyris the almost perpetual play of light, generated and 
partly confined within the posterior segments, has probably con- 
duced to their final change of color. Ozone, of whose presence 
there is a suspicion, possibly exercises its bleaching power here 
as in vegetable tissues. 

Assuming that the phosphorescent material is accumulated in 
the larval and preserved in the pupal stage for the final form, 
there are certain ways in which it might be useful at this latter 
period. The apterous female, being without food, must generate 
sufficient heat, from internal resources, to sustain life through 
oviposition. 

The winged species may also utilize this power to decoy vic- 
tims, and also to betray their presence to the carnivorous species, 
while others may kindle the torch of Hymen by this veritable 
flame. That both sexes possess phosphorescent properties is 
not surprising, since both are the product of a luminous stock, 
but we.may expect a greater degree of phosphorescence from the 
female, and facts sustain this expectation. 

Thus our insect seems eminently conservative in its powers, 
while combining the useful and the beautiful in its physical gifts. 


z0? 


PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
BY C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S., A.R.S.M. 


HE artist who is illustrating a great theme upon a large spread 
of canvas finds it necessary from time to time to lay down the 
brush, with which he is accurately filling in the more delicate 
minutiz, that he may retreat to a distance and view his picture as 
a whole. It is essential to the higher development of his art that 


he should not omit this comprehensive survey. The same thing ` 


holds good in literature and science, as well as in art. The. 
historian must, from time to time, take a fresh survey of history 
as a whole. If he neglect to do so, the group of figures to which 
he devotes his special attention will certainly not take up its true 
position among the other groups that appear on the canvas of 
history. The man of science, also, should not forget that he is, 
according to his individual bent or capacity, aiding in the con- 
struction of a great philosophy ; and he should now and again 
turn aside from the microscope, or lay down the hammer, to take a 


666 Ph yystography. [ October, 


more comprehensive survey of that philosophy, whose aim it is 
to comprehend and consolidate the widest generalization of 
science. 

A rude attempt at such a survey of the principles of geology 
and the bordering branches of science will be found in the follow- 
ing pages. They are from the notes of a lecture which formed the 
last of a course delivered before a school audience. In that lec- 
ture I did my best to give a rough sketch of that chain of events by 
the study of which we may build up a history of the Earth, while I 
endeavored at the same time to lead my hearers upwards from the 
simple to the complex ; for I hold that the teacher of science should 
lead his pupils from the well known, through the less known, to 
the unknown. Taking a few simple and obvious facts as a basis, 
he should first test whether those whom he teaches really know 
them to be facts, and then, carefully building upwards, seeing 
that each stone of his superstructure rests securely on one which 
has before been firmly laid down in its true place, he should mount 
slowly and surely, until, at last, he reaches that rare atmosphere 
of the unknown in which, for the present at least, no man may 
build. 

Standing by the sea-side, then, let us inquire of Nature con- 
cerning the things which we see around us. The waves roll in 
upon the shore, the wind blows freshly in our faces, a heavy 
storm-cloud hangs over the distant horizon, at our feet is a little 
streamlet running over the sands to the sea; behind us is the 
white chalk cliff, capped with sand and clay. 

How come these waves, and what are they doing? shall be 
our first question. The answer to the first part of the question is 
so obvious that a child will not hesitate to reply, that it is the 
wind which produces the waves. At first a mere cat’s paw on the 
surface of the sea, the growing ripples are, as the wind continues, 
hurried onwards, increasing both in length and breadth, and, 
where the water is deep, in velocity of motion, until they become 
the great waves, some fourteen feet high from trough to crest, which 
we see on our coast during a storm, and finally, if they have a 
fair field, develop into ocean billows, twenty-six feet high in the 


: a ‘Atlantic, forty feet high in the Southern Ocean. In the open sea 
_ the water is not carried forward by this wave motion. We may 


watch the sea-bird rise and fall as the wave passes under her. 


idole not e SN on its summit. But when the wave | 


1878. | Physiography. 667 


reaches shoal-water, in the neighborhood of land, the lower part is 
retarded by friction against the bottom, while the upper part hurries 
on, and the wave breaks, and rushes up the shore, the under 
water racing back and tearing up the beach in its backward 
course. It is in this way that the sea has such power in grinding 
down the rocky materials which fall to the base of our island 
cliffs. Along the Chesil Beach the pebbles are carried forward 
fifteen miles by the action of the waves, and as they grind over 
each other in their westward course, they become smaller and 
smaller. 

Here then we obtain an answer to the second part of our ques- 
tion: What are the waves doing? They are beating backwards 
and forwards the matter which falls from the cliffs, until it is 
broken up and rolled into a rounded pebbly beach. But they are 
doing more than this. They are battering at the cliff itself, and £ 
aided by rain, and frost, and wind, are eating away our island 

_ Shores. The force with which the waves dash against the cliffs is 
at times enormous, having been known to reach a pressure of 
more than three tons on the square foot. During the hurricane 
which swept over Barbardoes in 1780, cannon which had long 
been lying sunk were washed far up on the shore. 

In some parts of England the sea is advancing rapidly on the 
land. Prof. Huxley, in his excellent little book on Physiography,? 
quotes, as an instance, the fact that Reculver. church, which in 
the time of Henry VIII, was a mile from the sea, is now only 
preserved from the destructive action of the waves by a stone 
breakwater made by the Trinity Board. Not long ago, I walked 
along the coast from Herne Bay to the Reculvers. The rapidity 
of the waste was clear. In many places portions of the path had 
been carried away. Masses of grass-covered earth, lying at the 
foot of the vertical portion of the cliff, showed how recent had been 
the precipitation from above ; while the clean-cut face of the cliff, 
and the sharp forms of the projecting ridges and pinnacles of the 
clay showed that since they were left in their present position, — 
they had not suffered for long the attacks of rain and wind. — 
Great cracks at the surface, here and there, showed that destruc- 
tive action was still in progress; and when I looked at the lately 
fallen blocks of earth below, I felt that it was possible that the 
grass tufts, on which I stood, might be the next to fall amidst the 


1 8vo. pp. 384, with 5 plates and 122 woodcuts (Macmillan & Co., London, 1878). : : : 


668 Physiography. [ October, 


ruins beneath me. But though the action of the weather was 
thus clear, the sea-waves, which alone permitted that action to 
continue, were not idle. The brown color of the sea for some 
distance from the shore gave evidence of this, and while I stood 
upon the beach, I saw several projecting blocks of clay wasted by 
more than half. 

In Scotland and Wéstern England, where the rocks are hard, 
the advance of the sea upon the land is quite imperceptible. All 
the beauties of our coast scenery, our bold headlands and sweep- 
ing bays, result from this unequal action of the sea upon the 
harder and softer rocks of which our island is built up. But little 
observation is necessary to make it clear that, along any coast-line, 
the promontories are composed of hard rock, the bays of a softer 
material. Sea-side scenery is, therefore, a joint preduct of wave ac- 
tion and the geological structure of the coast. We must not forget, 
however, that it is only along its margin, where it beats upon 
the shore-line, that the sea is an agent of denudation. Through- 
out its great extent the ocean is the area of deposit and construc- 
tion, just as the land is the area of destruction and waste. Be- 
neath the sea the products of that waste come to rest. Strange 
as it sounds, the sea is the cradle of the land. Beneath the 
waters of the ocean are formed those layers of sediment which 
will some day be raised above the waters to form the framework 
of new continents. 

From the answer to our first question, then, we learn that the 
waves are advancing upon the land, and thus producing our coast 
scenery, and that they are caused by the winds. 

Let us next consider the streamlet at our feet. What is it do- 
ing, and how comes it here? That little streamlet, if we will but 
listen to it, can tell us much about what the great rivers of the 
earth are doing. Let us learn from it. In the first place, then, 
we see that this miniature river! is gradually changing its course. 
The main current strikes against one bank more than the other. 
The result is that this bank is forced to recede. Its tiny cliffs are 
undermined by the action of the stream, and the upper portions, 
now and again, topple over with a little splash into the water. 
Here we have in miniature that which may be seen on an enor- 
mous: scale on the Mississippi and the Amazons. Large vessels 
may there be made to rock by the waves created by the fall of 


7 Miniature Physical Geology, Nature, March 8, 1877. 


1878. ] Physiography. 669 


great masses of the concave bank, the river having in this way ad- 
vanced upon the land hundreds of yards, and, in some cases, even, 
several miles, within the memory of living men. 

This shows how a stream cuts its way sideways into the land. 
This is not, however, the most important part of what a river 
does. If we follow our stream a little way inland, we shall discover 
that it cuts its way downwards and cuts it way dackwards. Both 
modes of action go on, asa rule, at the same time ; but some- 
times one, sometimes the other, is most obvious. Of the first, the 
Cañon of the Colorado offers an example on the grandest scale. 
This great ravine is about three hundred miles long and, in 
places, more than a mile deep. There can be no doubt that it ‘ha 
been entirely cut down into the desert plateau by the action of the 
river. How this was effected we learn, to some extent, from the 
following sentence in the American report on the river, “ The 
water of the Colorado,” says the reporter, “ holds in suspension 
a large amount of fine siliceous sand, sharp as emery, that eats 
away the valves” (connected with the machinery of the steamer) 
“as rapidly as it could be done with a file.” It has probably 
been with the aid of this sand that the river has cut down its deep 
trench. 

Of a river cutting its way backwards, the Niagara is the grand- 
est example. At the Falls the water tumbles over a ledge of lime- 
stone which rests on a thickness of shales. By the action of the 
spray which rises from the waterfall, and partly by the power of frost, 
the shale is rotted away, and thus the limestone is undermined. 
It is in part owing to the undermining action, that visitors can pro- 
ceed a little way under the Falls. To do so is well worth a wetting; 
a whole river takes its mighty leap, and falls with a bewildering 
roar at your very feet, and if it be winter giant icicles hang above 
your head. When the “ under-cutting” has gone on fora certain 
time, huge blocks of the limestone tumble with a crash to the base 
of the waterfall. In this way the Falls of Niagara are working 
backwards, at the rate of about one foot a year, towards Lake 
Erie. Only the other day it was stated in Mature that, on No- 
vember 17, 1877, a large section of the rock towards the Canada 
shore fell with a tremendous crash, and that during the Ee > a 
still larger area went down. 

But what becomes of all the material dug out by the stream as 
it cuts its way sideways, or downwards, or backwards? If we 


670 Physiography. [ October, 


watch any little rill which falls into a pool on the sea-shore, we 
shall soon find out. We shall see that the sand and other material 
which it carries are built up into a little delta, while some of the 
finest material is spread at large over the bottom of the pool. 
Large rivers carry vast quantities of mud and sand and silt (much 
of which is washed off the land by the rain) to the sea. Experi- 
ments of mine on the Thames, at Surbiton, show that in fine 
weather, when the river was low and fairly clear, solid matter in 
suspension was being carried seawards at the rate of 9767 tons per 
annum ; while, when the river.was in extreme flood, matter at the 
rate of 524,940 tons per annum was passing in this way down to- 
wards the sea. With the great rivers of the world of course the 
amounts are still more enormous. Sir Charles Lyell calculated 
“that if a fleet of more than eighty Indiamen, each freighted with 
about 1,400 tons weight of mud, were to sail down the Ganges 
every hour of every day and night for four months continuously, 
they would only transport from the higher country to the sea a 
mass of solid matter equal to that borne down by the Ganges in 
the four months of flood season.” All the matter carried down 
in this way is built up, layer upon layer, into a vast delta deposit, 
or strewn over the bed of the ocean. Of such layers much of the 
crust of the earth, the sand and clay at the top of the cliff behind 
us for example, is composed. 

But besides the matter carried down by rivers in suspension, a 
vast amount is carried down in solution. Take the Thames for 
example. For every grain transported mechanically, more than 
twenty grains are carried down chemically. Every gallon con- 
tains some twenty grains of lime salts, and about two grains of 
common table salt, or chloride of sodium. These also are carried 
out into the sea, in which the chloride of sodium, along with cer- 
tain other salts, accumulates on the evaporation of the water, and 
thus forms the brine of the ocean, while the carbonate of calcium 
is separated by living creatures and built up into some sort of 
pure limestone. Of such limestones also much of the crust of 


_ the earth, the chalk of the cliff behind us for example, is com- 


| Rose: 
We have thus seen what the streamlet is doing. It is aiding 


: the rivers of the world to carve out valleys, and it is carrying sea- 


vards- the fine mud and sand which result from its own work an 
that of min, to Sn ie to abe pamework ofa future continent. 


1878. ] Phystography. 671 


And how comes it here? Directly or indirectly from rainfall. 
Whether its source be a spring, or the collected waters from a 
sloping hill-side, it matters not. Without rainfall, such as is now 
pouring from the distant storm-cloud, the streamlet could have 
had no existence. 

Another question therefore suggests itself: What is this rain- 
fall doing, and how comes it here? If we walk along the shore 
for a little distance, we may perhaps see (if there is beneath the 
cliffs any clayey material containing flat stones) small pillars of 
earth, each capped by one of these flat stones. These are little 
monuments of rain action. Rain falls upon the surface and runs 
off towards lower levels; as it runs, however, it carries with it a 
little of the fine clayey material. Thus it lowers the surface. But 
where there is a flat stone, the surface is protected from the soft- 
ening action of raindrops, just as a house is protected by its roof. 
The soil beneath the stone is not carried away, and the miniature 
earth pillar stands out as a monument. In Switzerland there are, 
in several places, earth pillars fifty or sixty feet high, which have 
been formed in this way. 

But it is not only where there are earth pillars that the rain is 
exercising a denuding action upon the land. If we go out into 
the fields on any rainy day, we may watch how the soil is liter- 
ally flowing downwards to the sea. Few fields are perfectly flat, 
and the rain which falls upon the surface tends to drain off at the 
lowest possible level. But if we examine the water which is thus 
on its way down the field, we shall at once see that it is not clear, 
that it carries with it some of the soil. Much of the rain, of 
course, sinks into the ground. But before it does so it is nearly 
sure to trickle a foot or two over the surface. Even if it only 
runs a few inches, it must bear with it some of the soil for this 
distance, and there leave it. If the rainfall continue, the soil is 
soon carried a few inches further; and it always travels in one 
direction from higher to lower levels. Our field may be separated 
at its lower end from another by a wall, which will check the 
downward progress of the soil. If this be so, we shall often find 
that, from the accumulation of this soil, a child may look over 
the wall on that side of it which faces up hill, while a full-grown 
man may have to stand on tiptoe to gain the same advantage on 
the lower side. Or perhaps at the bottom of the field there may 
be a ditch; that ditch may communicate with a streamlet, and the | 


672 - Physiography. [October, 


streamlet fall into a river. Some of the soil of the field is thus 
carried by every heavy shower of rain into the ditch, and thence 
into the river. After a wet day we shall find that all the tiny 
rills, the little rivulets, the streams, and the great rivers them- 
selves, are muddy and thick. This mud is nearly all derived from 
the soil of the land which lies in the river-valley. Thus the land 
is always flowing downwards to the sea; not a particle can get up 
again when once it has flowed even a few feet in its downward 
course; and this action is going on Wherever rain falls upon the 
ata of the land. 

But though the surface layer is, in this way, being constantly 
washed off the fields, the soil does not lessen in quantity. For 
as fast as material is carried away by the rain, so fast does the 
same agent, aided by weathering action, prepare fresh soil, to be 
treated in a similar manner. At the same time we must remem- 
ber that, though the amount of soil does not grow less, the 
amount of land above the waters of the ocean does diminish. 
Does this seem strange? A rough analogy may serve to make 
it clear. A man possesses a certain amount of money, most of 
which is in the bank, and a small amount for immediate use in his- 
waistcoat pocket. As fast as his ready cash disappears he draws 
a check on his banker, and in this way his waistcoat pocket has a 
more or less constant supply. Practically speaking, therefore, his 
ready cash does not diminish, though his balance at the bankers 
does not remain equally constant, but decreases day by day, at a 
rate which would shortly lead to bankruptcy if he were not care- 
ful that there should be a supply equal to the demand. Now the 
soil is the ready cash, and the strata of England the balance at 
the bank. Rainfall is continually tending to diminish the amount 
of soil or ready cash, which is made good by a fresh supply from 
the bank. It is perfectly obvious, however, that the balance at 
the bankers must decrease, and that in the course of ages England 
must be entirely washed away into the sea of geological bank- 
ruptcy unless the bank receive a fresh supply; unless, in other 
words, by the force of elevation, fresh land be raised from time to 
time above the waters of the ocean. 

With regard to the influence of rain on the physical aspect ofa a 
country, it may be said that viewed ona large scale and ina 
_ general way, this agent exercises a softening effect on scenery ; in 
those areas where the strata are of a soft and easily yielding 


1878.] | Physiography. 673 


nature, the work of rain as an earth-sculptor is to cause the land 
to assume a gently undulating form, and to extend in dveadth those 
valleys which rivers are always tending to extend in depth. On 
those rocks, however, which are of a harder nature, rain has less 
absolute power, but even here it renders the scenery less rugged ; 
less sublime perhaps, but more beautiful. 
nd how comes this rain? We know that it falls from the 
clouds. We know too that these clouds are formed when the air 
above is cooled so much that it can no longer hold in solution all 
the vapor of water which it has borne in an invisible form from 
afar. The rain, therefore, comes from the vapor of water existing 
in the wind. And how comes it to exist in the wind? It is 
obtained from the Atlantic Ocean. Thither then we must travel 
in thought and try and picture to ourselves what takes place when 
the visible liquid water is converted into the invisible gaseous 
vapor of water. Now it is quite evident that some force is over- 
come—some binding force which drew the particles of water 
Closely together. This force is cohesion. It may be likened to a 
strong man who holds the watery particles in bondage, not indeed 
so severe as that of the terrible ice-king of the Arctic and Ant- 
arctic regions, for they are allowed free motion among each other 
and are not locked in the solid state, but still dondage chaining 
them down to the limits of the ocean. This strong man will not 
loose his grip until he be conquered by a stronger than he; and on 
the Atlantic he meets with that stronger man whom we call heat. 
Sun-heat sets free the particles of water from the bondage of 
cohesion, and allows them to escape into theair. But the mastery 
is not gained without an effort, and the value of this effort has 
been calculated. To emancipate nine pounds weight of water 
particles, an amount of energy has to be expended, equal to that 
of lifting a ton to the top of a precipice 2900 feet high? But just 
as, when two wrestlers struggle together, neither can master the 
other without a true waste of his substance taking place, a waste 
that has ere long to be made good by the absorption of a certain 
amount of mutton or beef, so too on the Atlantic, during the 
struggle between cohesion and heat, a certain amount of the lat- 
ter is consumed and disappears. The amount of heat so expended 
has also been calculated. In setting free nine pounds of water 
particles an amount of heat disappears sufficient to fuse forty-five 
pounds of cast iron : 


1 These are two different ways of stating the same fact. 


674 Physiography. [ October, 


To take leave of metaphor, this amount of heat is expended in 
overcoming cohesion and tearing asunder the particles of water. 


The vapor particles thus formed, kept separate from each other - 


by heat, are carried by the wind to our shores; there the air in 
which they float is cooled; the heat is now insufficient to over- 
come the force of cohesion, and the water particles, no longer 
held apart, clash together, and as they do so they generate by the 
shock as much heat as was expended before in tearing them 
asunder. All the heat which disappeared—was rendered latent or 
hidden—when the vapor of water was raised from the Atlantic, is 
set free or rendered sensible when condensation takes place. For 
every nine pounds of weight of cloud formed in our skies, an 
amount of heat is set free sufficient to melt forty-five pounds of 
cast iron. 

A valuable lesson may rke learned from this behavior of water 
and water vapor. When the liquid water became gaseous vapor 
a certain amount of heat energy disappeared. But it was not 
destroyed. It was converted into another form of energy which 
we may call the energy of separation. The particles were forci- 
bly separated from one another, and a certain amount of energy 
was necessary to keep them apart. Presently, however, they 
clashed together again and the energy of separation was recon- 
verted into the energy of heat. The amount of heat given out 
was exactly equal to the amount of sun-heat absorbed. Day by 
day fresh experiment and observation make clearer this great law 
of nature : that by no means at our disposal can we either destroy 
or create energy. We may change it in a number of ways. We 
may convert chemical separation into electricity, this into mechani- 
cal motion, and mechanical motion into heat. But we can neither 
call into existence or put out of existence any portion of the 
energy of the universe, any more than we can call into existence 
or put out of existence any portion of the matter of the universe. 

One more fact must be noticed. Though the same amoùnt of 
heat is given out by the condensation of the aqueous vapor as 
was absorbed on the Atlantic during its formation, it is no longer 
useful in the same way. It does not possess the power of again 
converting water into water vapor. It has become degraded. It 


a is the same in amount, but different in value. The water which i 4 


turns a mill i is the same in amount whether it lies above or below 
water-wheel, PN it differs a in value. That above the 


PRN Ee LIES: OM S Oe RE G OTT E p ES 


1878. | Physiography. 675 


mill is useful to the miller, that below the mill is useless. It is 
the same with energy. Just as water tends to run down from 
higher to lower levels, so does energy tend to run down from 
higher to lower forms. All forms of energy tend to be degraded 
to heat uniformly diffused throughout space. 

To the energy of sun-heat, then, we owe the existence of vapor 
of water in the wind. And to what do we owe the wind itself? 
To the same cause. On any winter's evening, the colder the bet- 
ter, we may make the following experiment, first performed by 
Franklin: When the dining-room is warm but the hall outside 


cold, we may throw open the door to its full extent. On holding 


a lighted candle in the doorway near the top, we shall find that 
the flame is blown outwards ; on holding it near the bottom, we 
shall find that it is blown inwards; midway between the top and 
the floor the flame will burn steadily. The cause of this is obvious 
when we remember that warm air is lighter than cold air. When 
the door is opened warm air rushes out near the top, and to sup- 
ply its place cold air rushes inwards along the floor. The two 
currents are divided by a calm 

At the seaside we may watch the same sort of experiment per- 
formed on a larger scale by nature. In settled summer weather 
sailors count on a sea-breeze in the morning, and a breeze from 
the land at night. The cause of these land and sea-breezes, with 
which every yachtsman is acquainted, is simple. In the morning 
the sun shines alike on land and sea, the land, however, most 
readily takes up the undulations of heat. The air above the land 
thus warmed expands, and forms an upward current, while a 
refreshing breeze comes along the surface from the sea, just as a 
cold current passed along the floor from the hall. 

At nightfall the reverse is the case. The sun withdraws his 
rays from land and sea; but the land, which was the first to be 
heated in the morning, is the first to cool in the evening. Soon 
it is as cool as the sea. Ere long it has become colder than the 
sea. And the current now sets outwards from the land. We have 
changed the conditions. We have brought a refrigerator into the 
dining-room, and the lower cold current now sets outwards into 
the hall. It is, of course, under ordinary conditions, only the un- 
der current which we on the earth feel. The upper current is far 
above our heads. A French balloonist (Tissondier) rose from 
Calais into the upper current, and was carried far out to sea; on 


VOL. XII.—NO X. 46 


od 


676 Physwgraphy. [ October, 


descending he entered the under current, which bore him safely 
back to Calais. 

The same laws are seen in operation in the Indian Ocean. 
There for half the year the North-east Monsoon which blows from 
the continent of Asia is the prevalent wind. During-the summer, 
however, it is forced back by a South-west wind, caused by the 
great upward draught over the glowing plains of Central Asia. 

Far away on the broad Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, we may see 
the same thing on a scale so magnificent as to form a healthy and 
vigorous circulation for the whole world. In the great system of 
winds, of which the trade winds are the most constant, we have 
mighty currents of air which sweep from pole to pole, and are the 
very life of the earth over which they pursue their ceaseless course. 

Thus the existence of the winds is due to sun-heat. 

Let us pause here fora moment to see what we have learnt. 
We have seen that the waves which beat on our shores, and de- 
nude our coast-lines, are due to the winds; that the rivers which 
cut down trenches into the earth are due to rain, which is itself 
brought to us as vapor of water by the winds; and we have seen 
that both the formation of water-vapor, and the existence of the 
winds, are due to sun-heat. This sun-heat is therefore the highest 
link we have yet reached in the chain of causation. We have also 
seen incidentally that the sand and clay at the top of the cliff were 
built up of mud and sand grains, carried down mechanically by 
rivers to the sea: and that the chalk has been separated by living 
creatures from the sea-water to which the lime had been carried 
down in solution by rivers. The question—how came this life 
upon the earth ?—now arises. It will not however be discussed 
here. It is enough to state that it is almost universally believed 
by those competent to give an opinion, that all life forms have 
come into being by a process of evolution from primitive organic 
germs. It may be noticed, however, that all life, whether vegeta- 
ble or animal, is made possible only by solar energy. Animals 
depend on plants, directly or indirectly, both for the food they eat 
and for the air they breathe. In the absence of sunlight plants 
would be unable to decompose the vast quantity of carbonic acid 
which animals breathe forth: and thus ż%eir source of carbon and 


| our source of oxygen would be cut o 


Another question must now be put and shortly answered. os 
3 Their direction i is modified by the rotation of the Earth. 


1878.] Physiography. s677 


sand and clay and chalk which form our cliff were laid down be- 
neath the sea; how come they now to form dry land? Now it is 
clear that one of two things must have taken place: either the- 
level of the sea has been depressed or the land has been 
raised. Geologists do not hesitate to say that it is the land which 
has undergone the change in level, while the sea has remained 
stationary. The sea is, in fact, more stable, more constant, more 
ancient than our oldest continents. All land is, on the other 
hand, subject to changes of level. In the Himalaya mountains 
shells, which once lived in the sea, are found at an elevation of 
16,000 feet above the level of the ocean. The northern part of 
Scandinavia is even now slowly rising, while the southern portion 
is undergoing depression. But how? There lies the question. 
It is now well known that the earth is, in the interior, in an in- 
tensely heated condition. In deep wells and mines the tempera- 
_ture rises about 1° Fah. for every sixty feet we descend. The 
melted lava poured forth during volcanic eruptions gives us some 
idea of the temperature comparatively near the surface. The cen- 
tre of the earth must then be hot beyond conception. But it is 
gradually cooling. Heat is flowing outwards through the crust 
into space: the cooling of the earth is accompanied by contrac- 
tion of the mass of the earth: and unequal contraction produces 
areas of depression and elevation. 
_ Is this clear? Perhaps a comparison of great things with small 
will make it clearer. The human mind seems at times to fail to 
grasp facts which are, in truth, simple, but which from their mag- 
nitude are hard of conception. If, for instance, we stand on a high 
peak and look out over a portion of a great mountain chain, and 
see the grand summits standing out along the central ridge, it is 
difficult to conceive how this grand upheaval could have been pro- 
duced; and perhaps the mind, wearied with the attempt to grap- 
ple with a subject almost too great for its powers, finds relief in 
the thought, that the mighty elevation was due to some great 
cataclysm or convulsion of nature, concerning the cause of which 
—as a matter beyond our ken—it would be rash to speculate. 
And if it were then suggested that mountain chains, such as that 
in the midst of which we were standing, must be the inevitable ` 
result of the contraction of a cooling globe, it may be that our 
understanding would reject a conclusion which it could not at — 
once grasp, | : 


678 - Physiography. [ October, 


But if when we have left the mountain top, we take up a with- 
ered apple of last year’s growth, the consideration of its surface 
may help us to understand that which before was so hard to com- 
prehend. When we plucked that apple, a year ago, its surface 
was smooth, and the skin was stretched tightly over the fruit be- 
neath. But since that time the apple has shrunk in size, the fruit 
having contracted within the skin, which, no longer css and 
glossy, is now wrinkled and puckered up. 

But just as in the apple, so too in our planet, there is an inner 
portion which is contracting, and an outer portion which does 
not shrink: and as surely as the earth is losing heat by radia- 
tion into space, her mass contracting and her size growing less, 
so surely must the outer portion become puckered up, the most 
prominent wrinkles forming what we call mountain ranges. 

While san-heat, therefore, enables rain, rivers, and the sea to de- 
nude the land and to combine in the formation of new continents, 
earth-heat causes a fresh supply of land to be raised above the 
waters. Were it not for this earth-heat, England, as already, 
mentioned, would during the course of geological time be en- 
tirely washed into the ocean of geological bankruptcy. All geo- 
logical action, except that due to the tides, is brought about by 
sun-heat or by earth-heat. — 

Before inquiring what is the cause of this sun-heat and this 
earth-heat, there is one more question to be answered. Of what 

`- does the air, the water, the cliff, ultimately consist? Are earth, 
air, and water, as the ancients believed, elements? No. The air 
is composed chiefly of a mixture of a gas called nitrogen with 
one-fifth of its volume of oxygen. It is not difficult, as will be 
seen in Professor Huxley’s book, for the chemist in his labora- 
tory to separate these two gases. Nor has he much difficulty in 
splitting up water into the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen; 
while the further task of ascertaining of what the solid crust of 
the earth is composed, though it requires more labor, is by no 
means beyond his powers. But whereas water contains but two 
elements, in the solid crust of the earth there are about sixty-five. 
= But what are these elements? They are simple bodies which 
os resist every effort of the chemist to decompose them into simpler 
_ bodies. Many chemists, however, believe that, though we can- 
not by any means at our disposal thus split them up, this is only 
ause me means at our a are limited, and that, at an 


1878. ] : Phystography. 679 


intensely high temperature, all would be found to consist of one 
primitive form of elementary matter. 

One of the most striking results of modern scientific inquiry is 
the discovery, by means of the spectroscope, that there exists in 
the sun’s photosphere some sixteen or seventeen at least of the 
so-called elements, with which we are acquainted on the surface 
of our earth. Herein lies one of those many bonds, by which we 
are connected with our central luminary. The cause of these 
bonds; the origin of sun-heat and earth-heat; and of the sun and 
the earth themselves, now require elucidation. 

According to the now-generally-accepted theory, known as the 
Nebular Hypothesis of Kant and Laplace (and it must be noted 
that we are here passing from the well known to the less known), 
- our solar system was formed from a diffuse nebulous mass. We 
must imagine that this rotating spheroid mass once extended to 
the furthest limits of the solar system, beyond the orbit of 
Neptune. It radiated heat freely into space, and under the force 
of gravitation underwent contraction. And as it contracted it left 
behind it rings of vapor which, breaking up, formed secondary 
rotating spheroids, themselves contracting, themselves leaving be- 
hind them rings, forming tertiary spheroids, themselves passing in 
their orbits round the central mass. That central spheroid mass 
is the sun; one of the secondary rotating spheroids is the earth, 
the moon being a tertiary spheroid. The earth-planet thus formed 
was gaseous; but as time rolled on, it passed through the liquid 
state, to the more or less solid state, which it at present possesses. 

Sun-heat is therefore the result of the condensation of the 
primary spheroid: earth-heat the remnant of that produced by 
the condensation of a secondary nebulous spheroid. 

And now comes the question, how was the rotating nebulous 
spheroid formed? 

If we take a small piece of lead and deal it a number of heavy 
blows with a hammer, we shall find that the lead becomes hot. 
If we continue to hammer for ten minutes, we shall find that the 
lead becomes too hot to hold. Now what is the cause of the 
heating of the lead. Simply this: when the lead is struck, the 
motion of the hammer is suddenly stopped; but the motion is 
taken up in a new form by the particles of the lead, and this new 
form of motion is heat. The visible motion of the hammer is 
converted into the invisible molecular motion of heat; for heat is- 
simply the rapid vibration of the ultimate particles of matter. 


680 Phystography. [ October, 


When a bullet is shot from a rifle against an iron target, the 
rapidity of the motion is suddenly arrested; heat is developed ; 
and this heat may in some cases be sufficient to melt the point of 
the bullet. In the same way the immense iron shot, hurled from 
our modern pieces of ordnance, cannot fail to be intensely heated, 
when they strike against the sides of such a ship as the /uflexible. 
It is quite conceivable that a shot or bullet of lead might be pro- 
jected with such violence as to be, not only fused, but converted 
into vapor on striking the target. For when the motion of heat 
becomes extremely violent, the particles of matter are shaken 
asunder, and a vapor is formed. 

We may take the velocity of a rifle bullet to be 225 feet in a 
second. The velocity at which the earth moves through space, 
as she travels round the sun, is about nineteen miles in a second. 
If we imagine that the earth were suddenly to strike a huge 
target, the heat generated would be sufficient, not only to fuse 
the earth, but to reduce it in great part to vapor. “The amount 
of heat thus developed would be equal to that derived from the 
combustion of fourteen globes of coal, each equal to the earth in 
magnitude. And if, after the stoppage of her motion, the earth 
should fall into the sun, as it assuredly would, the amount of heat 
generated by the blow would be equal to that developed by the 
combustion of 5600 worlds of solid carbon.” 

Now, it is supposed by Dr. Croll and others (and here, be it 
noticed, we pass to the still less known; to the purely hypothe- 
tical, but still conceivable), that the nebulous mass from which the 
solar system has been evolved resulted from the collision in space 
of two vast masses moving at great velocity. Each of these 
masses may be supposed to have developed from a -nebulous 
mass, in the same way that the solar system has itself developed. 
Such nebulous masses were endowed with that high form of 
_ energy, which may be termed, generally, the energy of separation. 
But we have seen that this and all other intermediate forms of 
energy tend to run down, and be degraded to heat uniformly 
distributed throughout space. Some men of science tell us that 
this will be the ultimate condition of the energy of the universe. 
They tell us that the planets will fall into the sun, and that thus 


ee the matter of the solar system will be aggregated into one mass, 


that this mass coming into collision with another mass similarly 
ormed will produce the nebulous spheroid from which another 


1878. | Physiography. 681 


system greater and grander than ours will be formed, and that 
so the same thing will go on until all the matter of the universe 
is aggregated into one mass, and all the energy of the universe is 
converted into uniformly diffused heat. 

But here have transcended the powers of the human intellect. 
We have reached that thin atmosphere in which we can no longer 
build. We have traced the chain of causation as far as we are able. 
We have reached the Unknowable. When we seek to go further; 
when we inquire what is matter, what is force, what is the ether 
through which force acts on matter, what is the space in which co- 
existences are manifested, and the #me in which sequencesare mani- 
fested ; when we inquire what is consciousness, what is the shought 
by which we are able to trace to some extent the chain of causa- 
tion, we are met by alternative contradictories. We are in the — 
presence of the Mystery of Mysteries. Let us humbly, modestly, 
truthfully confess our ignorance. 

It may, perhaps, be said that there is much in the foregoing 
pages that is quite out of place in the Geological Magazine— 
much about wind and aqueous vapors, the Nebular Hypothesis 
and the Unknowable. But is it out of place? If there be any 
truth in my opening paragraph—that just as an artist has now 
and again to view his picture from a distance, so does the man of 
science have from time to time to take a comprehensive survey of 
his subject—No. In any consideration, however imperfect, of the 
work which Geology is doing for Modern Philosophy, we must 
weave that work into the general picture presented by the study 
of Nature. This I have attempted to do. In the place I have 
endeavored to point out the law of causation ; that all that we see 
about us has been caused in some way or other. In most cases, 
from the nature of the subject, this law of causation has been 
illustrated qualitatively ; but in the case of the formation of water- 
vapor the quantitative truth of the law has been indicated; and 
the law of the conservation of energy briefly alluded to. In the 
second place I have tried to show, as far as was possible in the 
space at my command, how the crust of the Earth has been built 
up by the mechanical agency of rivers, forming deltas, and the vital 
agency of simply-constituted creatures. By these two agencies 
nearly all the rocks have been formed, with the exception of salt, 
and, perhaps, magnesian limestone, which are due to chemical 
agency. By the action of earth-heat and other causes, however, 


682 Recent Literature. [ October, 


some of these rocks have been so altered that their original 
source is scarcely, if at all recognizable. How this earth-heat has 
raised the strata, thus formed beneath the sea, above the waters 
of the ocean, has been pointed out; and the action of the sea- 
waves, and of rain and rivers in carving out the face of the coun- 
try, horizontally and vertically, has been indicated. In tracing 
the chain of causation from the well-known to the Unknow- 
able, I have not followed the example set by Prof. Huxley 
in the excellent little book which bears the same title as this 
article. In these days, however, when we hear so much of the 
“pride of Science,” it is well to point out that in the study of 
Nature we reach at last ultimate questions, with respect to which 
we must one andall confess with modest humility that we are and 
must be ignorant. Finally, in making each fact the effect of one 
which had gone before it, in time, and the cause of one which fol- 
lowed, I have aimed at that organization of knowledge, without 
which any number of accumulated facts are but isolated pieces 
of general information— Geological Magazine. 


10: 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


BREHM’S ANIMAL Lire.'\—The third volume of this interesting 
series, which is to comprise in all ten large octavo volumes, 1s at 
hand, and perhaps the present one is as valuable and entertaining 
as any, since it treats of the horses and Ruminants, and the seals 
and Cetacea. There are one hundred and twenty wood-cuts of 


the same general excellence as those which appear in this notice, - 


and there are besides twenty-one full-page plates; those of the 
Shetland pony, zebra, ibex, jak, stag, bison, rhinoceros, wild boar 
and sea lions being especially attractive, and apparently faithful 
studies by the most eminent German zodlogical artists. Among 
the wood-cuts the antelopes, elands, spring-bock, hartebeest and 
their allies, are well rendered. The figures that we have selected 
are fair examples of the artistic work. The American reader will 
find that some of the characteristic ruminants of his country are 
well drawn, as in the Rocky Mountain sheep (Fig. 1), and the 
musk ox (Fig. 2), The hippopotamus is well drawn, especially 
_ its head and face, and its skeleton (Fig. 3.) is represented, while 


oe the account of it by Dr. Brehm is detailed and fresh. The 


1Brehm’s Thierleben. Allegemeine Kunde des Thierreichs. Grosse Ausgabe. 
_ Zweite | beitete und vermehrte Auflage. Erste Abtheilung. Sdugethiere. — 
Dritter Band. Leipzig, 1877, 8vo. For sale by B. Westerman & Co., New York, at 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 683 


excellent drawing of the walrus is too large for us to reproduce 
in these pages, but as a skeleton has lately been exhumed at 
Portland, Maine, and skulls have occurred as far south as Vir- 
ginia, and are likely to occur at other points, we have, by permis- 
sion of the publishers inserted a figure of the skeleton (Fig. 4). 
The chapter on the Szvenza is full and entertaing, the dugong 
of the East Indian seas (Fig. 5.) is apparently well drawn, as is 


ee 
Fic. 1—The Rocky Mountain Sheep. 


the lamantin or manatee of South America. While the account 
of the latter animal is fair, the northern limits of its distribution 
in Florida is not given, nor are the statements of American 
authors referred to. Steller’s manatee (RAytina Stelleri) is de- 
scribed in a popular way, but the opportunity of giving a good 
figure of this extinct Sirenian, if that were possible, is not taken. 

he Cetaceans receive fair treatment, and there are several good 
illustrations of them. 


684 Recent Literature. [ October, 


| \\} i N LJ- } i Ņ ) 
\\\ À (i \ \ UA MIN | h \ £ 
ANERUS ET VAEA rt OONN 
AWAPA aa US URAN ie fa 
A eaa 


ATO i 
Ke ay WEN — 


$y 


Fic. 2.—The Musk Ox. 


E 


hie 
ce 


Fic. 3.—Skeleton of the Hippopotamus. 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 685 


l 
3 
4 


Fic. 4.—Skeleton of the Walrus. 


LWA 
Ae ee 
dji 


E = 
j EN 
RY Ma 


Fic. §.—The Dugong. 


is work has been very highly commended by Darwin, 
Haeckel, Leuckart and others, and it is the most authoritative 
popular illustrated work of the kind. 


686 Recent Literature. [ October, 

Gray’s FLORA oF NORTH America.\—All botanists will accept 
with sincere thankfulness this beginning of the new “ Flora.” A 
beginning at the middle, indeed, yet not a “beginning of the 
end;’ but so that the work be done the order of its doing may 
well be left to his choice who is looked upon with one accord as 
the only one competent for its proper performance. If a prefer- 
ence might be expressed in regard to it, it would doubtless be 
that Dr. Gray would see fit to give next a revision of what is by 
far the most intricate and difficult of all the orders of our flora, 
viz: the Composite. No portion of the proposed volumes is more 
needed by botanists or will be more acceptable, and in none is 
Dr. Gray more truly the sole authority. As he has recently gone 
over a considerable portion of the ground in his work for .the 
“ Botany of California,” this would be all the easier for him. 

In looking over the present issue, some peculiarities of arrange- 
ment at once attract attention. There are no artificial keys either 
to genera or species. Under each order the ordinal character is 
followed by a synopsis of the genera, with concise but essentially 
complete characters, grouped together not only by sub-orders or 
tribes (where such exist), but also by minor subdivisions, and 
under characteristic headings, thus avoiding repetition, and lead- 
ing most directly to the genus sought. When the genus itself is 


characters in common. The specific descriptions themselves are 

full, but without redundancy or needless repetition. Of their 

technical accuracy and finish it is unnecessary to speak. It may 

perhaps be questioned whether it would not have been well, at 

least in the larger genera, to have subjected the species to the 

same process as the genera themselves. One would imagine that 

what is best in the one case should be best in the other also. 

_ Experience in the use of the book should determine. As com- 

pared with the “ Manual” the descriptions are much fuller, and 

yet, even with the additional synonyms, etc., the species occupy 

_ on the average but little more space. A synoptical key to the orders 

~ has been omitted, doubtless because it will come more properly 

in the’ first volume at the beginning of the Gamopetale, of which 
_ we have here only the concluding portion. 

1 Synoptical Flora ar Nori America. By Asa Gray, LL.D., F.M.R.S. and L.S. 

Oy: -t i 


= Hill. Leipsic, T. O. Weigel. May, 1878. 


‘ 


. New York, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co, London, Triibner & Co., ae 


* 


1878 . Recent Literature. 687 


Much care has evidently been taken in the selection of the type 
used for different purposes, and in the general “get up” of the 
book. It is a satisfaction to see that Dr. Gray has not counte- 
nanced, in the writing of botanical names, the methods of punctu- 
ation and the disuse of capital letters. so generally favored by ` 
American zodlogists and entomologists, and which some would 
force upon our botanists. Whatever may be the rules of punctu- 
ation in Latin or in the Continental languages, in the use of the 
English language the same principles should apply in writing 
upon botany as upon other subjects. In general, thus far, this has 
been the case. English-writing botanists, and most English Latin- 
writing botanists, as well, have been united in their adhesion to 
English customs in this matter, and it is to be hoped that they 
will so remain. 

The portion of the gamopetalous flora here described includes 
1560 native species, belonging to 298 genera. The introduced 
plants add twenty-six genera and ninety-six species. A compari- 
son with the number of species native to the region covered by 
the “ Manual” (as given in the second edition) makes the prob- 
able entire number of phenogamous species in North America to 
lie between nine and ten thousand. The same conclusion is 
deduced from the number of polypetalous species as enumerated 
in the “ Bibliographical Index.” The mean result from the two 
comparisons is 9,378 species, so that 10,000 is very probably a 
7 approximate limit. Of the 298 genera, 120 have only a 

ngle species each. By far the most important order is that of 
vig Scrophulariacee, containing 38 genera and 315 species, the 
next in order being the Ladiate, with 37 genera, but only 189 
species. These orders, with the Ericacee, Borraginacee, Hydro- 
phyllacee and Polemoniacee, include nearly half of the genera and 
over three-fifths of the species. The largest genera are Pentstemon 
with 71, Gita with 70, and Phacelia with 56 species. 

As regards the distribution of this flora, it appears from a very 
cursory examination that it divides readily into an eastern, a cen- 
tral and a western section. The first may be considered as cov- 


Atlante States. Of the nae 450 species, 28 are high 
northern and do not enter the United States, 8 are Mexican and 
not yet found within our limits, 290 are mainly soutien: belong- 


ing to the warmer and dryer interior, and 103 are ound onlyin © = 


the Rocky Mountains or the cooler region westward to Oregon. 


Had Greenland been included in the limits E by Dr. m : a 2 


688 Recent Literature. | October, 


only two other species (Veronica fruticulosa and Gentiana nivalis) 
would have been added, and of these the latter is reported from 
Labrador 

Numerous additions and changes of nomenclature are made in 
the several sectional floras above mentioned—some of them new, 
‘many to be found in previous publications. About 40 species 
are added to the flora of the southern Atlantic States, chiefly from 
Florida, and nearly 50 species to the flora of California. The 
changes to be noted in the flora of the Northern States as given 
in Gray’s Manual (edition of 1868) are less numerous, but some 
of them one o moment, The following list includes all of the 
more impor 

Phyliodoce pve ifolia is referred, with the other species of the 
genus, to Bryanthus—becoming B. taxifolius, Gray 

The species of Azalea are referred to Dioden: as was 
done by Dr. Torrey over fifty years ago, to whom the species are 
credited. Rhodora Canadensis also becomes Rhododendron Rho- 
dora of Gmelin (Syst. i. 694, 1796), instead of Don as stated. 

The order Aguifoliacee is excluded as belonging rather to the 
polypetalous division. This is likewise the case with the closely 
allied southern order Cyrillee. 

e name Plantago Rugeli, Decaisne, is restored for the plant 
which is referred in the Manual to P. Kamtschatica. P. decipiens, 
Barneoud, is also substituted for P. maritima, var. juncoides, which 
latter species is not found in the Atlantic States. 

The genus Szeironema, Raf., is restored for the section of that 
name under Lysimachia. 

Utricularia striata, LeConte, is referred to U. fibrosa, Walter. 
The questionable species mentioned in the sae at the end of 
the genus is made Var. cletstogama of U. subulat 

Phelipea Ludoviciana becomes Aphyllon e Gray. 

Chelone obliqua, Linn., is added—a bright rose-colored species, 
ranging from Illinois and Virginia to Florida. 

Pentstemon digitalis becomes P. levigatus, Solander 

Gerardia integrifolia, Gray, is G. devigata, Raf, and G. setacea 
(not Walt.) is G. Skinneriana, Woo 
- Bartsia Odontites, Huds., is added as sparingly naturalized on 

our northern coast. 

The varieties of Lycopus Europeus are established as species, 
viz: L. sessilifolius, Gray, L. rubellus, Moench, and L. sinuatus, Ell. 

Pycnanthemum pilosum is made a variety of P. muticum. 

Calamintha Nuttallii, Bente is restored. 
= Monarda clinopodia, ‘Linn., s added, intermediate between M. 
didyma and M. fistulosa; E Physostegia intermedia, Gray, of 
Western Kentucky and south-westwar 4 
Se nee Michx., and S. cordata, Riddell, are ei o 
of 5. Se he var. pan being referred to the 


« 


te 


1 Die 
yeep i. Die Insekten, Von Dr. VITUS GRABER. München, 1877, 12 mo. pp. | 
F S 2 403, 2 I; ji = 


1878. | Recent Literature. 689 


Onosmodium molle is made a variety of O. Carolinianum. 
pages cies cs is referred to L. i ic Nita 


Myosotis palustris, var. laxa, becomes M. laxa, 
Gnoglossum J AN is transferred to SPE eatin as £. 
Virginicum, 


m. 
SUPE R tenellum, Torr., is to be added as found in Ken- 


y- 

Ellisia ambigua is reduced to a form of Æ. Nyctelea 

Phlox ovata, Linn., is restored for the broad- leaved form of P. 
Carolina, while var. nitida is referred to P. glaberrima, var. suffru- 
ticosa, Gray. P. amena, Sims, is substituted for P. procumbens 
(not Lehm.), and P. Stellaria, Gray, is adde 

Diapensia and Pyxidanthera are united with Galax and the 
southern genus Shortia to form the order Diapensiacee. 

Calystegia is returned . CONVENER, where our species were 
originally placed by Linnæ 

The species referred in the “Manual to Bonamia are transferred 


(following Benth. & Hook.) to Breweria, R. Br., as distinguished 


rom Bonamia, Thouars, by the plicate corolla. It is perhaps 
through oversight that the species are not credited to Benth. & 

ook., who Ai to the Manual for the three known North 
American speci 

The perennial Fiore of Physalis are referred to P. Virginica, Mill., 
instead of to P. viscosa, Linn., and to P. lanceolata, Michx., i 
place of P. Pennsyloanica, inn. 

Gentiana detonsa becomes G. serrata, Gunner, and var. “nears 
of G. Saponaria is kept distinct as G. linearis, Fries. The recent 
discovery of G. amarella, var. acuta, in Vermont should be noted. 

Forsteronia difformis is transferred, with some doubt, to Zrache- 
lospermum, Lemaire, a genus of Eastern Asia. 

cerates paniculata is prede to Asclepiodora, a genus proposed 
by Dr. Gray for all the later species of Anantherix, Nutt., which is 
rinte to the single species upon which it was founded. 

Ligustrum vulgare i is inadvertently omitted. 

Americana is separated from Olea, Tourn., by Benth. and 
Hook., and carried to the Chinese genus Osmanthus, Lour.— 
Sereno Watson 


GRABER’S eae 1_The author of this work is Professor of — 
Zodlogy, at the University of Czernowitz, Austria, and is well a =f 
most favorably known by his beautiful and elaborate histologi 
researches on the organs of hearing in insects, and other points 
in their minute anatomy, especially of the digestive canal of or- 
thoptera, &c. The popular work on insects is a comprehensive 
and original treatise on their anatomy, general and minute, | 


physiology and biology. The illustrations are new and es 


Naturkréfte. Eine naturwissenschaftliche Volksbibliothek, xxi, xxii, Band, 


> 


690 Recent Literature. [ October, 


original, and those representing the anatomy and histology of in- 
sects are new and valuable. Especial attention is devoted to the 
mechanics of the appendages as well as the trunk and wings. 
The nervous system is thoroughly discussed, while the structure 
and functions of the organs of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste 
are treated of at length. The portion on reproduction is not so 
original as the rest of the book. The second part is devoted to the 
habits of insects, and is more of a compilation than the first part, 
the author's forte being the anatomy and physiology of mi 
his skill in anatomical drawing being of a high order. The work 
forms the twenty-first and twenty-second volumes of a series val 
popular works on Naturkrafie, a word not easily translated, but 
the series corresponds to the international science series of the 
Appletons. The illustrations are excellent and numerous, being 
a most valuable Pog of the work. 

RECENT Boo —Freie gids und freie Lehre. Eine 
Ranepnatis wif Rudolf Virchow% s Münchener Rede “ Die Freiheit der Wis- 
ee im ote Staat.” Von Ernst Haeckel. tee. o 106, Stuttgart, 1878. 

rom 

Notice sur |’ Habitat = g one du Macroscincus coctei (Euprepes coctei, 
Dum. et Bibr.) Par J. mgood Bocage. 8vo, pp. 12, with photographic 

ut 


Mélange Erpetologiques. Par J. V. Barboza du Bocage. (Ext. do pe. de Sci. 
Math. Phys. e Naturales, Lisboa, 1873.) 8vo, pp. 24. From the author 
Lista de Mammiferos das popa pee? da Africa occidental e dipae 


AE LEN A 


de algumas especias novas. Pelo W. Peters, Director Mus. Zodl. 
Real de Berlin. (Ext. do Jorn, = “8vo, pp. 5. Lisbon, tiro: From thè 
editor. 


Algumas Teonsideracces acerca da industria piscicola em Portugal. Por F. de 3 
Brito Capello. (Ext. do Jorn. this 8vo, pp. 9. Lisbon, 1876. From the authot. a 

Entomological Notes vi. By Samuel H. Scudder. (Repr. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 
Vol. xix, 1877-78) 8vo, pp. 55. "Boston 1878. From the author. 

AddiGons to the Sota fauna of the Tertiary Beds at Quesnel (British Columbia). 2 
By Samuel H. Scudder. (Ext. Geolog. Surv. Canada. Rep’t of Progress, 1876-77 7) i 
8vo, pp. 8. From oe author, 

‘Psyche. Organ of the Cambridge Entomological Club. ‘en iy ae Pg 46, 
Cambridge, Mass., Jan., Feb., 1878. 8vo, pp. 97-120. From S. H 

Proceedings of the American Association for the pacha et geen 
Treya a held at Nashville, Tenn., Aug., 1877. 8vo, pp. 400. Salem, 

1878. 


ae ee "BEA 


Journal of ca ae Institute. (Third series, Vol. Ixxvi, N o. 2, Aug., 1878.) a 

_ From the Ins ; 
"Die Reptile ien T Fische der Böhmischen Kreideformation. Von Dr. Antor 
Fritsch. Mit 10 oom mga Tafeln und 66 Holzschnitten. 4to, pp- 4 
Prag, 1878. From the author a 
‘The Journal of the Royal Céugraihicsl Society. Vol. xlvii for 1877. _8v0, PP- 
 deiv, T> with 14 maps and plates. London, John Murray, 1878. -Fr om the 
Socie 


Labyrinth nthodon Riitimeyeri. a cous zur Anatomie vom Gesammt Skelet und ay 
Gehirn der Triassischen en Labyrinthodonten. Von Robt, Wiedersheim, Prof. in n Fret- 
i. B. (Abhand. d. Schweiz, Sata Gesellsch. Vol v.) 4to, pp. 56, plates 3- 
uly, 1878. From the author, 
of the California Academy of Sheno Vol. vi, 1s oar Pp. 222, 
partt i, 1876, T, PP- e San EOE) 1876-7. m the 


1878. j Botany. ; 691 


Ann wal Record of paar and Industry fa 1877. Edited by S. F; Baird, with 
the assistance of eminent men of science, 8vo, pp. 480. New York, Harper & 
seg! oe 


al Report of ar United States Entomological Commission for the year 
I Podni piierne to a sets ountain sonmi ane the best method of preventing its 
injuries and of guarding pea its invasions ; in pursuance of an appropriation made 
by eo for this DnE With maps and Gheaadans 8vo, pp. 477, and appen- 
dices 294. Was , 1878. From the Department of aa Interior 
oaloisa Aaz kiger, Herausgegeben von Prof. J. Victor Carus in Leipzig 
I Jahrgang. Nos. 1-3. July, aig 8vo, pp. 60. viata > von beg Engelmann, 
Leipzig. Jährlich erscheinen 25—26 Bogen. Price 6 marks. From the edito 
Tidskrift for Populære iiep af ae aes af C Fo ogh, 
. F. Lütken og Eug. Warming. Femte Raekke, a e Binds, Tredje Aargang. 
Svo. pp. 161—240. Kiöbenhaven, 1878. ire the pate 
The Botanical Gazette, August, Sept., 1878, Vol. F No: 8vo, pp. 65-72. 
J-M. a M. S. Coulter, Eitor a nd Publishe ers, “stn ian ay AGO: 
The erican dag of oe and Popular Science. Vol. iii, No. 7, 
New York, July, 1878. From the e 
Proceedings of p ies Geographical eeart Vol. ae Nos. 2, 3, March and 
May, 1878. 8vo, pp. 67-2 London e Society. 


Matériaux pour I’ Egee Paie eet ~ turelle de DH omme. Revue en 
Illustrée dirigée par M. Emile Ca rtailliac avec es popii de MM. P. Cazalis, Fon- 
douce et Ces = Een Tome ix, 1878. t 5° livraisons with map. y= pp- 
147-248. 1878. From the edito y 


The Po ha Stictice Monthly, August, 1878, No. lxxvii. Supplements xv, r 29b 
ari and angus, 1878, Lees New Yo hs D. Appleton & Co. From the edito 
raliste Canadien. Redacteur, M. L’? Abbe hig eae hls a "No. 6, 

Tes 1878. Cap Rouge, Prov. de Claes: Canada. From edito 

Proceedings of the Academy of Nat. Sciences of Phila., si e pp. 217-264. 
From the moe 

a Tempestad de los Dias 7 y 8 Abril de 1878. Estudia Meteorologico por e 

pe aia civil Vicente Reyes. 8vvu, pp. 12 and chart. Mexico, 1878. From the 


ddenda to a ier views 4g in a paper “ On the mechanical genesis of 
tooth-forms, A. Ryder p. 3. (Dental Cosmos, Repr.) September, 
1878. $ rom the author. 
The Bee-keepers’ ET Vol. vi, No. 8, August. 8vo, pp. 154-176. ° New 
York, K T King & Co., 1878. 


oO. 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


Tue Grasses OF Mexico.—M. Eugéne Fournier has raised the 
number of species of grasses from eighty-eight, as reported in 
Kunth’s Synopsis, to 638. He finds that sixteen species extend 
from the shores of the ocean to the elevated plateaux. He also 
finds, as he had previously done in regard to the ferns, that many 
species oe on both slopes of the Cordilleras. Out of 162 


species common to Mexico and other regions, only two grow in 
California, East the Rocky Mountains, Texas has thirty-two 
species, one grows in the prairie region, and the other fifty-nine 


United States pollens are almost confined to Florida, Georgia and | 

South Carolina, scarcely any occurring in Louisiana, Mississippi, 
or Alabama. The cause of this peculiar distribution may 

found in the direction a certain winds, especially the whirlwinds _ 


VOL, XII.—NO. X. 47 


692 | General Notes. [October, 


noticed by M. F. F. Hebert, which, descending upon the Gulf of 
Mexico by the valley of the Rio del Norte, strike the north of 
Florida, and then sweep northward along the eastern slope of the 
Alleghanies. ; 

By their geographical distribution and botanical characters, the 
Mexican Graminee are divided very clearly into two groups— 
those which are peculiar. to Mexico or common to it, and the 
Andean region, or to more northern regions, are generally dis- 
tinguished by the slenderness and lightness of their leaves and 
panicles; those which spread into the tropical region, on the con- 
trary, are remarkable by their size, and the amplitude of their 
organs of vegetation and of their inflorescence. The former gen- 
erally inhabit dry and mountainous localities; the latter the banks 
of rivers, and moist places ; some of them extend from the United 
States to the Argentine Republic through 70° of latitude ( Comptes 
rendus June 10, 1878). 


Tue Connection oF BACILLI wITH SPLENIC Frever.—Doubt 
having been thrown on the supposed fact that splenic fever is caused 
by Bacillus anthracis, Dr. Ewart has published in the Journal of 
Microscopical Science, the result of his studies. In the spleen of a 
mouse which had just died of the disease after being inoculated 

with the plant, the Bacilli were found rod-shaped and motionless. 
In a few hours, the temperature being 30° C. (= 91° F.), many of 
these rods began to move actively in a wriggling manner, and 
after continuing in this motile state for some time, they either sud- 
denly or gradually settled down again, and then lengthened out 
into spore-bearing filaments. A mouse inoculated with the 
spores thus obtained, died in forty-eight hours of splenic fever. 
The spores are formed in a similar manner to the Chlamydospores 
of Mucor. 

By Koch and some other observers, these spores have been de- 

_ scribed as germinating at once, and reproducing the rods, but Dr. 
Ewart found that this process was often preceded by the division 
of the spore into four sporules, all of which closely adhere at first, 
but ultimately become free and settle down in colonies. the 
sporules then germinate and produce the rods. The most im- 
portant morphological conclusion which Dr. Ewart draws from 
these other observations is that the Micrococcus, Bacterium and 
Bacillus forms, and the spore-bearing hyphe are phases of the 
same life history. His experiments have been confirmed by other 


observers. 


7 writer in Der Naturforscher, according to Nature, to be character- 
ized by good consistency, and offers perhaps a more satisfactory 
'xplanation of the phen 


1878.] Botany. : 693 


of all sap-conducting plants, and it attributes an important role to 
the elasticity of the cells. “When the surface-cells of a plant, 


ration, they are somewhat compressed by the air-pressure. Like 
elastic bladders, however, they tend to take their original form. 
This of course is only possible by their drawing in either air or 
water from without. Since, however, moist membranes are little 
penetrable by air, the cells draw from cells farther in a portion of 
their liquid contents. These again borrow from their neighbors 
urther down, which contain more water, and so on, either to the 
extreme root-cells or to those parts of the stem which are sup- 
plied with water from below through root-pressure.” 

To illustrate the action, M. Bohm constructed an artificial cell- 
chain. A funnel closed by a bladder represented the evaporating 
leaf; to it were connected below several glass tubes about two 
ctm. wide, closed at one end witha bladder, and joined together 
in series by means of thick walled caoutchouc tubing. In conse- 
quence of the evaporation, the membrane which closes the funnel 
mouth is bent inwards, and when it has reached a certain tension, 
water is sucked into the funnel out of the next lower cell, which 
covers its loss in like manner. Manometers, connected with cer- 
tain cells of the apparatus, indicate the amount of suction at dif- 
ferent heights. To avoid fouling of the membranes, ties acid 
was mixed with the distilled water in the cells. Since bladder 
membranes, with a not very great height of liquid para over 
them, admit passage of water by filtration, these artificial cell- 
chains (it is pointed out), must act much more imperfectly than 
the sap-conducting cells placed over one another in living plants, 
which cells, by reason of their narrow aperture, retain their liquid 
column by capillary attraction. 

It is shown that this theory is in harmony with sundry phe- 
nomena which are contradictory of the imbibition theory. 


Austin’s Muscı ApPALACHIANI.—Supplement I to Musei exsic- 


lected mostly in the eastern part of North America, by Col. F 
Austin, will interest botanists. The author proposes to publish 
additional supplements to both the Musci and Hepatice which 
have been issued, to comprise one hundred sets of from ten to 
fifty specimens each. The specimen illustrating the first supple- 
ment are to be had for $6 a set. 


Boranicat News.—Trimen’s ¥ournal of Botany for July con- 
tains a paper on the structure and affinities of Characee, W. 
Bennett. A summary is given of Dr. Kienitz-Gerloff’s exhaus- 
tive study of the development of the capsule of Phascum cuspida- 
tum. The Botanischer Zeitung contains papers by H. Hoffmann 
n experiments in culture, and by J. Sachs “on the history ofthe 
mechanical theory of growth of organic cells.”—The Annales des cee 


694 General Notes. [ October, 


Sciences Naturelles contains articles by A. Guillaud on the com- 
parative anatomy and development of the stem in Monocotyle- 
dons, an . Warming on the ovule, and by Van Tieghem on 
the Mucorinee (third paper). 


ZOOLOGY. ! 


Two-HEADED SNAKES.—In reference to the two-headed snakes 
e 


present year, I would say that there exists another specimen 
without locality in the collection of the Lyceum of Natural His- 
tory of Williams College. In the same collection is a specimen 
of a five-legged frog (Rana sp.) from Rochester, N. Y. In this 
the fifth leg is situated between the two posterior pairs and just 
above the anus, and is in all respects as perfect as the two nor- 
mal ones. The specimen is about as large as the average X. 
palustris, and, if I remember rightly, belongs to that species. 

In “An Essay on the Natural History of Guiana,” London, 
T. Becket and P. A. DeHondt, 1769, the author discourses upon 
the Amphisbene of that country, stating that they have a head at 
each extremity, and “yet, except these there is no animal in 
nature that is thought to have two heads ;” and in a foot note on 
the same page (214) says: “I have received a particular descrip- 
tion of a monstrous Azmphisbena found near Lake Champlain in 
North America by an officer in the American service, who, with 
one of his Majesty’s draughtsmen, was sent during the late war 
to make a survey of that lake. They were previously informed 
by the Indians of the existence of these serpents, one of which 
they killed near a bay in Lake Champlain, which in the maps of 
that country has been since called Double-headed-snake bay. 
This serpent was a small one of the kind, it being about fifteen 
inches in length and largest near the middle, terminating in a 
slender tail. The body at the other end divided into two necks 
of equal size, to each of which was joined a perfect head, with 
two eyes, a large mouth and throat, a forked tongue, with teeth 
of the same species with those of the rattlesnake. The color of 


and disposition resembling those of the rattlesnake. This ser- 

ent was a perfect monster, of whose existence I should strongly 
doubt, did I not think the veracity of the gentlemen from whom 
I have this information, and by whom it was unquestionably 


killed, unquestionable.” 


__ The frontispiece of the same volume gives a figure of this same 
specimen, drawn by M. Park, and bearing the inscription “ Am- 
_ phisbena or double-headed snake. This snake was found near 


ADhe degormiors of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 


1878. ] . Zoölogy. 695 
seer Champlain, in America, in the year 1761, by Lieut. Moses 


Nhe figure has a lighter U-shaped mark upon the heads, and a 
dorsal row of rectangular spots alternating with a similar lateral - 
row on each side, reminding one strongly of the arrangement 
of the squares on a checker board.— F. S. Kingsley. 


Mimetic CororinG IN Taprores.— Recently I came across a 
very pretty instance of imitative coloration in some tadpoles 
caught in a weedy pool in Cold Spring, New York. The largest 
tadpoles are an inch and three-quarters long, poe half an inch 
long, and widest part of tail half an inch. ind legs are visi- 
ble, but very small. They are greenish Sate: with black mark- 
ings, and have minute golden spots about the eyes and along the 
sides; beneath they are silvery white. Their tails are orange-red 
for more than two-thirds the length, and the color deepens toward 
the end and along the margin. There are black spots and irregu- 
lar lines, which are very distinct, on the cases The largest 
tadpoles are more brightly and distinctly color 
In the same pool there is a plant Liidowideha pres whose 
lower leaves, which are under water, are exactly t e same color as 
the tails of the tadpoles. The brightest ones are generally full of 
holes. The tails of the tadpoles also resemble the leaves in 
width and shape. The resemblance of color is so striking that a 
friend, who is not on the lookout for analogies, pointed out a leaf 


very much paler, both the green and red, and the spots are almost 
invisible. These tadpoles show how early Batrachia begin to 
adapt themselves to their color-surroundings.—Sarah P. Monks. 


FRESH-WATER MussEts vs. Ducxs.—In the Natura.ist for July 
I notice a communication from Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, in which he 
mentions that he has been informed that Mr. A. F. Gray has the foot 
of a water-fowl to which is attached a bivalve shell. Several years 
ago: while shad-hatching for the United States Fish Commission, 
on the Pamunky river, near White-house landing, Va., I noticed 
great quantities of Unios, and in remarking on it toa gentleman 
residing there, was informed that it was not possible to raise 
ducks in that locality. on their account, for at low water the duck- 
lings were liable to be caught by the mussels and held until 
drowned by the rising tide. 
his story was afterward confirmed by the Tarsai Indians, 
who live on an island below White-house, and who, wi 


facility for raising large quantities of ducks, do not keep them.— 


Fred. Mather, Newark, N. F. 


696 General Notes. [ October, 


ANTHROPOLOGY. ' 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—The American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, meeting this year in the very heart of 
our antiquarian region, was favored with many valuable papers. 
The character of these communications is improving from year 
to year, and less of wild speculation characterizes the discussions. 
To facilitate interchange among students, we append a list of 
papers with the addresses of the authors: 

Ancient Hees in the vicinity of Naples, Scott com Illi- 
nois, J. G. Henderson, Winchester, Ill.; Ancient Names, Geo 
graphical, Tribal and Personal, in the Mississippi valley: same 
author; Description of two Stone Cists, discovered near High- 
lands, Ill., by Arthur Oehler, of Highlan nds, Ill.; Description of 
a Cliff house in the cañon of Mancos river, Colorado, Wm. F. 
Morgan, Rochester, N. Y.; Remarks on the Ruins of a Stone 
Puéblo on the Animas river, New Mexico, with a ground plan, 

Lewis H. Morgan, Rochester, N. Y.; Observations on the San 
~ Juan River district as an important ancient seat of Village Indian 
Life, same author; On the Sources for Aboriginal History of 
Spanish America, by A. F. Bandelier, of Highland, Ill.; Remarks 
on the Archeology of Vermont, by CoH Perkins, of Burlington, 
Vt.; Remarkable Burial Custom from a Mound in Florida ; “The 
Cranium utilized as a Cinerary Urn, Henry Gillman of Detroit, 
Mich.; Description of a Glazed Earthen Vessel, taken from a 
Tumulus in Florida, same author ; eae of Cannibalism in a 
Nation before the Ainos in Japan, by S. Morse, of Japan; 
An Atlas of North American Ee by O. T. Mason, of 
. Washington, D. C.; North American Indian Synonomy, same 
author; Ancient Pottery from Chiriqui, Central America; by O. 
C. Marsh, of New Haven, Connecticut; On the Anatomical 
Peculiarities by which Mound-builders’ Crania may be distin- 
guished from those of the Modern Indian, by W. J. McGee, of 


by A. J. Conant, of St. Louis; An Account of an Exploration 
of a Walled Town of the Mound- builders of the Cumberland 
_ valley, by F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge, Mass.; On the Dis- 
covery of a Human Skull in the Drift near Denver, Colorado, by 

Thomas Belt, London, England. We can but feel that the 
-~ American Association is the proper meeting for our American 
peat alate ae" to patronize, not to the disparagement of local 
- d State societies, but as a supplementary means of better 
Bes ica naa among workers in all parts of our country. 

ae F number of the Yournal of the Anthropological Insti- 
_ tute contains the following papers: On Flint Implements from 
Egypt; Discoveries at Cissbury; Collection of Andamanese an 
Ni icobarese objects; The Ethnology of Motu; Palæolithic Im- 


Edited by Prof. ‘Oris T. Mase N, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


1878. | Anthropology. 697 


plements in the Valley of the Axe; Notes on the Zaparos, and 
the Presidents Address. Especial interest attaches to the 
detachable spear-heads, or harpoon-heads on plates xii, xiii, xiv, 
xv, as well as to the many-pronged fish or bird-spears, because 
these objects resemble so closely those found in various parts of 
America. Referring the matter to Mr. Frank H. Cushing, of the 
National Museum, we received the following reply: ‘ Three 
kinds of harpoon-arrows are found among our North American 
collections. A very rude form is used by the McCloud River 
Indians in catching salmon. Another entirely typical, highly 
finished, and as often pointed with native copper as with bone or 
ivory, is employed by the North-west Coast Indians for the same 
purpose. A third common to the Alaska Eskimo, and entirely 
resembling the formidable fishing spears of the Andaman Island- 


ers.’ Without drawings it is impossible to convey the resem- ' 


blance between the loose headed seat pat a of Andaman and 
- Nicobar and those of our American contine 

The Smithsonian Institution has lately palhe through the 
Government Printing Office four pamphlets relating to archæolo- 
gical subjects. They are reprints from the forthcoming Smithso- 
nian Report for 1877. We can only pu the titles: Aboriginal 
Structures in Georgia, by Charles C. Jones, Jr.; On a Polychrome 
Bead from Florida, by S. S. Haldeman ; The Stock-in-trade of an 
Aboriginal Lapidary, by Charles Rau; Observations on a Gold 
Ornament from a Mound in Florida, by the same. 

A writer in the Maton for July 25th gives a very graphic de- 
scription of the lessons of the Bannock war. scientific j journa 
cannot discuss the merits of the amount of culpability resting on 
our government for the war. A very interesting illustration of 
the aid which ethnology may furnish to politics is ee in a 
supplementary note on page 57, evidently from the same pen. 

“The word Bannock is a corruption for Pannaiti [Panait ?] by 
which n name the people know themselves, and means ‘ Northern- 
ers, they, in fact, dwelling the furthest north of all the tribes com- 


part of the whole family has in the past been styled ‘Shoshoni’ 

or ‘ Snakes,’ after one of its prominent divisions. The Bannocks 
and Paviotsos are hereditary enemies. The Umatillas, Cayuse, 
and Walla-Wallas are of the Sahaptin family, whose immemorial 


feud with the Shoshones would induce them to attack rather than > 


to join the Bannocks.” 
rof. De Hass has been spending some months in Washington 


taking advantage of the fine collections and libraries there to 


add to the value of his course of lectures on archæolog 


: y. He 
has been so fortunate as to trace in the uplands of Penmayiaa 


698 _ General Notes. > _[ October, 


Maryland and Virginia abundant evidence of ancient hill tribes 
inhabiting these regions burying their dead in rude cists in stone 
cairns. 

Foreicn.—The department of ethnology now called Demog- 
raphy, represented in England by Francis Galton and in France 
by M. Bertillon, is becoming more and more popular in its charac- 
ter. A Congress of Demography was held at the Trocadero Palace 
from July 5-9, and discussed the following topics: Census of 
Population; Registers of Population; Organization of Statistics ; 
Registration of Births and Deaths, &c. Dr. Daniel Wilson, of 
Toronto, said at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association 
that no country in the world afforded a better opportunity of sub- 
mitting racial problems to the test of figures than our own. 

tor E. Bessels is publishing, in German, a work on his re- 
searches in Greenland. About thirty pages will be devoted to 
the Greenland Eskimo and will be most beautifully illustrated. 
By the way, will some one tell us the origin of the word Keralit, 
used by old writers on the Greenland Eskimo? Is it a corrup- 
tion of the Danish Skreling ? 

Dr. Alexander Ecker has published in Braunschweig a quarto 
pamphlet of twenty-one pages entitled: Ueber abnorme Behaarung 
des Menschen insbesondere über die sogenannten Haarmenschen. 
Gratulationschrift Herrn Carl Theodor von Siebold zur Feier 
seines 50 jahrigen Doctorjubilaums am 22 April, 1878, darge- 
bracht von Alexander Ecker. A few of the illustrations appeared 
in a late number of Archiv, but in its present form the treatise 
forms one of the most entertaining anthropological articles of the 
year. The same author has published in Freiburg a quarto pam- 
phlet on Lapland and the Laplanders. 

Archivo iper L’Antropologia, 1878. Part I contains the fol- 
lowing original papers: Suture anomale dell’ osso malare in set 


1878. | Geography and Travels. 699 


the field of cranio-cerebral topography we have frequently 
spoken. The accompanying table furnishes an idea of M. Topin- 
ard’s classification : 

CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN RACES. 


{ Dolicho, esquimaux. 
Rouge, łed-skins. 
Olive, Mexicans. 
Hair with circular section (straight), J eruvians. 
"| Brachy, America, or a 
Yellow, oy 
Asia, 


Brown, 


g ( 
| Blond, Scandinavians. 


Dolicho, Semites 


Hair with intermediate cross section Black, Ser irman i 
(waved or frizzed), 3 aves : 
L Red arabras rouges. 
Blond, ins. 
Brachy, Chestnut, ; > 
L Brown, ranians. 
5 : A hmen. 
Delicho } Yellowish, : p 3usc! 
Hair with elliptical section (wooly), D Black, Sean day - eat 
1 rachy, x egritos 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.! 
BRITISH Association. Sir WYVILLE THOMSON’S ADDRESS.— 


o 
another of the scientific events of the past year. He also 
referred to the voyage of the Italian corvette Magenta, the sound- 
ing voyages of Capt. Belknap in the Tuscarora, the Hassler expe- 
dition of the elder Agassiz, the tentative cruises of the British 
gunboats Lightning and Porcupine, culminating in the Challenger 
expedition, the expeditions to observe the transit of Venus, the _ 
several Swedish expeditions to the Spitzbergen sea, and the Arc- 
tic voyage of the Alert and Discovery, the account of which by 
Sir George Nares it was impossible to read without a feeling of —__ 
regret that the devoted little band had attempted what was so — a 


1 Edited by ELLIS IL, YARNALL, Philadelphia. 


700 General Notes. [ October, 


hopeless, and at the same time a conviction that if their task had 
been practicable by human skill and bravery it must certainly 
have been accomplished. Speaking of the large contributions of 
Prof. Mohn and Prof. Sars, of Norway, to our knowledge of the 
distribution of temperature and the course of ocean currents, he 
remarked that Prof. Mohn spoke highly of the service rendered 
by Negretti and Zambra’s new reversing thermometer, an instru- 
ment so constructed that by a simple mechanical arrangement the 


which the instrument may have passed in descending. In the 
Challenger the want of such a thermometer was greatly felt, for 
in the Arctic and Antarctic seas the coldest layer is frequently 
on the surface, and a warmer belt intervenes between it anda 
bottom stratum. Ata depth averaging perhaps 500 fathoms we 
arrive at a temperature of 40° Fahr., and this may be regarded as 
a kind of neutral band separating the two layers. Above this 
band the temperature varies over different areas; beneath it the 
temperature almost universally sinks very slowly and with 
increasing slowness to a minimum at the bottom. Speaking 
generally, it may be said that the trade winds and their modifica- 
tions and counter currents are the cause of all movements in the 
‘stratum above the neutral layer. One of the most singular 
results of late investigations is the establishment of the fact that 
all the vast mass of water, often upwards of 2,000 fathoms in 
thickness, below the neutral band is moving slowly to the north- 
ward, that, in fact, the depths of the Atlantic, the Pacific and the 


larly its southern portion, the reverse is the case. Thus one part 
of the general circulation of the ocean is carried on through the 
atmosphere, the water being raised in vapor in the northern hem- 
_isphere is hurried by upper wind currents to the zone of low 
barometric pressure in the south, where it is precipitated in the 
_ form of snow or rain. Time would not allow him even to allude 


Ee eee Sele he ee SIESAT FAE ae E 


1878. | Geography and Travels. 701 


ing year, and from those of Dr. Hayes in 1861 and Capt. Nares 
in 1875-6, it is evident that the Polar basin is neither open sea 
nor continuous ice, but a fatal compromise between the two; and 
there seems now to be only two plans, one nearly as hopeless as 
the other, to choose between in any future attempt—either to 
establish permanent stations, as proposed by Lieut. Weyprecht and 
already initiated at one point by Capt. Tyson and Capt. Howgate, 
and to seize the opportunity of running north in early autumn from 
the station where the sea appears most open, or to run as far north 
as possible, at enormous expense, with a great force of men, and 
abundance of hpr and paraffine oil, and push northwards 
during the Arctic winter by a chain of communicating stations, 
with ice-built refuge huts. 

But little progress has been made during the past quarter 
of a century in the actual investigation of the conditions of 
the ee regions. From information derived from all 
sources up to the present, it may be gathered that the un- 


South Pole is by no means a continuous continent, but con- 
sists much more probably partly of comparatively low continental 
land, and partly of a series of continental islands bridged between 
and combined and covered to a depth of about 1,400 feet bya 
continuous ice cap. Several considerations appeared to him to 
be in favor of the view that the area round the South Pole is 
broken up and not continuous land. We have not only the pre- 
sumed effect of the transfer of warmer water to the southwards, 
but in the pea ase they had been able to detect 5 presence by 
the thermometer in high southern latitudes. It seems that all the 
icebergs are oneal tabular, the surface being perfectly level 
and parallel with the surface of the sea, a cliff of about 230 feet 
high bounding the berg. It seems probable that under the enor- 
mous pressure to which the ice is subjected a constant system of 
melting is going on, the water passing down by gravitation from 
layer to layer until it reaches the floor of the ice sheet, and finally 


` working out caanoe for itself between the ice and land. e 


could scarcely regret that it was utterly impossible for him on 
this occasion to enter nie details with regard to the relations of 


the abyssal fauna. He must admit that the relations of the | 


abyssal fauna to the fauna of the older tertiary and newer meso- 
zoic periods, though much closer than those of the fauna of shal- 

low water, were not so close as he had expected them to be; but — 
he felt that until the zodlogical results of several later voyages, 
and especially those of the Challenger, should have: been fully 
worked out, it would be premature to commit himself to any 
generalizations. Within the last decade the advance of know- 


oe. General Notes. [ October, 


being made, and he trusted that in a few years our ideas as to the 
condition of the depths of the sea may be as definite as they are 
with regard to regions to which we have long had ready access. 
— London Times. 


THe ARABIAN DeEsERT oF Ecypt.—Dr. G. Schweinfurth writes 
from Cairo, on the 18th of June, to the London Atheneum an ac- 
count of his visit to the desert region lying between the Nile and 
the Red Sea. He started from a village near Atfih, on the Nile, 
on March 29th, and, taking a circuitous route, in the course of 
which he examined, more or less minutely, fifty-five: wadis, re- 
turned to the Nile opposite to the town of Siut, on June gth. 
Whilst he found remains of Roman settlements, neither inscrip- 
tions nor ruins indicate any knowledge of this region by the an- 
cient Egyptians. The orographical and hydrographical features 
of this territory, to the east of the Nile, are far more varied than 
might have been expected. Every wadi has its own physiog- 
nomy. The rocks may belong to the same geological formation, 
but they vary exceedingly in contour and configuration. The 
wadis wind about in a curious manner, sloping down gently or 
steeply; the vegetation met within them is sometimes sporadic, 
at others ephemeral or continual; the animal world, too, con- 
tributes to impress a character upon each of the two hundred 
principal wadis which are met with in this small corner of North- 
eastern Africa. 

MICROSCOPY .?! 


Nationat MicroscopicaL ConGress—This Convention, a call 


for which had been published by the Indianapolis Lyceum of Nat. — 


Hist., assembled at Indianapolis on Wednesday morning, August 
14th. About sixty members were in attendance, representing 


. Hervey was appointed chairman, and H. F. Atwood, 
secretary. Addresses of welcome were made by Mayor Caven 
and Dr. O. Evarts, and responded to by the chairman. Regular 
organization was then effected by the election of the following 
officers: President, Dr. R. H. Ward, of Troy; vice-presidents, 


Prof. J. E. Smith, of Cleveland, and Dr. W. W. Butterfield, of 


Indianapolis; secretary, H. F. Atwood, of Chicago; treasurer, 
Dr. J. B. Marvi 


the meetings except Friday afternoon, which was devoted toa 


court house, which was largely attended by citizens. Owing to 
the large attendance and the limited number of instruments, nO 
effort was made to classify the objects, and the exhibition was 
f altogether a popular character. On the last day of the meet- 


eT tS SN eee ep Te TE ee a a 


SORT Log) SURE cs ToS. a a TE are er aa ra Sa ENE T P i ENE TOEA EE E da iB ke crm ie be ae Ae ia oie eee Ai TEE A ee i Gb > det 


$i deseo a>: 


1878. ] Microscopy. 703 


open to all persons interested in microscopical science, and with 
meetings to be held annually at places selected during the pre- 
vious meeting. After much discussion and no little difference of 
opinion as to radical points, the plan was adopted as a sr 
and Buffalo fixed upon as the place of meeting for next Augus 
The following officers were unanimously elected for the first year: 
President, Dr. R. H. Ward, of Troy; vice-Presidents, S. 
Dennis, of San Francisco, and . Vorce, of C Cleveland ; sec- 
retary, Dr. H. Jameson, of Indianapolis; treasurer, H. P. Atwood, 
of Chicago. The president-elect insisted upon declining election 
on the ground of having been presiding officer of the Congress, 
but finally withdrew his resignation. During the meeting papers 
were read on the following subjects, interesting discussions being 
drawn out by many of the papers : 

“Limit of accuracy attainable in measurements with the micro- 
scope,” by Prof. Wm. A. Rogers, of Cambridge. “Some new 
forms of mounting,” by Ce, Merriman, of Rochester. Abstracts 
of these two papers will be published i in a succeeding number. 

“Formule of objectives,” by W. H. Bulloch, of Chicago. The 
construction of several modern lenses of large immersion aper- 
ture was given in diagrams constructed from the lenses them- 
selves, with results remarkably close to those formerly obtained by 
tracing the light mathematically through the objectives according 
to the data furnished by the makers. 

“Angular aperture, 4 by Dr. G. E. Blackham, of Dunkirk, 
N. Y. This paper gave a full review of the literature of the sub- 
ject, limited angular aperture to the angular distance of the out- 
side rays of the widest pencil of light, which the object glass 
could gather up and bring to a focus, with the formation of a well 
defined i image of the object, and insisted upon the superiority, it 
all prp of well constructed objectives of extremely wi 
angle 


“ Angular aperture defined,” by Prof. Romyn Hitchcock, of 
New York. In order that the term angular aperture should 


recommended to the microscopists of the country as a convenient 
and uniform usage. The triangle method was proposed for gen- 
eral adoption, considering the angular aperture of a microscope 
objective to be the angle of the apex of a triangle having a base 
equal to the available diameter of the front lens, and a height 
equal to the actual focal length (working distance), measured in 
air for a dry lens, and in the fluid employed*for an immersion 


the collar being adjusted for the most perfect definition in every 


case. While nearly all the members seemed to be personally in 
favor of the usage proposed, a motion that the congress should 


attempt to settle the question by requesting its — ae oe : 
mea with so mo opposition that it was withdraw -o 


704 General Notes. [ October, 


“ Mechanical fingers,” by C. M. Vorce, of Cleveland. In this 
paper the mechanical finger was spoken of as a kind of stage 
forceps adapted to objects too small and fragile for ordinary for- 
ceps, and as an important accessory for the microscope, even as a 
means of study of minute forms and to those who do not wish 
to mount objects. Those forms of finger were described which 
are attached to the objective or to the movable stage, and the 
home manufacture of them recommended as easy and effective. 
Their efficiency is greater in proportion to the greater number of 
movements of the stage and sub-stage. The apparatus should 
be furnished with a variety of points for different kinds of work, 
varying from a fine mouse-whisker to a split point of whalebone 
or quill. 

“ Microscopical study of the ashes of leaves,’ by Dr. R. H. 
Ward, of Troy, describes the method by which leaf ashes 
may be prepared so as to preserve much of the structure of the 
leaf. The books speak of the siliceous residue of the leaves of 


with turpentine, and very carefully mounted in soft balsam. If 


slightly crushed in mounting, or containing a trace of carbon at 


some point, the value of the object is often increased. These 
preparations can be made with great ease and rapidity, and show 
the construction of the parenchyma, veins, epidermis, stomates 
and hairs with great beauty and distinctness. In this way was 
prepared a slide of leaf ashes which was recently sent through 
the circuits of the Postal Club and which excited an unexpected 
amount of interest and correspondence. 

_ “Classification of alge,” by Rev. A. B. Hervey, described the 
_ systematic arrangement of sea weeds by means of their peculiari- 
ties of reproduction, and showed how completely our knowledge 
of the subject is due to the microscope. The writer urged the 


more frequent preparation, for use and for exchange, of series of 


- slides illustrating typical species in groups studied by specialists 
-in natural history —{7Zo be Continued.) 


MicroscoptcaL DIRECTORY. —— The fullest list of American 


—  microscopists yet.published will be found in the “ Naturalists’ 


oe ‘Directory for 1878,” published by S. E. Cassino, Salem, Mass. 


ial, also diatoms of Northern Illinois, for good slides or material 
B. W. Thomas, 132 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill. 


ExcHances.—Lake Michigan diatoms mounted or raw mate- 


E 


fe ils 


SO E ia Da la La 


t $ 
1878. | Scientific News. ee. 795 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— We have received a specimen of the first number of the 
Zoologischer Anzeiger, edited by Prof. J. V. Carus. From twenty- 
five to twenty-six sheets, of sixteen pages each, will appear each 
year, a sheet about once a fortnight, we suppose. The literature 
in all departments except descriptive zodlogy is fully given by 
title; digests or abstracts of important works are given, C. O. 
Whitman's embryology of Clepsine being thus noticed. The 
Anzeiger will also contain short notices, zodlogical, zodtomical, 
faunistic, phzenological and biological, with laboratory notes as to 
improv ved methods of working, information regarding museums, 
private collections and personal notices. The plan of this zoo- 
logical index is excellent, and will ae mpe prove a most con- 
venient medium for advanced zoologist 


, — Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoblogical Garden: I gray 
squirrel (Sciurus i SAEPE, 3 beavers (Castor fiber), born in the 
arden; 1 diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus); 1 ground 
rattlesnake ( Galkina gar ia); 1 whip snake (Bascanion flagel- 
liforme); 1 black snake (Bascanion constrictor); 1 spreading adder 
(Heterodon platyrhinos); 2 brown-throated parrakeets (Conurus 
@ruginosus); 1 snake (Coluber obsoletus, confinis); 3 bald aea 
(Haliætus leucocephalus); 1 king snak e  (Ophibolis getulus); 
woodchuck (Arctomys MeD 1 robin ales migratorius); I 
snake (Coluber vulpinus); 1 rufous rat kangaroo (Hypsiprymnus 
rufuscens), born in the garden; 11 lizards (Sceloporus undulatus); 

ci ed a (Vulpes fulvus)—Arthur E. Brown, Supt. of Garden, 

Sept. 1, 1878. 

Commissioner of Agriculture has appointed Mr. A. R. 

Grote, of Buffalo, N. Y., Wm. J. Jones, of Virginia Point, near 
Galveston, Texas, EH. Anderson, of Kirkw ood, Miss., and Prof. 
Comstock, of Cornell University, ‘observers, under the control of 

the entomologist of the Department, to make investigations and * 
study the action of the cotton worm during the present season. ? 


ee pn 7 es eee eae EE gS eR ee CE Ce ed 
i ce Bape 


— Prof. Carl Stal, Director of the Department of Entomology 
of the Royal Museum at Stockholm, died June 13, 1878, aged 


Ei n a aaa eT ee eae a a 


forty-five years. He was a voluminous author, publishing mono- 
graphs of different antes of Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Or- 
thoptera. 


— Dr. John H. Packard reports in the Medical and siia 
Reporter (Phil., Aug. 3, P. 100) that a child six years of age blew 
from its nostrils a specimen of Geophilus, a long, slender, small, 

_ centipede-like myriopod. 


ee oe eae a 2 ee ee eT ee! ee 


_ — Herr A. Reipert, of Bensheim, Burgstrasse, Grossl. Hessen, 
-is desirous of corresponding with American entomologists with a a 
view to exchanging European for American insects. _ — 


706 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, and Serials. (Oct. 1878. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCI- 
ENCE met at St. Louis, August 21st, the session lasting a week. 
The president was Prof. O. C. Marsh, Prof. Simon Newcomb 
being the retiring president. Reports of the eclipse observers 
seemed to have overshadowed the papers read in the section of 
geology and biology. The attendance and number of papers 
read was smaller than the preceding year. An excursion to 
Colorado took place at the close of the meeting. 

Tue BRITISH AssocrATION met at Dublin, August 14th, under 
_the presidency of Dr. Spottiswoode, the number of members pres- 
ent being 2,577. The addresses of Mr. Evans on Geology, of 
Prof. Flower on Vertebrate Zodlogy, and of Mr. Romanes on 
Animal Intelligence were of especial interest, as well as the 
address of Sir Wyville Thompson on Recent Progress in Ocean 
Geography. 

THe MEETING OF GERMAN NATURALISTS AND PHYSICIANS was 
held at Cassel, September 11-18, the president being Dr. B 
Stilling. 

Tue FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
was presided over by M. E. Fremy. Prof. Marey delivered a 
lecture on Graphic Researches relative to Animal Motors, and 
papers were read by M. Alix on the Myology of Mammals, by 
Prof. A. Gaudry on the Evolution of Primitive Mammals, and 

A. F. Nogues on Method in Geology and on the Climatology 
of Geological Times. 


a 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS! 


THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SclENCE.—September. On the 
animal of Millepora alcicornis, by W. N. Rice. Forest geography 


and archeology, by A. Gray (continued from p. 94). — . a 
o 


o 
tral Ohio, L E Hicks 
South-eastern Newfoundland, 


Pad AB e aS oh ni Rea be e E 5. E R a, 


PIa x 
PE E E E ee e iinr e 


eee 


Pipe ee ag ee 


ore er Les 2 ore Pe ee ee Oe RS: Erat 
beds etree E 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vor. x11. — NOVEMBER, 1878. — No. 11. 


ASPIDIUM SPINULOSUM (SWARTZ) AND ITS VARIE- 
TIES 


BY GEO. E. DAVENPORT. 


Po several seasons past I have been making some spe- 

cial examinations of the different forms of Aspidium spinulo- 
sum as found gřowing in Middlesex county, Mass., and offer the 
result not as béing decisive in character, but for the purpose of 
calling attention to the points involved, and inviting further inves- 
tigations in the same direction. 

An opinion prevails with many botanists that ithe large series 
of forms in this protean species so run into each other, and are 
oftentimes so confusing and difficult to place, that it would be 
better to ignore all of the so-called varieties and only recognize 
all forms under the one specific name. How far this opinion may 
Or may not be correct, and founded on scientific principles, pos- 
sibly this note may help to determine. 

I certainly am not in favor of recognizing as a variety any form 
not possessing some well marked and permanent character to 
distinguish it from the recognized typical form of any species. I 
have so often expressed myself on this point that I do not 
feel under any apprehension of appearing inconsistent in endeav- 
Oring to show that the so-called var. intermedium is a good 
variety at least, if indeed it be not a good species. 

The precise distinctions between Aspidium spinulosum Swz., 
and its var. intermedium have not as yet been clearly enough 
pointed out, so that the greatest confusion has prevailed in the 
effort to verify the presence here of true spinwlosum, and to dis- 
cover the differences between it and the variety; the usual 


_ “assumption having been that nearly if not all of our American 


plants belonged to the latter form. 


VOL. XIT.—NO XI, 48 


708 Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. [November, 


My own observations tend to convince me that Swartz’s plant 
is by no means uncommon. Be that as it may, plants are found 
here abundantly enough that exactly conform to Swartz’s descrip- 
tion as given by him in his “ Synopsis Filicum.” 

What then is Aspidium spinulosum Swz.? Swartz says of it, 
“Frondibus bipinnatis, pinnis pinnatifidis pinnatisque, laciniis 
oblongis acutis serrato-spinulosis, fronde ovato-triangularis; rachis 
glabra, stipite paleaceo.” “ Addenda et emendata,” p. 419 to Syn- 
opsis Filicum, 1806. This describes in part nearly all of our 
American forms. Let us analyze the description and see: 

1. Fronds twice-pinnate. This is true in many cases of spinu- 
Josum, and the varieties dilatatum and intermedium. In large and 
highly developed specimens of the two last forms the fronds are 
often thrice-pinnate, and usually appear to be more divided on 
account of the pinnules being more deeply cut; but the uncer- 
tain application of this character to any one particular form ren- 
ders it unreliable as a specific character, or only of secondary 
importance. 

2. Pinnules pinnatifid, segments oblong, acute spinulose-toothed. 
Common to all of the forms, and therefore as unreliable as the 
first character. 

3. Frond triangular-ovate. This more clearly belongs to the 
var. dilatatum than to any other form, although I have had speci- 
mens of intermedium that were broadly triangular in outline, and 
other things corresponding that form might be regarded as 
Swartz’s plant for all there is in the description to the contrary, 
specimens being found commonly enough that are triangular- 
ovate in outline, bipinnate in structure, with smooth rachis and 
pale-brown scales. 

4. Rachis smooth. This is the case with spinulosum and our 
dilatatum, but in intermedium the rachis is usually finely glandu- 
lar. It will be necessary, however, to collect specimens early in 
order to observe this, as the rachis finally becomes smooth. This 
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which form 
Swartz’s description was applied without knowing when, and in 
what state his plants were collected. 

5. Stipes clothed with pale brown scales. This is the case, more 


centers peculiar to the most Siyay developed forms are not reli- 
> as a ISEI Pamer 


i or less, with all of our forms. The darker scales with blackish a 


$ 


1878.] Aspidium spinulosum and tts Varieties. 709 


From this it appears that in point of fact we have no ¢rue spin- 
ulosum as distinguished from other forms unless we choose to 
make it, and there would be no impropriety in calling it all spzv- 
ulosum, as many are disposed to do, if we did not actually find 
in nature forms possessing characters sufficiently distinctive to 
justify recognition. 

is being so we can only recognize as typical that form from 
which, in all probability, the others are most likely to have been 
derived, and to which, in connection with its special characters, 
Swartz’s description may be best adapted. 

Taking, now, the species as a whole,I find that it may be 
divided into two forms, one being glabrous beneath with perfectly 
smooth indusia, and the other being more or less finely glandular 
on the under surface with glandular indusia. : 

As there are many characters by which we can trace the 
glandular form to the smooth one, and show clearly enough that 
if it be not a good species it is at least a variation from that, we 
may by enlarging the significance of Swartz’s “rachis glabra” so 
as to embrace the smooth indusia, safely assume that the smooth 
form is Swartz’s plant. 

But as this distinction is not s apparent after the contrac- 
tion of the indusium in fruit, I have made examinations for the 
purpose of trying to find. some other character by which we 
could determine specimens with equal certainty at all times; and 
this I have SEES found in the position of the sori on the 
veins. 

Thus I find that in what I here recognize as true spinulosum 
the sori are placed on the end of the veinlet, which terminates 
within the radius of the fruit dot, while in the var. intermedium 
the sori are placed on the veinlet elow its apex, so that it passes 
through and deyond the radius of the fruit dot. 

This is a point of distinction between these two forms that has 
not been noticed heretofore by any one that I am aware of, and 
although I am not prepared to say that it is invariably the case, 
it has been so in all of the specimens that I have examined, the 
only apparent exception having been in the case of two or three 
imperfectly developed sori. 

Let us briefly review and consider the importance of the prin- 
= ¢ipal characters of spinulosum and the var. intermedium as we 
_ actually find them in nature. 


710 Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. [November, 


1. As to color. In characteristic specimens the typical form may 
be readily recognized by the peculiar shade of light-green that 
distinguishes it from the darker green of the variety. But as we 
soon find the former growing darker in color and blending with 
that of intermedium, especially as it approaches the so-called var. 
dilatatum, which as we have it in Eastern Massachusetts appears 
to be only a large, or higher developed state of spinulosum, we 
perceive that the color is not always to be depended upon as a 
specific character. 


2. As to form. The terms ovate-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate 
and triangular-ovate may be applied to particular fronds of either 
form, and therefore can only be considered in connection with a 
series of characters as a whole. In good specimens of what is 
here recognized as typical spinulosum, the fronds will vary from 
ovate-lanceolate to triangular-ovate. In ordinary forms the two 
lowest pair of pinne are about of an equal length and set 
obliquely on the rachis; the two or three pairs of pinna imme- 
diately above are longer, more spreading, though still retaining a 
somewhat oblique arrangement on the rachis, and give an 
abruptly dilated appearance to that part of the frond; above, the 
more or less obliquely-set pinne gradually decrease toward the 
apex, and this comes as near as SRS to Swartz’s description 
of “ ovato-triangularis.” 

In characteristic specimens of intermedium the frond is usually 
-oblong-lanceolate in outline, with decidedly spreading pinnæ that 
are not obliquely set on the rachis. But these two forms run 
together frequently in all sorts of ways, and can only be regarded 
as of secondary importance. 


3. As to structure. In ordinary forms of spinulosum the fronds 
are only bipinnate, but this is equally true of the var. tnter- 
medium. 


4. As to the character of the scales. This is too unreliable to be 
considered in any other way than in connection with the whole 
series of characters. The darker scales with blackish centers are 
found only on large and vigorous specimens of the var. interme- 
_ dium and, but more rarely in this vicinity, var. dilatatum, but 
~ both of these forms frequently have pale brown scales like those 

ne 


5. As to the character of the indusium. In spinulosum the indu- A 


1878 | Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. 711 


sia and under surface of the fronds are perfectly smooth, but in 
intermedium they are more or less glandular. 

This character appears to be constant and, therefore, reliable, 
but it is necessary to collect specimens early in order to observe 
it,as the glands are fugaceous, quickly disappearing after the indu- 
sium begins to contract—a fact which accounts for the difficulty 
oftentimes experienced in properly placing specimens collected 
date 

6. As to the position of the sori on the veins. If this character 
proves constant it will be the most important one of all, as it will 
enable us to place specimens collected at any time with a greater 
degree of certainty, and, in connection with the character of the 
indusium, enable us to clear away much of the confusion sur- 
rounding the different forms of the species. 

I sum up the relative value of the different characters as 
follows : 

1. Color—not constant. 

2. Scales—constant in ordinary forms of the species; not con- 
stant in the varieties 

3. Form—not constant. 

4. Structure—not constant. 

5. Character of the indusia—constant. 

6. Position of the sori on the veins—constant. 

It is too much to expect that any species or variety will exactly 
conform, in every instance, to any prescribed form or character, 
just as pieces of mechanism cast in dies by the hundred or thou- 
sand in unvarying conformity agree with one another; and all we 
can do is to describe the general characters of a species or variety 
as we find them in nature. 

A species often manifests itself in a great variety of forms, no 
two plants being exactly alike, and sometimes fronds on the same 
plant will exhibit surprising variation, so that it is exceedingly 
difficult to fix the limit and say which of the forms is typical, 
but as long as these forms can be referred to one common center 
of variation it does not seem well to recognize any such forms as 
varieties, and so we endeavor to describe as exactly as possible 
the character of that center of variation, and judge of all speci- 
mens by their relation to that. 

When we find plants that cannot be referred to this first center 
of characters, but evidently proceed from another, if there are no 


712 Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. [ November, 


intermediate forms connecting the second center with the first, 
then the probabilities are in favor of the second plant being a dis- 
tinct species; but if the second is directly connected with or 
related to the first by a graduating series of forms and other 
characters, then we are justified in regarding the second as a 
variety of the first, the intermediate forms being rather proofs of 
the fact than otherwise. 

This is exactly the position in which I find Aspidium spinulo- 
sum and its var. intermedium. 

As for the so-called var. di/atatum, as we have it in Eastern 
Massachusetts, I have not been able to discover any really good 
distinctive characters to justify regarding it as anything more than 
a highly developed state of sfzzulosum. Not only does the form 
of the fronds often agree with Swartz’s description of the species, 
but frequently, even in very large specimens that appear at: first 
sight more compound, they are only bipinnate in structure. I 
have so many times traced the ordinary form of the species step 
by step into our dilatatum that I have no faith in it as a variety, 
but think it should be embraced in the specific description. The 
smooth under surface and naked indusia clearly place it with the 
specific form, and in the specimens examined I have found the 
situation of the sori on the veins exactly the same as in the 
species. 

On the other hand the more northern form, peculiar to the 
mountainous regions of New Hampshire and Vermont, is so dif- 
ferent in appearance, being in every way larger and more com- 
pound, that it may be desirable to have some way of designating 
it, even though the characters are of secondary importance. For 
this reason it may be as well to retain the variety subject to this 
limitation. 

Var. Boottii, I have always been inclined to regard as a distinct 
species on the supposition of its being a probable hybrid between 
A. spinulosum (intermedium) and A. cristatum, but if it is to be 
considered only as a variety, then it comes nearer to cristatum 
than it does to spinulosum. So far as my own and the observa- 


tions of my friends extend, whenever it varies at all it recedes to- 


__ ward cristatum. Thus apparently indicating its origin. I have 
not Pease < with a . botanist who did not express some such feel- 


ani Portion of ie Eie frond certainly x resembles the e a 


1878. | Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. 713 
var. intermedium in form, in the spinulose character of the pinne 
and the glandular indusia, but on the other hand the lower por- 
tion as strongly resembles A. cristatum, and it is still more closely 
connected with the latter species by the character of its sterile 
fronds. These so often resemble the sterile fronds of A. cris- 
tatum var. Clintonianum, that it is not always possible to separate 
them if they become mixed. Indeed, the resemblance between 
the larger forms of Boottii and ordinary forms of Ciintonianum is 
sometimes so striking that it would be exceedingly difficult to 
distinguish them if it was not that in Joottz the indusiums are 
always covered with minute glands, while in CZintonianum they 
are perfectly smooth. 

For these reasons I cannot subscribe to the opinion that its 
nearest affinity is with spzuulosum, but favor removing it altogether 
from that species, and either placing it with cristatum or restoring 
it to its specific distinction. 

But I will not undertake to decide this question here, the only 
object of the present paper being to give the results of my recent 
examinations, and to show, first, that we have good typical speci- 
mens of A. spinulosum in abundance, and second, that the var. 
intermedium possesses sufficiently good distinctive characters to 
justify our regarding it as a good variety, if not a species. 

I submit the following (partial) descriptions of the two forms, 
intended only to cover the principal points in the present paper: 


ASPIDIUM SPINULOSUM Swz. (A, inter- | ASPIDIUM SPINULOSUM var. interme- 
medium Willd. ium Eaton. (A. spimulosum 

I to 3 feet high. Stipes clothed with Willd. 
pale or dark brown scales; fronds usu- I to 3 feet high. Scales of the stipes 


ally of a light (yellowish) green, some- 
times dark, varying from ovate- lanceolate 
to triangular-ovate, twice or thric - 
nate; pinnæ arranged oblique S on pe 
rachis, the lowest pairs unequally trian- 
gular-ovate or sub-deltoid, usually shorter 
and more oblique pee p immediately 


above, lower pinn greatly elon- 
gated. i ‘ 

Under surface smooth; indusioms 
naked; sori terminal on the veins 


Medford, Mass., July, hie 


pale brown, or brown with darker 
ters; frond usually dark green, oblong- 
lanceolate, twice or thrice pinnate; pin- 
næ spreading, lower often unequally 
triangular-ovate with elongated lower 
pinnules : 
Under surface finely glandular ; indu- 
siums covered with sta s; sori 
medial or sub-terminal on ee veins, 


NoreE.—In the foregoing paper I have not ventured to disturb the specific arrange- 


t of the 


slants under consideration, but as 


the positions therein assumed may, if — 


m 
= clearly established, render a re-arrangement necessary, I offer the following sugges- ses 


714 Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. {[ November, 


tion as a basis for a re-arrangement of the different forms of A. spinulosum and cris- 
tatum : 
I. ASPIDIUM SPINULOSUM Swz. 
B. var. dilatatum Eaton, in Gray’s Manual.—Embracing only the extreme 
northern form. 
2. ASPIDIUM AMERICANUM. (A. spinulosum Willd., A. spinulosum, var. inter- 
medium Eaton.) 

o 3 feet or more high; scales of the stipe pale or dark brown, often with 
darker centers, ovate or ovate-acuminate below, paler, postid lanceolate, 
and scattered along the main and secondary rachises above; frond ovate or 

oblong-lanceolate, twice or thrice pinnate; pinnz s fvidiig lanceolate or 
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, lower pair sometimes sei saree triangular-ovate, 

with the lower pinnules elongated; pinnules oblong-ovate, acute, lower series 
longest, more or less incised, or cut clear to the rachis becoming again pin 
nate; lobes -oo Ses ae ESEA toothed. Frond dark, often light 
green, stipe, rachises and veins sometim aiy under surface minutely 
glandular, sori ial Nar glandula 

3. ASPIDIUM BOOTTII Tuckerman. Aspidium pacha var. Boottii Eaton, in 

Gray’ 


4. ASPIDIUM CRISTATUM Sw 
B: Okai Bidk. 
sga var. Floridanum Eaton. 

I offer the following remarks on the above arrangement : 

It is with considerable hesitation that I venture to recommend 
a new name for a fern so long known as a form of A. spinulosum 
under the name of intermedium, as I do not wish to appear to 
show any disposition to multiply species unnecessarily, or to dis- 
turb established and familiar names; but in reéstablishing the 
present form as a species there appears to be no alternative 
between doing this and adopting Willdenow’s name of A. inter- 
medium—a name heretofore improperly applied to our form. But 
that author’s name does not belong here, for his description of A. 
intermedium does not contain a word in regard to the glandular 
indusiums and under surface, while, on the other hand, his 
description of A. spinulosum does, thus exactly reversing the usual 
arrangement. 

For this reason we cannot write A. intermedium Willd., and as 
Swartz’s name of A. spinulosum takes precedence and belongs to 
another form, we are also debarred from writing A. spinulo- 
sum Willd., thus leaving our plant without aname. Therefore 

we have no alternative but to provide a new one, and in selecting 
the present name I have taken into consideration the fact that 
our American form has always been regarded as peculiar to this 
a fact which the pronn: name ree expresses. 


1878. ] Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties. 715 


The name itself has been used in part only, apparently to 
describe some form of A. spinulosum Sw. (spinulosum-americanum 
Fisch., MS., Index Fil. Moore, p. 104) but whether applied to 
the present form or to our American plants in general as the 
name implies, I have no means of knowing. Moore gives as a syn- 
onyme var. B. of Lastrea dilatata, a fern generally regarded as a 
distinct species by English authors. 

But whatever may have been its application in that form, in 
bringing it forward here under the present combination, it becomes 
an entirely new and as much an original name as if it had never 
been used at all. 

I have been led to restore A. Booftit to its specific value, and to 
retain Tuckerman’s name for it from the following consider- 
ations : 

The characters that seem to connect it with cristatum are, when 
more carefully examined, really no stronger than similar resem- 
blances between other and good species. 

For example, the sterile fronds of A. munitum of the Pacific 
States, and our northern A. acrostichoides are quite as much alike 
as the sterile fronds of Boottii and cristatum. Our common A. 
marginale and the Californian A. argutum sometimes so closely 
resemble each other as to suggest a closer relation than is 
accorded to them. These two species and A. filix-mas often appear 
to run together, having many similar resemblances, yet they are 
all three undoubtedly good species. Similar and equally strong 
resemblances may be found existing between many other species, 
and the puzzling forms of the small Botrychia are sufficient to 
show how little dependence can be placed, at times, on external 
appearances alone. 

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish small specimens of 
Cheilanthes lanuginosa from Notholena Parryi, and not an 
uncommon thing for fronds of Woodsia obtusa and Cystopteris 
Jragilis to become mixed through their close resemblance, and if 
this occurs among species belonging to entirely different genera, 
how much more likely is it to occur among closely related spe- 
cies. So that I cannot see why any argument drawn from such — 
resemblances should have more weight in any instance than in 
those mentioned. 

Few ferns are really more distinct than A. Boottit. Its indi- 
-= vidual character is even more pronounced than that of A. inter- _ 


716 Aspidium spinilosum and its Varieties. [November, 


medium, and there is seldom any difficulty in distinguishing it at 
all times from all other ferns by which it may be surrounded. Its 

, wide-spread distribution in this country and Europe (where it 
was first discovered and described as a species by Braun, under 
the name of Aspidium remotum, and where it seems to preserve 
its character no less distinctly than with us) entitles it to a higher 
consideration than that of a mere variety, and although its resem- 
blances to cristatum are stronger than its resemblances to spinu- 
Josum, the glandular indusia keep it always distinct from the 
former species. In no instance known to me is there any-record 
of glandular indusia occurring in cristatum- while in Boottii they 
are always present. 

Its anomalous character, however, occupying as it does an 
apparently intermediate position between spinulosum and cris- 
tatum, and the fact that it is generally found growing in company 
with those two species, has led many to regard it as a probable 
hybrid, but a proper consideration of this theory will show that 
while it may be possible for those two species to hybridize as fre- 
quently as this theory would pre-suppose, it is hardly probable 
that they should do so in so many instances, and under such 
widely different circumstances and surroundings without pro- 
ducing some other than this one particular form, everywhere so — 
uniform in its character. But even this theory, if established, 
would only result in raising our plant to the dignity of a species, 
a position to which I think it no less entitled now. 

I retain Tuckerman’s name, as it is the only one by which our 
plant is generally known to American botanists, and having been 
used frequently abroad, it has the additional merit of being the 
best known and most widely used of all names. 

Finally, if it be urged against my paper that, as my investiga- 
tions have apparently been limited to Middlesex County, they can 
only be regarded as partial, I answer that those observations were 
made upon living plants growing in their natural situations, and 
other examinations of a series of herbarium specimens from 

_ Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and other States, have 

_ only strengthened my convictions in regard to them. 

During a recent visit to Portland, Me., I visited a number of 2 

_rich swamps in the neighboring towns and found A. americanum a 

-tobe the prevailing form in that vicinity. I met with A. spinu- 4 | 
losum but twice, and in both instances the specimens were well — 

marked and characteristic, | 


1878. ] Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. 717 


Some of the specimens of A. americanum were remarkably 
large and fine, and might have been mistaken for di/atatum— 
with which form large specimens are no doubt often confounded 
—but a close examination revealed all of the characters that I 
have described as belonging to this species. 


=f 8 


PLASTER OF PARIS AS AN INJECTING MASS} 
BY SIMON H: GAGE, B.S. 


HE necessity for some artificial, colored medium to fill the 

blood vessels must have been felt by the first anatomists. 
Indeed, injections were rudely made by Eustachius and Varolius 
in the sixteenth century (Turner, 1, I, 812)? 

It was left, however, to De Graaf and Swammerdam to fairly 
initiate the process in the middle of the seventeenth century 
(Turner, 1, I, 812). 

De Graaf used mercury and colored fluids, and was the inventor 
of the injecting syringe (2, XVII, 291); but it is to Swammerdam 
that anatomists owe most, for he introduced the use of colored 
wax (2, XL, 477 and 1, I, 812). This answers fairly the require- 

ments of an injecting mass, as it may be used in the fluid state, 
but becomes solid very soon afterward. Upon renouncing anat- 
: omy for mysticism, Swammerdam gave his secret to Ruysch, his 
: fellow countryman (2, XL, 477), who perfected the art, and fairly 
approached in skill and excellence of results the refinements of 
modern anatomy (1, I, 812, and 2, XX XVII, 143). 
| About the middle of the eighteenth century, Monro primus 
4 published an essay on anatomical injections (4), in which were 
given very precise directions for the manipulation and preparation 
of the injecting mass. It was composed of wax, tallow, oil and 
turpentine, colored with vermilion, verdigris or lamp-black (3). 
In the latest works which treat of the technology of injections 
(5,6 and 7), nearly the same formule for injecting masses are 
given; and except a mere mention of gypsum in Martin (7, II, 
99), all coarse masses are solid at ordinary temperatures and must 


1 This paper is based upon investigations made in course of the eee of a 
Manual for the Dissection of Cats, Prof. Burt G. Wilder and the w 

? See list of works referred to at the end of this paper. The first Pais oe a 
the number on the list; the last, the page; the middle, Roman numeral, the volume. + - oe 


718 Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. [ November, 


be heated before use. The subject must also be thoroughly 
warmed, | 

Plaster of Paris has long been used as an injecting mass, in the 
medical schools of this country at least. It seems to be admirably 
adapted to this purpose from its well known property of becoming 
solid when mixed with water. 

Although plaster has not the defects of the masses that require 
warming before use, there are difficulties in its manipulation. I 
have been unable to find anything upon the matter in books; and 
gentlemen connected with medical schools say they do not 
know of any printed directions; but this process of injecting, 
like other expedients is handed down by tradition from one dem- 
onstrator to another. All that I have been able to learn from 
others of the technology of plaster injections is that the plaster 
should be mixed to a thin paste with water (with a saturated 
aqueous solution of arseniate of soda at one medical school) and 
used, uncolored or colored with vermilion or red lead, very 
quickly before it has time to set. 

The lack of precise information as to its manipulation, and the 
skill and certainty necessary to use simple plaster and water, 
from its rapid setting, render it hardly manageable by students. 
Yet it is so simple and excellent for coarse injections that some 
careful experiments were made, in the anatomical laboratory of 
the Cornell University during the last college year, to render it 
practicable, if possible, for the use of students by elucidating the 
following particulars: 

The character of the plaster to be used. 
The proportions of plaster and fluid. 
The best and cheapest red and blue colors. i 
The means by which the plaster may be kept fluid ten to thirty minutes after mix- 
ing without preventing it from hardening finally. 
The precautions necessary in making permanent the preparations injected with 
h 


bash ate ieee 


iy 


(1.) It was found that the very finest plaster is best, and indeed 

_ necessary if it is desired to fill the smaller vessels. 
(2.) Equal volumes of plaster and fluid give the best results. 
This forms a very fluid mass which penetrates finely and sets firmly. 
1 According to Martin and Frey (7, II, ror and 10,174), fine cold flowing inject- 
_ ing masses may be made by dissolving copal and mastic resin, with a small propor : 
tion of wax, in sulphuric ether, and coloring with red lead; or by dissolving the 3 
finest red sealing-wax w Cees os These masses harden as soon as ie 

sr Or siropo soaks into the 


1878.) Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. 719 


A thicker mass is much more difficult to manage. A slightly 
greater proportion of fluid may be used if the finest vessels are 
to be filled. The fluid includes all the liquid used in mixing the 
mass; viz, coloring liquids, restrainers and water. 

(3.) As to the red and blue colors, there are several that answer 
admirably. For red, vermilion or red lead ground in a mortar 
with a little water to get rid of lumps may be added in sufficient 
quantity to give a bright color. A saturated aqueous solution 
of magenta or red aniline is the easiest to use of all the red 
colors. It does not diffuse and color the tissues as one might 
expect, but colors the walls of the vessels a very bright red. An 
ammoniacal solution of carmine is, however, the best red. A 
sufficient quantity of this is added to the mass, and then the car- 
Mine is precipitated with fifty per cent. acetic acid. The acid 
should be poured into the colored mass, with constant stirring, 
till the color changes to the bright red of dry carmine, and there 
is a distinct odor of the acid. It is necessary to precipitate the 
carmine, as an alkaline solution diffuses through the walls of the 
vessels and stains the surrounding tissue. The advantage in pre- 
cipitating the carmine in the mass is its uniform diffusion. The 
same method is employed in coloring red the finest gelatin 
masses for histological injections (9, 10 and 11). 

A saturated solution of Berlin blue is the best blue, but as this 
is difficult to prepare (8, 403, 9, 164 and 10, 180), the ordinary ` 
Berlin or Prussian blue of the shops will answer if it is ground 
with water to a homogeneous paste. The simplest blue is, how- 
ever, a saturated aqueous solution of blue aniline. 

The aniline colors are the easiest to use, as it is simply neces- 
Sary to add to the mass a sufficient quantity of the solution to 
produce the desired tint. 

' (4.). It has been known a long time that if alum or borax is 
burned with gypsum, the resulting plaster will not set for three 
or four hours after mixing, but will finally set nearly as hard as 
marble (12). It is said by Tomlinson (13, I, 829) that ordinary 
plaster may be kept fluid four or five hours after mixing with 
water by adding a little sżze or beer; and it is a matter of common 
experience that the greater the proportion of water the longer it 
takes the plaster to set. It is necessary to give the mass a cer- 


'Leamon’s red and blue aniline dyes answer very well, and may be bought at any 
drug store, fe 


720 Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. (November, 


tain consistency in order to have the resulting injection success- 
ful, therefore the amount of water could not be increased suffi- 
ciently to retard the setting over four or five minutes. As to the 
alum-plaster, it is difficult to obtain, and has the same objection 
as the mass to which size has been added; viz, it is. too long in 
setting, for it is often desirable to begin a dissection in compara- 
tive anatomy almost immediately after the injection has been 
made. 
It was noticed that a mass colored with carmine solution and 
afterwards acidulated with acetic acid remained fluid a much 
longer time than when colored with a red or blue with which no 
acid was used. Experiment showed that plaster mixed with an 
equal volume of ten per cent. acetic acid remained fluid ten to 
twenty minutes. The time was increased when carmine solution 
was used with the acid, as in practical injections, but not when 
any other colors were added. It was also found that if the plas- 
ter was mixed with either of the following solutions, instead of 
water, the setting was retarded ten to thirty minutes: A ten to 
twenty per cent. aqueous solution of alcohol or glycerine, or a ten 
per cent. solution of arseniate of soda. Either of these restrain- 
ers may be used with either of the colors. The arseniate and the 
acetic acid make the plaster friable, but the others do not. 
_ It is important to state that a mass which has been treated with 

a restrainer may be kept perfectly fluid much longer by agitation. 
This is also true of plaster and water, but not in so great a 
degree. 

In all of the experiments the plaster, after being thoroughly 
mixed with the fluid, was poured into small paper boxes like 
those used in imbedding for microscopical sections. It was found 
in practice that the plaster hardened much quicker in the blood 
vessels than in the paper boxes. This is probably because the 
restrainers and all superfluous liquid soak into the tissues, 
leaving only the amount of water necessary to eryelline the 
_ plaster. 

(5.) If one desires to make a permanent alcoholic or dried prep- 
| aration of any part or organ injected with plaster, the aniline 
colors must not be used, as they are not enduring. The alcohol 
should be seventy-five per cent. or stronger, and slightly acidu- 
lated with acetic acid (alcohol 200 parts, acid I part) to preserve 
te 9 of the oe blue and the carmine red (10, 202) 


ll 


1878. | Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. 721 


The part to be preserved should not be placed in alcohol till the 
plaster has become thoroughly hardened. An hour will usually 
suffice. 

Practical Application of the Plaster Mass—It will be readily 
seen that the plaster mass is far superior to a wax mass for ordi- 
nary work. It is simply necessary to mix it well with an equal vol- 
ume of fluid; and the subject needs only to be bled. Wax involves 
great expense and trouble in preparation, and both it and the 
subject must be thoroughly warmed before the injection can be 
made (7, II, 100 and 3). The warming is objectionable especially 
with cold blooded animals.} 

Plaster is also very neat, it never softens, but makes the injected 
vessels like cylinders of stone. It penetrates very finely, filling 
arteries half a millimeter in diameter, and has a great range of uses. 
It is well adapted to fill various ducts, like the thoracic, pancreatic, 
etc. The valves in the veins, the semilunar valves of the aorta 
and pulmonary artery may be most satisfactorily demonstrated 
with it, and with a little care and experience the action of the 
auriculo-ventricular valves of the heart may be nicely shown. 

Vessels or ducts injected with plaster may be dissected out 
neatly, and placed on cardboard to dry. The appearance of the 
dried preparation is nearly like that of the fresh specimen, as the 
plaster prevents shrinkage. Preparations so made will last indefi- 
nitely if they are well poisoned with arseniate of soda before dry- 
ing. Specimens injected with plaster colored with Berlin blue and 
carmine, have kept three months in slightly acid alcohol without 
the least change. 

The accompanying diagrams are introduced to show the cheap- 
ness and simplicity of an injecting apparatus, and its practical 
application in plaster injecting. 

n 8-ounce lead or britannia syringe, with a leather packed 
piston, works very well indeed and costs less than one dollar. 
The canula is so large, Fig. II, 1, that it cannot be put into the 
vessels. Fine canule for this purpose a be made by any per- 

lIt is objectionable to warm thoroughly a mammalian animal after death, as it 
greatly hastens decomposition. It is particularly objectionable to warm cold-blooded 
animals, for the warm water, into which they must be put, acts as a powerful stimu- 
= causing general tetanus, unless one waits half a day or a day after apparent _ 

eath. The tissues, especially of amphibians, are greatly softened by the warm . 
water, in fact partially cooked. It is also a great deal of trouble to warm the ani- 
mal and the mass in summer. 


722 Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. | November, 


son out of a small glass tube, as shown in Fig. I. The fine can- 
ula is connected with the canula of the syringe by means of a 
tightly-fitting rubber tube, Fig. II, 2. 


Uc ULLAL CA a RRR 


SSS : 


EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAMS. 

Fic. I.—1-2, a glass tube 6 mm. in diameter is evenly heated in the center over 
an alcohol or Bunsen flame, and drawn out till it is only 1-2 mm. in diameter. 
scratch is then made with a fine file and the two are broken apart. 

Fic. II.—1, the large canula of the syringe; 2, rubber tube serving to con 
nect this large canula to the fine canula, 3; 4, the oblique end of the fine canula, 
made by carefully grinding with a fine wet file. The sharp edges at both ends of the 
glass canula may be removed by cautiously heating in the flam 

Fic, I11.—The artery and vein of the left leg are exposed, wid the artery is rep- 
resented as ready for injection. To inject the body it is simply necessary to change 
the direction of the canula. æ, femoral artery; 4, femoral v 
on the large end of the canula ; 2, insertion of the canula into the artery; 3, knot 
connecting the strings round the artery and the large end of the canula. 

All the knots shown in the figure should be hard knots like 3. 


In order to inject, the given vessel or duct is exposed and a 
longitudinal slit made in it. The fine canula connected to the 
rubber tube, Fig. III, is put into the vessel, and a string tied in a 
hard knot around the vessel so that it will press on the canula. 
One end of this string is then tied to another string coming from 
= the large end of the canula, Fig. III, 1. This prevents the 
~ canula from slipping out of the vessel. 
-After the canula has been tied into the vessel, the injecting 
nas is prepared. Let it be for the arterial system of a cat. 
> cc. of the finest plaster of Paris is put into a clean dish, and 
of a E: cent, ae solution of alcohol, eee a8 


1878. | Plaster of Paris as an Injecting Mass. 723 


or arseniate of soda is added, and the whole well mixed. Then 
8 cc. of carmine solution is stirred into the mass, and finally 
8 cc. of fifty per cent. acetic acid is poured in with constant 
stirring. The fine canula and rubber tube are filled with water to 
avoid getting air into the vessels. The syringe is then filled with 
the prepared plaster mass and the large canula of the syringe is 
connected to the fine canula by means of the rubber tube. The 
pressure should be steady and. continuous, There is very little 
danger of bursting arteries if the pressure is steady. 

Before the injection is commenced, a string should be put 
around the artery beyond the end of the canula and loosely 
knotted with a.surgeon’s knot. (In a surgeon’s knot the string 
is put through the loop twice as shown in Fig. III, 1.) As soon 
as no more mass can be forced into the vessels the surgeon’s 
knot should be tightened, and the fine canula and syringe 
thoroughly washed with water. All the dishes used in making 
the injection should be washed immediately before the plaster 
hardens. The most scrupulous cleanliness is necessary to pre- 
vent lumps of hardened plaster from clogging the syringe or the 
vessel which is being injected. 

In case veins are to be injected they should be, as far as possi- 
ble, emptied of blood, and the injection must be made from some 
peripheral vessel like the femoral or jugular veins, on account of 
the valves. It is well if the injection is made into the femoral 


‘vein, for example, to have the jugular open to allow the blood to 


flow out as the plaster is forced in. There is no danger of the 
plaster running out, for it cannot pass the valves. 
As a rule a dissection may be begun in half an hour after the 
injection. 
FORMUL FOR PLASTER MASSES. 
The amounts given are those necessary for an ordinary cat, and cost two to five 
cents: 


I, Finest plaster of Paris A92.Cc- 
Red lead or vermilion......... ene 5O grams, 
Either of the following restrainers OORS 


Ten tọ twenty per cent, aqueous solution of stcohol or glycerine, or a ten 
per cent. solution of arseniate of soda. 


a. Plaster. Too ce 
Restrainer 84 cc. 
appead geen of carmine 8 ce. 

ry carmine I gram, ammonia 2 cc. Grind the two in a mortar 
id, 22 cc. of twenty per cent. glycerine,) 


Fifty per cent. acetic acid : Sak 


VOL, XII.—NO,. XII 49 


724 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. [ November, 


S ie ar ov ess ce hued cel eV ens Coe e a a cal 100 cc. 
Saturated aqueous solution of magenta or aniline red..... eseas.. 25 CC. 
Pee a ooo Vb Col boc ee ks cos SUa VEGI ke Paes Cibo pe FROM 

4. Plaster... o 0.63 100 cc 
eae blue in powder eVawe NU PEN 2 grams, 
r a soe 70g oh Os coe RS bs See ee See ES 100 cc. 

By POI, EN ude bovecawes spade t ore aT 100 cc 
Saturated aqueous solution of aniline blue.............cceee ee 10.cc 

BPA OI oslo s isle Saab VERGO Ee «CWE oC thes go cc. 


WORKS REFERRED TO. 
Turner, W. Article Anatomy in Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th and oth editions. 
; nomee Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne (Michaud). Paris, 18 
$ Parr, rtholomew. The London Medical Dictionary. Article Injections, 
0, 18 


N m 


. An essay on Anatomical Injections. Inserted in the essays of 
we Society of Edinbur 741 
5. Dunglison’s Medical Dia oar. Reviead edition. Article Injections. 
6. Dictionnaire de Medicine, etc., 14th edition. Par E. Littré et Ch. Robin. Arti- 
e Injection. Paris, 1877. 
7. Martin, Philip Leo poli, Die Praxis der Naturgeschichte. Drei Theile. Wei- 


a 
= 
z 
° 
N 


mar, 1869—1878. 
8. The American Naturalist, Vol. XI. 
9. Schæfer, E. A. Histology and the Microscope. Philadelphia, 1877. 
o. Frey, Dr. Heinrich. The Microscope and PARSE Technology. New 
York, I 
11. Ranvier, Louis. Traité technique d’Histologie. Paris, 1875. 
2. Laboulaye, M. Ch. Dictionnaire des Arts et Manufactures, 3d edition. Article 
tre. 
13. Tomlinson. Celosia of useful Arts and Hahake Article Gypsum. 
London and NewYork. ; 


:0; 


ON THE NATURAL SUCCESSION OF THE DICOTY- 
LE ; 


BY LESTER F. WARD, A.M. 


HE system of classification for dicotyledonous plants now in 
use in most text books of botany is substantially that of 
Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, as published in his Genera Plantarum 
in 1789. Although many minor modifications have been made 
_and are still being made by different authors, the fundamental 
arrangement into three “ Divisions,” depending on the nature of 
_ the corolla, has been maintained in its integrity to the mite 

; AA sequel to the article on the Genealogy of Plants in the June number. 
substance of the two articles was embodied in a paper read before the Psp 
ety of Taos Pinag, 16, 1878. 


1878. ] On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. 725 


day; only two serious attempts having yet been made to cut loose 
from it, one of which has failed to command an acceptance, not- 
withstanding the eminence of its author, while the other is still 
too new to permit an opinion as to its ultimate success. I refer 
to Dr. Lindley’s classification as elaborated in his Vegetable King- 
dom, and to the system proposed by Sachs in his Tert Book of 
Botany. 

In the first} or, as it is supposed, highest of the three “ Divisions,” 
the corolla consists of distinct pieces or petals not at all connected 
with each other, and this is called the Polypetalous division. In 
the second group these petals are united, at least at their base, the 
distinct divisions only appearing, if at ali, in the form of a “limb”’ 
of separate lobes at the summit of a tube of greater or less 
length. This group is called the Monopetalous division. The 
third group wants the petals and corolla entirely, the perianth 
consisting of a single envelope which is always assumed to be the 
outer or calyx Plants of this nature form the Apetalous division; 
they are also frequently denominated monochlamydous, those of 
the other two divisions being designated as dichlamydous. 

The defects of this classification have long been apparent, and 
although so persistently adhered to, it has always been a source 
of trouble to systematists, no two ever entirely agreeing as to its pre- 
cise limits. Even those who wholly ignore or reject the doctrine of 
descent seek to bring together as nearly as possible those plants 
which actually resemble each other most, since this is the funda- 
mental idea, and formerly the only idea, of a “ natural system.” 
Yet in adhering to the principle involved in the classification by 
divisions this was frequently impossible, the two principles being 
often in direct conflict. In every such case it is clear that the 
Maintenance of the divisions involved, is so far, an artifictal, as 
contradistinguished from a xatura/ system of classification. And 
indeed it is difficult to see how a system of classification based on- 
the corolla is more natural or less artificial than one based on the 
stamens. If it could be shown that this class of characters are 
1 The propriety of commencing text books of Botany or Natural History with the - 


highest or most perfectly organized families and descending the scale so as to end 
with the lowest or most imperfectly organized may well be questioned. Though 


i doubtless more convenient for beginners to study, it” “tends to antagonize and keep- 


out of view the truth of a progressive historic ul evelopment in living things which, 


to the majority of students, is of greater value than any technical acquaintance bal o a 
_ Specialized forms. 2 


726 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. | November, 


more permanent or reliable, or that they are more compre- 
hensive, and better typify the general sum of the characters 
distinguishing groups of plants, a point in their favor would be 
gained, but, as we shall see, such is not the case. In point of 
fact these characters frequently change when nothing else has 
changed, and often remain the same when everything else widely 
differs. They constantly tend to “run together,’ and no strict, 
dividing line exists between them. They also frequently vary 
within very narrow groups, sometimes in the same species or 
individual. Critically viewed, therefore, this system so far as it 
goes, presents as many imperfections and stands as directly in the 
way of the adoption of a truly natural system as did the profess- 
edly artificial one of Linnzus. 

The recognition of the three Divisions, as is made in nearly 
all systematic works on botany, even the most recent, involves 
numerous direct conflicts with the best established orders of 
dicotyledonous plants. Many orders are found to contain species 
and genera whose corollas would require them to be placed in a 
different Division from that in which the order itself has been 
placed. Examples of this class are abundant. Paronychia, a 
genus which seems clearly to belong to the polypetalous order 
Caryophyllacee (Illecebree), is usually apetalous, though some 
species retain a rudiment’ of the petals in the form of minute 
teeth or bristles; Chrysosplenium in the order Saxafragace@ is 
another example of the same class. G/aux in the monopetalous order 
Primulacee is destitute of a corolla. Ludwigia, Ammannia, Pen- 
thorum, Nyssa, are further illustrations, and only the most familiar 
need be mentioned. Most of the Auphorbiacee in this country (if 
we except £uphorbia itself), which are monoecious, have polypet- 
alous staminate (male), and apetalous fertile (female) flowers. 
_ Here we have the two extreme divisions united in the same indi- 

_ vidual plant (Croton, Tragia, etc.). 

1 The term “ vestige” ? would probably be more correct. It is certainly remarkable 
that this term has not been more generally adopted to express this important disting: 
: tion so clearly. perceived by the naturalists of this e epoch. The terms “rudime nt” 
and “rudimentary ” should be confined to those organs which the life- ppe of the 
plant or animal shows to be in process of development or formation. On the other 
; hand those organs which, from disuse or other causes, have dwindled into mere rem- 
; of once perfect ones should be distinguished by the term “ vestiges” oran 
equally appropriate and expressive one. Yet these are the so-called “ rudimentary 
organs? which have played so pa a rôlein the modern theories of science, and 

Darwin himself e i n i in that sense without commenting 0P- 


1878. ] On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. 727 


Again, there are cases in which the lobes of the nominally 
gamopetalous corolla are so deeply parted that it becomes diffi- 
cult to determine whether they are at all united, and in which the 
union sometimes actually ceases to exist. Of this class might be 
mentioned at random Symplocos, Statice, Naumbergia, Anagallis, 
Chionanthus, Fraxinus. The last named genus is of special inter- 
est in consequence of the close general resemblance between the ash 
and maple families, which are, however, widely separated in the 
present system. ‘That beautiful climber, Boussingaultia baselloides, 
commonly known as the Madeira vine, is botanically related to 
‘the Portulacacee, but the petals are barely united at the base, 
for which reason it has been removed from its natural association 
and placed in the monopetalous division. 

Thus we find that while some botanists have preferred to main- 
tain well established orders intact by allowing them to embrace 
genera and species whose corolla would require them to be 
placed in different divisions, others have chosen rather to remove 
such anomalous genera to their appropriate divisions and if neces- 
sary to create new orders for them. Some, for example, leave Paro- 
nychia, Anychia, etc., in the Caryophyllacee, with which they are 
clearly allied, while others place them in the apetalous division 
near the Polygonacee with which they doubtless are also allied. 
But there are many cases which cannot be thus easily disposed 
of, as the Agutfoliacee, Euphorbiacee, Asclepiadacee, etc., in which 
cases the entire order is changed about from one division to | 
another, according as the author may think the preponderance of 
characters requires. 

Not only does it frequently occur that an order which cannot 
be divided contains genera representing two of the general 

types of corolla upon which the divisions are founded, but some 

orders, as the Primulacee, actually embrace all three of these 
types. In the order just named we find Maumbergia which is 
frequently polypetalous, and G/aux which is always apetalous, 
while most of the genera are monopetalous. 

These few examples, which might easily be extended, certainly 
show that the so-called divisions of the Dicotyle do not form a 
natural series. They rather indicate that they represent three 
parallel and co-ordinate series, in any one of which orders closely | 
corresponding may be named in one or both the others. Thus the = 
Caryophyllacee may be compared with the Polygonacee,the Acer- 


728 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. [ November, 


inee with the Oleacee, the Aguifoliacee with the Rhamnacee, the 
Malvacee with the Euphoritacee, and the Hamamelacee with the 
Platanacee. These comparisons-and others that will suggest 
themselves to every botanist, reveal natural relationships between 
plants which are far removed from each other because they fail 
to agree in the one character on which the divisions are based. 
They clearly show, therefore, that the arrangement by divisions 
is an artificial one, and that the fact of the coherence or non- 
coherence of the petals is far from a reliable one as indicating the 

true succession, much less the genealogical descent of the 
families. 

It is not claimed, however, that the three mostly parallel series 

wholly fail to express any general law of the vegetable kingdom, 

and. an attempt will be made before concluding the subject to 

show that they do express in a partial manner an important truth 

in phytonomy. Though concurrent for a great part of their 

length and inosculating all along, these lines of development 

appear not to have had a simultaneous origin. But before enter- 

ing upon the direct treatment of this problem it will be necessary 

to consider another class of facts. 

The practice thus far dwelt upon of distorting the natural 

system by an undue regard for the corolla is only one example 

under a general class. The vice itself expressed in general 

terms, is that of adhering too closely to any one character to the 

neglect of all the rest. We thus find cases within the same 

division in which orders unquestionably allied are not placed 

together, but are widely separated. Every one has been struck 

by the resemblance of certain Ranunculaceous with certain Rosa- 

ceous plants, especially as to foliage and general habit; for exam- 
ple, Ranunculus with Geum, Actea with Spiræa, etc. It iS, 

=- customary with botanists to affect a certain degree of contempt 
_ for such general resemblances, and they are commonly regar ded 
as wholly misleading. That they cannot be depended upon as 
safe guides to special investigation all will of course admit, since 
- it $ so frequently happens that striking similarities exist between 
families which cannot in any way be assimilated. But even in 
uch cases the resemblances often vanish on closer inspection and 
» have been produced by entirely dissimilar processes- 
rehine Aich will bear close inspection are rarely 
here is e certain correlation which subsists 


1878. ] On the. Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. 729 


among all the characters of a plant so that those which have 
similar organs of reproduction usually exhibit strong family rela- 
tionships. Were it not so familiar it would be a surprising fact 
that a Solanaceous plant can usually be detected as such without 
examining the flowers, merely by a certain undefinable appear- 
ance which belongs to the family. The same is true to a greater 
or less extent with all the large orders, Crucifere, Lorraginacee, 
Urticacee, etc. In some families still more subtle characteristics 
persist with great uniformity, of which the peculiar odor of the 
Orchidacee is a good example. 

This so-called “general aspect ” is in reality the exsemd/e of all - 
the characters which make a plant such as it is, and though any 
one character is as liable to vary as another or as more obvious 
ones, their number is so great that it requires an enormous period 
of time to so efface them all as to destroy all traces of resem- 
blance. Not so of any particular character which botanists may 
fix upon. This may vary in a manner comparatively rapid, and 
thus it doubtless often happens that species really related and 
bearing a general resemblance are divorced in the text books on 
special differences. 

This co-existence of so large a number of minor peculiarities 
as to give to two plants or groups of plants an obvious genéral 
resemblance should therefore be welcomed as a valuable accessory 
to the work of classification, not as a special guide to truth but as 
a general check upon error. A strong physiognomic resem- 
blance between two groups of plants should at least raise a sus- 
picion of their genetic relationship, and might frequently furnish 
a theory for the investigation of important questions. In a pre- 
vious paper it was shown how the physiognomy of the Cycadacee 
pointed to their natural position between the ferns and the palms, 
and how a closer inspection of the more reliable characters sus- 
tained this conclusion. If now we return to the case of the 
Ranunculacee and Rosaceæ above referred to, we shall find a fur- 
ther confirmation of this law. A careful comparison of all the 
genera of these two orders, which has been recently made, reveals 
the fact that there is to be traced “an easy transition from the 
wholly conical and much elongated receptacle of Ranunculus and 
Myosurus to that of Fragaria, flattened at the base and conical in 
the center, or of Rubus with its raised margin and convex center. 
From this we may pass to Sibbaldia, Potentilla, Horkelia and 


730 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. [November, 


Stylobasium.”’ On the same principle the Portu/acacee have been 
very closely assimilated to the Cactacee, with which they are 
found to agree in an astonishingly large number of characters, 
including that of the irritability of the stamens. Again the Dro- 
seraceé and Saxifrageé are now known to be closely allied fami- 
lies, as their physiognomy would indicate. And strange as it 
may at first appear, there is little doubt that the Crucifere are 
related to the Ouagracee by natural affinities more or less close. 
Further investigations from the same point of view will doubtless 
enable us to go much farther in discovering the true affinities of 
dicotyledonous plants. 

_ It is undoubtedly the special function of the floral envelopes, 
as it is of the ovary, to protect the germ, and the degree of this 
protection is the most reliable index we have. to the degree of 
advancement in vegetal life. The means employed in securing 
this end in the Dicotyle are two-fold: first, the relation in which 
the calyx stands to the ovary; and second, the character of the 
inner envelope or corolla. Botanists, while they have not ignored 
either of these essential characteristics, have generally placed 
more weight upon the second than upon the first, although for 
the purpose named the first has doubtless been of equal service 
to plants. 

From the hypogynous to the perigynous, and from this to the 
epigynous calyx-tube, there is certainly a steady progress in 
the direction of protection, and the advance of the calyx towards 
the more complete enveloping of the ovary may be regarded as 
indicating an equivalent advance in organization. In Dr. Lind- 
ley’s great work on The Vegetable Kingdom, this was made the 
leading character, although in his earlier works he had followed 
the system of Laurent Jussieu; and Prof. Julius Sachs in his 
Text Book of Botany, though in most respects making an entirely 
new departure in botanical classification, places the Rosacee@, Ona- 
gracee, Myrtacee, and other strictly epigynous families at the ` 


__. head of the system as representing the highest type of develop- 


ment. 

The classification by divisions, on the other hand, professes to 
give special prominence to the corolla as an index of progress, 
but how obscure the notion of any direct advantage to be derived 
r it to the plant must have been with the founders of that YE 


lon, Hi , Histoire des Plantes. 


>% 


1878.j On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. 731 


tem, is shown by the order in which the divisions were arranged. 
It seemed evident to their minds that those plants which were 
wholly destitute of a corolla, the apetalous or monochlamydous 
division, should stand at the base, and thus far they were certainly 
consistent. But in placing the polypetalous division at the head 
of the system, the idea of its protecting function must have been 
quite forgotten. For unquestionably the monopetalous corolla is 
the form of floral envelope which affords the greatest protection 
to the ovary and staméns, and the more nearly this eien to 
the tubular form the more complete is that protection. The 
tinct, usually spreading, and often fugacious petals of aa 
plants are of very little service in this respect, so that, in so far at 
least as this one principle is concerned, they should certainly 
stand next above the Apetaleæ. 

In this respect too, it is true, certain monocotyledonous plants 
would take a higher rank than some apetalous and polypetalous 
Dicotylæ, their tubular perianths forming better protecting en- 
velopes. But as it is the genealogical series that the new taxon- 
omy seeks, other more fundamental characteristics must pre- 
clude all attempts to derive the Monocotyle from any advanced 
stage of the Dicotyle. 

The general truth, which is becoming more and more apparent, 
is that the floral envelopes cannot alone be relied upon to indi- 
cate the course of development of the Dicotyledons, and that for 
the natural arrangement of the families many other considera- 
tions must be taken into the account. Instead of depending 
upon any one character it is necessary to consider all the charac- 
ters together. The task, it is true, is vastly more difficult, and 
systematic botany becomes a science requiring exhaustive study, 
but the conclusions reached will ue correspondingly more 
valuable. 

One of the best checks by which the genealogical systematist 
may frequently orient himself, is what has been called the “ physi- 


ognomy” of plants. Whenever the pursuit of any particular — : 


character or set of characters is found to have brought into close _ 
proximity plants of a totally different physiognomy, it is gener- 
ally safe to conclude that the process has been carried too far; 
and on the other hand, when, as is frequently the case in the 
present system, plants having strong general resemblances have 


been widely separated, the propriety of reviewing the evidence — 


732 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. [ November, 


on which such separation was based is at least strongly suggested. 
The resemblance, above pointed out, which the Caryophyllacee 
bear to the Po/ygonacee illustrates this. In these orders the corolla 
and the ovary, two of the most reliable characters, are sufficiently 
distinct in typical genera to justify a separation, but when led by 
the stipules, swollen joints, leaves, habit, and other peculiarities 
that combine to make up their general appearance, to place them 
in juxtaposition and study them comparatively, we find that even 
these characters fail in certain genera, while the relationship indi- 
cated by the physiognomy is partially supported by more respect- 
able evidence. We have already seen that several members of the 
chickweed family are apetalous. On the other hand some genera 
of the Polygonacee may be regarded as at least functionally dichla- 
mydous, as in Chortzanthe, the one-flowered involucre closely 
imitating a calyx. And further, the capsule of several genera of 
the Caryophyllacee (Paronychia, Anychia, Scleranthus) is reduced 
to a one-seeded utricle anprogchiog the achenium of the buck- 
wheat family. 

While, therefore, the time has not yet arrived for the attempt 
to be made to trace out the line of genealogical descent of the 
Dicotyledons, it is evident that a complete re-adjustment of the 
orders, to a great extent independently of the present divisions, 
will have to be made and might soon be undertaken. 

The first dicotyledonous plants were in all probability apet- 
alous, and all authors agree in placing the Amentacee ( Fuliflores 
of Sachs) at the bottom of the scale. It is certainly not without 
` significance that the Casuwarinee, whose possible descent from the 
Guetacee (Ephedra) was referred to in the previous article, belong 
to this group. 

The origination and development of the corolla was doubtless 
by a process similar to that by which the calyx was formed. In 
_ both cases it was the advantage, however slight, which the plant 
derived from it that occasioned its progressive development into 
a protecting organ. In the Amentacee,as also in many Mono- 
_cotyle ( Cyperacee, Gramine@), these envelopes are very imperfect, 
-= often reduced to mere scales. Polypetalous plants (and doubtless 

2 apstalous also) may be of two kinds, according as the petals may 
Showa. to represent rudiments of a gamopetalous corolla in 
ocess of development, or only vestiges of one which they for- 
ssessed, The terms _ z Per and “ monopet- 


Pg E So E St eas Yea 


1878.] On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. 733 


alous” do not properly designate the process by which these 
organs are developed. According to the accepted principles of 
phyllotaxy, each petal (as also each sepal) represents a transformed 
leaf; but the embryological study of those plants in which the 
corolla takes the form of a tube, has proved that this has not been 
produced by the union of the original petals, but by the forma- 
tion at first of a ring at their base which acquires greater promi- 
nence until it eventually assumes the character of a tube. To 
better indicate this process the terms “eleutheropetalous” and 
“ dialypetalous ” are employed by certain authors to denote that 
the petals are distinct, the term “ gamopetalous ” being used for 
the very objectional one “ monopetalous.” 

If natural selection has had anything to do with the develop- 
ment of these organs, it is certain that the free petals must have 
historically preceded the tube, and hence we may conclude that 
for the earliest forms of each division the order of succession 
was: first, Apetale; second, Lleutheropetale, and third, Gamo- 
petale, and therefore to whatever extent these divisions may now 
be parallel and coordinate, they were not so at the outset. 

If, therefore, we were to accord to the general principle of pro- 
tection, as above pointed out, its full force in the classification of 
dicotyledonous plants, at the same time keeping in view certain 
subordinate laws by which it is qualified, we should probably 
find, in attempting to reconstruct the present system, that while 
the so-called divisions would be virtually abolished and the orders 
within each very much blended and intermixed with those of the 
others, there would still remain an ascending series based on the 
perfection of the floral envelopes, and in which as now those 
-plants classed as apetalous would in the main stand at the base. 
The intermediate terms of this series would, however, unlike the 
present system, consist chiefly of those orders now placed in the 
polypetalous division, while the highest of these terms would be 
represented by the monopetalous orders with tubular corollas. 
This arrangement would be further modified by the relation of 
the calyx to the ovary and minor considerations. In fact, if the 
true genealogy of the Dicoty/@ is ever worked out it will doubt- 
less be found to conform to the general law in all departments of 
life, and to assume the arborescent form, whose ultimate ramifi-— 


cations it would be wholly sri sie to trace in-the present state | - 


of the science. 


la 


734 On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons. [ November, 


Very little more than this can at present be predicted with 
regard to what the true “Natural System” really is, which we 
are still so far from understanding; but it would seem from the 
peculiar character of Composite, and especially from the double 
safeguard of their narrowly tubular corollas, their epigynous 
calyx (pappus), and syngenesious anthers, still further secured by 
the massing of the flowers into dense heads, that this order, which 
is also the largest in the vegetable kingdom, should be regarded 
as the highest and most specialized family of plants, and might 
be fitly made to crown the natural system. 

The general arrangement above outlined is further substan- 
tiated by the limited data which paleontology affords. The 
greater part of the fossil plants of this class have been found in 
the Cretaceous formation. They nearly all belong to the apet- 
alous and polypetalous Divisions, but by far the greater number to 
the former; such genera as Salix, Quercus, Platanus, Sassafras, 
etc., occur most frequently, and some of these have been traced 
to the lowest Cretaceous strata if not to the Jura. That they 
existed in still earlier times can scarcely be doubted, and high 
authorities have fixed upon the Trias as the probable epoch in 
which the earliest dicotyledonous genera made their appearance. 
In the Upper Cretaceous certain polypetalous genera begin to 
be found, among which are numbered Magnolia, Liriodendron, 
Prunus and other multi-staminate plants, most of which have been 
assigned a high rank in the current system. This fact and others 
seem rather to indicate that a great many stamens and an elon- 
gated receptacle are marks of a low organization, as if just 
emerging from the catkin-stage. Very few gamopetalous plants 
are found fossil, strongly implying that they belong to late 
Tertiary periods. Especially significant is the absence of those 
having elongated tubular corollas, while it is believed that the first 
fossil Composite plant is yet to be discovered. 

_ Little, therefore, as is really known of the natural succession and 
actual genealogy of the Dicotyledons, we may, nevertheless, fairly 


— claim to have acquired sufficient data to warrant entering upon 
A the investigation of this difficult and complicated problem, a task 


which must owe a great share of its success to the aid to be ren- 
p ae a „rational ieia 


HI 


1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. 735 
A STUDY OF THE POPULAR NAMES OF THE MEN- 


BY PROFESSOR G. BROWN GOODE. 


HE menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe) Goode, has at 

least thirty distinct popular names, most of them limited in 
application within narrow geographical boundaries. To this circum- 
stance may be attributed the prevailing ignorance regarding its 
habits and migrations, which has perhaps prevented the more 
extensive utilization of this fish, particularly in the Southern 
States. It accounts for the extraordinary blunder of the com- 
pilers of the fishery statistics of the census of the United States 
for 1870, in which the oils produced from the white-fish of the 
great lakes (Coregonus albus) and the white-fish of Connecticut are 
classed as identical, a blunder which is followed by a number of 
others of the same character and quite as certain to mislead. The 
discrepancy of local names also enables us to understand how the 
extensive manufacturing interests and fisheries connected with 
this fish have gradually sprung up, little noticed save by those 
directly interested in the business. 

In Maine and Massachusetts the name “ pogy” is almost uni- 
versally in use, though in the vicinity of Cape Ann it is partially 
replaced by “ hard-head” and “ hard-head shad.” The name 
“menhaden” is exclusively applied in Southern Massachusetts, 
the Vineyard sound, Buzzard’s bay and Narragansett bay where 
it appears to have originated. From the eastern boundary of 
Connecticut to the mouth of the Connecticut river the name 
“ bony-fish” predominates, while in the western part of the State 
the species is usually known as the “ white-fish.” In the waters 
of New York the usage of two centuries is in favor of “ moss- 
bunker,” a name which also holds throughout New Jersey. In 
Delaware bay, the Potomac, and Chesapeake bay other variations 
are found in “ alewife ” and “ greentail.” Virginia gives us “ bug- — 
fish ” in its various forms, while in North Carolina we first meet 
the name of “ fat-back,” which is more or less prevalent as far 
south as the St. John’s river, Florida. In all the Southern States, 
especially in the vicinity of Beaufort, N. C., the names “ yellow- 
tail” and “ yellow-tailed shad ” are occasionally heard. Iam in- 
formed that in the Indian river, Florida, the fish is occasionally 
called the “shiner ” and the “ herring.” 


736 A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. [Novembér, 


Among the manufacturers in Port Monmouth, N. J., who pre- 
pare the menhaden as an article of food, a number of trade names 
are in use, such as “ American sardine” (in distinction from the 
European fish which is prepared in a similar manner), “ American 
club-fish,’ “ shadine,’”’ and “ ocean trout.” 

These names are not separated in their distribution by sharply 
defined boundaries. Still, as a glance at the table will show, the 
habitat, if that term may be legitimately used, of each local appel- 
lation appears to be clearly marked. Where there is a discrep- 
ancy it can usually be explained. For instance, the general use 
of the name “menhaden” in the vicinity of Boothbay, Me., is 
due to the presence of a large number of fishermen and laborers 
from Rhode Island who carry on the oil-factories in that region. 
In the same way the name “bony-fish” has been naturalized at 
Montauk point and Napeague, N. Y. The factories in that 
neighborhood are owned by firms in Eastern Connecticut, and 
the Connecticut “ bony-fish fleet” has a favorite cruising ground 
in the waters of Eastern Long Island. The names “ menhaden,” 
“bony-fish” and ‘“moss-bunker” have been introduced into 
Florida by northern fishermen, who prosecute the winter shad 
fisheries on the St. John’s, and these same names are more or less 
familiar all along the coast wherever the northern coasters and 
fishing vessels are known. 

The adoption of some one suitable name for popular use is 
eminently desirable. “ Menhaden ” is the name most generally 
known, as well as the most distinctive. It has the additional 
recommendation of having been derived from an aboriginal 
language. It has been used in the titles of the two manufactu- 
rers’ associations, and it is hoped that this usage will soon be 
conformed to by all. z 

A few words concerning the origin of the ahoy mentioned 
names may not be out of place. “ Pogy” and “menhaden” are 
derived somewhat remotely from the Indian dialects of New 
England, the latter apparently from that in use in Massachusetts. 
and Rhode Island, the former from a more northern source. 

For the explanation of the derivation of these names I am in- 


— debted to Prof. J. Hammond Trumbull, who writes, “ Munnawhat- 


 teaûg corrupted to Menhaden, means, literally, ‘ fertilizer’ (‘that 
which manures’). This name was applied to the herring and ale- 

wife as well as the ‘ menhaden ” proper—all these species being 
i ` dians for eine their cornfields. : o 


1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. 737 


“In the northern and eastern parts of New England the re- 
voortia is commonly called Pauhagen, and probably in some locali- 
ties ‘poghaden’ (as you write it and which is nearer the Indian 
original), though I have not heard it so pronounced by eastern 
fishermen. This name in the eastern dialects has precisely the 
same meaning as ‘menhaden’ (or rather munnawhatteatig in 
Southern New England). The Abnaki {ż. e., coast of Maine) name 
was Pookagan as Rasles wrote it, and the verb from which it is 
derived he translated by ‘on engraisse la terre.’ ” 

According to Mr. J. V. C. Smith, the older fishermen of North- 
ern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine called the fish by 
the Indian name “ pauhagen,” and I myself have heard it called 
“poghaden” by old fishermen about Cape Cod. The modern 
name may easily have been derived from this by dropping the 
final syllable. At the present day this name is almost univer- 
sally in use among the fishermen north of Cape Cod, though it is 
occasionally varied by “ poggie” and “ porgy.” The use of the 
latter name should be carefully avoided: the same name, a cor- 
ruption of the Indian “ scuppaug,’ being commonly applied 
to another fish, the “scuppaug” or “scup” (Stenxotomus 
argyrops)4 As may be supposed, the name of Narragansett 
origin is most exclusively used in Southern Massachusetts and 
on the shores of Narragansett bay, the former home of that tribe 
of Indians. In its present form it first appeared in print in 1792, 
in the New York Agricultural Transactions, in an article by the 
Hon. Ezra L’ Hommedieu. 

“ Hard-head ” and “ bony-fish ” explain themselves, both refer- 
ring to the same peculiarity of structure. The former name was 
first used about 1813 by Belknap in his History of New Hamp- 
shire; the latter, as well as “ white-fish,” by President Dwight in 
his Travels in New England. 

The application of ‘white-fish” is also sufficiently evident, 
although this name is not a distinctive one, being applied toa 
large group of North American fresh-water fishes, the Coregonide, 
and in certain localities to the blue-fish (Pomatomous saltatrix). 
In England the term “ white fish” is used to designate cod, had- 


1 This probably misled De Kay, who stated that the menhaden were known at the 
eastern end of Long Island as “skippaugs.’’ He also remarked that “ pauhagen” 
(pronounced Pauhaugen) was the Narragansett epithet, while “ menhaden" was 

that applied by the Manhattan Indians, 


738 A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden, [November, 


dock, hake, ling, pollock, soles, turbot, plaice, halibut, and 
whiting. 

“ Mossbunker ” is a relic of the days of the Dutch colony at 
New Amsterdam, and the name is still lovingly retained by the 
inhabitants of Manhattan island. It was in use as early as 1661, 
as we learn from an allusion in Jacob Steendam’s poem in 
“ Praise of New Netherland” (t Louf van Niew Nederland)? 

Allusion has already been made in the letter of Prof. Trumbull, 
to the great schools of “ marsbanckers” seen by Dankers and 
Sluyter on their visit to New York, in 1679, and every one 
remembers the reference to this fish in Irving’s “ Knickerbocker,” 
in connection with the death of the renowned trumpeter, Antony 
Van Corlear, where the name first appears crystallized in its 
present form.” 

The derivation of this name may be easily traced, it having 
evidently been transferred by the Dutch colonists from the scad 
or horse-mackerel, Caranx trachurus (Linn.) Lacepede,a fish which 
annually visits the shores of Northern Europe in immense 

1 This poem, cited by Prof. Trumbull in the Report of the Commission of Fish 
and Fisheries for 1871-72, p. 168, was printed, with an English translation, by 
Hon. Henry C. Murphy, for ae Bradford Club of New York (Anthology of New 
Netherland: Bradford Club Series, No. 4, so Pp: 52, 45). 

The alaien to the Mossbunker is as follow 

“ Swart-vis, en Roch, en Haring, en Makreel 

Schelvis, Masbank, en Voren die (se veel) 

Tot walgins toe, de a ’vuld: en heel 
Min ward ge- 

“ The black and rock fish, herring, mackerel, . 
The haddock, mossbanker, and roach, which fill 
The nets to loathing ; soa so many, a 

Cannot be eaten. 

2 «It was a dark and stormy night when the good Antony arrived at the creek. 
(sagely aoni ii Haerlem river) which separates the island of Mannahatta from 
the main land. ` The wind was high, the elements in an uproar, and no Charon 
could be found to ferry the adventurous sounder of brass across the water. For a 
__ short time he vapored like an impatient ghost upon the brink and then, bethinking 
_ himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore 

most valorously that he would swim across in y of the devil (Spyt den Duyvel), 
-anc daringly plunged into the chas An old Dutch eesti a ie 

his veracity, and who had a EE oS the fact, related to * 
that he saw the duyvel, in the shape of a huge moss-bonker, seize on seat Antony 
| beneath the waves, * Nobody ever aeomp to 


Diedrich | Knickerbocker, . New York, 1309. 


1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. ` 739 


schools, swimming at the surface in much the same manner as 
our Lrevoortia, and which is known to the Hollanders as the 
Marsbanker} 

In the Museum Ichthyologicum of Gronow, published in 1754, 
the name JZarsbanker is used in speaking of a scombroid fish, 
frequently taken with the herring, probably the same referred to 


above.? 
The name is variously spelled “ moss-bunker,” “ moss-bonker,” 
“mass-banker,” ‘mouse-bunker,’ “ marsh-bunker,” “ marsh- 


banker,” and “ morse-bonker,”’ and is also familiarly shortened 
into “ bunker,” a name in common use at the eastern end of Long 
Island. 

The name “alewife” was given by the Virginia colonists to 
this species from its resemblance to the allied species known by 
that name in England. This name is preoccupied by the Pomolo- 
bus pseudoharengus, and should never be applied to Brevoortia. 

The presence of a parasitic crustacean (Cymothoa pregustator) 
in the mouth of Brevoortia, when found’ in southern waters, 
explains the name “ bug-fish ” prevalent in Delaware and Chesa- 


; peake bays, the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and the 

: inlets of North Carolina, with its local variations of “ bug-head.” 

; and ‘‘ buggy-head.” “ Yellow-tail,” “ yellow-tailed shad,” and ' 
l “ green-tail” refer to the yellowish-green tint of the caudal fin, 


observed only in Southern specimens. The former of these 
names has led to some confusion among our correspondents, the 
same name being applied in Georgia and Florida to a very differ- 
“ent fish, Bairdiella punctata (Linn.) Gill. 

An allusion to the oily nature of the flesh is found in “ fat- 
back,” a name in general use in the Southern States. This name 
is sometimes applied in Northampton county, Virginia, to the 
mullet (Mugi? lineatus). In the last century it was used for the 
Albula vulpes. 


SRN eh RPE TO ee 


ge as 


1 See Schlegel, Die Dieren van Nederland, Visschen, p. 4. 
280, Scomber linea ` terali aculeata, pinna ani ea triginta, Arted. gen. 
25, n. 3, Synon. 
Scomber linea peder curva, tabellis Belgis Maraban ae in. 
osseis loricata, Gronov. act. ups. 1742, p. Mari Septentrionale cum Clupeis ety: 
, ibique defer. Trachurus 4 4, descriptis capitur 


wo 
T ws 
a 
ma) 
— 


epigr. p. 74, Bellon. Agua p. 180, Dal ek 
Hist. of Harw., p. 131, n. 5. op. cit. p. 34. 

3 Captain — states in the aege of the Boston Society of Natural His- _ 
tory, x, 1865, p. 67, that the half-grown menhaden are called “ bug-fish” bythe 
i n rgin a negroes, because they be elieve them to have eg produced from sae - 

_ Since they neve: r find spawn i in thom ther Bee 
VOL. XIL—NO. XL 50 


740 - 2 About Weeds. | November, 
ABOUT WEEDS. 
BY W. W. BAILEY. 


HAT is a weed? Generally speaking it is any plant that 
interferes with the operations of agriculture or gardening. 
Some plants are weeds because by their rapid growth they thrive 
to the exclusion of better things; others are so, simply from their 
unsightly appearance and their uselessness. There is never a 
question in one’s mind as to whether a pig-weed (Chenopodium) 
is a weed or not. Its rank and homely growth, its inconspicuous 
flowers and its very limited uses, at once discard it from the 
catalogue of desirable plants. So is it with the burdock (Lappa 
officinalis), although this possesses elements of beauty to redeem 
it. Its large, crumpled leaves spring up in odd corners of yards, 
about houses, or on dust-heaps where little else would grow, and 
serve to cover disagreeable objects. The flowers, too, are very 
pretty, as all young people know who have woven them into 
parti-colored mats and carpets. 

Perhaps weeds meet with less charity than any of God's crea- 
tions. They are active enemies, not to be despised so much as 
hated. They are cut down or uprooted wherever found, or, if 
by chance overlooked, take possession of our entire grounds. So 
great a pest are they that man has taken them for the type of a 
rank and rapid growth. Yet, when curiosity leads us to observe 
them, there is much beauty in these simple plants which we 
ruthlessly tread beneath our feet. We might leara a useful les- | 
son from the persistency with which they surmount all obstacles 
and survive every misfortune. The delicacy of taste, also, which 
leads a few to seek the richest soils or the sunniest exposure is 
worthy of our praise. And then, how social are they in their 
habits, forever seeking the improving society of their betters! . 
They take such enjoyment in life, too, frolicking over the mead- 
ows, coquetting with their reflections in the brook, or climbing 
“where the air is delicate” upon the the eaves of our houses, 
where they remind us of Alice Pynchon’s posies. 

_ Many of them, were they only less common, would be highly 
prized. Indeed, it is at times difficult to draw the line between 
true flowers and weeds. Think what the dandelion would be 
vere we not accustomed to its golden buttons and feathery 
sl Look, too, at t the axnriant growth of the cotton- hipte 


1878.] 2 About Weeds. 741 


(Onopordon)! How prodigal is it of its material, as it throws out 


its silvery leaves and royal tufts of crimson. Those old Caledo- 
nian kings were fellows of good taste when they chose this noble 


_ plant as the floral symbol of a nation. Armed at every point it 


=. 


stands, like some sturdy Highlander, to repel aggressors. 

The corn-cockle (Lychnis githago) and the cone-flower (Rud- 
beċkia hirta) are both beautiful, as well as the flea-banes (Zrigeron), 
daisies (Leucanthemum) and St. John’s worts (Hypericum). Their 
only fault, and that is sufficient to condemn them, is that they 
will grow where nobody wants them. Our waste places would 
be deserts, indeed, did not nature kindly interpose to clothe them 
with these humble plants. Many species are unmistakably 
homely, yet even in the least showy there is much of beauty 
when the microscope is summoned to our aid. Flowers which 
seem too insignificant to be considered for a moment, will be 
seen when thus magnified to equal any of their prouder kindred, 
and to be as strangely and as wisely fashioned. 

A weed which is troublesome in one place where the condi- 
tions are proper for its rapid extension, need not be so in another 
where those conditions are not fulfilled. Consequently we find 
that very different things are called weeds in the different por- 


tions of the Union, while some, like the shepherd’s purse ( Capsella 


bursa-pastoris) or the purslane (Portulaca oleracea), are of universal 
distribution. A plant may have flourished and multiplied in one 
locality, when if removed to another it will become restricted, and 
while useless, will no longer be regarded as a weed. The ox-eye 
daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) comes to us from Europe, and 
although very beautiful to look at, is a great nuisance to the far- 
mer: hay-fields in June are often made white with the showy 
heads of this troublesome plant. On the other hand, some of 


+ our weeds, like Amacharis, have invaded Europe, and some 
English weeds are Pe gon supplanting the native flora of Austra- 


lia and New Zea 
Weeds are BEE interesting according as they are viewed. 


If we keep a garden we will find the purslane an undeniable. 
nuisance, and a vigorous enemy. If, on the other hand, we are > 


indifferent to its invasions, and approach it as a friend, we will 


find it, together with most other weeds, p of beauties of : : : 


which we had no conception. 


We have eon spoken of the E of the P the es S 


4 


742 About Weeds. | November, 


dock, and some of the larger weeds. Let us now look at the 
smaller flowers, like those of the dead-nettle (Lamium amplexi- 
caule),and any others of the mint family (Zadzatz). Some of the 
small Crucifere are also pretty, although they are weedy enough 
in appearance. The hedge-mustard (Sisymörinm) is the most pro- 
nounced weed that we know. 

The little Veronica which we often find on grass-plats, has a 
most bewitching flower, which from its minuteness most persons 
would fail to observe. The corolla is white, and veined with the 
most delicate pencilings of violet, all pointing towards the center 
of the flower, so that we here gain beauty and information simul- 
taneously. Its beauty is evident to any observer, but what does 
it teach? We have said that the colored veinlets all pointed to 
the center, and this, we believe, is true of all flowers where such 
markings occur, as shown'a long time ago by Sprengel, who 
claimed that they serve as guides to the insect seeking nectar. 
Recent observations have proved his theory to be probably cor- 
rect. 

There is no more desirable ground for the beginner, than the 
waste places and open lots about our cities. Here he will find 
any number of plants with which it is well to become familiar. 
` They can do no harm where they are, except by circulating their 
seed, and they are so little regarded by disdainful man that he 
can claim the whole collection as his own, and receive the muni- 
cipal thanks for appropriating them. Side by side with the na- 
tive and European weeds, we will sometimes find the prince's 
feather (Polygonum orientale), the Canary grass (Phalaris canari- 
ensis) and various other exotics. As the summer advances there 
will be a perfect tangle of weeds in such a place, evening prim- 
roses, Datura stromonium, Lychnis, melilots white and yellow, 
Canterbury-bells, amaranths, &c., some showy, others merely _ 
coarse and offensive. By the side of the streets we may find the 
homely cockle-bur (Xan¢hium) or the pretty moth mullen ( Verbas- 
cum blattaria), with a white or yellow corolla, and stamens clothed 


_ with violet hairs. The common mullen (Verbascum thapsus) we 


will be sure to find, and if in New England, will meet the au- 


-~ tumnal dandelion (Leontodon autumnale) which here blooms all 


summer. It is quite unlike the ordinary dandelion, and has 
bra ching green stems, smaller heads, and a tawny pappus. The 
onaceæe A the common smart-weed, the. knot-weed, 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 743 


man’s ever-present comrade, and the narrow-dock. More attrac- 
tive plants are the wood-sorrel (Oralis stricta), with its yellow 
bells closing as the sun declines, and with its light and graceful 
leaves, so pleasantly acerb; several species of clover ( Trifolium) 
and ducern (Medicago); the Deptford-pink (Dianthus armenia), with 
its only star, and the celandine (Chelidonium). 

To those who cannot take long walks, and who yet are inter- 
ested in nature, we commend these weed gardens which are free 
to all. They will find a great number of families represented; a 
great many plans of growth illustrated ; many beautiful blossoms, 
quaint seed-vessels, graceful grasses, and delicious odors, to re- 
ward them. 

We do not pen these lines in order to save any weed of them 
all from destruction. The tares must be rooted out or what will 
become of the wheat? In fact, we are fully conscious that the 
very next time we see an impudent pig-weed overtopping our 
favorite marigolds, we will pluck it up root and branch. We 
merely desire to show that even the poor man may have his bo- 
tanic garden; that in the words of Lowell: 

“ A weed is nought but a flower in disguise, 
Which is seen through at once if love give a man eyes,” 


70. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


formity of the equatorial climate in all parts of the globe. ‘ Over 
a large portion of the tropics,” he writes, “the same general fea- 
tures prevail, only modified by varying local conditions, whether 
we are at Singapore or Batavia, in the Moluccas, or New Guinea, 
1 Tropical Nature and other Essays. By ALFRED R. Wattace. London, MacMil- — 
lan & Co., 1878. 8vo. pp. 356- 


744 Recent Literature. [ November, 


at Para, at the sources of the Rio Negro or on the Upper 
Amazon, the equatorial climate is essentially the same, and we 
have no reason to believe that it materially differs in Guinea or 
the Congo.” On the other hand the glacial period disturbed the 
uniformity of the temperate zone and caused a partial extinction 
of life. Where there are departures from the typical equatorial 
climate, as in rainless and desert tracts, this seems probably due 
to the nature of the soil or the artificial clearing away of the 
forests, and he cites the case of Central India where “ the scanty 
and intermittent rainfall, with its fearful accompaniment of famine, 
is no doubt in great part due to the absence of a sufficient pro- 
portion of forest-covering to the earth’s surface.” He then calls 
attention to the fact that “ with but few and unimportant excep- 
tions a great forest band from a thousand to fifteen hundred miles 
in width girdles the earth at the equator, clothing hill, plain, and 
mountain with an evergreen mantle. Lofty peaks and precipitous 
ridges are sometimes bare, but often the woody covering con- 
tinues to a height of eight or ten thousand feet, as in some of the 
volcanic mountains of Java, and on portions of the Eastern 
Andes.” This forest belt merges into woody and then open 
country, soon changing into arid plains or even into deserts, where 
the great equatorial currents of air laden with moisture do not 
penetrate. 

The primeval forests of the equatorial zone are distinguished 
from the forests of the temperate zones by their vastness, “and by 
the display of a force of development and vigor of growth rarely 
or never witnessed in temperate climates.” There is also a great 
variety of specific forms, while the individuals are less numerous, 
this being the reverse of what is to be seen in the Temperate and 
Arctic Zones. 

Animal life is likewise more abundant and varied specifically, 
many groups, as butterflies, parrots, humming birds, apes and 

monkeys, lizards, frogs and ‘snakes being pre- -eminently tropical, 
and in the tropics, “evolution has had a fair chance” while in the 
Temperate Zone, with its glacial periods, “it has had countless 
difficulties thrown in its way. The equatorial regions are then, 
as regards their past and present life history, a more ancient 
world than that represented by the Temperate Zones, a world in 
= — which the laws which have governed the progressive develop- 
_ ment of life have operated with comparatively little check for 


function, and of instinct—that rich variety of color, and that 
ly balanced harmony of ne which delight and ‘astonish 
imal p tropical countries,” 
> chapters on ENER life occupy the first half of the 
second half is devoted to essays on the color of ani- — 
the — of et op on some relations: 


1878.] Recent Literature. 745 


of living things to ag environment; on the rise and progress of 
modern views as the antiquity and origin of man, and on the 
distribution of wrod as indicating geographical changes. These 
essays, though on recondite subjects, are of great general interest, 
and presented in the attractive style characteristic of the author's 
other popular works and essays. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN INVERTEBRATE PALAON- 
TOLOGY.!:— Works such as these, though laborious and requiring 
much time in their bic 2 are naturally useful in proportion 
as they are full and accurate. The present work is pro bably as 
complete as others of ya sort, the names of the compilers giving 
assurance that it is. In its scope the bibliography is confined to 
those works which treat, either wholly or in’ part, of invertebrate 
fossils found within the limits of North America, including the 
West Indies and Greenland, and, for convenience, the compara- 
tively few contributions of American authors to the paleontology 
of other countries, and published in their own, have been included 
in Part I. mong the omissions that occur to us are papers and 
notes by Verrill and Scudder, Wood, and Packard on the Quar- 
ternary fossils of New England and Labrador, contributed to the 
Memoirs and Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural His- 
tory, and the Portland Society of Natural History, also Ordway’s 

rticle on Paradoxides in the Proceedings of the Boston Society 
of Natural History. 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTRAL OHIO SCIENTIFIC igs et 2 
The members of this Association, which seems to have been 
quietly working for three years past, have done Apna © no 


ings. The papersare mainly on debedora and historical sub- 
jects; among those on the former topics are two b TF 
Moses on the ancient remains of Mad River valley, with an ac- 
count of the opening of the Baldwin and Roberts ise and 
on the shell heaps of the coast of Maine. Mr. rren con- 
tributes a report of a survey of earthworks on Haddix hill, Ohio, 
near Osborn, i be and an account of a sculptured rock from 
ev. 


Indian mounds in the State, and figure the remains found in them. 
Such contributions are of lasting value. 

I Bibliography g i hegi American Invertebrate eipig ds being a Report 
upon the Publications that have hitherto been made upon the Invertebrate Palæon- 
tology uf North anere nang the West Tadi per Geectlond. By C.A 

ie ft $ 5 


. Geo 
vey of the Territories iis V. HAS DEN, U, S. Geologist. Miscellaneous PA i EA 
ishinston, 1878, 8vo, pp. 132. 


No. to. ah 
? Proceedings of the Central Ohio Scientific Association. Urbana, ric Voit, o 
Part 


Published by the A-sociation, Urbana, 1878. 8vo, pp. 96, 16 plates 


740 Recent Literature. | November, 


Witson’s Pycnoconipa oF New EnGLanp.'—This interesting 
group has at length received attention so far as the New Englan 
species are concerned, and is treated in such a manner that all the 
forms can be readily identified. Views of certain authors are 
adopted, for which no good morphological reasons are given, 
that these Arachnida have antenne, the chelicere or mandibles 
being regarded as such. Both from embryological and morpho- 
logical data, the arachnida in all their subdivisions seem to us to 


well done. Appended i table intended to show the general 
geographical and haih naia distribution of the species de- 
ee in the present paper. 
ea ree Jae PAMPHLETS.—Eleventh Annual Report of the Eee of 
the Peabody Museum of American Archzeology and ey Vol. ii, No.2 8vo 
457- Camiridge, © 1878. From the miad p Mus 
pe de la Fir de — T Est: digia de la Re eptblica Mexicana, 
Tercera Epoca + No, 8vo, pp. 64. Mexico, Francisco Diaz de Leon, 
I 


Katalog der im Museum und Universitets Kabinet zu Basel aufgestellten Amphib- 
ian und a a cased res ibe i Ms von F. Müller. 8vo, pp. 561-709, 3 plates. 
Bisel, 1878. Fro uthor 

Forsatte Bidrag po en in Cuti af Oréstillingen hos ee [ Flounders]. 
i e etus Steenstrup. 8vo, pp. 74, 4 plates. Kjöbenhavn, 1878. From the 


a Erupted Rocks of Colorado, By F. M. Endlich. (Extracted from the 
Tai Annual Report of the U. S. Geolog. Survey for the yea DUGA vo, PP. 
Aa 72. Washington, Gov’t Printing Office, 1878. From the aa 
ha Structure and Origin of Mountains, with special reference to the “ Con- 
tractiona | Theory.”? By Jos. LeConte. (Read before kar S tional Acad, of Sci- 
nces, April 19, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 95-112. From the au 
Catalogue of Minerals — in Colorado. By F. M. i dli ch. (Extracted from 
the Tenth Annual Report of the U. S. Geolog. Survey for as year 1876.) 8vo, PP- 
135-158. Washington, or t Printing Office, T. From the author. 
-Description of a new Fish from the Lower Chalk of Dover. By E. S. Newton, 
H r CS: (Extracted from the Qua f. Jour. pee. Socichy. ‘August, 1878.) 
Svo, pp. 439-446, I plate. From the a 
ries ae om to arktiske ena af Dybhavs-Tudsefiske; EDE 
og Cera f Dr. Chr. Lütken. 4to, pp. 309-348, 2 lithog. plat es. 
from Vidensk. * sels Skr., te Række, Naturvidensk. og Mathematisk re d. ee 
. v.) Kjébenhayn, 1878. From the aut thor. 
= _ Paleeontological Report of the Princeton Scientific Expedition of 1877. By 
Henry F . Osborn, Wm. B. Scott and Francis Spier, Jr. Septembér 1, 1878. (Contri- 
a bution No. 1 from the Museum of Geology pal Archaeology of eng oriai i 


_ Preliminary Studies on the North American yal idx I, Cie, “(Ext 

_ from the Bulletin of the U. S. Geolog, Survey Vol. iv, We A as, pp. 669-705- 
e Washington, July 29, 1878. From the autho 

Bars — E _~ 2, September 14, 1878. 8vo, pp. 9-16. Cincinnati, U. - 
cas of the Ameren Association: for the Advancement of Science. : 
xth m seig, Nashv ville, ona Angust, am 8vo, pp. 400. Sudem, — 


y enegonida oof A New Pioi By Sree B. WILSON _ From 
emy oi Ars and d Sciencès, Val. v, August, 


k 
pe 


RUE aeni wT Wee a a aa a aaa a a ee ERS a A a a ra PERT hte Bee 
a RE E SENE na 


1378. | Botany. 747 


Upon the Relative Agency of Glaciers and aus glacial Streams in the Erosion of 
W. H. Niles 1878 


Valleys. B Boston, 1878. (From the Proceedings of the Boston 
E 


Society of Natural History, Vol. xix.) &8vo, pp. 
Upon the garris of s of bie yarn p bes Features upon the Slopes of 
a: W. H. Nile Bont 1878. (From the Proceedings of the Bos- 
ciety T Natural EOI. Vol. 3 xix. ) 8vo, ste P 
age mete us und Variation einiger Schmetterlinge Nord-Amerikas. 


er 
ven] Boll, in Pallas, iwori 1876. Sepa ean mi: aus Verhandlungen a Vere- 
ins für MakaririkinisekaMMinta esane s in el (1876). Bd, Ham- 
burg, Marz-April, 1878. 8vo, pp. 10. From t uthor 


On the apies Stage of Prawns. By C. ix ence Bate. (From the Annals and 
gr ac of Natural History for July, 1878.) 8vo, PP. A 

Ont e Mollusca procured during the “ Lightning’? and Porcupine Expeditions, 
868-70 (Part By J. Gwyn Jefire ys. (From the Proceedings of the ZoGdlogical 


I 
ary: of Poasa, ge 16, ii = pp- Rl 2 La es, 


nervosa, a study of i s of Gro Reproduction. By J. D. 
Ca TUDAN d. raaraa faa a ppd so pa w Microscopy.) 8vo, pp. 10. 
he Illinois State Liboratory of Natural History, Normal Ill. Circular of Infor- 
ur. Beige tee July, 1878. 8vo, pp. 12. 
Recensio systematic. animalium Bryozoorum, que in itineribus, annis 1875 et 
ra aa insulas Nova ja Ser yaah pn Os - en AT r wre giv aw Be 
enskiöld, invenerunt . Thé 
(Öfversigt af Kong 1. = eerie en pei peli ibet are No a Werte 5 
9; PP. 


re a0) s Thiscleben, Bind 4, Heit, 4-8. Leipsig, 1878. New York, B. Wes- 
terman & Co. 8vo. 40 cents a heft 


:0! 
GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


New CLASSIFICATION OF THE VEGETABLE KiINGpomM.—At the 
close of his recent work, La Morfolojia Vegetale, Professor 
Caruel of Pisa proposes the classification - the vegetable king- 


o 
other sexual forms, male and female, which have only a definite 
evelopment. The male form or pollen is thalloid ; the female 


tween Gymnospermia and Angiospermia, retaining as the two 


primary classes Soo dpteay and Dicotyledons, and giving 
the higher rank to the for 


2. Schistogamia, including Dhara only. These are also tri- : 
morphic; but the male eens! form consists of vermiform phy- z 


m8 General Notes. [ November, 


tozoa (antherozoids) instead of pollen-grains, formed in an anther- 
ocyst (antheridium), differing in structure from the anther; the 
female form consists of an o6gemma (archegonium) comparable to 
a gemmule, but naked; the neutral form springs directly from the 
odsphere, which, on germinating, produces the embryo trans- 
versely. 
3. Prothallogamia or Vascular Cryptogams.—These are also 
trimorphic. The neutral form does not produce the two sexual 
forms, but spores, these, on germinating, are transformed into 
sexual prothallia, with archegonic and naked odspheres, and ver- 
miform phytozoa contained in antheridia; the odspore gives rise 
transversely to the embryo of the neutral form. The Prothallo- 
gamia are divided into Heterospore and /sospore. . 

4. Bryogamia (synonymous with Muscineæe).—The distinguish- 
ing character of this group is the indefinite power of development 
of the (female) sexual individual, together with the definite de- 
velopment of the neutral. form or sporogonium. A consequence 
of this is the repeated and continued fecundation of which the 
female form is capable, which distinguishes the Bryogamia from 
the three preceding groups. The embryo springs directly from 
the odspore ; the male forms are phytozoa. ‘he group is divided 
into Afusct and Hepatice. i 

5. Gymnogamia (Thallophyta or Cellular Cryptogams).—The a 
simplest Gymnogamia possesses only a single form which is repro- 
duced organically by fission, by conidia and sporidia, or by gamo- 
genesis, but without any sexual differentiation. In others there 
is sexual differentiation into male and female forms; a few have — 
also a third neutral form, when the odspore produces zoospores, 
instead of passing directly into the female form. They resemble 

the Bryog amua in the definite development of the neutral form, and 
the indefinite development of the female form, but differ in the 
zoospore-like form of the phytozoa, and in the structure of the 
oogonium, which is isolated and naked, and does not form parts 
of an archegonium. Professor Caruel altogether discards the ol 

classification of Thallophytes into Algæ, Fungi, and Lichens, but 
does not propose any other in its place, and thinks it probable, 


Bs ood grew fab 
cae ‘Spar ingly the rare and graceful Polypodium — plumula H. B. 


SORE EC ERNS ea 


4 


r87sp ck: Botany. 749 


hitherto found, I believe, only at Tampa Bay. This additional 
station for the latter fern, so far in the interior, is of interest in its 
distribution. The former fern is recorded in Chapman's Flora as 
eing found in Florida, on authority of Michaux and Buckley; 
while in William Edwards’ Catalogue of North American Ferns, 
1876, corrected by Professor D. E Eaton, the habitat of “ near 
Enterprise, Florida” ‘on the St. Pia River) i is given, so that I 
presume it is considered uncommon 
may also mention that I met with ar ene nudicaule i 

f. in an old field about one mile to the westward of Santa Fe 
Lake. I observed a habit in this diminutive fern (it is often 
barely one inch in height) which may not be generally known. 
I noticed that the spike or fertile part comes up wrapped in the 
winged petiole of the sterile part of the frond, and so remains, 
completely enclosed, till well advanced in its development.— 
Henry Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 


LYCOPODIUM CERNUUM IN FLORIDA.—In November, 1877, I 
found this rather elegant species growing in abundance on the 
sides of a damp, deep ditch, at Santa Fe Lake, Florida. It 
seemed quite at home, developing many protean forms and 
luxuriant vegetation. But it grew only where the clay had 
been exposed or thrown out in constructing the ditch, which is 

many years old. r. Chapman in his “Flora of the Southern 
United States,” does not include Z. cernuum L.; but I believe it is 
common in the tropics. Iam not aware that it t has hitherto been 
discovered within the United States. At any rate, it is interesting 


Florida. I d frequent, in the low pine barrens in this 
same BEER H OEY L sieges cig L. var. pinnatum Chapm. 
hitherto recorded as from ar the coast, West Florida.” — 


Henry Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 


Botanica, News.—The Bulletin si pin Torrey Botanical Club 
for July and August contains some r ing notes on collecting 
and preserving herbarium specimens whieh will be of value to 
young botanists. Professor Eaton records the discovery of a rare 
and curious moss, Conomitium julianum, at Hamden, Connecticut. 


A farther note on the bibliography of North American lichenog- — 


raphy by Mr. H. Willey, and a critical, lengthy notice of Rafin- 
esque’s monograph of Lechea, together with a notice by O. R. 
Willis of the occurrence of Calluna vulgaris at Egg Harbor, New 


Jersey, with Nie Susie to other new New Jersey plants, com- — 


plete the num 


The seventy- ~sixth fasciculus of the Flora Brasiliensis consists _ 
of the Lemnacee by Hegelmaier, and the Aracee by ae er. The 


morphology and anatomy of the duck weeds, by the former 


~~ 


author, is illustrated by a fine plate. The flowers and fruit ot. 2 
Lemna (Spirodela) Poraa are drawn from Norti Amean : 


~ 


750 General Notes. [ November, 


specimens, as all those seen from Brazil are, like the British ones, 
barren. Messrs. Godwin and Salvin’s forthcoming Biologia Cen- 
trali-Americana will contain a full catalogue of the known spe- 
cies of plants of Central America by Mr. Hemsley. | 

Pringsheim’s Jahrbuch fiir Wissenschaftliche Botanik for 1878, 
contains a paper by Woronin on Plasmodiophora, the cause of 
“anbury ” in turnips. R.Sadebeck writes on the development 
of the embryo of the horsetails (Equisetum) and H. Banke on the 
germination of the Schiz@acee. 

In the Botanische Zeitung, H. Nebelung continues his spectro- 
scopic researches on the coloring matters of some fresh water 

DeBary discourses on a apogamous ferns, and the phe- 
nomena of apogamy, in general. 

The French Academy has elected as corresponding members 
of the section of Botany, Dr. Asa Gray and Mr. Charles Darwin. 

ZOOLOGY.? 

Tue Rigut WHALE OF THE SOUTHERN European SEas.—Prof. 
Gasco, of Genoa, has recently published, through the Royal 
Academy of Sciences of Naples, a full description of the exter- 
nal and internal characters of a right whale which was taken near 
Taranto, in 1877. This specimen was regarded by Dr. Capel- 
lini as representing a species new to science, which he named 

alena tarentina. Prof. Gasco has concluded on the other hand 
that it is a specimen of the &. cisarctica Cope, thus confirming 
the supposition of Prof. Cope that the species of the eastern 
coast of North America is identical with that of the Gulf of Bis- 
cay. The specimen is not adult, and of about the same age and 
size as the one captured near Philadelphia about 1864. : 

M. Fischer, of Paris, after a study of the remains and descrip- 
tions of the whales of the Temperate and Southern European 
coasts within his reach, has found the following to be- related 
orms: The Balena cisarctica Cope, and the Saw of the Ameri- 
can coast; the Nordkaper and Balena biscayensis of the Euro- 
pean coast; the Hunterius temminckii Gray, of the Cape of Good 


-= Hope, and the subfossil Hunterius swedenborgti Lillj., of Goth- 


land and Balena lamanoni of Paris. He concludes that these 
are not all identical, but belong to two divisions, perhaps of one 
species each, which are characterized, the one by the very small 
head, bifid first rib, and the very thick and almost cylindrical in- 
ferior extremities of the ribs; the second by a larger head, simple 


a first and flattened following ribs. To the former belong the 
_ Hunterii and the B. biscayensis; to the latter the A. cisarctica and 


woo. ; ; : 
i À NEW SPECIES OF GORILLA.—An adult female of a species of 
illa was received in Paris about a year ago, and became the 


1 sof i Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 


1878. | Zoology. 751 


subject of a comparative study by MM. Alix and Bouvier. 
These naturalists became convinced that the animal belongs to a 
species distinct from the G. savagez, which they named in a com- 
munication to the Academy of. Sciences, G. mayema. Its prin- 
cipal characters are seen in the spines of the anterior cervical 
vertebra, which are much less elevated than in G. savaget, and in 
the greater approximation of the orbits, and prominent acute 
ridge of the middle line of the interorbital region. The species 
is smaller than the gorilla, about equaling the chimpanzee. 

Various other characters are mentioned by MM. Alix and Bou- 
vier, the value of which is as yet uncertain. The cranial crests 
are highly developed. i edad specimen was obtained on 
the coast of Quilo in Cong 


THE HERPETOLOGY OF Ney GuinEA.—Dr. H. E. Sauvage has 
recently given in Bulletin of the Société daa of “Paris, 
a list of the reptiles of New Guinea known up to the present 
time. He enumerates of Zestudinata, 3 Spede es; of Lacertilia, 
46 species, a among the families as follows: Gecconide, 12; 
Agamide, 6; Varanide, 5; Scincide, 23. Of Ophidia there are 
34 species, divided as follows: : Scolecophidia, 2; Peropoda, 6; 
Colubroidea, 17; troteroglypha, 9. The most noteworthy facts 
are: First, the absence of Solenoglyph peas as in Con 
(See Proceedings Academy Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, 1859 
Acanthophis). second, the genera Erebophis and Sae Bie 
the latter resembling some of the Boidæ in several respects. 
Third, the large number of Scincidæ, and (W) esie (5) the 
presence of. Platemys as in Austral ia—&. D 


A Monstrous Froc.—Mr. Jacob Stauffer, be veteran naturalist 
of Lancaster, Pa., sends me a drawing of a frog (Rana palustris) 
with a well developed extra hind limb or what appears from his 
drawing and description to be, speaking more correctly, a united 
pair of hind limbs, though occupying an asymmetrical position, 
and having their true homologies to a certain extent concealed 
from this cause. A sketch and remark of Mr. Stauffer’s, how- 
ever, show the true nature of this limb to be compound. that is, 


the same color Aone and below, whilst the other or normal legs 
are of a dirty yellowish color beneath.” He further says this leg 
has six instead of five toes, and gives a sketch which leads me to 
think that the digital formula of the compound foot must be — 
written in this manner: 5, 4, 3, 3, 4,5. S showing clearly that the | 
limbs are fused together by their inner faces, thus bringing the 


outer or fourth and fifth toes to the outside, whilst the prevalence S 
of the superior and outer dark colors, and concealment of the 
inner and inferior yellow tints, is just what ought to oor woo 


2 the event of such unio 


752 General Notes. [November, 


Altogether it is a very interesting case of the development of 
additional limbs, and is probably of commoner occurrence than 
is generally supposed. Its origin is probably to be attributed to 
injury or shocks, the same as that of monsters in general, as has 
been shown by direct experiment on eggs, and as I have been led 
to believe from the numerous cases where additional tails or 


dency, where the organism is making an effort to return to some 
remote ancestral form, an explanation which will not answer, 
however, with respect to the lizard’s tail. The theory of the 
archipterygium may explain it—Fno. A. Ryder. 


Tue Cocoons or MicroGastTer.—In examining the Microgaster 
which infests the different species of Macrosila, I have noticed 
several points in the spinning of the cocoon which are different 
from what are described in the very interesting note in the 
August number of the NATURALIST. 

Never having studied those which are found upon the Philam- 
pelus, I do not know to what extent, if any, the parasites of the 
potato worm differ from them in structure. 

First, as the worm issues from the body of its host, it does not 
assume the erect positicn even for a moment, but remains flexed, 
with its head ready to begin spinning as soon as the last seg- 
ments of the body appear. There is, apparently, no envelope to 
the body, and the first active movements are those of the head as 
it fixes the preliminary stay threads previous to spinning in the 
regular loop form. This goes on precisely as described in the 
note referred to until the worm has finished one side, has turned 
upside down and is ready to complete the other half of its case. 
Then, instead of beginning to spin at the bottom, it quickly 
flexes its body, thus bringing its head back to the “toe of the 
slipper,” from which it spins downward till the back of its host is 
reached and it is entirely enclosed. : 

The spinning of the two sides of the cocoon, then, is practi- 
cally upon the same plan. In the first half the straightening of 
the bent body proceeds from below upwards, in the second, from 
above downwards. The position of the extremities is, of course, 
reversed in the two instances. The second position, though 
apparently a difficult one to assume, is nevertheless easily taken 
by the worm, no matter what may be its position upon the body 
of its host. The time required for completing this envelope 1S 
from thirty to forty-five minutes. In the further lining and com- 


~ pleting the cocoon the worm can be seen to turn about four 


_ times before the structure becomes opaque.— Wm. A. Buckhout. — 


- CETONIA INDA INJURING Corn.—This common and generally 


ess beetle is reported by Mr. C. B. Smith, of Granby, Mass- 
injurious to corn. He sends us a specimen which he says, 


1878. ] Anthropology. a 153 


‘ was found under the husk of an ear of corn. I found twenty 
about one ear, and have seen them about corn in several places 
in this garden. Several were found with their heads buried to 
the bottom of a kernel of corn, and bodies standing out from the 
ear. I think it is the same insect as is found in Pittsfield, South 
Hadley, Newton, sheik and other places, and called the ‘corn 
bug’ in our papers 

ANTHROPOLOGY .'* 

CRANIA UTILIZED AS CINERARY Urns IN A BurtAt MOUND IN 
Froripa.—In opening a burial mound at Cade’s Pond, a small 
body of water situated about two miles northeastward of Santa 
Fe Lake, Florida, the writer found two instances of cremation, in 
each of which the skull of the subject, which was unconsumed, 
was used as the depository of his ashes. The mound contained 
besides a large number of human burials, the bones being much 
decayed. With them were deposited a great number of vessels 
of pottery, many of which are ee in brilliant colors, chiefly 
red, yellow and brown, and so of them ornamented with in- 
dented patterns, displaying Rae a 2 little skill in the ceramic art, 
though they are reduced to fragments. ‘The first of the skulls re- 
ferred to was exhumed at a depth of two and a half feet. It rested 
on its apex (base uppermost), and was filled with fragments of 
half-incinerated human bones mingled with dark-colored dust, 
and the sand which invariably sifts into crania under such circum- 
stances. Immediately beneath the skull lay the greater part of a 
human tibia presenting the peculiar compression known as platy- 


number of other human bones, probably constituting an entire 
individual... 

In the second instance of this peculiar mode in cremation, the 
cranium was discovered on nearly the opposite side of the mound, 
at a depth of two feet, and, like the former, resting on its apex. It 
was filled with a black mass—the residuum of burnt human bones 
mingled with sand. At three feet to the eastward lay the shaft of 
a flattened tibia which presents the latitudinal index of .527. 
Both the skulls were free from all action of fire, and though sub- 
sequently crumbling to pieces on their removal, the writer had 
opportunity to observe their strong resemblance to the small 


Michigan The same resemblance was perceptible in the other — 


crania: belonging to this mound. The small, narrow, retreating _ 


frontal, prominent parietal protuberances, rather protubera rant occi- 


pital, which was not in the least compressed, the well-defined su- __ 


praciliary ridges, and the superior border of the orbits praene 
a quadrilateral outline, were all particularly noticed. The 
facial bones including the maxillaries were wanting. ‘ 


_ 1 Edited by Prof. -orp T: MASON, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


754 General Notes. [ November, 


On consulting such works as are accessible to him, the writer 
finds no mention of any similar relics having been discovered in 
mounds in Florida or elsewhere. For further particulars refer- 
ence may be had to a paper on the subject read before the St. 
Louis meeting of the American Association, August, 1878.— 
Henry Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—The eleventh annual report of the 
Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology is the 
most important contribution to anthropology that has appeared 
during the year, either in this country or in Europe. The Trus- 
tees having completed the new building for the museum, the in- 
augural exercises are fully reported in the volume. The titles of 
the scientific papers are: Second Report of the Implements found 
in the Glacial Drift of New Jersey, by C. C. Abbott; The Method 
of Manufacture of Several Articles by the former Indians of 
Southern California, by Paul Schumacher; Cave Dwellings in 
Utah, by Edward Palmer; The Manufacture of Soapstone Pots 
by the Indians of New England, by F. W. Putnam; Notes on a 
Collection from an Ancient Cemetery in Southern Peru, by John 
H. Blake; Archeological Explorations in Tennessee, by F. W 
Putnam; Observations on the Crania from the Stone Graves in 


the evidences of the pre-glacial, or intraglacial existence of man 

in New Jersey. Whatever may be the true interpretation of the 
facts set forth by Mr. Abbott, we are confident that the day has 
gone by when evidence of this kind will not receive a patient and 
unprejudiced hearing. Two separate questions spring out of these 
researches, viz.: whether the implements are of human manufac- 
ture,and whether the beds in which they lie are related to the so- 
called Glacial Age. The explorations of Mr. Putnam, in Tennes- 
see, were crowned with signal success, and the construction of the 
mounds and graves, together with the contents human and de- 
pository, have enabled him to classify the people who constructed 
them and lie buried in them, The supplementary article by Mr. 
Carr upon the crania adds greatly to the value of Mr. Putnam s 
paper. The contribution of Mr. Bandelier is supplementary to his 

_ paper on the Art and Mode of Warfare of the Ancient Mexicans 

= in Report X. The author belongs to the Morgan school of critics, 
~ holding that the descriptions of the chroniclers of the sixteenth 
=~ Century interpreted savage society in the light and language ° 


ce of his appreciation of the motives of the old authorities. His 


sol. de Documente 


command of authorities is immense; but his use of them is often | 
painful. to the reader, as for instance his reference to Sr. Icazbal- 
tos,” and other rare and precious works, | 


. 


their own countries. The author exceeds Mr. Morgan in the Jus- 
tir z . 3 . 


1878. | Anthropology. 755 


the only copies of which in the United States perhaps are in the 
private ary of Mr. Bandelier. The conclusions of the paper are : 

notion of abstract ownership of the soil, either by a n 
tion or a or by the head of its government, or by adiri dials. 
was unknown to the ancient Mexicans. 

2. Definite possessory rights was vested in the kinships com- 
posing the tribe; but the idea of sale, barter, or conveyance or 
alienation of such by the kin had not been conceive 

3. Individuals, whatever might be their position or ‘office, with- 
out any exception, held but the right to use certain defined lots for 
their sustenance, which right, although hereditary in the male 
line, was nevertheless limited to the conditions of residence with- 
in the area held by the kin, and of cultivation either by or in the 
ei of him to whom the said lots were assigned. 

No possessory rights to land were attached to any office or 
chieftain ncy. As members of a kin, each chief had the use of a 
certain lot, which he could rent or farm to others, = his benefit. 

the requirements of tribal business and of the govern- 
mental features of the kinship (public hospitality included) cer- 
tain tracts were set apart as official lands, out of which the official 
households were supplied and sustained ; but these lands and 
their products were totally independent from the persons or 
families of the chiefs themselves. 

6. Conquest of any tribe by the Mexicans was not followed by 
annexation of that tribe’s territory, nor by an apportionment of 
its soil among the conquerors. Tribute was enacted, and for the 
purpose of raising that tribute (in part) special e were set off, 

, the crops of which were gathered for the storehou s of Mexico. 
7. Consequently, as our previous investigation (of the warlike 
. institutions and customs of the ancient Mexicans) have disproved 
the generally received notion of a military despotism prevailing 
among them, so the results of this review of tenure and distribu- 
tion of lands tended to establish, “that the principle and institu- 
tion of feudality did not exist in aboriginal Mexico. 

In Nature, for August 22d, is a review, by Mr. W. B. Dawkins, 
of a work entitled, “ British Barrows; a record of the examina- 
tion of Sepulchral Mounds in various parts of England, by 
William Greenwell, M.A., F.S.A., together with Description of 
Figures of Skulls, General Remarks, Prehistoric Crania and an 
Appendix. By George Rolleston, M.D., F.R.S. The observa- 
tions of Mr. Dawkins are so practical, and the results resemble 
so nearly many of our own remains that we give a lengthy 
extract from his review: 

“The barrows vary in size and shape very much as the graves 
and tombs in our own graveyards, where the rich man’s memory 
is preserved by the large mausoleum, while the poor man’s rest- 
ing place is marked merely by the little mound of earth, soon to 
be lost in the general surface. Those in the Yorkshire wolds are 


VOL. XI —NO, XI. A 5r 


; 


ere ae Ree 


EAR EELE EA a eh a oa as 


EM 


Bie tiles 


756 General Notes. [November, 


either circular or ‘long, the former being the more abundant, 
and are frequently surrounded by a ramp ora ditch. In some 
cases this was within the base of the barrow, and very generally 
it was incomplete. ‘This very remarkable feature,’ writes Mr. 
Greenwell, ‘in connection with the inclosing circles, is also found 
to occur in the case of other remains which belong to the same 
period and people as the barrow. The sculptured markings 
engraved upon rocks, and also upon stones forming the covers of 
urns or cists, consist in the main of two types, cup-shaped hol- 
lows and circles, more or less in number, surrounding in most 
cases a central cup. In almost every instance the circle is imper- 
fect, its continuity being sometimes broken by a duct leading out 
from the central cup; at other times by the hollowed line of the 
circle stopping short when about to join at each end, The con- 
nection of the sculptured stones, if so they may be termed, with 
places of sepulture brings’ them at once into close relationship 
with the inclosing circles of barrows, and it is scarcely possible 
to imagine but that the same idea, whatever that may have been, 
is signified by the incomplete circle in both cases. The rings of 


to allow of access to the habitation. The dead were buried in — 
the barrows of the wolds, very generally in the condition and 
clothing in which they died, the proportion of cases of inhuma- 
tion to those of cremation being as 301 to 378, or about 80 per 
cent. In all probability both customs were carried on simultane- 
ously, as was the case in ancient Rome, where, however, inhuma- 
tion was mainly confined to the lower classes. Where inhumation 
had been practiced the body was buried in the crouching position 
in which life had departed, and which would be natural where the 


=- of Mr. Evans, is most likely true. The burnt and broken bones 


of various animals used for food, in the barrow, are probably the - 


-~ remains of funeral feasts, held at the time of the interment, OF 


from time to time afterwards, or they may be the remains of food — 
offered to the dead. Splinters and various manufactured imple- 
ts of flint and fragments of pottery also occur sometimes |! 


1 
3 


ee a eee ENA Se Mee 


1878. ] Anthropology. 757 


great abundance, and probably symbolize some religious idea. 
Fragments of flint were used in interment at least as late as the 
fourth and fifth century after Christ in this country; for they 
were found in considerable quantities inside the oaken coffins in 
the Romano-British cemetery, referable to the above date, 
explored at Hardham, Sussex, in 1866. Where cremation was 
practiced, the funeral pile was sometimes kindled upon the spot, 
which was afterwards occupied by the barrow, but at other times 
the ashes of the dead were collected and deposited somewhere 
else. In several barrows curious perforated vessels of pottery, or 
‘incense cups’ were met with, which may have been used t 
convey the sacred fire to the pile. The ashes of the dead were 
placed in urns sometimes highly ornamented, and those things 
which delighted the dead most, or were most useful to him, were 
deposited in the tomb. Flint scrapers, flakes, arrow-heads, beads, 
hammer axes, celts, domestic pottery and a few bronze articles. 
The number of objects buried in each barrow varied according to 
the wealth of the dead and the estimation in which he was held 
by the survivors. 

“The animal remains in these barrows proved that the ancient 
inhabitants of the wolds were no rude savages, living mainly on 
the chase. They possessed flocks and herds, consisting of well 
known domestic breeds—the small Celtic short-horn, now repre- 


the same horizon. At this time the knowledge of bronze was 
gradually finding its way northwards from the Mediterranean 
centres, and the simpler forms preceded the more complex and 
elaborate. 

“ Nor are we left in doubt as to the ethnical relations of these 


_ to the Pillars of Hercules, occur in the round barrows side by 


side in intimate association. The former of these ‘the Silurians’ 

of Prof. Rolleston, is considered in this work as the older of the 

two. According to Dr. Thurman it was dormant in Britain in- 
he ps 


_ ‘the neolithic age, at the close of which it. was invaded by t 


758 General Notes. [ November, 


“Celtic” or “Cimbric” of Prof. Rollesten. The truth of this 
view is confirmed by the fact that the dead of these two races 
rest peacefully together in the round barrows of the wolds refer- 
able to the early bronze age. 

“In concluding this review it remains merely to say that this 
valuable work fills a void in the archeological record of Great 
Britain, and it contains a larger mass of accurately observed facts 
than any book hitherto published relating to the bronze age in 
this country.” 

Rev. Stephen Bowers, Ph.D., is continuing his explorations in 
Southern California this summer, with head-quarters at Santa 
Barbara. His researches fully sustain Mr. Stephen Powers’ esti- 
mate of the vast number of aborigines once inhabiting the 
Pacific coast. Between Point Rincon and Point Conception, a 
distance of seventy miles along the coast, Mr. Bowers has 
explored vexed seventy (70) Pueblos or sites of old Indian towns, 
and about thirty on the Santa Ifiez river. In one burial place on 
this river he obtained 240 fine specimens consisting of mortars 
and pestles of sand-stone ; bowls, pipes and “charms” of serpen- 
tine; ollas and tortilla stones of crystallized talc; spear-points 


Bowers obtained from a single pueblo over 1800 specimens in 
pae: These consisted of bowls and pestles from granite, sand- 

one and serpentine; mano stones used in grinding; balls, 
ana drills, tools, spear-points, arrow-heads, scrapers, etc., from 
chert; sinkers finely wrought from serpentine and talc, etc., etc. 
Dr. Bowers and his wife discovered these antiquities on the main- 
land nearly four years ago, since which they have shipped several 
tons of fine specimens to enrich the National Museum. Mrs. 
Bowers accompanies her husband in all his researches, and is her- 
self an indefatigable collector. 

Ap aie is called to the following titles: Folk-lore on Wells 
and Water, A. Fraser, Celtic Magazine, August 8; Japanese 
ea an ‘and Religious Worship of the Ancients, Westminster 
Review, July; Mound Builders, were they Egyptians, and 
they occupy the State of New York, Mag. se Am. Hist., Septem- 
ber; Palæographie Américaine. Diċhiffrement de l'Ecriture 
Maya, H. de Charency, Annales Philosophie ‘Cliktienne, July 14; 

A Comparison of the Pueblo Pottery with Egy ptian and Grecian 
Ceramics, A. S. Barber, American seers: | , 2, July ; Brew- 
Ing in pes arene, Ppor Ii 
o FOR ritain and 
“Ireland h: has lately devoted a whole session to the discussion of the 


1878. ] Anthropology. 759 


Hood's and Church Hole, palzolithic utensils have been found in 
corresponding situations. The bottom of the caves is covered 
with a layer of light-colored sand, doubtless the result of the de- 
composition of the rock. Next follows a stratum of red sand and 
clay of about three feet thickness, containing fragments of stones 
and bones of extinct animals, usually broken and gnawed by 
hyenas which had brought them to their dens. The sand and 
the clay bear witness to inundations which reached a height of at 
least twenty feet above the present water-level. The osseous re- 
mains belong to the following species: Lion, spotted hyena, fox, 
wolf, bear, reindeer, Irish stag, aurochs, horse, rhinoceros, mam- 
moth,and hare. The presence of man is revealed by some rudely 
worked quartzite flakes, which suffice to demonstrate that savages 
of a very low order contended from time to time for the posses- 
sion of the caves with hyenas, which came back again when the 
human occupants had left. The association of these heterogene- 
ous débris in this deposit is thus accounted for. It was covered 
by a stratum of red, loamy earth, the upper portion of which 
passed over into a calcareous breccia. Here numerous fragments 


Horns of quartzite and flint representing forms known in 
Great Britain and on the Continent. Some were identical with 
those found in the gravel-beds of Brandon, Bedford and Hoxne, 
and of Saint-Acheul and Toulouse. All these occur associated 
with the remains of the mammoth, the reindeer and rhinoceros. 


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following species: Machairodus, lion, wild-cat, leopard, spotted 
hyena, fox, wolf, bear, reindeer, Irish stag, aurochs, horse, rhi- 
noceros, mammoth and hare. A crust of stalagmite, about a foot 
in thickness, rested upon this layer. The distribution of the ob- 
jects found in the Creswell caves points to three successive periods 
of human occupancy. The red sand contained a few rude imple- 
ments of quartzite. In the lower deposit of the red loamy earth 
the chipped objects consisted of quartzite and flint, the latter oc- 
curring not nearer than forty miles from this locality. In the 
upper part of the same layer quartzite disappears almost entirely, 
and is replaced by numerous flint implements. Here was also 


has not yet been met with either in England or on the Continent. 


It shows a marked progress in the mechanical arts of the cave- 


Arian while the fauna has remained unchanged. 


760 General Notes. [ November, 


Professor Dawkins drew particular attention to the promiscuous 
character of the bones found in palzolithic cave-deposits. These 
bones belong to extinct or still living northern and tropical ani- 
mals, and to such as pertain by their nature to moderate climates. 
In explanation of this fact he says: “ There existed in those times 
a vast continent contiguous to Africa, and stretching as far as the 
extreme limits of Ireland and Scotland. In summer the lion, 


in their chemical composition, which certainly would not be the 
‘case if long periods had intervened between the time of their ex- 
istence. The views of Mr. James Geikie,.as given in his “ Great 
Ice Age,” were strongly opposed by the lecturer. 

ber of the Matériaux pour L Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de 
L Homme contains a long and highly illustrated review of the 
splendid work by Mr. Ernest Chantre, relating to the Bronze Age 
of the Rhone district. A copy of the large map accompanying 
that work is presented to the readers of the M/atériaux. This map 
embraces France and the adjacent parts of Germany and Switzer- 
land. All points of archzological interest, such as caves, pala- 
fittes, tumuli, dolmens, etc., are indicated on it by different signs, 
denoting by their colors the probable age to which each locality 
pertains. 

The Proceedings of the Berlin Anthropological Society for 
1877 (Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischen Gesellschaft) 
were lately received. On the 7th of April the Anthropological 

ociety, in conjunction with the Geographical Society of the same 
city, gave a reception to the Emperor of Brazil. On this occasion 
Professor Virchow delivered a long and interesting address on 
the anthropology of America. A translation into English would 
be very desirable. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY. 

Tue REPTILES oF THE UPPER Jurassic OF THE NORTH OF 
France.—Dr. H. E. Sauvage has described in the Buletin of the 
Geological Society of France a description of some bones of the 
limbs of a Sauropterygian reptile, which he refers to the genus 
Polycotylus, under the name of P. suprajurensis. A Dinosaurian 
of the same horizon he refers to the genus /gwanodon, under the 
name of Z. precursor. Dr. Sauvage adds to the list the previously 
known species, Megalosaurus insignis Desl., Omosaurus armatus 
Ow., and Bothriospondylus suffossus Ow., all Dinosauria. He ob- 
tains Megalosaurys-like teeth from the Gault of the Meuse and of 


Ardennes. 


A Quaternary Camet From Roumania.—Professor Step- 
hanesco, of Belgrade, recently communicated to the Geological 


1878.] Geology and Paleontology. 761 


Society of France a specimen of an almost entire lower jaw of an 
Sae species of camel found in a mo deposit in Rou- 
ania. Remains of probably the same species have been found 
pa iiney It belongs to za sbi Pliauchenia (Cope), a form 
hitherto only known as Amer which is intermediate between 
the genus Camelus and the Priced of Leidy. The species was 
rather smaller than the Camelus dromedarius, 


THe FAUNA OF THE Lowest TERTIARY OF France.— Below the 
lignite and argile plastique of Meudon, where the greater number 
of types of the Suessonien Fauna have been oP alin several 
horizons of the Lower Eocene are recognized in France. Immedi- 
ae, below the argile plastique is the conglomerate ‘of Meudon 

d Cerny, and, still lower, the Sables de Bracheux. The latter 
is yi first horizon above the upper bed of cretaceous, or the Pi- 
ONCE, which is perhaps to be parallelized with the Mestrich- 
tie 


Dr r. Lemoine has mie investigated the Mabe ke fauna of 
these beds with much success. I give a brief notice of his dis- 
coveries, which are of ck interest to American i Ra PASA 
in view of the light they throw on the faunz of the corresponding 
periods of the history of our continent. 

In the Sables de Bracheux he finds peculiar Squalodonts, and 
a new species of the genus Myledaphus, thus far only known from 
the Laramie bed of the Judith river A Montana. Also a Cht- 
mera like the Mylognathus of Leidy ar of the genus Castes 
Cope, which is shown to be quite distinct from Lepidostcus in the 
entire maxillary bones, and Lacertilia. - 

e conglomerate, Dr. Lemoine finds Mammalia related to 
Adapis, viz: Lophiocherus copet Lem., and two species of Plesia- 
v.; also two species of Arctocyon and a new genus, 
Pleuraspidotherium. With these occur in abundance, the remains 
of the genus Champsosaurus (Cope Stmedosaurus Gerv.) lemotnet 
Gerv., which is well known as characteristic of the American 
Laramie gro up. oe and alligators are abundant, with 
turtles of the genus Compsemys Leidy. There are numerous 
squalodonts, and a large species of slag ete tie a genus of 


— 


“Amide which first appears in America in the Bridger formation. — 


The greatest number of species were found by Dr. Lemoine in 


the Sables and other beds of the horizon of the Lignite of Meu- — 


don, or nearly that of the Gastornis, the Paleonyctis, and the Cory- 
phodon eocenus. The following names of = of mammalia 


recall the Wasatch and Bridger fauna of America. Phenacodus, 
Hyracotherium, Opisthotomus, ? Hyopsodus, ?  Stypolophes, Miacis, : 
d esiada upis 


Lophiochærus peroni and three s 
Gerv., Orotherium (Cope), PA A ON Lophiodon and one or two 


Artiodactyles. Crocodiles, Ophidia and Lacertilia are more abund- 


ant, with birds and turtles. The genera of the latter are very fa- 


miliar on this side of the Atlantic; Polythorax Cope, a Dermate- _ - 


* 


4 


762 General Notes. [November, 


mys near costilatus; Anostira Leidy, Trionyx ; a form much like 
Plastomenus lachrymans and a genus near to Compsemys Leidy, 
perhaps the Apholidemys of Pomel. Of fishes, Pappichthys is 
abundant, mingled with the marine genera A/yliobates, Phyllodes 
and Squalodonts. 

The above lists present a mixture of the Laramie, Wasatch and 
Bridger fauna of Western America. It is remarkable that of the 
first named, only those of Tertiary character have been found by 
Dr. Lemoine, since the numerous types of Dinosauria, are en- 
tirely wanting —Z. D. Cope. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.’ 


Laxe Nyassa.—Mr. H. B. Cotterill has recently returned to 
England, after an absence of nearly two years, during which he ex- 
plored the Nyassa lake and also made the journey from its north- 
ern end to Dar-es-Salaam (on the coast twenty-five miles south of 
Zanzibar), a distance of 350 miles, passing through a region never 
baie visited by Europeans. 

m a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, on 
he eth of March, and a lecture delivered at the Society of Arts, 
on May 27th, and reported i in the Zimes, we learn that the princi- 
pal object of his journey was to endeavor to plant in Central 
Africa, a germ of legitimate commerce and thus assist in the de- 
struction of the slave trade. Mr. Cotterill sketched the suppression 
of this traffic on the coast line, and stated that the word “ sup- 
pression ” exactly expressed the circumstances of the case. This 
trade is now scotched but by no means dead. Were the pressure 
put upon the trade now relaxed, slavery would again revive. Foot- 
holds and centres for civilizing influences in the interior must be 
secured before it can receive its death-blow. The advantages 
which the Nyassa offered for commencing beneficial influences upon 
the interior were, that there existed a great lake settlement; the 
accessibility of the Nyassa both by land and water, as compared 
with other lakes ; the magnificent water-way supplied by the 
Nyassa, itself, to the very heart of the continent, and the com- 

manding position that any settlement at the north end of the 
Nyassa would hold. He found the northern portions of the lake 
more beautiful and populous than the granite country of the 
south. Ivory is in abundance. There was evidence of the pres- 
ence of precious metals. Cotton grew wild and was also cultiva- 


ted by the natives. Sugar cane, grains of various kinds, yams, 


bananas and the like grew luxuriantly. The region was as healthy 


as India when once a person had become acclimatized. 


His journey to the coast was made in company with Capt. 


= Elton, late British Consul at Mozambique, and three friends. 


From ‘the northern end of the lake a flat marshy country extends 
towards the southern end of Tanganyika which was said to be 


sete ai Ert Is H. Tue ise ey 


1878.] Geography and Travels. 763 


about ten or twelve days distant. After a few days march they 
reached a great plain bounded by a range of mountains called 
Kondi, running from the eastern side of the lake to the north- 
west. Several rivers intersect the plain running towards the 
Nyassa and it is a country of remarkable beauty and fertility. By 
a gradual ascent the height of 6000 feet above the sea was reach- 
ed. Finally, passing through forests of gigantic bamboos, they 
crossed the Kondi range at a height of 8800 feet above the sea, 
and found themselves on a great plateau 7000 feet high called 
Uwanji, a splendid cattle country. Here they soon came to 
Merere’s town. From this point other plains intersected by man 

streams could be seen. They suffered much during the remainder 
of the journey from scarcity of food and shortly ‘before reaching 
the Ujiji caravan route, 350 miles from Bagamoyo, Captain Elton, 
who had been failing rapidly, died. 

The rest of the party arrived safely at Zanzibar, after a jour- 
ney of four months and a half from Livingstonia. A full ac- 
count of the journey, under the title 
tures among the Lakes and Mountains of Eastern Africa,” will 
soon be published. 

A direct road from Dar-es-Salaam to the lake has already been 
begun at the expense of one or two private persons. The Royal . 
Geographical Society has decided to dispatch a carefully-organ- 
ized expedition commanded by Mr. Keith Johnston to explore 
this region, and contemplates pushing their explorations to the 
southern end of Lake Tanganyika, a further distance of 190 miles. 
The expedition is expected to leave England early in Novem- 

er. Some weeks will be spent in scientific investigation in the 
coast regions near Zanzibar. A geologist has om appointed as 
assistant and second in command to Mr. Johnston. The route to 
Livingstonia, the Scotch Mission settlement at the southern end 


Shire to a point whence the steamer //a/a runs to the new 
colony. 

In connection with the remarks of Mr. Cotterill it may be 
stated that the transport of slaves by sea is being rapidly crushed 
out by the exertions of the British fleet engaged in that service 
on the east coast of Africa. During the last half of 1877 only 
nineteen slaves were captured, while in the previous six months _ 
the number was 263. Two years ago the computed average of 
slaves introduced into Pemba amounted to 1000 a month, but not- 
more than 800 are believed to have been landed during ‘the last 
six months of 1877. The caravans sent down to the coast are 
very small; many were captured and others returned to the inte- 
rior, no market being found for the 

A meeting of geographers and telegraph engineers was 


764 General Notes. [ November, 


recently held in London to consider the connection of the 
Egyptian telegraph lines now reaching Khartum with those 
existing at Kimberley in the extreme south of Africa. The 
Central African Telegraph Company are already making arrange- 
ments to run a line from the Transvaal to Zanzibar. 


Osituary.—Dr. August Heinrich Petermann died at Gotha, on 
the 26th of September. This very eminent geographer was born 
at Bleicherode, a village of Prussian Saxony, April 18, 1822. 
Educated at the Potsdam Geographical Institute, founded by 
Berghaus, the well known author of the “ Physical Atlas,” he 
afterwards became his secretary and assistant in preparing the 
maps for his great work, and also for that of Alexander von 
Humboldt on Central Asia. Removing to Edinburgh in 1845, 
and patia to London, he aided largely i in the bringing out of 
Dr. A. K Johnston’s “ Physical Atlas” and other geographical 
works, took an active part in the proceedings of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, and was instrumental in sending Drs. Barth, 
Overweg and Vogel to Central Africa. In 1854, he under- 
took the charge of “the great geographical establishment of Fus- 
tus Perthes, at Gotha, where he remained until his death, found- 
ing and conducting with great success the Mittheilungen aus 
` Fustus Perthes Geographischer Anstalt über Wichtige neue Erfors- 
chungen auf demGesammtgebiete der Geographie, a monthly periodi- 
cal whose volumes constitute an almost complete record of the 
progress of geographical discovery since that date, illustrated by 
a vast number of maps and plans. The first and ‘second North 
German Expeditions to the North Pole were sent out under his 
direction and material support. The new edition of Stieler’s 
“ Hand-Atlas” (1875), contains many maps drawn by him, 
including the best, for their size, that have yet appeared of the 
western “portion of the United States. The loss, at a compara- 
tively early age, of one whose untiring industry and enthusiastic 
devotion has so dete aided in extending the bounds of civiliza- 
tion, is deeply deplore 
i MICROSCOPY .! 

Natronar Microscopicat Concress (Continued).—* The Migra- 
tion of Leucocytes,” by Dr. W. T. Belfield, of Chicago. In examin- 
ing microscopic sections of the kidneys of persons who had died 
of pneumonia, the author had found the intertubular tissue crowd- 


-~ ed with an abundance of cells having all the appearance of white 


blood corpuscles. As other appearances of renal inflammation were 
wanting, and there had been no previous history of renal disease, 
it was judged that the retardation of the blood current incident to 
_ the pneumonia had furnished the occasion for the escape, from the 
capillaries, of the blood corpuscles by means of their ‘amceboid 
‘movements. To test and study this fact of migration of leuco- 
is departmen is edited by Dr. R. H. Ward, Trey, N. = 


+ 


1878.] Microscopy. 765 


cytes in passive hyperæmia, frogs were curarized, the femoral vein 
exposed by dissection, and pressure applied by meäns of an India 
rubber band and a plug of cork. ‘Lhe web of the corresponding 
foot was stretched upon the stage of hie microscope, and the 
pressure upon the vein regulated so as to retard the current of 
blood without producing complete stagnation. That the effects 


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sparsely supplied with corpuscles, as well as from slow cur- 

rents crowded with corpuscles. The time of exit averaged 

from one to two hours, but was sometimes as short as twenty 

minutes. The method of locomotion did not, of course, differ 

from that exhibited in inflammation, though excessive change of ` 

form, and protrusion of long processes, was not noticed. Fre- 
a 


motion was continued after the leucocyte had wholly left the 
vessel, so that it traveled several times its own diameter from the 
place of exit. Other corpuscles, too, were prone to pass out at 
the same point, so that sometimes several would be crowded to- 
gether within the vascular wall, and an hour later would be in 
close proximity external to the vessel opposite the same point. 
Certain red corpuscles of the same shape and size, and without a 
nucleus, but of unmistakably red color, were frequently seen to mi- 
grate in a similar manner, and to such an extent that after thirty- 
six hours there were many patches in the field which looked 
almost like hemorrhages. That they were not hemorrhages was 
inferred, because many of them had been seen to migrate, because 
they were fixed in the tissue, and not floating in the blood serum, 
and because they were all small and round, and different from the 
large, oval, nucleated red corpuscles of the animal experimented 
upon. This behavior of the small red corpuscles exhibits a close 
relation with the white, and furnishes another link in the chain of 


at the migration is a simple filtration of colloid substances, from 


increased blood pressure and diminished blood velocity, rather — 


| 766 General Notes. [ November, 


than an active movement due to their “ glutinosity.” How far 
_ these facts account for the connective tissue hyperplasia which 
accompanies varicose veins, the enlargement of the spleen which 
usually follows portal obstruction, etc., depends upon one’s ideas 
of pathogenesis. 

“A Handy Rule for use in Micrometry,’ by C. M. Vorce, of 
Cleveland, described very clearly the methods adopted by the 
author in making miscropical measurements. 

Professor Romyn Hitchcock, of New York, in a paper entitled, 
“A Standard Micrometer,” urged the adoption of a standard 
which should give some uniformity in micrometric work by dif 
ferent observers. Efforts to secure this end have been made, 
years ago, but they seem to have led to no results. We are now 
as far from a definite standard as ever, and the question can only 
be settled by a representative body like this, or by one convened 
for the special purpose. Not only accuracy but uniformity is es- 
sential, for convenience in reading and comparing observations. 
A fraction of an inch might seem the preferable unit of measure- 
ment to us in this country, but it can never become universal. 
The metric system is the only one that can ever become universal, 
and we should now adopt it even at some temporary sacrifice of 
convenience. 

Professor Rogers, whose facilities for accurate ruling have been 
greatly increased during the last few months, proposes to rule six 
scales, as nearly alike as possible, and donate five of them to the 
same number of microscopical societies, as standards, the socie- 
ties haviny first appointed a committee to examine, compare, and 
approve the scales. (Near the close of the Congress, resolutions 
were offered by Professor Hitchcock, and adopted, recommend- 
ing yds of a millimetre as our unit of micrometry, requesting 
microscopical societies to formally adopt this standard, an 
recommending to the favorable consideration of the societies, 
Professor W. A. Rogers plan for the acquisition and distribution 
of standard scales. This action was taken by the Congress with- 
out opportunity for discussion, and for the purpose of bringing 
the matter before the country for concerted action. It is possible 
that the unit suggested will need reconsideration, as one millime- 
tre might be more convenieut and more easily agreed upon than 
a nameless fraction).—(Zo de Continued.) 


ExcuanGes.—Lake Michigan diatoms, mounted or raw mate- 
rial, also diatoms of Northern Illinois, for good slides or material. 
B. W. Thomas, 132 La Salle street, Chicago, Illinois. 

Diatoms: Rhabdonema adriatica, Synedra ulna, splendens and 
superba, Tabellaria flocculosa, Fragilaria virescens, Isthmia ner- 
vosa, diatomaceous earths and other unmounted material, for 
named diatoms or other good mounted objects. M. A. Booth, 
Longmeadow, Mass. a ? 
ides of named diatoms, also peristome of Funaria hygro- 


1878. | Scientific News. 767 
metrica, offered in exchange. Jos. McKay, 24 Liberty street, 


A variety of interesting objects from the Bahamas, mounted or 
unmounted, for exchange. C. C. Merriman, Rochester, N. Y. 


:0: 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— We learn from the parties in the field in the Yellowstone 
National Park, that the work of Prof. Hayden’s United States 
Geological Survey of the Territories has progressed most favor- 
ably despite the unsettled nature of the country, owing to the 
Indian troubles. The general features of the park have been 


n 
morainal eee and especially the structure of the Wind 
River mountain 

Meanwhile ike reports of the survey, and particularly the Geo- 
logical map of Colorado lately issued by this Survey, are winning 
golden opinions in Europe. entleman writes us from Paris 
as follows: “ The Hayden Survey is popular in both ae and 
France. I repeatedly heard expressions of regret that there 
should be any disposition to hamper or oppose it in any way. 
Such opposition would be looked on here as springing, without 
doubt, from unworthy motives.” An elaborate notice by Mr. 
Oldham, the late distinguished director of the Geological Survey 
of India, appears in the Geological Magazine, in which the highest 
praise is given to the work. That all Americans should take 
pride in this great work and others of the kind, is made apparent 
by the favorable notices which have appeared in European jour- 
nals. In letters lately received at the office of the survey, Prof. 
Andrew C. Ramsay, the veteran director of the Geological Sur- 
vey of Great Britain, writes: “I have to-day received a copy of 
your Colorado Atlas, for which I am exceedingly obliged. I 
have all the maps, etc., spread out on one of the large drawing 
tables in the geological survey office, and have had a long look 

‘at them. The beauty of the engraving and coloring is most 
remarkable, and 8 astonished me. I know nothing of the 
kind superior, or even equal to this work, especially when we 
consider the physical shanty of the country and the enlarge 
that such a survey must entail. That so much has n done 
and done in such a manner, speaks volumes for the faints and 
skill of you and all your men, and it is a credit to any govern- 
ssi to have been the means of producing such a masterly piece 

work.” 


Pr p ier e director of the Geological Survey of 
Scotland, writes: “ Your magnificent Atlas of Colorado has just 
come. I e had time piei to look over the maps and sec- 
tions in a cursory way. But I cannot delay.to send you a few 


768 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. | November, 


_ lines of the heartiest congratulation on the completion of this 
most splendid contribution to science, and to the opening up of 
the resources of your great country. I shall take an early oppor- 
tunity of going quietly over the maps and of speaking publicly 
about them. The care and elaboration of the original field-work, 
and the beauty of the execution of the plates, combine to make 
this atlas a national work of which any government might justly 
be pro 

We sincerely hope that Congress will certainly not decrease 
next year the amount of the annual grant for a survey, which, 
without disparagement to any other, has been conducted in such ` 
a broad as well as prudent spirit as to win golden opinions from 
those best qualified to judge of the manner of conducting such a 
survey. 


— Prof. e has purchased the collections of vertebrate 
fossils exhibited by the Argentine Confederation at the Exposition 
of Paris. The collection embraces those of three exhibitors, and 
is one of the most extensive which has ever left Buenos Ayres. 


various forms. The most beautiful of these is that of a Machero- - 
dus similar to the Brazilian species. Prof. Cope retains a series of 
duplicates, some of them entire skeletons, for sale. 


—Norice. Having removed from Salem to Providence, R. 1, 
the editorial office of the American Natura.ist will be at the 
latter address, where all exchanges, articles, letters, and speci- 
mens designed for the editors may be sent. AS PACKARD, JR. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


San Francisco MicroscopicaL Society.—The regular meeting 
was held July 11th. Of the business routine the most interesting 
was the announcement of several donations and purchases 
for the library and cabinet. Rev. Mr. Bleasdale generously com- 


occidens, Anomia ephippium and Terebratula ampulla. 

The California State Geological Society presented specimens of 
diatomite,” from Santa Barbara, a flinty mineral supposed to 
ve been ‘deposited from eae rae waters passing out 


t 


3 
. 
: 


Sa 


TIEDE A e a s 


1878.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 769 


of a diatom earth, and Mr. Hanks sent some lichens containing 
diatoms from a parapet of the Palace at Versailles. 

After examining the beautiful slides of foraminifera, mounted 
by Mr. Merriam and exhibited by President Hyde, the members 
began their contributions to the topic of the evening, “The 


ocean water, taken at insetting tide just within the Golden Gate. 
He spoke of the lime and silica in solution in sea water, and 
beside attributing to these the origin of the foraminifera shells 
and diatom frustules, a well-known pj spoke of the silica in 
solution as a probable source of san nce he considered the 
fine deposit that gradually fell in his ‘are of sea water as coming 
from solution, and not as:a long suspended silt, the view generally 
held. 


After selecting for the next topic “ The Lower Forms of Marine 
Life,” the society listened to a translation, by Secretary Clark, of 
a short paper on “The Alternate Generation of the Echinoder- 
mata,” by Prof. Haeckel. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.— 
The next meeting is to be held in Saratoga on the last Wednes- 
day of August, 1870. The officers elected for that meeting are 
Prof. G. F. Barker, of Philadelphia, president ; Prof: S P. Lang- 
ley, of Alleghany, Pa., vice-president of section A; Major J. W. 
Powell, vice- president of section B; Prof. Ira Remsen, chairman 
of subsection of chemistry and Prof. E.W. Morley, of Hudson, Ohio, 
chairman of subsection of microscopy. Among the noteworth 
pers in geology and biology were those by C. O. Whitman on the 
Embryology of Clepsine, Prof. I. E. Todd’s on Richthofen’s 
Theory of the Loess in the light of the deposits of the Missouri, A. 
G. Weatherby’s Are the so-called Chzetetes of the Cincinnati Group 
Bryozoans? and his remarks on the Geographical Distribution of 
the land and freshwater Molluscs of the United States and their 
local varieties. Major Powell spoke on the rainfall of the arid 
region of the United States, while Prof. B. G. Wilder made a 


mia, Mr. C. E. Dalton made a communication on the geologi- 
cal history of the Colorado river and plateaus, rb Mr. A. Lakes 
spoke of the discovery of Atlantosaurus and other Dinosaurs in 
the Rocky mountains of Colorado. The atheos papers | 
were noticed in our last nper, 


Boston SOCIETY OF eee History, Oct. 2d.—Mr. W. O. 
Crosby read notes on the physical geography and geology of 
Trinidad. 


770 Scientific Serials. [ November, 1878. 


APPALACHIAN Mountain CLuB, Oct. 9th.—Rev. H. G. Spauld- 
ing read a paper entitled Something about Moosilauk and the 
Franconia Range; Prof. J. H. Huntington gave an account of the 
co esr neg! river and its physical and topographical features, 

ile Mt. Ascutney, Vt., was described by Mr. Frederic Gar- 
nee Jr. 


10: 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS} 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL Society.—July 6, 
August 16, No. iv. On the Nyassa and a journey from the 
north end to Zanzibar (with a map), by H. B. Cotterhill. Travels 
in Western China and on the eastern Cahiers of Tibet, by W. J. 
Gill. On the Geographical results of the Mission to Kashgar, 
under Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, in 1873-4, by H. Trotter. No.v _ 
contains the president’ s (Sir Rutherford Abodi) address. No. vi 
Geographical sketch of the Nile and Livingstone (Congo) basins, 

H. M. Stanley. A lecture on plant-distribution as a field for 
geographical research, by Thistleton Dyer. 


SIEBOLD AND KOLLIKER’S ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE 
ZooLoGiE.—September 6. Contributions to a knowledge of the 
Julide, by E. Voges. On the formation of the blastoderm and 
the germinal layers in insects, by N. Bobretsky. Additions to a 
knowledge of the genus Brisinga, by H. Ludwig. Aspidura, a 
genus of mesozoic Ophiuridz, by H. Pohlig. Fifth article on the 
structure and development of Sponges. The metamorphosis of 
Sycandra raphanus, by F. E. Schulze. 


Tue GrotocicaL Macazine.—August. On the form of Vol- 
canoes, by J. Milne. On a method of estimating the extent of 
Geological Areas, by T. M. Hall. September.—Notes on some 
Arctic Silurian fossils from Beechey island and from Port Dundas, 


neaster sound, by H. Woodward. Cataclysmic theories of 


Geological Climate, by J. Croll. Land plants in the Irish Silu- 
rians, by G. H. Kinahan. Wayside Hees in travels over Europe: 
the great Northern drift, by R. Dam 


Tue GeocrapuicaL Macazinr.—September. The Treaty of 
a Berlin (with a map). Richthofen on Prejevalsky’s journey in 
_ Central Asia, Abyssinia. A new Survey of the Amazon. Indian ~ 
irrigation, by H. P. Malet. 


= Psycne.—March and April. The Entomological writings of 
John L. LeConte, compiled by Samuel Henshaw, edited by George 


— _Dimmock. Oviposition in Spiders, by J. H. Emerton. 


j "Toe articles enumerated under this head are usually selected. 


HEEL “eat a Se 


ne: 
oe 
if 
= 


THE 


AMERICAN. NATURALIST. 


VoL. xu.— DECEMBER, 1878. — No. 12. 


THE EXCURSIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
OF FRANCE FOR 1878. 


BY E D. COPE: X 


j ans Geological Society of France, though well known in the 
United States as a publishing body, is not so well known as 
a school of experts who give practical instruction in their science. 
In their annual excursions they offer opportunities for acquiring 
special knowledge in geology of peculiar value. e present 
season the excursions were arranged in view of the presence of 
numerous foreigners for a limited time in Paris, so as to exhibit 
the geology of the country near to, or within easy reach of the 
capital. There were seven in all, and each one was in charge of 
a competent geological instructor, while the financial department 
was under direction of the indefatigable treasurer of the society, 
Dr. Bioche. A better opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
the standard of classification of the Tertiary formations which 
France furnishes to the world, could scarcely have been pre- 
sented; while the series of beds of the Cretaceous and Upper 
Jurassic formations visited by the excursionists is, in many 
respects, very complete. The explanations on the ground fur- 
nished by the masters of the subject was all that could be desired 
for clearness and pains-taking. The leaders of the excursions 
were Messrs. Hébert, Lapparent, Tournouer, Vélain, etc. Among 
the excursionists we noticed, besides the resident members ; M.M. — 
DeWalck, Rutot and Lefevre, of Belgium; M. Stephanescu of 
Belgrade; M. Renevier, Lausanne; Prof. Guisgardi, Naples ; 
Profs. Almera, Barcelona, and Eulate, Madrid; Fontannes, Lyons; 
Matheron and Saporta, Provence, and many others. 
The first expedition was in the immediate vicinity of the north- 
west part of Paris, to Vanves, Meudon and Bellvue. At the first 


VOL. XIL.—NO XII. 52 


772 Excursions of the Geological Soc. France, 1878. [December, 


named locality, a beautiful section of the Lower Eocene or 
Suessonien was examined, which displayed principally the 
Argile Plastique, below the thin beds of the Lignite of the 
Coryphodon, Gastornis and Palgonyctis. The whole was crowned 
by massive beds of the Calcaire Grossier of the Middle Eocene, 
with its numerous invertebrate fossils. I viewed these exposures 
with great interest, as the formations contain the remains of a 
fauna which I rediscovered in New Mexico in 1874. By this 
discovery I was able to identify the Wasatch horizon of the 
Rocky mountains with the Suessonien, thus establishing a basis 
for comparison of formations above and below it, a want nota 
little felt in North American paleontology. But how different 
the petrography of the Paris basin from that of North-western 

ew Mexico. Here a thick bed of tenacious lead-colored clay 
_ 18 surmounted by a stratum of more or less impure lignite; in 
New Mexico heavy beds of hard sandstone alternate with still 
thicker red and yellow strata of arenaceous marl. 

The Calcaire Grossier here yielded its numerous Echint, Cardita 
planicosta, Nautilus, etc. Further on, along the road towards 
Meudon, its softer beds formed the banks on either side. Here 
they were almost composed of two species of Nummulites, N- 
levigata and N. lamarckii. Still beyond we visited one of the 
quarries whence had been obtained many huge blocks of the soft 
limestone from which so large a part of the city of Paris has been 
built, and to whose yielding qualities so much of the architectu- 
ral beauty of the Capital of France is due. Here some of the 
desolating effects of the German siege were still to be observed. 
The lowest Suessonien, the Marnes Strontianiferes with their 
curious mixture of the marine and fresh water shells of the Cal- 
caire Grossier and sands of Rilly, recently discovered, were 
passed as a white bank on the side of the public way. At Meu- 
don the upper beds of the Cretaceous came in view. The con- 
tact of the Pisolitique (Mestrichtien or Fox hills) with the 
Marnes Strontianiferes above, was noted as the point of separa- 
tion between the Tertiary and Cretaceous series. The situation 
is as though the Wasatch rested immediately on the Fox Hills 
beds, without the intervention of the great Laramie series ; 
although the Marnes must be regarded as lower in the scale than 
the lowest Wasatch yet found in North America. A fine expo- 
_ sure of the Chalk, with its characteristic fossils, succeeds the Piso- 


x 
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i 


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i 
i 
7 
h 
, 


1878. Excursions of the Geological Soc. France, 1878. 73 
S 7 


litique downwards, and various characteristic fossils were found, 
including previously unsuspected species of the American genera 
Empo and Saurodon. 

An agreeable feature of the occasion was a lunch offered by 
Prof. Chancourtois, member of the society, in his garden at Meu- 
don, which was appreciated as such occasions generally are by 
hungry geologists. 

The excursionists then examined the orange sands and sandstone 
of the Lower Miocene, at Bellevue, called the Sables de Fontaine- 
bleau, well known as the horizon of the Halitherium. From this 
point the quarries of the upper beds ot the Lower Miocene, of 
the Meuliéres de Beauce, were visited. This formation, exten- 
sively distributed near to Paris, consists of red and yellow clay, 
filled with large siliceous concretions which contain the casts of 
great numbers of seeds of Chara and small Lymnaee. At this 
locality it forms the summit of a hill, from which a magnificent 
view of the country to the eastward ishad. At its foot is the valley 
of the Seine, abounding in villages, villas and vineyards, and on 
its opposite side a range of hills bounds the horizon. The most 
elevated portion of the ridge bears the fort and hospital of Mount 
Saint Valerien. 


The second excursion was to Etampes, Morigny and Jeurres, 
at a distance of thirty-five miles from Paris. It passed over the 
Miocene beds above mentioned, and visited some richly fossilifer- 
ous localities of the Sables de Fontainebleau. 


The third excursion was to Maignelay, at about the same dis- 
tance from Paris, where the party explored the lignites of the 
Suessonien, and the lowest bed of that formation, the Sables de 
Bracheux, 


On the oth of September the excursionists took the rail to 
Gournay, on the border of Normandy, from which point they 
passed on foot and by omnibus over a hilly and beautiful country. 
The region is rich and one of the most beautiful in France. The 
farmers have left and planted many trees, and the agriculture is 
of a superior character. Here under the direction of M. Lap- 
parent, the party viewed the outcrops of the Kimmeridge, Port- 
land, Neocomien, Greensand, Gault, and Cenomanien, and col- 
lected Tngonia, Gervillia kimmeridgensis, Hybodus, Terebratula, 
with numerous species of Ostrea, and Exogyra, etc. The dinner 


774 Excursions of the Geological Soc. France, 1878. [December 


at Gournay at the close of the day was an enjoyable event, and 
was enlivened with toasts and speeches.’ 

The excursion of the 11th of September was again in the 
immediate neighborhood of Paris, and had for its object the 
examination of the famous series of the Gypsum. Passing by 
rail to one of the suburban stations, the party followed on foot 
the course of the Seine to the village of La Frette. Here a 
steep bank, having at a distance much the appearance of a ter- 
race, forms the lower part of the boundary of the river valley, 
passing behind the village of Sarcouville and extending along 
the foot of the ridge which here separates the valley of the Seine 
from a valley immediately to the east of it. The escarpment of 
this ledge does not exceed twenty feet in height, but it displays a 
beautiful section of that part of the middle Eocene known as the 
Sables de Beauchamp. As it offers a good illustration of the 
manner in which the Tertiaries of the region of Paris are subdi- 
vided into thin beds, which represent frequent changes in the 
character of the water and of ‘the sediment, I give them as 
explained on the spot by Dr. Vélain. The lowest bed is a marine 
sandstone which becomes brackish in its superior part, and con- 
tains Ostrea cucullaris. Reposing on it is a limestone of lacus- 
trine origin, containing Lymne@a arenularia; in a part of the 
escarpment this bed is wanting. It is succeeded above by a thin 
bed of scarcely adherent sand, containing Melania hordacea, and 


believed to have been deposited in brackish water. Above this 


is a stratum of compact marine limestone containing Cytherea ele- 
gans and Potamides. A lacustrine limestone called the Calcaire de 
Ducy rests on the marine limestone. This bed repeats the second 


bed 6f the series in the possession of the Lymn@a arenularia, the — 


specimens presenting a slight varietal difference. It is this forma- 
tion which contains the oldest remains of Pa/@otherium, as 1 was 
informed. In the locality described, the soil of the ascending 
face of the hill conceals higher beds from view, so that it became 
necessary to pass to other localities in order to study them. 

The party accordingly ascended to the crest of the water shed, 
passing through orchards and vineyards on its slope. The apples 
were abundant, but not of good quality. On the summit stood 
a ruined windmill, forming a landmark, and near it a restaurant 


~ and café commanding a beautiful view of the rich and populous 
valley on its north-east side, and of the hills beyond. From this — 


r 
3 


I 


1878.] Excursions of the Geological Soc. France, 1878. 775 


point our route lay again through vineyards and low forest, and 
along a public highway. Here piles of the meuliéres of the 
Lower Miocene of Beauce, containing myriads of Chare and 
Lymnaee@, with the solid bed of the road, testified to the value of 
this material as a macadamizer. At length we reached the part 
of the hill which overlooks Sannois, and descending, examined 
a complete and beautiful exposure of the gypsesand other strata 
of the Upper Eocene. On the most elevated ground we had the 
Meuliéres de Beauce, and then in the descending order, the Sables 
de Fontainbleau with Cytherea incrassata, and Ostrea scitula. 
Then a greenish bed of strontianiferous marl, and below it a few 
feet of clay containing gypsum crystals and fish bones, with Cyrena 
convexa. This stratum terminates the Lower Miocene, resting on 
a lacustrine bed which is referred to the Eocene. It consists of 
marl and soft limestone containing Lymnea strigosa, from which 
shell it takes its name. With it occur the vertebre of birds and 
remains of Azphodon gracilis, which belongs especially to this 
horizon. The Zymnæa strigosa marl lies immediately on the 
gypsum, of which the escarpment at the quarries of Sannois 
is about one hundred feet in elevation. The material of this cele- 
brated deposit differs from that of Nova Scotia, Virginia and 
New Mexico, in its waxy color and coarse fracture. Its continu- 
ity is interrupted by two beds of white limestone of no great 
thickness, and at its base is found a heavier bed of marine origin 
containing Pholadomya ludensis. This in turn rests immediately 
on the “ Calcaire de St. Quen,” which is followed in descending 
order by the Calcaire de Ducy. This was the superior member in 
the section of La Frette already mentioned, so that with this junction 
we completed the series of the Upper, and a large part of the 


‚Middle Eocene, with much of the Lower Miocene. To connect 
fully the Middle and Lower Eocene was the work of another 


excursion, viz: that to Compiégne. From the upper part of the 
gypsum, at Sannois, I had the gratification of obtaining portions 
of both jaws, with teeth, and several bones of a Pal@otherium 
medium. 


Compiégne is a small town at a distance of about a two hours’ 
ride to the north of Paris, on the Northern railway. It is situ- 
ated on the border of the forest of the same name, and was the 
favorite autumn residence of Napoleon III. The excursion 


passed by public conveyance for about two hours through the 


776 Excursions of the Geological Soc. France, 1878. {December, 


forest to Pierrefonds, on the opposite side. This place is a large 
village, and is celebrated for its immense chateau which stands in _ 
the middle of the town. It dates from the fourteenth century, 
and was restored during the late superintendency of M. Viollet 
le Duc. From this point the excursion passed on foot, accom- 
panied by the carriages, entirely through the forest in a new 
direction. The general inferiority of the timber in size and 
variety, to that to which the American is accustomed at home, 
was very obvious. It protects several species of deer and 
numerous wild boars. Wolves are said to be still found there, 
and I was informed that they had considerably increased in num- 
bers during the late war with Germany. 

Between the Calcaire Grossier and the series of the Suessonian 
or Lignite and Argile Plastique, is an extensive series of sands 
and sandy marls which are not present in the exposure seen at 
Vanves during the first excursion. They are called the Sables de 
Cuise and are referred to the upper part of the Lower Eocene or 
Suessonian. The present excursion had for its object the exam-. 
ination of this formation. We first found it in banks on the road 
side, where great numbers of Cerithia, Turritelle, etc., lay exposed. 
Our collectors could hardly leave these for a small quarry off the 
road, where incredible numbers of these shells, with Cardia, 
Solaria, Trochi, Neritine, Dentalia, etc., etc., covered the mounds 
that stood around or could be sifted from the banks. This is one of 
the classic localities to which, as to many others visited by these 
excursions, the palzontologist turns with something like rever- 
ence, as the sources of our first knowledge, and hence the stand- 
ard of comparison for later times and other countries ; in fine, as 
the field of the daily labors of the fathers of paleontology, 
_ Lamarck, Deshayes, Cuvier and De Blainville. 

Leaving this attractive locality, the excursionists passed to 
some high banks of sand bordering other roads. This stratum 
is one of the lower members of the Middle Eocene or’ Calcaire 

Grossier in the wide sense. Here we found abundant teeth of 
sharks, Oxyrhina, Lamna, Otodus, etc., with spines of Myliobatis. 
_ We soon after took our carriages for the return to Compiégne, 
= which we reached in time for dinner. Our arrival in Paris was 

late in the evening. 


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1878.] Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. 777 


RELIC HUNTING ON THE MOHAWK. 
BY S. L. FREY. 


p these latter days there has been a great impetus given to the 
study of archæology, and many astonishing discoveries have 
been made by men digging in the dust and rubbish of the past. 

We have all been interested in the stories of Schliemann and 
Di Cesnola, and have looked with much curiosity upon the valu- 
able treasures they have unearthed. Men like John Evans and 
Boucher de Perthes have, by their study of the implements of 
the Stone Age, thrown a flood of light upon the pre-historic 
times of Europe, and the controversy concerning the age of man 
upon the earth, which now waxes so hot, will doubtless eventuate 
in approximately determining that question. 

The golden wonders of Mycenæ and the bones of Agamemnon, 
“King of Men,” are certainly worth digging for; terra-cottas 
from Cypréśs, and statues from Olympia, and Babylonian tablets 
take us back into the far past, and rough flints from the caves and 
gravel beds may lead us to look upon the paleolithic man as a 
brother. 

But while everybody has heard of these strange discoveries in 
the “ far countries,” very few know anything about the antiquities 
of our own country, or of the relics of the Stone Age that He 
scattered over the fields all about us. 

I have been so much interested myself in the relics left by the 
old Mohawk Indians, that I trust it may not be without interest 
to the readers of this magazine if I describe a few of the things 
picked up, from time to time, upon their old village sites. The 
relics of all peoples are interesting as illustrating the manner in 
which they have groped their way up from lower depths of sav- 
agism, and valuable for comparison with objects of similar types 
from other parts of the world. 

The similarity that exists among the relics of all Stone Age 
peoples is a fact that becomes apparent at once to an observer. 
It is interesting and surprising, and shows that they have all 
traveled the same hard road, and out of their necessities have 
wrought out many similar inventions. 

The traveler of to-day, as he passes through the beautiful 
Mohawk valley, has little to remind him of the former savage 
owners of the soil, who, long before the advent of the Whites, 


778 Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. [ December, 


built their fortified towns on commanding hills, and paddled their 
elm-bark canoes on the river that bears their name. The insane 
love of war and conquest that possessed them, their cruelty and 
ferocity, for long ages made a very pandemonium of the valley 
that is now so peaceful and prosperous. At the head of the Five 
Nations, their name indeed “lead all the rest.” They kept back 
the advancing Dutch and English ; they were an almost impas- 
sable barrier to all French colonizing and proselyting among the 
cognate tribes in Canada, and red and white together, from 
Illinois to Acadia, trembled and fled at the cry of “a Mohawk! 
a Mohawk!” 
The Five Nations, or Iroquois, called themselves the Konosh- 
ioni, or People of the Long House. The Mohawk valley was, 
the eastern door, and the Mohawk tribe held it. While much 
has been written, from the time of DeWitt Clinton to the present, 
about the antiquities of the other tribes of the Confederacy, very 
little has been said or is known about the relics of the Mohawks. 
All that are described and illustrated in this article have been 
found on what are presumably sites of old Mohawk villages. 
These sites naturally divide themselves into two classes; the first, 
those unmistakably occupied during the Stone Age proper, 
where are found only relics of stone, and clay, and bone; and 
second, sites where relics of a mixed character appear, consisting 
of similar relics to those of the first period in connection with 
articles introduced by the whites after the discovery. 
Village sites that can be certainly identified as belonging to 
the time previous to the introduction of metals are few; a dili- 
gent and careful search may discover more than are now known, 
but at present I know of but two. The first of these was evi- 
dently a place where the rough material was quarried and stone 
implements manufactured, as there are innumerable flakes and 
flint chips, broken and unfinished weapons and tools, and many 
arrow heads, etc., scattered over a surface of several hundred 
acres in extent. The other site is one of peculiar interest; as It 
has never been cultivated, and is covered with a pine forest, every- 
_ thing is undisturbed and is just as it was when it was deserted by 

the savages. It is a very Kj6kken-Modding, where heaps of the 
_ refuse lie untouched. Here in piles of ashes and clam shells are 
_ found innumerable fragments of pottery, broken bones of animals, 
stone and bone implements, deers’ horns, bears’ and beavers 


taa Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. 779 


teeth, and many other evidences of savage life. It is upon a 
point of land where two ravines meet, was evidently palisaded, and 
must have been an impregnable fortress when the only weapons 
were bows and arrows. 

The labor that was required to surround such an extensive 
village must have been immense, especially when we remember 
that only axes of stone were used, similar to Fig. 1. These 
“celts” or hand axes 
are found the world 
over; this one is of a 
compact hard kind of 
green stone, has a fine 2 
_ cutting edge and is 2 
polished over its entire Foci C 
surface. se axes 
are called “thunderbolts” by the common people of many widely 
separated nations. Mr. John Evans, in his great work on the 
“ Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain,” gives much inter- 
esting and curious lore in regard to this and similar superstitions. 
I have heard the same name.applied to these ancient tools here 
in the Mohawk valley., Very poor tools we should call them, 
but in the hands of a savage proved wonderfully effective for 
cutting down trees and hollowing out canoes when used in con- 
nection with fire. 

In . 2 is presented a side and front view of a stone R 
Poe and skillfully cut out of a har ; 
black stone; it seems 
to have been worn 
as an ornament or a 
charm, grooves be- 
ing cut round it; as 
a specimen of the 
carving of a people 
having no iron tools 
it is certainly re- 
markable. The Mo- 
hawks were divided Fic. 2.—Side and front view s Totem—Indian and Bear. 
into three clans, the (full size.) 
turtle, the wolf and the bear, and possibly the Indian who owned 
this may have been of the bear genus, and this may have been — 
his “totem,” 


780 


Fic, 3.—Mohawk Jar. 


elic Hunting on the Mohawk. [ December, 


site previously referred to, fra 


ee Fic. FIG. 7- 
milarity of the shape and ornamentation that there were regular 


gments of pottery simi- 
lar to Figs. 3 to 7 are 
found. It is unglazed 
and very hard, and 
seems to be made of 
clay and pounded shell 
or stone. The jars 
were of all sizes, round 
on the bottom, but 
made with a rim so 
that they could be sus- 
pended with a cord or 


| strip of bark. The 


decoration consists of 


| an exceedingly diverse 


arrangement of incised 
lines and dots, and it 
would appear from the 


1878. | Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. 781 


potters who manufactured all that were used by the village, and 
they seem to have had considerable skill in the plastic art, for not 
only is the pottery very creditable, but they also worked clay into 
other forms, showing great ingenuity in makings pipes, the bowls 
of which are frequently in the form of a bird or mammal, and these 
always being very true to nature. Some of these are shown in 
the engravings which fail, however, to give the spirit of the 


Hi 
i 


Fic. 9.—-Fragment of Pottery Pipe. 
originals. Fig. ọ is the fragment of a pipe and Fig. 10 and 11 are 


782 Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. [ December, 


samples of birds and animals, rude in style to be sure, but by no 

means inferior to similar terra-cottas from Mycenz and Cyprus. 
Among Aboriginal relics, bone implements are much more 

rare than those of stone, for 


Fic. 10.—Owl. Fic. 11.—Fox. 
when exposed to the weather they are soon destroyed, and the 
sites of vil- 
lages that 
are un- 
cleared and 
un cultiva- 
ted, and 
where 
these bone Fic, 12.—Bear’s Tooth. 
tools alone 

are found, are very few. 
Those that are found 
here, of which Figs. 
14, 15 and 16 are sam- 
ples, are for the most Fic. 13--Beaver’s Tooth. 
part awls or piercing 
implements, and are 
well made and highly 
polished; they have 
been worked out of 
hard compact bones, 
and scraped down with great labor. Among the 
many broken bones that are found, are some which 
o show the grooves made by the stone saws in cutting 
_ out these tools. 


Fic. 14. 


5 PIG: 15. 


1878. | Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. 783 


The bones of animals, like those in similar situations in other 
countries, are all split and broken to extract the marrow, and the 
teeth and jaws of bears, and deer, and beaver are as well pre- 
served as though buried yesterday. Many necklace bones like 
Fig. 17, are found which show a great deal of laborious scraping. 


ANN 
\ 
h 
ih i 
tN 
ANY y Wy, 
i ‘fi ae” 7 


FHN 


MN i 

iy 

h N hil mn 
LAN WAN f 

Li ss j -Ma iD MAN 


Fic. 16. oo 19. Fic. 
Necklaces of this kind were made by some of the tribes of fhe finger 
bones of their enemies, the squaws usually commencing the tor- - 
ture of a prisoner by sawing off the forefingers with a clam shell. 

Upon all the village sites, upon the surface of the fields, and in- 
the graves, the usual forms of stone implements are found, those 


784. Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. [ December, 


that are rough and chipped predominating largely over those that 
are ground and polished. Indeed one is greatly impressed with 
the remarkable similarity that exists between these rough stone 
implements and the palzolithic flints from the caves and gravel 
beds of Europe, and it would seem to be no difficult task to 
duplicate in a great measure from the surface finds, the engravings 
of these implements as given in the European archzological 
works on the subject. Many of those found here resemble the 
cave and gravel implements much more closely than any shown 
in this article. 

Arrow heads are of many forms, and are made of various kinds 


Fic. 32, Fic. 26.—Hammer Stone. 
=~ of hornstone, and slate, and spar. Some of them are exceed- 
sey rough, while others are flaked with great skill and are 


Aati specimens of biaen eani All the forms of flint 


1878.] Relic Hunting on the Mohawk. 785 


implements such as knives, scrapers, borers, drills and others of . 
unknown or not obvious uses, are abundant. Figs. 28 to 30 show 
a few of these latter forms. 

The foregoing are specimens of what the Mohawks used 
during their Stone Age, but relics are abundant that were brought 
in at a very early day by the whites. Such are beads of various 
kinds, pipes and nondescript fragments of cop- ANY 

É 


Fic, 31.—Trade Axe. 

ong which are the axes, Fig. 31, 
which although rude and clumsy in the extreme, were yet a great 
acquisition to men who had for generations, with infinite labor, 
wrought axes out of the flinty rock. These trade axes probably 
began to supersede those of stone previous to the year 1600, for 
Champlain in his expedition against the Mohawks in 1609 speaks 
of them as cutting down trees “ with villainous axes of stone, 
and also of iron, which latter they had captured from their ene- 
mies; their enemies were either the Indians of Canada, who 
obtained iron from the French as early as 1535, or of those 
southern tribes with whom the Mohawks were always at war. 

In conclusion, I feel how impossible it is to do justice to this 
subject in so small a space. The extent of it can be imagined 
from the fact that the few forms here shown are from a collection 
of several thousand specimens. It is sufficient, however, to — 
throw some light upon the manner of life and the progress of a 
people who filled so conspicuous a place in history at a time 
when European nations were struggling to gain a foothold in this 
western wilderness. > 


786 _ Walks Round San Francisco. | December, 


WALKS ROUND SAN FRANCISCO. 
BY W. N. LOCKINGTON. 
No. III—LAKE HONDA AND SEAL ROCK. 


Ancylus fragilis, the so-called fresh-water limpet, is on record 
in Cooper’s list of the Californian mollusca from Laguna Honda, 
or Deep Lake, as the name, being translated, implies. 

Now Laguna Honda, a pond at the bottom of a deep valley 
about three miles south of the Golden Gate, has been captured 
by the Spring Valley Water Co., and converted, by upright 
retaining walls, and dams, and flood-gates, into a reservoir some. 
thirty feet deep. 

It is therefore pretty clear that the Ancyli in Laguna Honda are 
not easy to collect, but with the object of searching for the spe- 
cies in a lower lake which receives its overflow, my son and I 
start off for the locality one windy summer morning. Our road 
from the cars lies across Golden Gate park, the public park of 
San Francisco, a long narrow strip of land commencing some 
distance from the city and running straight out westward to the 
ocean beach. The greater portion is as yet park by courtesy, as 
the strip of land is principally drifting sand. A small portion at 
the city end is laid out, and drives are made through the whole 
length, but nineteen-twentieths of the area either lies at the west 
wind’s will, or is covered with a growth of the large yellow 
lupine (Lupinus arboreus) and the blue wooly-leaved lupine (Z. 
chamissonis vel albifrons). As the city has chosen a site without 
soil for its park, it is bound to try to make its own soil, and these 
lupines, hardy natives of the sand, have been selected as aids in 
the work. They prove very efficient, but the annual appropria- 
tion for park expenses is so small, and the west wind so constant, 
that he would be a bold man who would prophesy that the 
- lupines shall be victorious for a generation or two. Between the 
park and the valley where lies Laguna Honda, is a high hill 
called Sweeney’s Peak, from whose summit is obtained an exten- 
sive view over the peninsula and the bay. 

There is little to detain us in the ravine by which we ascend, as 
pe season is too advanced for many flowers, but the snow- -ball 


te : bush (Symphoricarpus racemosus) displays its white bunches of 


_ fruit in the hollows, the red-flowered Allium acuminatum grows 


PN LEEN LEN APERAR Ter Fey CET ee ES E E Ea | PEN, 


SLOE eee eT 
FENSTER 


o i ia a a a E y ne 
. A atest ate ENT? 


1878. | Walks Round San Francisco, 787 


on the hill-side, and the little song-sparrows flit before us from 
stone to stone as we advance upwards. 

While standing on a spur near the summit, gazing on the 
panorama of the city and its surroundings, my son, who is bent 
on exploring, suddenly shouts from behind a large rock, “ Papa, 
here’s a fern!” And sure enough, in that dried out spot, in the 
crevices of a rock five hundred feet above the sea, far from all 
moisture, grow numerous examples of a thick-leaved simply pin- 
nate fern. We secure some of the plants, and on enquiring from 
our botanical friends, find that the curious fern is known as 
Polypodium scouleri. 

It is a rough descent over the sun-baked soil and slippery bents 
of grass from Sweeney’s Peak to the Laguna, which nestles in 
the deep valley between it and the opposite peak. 

Castilleta parviflora and Convolvulus occidentalis are almost the 
only flowers we find on our way down, and as the water in the 
lake is too low and too free from vegetation to give us a chance 
to collect Ancylus, we direct our course along the flume to the 
lower lake, passing through a dense thicket of Siyum marianum, 
or blessed thistle, a plant which, since its probable introduction 
by the Spaniards, has increased to the dimensions of a nuisance. 

At last, on the stems of Szum latifolium we find a few Ancyli, 
tiny little vesicles of shelis, which would certainly be overlooked 
by any one not specially searching for them, since they are only 
about a third of an inch long, almost colorless, applied to the 
stem by the whole of their under surface, and very much flatter 
above than their namesakes of the ocean beach. These “ fresh- 
water limpets,” it may be as well to remark, are but distant rela- 
tives of the real limpets, they are “ Pulmonata, "or air breathers, 
like the fresh-water snails and the land snails, while the limpets 
are provided with gills like other univalves of the ocean. This 
is one of those cases, so many of which occur in the animal 
kingdom, where considerable outward resemblance masks radical 
structural differences. 

As this is a rambling paper, and the last that we shall piece 
together from our rambles on this wind-stricken peninsula, we 
will lengthen out our walk northwards until we reach the Seal 
Rock road, along or near which we will trudge till we descend 
to the ocean beach close to the extensively-advertised Seal Rock. 
Seal Rock is one of the greatest lions of San Francisco, or 

VOL, X11.—no, XI. 53 


788 Walks Round San Francisco. [ December, 


rather, it is the home of San Francisco’s lions, those sleek and 
well-fed sea lions, which are protected from slaughter by special 
legislation, that they may, in conjunction with wasteful human 
fishers, destroy the “ harvest of the waters.” The rock is within 
easy rifle-shot of the terrace of the Cliff House hotel, yet it is 
crowded with sea-lions taking their ease in all kinds of positions, 
evidently fully aware that they will not be harmed. Most of the 
colony are dozing in the sun, occasionally opening their eyes, 
raising their heads, and perhaps uttering their characteristic 
howl; but some more active, are swimming among the breakers, 
their heads alone visible above the water. “I cannot understand 
how those things can bear such a life,’ remarked a well-dressed 
woman near me, with a look of disgust. And this when the 
creatures were basking in the sun and playing in the water with 
the most evident enjoyment—perhaps they were thinking the 
same of us—who can tell ? 

The long stretch of sandy beach between Seal Rock and the 
Ocean House does not present us with many forms of marine 
life that do not also occur in the Bay of San Francisco. Cardium 
corbis and Macoma nasuta are common, and so is the pretty little 
light-reddish bivalve Mera salmonea. At intervals you may pick 
up the test of a very thin and flat cake-urchin, Echinarachnius 
excentricus A. Ag., looking like a large wafer; its height from 
crown to mouth so small that you almost wonder where the 
creature lived, and how it could ever move its heavy covering. 

On the sand banks that form the bar at the entrance of the 
harbor, at a depth of six or seven fathoms, this sea-urchin can be 
procured alive; its test is then covered with a thick array of 
small spines, so closely set that when the creature retracts its 
suckers it is difficult to make out the “petals” or curved out- 
lines of the ambulacral pores through which the suckers pro- 
truded. ‘The name “ excentricus” is very appropriate. The sys- 
tem of calcareous plates forming the crown (apical system) and 
- containing the genital and ocular plates with their pores, is not in 
the centre as it is in the allied Æ. mirabilis, but is approximated 
to the anterior extremity of the test; neither is the mouth in the 
center of the underside. Two er species of sea-urchins, or 
Echini, glorying in the names of Strongylocentrotus franciscanus 
and S. purpuratus occur along the ocean beach at points not very 
far distant from San Francisco, but are not found in its immediate 


Bys Walks Round San Francisco. 780 


neighborhood. The first of these attains a large size, the test or 
shell, denuded of its long spines, measuring five inches or more 
in diameter ; the second has short spines, and is about two inches 
across. These are “regular sea-urchins,” that is to say, they 
belong to that sub-order of the Echini which has circular, high, 
sometimes almost globular tests, with the five ambulacral areas at 
equal distances and of equal dimensions, pierced with rows of 
pores continuous from the mouth below to the apical system above, 
which latter contains not only the “ ocular” and “ genital ” plates, 
but also the posterior termination of the digestive canal. The 
cake-urchin before mentioned, like all its near relatives, has the 
anus on the under side, thus departing farther from the “ radiate ” 
type, and the rows of ambulacral pores for the exit of the suckers 
are confined to the upper side of the test. 

Along the upper portion of the sandy beach, at points where 
there are no cliffs but where the land meets the sea in rolling 
ridges of sand, may be found several plants which do not occur 
in other situations. Among these are Frinseria chamissonis and 
F. bipinnatifida, two composite with inconspicuous flowers and 
hispid fruits, covering large areas with their trailing stems and 
glaucous foliage; Adronia cycloptera, a relative of the garden 
flower commonly called four-o’clock, with its upright bunches of 
sweet-scented reddish flowers; Heliotropium curassavicum, one of 
the Boraginacee, with curled-up spikes of small white flowers, 
and thick leaves, and the yellow-flowered Ænothera cheiran- 
thifolia. 

On the cliffs near by, ‘Sedum spathulifolium makes a show with 
its bunches of yellow flowers, mingled, perhaps, where the soil is 
deeper, with Aster chamissonis and the golden-rod, Solidago califor- 
nicum. Here is a large area of cliff face covered with the long trail- 
ing stems of Mesembryanthemum dimidiatum, the three sided oblong 
leaves glistening in the sun,and the large deep-purple flowers glow- 
ing at intervals like rubies. It is the monarch of the sea-side flowers, 
and is worthy of a place in the flower-garden, but must not be 
planted in too rich soil, or it will run to stems and leaves, and 
forget to bloom. 

On the hill-sides the most conspicuous plant is the “ bladder- 
weed,” Astragalus menziesii, not in bloom now save a few belated 
blossoms, but hung .all over with the bladder-like pods from 
which its vernacular title is derived. The seeds in the ripe pods 


790 Walks Round San Francisco. [ December, 


rattle in the wind and the name of “rattle-weed” has thus 
arisen. A third name is the Spanish title of “loco” or “mad” 
plant, from the effects of its poisonous foliage upon the hungry 
cattle which are occasionally tempted by its green foliage and 
succulent stems—green and succulent when all around is brown 
and scorched, when even the “burrs” of the burr-clover (Medi- 
cago denticulata) are scarce and baked to chips, and the bents of 
grass are broken down into chaff—to feast upon what in times of 
greater plenty they avoid. 

Although, broadly speaking, there are no trees on the peninsula 
of San Francisco, except the thickets of scrub oak (Quercus 
agrifolia) which clothe some of the more sheltered hills and val- 
leys, yet the ravines of the few permanent springs display a crop 
of willows, mingled with a few examples of Myrica californica ; 
and cliffs with a northern aspect are in some spots made beautiful 
by an abundant growth of Heteromeles arbutifolia, a showy 
rosaceous shrub, with red berries like the European hawthorn, 
but no thorns. Earlier in the season it blooms into a mass 
of showy bunches. 


Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, a few starvling plants of which may be 
found among or near the willows, is, in more favored localities, 
one of the loveliest of shrubs, or rather trees, for it grows to the 
size of an apple tree. Covered all over with lilac-like bunches of 
odoriferous blue flowers (whence its local name of “blue myr- 
tle”), and growing in extensive thickets over terraces and 
uplands, it is a living contradiction of the theories of color 
purists who deny that blue flowers and green leaves can be 
beautiful. 

If we pick our way through the sand and over the hard-baked 
bed of what in winter is a watercourse, to one of the little coves 
which lie between the cliffs, we shail probably find numerous 
specimens of the curious little crustacean, Hippa analoga Stimp- 
son. This little fellow lives in the sand between tide-marks, and 
although in the vernacular confounded with the species of 
Orchestia and Allorchestes, under the general term of “sand 
hopper,” really belongs to a very different and higher division of 
- the class Crustacea than that which includes his companions of 
the sand. He, or rather she, for the female is much the larger, 
has the body longer than wide, a narrow abdomen tucked under 

_ the body like that of an ordinary crab, five pairs of limbs, eyes 


Eee Ne Re RE Tg ee ee Re eA ee A Oa ee ee eee 


Cee Ce 


Of eae aia 


Det see Se EE eT eee ee ee Re ee 


1878. ] Walks Round San Francisco, 791 


borne on stalks, and very conspicuous antenne and mouth appen- 
dages. Thus he belongs to the Decapoda or ten-footed crustacea, 
while the other sand- hoppers, with seven pairs of limbs and sessile 
eyes, are in a lower sub-class. His great forte appears to be dig- 
ging in the sand, which he does backwards, and with astonishing 
rapidity, disappearing in an attitude similar to that of a diving 

uck. Securing a few of these lively fellows, we return up the 
watercourse and across the sandy prairie to the road, gathering, 
as we proceed, a few flowering stalks of the yellow Bahia lanata 
and a twig of Croton procumbens, with its light green berries. 

I think it is about time that the notion that a species must 
necessarily be named after some peculiarity that it possesses, 
should pass into the limbo of exploded ideas. There are now so 
many species of animals known, that it is, in many cases, impos- 
sible to define the differences between those which are nearly 
related in one word—it needs at least five lines of writing to do 
it. Two species differing in twenty particulars, no one of them, 
perhaps, very important, cannot be correctly distinguished by 
incorporating one of these points of difference in a specific 
name, and it frequently happens that a name which correctly 
describes one species will apply equally well to another species 
which has other peculiarities rendering it totally different. Thus 
Sebastes ruber, the red rock cod, is red enough, but there are two 
or three other red species of the same genus in our waters; and 
among the shrimps of the genus Hippolyte, H. brevirostris, 
although it has a short rostrum, is excelled in that particular by 
other species. As species are distinguished from each other not 
by one but by several peculiarities, it sometimes happens that the 
very character which, from its conspicuousness, has been incor- 
porated into the specific name, may be wanting in an individual 
which yet belongs to the species; thus Astertas ochracea, the 
ochreous star-fish (our common species), is quite as frequently 


` deep purple as yellow, and Astacus nigrescens, the blackish cray- 


fish, is usually of quite a light tint. ~ 

The great necessity of zodlogical and botanical nomenclature 
is not so much to have a descriptive name for every species as to 
have one fixed, indisputable name by which each shall be univer- 
sally known. This is an end difficult to reach, but will, at least 
in the majority of cases, be at length attained. Isolated workers 
in different countries, or distant parts of the same country, not 


792 Walks Round San Francisco. [ December, 


having access to the results of each other’s labors, have sepa- 
rately described the same species, and have each given it a name. 
Perhaps one has called it obesus because it was short and thick, 
another, sanguineus because it was red, a third, macrodactylus 
because it had a large toe, while a fourth has named it smithii 
after his friend, John Smith. . 

But it is now a recognized rule among naturalists, and it is a 
rule that ought to be rigidly enforced, that priority of publication 
shall give precedence, and as soon as it can be ascertained which 
of the names was first given, provided it was accompanied by a 
description, that name shall in future be the name, no matter - 
whether it is good or bad Latin, or even whether it is rightly or 
wrongly spelled. It is the baptismal name, and, like that of an 
infant, must ever remain its name. It is only by keeping to this 
rule that we can ever reach bottom in scientific nomenclature; if 
every aggressive genius were allowed to change a well-known 
name for one that, in his estimation, fits it better, and if every 
Latinist, ignoring every consideration but those belonging to his 
pet grammar, might alter terminations and orthography at his 
will, the synonymy of species would be endless. The same rules 
apply to specific names that apply to the surnames or cognomens 
of human beings. 

When men were fewer, and proper names like John and William 
were the only recognized ones, the various Johns and Williams 
were distinguished from each other as John the baker, John the 
butcher, etc., or personal peculiarities were made a note of, and 
William Tallboy and John Short, with other sometimes very 
curious names arose; or a man leaving his native town of, let us 
say, Lincoln, became known in his new residence as John of 
Lincoln. These names stuck to the families, the members of 

which changing their trades, or possessing different physical 
peculiarities, often become the antipodes of their names. Thus, 
John Baker may be an iron monger, John Short may be tall, 
William Armstrong may be no stronger in the arm than John 
Smith, and John Gross may be a Lilliputian. I must now beg 
_ pardon of our esteemed corresponding secretary of the California 
Academy of Sciences, because I have taken the liberty to append 
his name to a species of fish which I believe has hitherto not 
_ been described. Many other names would fit it; it is long, slen- 
_ der and round, so are all the tribe it belongs to; it is brown,SO 


1878. } The Beneficial Influence of Plants. 793 


are others that are nearly related; it has two rows of teeth on 
each side of the mouth, so have all its family; there are ten teeth 
in the front row and nine in the back; this is characteristic, but 
it would puzzle the best Latinist to put it in one word; and it 
has eleven gill openings, and this might be expressed by a com- 
pound Latin name which would be awkwardly long, and after all 
would not mean with eleven gill openings, but simply with eleven 
openings, so that on the whole I prefer stowti ; and stoutii, with 
the doctor’s permission, it must be, unless some one has antici- 
pated me in describing the fish. 

Bdellostoma stout nov. sp. Eleven gill openings on each side ; 
ten teeth in the anterior and nine in the posterior series. 1514” 
long. Eel river, Humboldt county. 

It is rather singular that this fish, which is abundant in Eel 
river, and is sold for food, and also occurs in this harbor, should 
hitherto have escaped notice. I believe it to be the only species 
of its genus hitherto found on the Pacific coast of North America; 
and it differs from Bdellostoma polytrema, a species which occurs 
along the coast of Chili, both in the number of its gill-openings 
and that of the teeth, B. polytrema having fourteen of the former 
and twelve of the latter in each series. 


205 


THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF PLANTS. 
BY J. M. ANDERS, M.D., PH.D. 


GOOD deal of attention has recently been given to the sub- 

ject of the sanitary relations of plant life. Since plants 
constitute so great a factor in the organic world, a study of their 
functions necessarily becomes interesting and important. As 
every one knows, the knowledge of these processes is being rap- 
idly unfolded, and clearly, the way to render this most useful is 
to examine into their practical relations; for our appreciation of 
plants and flowers must, to a great extent, go hand in hand with 
the increase in knowledge concerning their influence on our 
health and welfare. As our information in this direction increases 
we shall be more ready to acknowledge how much we owe to 
vegetation ; still it is to be hoped that our ideas will never revert 
to the extravagant theories of the ancients, for we find that 
mythology credits trees with marvelous powers, such as their 


794 | The Beneficial Influence of Plants. { December, 


being the abode of spirits, some of which were held sacred while 
others were supposed to be demonic. Trees were also supposed 
to be sentient beings and even possessed of souls. Strange as it 
may seem in this age of enlightenment, some relics of these 
ancient superstitions still linger in certain quarters of the globe. 

Prof. Pettenkofer! has lately discussed the question of the 
hygienic relations of plants from a new standpoint, and has 
doubtless thrown new light upon it. He has, to his own satisfac- 
tion, demonstrated that three of the great functions in plants, 
namely, the giving off of oxygen, the absorption of carbonic acid 
and generation of ozone, really have no hygienic value whatever. 
The proof of his argument rests largely upon the solid basis of 
experimental researches conducted by himself and other noted 
investigators. It is but fair to say, however, that Prof. Petten- 
kofer does not deny a// hygienic influence of vegetation, but 
attributes its influence to other circumstances rather than to the 
variation in the amount of the gases; and yet, in setting forth 
what he believes to be the sanitary operations of plants, he omits 
making any allusion to the process of transpiration as affecting 
the sanitary conditions of the air. This is not so surprising when 
we reflect how very imperfect our knowledge of this function has 
been up to a very recent date. In a paper on this subject we 
have presumed to attach more importance to this function. 

We shall now make the proposition—a deduction from actual 
experiment—that the hygienic conditions of the air are both 
directly and indirectly affected by plant transpiration. It will be 
seen that the statement ventured contains two distinct elements, 
one implying the direct effect of transpiration on the air, the 
other the indirect; and it has been deemed best to discuss 
these elements separately in order to render the subject easier of 
comprehension. 

The direct effect of transpiration might be formulated thus: 
In all atmospheres in which the proportion of aqueous vapor is 
less than the healthiest standard (about seven-eighths of what 
the air can contain at a given temperature), the beneficial influence 


-~ of transpiration must be in proportion to the amount of aqueous 


vapor exhaled. In this connection the question naturally arises, 
_ What is the rate at which watery vapor is given off from plants i 
Here it will, perhaps, be pardonable to refer to the author's pre- 
_ + Popular Science Monthly for February, 1878. 


1878. ] The Beneficial Influence of Plants. a. 


viously published experiments!; and, in order to establish this 
rate an extract from the summary of these investigations will be 
_ introduced, since they were instituted with the object of estab- 
lishing the rate of transpiration: 

In clear weather the evaporation by night, as compared to that 
which takes place in the day, appears to be about in the ratio of 
one to five. In some cases no loss occurred on dewy or cae 


indoors. Under eae yet bison cvaporanie at night was 
about the same indoors as in the open 

The rate of transpiration during the ‘ay showed a very differ- 
ent relation, giving a ratio of two to one in favor of the open air. 
Of the whole amount evaporated during twelve hours, in the day 
experiments, half was given off between the hours of II A. M. 
and 3 P. M., as shown > repeated testin 


the plant, and amount transpired. e mean eo and 
average dew point have also been recorded in the table 


i 7 
No.| Name of Plant. | BxPeriment| Evaporation. P Surface. © Weight of Plant. femp dew pe 
I UNE aes haat 12 hours | 2850 grains | All parts green 2 lbs, 2 oz. bs oi bes 
2° Ptaerininm 266s = 3500 eS Se Me ei nae 44201 grains | Sie 
3} Dre os ae n 1975 i 450 square in’s | 192 64.5° | 49.69 
4 | Hydrangea. .. 2. r 2858 he 744 +: 2170 73 | 56.7 
PUET U E ak i 710 t 479 e E fas ene 75-5 | 63.3 
G + Dantene 3 ie ors Me gie *S 330 i 720 grains | 75.1 | 61.7 
et Diten.. oe oe 2422 ind 817 velar Bas serie ae 75.5 | 62 


After an inspection of this table, the average rate of evaporation 
for soft thin-leaved plants, in clear weather, may be put down at 
about one and a quarter ounces per day (twelve hours) for every 
square foot of surface. The Lantana shows nearly two ounces 
to the square foot of surface. The camellia, with its dense smooth 
leaves, api e less than half an ounce to the square foot of 
surface, per : 
* * A few calculations may serve to impress 
de EE of the ratio of transpiration deduced from these 


weathe 

Car an ng the calculation further, a grove consisting of five 
hundred trees, each with a leaf surface equal to that of the elm 
mentioned, would return to the atmosphere 3906 tons of aqueous 


! Compare this with journal for March, 1878, p. 160. 


796 The Beneficial Influence of Plants. [ December, 


vapor in twelve hours. Even supposing this to be much over- 
estimated, it may very fairly be concluded from the facts given 
that the evaporation of watery vapor from plants isa powerful 
agent in maintaining the humidity of the surrounding air. 

Some scientific critic might claim, as an objection to the latter 
assertion, that the amount of vapor exhaled from plants, though 
in itself large, is inconsiderable when compared with the evapo- 
ration from the surface of the earth. This seeming objection 
may, perhaps, best be confronted by a few calculations, and we 
first inquire what is the relative vaporization from a given 
area of leaf surface, and an equal area of earth surface? 
Taking the average rate of transpiration for soft, thin-leaved 
plants in clear weather to be one and a quarter ounces per 
_ square foot, and multiplying this by the number of days in a 
year the product would be twenty-seven pounds, or an equal 
number of pints. Now by reducing twenty-seven pints to cubic 
inches and dividing the result by the number of square inches in 
a square foot (144) we must obtain the depth in inches of the 
water transpired in the course of a year, about five and two-fifths 
inches, To continue our reckoning, we will next attempt to 
show the mathematical relation between the extent of the leaf 
surface of a section of country and the surface of the earth of the 
same section. According to the census returns for 1875, the per- 
centage of woodland of the entire area of the United States, 
including Territories, water surfaces, cities, highways, etc., is 25; 
that is to say one-fourth of the total area is woodland. Now if 
we suppose every 900 square feet of forest land to contain one 
tree, and estimate each tree to be one-thirteenth the size (only) of 
the Washington elm, at Cambridge, we shall have about one- 
third of an acre of leaf surface for every tree; then it will not 
require much mathematical skill to understand that by multiply- 
ing the supposed leaf surface of each tree (one-third acre) by the 
number of trees per acre, and this in turn by the fraction one- 
fourth, or the proportion of woodland in the United States, the 
product will be four to one in favor of leaf surface over the tota 
area of land surface. We have seen that according to our calcu- 
lations the depth of transpiration per year for soft, thin- leaved 
plants is about five and two-fifths inches, but this must be an 
over-estimate, for the plants are actively giving off watery vapo! 
only about five months of the year, that is, out of doors. We _ 
shall, ‘therefore, suppose eee twel of five and two- fifths inches 


1878. ] The Beneficial Influence of Plants. 797 


or about two and one-fourth inches to be the yearly depth. Now 
if all the water transpired from this leaf surface were given off 
from a surface equal to that of the land area, we should find on a 
little reckoning that the depth of transpiration would be nine 
inches. It is to be remarked that transpiration from the grasses, 
cereals, underbrush, etc., was not considered in these calculations, 
but there can be no doubt as to their great assistance in this pro- 
cess; so that, were it possible to form anything like a correct 
estimate of the amount exhaled by these humble specimens of 
the vegetable kingdom the ratio would be greatly increased. 

In our Southern States, many of which have as high as fifty 
per cent. of woodland, the depth for plant exhalation must be 
much greater, equivalent to at least eighteen inches, since the 
conditions are so much more favorable. All will agree that this 
is no mean showing for transpiration as affecting the proportion 
of moisture in the atmosphere, the yearly average rainfall being 
forty-three inches at Philadelphia. 

There are evidently many inaccuracies in a computation like 
the foregoing, which it is exceedingly hard to avoid, but the 
allowances made will, it is hoped, meet the discrepancies and 
thus the true mark will not have been overreached. 

Provided our reasoning be at all correct, the objection of our 
philosophic critic cannot have any weight, and the important fact 
remains established, that sransfiration is capable of increasing the 
humidity of the air. Now, if transpiration so materially affects the 
quantity of the moisture in the outer air, what must be the effect 
of keeping plants in closed apartments? This question will 
here be discussed, and especially the effect of plants on the air of 
rooms heated by hot-air furnaces. According to the above 
extract it will be seen that the process is only about half as active 
indoors as in the open air, during the day, but at night the rate 
of transpiration is about equal in the two situations, so that 
during the whole twenty-four hours the quantity a plant would 
transpire indoors exceeds half what it would transpire in the open 
air, and we may presume from this fact alone that plants in rooms 
would influence the relative humidity of the air of the rooms. 

From observations which I have made over a period of several 
weeks on the air of my private reading and sleeping room at the 
Episcopal Hospital (Philadelphia), which is kept warm by air 
heated by steam, and simultaneously on the air outside, it was 


798 The Beneficial Influence of Plants. [ December, 


found that the air in the former position was appreciably dryer 
than the latter, the average complement of the dew point being 
on the whole about five degrees greater. The room adjoining 
mine, occupied by my colleague, was very kindly left for a time 
at my disposal; in it were kepta few plants in pots with a leaf 
surface of not more than twelve square feet. The dimensions of 
the rooms were similar, each being twenty feet long, eleven feet 
wide and sixteen feet high. Each had one window fronting east, 
in which the plants were kept. The average temperature and © 
dew point in both these rooms were noted simultaneously, and 
the results showed uniformly, for a period of eighteen days, that 
the complement of the dew point averaged one and a half degrees 
less in the room containing the plants. These observations were 
made during the early part of April, 1878, when very little heat 
was required, still the windows were kept closed during the day. 
Calculating from these results, the effect of twenty-four square 
feet of leaf surface on the air of a room half the size of the above 
would be to increase the humidity sufficiently to raise the dew 
point six degrees Fahrenheit higher than it would be if there 
were no plants in the room. There can be no doubt but that a 
southern exposure of the plants would make the difference even 
greater. 


As it seemed possible that the variation in the amount of 
moisture in the two rooms tested might be due to considerations 
other than the presence of plants, it was deemed necessary to 
vary the conditions and make further observations. Accordingly 
after placing some plants in the window of my own room, I too 
the average temperature and dew point, and compared them with 
those of an adjoining room containing no plants. No artificial 
heat was required during the time of these experiments. It was 
found that when the window was kept open so as to cause. 
very free ventilation, no appreciable difference in the humidity 
of the two rooms was observed; but if the windows were 
closed for a few (say three) hours, it would make a differ- 
ence of from one and a half to two degrees Fahr. in the comple- 
ment of the dew point; the room having plants showing the 
lesser complement. This difference was maintained, almost, 
when the windows were opened just enough to allow a gradual 
interchange of the contained air; but as before intimated, a draft, 
_ though it might hasten transpiration, would, by carrying off the 


1878. ] The Beneficial Influence of Plants. 799 


vapor, prevent an increase of moisture in the air of the room. On 
days when the air was laden with moisture, no difference in the 
dew point was noticed, there being at such times little or no 
exhalation of watery vapor. The observations taken at 1 o'clock 
P. M., gave the greatest variation, the morning observations usually 
the least. We do not wish to say dogmatically that there is no 
possible chance of error in these experiments, but since they 
were corroborative throughout it seems fair to conclude that they 

. are correct. Since it is allowable always to make logical deduc- 
tions from facts, we may justly conclude, from the statements made 
in the above extract concerning the rate of transpiration, coupled 
with the carefully conducted observations here detailed, that 
during the summer months when the windows are thrown widely 
open and the doors kept ajar, the influence of transpiration is 
quite inconsiderable; on the other hand, when the interchange of 
air is not too rapid a sufficient number of plants, well watered, 
have the effect (if the air be not already saturated) of increasing 
the amount of moisture to a considerable extent. 


As before intimated, it is my wish to apply the results of these 
researches particularly to the atmosphere of apartments heated 
by means of hot-air furnaces, which are known to be dryer than 
air heated by a stove or open fire-place. Not having the oppor- 
tunity myself at the Hospital of comparing the dryness of air 
thus heated with that of the outer air, my wants were made 
known to a friend residing in a house heated by a dry-air furnace. 
Through the kindness of this friend reliable observations were 
made for a period of eight days. The results showed the mean 
average complement of the dew point to be seven degrees Fahr. 
greater for the heated air than the air outside. Now, according 
to our line of reasoning, a certain number of plants would bring 

_up the humidity to that of the external air. Calculating from 
the above data, half a dozen each with a leaf surface of four 
square feet would be sufficient to produce this effect in a room 
twelve feet long and ten feet wide with a ceiling twelve feet high. 
The mean average temperature and dew point for the out-door 
observations were fifty-six degrees and forty-one degrees Fahr. 
respectively, which is a percentage still considerably below the 
healthiest standard. Some one, not a professional medical man, 
might pertinently ask: What is the effect on the systern of air 
heated by a hot-air furnace? It will be necessary to answer this _ 


- 


800 The Beneficial Influence of Plants. | December, 


inquiry only so far as relates to the effect of dry air at the ordi- 
nary temperature of such rooms. 
If an apartment is heated to sixty-five or sixty-eight degrees 


the air contains a much smaller proportion of vapor than if the 
air were warmed to the same degree by a stove or open fire-place. 
In this manner a great demand is made upon the system to sup- 
ply the air with moisture, the skin and pulmonary mucous mem- 
brane are dried, and a condition is induced which is expressed in 
irritability of the nervous system, paleness and susceptibility of 
the skin to cold, liability to pulmonary diseases, and, in a word, 
deterioration of all the functions. 

Now, it will not be doubted by any one, that if, as we have 
_ attempted to point out, the presence of a certain number of 
thrifty plants in an occupied apartment, warmed by dry air, would 
have the effect of raising the proportion of aqueous vapor to the 
extent indicated, plants in rooms heated by a hot-air furnace 
would in a hygienic point of view, be of very decided value, since 
they may become the means of obviating very distressing symp- 
toms, or even disease itself. Indeed, the circumstance of so 
large a portion of the population of cities and towns using the 
hot-air furnace as a means of heating their dwellings would seem 
to justify the conclusion that there is a connection between their 
bodily ills and this method of heating, that one might be trace- 
able, in part, to the other. It is true there are good uses of dry 
heat for the relief of certain diseases, but it requires a judicious 
application—a knowledge of the conditions in which it is indicated ; 
_ it should be employed only when prescribed by a regular physi- 
cian. In his very able paper, Prof. Pettenkofer wisely con- 
siders the impression which, plants (and plantations) make upon 
our mind and senses to be of hygienic value. And, furthermore, 
he says: “I consider flowers in a room, for all to whom they give 
pleasure, to be one of the enjoyments of life, like condiments in 
food.” May we not now rightfully consider plants kept in 
rooms under proper regulations to be of sanitary value also on - 
~ account of their influence over the proportion of vapor in the 
= air? And of the two effects is the latter not worthy of being 

made the paramount consideration ? ? 

1 Stillé Therapeutics, Vol. i, pp. 637-8. 
2 The following letter was received fr my estimable friend as an acknowledg- 
ment of ~ ETF. on the Transpiration of Plants, which appeared in the March 


1878. The Beneficial Influence of Plants. | gor 
7 


Before passing to the consideration of moisture in the air as a 
means of lessening terrestrial radiation, which we have designated 
as the indirect effect of transpiration, it seems appropriate to give 
a place to a few of the laws governing radiation in general. 

Radiation has been defined by Tyndall as a vibratory move- 
ment which begins in the ultimate particles of matter, and is pro- 
pagated through waves of ether. 

Different bodies absorb heat and radiate the same in degrees- 
varying with their molecular constitution; that is to say, some 
bodies disturb the ether to a greater extent than others. It is an 
all important and universal law, that the power of a body to 
absorb heat and its power to radiate heat are reciprocal. Heat 
rays are emitted from both luminous and non-luminous bodies. 
The theory now almost universally accepted is, that heat and 
light are similarly transmitted; a ray which will give rise to the 
sense of heat by falling on the surface of the body will, if it fall 
on the retina, produce the sense of light, in general terms. 
Though the ray itself is the same in both instances, it is called, 
in the one case, a calorific ray, and in the other a luminous ray, 
on account of the effect produced. The only advantage in > 
retaining these terms is convenience in communication. Bodies 
which allow the rays of light to pass freely through them are 
said to be transparent, on the other hand, bodies which allow 
radiant heat to pass through them are said to be diathermic. It 


number of this journal. The author of the letter not being aware, at the time of 
writing, that the present paper was in preparation. 


J. M. ANpers, M.D. 

My Dear Dr:—I have read your “ Transpiration of Plants” with much satisfac- 
tion. The amount of water exhaled is so greatly in excess of what I supposed to be 
the usual pina that it leads me to believe that the common opinion of physicians 
and laymen, that plants are injurious in the sick room, is wholly erroneous. I sa 
the common opinion—I might say the universal opinion—for I have seldom, if ever, 


be well read in the literature of the EEE for, in your gare paragraph you say : 
“ The practical advantage of keeping plants in occupied rooms, in which the air is 
generally drier than that outside, ie also, from the results obtained, received further 
demonstration.” 

m tempted to ask you where you have ever seen the “ advantage ” of the prac- 
` tice spoken of? I speak now of plants in the sick room. Your paper has brought 
> me new thoughts, and carried me back over a practice of half a century to see 

ration of the advantage of the practice I can bring forward. Physicians ` 
have often spoken to me against the habit of some people who have growing plants 
in the sitting room occupied by the family, and especially in rooms occupied by con- 


302 The Beneficial Influence of Plants. [ December, 


is well known that the property of transmitting light is possessed 
by bodies in different degrees; their ability to transmit heat has 
been found to be equally diverse. Now the diathermancy of sub- 
stances is greatly influenced by certain conditions, among which 
may be mentioned, more particularly, the nature-of the molecules 
of the body, its thickness, and especially the source or kind of 
heat. The rays which are not transmissible through a body are 
absorbed by it, thus elevating the temperature of the body ; when 
the body is perfectly diathermic, however, there is no elevation 
of temperature. Now, since the absorption and radiation of heat 
are reciprocal, it is interesting to know how the atomic constitu- 
tion of the body is affected in these processes. The rays on 
striking a body are some of them absorbed and heat the atoms of 
the body, when each of these atoms acts as a heated body itself, 
and emits the rays absorbed, in all directions. It has been proved 
that absorption does not take place on the surface, but within the 
absorbing body, a certain thickness being necessary to effect the 
phenomenon. 

As the substance with which we are most concerned is in the 
gaseous state—aqueous vapor in the air—we shall pass to the 
consideration of the radiation and absorption of gaseous sub- 
stances. When we reflect that some solid and liquid bodies are 
almost or entirely diathermic, it would, at first sight, appear 
absurd to talk of gases absorbing and radiating heat. One would 


sumptive patients; but I have never heard any physician advise that plants. should be 
placed in the sick chamber as a remedial measure. I hope your experiments will lead 
to a change of opinion on this subject—a change which you seem to anticipate—for if 
the exhalation really be so great, we have it in our power to regulate the amount of 
moisture in the sick room. Year after year new health resorts are urged on the 
public; abroad there are many; and in this country, from St. Augustine to Minne- 
apolis, they are to be found in every State, the low, warm, moist places of the - 
South, the cool mountain regions of the Middle States, and the cold, dry climate of 
Minnesota. Consumptives rush to every new place only to find, in a short time, that, 
like the others, it must be given up as useless. Science ae no influence in the choice 
of places. Allow me to speak of a case which in this connection may interest you. 
mother, her two sisters and only brother all died of consumption under fifty 
father’s side there was not a taint of any disease, but great 
strength and vigor. ne the children of my mother’s sisters and brother, though they 
lived to a good age and oyes good health, finally died of consumption. , Three of 


my brothers, acti ergetic men until within a few years of their death, died of 
= consumption at the ag ages of 55, 57 and 78 respectively, and a sister died of the same 
disease at 66. I mention these cases to show that the germs of the disease were 


: he the family. Thirty years ago my eldest sister, then above fifty years of age, 


1878. } The Beneficial Influence of Plants. 803 


suppose from the circumstance that the spaces between the 
molecules are so much greater in the case of the gases than in 
solids or liquids, that no such thing as the interception of rays by 
these separate particles could occur, But recent, very ingenious 
and delicate experimentation by Prof. Jno. Tyndall has placed the 
fact beyond the domain of mere reasoning, that gases do inter- 
cept radiant heat, in other words, absorb and radiate calorific 
rays. It would be outside the limits of the present writing to 
describe the apparatus used and the methods pursued. Suffice it 
to allude to the results obtained by this investigator, and the 
conclusions arrived at by him. The correctness of these results 
will doubtless be readily eee after a perusal of his admira- 
ble work on “ Radiation,” where everything is fully explained. 

In experimenting with olefiant gas and sulphuric ether vapor, 
it was found that the densities of these two gases may be reduced 
vastly below that which corresponds to the atmospheric pressure, 
and still they were capable of arresting undulations of heat. On 
investigating some of the permanent: gases, as carbon dioxide, 
nitrous oxide, etc., he found extreme variations in absorbent 
powers. The heat-absorbing capacity of hydrogen and of dry 
air were found to be inappreciably small, while carbon monoxide, 
carbon dioxide, etc., were found to be active absorbents. Con- 
sidering the absorbing capacity of dry air one, that of carbon 
dioxide, would be ninety. Experiments with ozone place this 


was reported by her physician, Dr. J. P., a victim of tubercular consumption, to 
which disease she would succumb before the coming summer. She was a lover of 
plant, and flowers, and cultivated them in-doors and out. The spring saw her again 
moving among her plants, anl the winter found her confined to the house, and some- 
times for weeks to her bed-chamber, which, like the sitting-room, was literally a 
green-house. Visitors and friends often spoke to her of the impropriety of having 
so many growing plants in her room, reminding her of the tradition that they were 
injurious. Still, every spring found her again on her feet, in the yard and garden, 
nursing her plants, and every winter confined to her room. And thus she lived, 
year after year, until two years ago when, at the age of 85, she passed away. I have 
seen a few others have plants growing and blooming in their chambers, but never one 
who so lived among them as did my sister. Winter after winter we looked for her 
death, the cough, expectoration and weakness justifying our apprehensions, and yet 
her 85th year found her pome and happy, — among her plants and enjoying 
the society of her friends. May we not believe that the vast exhalation from these 
_ plants—water purified and meils by their vital D ae her life? 
The results of your experiments will awaken :hought, and lead to observation on 
the influence of growing plants in the chambers of the sick. Truly your friend, 
HIRAM Corson, 


VOL. X1I,—No, XM. 54 


i 
804 The Beneficial Influence of Plants. [December, 


substance in the foremost ranks as an interceptor of radiant 
caloric. 

These researches by Prof. Tyndall were extended, also, to 
vapors of different bodies, such as sulphuric, boracic and formic 
ethers; and determined them to be highly active in interfering 
with calorific rays, boracic ether “ exceeding any other substance 
hitherto tried.” All the experiments above quoted are certainly 
of great scientific interest and importance ; but happily this illus- 
trious scientist did not omit to study the effect on radiation of the 
aqueous vapor constantly in our atmosphere. The quantity of 
vapor of water contained in the air is, however, very small 
indeed, constituting only about four anda half per cent., and, 
although the moisture is everywhere present, its ratio is very 
variable. It is perfectly invisible, so that by our senses we are 
quite unable to judge of the amount present ; even the purest sky 
may contain a large proportion. As this vapor is to all intents 
and purposes a gaseous body, obeying the laws of gases, any one 
not familiar with the information which we have just outlined, 
would, doubtless, hesitate to accept the assertion that the watery 
vapor so sparsely scattered through the atmosphere is the main 
agent in regulating the nocturnal radiation from the earth’s sur- 
face. Even Tyndall, himself, neglected for some time this sub- 
stance; and, in his own phraseology, “could hardly credit the 
first result, which made the action of the aqueous vapor of the 
laboratory fifteen times that of the air in which it was diffused.” 
But this result does not show the correct relation of the action of 
vapor and air; for after repeated experiments with air from 
different localities and examined similarly, the results were 
uniformly to the effect that vapor of water has an absorbing 
capacity seventy times that of the air in which it is contained. 
Many objections and criticisms, some of which seemed almost 
insurmountable, were overcome by varying the methods of pro- 
cedure. The assertion made above, therefore, seems to have been 
fully and satisfactorily demonstrated by a most careful and com- 
petent experimentalist. 

Still further testimony might be adduced, the result of obser- 
vations of meteorologists. Col. Richard Strachey, an eminent 
meteorologist, made observations showing the relation between the 
~ tension of the aqueous vapor of the atmosphere and the fall of 
_ the thermometer during the night. A single statement taken 


Brea 


1878.] The Beneficial Influence of Plants. > 805 


from his results will be sufficient for our purpose, namely: “ When 
the tension of the vapor was 0.888 inches the fall of the ther- 
mometer was 6.0° Fahr., and when the tension was only 0.435 
inches the fall amounted to 16.5° Fahr.” It is fair to state that 
these observations were. conducted long before Tyndall's 
researches with aqueous vapor, and are on this account all the 
more valuable. The evidence we have adduced seems to show 
conclusively, that the vapor forms a sort of invisible canopy sepa- 
rating the chilling air above from the warm earth beneath, and 
arresting, more or less effectually, the radiation. We have a 
homely illustration of this when we see the thrifty housewife 
spread coverings over the more delicate plants of her flower gar- 
den on nights when she fears a frost. It has been said that 
aqueous vapor is a blanket more necessary to the vegetable life 
of England than clothing is to man; and every plant capable of 
destruction by freezing would sageu mb, if this vapor were 
removed for a single night. In support of this assertion it will 
be well to notice the results obtained by some noted observers 
concerning the daily fluctuation in temperature in other countries. 
Dr. Livingston? has observed a great excess in nocturnal chill- 
ing when the air is dry over that which occurred when it is laden 
with moisture. He has found in the southern central portion of 
Africa, during the month of June, the thermometer early in the 
mornings at from 42° to 52° Fahr., at noon 94° to 96° Fahr., or 
a mean difference of forty-eight degrees between sunrise and 
mid-day. He says, furthermore: “The sensation of cold after 
the heat of the day was very keen. The Balonda at this season 
never leave their fires till nine or ten in the morning. As 

cold was so great here, it was probably frosty at Linyanti; I 
therefore feared to expose my young trees there.”? Crossing the 
continent, Dr. Livingston reaches the Zambezi at the commence- 


‘ment of the year. He gives the following description of the 


change felt on entering the valley of the river: 


We were struck by the fact that as soon as we came between 
the range of the hills which flank the Zambezi the rains felt 
warm. At sunrise the thermometer stood at from 82° to 86° 
Fahr.; at mid-day in the coolest shade, namely, in my little tent, 
under a shady tree, at 96° to 98° Fahr., and at sunset at 86° 
Fahr. This is different from anything we experienced in the 
interior. ae 


1 Livingston’s Travels, p. 484. 2 Livingston’s Travels, p. 484.5 


806 _ The Beneficial Influence of Plants. [ December, 


Proceeding toward the mouth of the river (Jan. 16th), he 
makes the following additional observation: 


The Zambezi is very broad here (at Zumbo) but contains many 
inhabited islands. On the 16th we siept opposite one called 
Shibanga. The nights are warm, the temperature never falling 
below 80°, it was 90° Fahr. even at sunset. One cannot cool the 
water by a wet towel round the vessel.! 

Evidently the air was nearly saturated with moisture in the lat- 
ter locality, and this affords the only explanation of the evenness 
of the temperature here. 

In Australia the daily range of the thermometer is extremely 
great. The observations of Mrz W. S. Jevons? are of much 
interest, and we give an extract: 

In the interior of the continent of Australia the fluctuations in 
temperature are immensely increased. e heat of the air, as 
described by Capt. Stewart, is fearful during summer; thus in 
about latitude 30° 50’” S., and longitude 141° 18’ E., he writes: 
“The thermometer every day rose to 112° or 116° in the shade, 
while in the direct rays of the sun from 140° to 150°.” Again, 
“Ata quarter past three, P.M., on January 21st (1845), the ther- 
mometer had risen to 131° in the shade and 154° in the direct 
rays of the sun. * * * Jn the winter the thermometer was 
observed as low as 24°, giving an extreme range of 107°” From 
these data we are not surprised to hear him remark further on, 
that, “ The fluctuations of temperature were often very great and 
sudden, and were severely felt.” He says, moreover, “ It thus 
appears that even close to the ocean the mean daily range of the 
Australian climate is very considerable. It is least in the autumn 
and greatest during the cloudless days in spring.” After giving 
here a table of the seasonal variation of the rainfall in Australia, 
Mr. Jevons says that, “ It is plainly shown that the most rainy 
season of the year on the east coast is the autumn, that is, the 
three months, March, April, May. The spring season appears 
the driest, summer and winter being intermediate. 

Prof. Tyndall says :% 

Without quitting Europe we find places where, while the day 
temperature is very high, the hour before sunrise is intensely 
cold. I have often experienced this in the post-wagons of Ger- 
many; and I am informed that the Hungarian peasants, if 
exposed at night, take care, even in hot weather, to protect them- 
selves by heavy cloaks against the nocturnal chill. 

All this evidence should be sufficient to convince the most 

1 Livingston’s Travels, p. 575. 

2 Quoted by Tyndall, 

_ 8 Discourse on radiation through the Earth’s Atmosphere. 


1878. ] The Beneficial Influence of Plants. 807 


skeptical that aqueous vapor furnishes a very effectual barrier to 
terrestrial radiation. 

he tropical torrents can be accounted for by the property 
vapor has to absorb and radiate heat, thereby condensing the 
vapor raised from the equatorial regions through the direct rays 
of the sun. But it is only the upper strata of the vapor bed cov- 
ering the surface of the earth, which by radiating into open 
space produces the effect above stated. Owing to the same 
quality may be explained the formation of cumuli; the theory of 
sereim, or the falling of the exceedingly fine rain shortly after 
sunset in the fine season. These and many other meteorological 
phenomena receive their sqlution from the development of this 
property of aqueous vapor. Every one will readily acknowledge 
that a question affecting so materially important sciences as the 
one under consideration, should be quite definitely settled, and it 
is for this reason that so much stress, by way of testimony, has 
been here placed upon it. 

Admitting then that the vapor in the air does, by the property 
above discussed, influence numerous climatic conditions,’ the 
sources of this vapor certainly should claim a larger share of 
attention. 

Nature’s chief means of furnishing this moisture is through 
vaporization from the ocean, especially in the tropics; but many 
tracts of country inland, or even near the great seas, do not, for 
some reason, contain sufficient moisture. Now, if by any means 
at our command we can assist nature in supplying this very 
essential substance, it would be well worth our endeavors. Here 
the question presents itself, “ Is there any connection, all things 
considered, between the proportion of moisture in the air and 


forest growth?” This question has been the subject of a great’ 


deal of discussion among able scientists, and we believe the bal- 
ance of argument is in favor of the theory that there is a relation- 
ship existing between vegetation and the humidity of the air. 
The writer hopes he may have been successful in showing that 
a large proportion of the atmospheric vapor may be accounted 
for through the process of transpiration from plant life, that is, 
where there exists a fair percentage of woodland, say from 
twenty-five to thirty per cent.; so that now the above query may, 
we think, be answered in the affirmative. Under these circum- 
stances the practice of forest culture as a means of improving 
atmospheric conditions, cannot be too highly commended. 


808 The Maple-Tree Bark-Louse. [ December, 


MODES OF SPREADING AND MEANS OF EXTIN- 
‘ GUISHING THE MAPLE-TREE BARK-LOUSE. 


BY EMILY A. SMITH. 


N the October number of the AMERICAN NATURALIST I gave the 

life history of Lecantum acericorticts Fitch, and now conclude 

with the modes of spreading and the best artificial means of de- 
stroying the insect. 

The disposition of the female to remain upgn the same tree 
throughout its entire existence renders the modes of spreading 
from tree to tree incidental to outside influences. They are con- 
veyed from one locality to another by the transportation of the 
trees while the females are upon the limbs, and are so nearly the 
color of the tree itself that without a magnifier are easily over- 
looked. The waxy mass exuded by the female in which she 
deposits her eggs, contains a sweet substance which is much 
sought after by various species of flies and wasps. When the 
young insect emerges from the egg, the tendency is to wander 
about for a time before settling upon the leaves, and the presence 
of the wasps and flies upon the tree in search of food at this time 
attracts the young lice and they attach themselves to their hairy 
legs and are thus conveyed to other trees. The wind and rain 
detach the egg-mass from the limb and convey it to otier locali- 
ties while the eggs are yet within. 

The Z. acericorticis are kept somewhat in subjection by the aid 
of the natural enemies and parasites found preying upon them; 
but when they increase beyond the power of these friends of ours 
to control them, artificial means must be resorted to. 

The experience of the past summer differs from that formerly 
known in that the insects were found upon all parts of the tree 
instead of remaining upon the lower branches as was heretofore 
supposed. They are thus made more difficult to reach. When 
the lice are first hatched they are very small and delicate. A 
wash containing an alkaline solution applied at this time is suffi- 
cient to destroy them. I found that by attaching a wire bag to 
a common sprinkling hose, filling the bag with soft soap and 

turning on the water, a soap-suds was formed which would at 
once kill the insects; the scarcity of the water system in small 


cities renders this olad impracticable, and experiments led to one 
o plan, easily attained by all, and which proved successful the past 


1878. ] Recent Literature. 809 


The. plan recommended is as follows: Charge a fire extin- 
guisher in the usual manner with bi-carbonate of soda and sul- 
phuric acid ; add to the water one spoonful of crude carbolic acid 
to every eight gallons of water. Apply this to the tree and the 
force from the extinguisher will convey the fluid to all parts’ of 
the tree alike ; the disposition of the insects to settle upon the 
lower surface of the leaf and limb serve to further this plan. Two 
applications should be made upon the same tree; the first, three 
weeks after first deposition of eggs, and the second, four weeks 
from the first application. If the work is delayed the insects 
become strong and the strength of the solution must be increased, 
which would be liable to injure the tree itself. The actual cost 
is not exceeding twenty cents an application, which is trifling 
compared to the cost of replacing the tree. That the experiment 
may prove successful it is necessary to make the work thorough 
throughout a locality, since ina short time they return from the 
infested trees. 

Examining the male Z. acericorticts since my previous article, 
I find my doubts confirmed with reference to the non-existence 
of the two halters or balancers in the place of lower wings. 
After close examination with a high power and living specimens, 
I fail to find them, and conclude that in this species they do not 
exist, or if at all, in a rudimentary state. 

M. V. Signoret states that when the male Lecanium is prepared 
to come out it lifts that membrane which rests slightly fixed by 
the head end. Observation with this species shows this is not 
reliable with all Lecanta. When the male of this species is 
about to emerge from the larval scale, it backs out with the wings 
closely adhering to the body. The empty scales will, upon ex- 
amination, be found closely attached to the leaf or limb at the 
head end, while at the opposite end it is loosened. 


:0: 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


MACALISTER'’S ZOULOGY OF THE VERTEBRATES.! — This little 


-manual is chiefly concerned with the morphology of the classes 


and orders of vertebrate animals, with slight, condensed references 
to their habits, physiology and classification, but with no chapters 


$ treating of their et ads E distribution, or geological suc- 


1 Zoblogy of je Verlebrate Beco By ALEX. MACALISTER, M.D. Specially 
“Aner for American Students, by A ‘s. PACKARD, Jr., M.D, Ne ew York, ey 
Holt & Co., 1878. co tan wee oir 


810 Recent Literature. [ December, 


cessors, or their relations to lower forms of life, or to their envi- 
ronment; nor is anything said regarding the mode of develop- 
ment of these animals. However, as a compact, concise, clearly 
written and useful manual of the morphology of vertebrates, it 
is well adapted for the use intended by the author, viz: “ To 
present in as clear a form as possible the leading characters of 
vertebrate animals.” As such we recommend its use in colleges 
and high schools, and to the general reader, though in these days 
the latter class of book buyers desire, as a rule, a book com- 
bining morphology and biology, with general views of the rela- 
ion of animals to their surroundings, as well as their relations to 
fossil forms. It should, however, in justice be said, that all this 
could not be contained in a book of the size of the present one. 

While we have no fault to find with the matters of detail, we 

ould suggest that in the light of recent discoveries, it is old- 

fashioned and oo to regard the fourteen groups of 
carinate birds as “ order 

The wood-cuts are aaf well selected subjects, and are, with 
scarcely an exception, excellent, while the paper, press-work an 
binding render this little hand-book, like others of the series, 
both attractive and convenient, 


FOSTER AND LANGLEY’S ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY.’ — 
This well known book, so useful to students of anatomy, histol- 
ogy and physiology, has passed to a third edition, which differs 
from the preceding one chiefly by the introduction of a lesson on 
the structure of the ear, and by some additions to the lessons on 
the connective tissues. As it now stands the ‘book is indispen- 

sable for medical students, and for biologists who have used 
Huxley and Martin’s Biology and desire to extend their studies to 
histology and physiology. Its extensive use among natural’sts is 
most desirable, to draw them away from “ skin and bone” as well 
as systematic zoology, to a study of the living organism, and thus 
ultimately to the more general relations of animals to each other 
and their environment. 


IHERING’S PERIPHERAL NERVE-SYSTEM OF Vertesrates.*—This 
elaborate essay treats of the following subjects: The per ipheral 


vertebrates and invertebrates; a general phylogeny of the 
peripheral nerve-system and the formation of regions of 
the vertebral column. The chapters on these subjects are fol- 
lowed by a special account of these nerves in the different 
1A Course % yrn Practical Physiology. By M. FOSTER, M.D., F.R.S 
assisted by J. N. Langley, B.A. Third edition. London, Macmillan & Co. ” S78 
12mo, pp. 276. i 
_ * Das Peripherische Nervensystem der ponen als Grundlage für die Kenntniss 
o AE en tag f Wirbelsäule. Von HERMANN VON IHERING. Mit 5 tafeln 
oa 36 holzsch nituen. Leipzig, Verlag von Fc W, Vogel, 1878. 4'0, pp- 238- 


1878. ] —— Recent Literature. 81 


classes of vertebrates. Regarding segmentation in vertebrates as 
PROSET me invertebrates, our author considers the body-seg- 
of a vertebrate not as a single organ, but as the combination 
of a a neuromere arising from the ectoderm with the scleromere 
and myomere arising from the mesoderm, which arise indepen- 
dently of each other and are not in any way to be taken together. 
Such an antithesis between the neuromere and the other organ- 
segments do not exist in the segments of the Articulates. lher- 
ing also expresses the opinion that Semper’s revival of the hy- 
pothesis of Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Treviranus is a matter rather 
of personal convictions than a subject for scientific discussion. 
This hits the on the head. He also shows that in vertebrates 
the new segments of vertebrates, in early life, are terminal ; 
while the new A of articulates are interpolated between 
the penultimate and terminal segments o e law 
for articulates is not new to American ses though ay 
German and Swiss authorities are quoted in the present work. 


THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF AMERICAN CRETACEOUS DINO- 
SAURS.—Prof. Marsh, in the November number of the American 
Journal of Science and Arts, gives an account of the characters 
of several genera of saurians from.the Rocky Mountain region. 
This paper gives us. for the first time, the characters of their ilium 
and the mode of its junction with the pubis and ischium, and the 
structure of the feet and of the axis vertebra, all points of great 
value to comparative anatomy and palæont ology. He also extends 


already determined in nearly allied forms. e proposes for 
them all a new division of the p esis which he terms Satro- 
foda, with the following definition : (1) Fore and hind limbs 
nearly equal in size. (2.) Carpal and tarsal bones distinct. (3.) 
Feet plantigrade, with five bes on each foot. (4.) The precau- 
dal vertebrzee contain large cavities apparently pneumatic. a. 
The neural arches are united to the centrum by suture. (6.) Th 

sacral vertebrae do not exceed four, and each supports its own 
transverse process. (7.) The chevrons have free articular 
extremities. (8.) The pubes unite in front by ventral symphysis. 
(9.) The third trochanter is rudimentary or wanting. (10) The 
limb bones were without medullary cavities. 

We remark, with reference to the above definition, that it embod- 
ies the characters of a well-marked division of reptiles, but that 
many of the characters given do not have such significance ; or, 
in other words, do not possess the value which Prof. Marsh 
attaches tothem. Thus, while some of them should be retained, 
Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7 and 10 must be rejected. 

An important improvement over his previous essays is notice- 
able inthis one, in thatthe author gives a definition for the only new 
genus proposed, viz: Diplodocus, which is, therefore, a real addi- 

1 See Packard’s Guide to the Study of Insects. 


812 ` Recent Literature. [ December, 


tion to scientific .nomenclature. But, on the other hand, Prof. 
Marsh does not deviate, throughout this paper, from his usual 
habit of ignoring the work of contemporary naturalists.' We cite 
the following instances: The division called by Marsh Sauropoda, 
was named by Owen, thirty-seven years ago, the Opisthocæla, 
and more recently by Seeley, the Cetiosauria (the latter name 
without definition). Several genera of the group have been deter- 
mined by other authors, of which no mention is made, while new 
names are given them. ‘Such is Caulodon, which at a later date is 
termed MMJorosaurus ; and Camarasa from which Adanto- 
saurus of later origin has never been distinguished, e name 
Apatosaurus, introduce as “describe by the writer,’ is an 
equally unknown quantity in palzontology.2 The various des- 
criptions of the characters of the limb and pelvic bones, and of 
the skeleton in general, are all given as though new, the recogni- 
tion of work“done by others, usually thought indispensable in 
scientific literature, being quite omitted. A reference is made, 
however, to the early determination of the age of the beds in 
which some of these fossils were found by Dr. Hayden and Prof. 
Cope, as erroneous ; but the author fails to notice the later views 

of Prof. Cope, in which he corrected both Prof. Marsh’ and the 
determinations which were made before him. 

MEEHAN’S NATIVE FLowers AND FeErns.A—We are glad to 
notice the increasing number and value of our popular works of 
natural history. Such handbooks have long been common in 
England and on the Continent, but somehow we, in America, 
have not had them. Works like these, however, seem now to be 
much in demand. They undoubtedly have, when well conducted, 
an educational influence. The name of Mr. Meehan is a guar- 
antee for the excellence of the text. He gives a pleasant conver- 
sational account of each flower, and contrives at the same time to 
~ introduce much interesting scientific matter, which may lead the 
réader to personal research. Herein lies the value of these illus- 
trated manuals. He who comes to them for amusement may 
tarry for information. One part is to be issued every two weeks, 
and will contain four colored plates. Mr. Alois Lunzer has here 
Seas very satisfactory work. Indeed, we are at a loss to see 

oie’ Messrs. Prang & Co. can furnish so much for so small a 
; the price of each part is but fifty cents, while both letter- 
. saia and plates are elegant. A somewhat familiar acquaintance 


1An apparent exception, is that of a distinguished English paleontologist, who is 
noticed in a foot note, but his precise service, that of the oo of the struc- 


_ ture of the pelvis in Iguanodon, is unfortunately not spec 


- ?I note here that the pre pas new genus of ees Bais noticed by Prof. 

Marsh as derived from the same beds, is in a mis rly unsatisfactory condition, not 
the least ground for,its creation having been g a 

8 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1877, p. 234. 

ae ae ne: e Flowers and Ferns. By THOMAS MEEHAN. Boston, L. Prang & 
0., 1975. : 


1878.] Recent Literature. 813 


with our wild flowers in most of their moods, makes us critical in 
a few instances as regards shades of color. But where there is 
so much that is excellent, the office of fault-finder is gratuitous. 
We especially commend the drawings of Pachysandra laap ka 
and Folypodium incanum. In still another respect t new s 


ought certainly to succeed.— W. 


TAYLor’s Frowers.!— This little book which, in about six 
months, has passed into a second edition in England, should be 
better known in this country. The author has, with great skill, 
presented in a popular form the most recent results of botanical 
research. In so doing he has not fallen into the habit, all too 
common, of theorizing for himself or poetizing for others. He 
is in full sympathy with modern thought, and in his opening 
chapter on the old and the a a ee T states his 


position. He shows that the e has gone by when man is to 
hold that the beauty of eni. or their useful or noxious T 
ties were designed in reference to him alone; that it is a noble 


conception, and one, moreover, sustained by facts, that they are 
contrived in subservience to their own needs and their special 
environment. This chapter in itself is a most delightful Esh 
In it reference is made to the researches of Darwin, Mülle 

Bates, Bell and others upon cross-fertilization by insects ad 
humming birds. The author is well read in the literature of his 


ture and their relations to their surroundings. The colors, shapes, 
perfumes and defences of flowers, all have. appropriate treatment 
in special chapters, and it is impossible in a short notice to con- 
y a the reader an adequate idea of the vast amount ‘of infor- 
n here condensed into accessible shape. The very latest 
data fea the Challenger and the British Arctic Expeditions are 
incorporated. To add to the merits of the volume, it is superbly 
printed, and iliietratéd with 32 colored figures by Sowerby, 
together with 161 woodcuts. 
Says the author: “ Every day we are proving that ‘ man liveth 
not by bread alone’; and that sunny blue skies, laughing streams, 
and flower-bedecked fields are Er of ao and even spiritual 


the horizon, and is each day becoming more manifest to us. 
clearer conception of Creational Power and Wisdom must naturally 
spring from more correct ideas of the laws by which the Life of 
our planet originated, and which still continue to govern it.” 
In conclusion, this is a book which we would gladly put into 
1 Flowers; their origin, shapes, perfumes and colors. By J. E es cone, Ph.D., 
F.L.S., etc. Second edition. London, Hardnicke & Bogue, 1878. 16 


' Recent Literature. | December, 


814 
the hands of the young. It will, we think, stimulate to observa- 
tion and even to original research. If it does no more, it must 
surely lead to correct and logical views of the facts of nature. It 
will make a good Christmas gift for thinking boys, and will afford 
them healthy and inspiring recreation. When saying this, 
however, we do not desire to convey the idea that it is in any 
sense a “ boys’ book.” It offers as rich entertainment for the 


adult—_W. W. B 


FLEMING’S GEOGRAPHY OF THE CANADIAN Pacific RAILWAY. — 
This report is of particular interest as giving a résumé of the 
knowledge recently acquired regarding the physical geography 
of British Columbia and the interior of British Ameri 
map, showing various projected lines of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 

way, is a compact presentation of existing . knowledge of this 
region, and is consequently of much use to American students. 


hy ao aerie aia Hired —Pacific Coast Lepidoptera, No. 26. Desc 
of t s of diu By Henry Edwards. (From the Preven 
D the California pone ot oe g ek es 17th, 1877.) ies 
Sketch of the Life and Scientific Work of Prof. Charles Fred. Har By Richard 


R thbun. (Read before the Boston Society of Natural History, April 17th, 1878.) 
8vo, pp. 26. 


Remarks of Robert E. C. Stearns before the California Academy of Sciences on 
the Resignation and Farewell of Vice-President Henry Edwards, August roth, 
1878. 8vo, pp. 3 

Surveys by the War Department. Letter from the Secretary of War in response 
i oa Resolution of the House of Representatives giving information concerning the 

rveys conducted by the Department in the ina ten years. Washington, May, 
1878, 8vo, pp. 8, and map. 

oi on Be Insect and other Animal Forms of Caledonia Creek, New York. 
By J. A. Lintner. (From the Tenth Report of the New York State Commissioners 
ot Fisheries, Kocit 1878.) 8vo, pp. 26, 3 plates 

On the Willemoesia Group of Crustacea. By C. Spence Bate. (Vrom the Annals 
and Mazazine of Na ural History, for October, 1878.) Read at the meeting of the 
British Association, at Dublin, August Hi 1878, 8vo, pp. I1, I pla 

Neue exotische Hesperidae. Besc H. B. Méschler (Au s den Ver- 
hindlungen der k. k. ae caches Gesellschatt i in Wien, oeii 1878, 
besonders abgedruckt.) 8vo, 


On the Mineralogy of Nevada. vt W. g ae M. D. SNET ae = 
Balletin of the Survey. Vol. iv, No. 3, D partment - the Interior. 7, Hay 
. Gevlogist-in- Charge. Wato Pily 39 878.) 8vo, pp. I 


On the Nauplius Stage of Prawns. By C. Spence Bate. (From the Annals and 


Magazine of Natural History for July, 1878.) 8vo, pp. 


Die prahistorischen Kupfers pens Nordamerikas. Von Dr, Emil Schmidt in 


Essen a. d. Ruhr. (Hierzu Taf. iv, v, vi.) 4to, pp. 42, 3 Plates. 


_ Journal of the American Geograph cal Society of New York, 1875, 76, Vols. vii 
and viii. Albany, 1878. 8vo 


ae i Acemasion Pacific Railway. SANDFORD FLEMING, C. M. G. Engineer in-Chief. 
Re aol 


eports Documents in reference to the location i ae line and a western ter- 


| tal arbor, aoe Ottowa, 1878, 8vo, pp. 104, 3 m 


1878. | Botany. 315 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY, 


VOLVOX GLOBATOR.—Although this minute organism has long 
been a favorite object for observation under the microscope, its 
rof: F. 


of a highly complicated structure, indicating its proper position 
in a comparatively high-class of Cryptogams, with a marked 
affinity, in some respects, to the Fucaceæ. It must, at all events, 
a be placed in Sachs’ class Odsporez. 
| he Volvox is a minute pale-green globule just visible to the 
naked eye, about one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter, rolling about 
rapidly in clear water, owing to the action of innumerable fine, 
transparent vibratile cilia with which the surface is studded 
These cilia are arranged in pairs, each pair belonging to a sepa- 
rate peripheral corpuscle or cell, each of which contains a green 
protoplasm-body, a minute starch-granule, a reddish brown “ eye- 
pot,” and one or two contractile vacuoles, the cilia being borne 
at the narrow hyaline end. Each is surrounded by a gelatinous 
envelope, which is pierced by a number of canals, all lying nearly 


protoplasmic interior. Since the canals of adjoinin 

respond, the corpuscles appear as if connected together by a net- 
| work of fine reticulations. The outer gelatinous wall of each 
cell is also perforated by two pores, through which the two vibra- 
tile cilia project into the surrounding water. These cells have, 
as far as is known, no reproductive function. Besides these non- 
l reproductive or sterile cells, each Volvox colony includes three 
] kinds of reproductive cells, non-sexual, male and female. The 
non-sexual reproductive cells, or parthenogonidia, are similar in 
4 structure to the sterile cells, but two or three times their size, t.e., 
rom .006 to .0og mm. in diameter. They multiply by repeated 
bipartition, this process having been followed by Cohn until the 
original cell has divided into sixteen. The young colony is sur- 


P 
cavity of the mother colony, each of its cells developing a pair 
of cilia; finally it escapes into the surrounding water. The usual 
number of parthenogonidia which thus develop into infant colo- 
l nies within the mother-colony is eight. The sexual reproductive 


the sexual generation forms the close of a larger or shorter series 
of non-sexual generations. Ihe female cells or gynogonidia 
are at first undistinguishable from the parthenogonidia, but are 

much more numerous, and very early form chlorophyll. They 


816 General Notes. [ December, 


have, at first, a frothy appearance from the formation of vacuoles, 
but afterwards appear to be filled with protoplasm. They soon 
become flask-shaped, their narrow end touching the periphery of 
the sphere, and the larger end hanging free into the cavity. When 
ready for impregnation they round themselves off into a spherical 
form, and may then be designated oospheres, each being envel- 
oped in a gelatinous membrane or oogonium. The androgonidia, 
or male cells, also contain chlorophyll; they divide but only in 
two directions, thus developing not into a sphere but into a plate 
of cells. They ultimately resolve themselves into a bundle of 
naked primordial cells, each consisting of an elongated body in 
which the chlorophyll has been transformed into a reddish-yellow 
pigment, and of a long colorless beak, to the base of which are 
attached two very long vibratile cilia, and where also is a red 
corpuscle or “ eye-spot.” The whole androgonidium may now 
be regarded as an antheridium enclosed in a gelationous envelope, 
each of the naked protoplasmic bodies being a mobile anthero- 
zoid or spermatozoid. The movements of the vibratile cilia 
eveutually cause the antheridium to break up, the separate anther- 
ozoids setting up a rapid independent motion within the gelatinous 
envelope of the antheridium, which they ultimately break through, 
and then move about rapidly in all directions within the cavity 
of the mother-colony. They assemble in large numbers round 
the odgonia, and some of them finally penetrate through the gelat- 
inous envelope of the latter, and coalesce with their protoplasmic 
contents or odspheres. The fertilized odsphere is now an oospore, 
and develops a new cell-wall, the epispore, which is at first 
smooth, but afterwards covered with conical elevations, giving a 
section of it a stellate appearance. A second perfectly smooth 
membrane, the endospore, is subsequently found within the first. 
The chlorophyll gradually disappears, and is replaced by an 
orange-red pigment dissolved in oil, so that the mature odspore, 
while still enclosed within the mother-colony, is of a light-red 


color, causing the red tinge which Volvox often presents, even to, 


the naked eye, at certain periods of the year. Soon after the 
= odspores reach maturity, the mother-colony breaks up, single 
cells escaping from the combination, and swimming about freely 
in the water; their further history is unknown. The oospores 
fall to the bottom and there hibernate. Their further develop- 
ment has only been observed by Cienkowski, who states that the 
contents of each spore break up into eight spheres which ulti- 
mately break out. 

_ Full details of these interesting processes, with admirable illus- 
trations, will be found in Cohn’s Beitraye zur Biologie der Pflan- 
zen, Vol. i, Heft 3.—A/lfred W. Bennett. 
~ A DOUBLE-FLOWERED CyPRIPEDIUM SPECTABILE.—In describing 

_ this flower it is viewed as it hangs on the stem in its natural position, 

having a right and a left side, the observer facing the open flower. 


1878. } Botany. oe 


The parts in their natural place are the outer sac, the lower sepal, 
the stigma and the two pollinia. The lower sepal i is broader than 
is usual, the stigma deeply two-lobed and twice the ordinary 
width, The right-hand pollen-mass is doubled, the third one 
standing at the apex of the angle made by the two ‘barren stamens. 
These stamens are of the ordinary size, and face each other at an 


remaining space. There are a sepal and two petals on the upper 
left side, and the same on the upper right, each part of the usual 
size. The natural flower is the left one to which the outer sac 
belongs. Itsright-hand petal is nearly vertical, where the upper se- 
pal naturally stands. The left petal of the right-hand flower stands 
directly behind this, and has grown by one edge to the edge of 
the upper or invotucral leaf, which in turn is grown by the re- 


. mainder of the same margin to the ovary, so as to be adherent 


all the way from the base of the ovary to the top of the petal. 

The ovary is enlarged, one-celled, with four parietal placente ; 
some of the placentz are uncommonly broad, and are probably ` 
doubled, though so woe connected as not to be distinguished. 
One sac is contained in the other, but entirely free, and readily 
drawn out. . The inner sac Tia to the right- hand flower, its 

claw being a little to the left of that of the outer. Though con- 
tained in the outer, it is really larger when inflated, being crum- 
pled as it is packed away. The flowers are large, the sacs being 
two inches long. 

From the position of the parts, which were carefully compared 
with fresh specimens of the single flower, itis probable that this 
monstrosity arose from two buds, starting from the same point of 
the stem, and adhering by their inner faces, those parts only be- 
ing doubled in reality, for which room for development was 
found, the doubling of the rest being disguised in the enlarged 
parts that represented them. ost of the specimens I have ex- 


Lake Co., Ind: have since been told that it is not unusual to 
find these double eb eis Lady’s Slippers, though it is the first 


that has come un my observation, or that of any of my bo- 
tanical friends to aa I have mentioned it.—£. F. Hill. 


A New VARIETY oF CAMPANULA ROTUNDIFOLIA L.—While jak se 


lecting plants in the northern part of Michigan the past summer, _ 
I discovered a form of this plant that I do not find mentioned. 


It differs from the ordinary forms in being densely pubescent, or 


hoary with short, reflexed hairs, at least on the lower part of the- 
stem and leaves, some plants being smooth or somewhat so above. 


818 | General Notes. [ December, 


Usually the flower alone is smooth. The stems are generally 
stout and clustered, from one to two and a half feet high. There 
are often from eighteen to twenty flowers on a stem. This abun- 
dance of flowers seems to characterize nearly all of my speci- 
mens of C. rotundifolia gathered along the shores of Little and 
Gra s Synoptical Flora, our latest 
authority, the plant is said to be 1-9 flowered. Most of 
mine exceed this. One stem has thirty-two in different stages of 
growth. I propose for this variety the name C. rotundifolia var. 
canescens. It grows on sand hills at Indian river, near the out- 
let of Burnt lake, Sheboygan Co., Mich—£. F. Hill, Engle- 
wood, Ii. 

Mr. J. L. Bennett, of Providence, R. I., inferms us that a form 
exactly similar to this, save in the abundant flowers, is found in 
Greenfield, Franklin Co., Mass. ; the amount of canescence differs 
very much, even in the same plants, some stems being very nearly 
smooth, while others are quite hoary; different portions of the 
same stem also varying greatly —W. W. B. 

EXTIRPATION OF A Prant.—Though attributed to Southern 

C 


paratively rarely met with in this region, and in many wide 
ranges has totally disappeared. Where hogs are kept, and are 
allowed to roam at large, as is usually the case in Florida, the 
plant, I am informed, is soon extirpated, those animals raven- 


territory without meeting a single Zamia. Its stem is rich in 
starch, and from it is made the coarser description of Florida 
arrowroot, Hence its attraction for the hog. Any one who has 
seen, as I have, the manner in which this animal attacks and up- 
roots so difficult a subject as the young saw-palmetto (Saba? ser- 
rulata R.and S.) can easily understand what short work it would 
make with the coontie. Belonging to the Cycadacce, its pinnate 
leaves and palm-like aspect. give the Zama a peculiarly orna- 
mental and attractive appearance, and its vanishing from so wide 
a field is much to be regretted. As Florida becomes more thickly 
settled, the total extirpation of the plant, except in its more - 
southern habitat, and where taken into cultivation, may prove to 
be a not unlikely event, from the caus? mentioned, and also from 
its use by man in manufacturing starch and arrowroot.—Henry 
Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 

Tue STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF CHARACE®.—In_ recent 
numbers of the London ¥ournal of Botany, Mr. A. W. Bennett 


and Prof. Caruel discuss this subject; both these botanists dis- 


senting from Sachs’s location of the Characee (in the fourth © 
edition of his Jahrbuch der Botanik) among the Carpospore@, 4 


b 
1878.] Botany. 819 


class of Thallophytes. Mr. Bennett points out that not only do 
the Characee differ from Thallophytes in the most essential 
points of structure of that class, viz: in possessing a distinct axis 
and branches; they do not, either. display the distinguishing char- 
acteristics of the Carposporeæ, viz: the formation, as the result 
of the impregnation of the female organ, of a sporocarp consisting 
of two essentially different parts, a fertile part and an envelope or 
pericarp which is not derived directly from the female organ. 
Mr. Bennett also calls attention to the fact that the term “ pro- 
embryo” has been misapplied by many writers to the structure 
which proceeds immediately from the germination of the spore 


displaying the phenomenon of alternation of generations. e 
term alternation of generations implies two distinct starting 
points in the life-history of the plant, impregnation and germina- 


ination. In Characee, almost alone among Cryptogams, the 
oospore or fertilized odsphere germinates immediately in the soil 
without the intervention of a non-sexual generation. Caruel, for 
reasons assigned in his new system of classification, to which we 
have already referred, insists on placing the Characee by them- 
selves as a primary group of the vegetable kingdom, under the 
name Seiti ka: pyara ae Phzenerogams and vas- 
cular Cryptog —A. W. Ben 


BOTANICAL isis —In a short paper by Dr. Ewart, on the Life- 
history of Bacterium ates and Micrococcus, the author regards it 
provisionally as distinct from Bacterium. His observations on 
eee termo, ss eereaty. with reference to the effects of desicca- 
tion, o erent temperatures and of ebullition will be of value. 
in future pers: Nk of like nature. Mr. Geddes and Dr. Ewart 
describe also in the Proceedings of the Royal Society the life-his- 
tory of Spirillum, and they conclude that “the forms described by 
various authors as Vibrio are nee either (1) Zigzag dividing 
Bacillus ; (2) slightly waved Bacillus; or (3) undeveloped Spiril- 


dix by T. Caruel, the editor. In men’s Journal of Botany, 
for October, J. B. Balfour describes some points in the morphol- 
ogy of Halophila, and G. S. Boulger contributes an article on the 
placenta of Prmulacee. The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 
ub, for tember, contains a list of plants introduced with 
ballast and on made land in Jersey City; Lists of gi Island 
and Staten Island and Rhode Island plants are also give 
Martindale contributes to the September number of the Botanical 


XU.—NO, XI 55 


820 General Notes. [December, 


Gazette, a notice of the occurrence of Orobanche minor in New 
Jersey. Dr. A. P. Garber writes in the October number of South 
Floridan ferns, while Mr. J. G. Lemmon writes in rather a gush- 
ing way of the big trees of California. 

ZOOLOGY. ! 

BREEDING HABits oF Corixa. — In Bulletin No. 1 of the 
Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, I called attention, 
three years ago, in a paper on the Crustacea of Illinois, to a 
breeding habit of Corixa, which seems to have escaped the notice 
of the entomologists ; and as my note has also been generally 
I repeat the observation 


selection, unless I wholly misunderstand the matter. 

In temporary ponds of this region, which fill up every spring 
and dry out in midsummer, Corixa alternata Say, is an abundant 
insect, and Cambarus immunis Hagen, is the commonest craw-fish. 
In seining some of these ponds, three years ago, in June and 
July, I noticed that the backs of many of the crawfishes were 
covered with a moss-like incrustation, which, upon examination 
proved to be the eggs of insects, stuck fast by one end as close 
together as they could be placed. Sometimes only a few would 
be found on a crawfish, and sometimes the upper surface would 
be nearly covered. They were just hatching when first observed, 
and it took but a little time to determine that they were unmis- 
takable Corixas. Careful search of the water weeds and other 
submerged objects failed to discover other eggs, and I was led to 
conclude that the Corixa purposely selected this remarkable 
place for oviposition. Since then I have found these eggs also 
on the shells of pond molluscs, and on the carapace of Cambarus 
acutus Gir., another wide-spread and common crawfish. : 

I can account for so strange a habit only by supposing that it 
is a “provision of nature” to guard against the waste of eggs 
otherwise resulting from the drying up of the ponds. The craw- 
fishes mentioned are distinctively aquatic species, and as one 
„pond dries up they migrate to another, or to a neighboring 

stream, bearing on their hospitable backs, as the shepherd bore 
(Edipus from impending destruction, the hopes of the distressed 
water bugs. this is a fixed habit of a species or variety, an 
not a local accident, it ought to be heard of elsewhere.—S. A. 
Forbes. 

SNAKEs AND Cop VıcTUALs.—Ít is a popular notion that ser- 
pents never eat what has been killed by any agency except their 
own; and, though naturalists know this belief to be false, very 


-few of the one hundred and thirty-two species of North Ameri- 


can serpents have been proved by actual observation to have 


a à eaten any animal which they have not captured alive. 


iThe A ETTET of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
uEs, U.S.A.” ; : : 


el gl el aoe) BSS se Oey ee Pe El ree Pe Be 
biel es eih ri ate its eos be le f 


1878.] Anthropology. 821 


As the common black snake, B. constrictor, is not, to my know- 
ledge, among the number sgh accredited with a propensity 
for cold victuals, an account o ack snake’s dinner whic 
recently came under my observation may pe of some interest to 
those EE oie incline 


could see undue of the dead snake left there the day previous, 
I immediately suspected the one inside his constrictorship to be 
ing the garter snake this proved to be the 


head and body. ‘The length of the black snake was a little short 
of three and a half feet, and that of his dinner, twenty-two 
inches.—/, W. Cragin. 


KUNK EATEN BY TURKEY-BUZZARDS.—Some years ago, while 
residing in Chester county, Penna., having set a steel-trap fora 
ground-hog (Maryland marmot), I found a large skunk caught by 
a leg. Though a very unwelcome prize, there seemed no alterna- 
tive “but to kill it, which was done. This was about 8 o’clock in 
the morning; immediately a number of turkey-buzzards com- 
menced their usual gyrations over the dead body, and by 10 
o'clock nothing remained of the unsavory animal but its well 
piskad skeleton.— William Kite. 

ANTHROPOLOGY .! 
A VESSEL OF GLAZED POTTERY TAKEN FROM A TUMULUS IN 
FrLortpa.—The_ peculiar, egg-shaped vessel surmounted with 
bulbous-shaped mouth, a description of which is here given, 


was found, associated with some much-decayed human bones, 
and a single arrow soniye chipped Se reddish flint, in a burial 
mound near the south shore of Santa Fe Lake, Florida. The 


color of this Gagne piece of sit is a dull shade of buff or 


drab. It is formed of yellowish clay, like that found in the neigh- 


borhood, perhaps mingled with marl; but without any admixture 
of crushed stone or shells being used in its construction. Its 
height is eleven paleo and its “greatest exterior diameter 8.40 
inches. It weighs six pounds, and holds over one gallon of 
liquid, or exactly four and one-third quarts, being perfectly water 
tight. Its base is too rounded to permit of its standing without 
support. The peculiarity of its construction is that it is built 
spirally from the bottom upward with one continuous cylinder or 
rope of clay, giving the vessel a ribbed or corrugated surface ; 

there being twenty-four rounds or circuits of the cylinder. The 
entire inside is glazed with a decided but somewhat thin 


„glazing of a pale yellowish tint. The bulbous-shaped mouth is | 


‘Edited by Prof. Oris T. Mason, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 


822 General Notes. [ December, 


also covered on the outside with a coating of the same prepara- 
tion, which extends for the depth of about one inch below the 
neck, over which is a second and thicker coating of glaze of a 
cream color with greenish cast. With this exception the outside 
is unglazed. In applying the glazing, some of the material has 
streamed down the side of the vessel, which is also spotted in 
several places with drops of the vitreous substance. The glazing 
is in an excellent state of preservation, though marked with the 
reticulation of fine cracks such as may be seen in even 
modern pottery when it has been in use for a considerable length 
of time. The entire workmanship of the specimen is of a much 
rougher and ruder character than the fact of its being glazed 
would imply. On the outside, at a point 2.30 inches below the 
contracted neck, occurs an annular indentation, the greatest 
diameter of which measures 0.54 inch, its least diameter being 
0.52 inch. This, which, with the exception of the border of 
glazing around the neck, is the only attempt at anything like 
ornamentation in this piece of pottery, has some indication of 
being the personal stamp or brand of the maker. : 

It is believed th-t this is the first vessel of glazed pre-historic 
pottery taken from a mound in Florida, or perhaps from one in 
any other part of the United States, or at least the first east of the 
Rocky Mountains, of which any account has been given. Wyman 
makes no mention of such, though he speaks of having “ found 
indications that some at least of the vessels were made by coiling 
up long cylinders of clay, and afterwards pressing and welding 
them together.” Dumont, in his elaborate account of the manu- 
facture of pottery by the Indians of Louisiana, though accurately 
describing the forming of vessels by spirals made with cylinders 
of clay, is silent as to glazing. And so also with other writers. 
Some, indeed, make mention of glazing; but it is evident from 
their own explanations that simply a polishing and painting of 
the articles is meant, and not the vitreous coating to which the 3 
term in general is understood to apply. ae 

It only remains to say that it is probable that the glaze on this 
peculiar vessel was produced by the use of salt. At least it is not 
of a calcareous nature, the test of acid failing to provoke effer- 
vescence. 

Since writing the foregoing, my attention has been called by 
Mr. E. A. Barber to his interesting account in the AMERICAN 
NATURALIST for August, 1876, of the Pueblo pottery of the Far 
West, some of which is finely glazed, and which is found scat- 
tered over the surface of the country for hundreds of miles, though 
chiefly in the vicinity of the old mural ruins. A comparison of a 
this highly advanced and probably much more modern pottery 

_ with the vessel here described, taken from an ancient mound io | 
_ Florida, is not without its suggestiveness. Particularly is this the 
case from the fact that it is known that the modern Pueblo Indians 


aes? 


vgs 
Ui AU et eas a Th E E a ook ans 


1878.] Anthropology. 823 


construct pottery by es te cylinders of clay, as has been 
above described in the c the Florida potte though Mr. 
Barber states that they | have lost the art of glazin 


the St. Louis meeting of the American Association, August, 
1878.— Henry Gillman, Waldo, Florida. 


AN INDIAN BurIAL—FuUNERAL CEREMONIES AT LOWER LAKE, 
CALIFORNIA.—A fter the grave (a round hole of about five feet in 
diameter and the same in depth) had been prepared under a brush 
house, adjoining the cabin of the dead Indian, the body was care- 
fully carried out in a blanket and quilt, and placed alongside the 
opening. The medicine man then began the funeral rites, which, 
in part, consisted of blowing a small whistle, and the shaking and 
rattling of split sticks, which made a peculiar noise like nothing 


e 
dead, and exhorted the living. is language was accompanied 
with expressive gestures. He pointed to the sky, to the ground, 
to each of the four cardinal points, and, finally, into the grave it- 
self, conveying the idea that after we had lived and enjoyed the 
things of this world, and wandered far and near over the earth, the 
time would come when a final separation of body and spirit must 
take place; and while the spirit ascended to regions above, the 
body must go into the ground and remain there, at least for a 
time. He then took the small whistle used by him and placed it 
in the mouth of the body, after which, with closed eyes and up- 
lifted hand, he engaged in an invocation of some kind. 

At the close of this, Rosa, the wife of the dead man, came from 
the house and cast herself full length upon the body. She re- 
moved the covering from Joe's breast, and, after she had laid her 
head upon it the covering was replaced, and her voice could be 
heard in low tones, as if bidding the departed a last farewell. 
After this a feather bed was brought out from the house and laid 
in the grave, the body was placed upon it in a half-sitting posi- - 
tion; his gun, hat, shoes, some food, a basket containing silver 
coin, Indian money, beads, and feathers, were also put in with 
him. On top of all-was thrown a straw bed. Rosa again began 
her lamentations, and, with a loud scream, tried to no — 


‘into the grave, but was withheld by a stout young 


held her in her arms until the grave was filled. The Gest ie 
handsful of dirt were thrown into the grave by the squaws; the 


men, then, with shovels, filled it up. After the dirt had been re- | 
laced, one of the squaws, with her hands, smoothed it over and 

obliterated all the tracks made by the workers. The medicine 

man ane circles the grave three times, stopping each time a the 


Ea 


824 General Notes, [December, 


cardinal points, turning completely around, and finished by blow- 
ing the breath from his nose and mouth upon it. 

Before digging the grave a number of chickens belonging to 
the dead man were killed and placed at intervals around the spot 
selected for sepulture, ať a distance of twenty-five or thirty feet 
from it. The body was clothed with a new shirt and pantaloons, 
the forehead and eyes covered with a badge made of white beads, 
and a crown, or head-dress, of feathers above all. The cries and 
lamentations of the women were so plaintive, and their grief 
seemed so sincere, that there were but few dry eyes among the 
white bystanders who had come to see the last of old Joe Potoke. 
Before the company of mourners left the ground everything be- 
longing to Joe was brought out from the house and broken up. 
Dishes, cooking utensils, knives and forks, buckets, and furniture 
sharing the same fate.— Lower Lake (Cal) Bulletin. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL NEws.—The second number of the Ameri- 
can Antiquarian, edited by the Rev. S. D. Peet, contains the fol- 
lowing articles: A Comparison of the Pueblo pottery with Egypt- 
ian and Greek ceramics, by Edwin A. Barber; Traditions of the 
Deluge among the tribes of the Northwest, by Rev. M. Eells; 
Description of an Engraved Stone by John E. Sylvester, M.D.; 
Prehistoric Ruins in Missouri; Gleanings, by S. S. Haldeman; 
Sketch of the Klamath Language, by Albert S. Gatschet ; 
The location of the Indian tribes of the Northwest territory, 
by Stephen D. Peet; Remarkable Relics—Leaf Shaped Imple- 
ments, by Prof. M. C. Reid. The paper of Mr. Barber is pro- s~ 
fusely illustrated, and shows considerable reading, but surely 


no one acquainted with the evolution of the art idea on our 


continent supposes that the Egyptians had anything whatever to do , 
with it. With reference to Mr. Eells paper, and all ethnic stories 


_ of the same class, we shall have to Jay down this canon, “ As to 


matters of fact tradition is a tolerable guide to truth, while regard- 
ing matters of opinion it has no value whatever.” The engraved 


- 


1878.] Anthropology. 825 


names in all their forms, both autonymous and heteronymous, 
their linguistic affinities, the original location and the migrations, 
the etymology of the names, and the chief authorities. Judge 
Henderson, of Winchester, Il., read a paper before the American 
Association at St. Louis on the same subject. The notes are by 
Prof. E. A. Barber 

In noticing the Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody 
Museum in the November number of the NATURALIST, sufficient 
emphasis was not given to the fact that Prof. Putnam claims to 
have discovered in the earthwork on the Lindsley estate, a map 
of which accompanies his paper, the vestiges of an ancient set- 
tlement. The work was a fortified camp, the large mound the 
site of some large edifice, the small circular banks “the vestiges of 
are and the see mounds the oe of the dead. 

t gives us great pleasure to record that the paper of Col. 
Garrick Mallery, read before the Nashville ene of the Ameri- 
can Association is attracting the attention which it deserves. 
The author was detailed, some two years ago, to work upon 
Indian matters in the office of Major J. W. Powell, geologist in 
charge of the U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the 
Rocky Mountain region. His previous training in literary mat- 


led him to the conclusion that the former population had been 
greatly overestimated. Favorable notice has been taken of Col. 
Mallery’s work inthe British Association and in the Royal Society 
of London. Indeed, the question was seriously raised whether 
the conduct of the government in controlling its aboriginal popu- 


lation had not been too much influenced by the “ melting away ” 


doctrine. 

The Rev. M. Eells has published at Portland, Oregon, a small 

book of hymns in the Chenook jargon language. It cannot be 
too strongly impressed upon those who have the opportunity that 
we cannot have too much of this linguistic material. 
Jefferson in his “ Notes on Virginia,” p. 193, wrote: “ It is to Be 
lamented then, very much to be lamented, that we have suffered 
so many of the Indian tribes already to extinguish, without our 
having previously collected and deposited in the records of liter- 
ature the general rudiments at least of the languages they 
spoke.” : 

In the October number of the American Journal of Science and 
Arts, Mr. W. J. McGee has a paper on the Artificial Mounds of 


unit of measure in their erection. The author’s profession has 
furnished him with abundant opportunities of measuring mounds, 
and he seems to have made good use of them. It was long ago 
supposed that a common standard had been employed by those 
who erected the earthworks of Ohio. 


826 : General Notes. [ December, 


The Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society 
publishes, in No. 42, a paper by Col. Charles Whittlesey, entitled 
“ Rock Inscriptions in the United States—Ancient Alphabets of 
Asia.” 

In Vol. i, Part 1, of Proceedings of the Central Ohio Scientific 
Association, of Urbana, Ohio, we have another evidence of the 
growing interest in science which manifests itself in our Western 
States. The principal contribution is a Report of the Antiquities 
of Mad River valley, by Prof. Thos. F. Moses, Urbana University, 
accompanied by eight plates of illustrations. Another valuable 
contribution to the archeology of Ohio which has hitherto 
escaped our notice, is the Final Report of the Ohio State Board 
of Centennial Managers, published in Columbus in 18 

The following alphabet was prepared by Prof. Wm. D. Whit- 
ney to aid collectors in transliterating Indian vocabularies. The 
almost hopeless confusion in which the material already gathered 
is involved, is a sufficient motive for all writers on Indian lin- 
guistics to adopt it at once, or at least to show cause why they 
should not. The columns of this esos are open to criti- 
cisms upon the subject: 


a or , rene as in agile FONG Gm, haben 


a oră, shor » Fr. pas; nearly as in (Eng.) what, not. 
a, as in , man 
â, as in law, far, all. 
as, Fr. en in en, guand. 
a, as Fr. ¿n in vin, Agia iein, 
a, as Fr. o in on, son , 
ai, as in ‘aisle Gm. mein, iin n (Eng. ) pine, find. 
âi, as oi or oy in oil, boy. 
au, as ou or ow in out, h Gm. faus. 
; as in 6/ab, Gm. beben, Fr. belle 
of, nearly as 64 in cobhouse. 
bh, as Gm. w in schwer, zwei. 
c (or ae as ade in church, a , cielo, 
a, n dread, Gm. das, Fr. de. 
d, neatly as as dh in nar Set 
dh, as fh in then, with. 


eoré, long asin they, Gm. bee 
eoré, short as in then, Gm. ball Fr. sienne. 


Ti as in, fife, Gm. feuer, Fr. feu 

& in gig, Gm. z ss, Fr. gros 

p, early as gh in ne ouse 

gh, (aeerty as Arab. gain. ] 

Aes as in ha, he, hoot, ae, Gm. haben. i 
x, stronger re, aay 

hw, =r when 

hy, in 


ior?, long asin is Pie: Gm. thn, Fr. 
tor#, short as in Gm. will, Fr. tei aoa as in (Eng.) pick, thin. 
as in 
as in ick, Gm. kamm, Fr. quand, 
nearly as Bh in inkhorn 
as Gm. ch in ich, milch, kirche. 
as in Zui, Gm. /allen, Fr, lilie. 
as It. in moglie, an French briller. 
as in mum, Gm. m 


1878. ] Geology and Paleontology. 827 


n, as in zun, Gm. nonne, Fr. n 

f, as Fy in right 2 ea. singen 

ny, as Sp. # in ¢ , Fr. gv in régne. 

ooré, long as in note. 

oor 6, short as in (N. E.) Lome, Gm. soll, Fr. mot. 
Pp; as in pipe, Gm, ad td a m upe. 

DS; nearly as ff in tophea 

ph, as Gm, fin p 

gh, as Gm. cÅ in ach, ee: apy ao P jin hijo, 
f, as in roaring, Om? 

rh, uvular 

5, sins ue Fr. e, Gm. 

sh, as in rte ny Soke: Fr. pitts i 
2 as in frot, Gm. ¢refen, Fr. tâter. 

f, nearly as gi a ropes ead. 

th, thin 

u or ñ, longas in re sae, Ft, © n. du, Fr. 

u or ŭ, short as in pul, soon, oe nu ll, oi i, uile. 

a i a run, so bo od. 

ûn, as Fr. un in un, bru 

it, as in Gm. £iA/, ‘sem Fr. er 

v; as in valve, Gm. wenn, Fr. 

wW, as in wish, will, wayward, ‘nearly as Fr. oui. 
a as in you, year, Gm. 7 i 

IU, as u in use, pure, mew, feu np. 

2, as in zones, Gm. hase, Fr. zèle 

zh, as in azure, s in peed Fasten. Fr. juger. 


Foreicn.—The October number of the nn es 
of Paris, contains the following communicatio 
tumulus préhistorique de Buenos Ayres, aE M. E oaia 
Ceballos ; Etude sur les Soninkés (Sénégal), par le Dr. Bérenger- 
Féraud ; Le crâne des noirs de l'Inde (Tribu des Maravars) par 
M E Callamand ; Join sur les Bahnars (Cochin chine), par le 
Dr. A. Morice. Am ong the valuable reviews is the following in 
connection with the — — shy ee des 

sd’ 


générale, par M. P. Topinard; Rapport sur |’ethnologie, par MM. 
Girard de Rialle et Bordier; Rapport sur le Préhistorique, par 
MM. G. de Mortillet, E. Cartailhac, et E. Chantre ; Rapport sur le 
Démographie, par M. Cherv 


GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY. 


Tue MAN or THE PAMPEAN FormatTion.—The accompanying 
cut, for which, with the accompanying notes, we are indebted to 
Prof. Ameghino, of Mercedes, Buenos Ayres, exhibits a trans- 
verse section of the stream Frias, demonstrating the geological 
constitution of the strata at the point where the fossil man of- 
Mercedes was found, feces with a plan of the excavation mod 
in exhuming the remain 

The Frias flows through a horizontal plain of uniform geologi- 
cal structure; its depth is from 2 m. to 2.30 m., its bed being 


scooped out 'of the pampean strata. Number ‘| indicates the = 


828 General Notes. [ December, 


po 
CEAN 
bes 


WUD: 
ETEA BED of me FRIAS. 
Mi OGIE 


CENT, 
= : PETE aN 


T ae =, s 
TEN TAINING CALCAREOUS Nobvi tS — + 
TLL f. 7, EN 


ANG N ROM 
WHICH THE BONES 
OF FOSSIL MAN 


WERE TAKEN, 


water-level ; 2, is a thin layer of gravel as found in excavating on 
the right side of the stream, and which was material deposited by. 
the stream which it had washed from more elevated portions of 
its bed; number 3 is a layer of vegetable mold 10 cm. in thick- 
ness, which contains numerous bones of domestic animals intro- 
duced into the country since its occupation by Europeans; number 
4 is a stratum 40cm. in thickness,and contains the bones of animals 
indigenous to the country, and number 5 is a very clayey stratum 
20 cm. in thickness, and contains the bones of extinct species of 
animals, but in a poor state of preservation ; number 6 is a marly 
layer 30 cm. in thickness, in which the bones of the great 
extinct mammals, Mylodon, Glyptodon, etc., are found; number 7 
is 60 cm. in thickness, is not nearly so marly as the preceding, 
and also contains remains of extinct animals; number 8 is 55 
cm. in thickness, of a reddish color, and is composed exclusively 
of fine sand and clay mixed together. The stratum, number 9, 
which is more than 1.5 m. in thickness, is only distinguished from 
the preceding in that it contains a larger proportion of clay. In 
this layer of pampean soil, at the base of the excavation indicated 
in-the diagram, and at a lower level than the bed of the stream, 
there were human bones discovered, together with rudely-shape 
flints, apparently used in extracting the marrow from bones, a 
perforated femur of Eutatus, bones with incised and some with 
radiate markings and striz, fragments of burnt bones, fragments 
of burnt or baked earth and a great quantity of charred vegetable 
substances. In the same deposit, mingled with the objects men- 
tioned, there were also a great many bones of animals found, 
which indicated the following species: 

1. Hoplophorus ornatus (Owen). A great part of the carapace 


id some bones. 
2. /Hoplophorus sp. indet. A portion of the carapace and other 


ones. ; 
3. Skull and a large portion of the skeleton of Eutatus of a 
- hew species. 
= 4., Portion of the carapace and bones of a very small armadillo 
of an undetermined species. 


Efe eee eee ee 


1878. | Geology and Paleontology. 829 


5. The skeleton of Canis protalopex (Lund 
6. Bones of many individuals of Lagostomus angustidens Bur- 
meister. 
. Some bones of an undetermined species of horse. 
8. Teeth and bones of Cervus pampeus Bravard. 
and 10. Bones of many rodents of the genera Reithrodon 
= Hesporomys 
. A species of Dolichotis. 
a Bones of a carnivore, which Prof. Gervais thinks appertain 
to a young Machairodus. 
13. An ostrich [? Rhea] and many other bones belonging to 
undetermined species. 


THE THEROMORPHOUS REPTILIA.—A paper on this subject was 
read by Prof. Cope before the National Academy of Sciences 
at its recent meeting in New York, on November 7, 1878. e 
stated that he had determined that the scapular arch in the Pely- 
cosauria' consists of scapula, coracoid and epicoracoid, which 
form a continuum in the adult, in the same way as the three ele- 
ments of the pelvis in the same group form an os innominatum. 
He showed that the tibiale and centrale of the tarsus unite to 
form an astragalus, which has no movement on the tibia. The 
fibulare forms a calcaneum. The distal side of the astragalus 
presents two faces, one of which receives a large part of the 
proximal extremity of the cuboid. 

The structure of the scapular and pelvic arches was stated to 
be identical with that pr A described by Owen as belonging to 
the Anxomodontia. Severa ortant characters distinguish this 
group from the Pike. at the two together form an order 
which Prof. Cope thought would have, for the present at least, to 
be retained as distinct from the Rhynchocephatia, The characters 
of this order, with its two sub-orders were given as follow 

THEROMORPHA Cope. Scapular arch consisting at least of scap- 
ula, coracoid and epicoracoid, which are closely united., Pelvic 


en 
Limbs with the phalanges as in the ambulatory types. yen 


~The Rhynchocephalia. have no distal ischio-pubic symphysis, 
and apparently no epicoracoid-bone. They have an obturator 
h 


The order 7heromorpha was regarded by Prof. Cope as approx- 
imating the Mammalia more closely than any other division of 


1 See Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1878, p. 511 and 528. 


. 


§30 ; General Notes. [ December, 


Reptilia, and as probably the ancestral group from which the lat- 
ter were derived. This approximation is seen in the scapular 
arch and humerus, which nearly resemble those of the Mono- 
tremata, especially Echidna; and in the pelvic arch, which Owen 
has shown in the Axomodontia to resemble that of the Mammals, 
and as Prof. Cope pointed out, especially that of Echidna. The 
tarsus is also more mammalian than in any other division of rep- 
tiles. In the genus Dimetrodon the coracoid is smaller than the 
epicoracoid, as in Monotremes. The pubis has the foramen for 
the internal femoral artery. 

The discovery of the Pe/ycosauria established the important 
fact that the first land Vertebrata possessed a chorda dorsalis. 

A species of Dimetrodon was described under the name of D. 
cruciger. It is characterized by the enormous length of the neu- 
ral spines of the lumbar vertebrae, which form the dorsal fin seen 
in other species of the genus. They are found in masses adhering 
together like sticks or branches of bushes. In this species the 
spine sends off, a short distance above the neural canal, a pair of 
opposite short branches, forming a cross. At various more ele- 
vated positions there are given off tuberosities which alternate 
with each other. They form on several consecutive spines 
oblique rows. The spines are broadly oval in section, the long 
axis antero-posterior, and have a shallow groove on both the 
anterior and posterior aspects. The centra are elongate as com- 
pared with their other diameters, and are much compressed 
between the articular extremities, leaving a strong inferior median 
obtuse rib. Articular faces of zygapophyses oblique. Diapophy- 
ses short and robust, with large costal faces, and standing below 
the prezygapophyses. 


MEASUREMENTS. M. 
METO POSTEO. ....cceccceccersecsecsresnsessres 043 
Diameter of centrum { vertical at end SiG owen te vee oy aS 
transverse at ebd. osios, ees ck Semen hele rAr .030 
Elevation of posterior zygapophyses above centrum........+-+- Seis ON <4! 1025 
F *¢ cruciform process s A A TN .058 
Expanse of posterior zygapophyses..........cccseeecseescccasstenenscts pars 
n * crucifo e E (eee bee aes a a wens -O4 
: F SMLELO-POStETION. oe occ ca cess s+ esse wee oes -030 
Diameter of spine at base vay post 020 
inaa e E a nes cere sen 
antero-postericr.... sss sses sesers eoes o 
7 «u „O9Ö above bas 
2 oS Sy tranaverse ao ey ne a .o16 
Length of several pieces of neural spines.......-c00.- eee e cree ee eeneeree -140 


Discovery oF Recent GLACIERS IN WyoMING.—It was not known 
until Guring the past season that genuine glaciers existed within 
the limits of the United States, east of the Pacific coast, but last 
summer as two of the divisions of the Geological Survey under my 
_ charge were exploring the Wind River mountains in Wyoming Ter- 

ritory, we found living glaciers on the east side of the range. On 
the east base of the Wind River peak, which is at the south end 
of the range, there is a mass of snow and ice, goo yards long an 


1878.] Geology and Paleontology. 831 


500 wide, with all the elements of atrue glacier. On the east 
base of Fremont’s peak, which is over 14,000 feet high, we dis- 
covered two glaciers, one of which covers an area of one and one- 
fourth square miles, and the other three-fourths of a square mile. 
They were marked by enormous crevasses; also with lateral and 
terminal moraines. We called them Upper and Lower Fremont 
glaciers. These would appear to be only insignificant pora 
of the vast glaciers that must have covered these mountai ur- 
ing the true glacial period. On the west side of the ahe the 
moraines and glaciated rocks are found on a vast scale. On the 
west side of the range, a glacier must formerly have existed, eighty 
miles long and twelve wide, with the arms extending up the gorges 
of the streams to the very water divide. ese glaciers will be 
more fully described in the 12th Annual Report of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey.—F/. V. Hayden. 


WasatcH Group.—Along the east side of the Wind River 
mountains and filling up the Upper Wind River valley, is a lee 
thickness of modern Tertiary strata that has been weathered in 
wd remarkable forms, and which are known in the West n 


Lands.” The strata are most beautifully variegated with 


remind one of the Jura-Trias red beds. This formation was de- 
scribed by me in 1859, in detail, and named the Wind kiver 
roup. It covers a broad area in this region, extending from the 
source of Wind river to the Sweet Water mountains, sout 
more than one hundred miles, and west an average width of one 
to five miles. The aggregate thickness of this group cannot be 
less than 5,000 feet. On the west side of the Wind River moun- 
tain, no formations older than the Wasatch group are found. 
This group rests, doubtless, on the Archzean nucleus, inclining at 
the base five to ten degrees. All the older sedimentary rocks 
have been entirely swept away from the granites for a distance of 
one hundred miles, while on the opposite or east side all the cor- 
responding strata are visible from the Silurian to the Cretaceous; 
the Wasatch beds cover a large part of the Green River Valley, 
especially about its sources. 
am convinced, also, that a group of strata which I named in 


so much used in the Reports on Western geology, that it will | - 


probably prevent the use of the former to any extent in the future. 
When the Northwest is more fully explored, it will probably be 
found that the Wasatch group covers a large area extending | 

more or less from our north line far into New Mexico.—/. V. 
Hayden ‘ 


1 See Annual Report, page 177, reprint. 


e 


832 General Notes. [ December, 


THE DEVONIAN AND SILURIAN FORMATIONS OF Brirrany.—Dr. 
Chas. Barrois, of Lille, has published in the annals of the Geo- 
logical Society of the North, for 1877, an account of his investiga- 
tions into the geology of Brittany. He finds in the Devonian for- 
mation of that region, five well-defined horizons, some of which 
had been previously unknown in France. He discovered certain 
previously unsuspected relations between the formation, and that 
of the valley of the Lahn. At the Rode of Brest but three of these 
horizons are present, the second, third, and fifth. As regards the 
Silurian, Dr. Barrois finds the same horizons in Brittany that have 
been observed in other basins of the same formation. e, how- 
ever, makes a number of rectifications of previous descriptions of 
the geology of Finistère. 


Tue GeroLocy oF Betcium.—Much activity exists among the 
geologists of Belgium, and numerous articles have recently ap- 
peared, which advance the science in that country. The magnifi- 
cent work of M. Van Beneden on the extinct Cetacea of the neigh- 
_borhood of Antwerp, has reached the second part. M. Rutot has 
recently published an account of the fossils of the inferior Oligo- 
cene, and M. G. Vincent, the history of the Fauna of the Lan- 
denien inferieur. M. Rutot determines that the Mipadites and 
other fossil plants found in the neighborhood of Brussels, are de- 
rived from the Bruxellien, and not from the Lackenim as has been 
supposed. M. Lefèvre has discovered tortoises and Halitherium 
in the same region. 


THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE GLACIAL Drirt.—In his Re- 
port as State Geologist of New Jersey, for 1877, Professor George 
H. Cook, presents some important facts relative to the southern 
limit of the glacial drift in that State. He finds it in a series of 
hills which cross the mouth of the Hudson river at the Narrows, - 
and Staten Island Sound at Perth Amboy, which then extend 
northwards to near Morristown and Dover, and then westwards, 
crossing the Delaware river at Belvidere. These hills are com- 
posed of gravel, sand, boulders and stones commingled in a con- 
fused mass, and are identical in character with the material that 
fills the valleys to the north of them. The parent rock is in every 
case to the north, sometimes at a distance of twenty to thirty miles. 

Professor Chamberlin, State Geologist of Wisconsin, presented 
to the Congress of Geologists recently held in Paris, a paper on 


_. the terminal moraine of the Great Lake District. Advance copies 


of the paper were printed in Paris. In this paper Professor 
Chamberlin describes an extensive belt of drift hills and ridges 
which traverse the quarternary deposits forming immense loops 
about the southern boundaries of the Great Lakes for a distance 
of 2000 miles in length, and a width of from one to thirty miles. 


__ Portions of this ridge had been observed by Lapham, Whittlesey, 


_ Andrews, and others. The material of the range consists of un- 


RE Te ee ee a 


Se ne 


ee ee ee ee ee Oe Oe ae 


ee en ae eae ee aa 


wat peas ¢ a Sak 


1878. ] Geography and Ti ravels. 833 


stratified débris of all formations adjacent northwards, with some 
stratification of the surface of an irregular kind. A peculiar fea- 
ture of the range is the presence of large holes and sinks, some of 
which are full of water. From these holes the range is called the 
Kettle Moraine. Its distribution is alike regardless of the geo- 
logical and topographical features of the country, excepting in its 
parallelism to the southern border of the Great Lakes. Professor 
Chamberlin regards it as a terminal moraine which marks a 
period in the history of the glaciers which are supposed to have 
once filled the depressions now occupied by the Great Lakes. 


IOCENE VERTEBRATA OF OREGON.—An examination of a col- 
lection of vertebrate fossils from the John Day river, Oregon, 
recently made by Prof. Cope, yielded the following species: 
Artiodactyla—Hj did gular calcaratus Cope, Leplomeryx evansi 
Leidy, Aucrotaphus superbus Leidy, E. occidentalis Marsh, Mery- 
cochærus leidyanus Bettany, T guyotianus s nov., 

Ma 


Thinohyus socialis rsh, T. dentus Mars otherium imperat 
Leidy. Perissodactyla Rhine pacificus Leidy, Anchitherium 
equiceps sp , A. brachylophum s A. longicr 


OV., 
Deodon idee gen. et sp. foe (allie d to iende piee 
Carnivora— he ms gregarius Cope, C. lippincottianus Cope, C. cus- 
pigerus sp. nov., C. geismarianus sp. nov., Temnocyon altigenis 
n. et sp. nov., Me herodus strigidens sp. nov, aioe Lyops sp. 
nov. Roden ntia— Meniscomys hippodus gen. et. ge 
tiplicatus sp. nov., Pleurolcus sulcifrons gen. et st nov., 1, Eronni 
cavifrons gen. et s . NOV., anifrons sp. ae E. crassiramis 
sp. nov., Steneofiber Sp., Steneofiber gradatus sp. nov., Paleolagus 
haydeni Leidy.—Proceedings of the Amer. Philosophical Society. 


GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.! 


Tue Amazon.—In the September number of the aS ce 
mention was made of the survey of the Amazon and 
rivers, undertaken by the U.S. corvette Azterprise, Comandet 
Selfridge. This vessel arrived at New York on the 25th of Sep- 
tember last, and we learn from the New York Hera/d of the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of her mission. At Serpa, near the 
mouth of the Madeira they found the Amazon a mile in width 
and sixty feet deep. The Madcira is here about two miles wide, 
and its principal channel has a depth of from ninety to sixty feet, 
according to the season of the year. From near its mouth to the 
falls its banks are high and well marked. The steamer entered 
the Madeira on the 17th of June, and advanced without difficulty 
at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, stopping at night, until the’ 
21st, when near the island of Araras the pilots reported rocks 
and shoals. Although careful investigation proved that no rocks 
were there, and five fathoms of water was found, it was not 
deemed advisable for the ship to cross, owing to the reports of 

1 Edited by Exvuts IH. YARNALL, Philadelphia. 


Gi General Notes. [December, 


the pilots and natives of the great and sudden changes in the rise 
and fall of the stream. The survey was, however, continued by 
the steam launch to San Antonio, a distance of about 325 miles, 
with the exception of the last thirty miles, which was, owing to 
an accident to the launch, made by Capt. Selfridge and Lieut. 
Perkins on board a Brazilian merchant steamer. Leaving the 
Enterprise on the 25th of June, the surveying party were again 
safe on board on the 2oth of July. The results of their observa- 
tions show that a navigable channel for ships drawing up to six- 
teen feet of water exists from the mouth of the Madeira to San 
Antonio, a distance of 500 miles. This channel is passable 
during nine months of the year, but during the time of low 


carried. The adjacent territory is very thinly populated. Large 
quantities of rubber are collected and shipped along the river, and 
also copaiba, sarsaparilla, copal and chouta, a black odoriferous 
gum used as a cement, 


ARCTIC EXPLORATION.—The schooner /lorence, Capt. Tyson, 
which was fitted out and sent by Capt. Howgate to Cumberland 
Gulf to procure skins, dogs, sledges and other material for the 
use of his expedition, has returned home, and from a dispatch 
by Capt. Tyson to the New York Herald, we learn that he sailed 
from New London on the 2d of August, 1877, and reached the 
Gulf after a tedious voyage of forty-one days. Here they 
remained in Niantilic harbor, latitude 65° 10’ north, longitude ` 
67° 30’ west, until October 1st, when they removed to Annatook 
harbor, at the head of the Gulf. There they passed the winter 
and spring. On the 1gth of July they sailed for Disco island, 
taking with them fifteen Esquimaux, men, women and children, 
twenty-eight dogs, a fair quantity of skin clothing and a great 
many skins. Arriving at Disco on July 31st, they remained 
until August 22d, when no intelligence of the expedition being 
received, they returned, after a difficult passage through the ice 
off Cape Mercy, to the Gulf. After discharging the Esquimaux 
they started on their voyage home on the 2d of September. 
Messrs. Kumlin and Sherman, the scientific members of the party, 
were very successful in the performance of their duties. The 
former has secured a large number of specimens, and the latter, 
aided by two of the crew, took hourly observations during the 
winter. The season has been a bad one. Melville Bay has been 
entirely blockaded by the ice, no whalers having been able to 
penetrate it, and the Danish ships have been unable to reach the 
upper settlements. 


Resutts oF THE Recent Britisa Arctic Expepirion.—Sir 
_ George Nares has, in his “ Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar 
_ Sea,” recently published, given more fully his reasons why he _ 


1878. ] ae Geography and Travels. : 835 


believes it is impracticable to reach the Pole by the Smith Sound 
route. The heavy polar pack, formed of ice from 80 to 100 feet 
in thickness, is rendered almost impassable by dense hummocks 
from 20 to 40 feet in height, or floes of most uneven surface cov- 
ered with deep snow. North from Cape Joseph Henry, in lati- 
tude 83°, no land exists as far as the 84th degree, and he believes 
there is none for a distance of 200 miles 

Whether or not land exists within the three hundred and sixty 
miles which _—— from this limit to the northern axis of the 
globe is, so far as sledge traveling is concerned, immaterial. 
Sixty miles of mace pack, Capt. Nares holds to be an insuperable 
objection to traveling in that direction with our present appli- 
ances. 

The Polar sea extends along the northern coast of Grinnell 
land westward for a distance of at least two hundred miles, when 
the coast trends to the south-west, and no land further north is 
accessible by a sledge i Ap in that direction. Entrance to all 
bays or harbors westward of Cape Joseph Henry is also barred 
by the Polar ice-wall. A similar barrier of ice exists along the North 
Greenland coast, so that no ship can hope to find protection on 
either of these shores. 

apt. Nares also regards the similarity in the character of the 
ice, and the formation of the coast of Banks land and Prince 
Patrick’s island, to that of Grinnell land as evidence that the Polar 
sea extends to their shores, but the reverse conditions existing on 
the northern shore of thé Parry islands indicates the extension of 
Grinnell land more or less continuously for the whole distance to 
Ireland’s Eye, protecting the Parry islands from the Polar ice. 
It is, however, probable that Jones’ sound affords the most direct 
route from Baffin’s bay in a north-westerly direction to the Polar 
sea, separating Grinnell land from the land which protects the 
Parry islands. 
From the “ “aber of Tidal Observations,’ by Dr. Samuel 


Haughton, we learn that the new tidal wave observed on board 
both the A/ert and Discovery is a. was from the Baf- 
fin’s bay tide, and from the tide that the Arctic ocean 


through Behring’ s i and it is, ie Pei eion, a tide that 


has passed from the Atlantic ocean round Greenland northwards 


and then westwards. Greenland probably ends not far north of 
latitude 82° or 83°. 

GEOGRAPHICAL News.—The deep sea soundings taken on board 
the U. S. Coast Survey steamer lake during her voyage in the 
Gulf of Mexico, mentioned in our September number, were made > 
about the south-east of the Gulf, about the Florida bank, west of 
the peninsula of the same name, about the Yucatan ank, and 


north-west of that peninsula. and in the intervening portion of sea 
f the 


between the above-mentioned places and the western end o 


island of Cuba. Prof. Alexander Agassiz who conducted these - 


VOL, XII,—NO. XII. 


836 General Notes. [ December, 


investigations obtained surprisingly rich zoological results. The 
deepest sounding was taken between the Tortugas and the north- 
east cape of Yucatan (Cape Catoche) and was 1,920 fathoms; the 
next deepest being 1,568, north of the same. All depths of 
water of about 600 fathoms and upwards gave a uniform tempera- 
ture of 39.5° Fahrenheit. 

A correspondent of the New York Tribune gives an account of 
the results of a recent careful survey of Newfoundland under the 
superintendence of a Geological Commission. The area of the 
island is now found to be 42,000 square miles. It is 317 miles in 
length and 316 miles in breadth. It is, therefore, the tenth largest 
island in the world, and contains 10,000 square miles more than 
Ireland. Nor is there to be found an equal area with such an ex- 
tent of coast line as Newfoundland, which, according to the Sur- 
veyor’s report, cannot be less than 2,000 miles in length. 

Prof. F. V. Hayden, in charge of the U. S. Geological Survey of - 
the Territories, has recently been elected foreign member of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, of Palermo, Sicily. 

he English Palestine Exploration Fund has successfully ac- 
complished the survey they began, in 1872, of all Palestine west 
of the Jordan. The scientific results of this survey are to be made 
public in a series of memoirs. The map is to be on the scale of 
one inch to a mile. The portion east of the river was assigned to 
the American Expedition, and is not yet completed. 


MICROSCOPY .! 


NationaL MicroscopicaL Conoress (Continued )—Dr. R. H. 
Ward spoke at some length in regard to “ Recent Progress in 
Microscopic Ruling,” referring chiefly to the recent work of 
Mr. Charles Fasoldt, of Albany, and of Professor Wm. A. Rogers, 
of Cambridge. Mr. Fasoldt's experiments in ruling commenced © 
during the middle of last winter, and must be regarded as 
remarkable considering the fact that he was entirely unfamiliar with 
the microscope and its use, and knew nothing of what had been 
done or could be done in microscopic ruling. Being a manufac- 
turer of chronometers, he possessed the advantage of great skill 
in small mechanical operations and some experience in handling 
gems. He first, at the casual suggestion of a friend, undertook 
to make circular rulings, described with a common lathe and 
spaced with the slide-rest; and in this manner produced fair con- 
centric circles as close as gyv of an inch. Parallel straight lines 
of equal closeness, but not of equal excellence, were then made 
on the same lathe, both the spacing and the ruling being accom- 
plished by the motions of the slide-rest. Dissatisfied with-this re- _ 
_ sult, a screw machine was extemporized, and much closer lines of 
much better quality were produced. Some of the bands ruled 

with this little screw were better than many of the commercial — 
This department is edited by Dr. R. H. WARD, Troy, N. Y. oe 


1878. | Microscopy. | 837 


micrometers, though not to be compared with the work of Nobert 
or of Rogers. The screw was then abandoned, and the machine 
prepared with which the present work is done. Unfortunately, 
the maker is unwilling to give further information about this ma- 
chine than that it has other than a screw motion, intimating, per- 
haps, that the spacing is accomplished by a lever movement. The 
finest bands are ostensibly ruled to ygqyoq inch,’ but it may be 
considered doubtful whether they are ruled according to the read- 
ing of the machine that made them. The bands up to gg$ap inch 
have been reported correct by authority that ought to be com- 
petent to judge, and the whole series is ih ae of.careful study 

those who are expert in such work. O very different 
class is the progress made by Professor Rogers paie the past 


metry have scarcely claimed to possess a definite degree of ac- 
curacy. The speaker had used for years a standard obtained by 
comparing about two hundred micrometers ruled in different parts 
of the world, rejecting the few that from their p — wee 
the average were presumably erroneous, and averaging the re- 
mainder. “Probably such a standard, though cease Ceca 
of uncertain value, was as nearly safe as anything heretofore at- 
tainable. To obviate this uncertainty, Professor Rogers determ- 
ined to derive a standard inch, with a precision not known to have 
been obtained before, from “ Bronze bar No. 11,” which has been 
the authorized standard in this country since 1855, having been 
presented to the United States by the British Government as one 
of the five original duplicates of “ Bronze 19” the only English 
standard since the “ standard yard of 1760” was destroyed by 
fire, and to jiasi a standard centimetre from the iron bar now in 
possession of the United States Coast Survey, one of the original 
standard metres, and the best representative in this country of the 
platinum metre deposited in the Archives of Paris. He fitted a 
glass bar forty-two inches long, one inch wide and one and a 
quarter inches thick, into an iron frame, the surfaces being made 
as true a plane as possible. With a diamond in a a graduating en- 
gine he laid off upon it one hundred centimetre divisions. 

then took the bar to Washington where the said lines were com- 
pared with the standard metre, and where the British yard and the 
Archives metre were transferred from the Saxton comparator of 
the United States Coast Survey to both the glass bar and its iron 
frame. The errors of the odaia of the yard, and of the 
metre, were investigated by means of a comparator constructed 
for the purpose of subdividing any unit into equal parts. The cor- 
rections for each subdivision having been determined, a number 


Fasoldt’s finest lines arè now made in serra par the lines of the 


_ lowest band being 1-10,000 of an inch a, of the next band 1-20,000 inch, of the 


so on, increasin ng 10,000 to t ee each time to the twelfth. 
, has lines spaced. D I-120,000 inch. These plates 
made at as low a price as $15.00 


$38 General Notes. [ December, 


of copies of that division as corrected are ruled, and the one se- 
lected which corresponds most nearly with the computed correc- 
tion. A similar process is applied to each subdivision, and finally 
these subdivisions are compared among themselves, and the one 
selected which is nearest the mean of the whole number. Thus 
the əy of a standard yard, and the z4y of a standard metre, have 
been obtained with a certainty not believed to have been secured 
before. The standard centimetre thus produced by Prof. Rogers 
was submitted to the Congress for the use of members who 
might desire to determine the value of the divisions of their 
micrometers in terms of the Coast Survey standard. 

Prof. J. D. Hyatt, of New York, gave a very interesting address 
on “The Sting of the Honey-bee,” illustrated by a large number 
of diagrams. His paper, with its illustrations, will be published 
in the forthcoming number of the new quarterly. 

“On the Construction of Oculars,’ by Wm. H. Seaman, of 
Washington. The discrepancies in published statements in regard 
to oculars, led the author to make a full series of measurements 
of the parts of eighteen oculars by English and Continental | 
makers, and to present the results in a tabular form. By inspect- 
ing the table it appears that the common ratio between the foca 
lengths of eye lens and field lens is 4, in one instance it is 4, and in 
one of older construction 4. The only general principle in 
regard to the interval separating the lenses is, that it shall be less 
than the solar focus of the field lens; and when in the deeper 
oculars, and those which are orthoscopic, it seems to exceed this 
limit, it must be remembered that in connection with the objective 
the ocular receives diverging rays, and for such, its focus 15 
beyond the solar focus. It may also be noticed that but a small 
part of the diameter of the eye lens is actually used in the lower 
powers. | 

Prof. J. E. Smith made some remarks on “ Micrometer 
Rulings,” repeating his claim, formerly published, as the first to 
have. resolved Nobert’s 19th band, by reflected light. He also 
expressed the belief that he had resolved by reflected though not 
by transmitted light bands of ys/ggeth inch ruled, or attempted 
to be ruled, by Rogers. - 

:“ A New Turn-table ” was exhibited and described by John W. 
Sidle, of Philadelphia. This table is self-centering by the Cox 
_ method, having jaws that press diagonally toward the center of 
the slide. Instead of the screw movement of the original form, 
or the lever or scroll screw of later modifications, the jaws are 
mounted near the edges of two small circular discs which are set 
into the main plate or table, on opposite sides of the center, and 
= which by revolving simultaneously change the distance of the 
jaws from the center of the table. The mechanism seemed un- — 
likely to get out of order, and a very steady and prompt motion 


1878. ] Microscopy. . 839 


Prof. William Lighton, of Ottumwa, Iowa, described a “ New . 
Arrangement for Dark-field Illumination,” in which an effect 
comparable to that of a spot-lens was produced by placing above 
the eye-piece a diaphragm with an aperture of y inch, decentered 
so as to cut off the central cone of light ordinarily used by the 
eye. This effect is produced most perfectly with an achromatic 
eye-piece. He also described “An Analyzing Eye-piece,” con- 
taining a bundle of reflecting plates arranged at a polarizing angle. 

r. R. H. Ward gave an account of recent improvements in 
s Biscoe’s Section Cutter.” The principles of construction of this 
machine, which is said to have been founded on some German 
inventions, were fully explained.in the NATURALIST for Jan., 1874. 
As now made by Mr. chrauer, of New aeit it has a central 
cylinder and plunger like other section cutters. In this way the 
object to be cut is arranged with great facility, while the thick- 
ness of the sections 5 regulated with ease and precision by the 
screws that ‘support the carriage. his arrangement has a 
capacity for easy ja good work that is almost incredible to per- 
sons accustomed to use other contrivances. 

A communication on “Seiler’s Section Cutter,”. by Wm. H. 
Walmsley, was read by title in the absence of its author. 

A paper on “ Epithelium” was read by Dr. W. H. Atkinson, 

rk. 


After referring the eon 4 publishing proceedings to the 
executive committee, and pass an appropriate vote of thanks 
or favors received at Te aapnlis. the Society adjourned until 
the Buffalo meetin 


New Forms oF iouctun The cement which is essential to 
these processes, and which I regard as the most important work- 
ing material of the microscopist, is shellac varnish prepared in 
the following simple manner: The white purified gum shellac is 
dissolved in alcohol and filtered through cotton one or more 
times until it is quite clear and transparent. As the filtering is to 
most persons a somewhat difficult operation, they had better per- 
haps let the druggist make this preparation for them. With this 
cement I build up a cell as deep and perhaps as quickly as one 
can be made with a curtain ring, painted up as it usually is. As 
much as one or two drops can be put ona slide with a brush, 
using the turn-table, and then slowly worked up into a narrow 


‘ring with the point of a small knife-blade held on the turning | 
Slide. When this has dried a day or two, another layer can be 


great economy both of time and abor. These rings being í trans- 


_ parent are admirably adapted for opaque mountings, with which 
_ it is desired to use the Lieberkihn. 


840 - General Notes. | December, 


If common curtain rings are fastened to slides with shellac 
cement, colored with aniline blue, the joined edges of the brass 
film of which the ring is made being on the glass, and then sub- 
jected to a slowly increasing heat until the cement begins to burn, 
a very beautiful ornamentation is given to the under side of the 
ring, a circle of minute golden links making their appearance 
there. These rings can then be painted according to fancy on 
the turn-table and used for any kind of mounting. 

I use this cement, colored with the various aniline dyes which 
are soluble in alcohol, for painting and finishing slides. These 
colors are far superior, for all purposes of ornamentation, to any 
other material or devices for painting; they dry quickly and 
adhere to glass with greater tenacity than any other cements 
that I have ever used. 

For a cell that will perfectly withstand the action of Canada 
balsam or turpentine, I make use of the shellac cement colored 
with aniline blue, in the following manner: After a cell of the 
required depth is made on the slide and pretty thoroughly dried 
in the usual way, it is heated on the heating table, slightly at first 
in order to. avoid bubbles, then’ gradually increasing the heat 
until the cement commences to smoke and the color to burn out. 
By heating one side of the ring a very little more than the other, 
as may be done over an alcohol lamp, a part may be left blue 
while the other is yellow or reddish, which has a very pretty 
effect under Canada balsam. These cells are hard as bone, and 
can scarcely be cut from the glass. Balsam has no effect what- 
ever on them. Mountings on them may be finished off with 

liquid balsam, made true and circular with the point of a knife on 
the turn-table. In a few days, or ina shorter time by using the 

oven, they will be ready to clean and lay away. The cells which 
I have described are the only cement cells that can be used with 
Canada balsam. They are particularly adapted to vegetable 
stainings, alge, and all other preparations either too thick or too 
tender to be mounted in balsam without something to sustain the 
thin glass covers. 

In opaque mountings when cements of any kind are used, 
either for back-ground or to hold the object in place, I have 
found it highly advantageous to leave on, or in the lower part of 

the ring, a minute aperture opening into the cell, not necessarily 
_ larger than a cambric needle would make. With this provision both 


the cell and the cement go on drying, and there is no sinking in 


or moving about of the objects in the medium which holds them. 
If the cell be hermetically closed, one may expect that the object 
will, sooner or later, be overwhelmed in a black sea. If curtain 
~ rings are used, a little notch can be filed in the side of them, and 
_ this be left open when the slide is finished. i 

= H the opaque mountings are for dry objects, I make in the 
center of the ring a disk of Brunswick black or white zinc, accord- 


gM cg agit S E AE L E E ENE e E n phen 


1878. ] Scientific News. 841 


ing as the object to be shown is white or black. It may be ṣẹ of 
an inch in diameter for the Lieberkühn of the 14 inch objective, 
but not over } inch for that of the 2 objective. After the cement 
is dry and quite hard, a thin coat of balsam is spread over it and 
the objects placed in this and arranged if necessary under the 
microscope. The slide is then set aside to dry and may safely be 
covered the next day. If the object to be mounted will bear 
immersion in balsam, as some shells, seeds, minerals, etc., I pur- 
sue the following plan: The thin glass covers are cemented to 
some old slips, kept for the purpose, by two or three touches ot 
the balsam applied to the edge of the cover, care being taken to 
center the cover on the slip by means of the self centering turn- 
table. The objects are then arranged on a light coating of bal- 
sam on the center of the cover. When quite dry they should be 


completely covered by balsam and thoroughly hardened in the 


drying oven. Then Brunswick black or white zinc may be 
spread over the object, in thin layers at first, each being dried in 
the open air for a day before putting on the next, until an opaque 
covering: is made for the object. Thoroughly clean the cover 
around the objects and then remove it from the slip by a slight 
heating. Then turn it over and mount it upon the cell prepared 
for it. Fasten the cover to the cell with gelatine softened 
water to the consistency of jelly and then liquified by alcohol. 
Put the cover on the cell and apply the gelatine solution with a 
brush around the edge, leaving the little opening before referred to. 
When dry the cell may be finished with liquid balsam, carefully 
avoiding the little aperture. The outer edge may be gathered up 
into a neat trim circle with the point of a knife on the turn-table. 
C. Merriman, Rochester, New York. ‘(Read at the National 
Aedini Congress at Indianapolis, August, 1878.) 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
We conclude our account of the last meeting, which was, on the 


held for twenty years. Several of our American scientists read 
papers. Prof. terry Hunt made communications on the 
Metamorphic or “Archean rocks of America as compared with 
those of Great Britain, and also on the geological relations 
of the atmosphere. Prof. E. D. Cope read papers on the Sauri- 
ans of the Dakota formation of the Rocky mountains, and on 
the Vertebrata of the Permian formation of Texas. Mr. Graham 
Bell made a communication on the Telephone. Prof. Cook, 


i State-geologist of New Jersey, was also present. Of the papers 


of special interest, we note one in the zoôlogical section by Sir 


-Victor Brooke on the deer; a good point he made was the exis- 
tence of a constant yarmtion in the horn of Cervus dama, which 


842 3 Scientific News. [ December, 


originated in an old buck, and now characterizes the entire herd 
in one park in West Ireland. 

In physiology a good paper was the one on the location of 
sounds in the head on application of tuning-forks, telephone, 
microphones, etc. 

In zodlogy another good paper was by Dr. Traquair on the 
structure of Ctenxodus and Dipterus, in which he showed that the 
head of the latter is covered with segmented scuta like the stur- 
geon; the author brought out many other important points. 

In general it may be remarked that the conduct of the meet- 
ings of the Association is very similar to that of our own. The 
tendency to complimentary criticism was probably rather more 
largely developed, but this did not prevent the fullest expression 

_of adverse opinions when such were entertained. 

As a good example of one of the evening lectures we quote, in 
part from the Dublin /rish Times, an abstract of Mr. J. G. Ro- 
manes’ lecture on “ Animal Intelligence,’ which attracted special 
interest; he said: “We thus see animal instincts may arise in 
either of two different ways, on the one hand, they may arise from 
the performance of actions which were originally intelligent, but 
which by frequent repetition have become automatic; and on the 
other hand, they may arise from survival of the fittest, preserving 
actions, which, although never intelligent, happen to have been o 
benefit to the animals which first chanced to perform them. But 
now let it be observed that although there is a great difference 
between these two kinds of instincts if regarded psychologically, 
there is no difference between them if regarded physiologically ; 
for, regarded physiologically, both kinds of instincts are merely 
expressions of the fact that particular nerve-cells and fibres have 
been set apart to perform their reflexes automatically—that is, 
without being accompanied by intelligence. In making these 
observations we are not necessarily committing ourselves to the 
doctrine of materialism. That physiological phenomena are 
intimately connected with natural phenomena does not admit of 
doubt, but concerning the nature of this association scientific men 
declare not merely that it is at present unknown, but that, so far 
as they are at present able to discern it must forever remain 
unknowable. The restless tide of intellect for centuries has 
onward rolled, submerging in its arms those rugged shores whose 
name is mind, but at the lines where mind and matter meet there 

_ arises a mighty history like a frowning cliff, and in the darkness 
of the place we hear the voice of true philosophy proclaim: 
“Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy 
proud wave be stayed.’ So much then for what I have called the 
physiological basis of mind. Passing on now to our review of 

_ comparative psychology, the first animals in which so far as I can 
_ ascertain we may be quite sure that reflex action is accompanied 
by ideation, are the insects. Well, remembering this distinction, 


1878. ] Scientific News. 843 


we shall find that the only difference between animal intelligence 
and human intelligence consists in this—that animal intelligence 
is unable to elaborate that class of abstract ideas the formation of 
which depends on the faculty of speech. In other words, ani- 
mals are quite as able to form abstract ideas as we are, if under 
abstract ideas we include general ideas of qualities which are sO 
far simple as not to require to be fixed in our thoughts by names.’ 
The ~~ ek n to show that animals had reason and 
judgment. “ ing on to the emotional life of animals, we find 
that this i is very alga if at all, developed in the lower orders, 
but remarkably well developed in the higher; that is to say, the 
emotions are vivid and easily excited, although they are shallow 
and evanescent. They thus differ from those of most civilized 
men in being more readily aroused and more impetuous while 
they last, though leaving behind them but little trace of their 
occurrence. As r regards the particular emotions which occur 
among the higher animals, I can affirm from my own observa- 
tions that all the following give unmistakable tokens of their 
presence: Fear, affection, passionateness, pugnacity, jealousy, 
sympathy, pride, reverence, emulation, shame, hate, curiosity, 
revenge, cruelty, emotion of the ludicrous and emotion of the 
beautiful. Now this list includes nearly all the human emotions, 
except those which refer to religion and to the perception of the 
sublime. These, of course, are necessarily absent in animals, 
because they depend upon ideas of too abstract a nature to be 
reached by the mind when unaided by the logic of signs. Time 
prevents me from here detailing any of my observations or experi- 
ments with regard to the emotional life of animals, so I will pass 
on at once to the faculty of conscience. In highly intelligent, 
highly sympathetic and tolerably well treated animals the germ 
of a moral sense becomes apparent. On the whole, therefore, I 
can only suppose that we have in these actions evidence of as high 
a development of the ethical faculty as is attainable by the logic 
of feelings when unassisted by the logic of signs; that is to say, 
a grade very nearly if not quite as high as that with which we 


tendency to act in accordance with performed habits rather than 


to strike out improved modes of action. Very young children 
present only those lower faculties of mind which in animals we 


call instincts. With advancing age, the first indication of true 


+ 


intelligence seems to consist in the power of forming special ' 


first to disappear, while those faculties which man shares with the- 
_ lower animals should be the more persistent. And this expecta- 
= tion I have found to be fairly well realized. Beginning from 


associations. On the general theory of evolution we should 
expect that in such a descending scale the characteristically oo 


. 3 3 


844 Scientific e. . . [Dedemher: 


below, the first dawn of intelligence in the ascending scale of 
idiots, in the ascending scale of animals, is invariably to be found 
in the power of associating simple concrete ideas. Thus there 
are very few idiots so destitute of intelligence that the appearance 
of food does not arouse in their mirds the idea of eating ; and, as we 


increasing power of memory. In the case of the higher idiots, 
as in the case of higher animals, it is surprising in how consider- 
able a degree the faculty of special association is developed not- 
withstanding the dwarfed condition of all the higher faculties. 
On the whole then, from the mental condition of uneducated deaf 
mutes, we learn the important lesson that in the absence of 
language the mind of man is almost on a level with the mind of 
a brute in respect of its power of forming abstract ideas. 

The Association will meet next year at Sheffield, under the 
presidency of Prof. Allman. 


— Tuae Coxncress oF GEOLOGISTS AT Paris. The existence of this 
body is due, firstly, to the exertions of a committee which met 
in Philadelphia during the Exposition of 1876; and secondly, to 
the energetic coöperation of the Geological Society of France, 
which took in charge the arrangement of the details of the 
organization. The officers selected by this body and elected by 
the Congress on its opening, were the following: president, E 

ébert; vice-presidents, England, M. Davidson; Belgium, 
Koninck ; Canada, Sterry Hunt; Denmark, Johnstrupp; Spain, 
Villanova: United States, Hall; France, Daubrée and Gaudry ; 
Hungary, Szabo; Italy, Capellini ; Holland, Von Baumhauer ; 
Portugal, Ribeiro; Roumania, Stephanescu; Russia, De Moeller; 
Sweden, Thorell; Switzerland, Favre; general secretary, Jan- 
netaz ; secretaries, M. Brocchi, Delaire, Sauvage and Vélain ; 


treasurer, M. Ridche. 


The Congress assembled on Thursday, the 22d August, in the 


large hall above the commencement of the left wing of the Tro- 


cadero. To such of our readers as have not seen this building 
it may be interesting to remark, that it is situated on the side of 


a hill on the right side of the Seine, which slopes gently towards 
the bank of the river. It faces the main building of the Exposi- 
tion which stands on the left bank, the two being connected by 
= ornamental grounds, and by the bridge of Jèna. The build- 


ing consists of a central portion of the form of a semicircle 


_ to which are added two long arm-like wings, which follow the 
— direction of the circumference of a large circle for perhaps 120°. 


he convexity of the central building is inwards, and presents- 


Eea porticoes, one above the other. From the summit of the 


owest of t ieee a wide sheet of water descends with a face con- 


1878. ] Scientific News. 845 


vex transversely, and is received into a basin. From this the 
water flows by a succession of falls to a rye basin below, which 
is adorned with numerous fountains t four points in its cir- 
cumference are the gilded figures, of. life size, sol four prominent 
species of animals—the elephant, hor 

each side of the staircase of waterfalls is a series of small foun- 
tains composed of very many fine jets of little elevation, the whole 
producing the effect of tufted vegetation. » 

The hall of meeting is well adapted for the use of the Congress, 
which includes a membership of two hundred and fifty persons 
The proceedings of the first day, August the 29th, opened with 
an election for officers, which resulted in the selection of the 
names above enumerated. An allocution from Prof. James Hall, 
of New York, president of the committee of Philadelphia, fol- 
lowed. The report of this committee succeeded, and the organi- 
zation was er by the announcement of the names of the 
officers elec 

ies oe announced for the opening day were the following: 

. M. Daubrée, Etudes expérimentales sur les déformations et les 
cassures de l'écorce terrestre. 2. M. A. Favre, Sur les expéri- 
ences relatives aux effets de refoulements latéraux en géologie. 

. De Chancourtois, Représentation et coordination des faits 
q’ alignements (Failles et Filons). 4. M. De Lapparent, Les 
plissements de la craie entre la France et l'Angleterre a propos 
du chemin de fer sous-marin. 5. M. E Sur les gisements 
aurifères et sur les pierres précieuses du Bré 
The papers oy ae 30th of August were a following: 1. M. 
James Hall, e Nomenclature of American palzozoic rocks 
and the AEE of geological maps. 2. M. Stephanescu, No- 
menclature géologique uniforme pour tous les pays en ce qui re- 
garde les terrains et les étages. 3. M. Van den Broeck, Valeur 
„des termes de l'échelle stratigraphique du globe. 4. enevier, 
Rapport sur l'emploi des couleurs et w termes désignant les sub- 
divisions des terrains. 5. M. Rutot, De l'adoption des subdi- 
visions uniformes pour les ternos a 6. M. De Chan- 
courtois, Unification des conventions pour les cartes gélogiques. 
7: M. Villa anova, Bases d'un dictionnaire de géologie. 8. M. 
l'Abbé Almera, Réimpression des ouvrages de paléontologie. 
Į; 


Pennsylvania, 4. Vélain, Phénomènes Geysériens EE - nas > 


de Morvan a propos de la délimitation du Trias et du 
The following papers were read on the 2d of Se saber: a oe 
Relations of horizons of Vertebrate Fossils of Europe and North 
merica. 2. Gosselet, De la Synonomie des especes fossiles au 


an point de vue du droit de priorité. 3. Rouault, pial meta e 


-~ 


846 Scientific News. | [ December, 


du Silurien inferieure de Bretagne. 4. DeMorillet, Divisions du 
Quaternaire. 5. Winkler, Origine des dunes sur le littoral de la 
Hollande. 6. Vanden Broeck, Influence des phénomènes météor- 
iques sur l’altération des Roches. 7. W. P. Blake, Geological 
Maps of the United States of North America. “8. Violet d’Aoust, 
Origine des volcans. 9. Bouejot (by M. Delesse), Calcaire blue 
eruptif. 10. Choffat, Mélanges d’horizons stratigraphiques par 
suite des mouvements du sol. 

Papers of the 3d of September: 1. Des Cloizeaux, Microcline 
et Feldspaths tricliniques. 2. Michel Lévy, Emploi du Micro- 
scope polarisant a lumière paralléle pour |’etude des roches. 3. 
Jannetaz, Rapports de la propagation de la chaleur dans les roches 
et de leur structure, au point de vue de leur origine. 4. Vélain, 
Ses Roches trachytiques de la Réunion au point de vue de la 
classification. 5. Sterry Hunt, Terrains Precambriens de |’Amer- 
igue du Nord. 6, Szabo, Classification et chronologie des 
roches éruptives tertiaires de la Hongrie. 7. Ribeiro, Formation 
Tertiaire du Portugal. 8. Chamberlin, The Kettle Moraine of the 
Great Lake district of North America. 

On September the fourth, the Council presented to the Con- 
gress several propositions, viz: 

A committee to propose a system of coloration for geological 
maps. 

A committee to propose a uniform nomenclature for geological 
horizons and formations. 

A committee to investigate and report on a method of uniform- 
ity in nomenclature in paleontology. 

That the second meeting of the Congress take place three 
years hence in Bologna, Italy. 

That in the ézderim the present Council of the Congress trans- 
act its affairs. 

Which propositions were, with slight modifications of their 
original forms, adopted by the Congress. 

The sessions of the Congress were largely attended, and under 
the able ruling of Professor Hébert, were conducted with dispatch 
and effect. The interest of the occasion was enhanced by the 

entertainments offered by the oe elaine of Public Instruction 

and by private citizens. Of the former may be mentioned that 

at the Arts et Metiers, where the garden was illuminated by the 

_ Jablokoff lights, and the one at the residence of the Minister. 

Of the latter, the entertainments at the residences of Profs. Hè- 

bert, Gaudry and Daubrée, will be remembered by those who at: 

tended them. After the adjournment of the Congress a banquet 
was held at the Hotel Continental. 

A number of the members of the Congress remained to take 

part in the annual excursions of the Geological Society of France, 

ich immediately followed. 


In his recent lecture on civilization and science, Prof. Du _ 


1878.] Scientific News, — i 


Bois-Reymond asks that more science be taught in the German 
gymnasia, though he does not propose p convert the gymnasium 
into a school for science-teaching. “All that I ask is that as muc 

shall shall be done to meet the aen of the future physician, 
architect or military officer as those of the future judge, or 
preacher, or teacher of classical languages. Thus I ask for only 
so much natural history in the lower, classes of the school as will 
awaken the faculty of observing, and that facilities be given for 


epo 
should like to inca ‘taught, not waders and chemistry with 


more than heretofore could be devoted without injury.” 


— In Von Thering’s recent work on the nervous system of mol- 
luscs, a new arrangement of the molluscs is given which may be 
novel to our malacologists, as the work itself is rather expensive. 
The genus Chiton and allies are associated with the worm Cheto- 
derma and the doubtful form Neomenia, forming the Phylum 
Amphineura,-as follows : 

VERME 
Phyl n Amphincur. 
Class $. gr rac seg ease Menus 
‘acophora (Chitonidz). 
The E are thus gia : 
LUSCA. 
Phylini E; ces O EE 
at Solenoconche (Scaphopoda). 
: . Arthrocochlides Snes sen Earls ata). 
fe WV. Platycochtides (Class 1. oda, embracing the Nudibranchiata, Tec- 
nchiata and Pulmonata.) t 
oe Pero 
"i Ceckalopota. 
work on the songs of birds and other animals as related 
to human music, and as furnishing a basis for a theory of melody, 
is in course of preparation by Mr. Xenos Clarke, of San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., who writes that “the chief impediment is the lack of 
recorded observations. I should be —_ grateful if you could 


References to books, etc., con ‘tars ning songs of birds or 


other animals in musical notation. (Copies of these would be 


still more valuable. 
“2. Results of your observations on birds or their songs. 
. Is there noticed with any p in these songs the 


occurrence of any fundamental intervals of human music, as the- oo 


octave, fifth, fourth and third ? 


848 Scientific News. [ December, 


“4. (A question only seemingly irrelevant.) If singing in the 
ears has ever happened to you, have any of the fundamental 
intervals, above mentioned, been observed between the minute 
tones? 

a Any information that may occur to you as bearing on these 
subjects?” We refer the matter to our ornithological readers. 

— The Zoologischer Anzeiger, published in Leipzig and edited 
by Prof. J. Victor Carus, proves to be a most useful periodical. 
The editor has two objects in view: besides giving digests of new 
works and articles, to make the literature complete. as possible 
and to have the addresses of working and teaching zoologists, 
zootomists, anatomists and paleontologists, as full and trust- 
worthy as may be. For this purpose he would like to receive 

. the aid of American naturalists, and especially to receive copies 

of our journals and proceedings in exchange for his journal. 
The Anzeiger will, by and by, contain a list of public museums, 
institutes, etc., which are not connected with universities and col- 
leges. As the Journal is published fortnightly, men of science will 
find it the most convenient way of publishing quickly short pre- 
liminary abstracts of new researches of all kinds relating to 
zoology. 

— The New York Academy of Sciences begins its sessions for 
the winter in its new rooms, handsomer and more attractive than 
so previous quarters, The library of the Academy has been 

ved up town into rooms granted for it, in the, new (fire-proof ) 
building of the American Museum of Natural History, where 
it is to have the best care and accommodations and remains sub- 
ject to the control of the Academy. 

— The eleventh annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of 
Science was held at Topeka, on October 8th and gth, with an 
_ attendance larger than in previous years. The number of papers 

presented was also larger than usual. Prof. B. F. Mudge, of 

Manhattan, was elected president, and E. 5 Popenoe, of Topeko, 
secretary, for the ensuing term of one ye 

— Recent ‘arrivals at the Philadelphia FEE Garden: | 

= water snake (7ropidonotus sipedon), New Jer 2 capybaras 

_ (Hydrocherus capybara); 1 douroucouli (4 Pa trivirgatus); 

- I cāpucin (Cebus apella), South America; 2 bonnet KRES 
_ (Macacus radiatus); 2 rhesus monkeys (Macacus erythræus) ; 


vania; I green a bikers (Ardea virescens); 1 golden- ‘crowned thrush 
(Seiurus aurocapillus) Pennsylvania ; 2 cinereous vultures ( Vultur 
cinereus); 2 griffon vult (Gyps fulvus), North Africa; 4 barn 
ls (Strix flammea americana); 2 Angora rabbits; 7 weeper 
cins (Cebus capucinus), South America; 1 little brown bat 
ertilio TEC New Pay: 1 brown Pe (Pelecanus 


1878. Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 84 
S 9 


2 È lorida; 1 rufous rat kangaroo (Hypsiprymus ahai 
born e garden : I pig-tailed macaque (Macacus nemestrinus) 
1 rhesus monkey (Macacus erythreus), India; 6 hog-nosed snakes 


ioaevoden J PEE I garter snake (Hutenia sirtalis parietalis), 


O; 1 opossum ( Didelphys numa: 2 gray lizards (Scelopo- 


i 
_ rus undulatus), New Jersey ; 1 black snake (Bascanion constrictor); 


I water snake (7) aos rhombifer), Illinois; 1 brindled gnu 
(Catoblepas gorgon), South Africa; 1 common qu uail (Ortyx vir- 
ginianus); 2 whooping cranes (Grus americanus); 2 sandhill — 
cranes (Grus aang as North America; 2 red coatis (Wasua 
nasica rufa), Sout merica ; I elk Cervus canadensis), born in 
the garden; 2 tortoises (Testudo tabulata), South America; 
I gray squirrel a carolinensis); 2 common hoopoes (Upupa 
epops), Europe, Asia and North Africa; 1 jackdaw (Corvus mone- 
dula), Europe and Asia; I sickle-billed curlew (Numenius longi- 
rostris), Atlantic States; 1 night hawk (Chordeiles virginianus), 
pe States; 4 common chameleons (Chameleo vulgaris), 

uro sia and North Africa; 1 Yarrell’s curassow (Crax 
POENE DPKS Brazil; 1 screech owl (Scops asio); 1 cat-bird — 
carolinensis); 1 green linnet (Ligurinus chloris); 1 chaffinch 
(fringilla cated), Great Britain ; 2 white-footed mice bon 
leucopus), United States ; 1 Savannah deer (Cervus savannarum), 
born in the garden. — Arthur E. Brown, Gard. Supt. 

— AMERICAN NATURALIST. The numbers of this journal 
issued during the past year were published at the following 


March, īgth; May, April 22d; June, May 22d; July, June 28th; 
August, July 27th; September, August 21st; October, Septem- 
ber 23d; November, October 30th ; December, November 29th. 
— Editors. 

:O: 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 


NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SciENCES.—The semi-annual meeting 
was held at New York, November 5-7. A report to Congress, 
of the various geodetic, geo- 
go oe and geological surveys of the United States, was adopted 

y the emy. The following papers on natural science were read 
ana dnigaid: The early types of insects, by S. H. Scudder ; On 
the arrangement of the exhibition rooms in the Museum of Com- 
parative Zodlogy at Cambridge ; Arrangement of a zoological ma- 


rine laboratory at Newport; On the embryology of the gar pike; 


On some of the zodlogical results of the United States Coast 
Survey Steamer Blake, by Alexander Agassiz; On some remains 
of new Dipnoan fishes and their relation to living forms ; On some 


_ mooted points in American geology, by J. S. Newberry ; On the _ 
characters of Theromorphous reptiles, by E. ope; Noteonthe _ 

-Two-ocean Pass, Wyoming Territory; On the ‘discovery of recent — 

_ glaciers in the Wind River mountains; Plan of a general geolog- © 


850 | Scientific Serials. | December, 1878. 


ical map of the Territories of the United States, west of the g4th 
meridian, by F. V. Hayden; Some remarks on an investigation of 
the laws of heredity, undertaken by the Board of Health of Mas- 
sachusetts, by A. Hyatt; On the physical structure and hypsomet- 
ry of the western: sens with some remarks on the whole 
group, by A. Guy 

New York pd oF ScıENceEs—October 14. Prof. A. A. 
Julien read a paper on “Chemical erosion on mountain summits,” in 
which he presenteda large number of facts, drawn from personal ob- 
servation among the mountains of North Carolina, and the Catskills 
and the Shawaugunks of New York, indicating the existence of a 
powerful agency of chemical erosion in connection with vegetable 
acids. He recalled the recently published articles of Prof. H. C. 
-Bolton, read before the Academy, on the action of organic acids 
upon minerals, and their use as tests and reagents in mineralogy, 
and then presented his own observations, as tending to show that 
like processes are going on in nature on a great scale, particularly 
through the action of lunnic, intro-lunnic and ulmic acids upon 
silica. He described in detail the remarkable erosion of the 
Shawaugunk Grit, along the precipitous edge of the mountains of 
that name, in situations and ways which indicate that it can be 
only due to decomposing vegetation. The paper was discussed 
at length, and generally regarded as possessing great significance. 

November 4. Prof. W. P. Trowbridge made a communication 
regarding disputed questions in animal “locomotion. 

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL Soctery.—November 12. Rear 
Admiral Daniel Ammen, U. S. N., read a paper upon the pro- 
posed inter-ocean ship canal across the American Isthmus, between 
Greytown and Brits, via Lake Nicaragua; its feasibility as a com- 
mercial LE and its advantages as compared with other pro- 
posed ro 

Beste Stier or NATURAL History.—October 16. Prof. N. 
S. Shaler remarked on certain peculiarities in the structure of the 

= swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum). 

November 6. Mr. M. P. Kennard described the recently dis- 
covered glacial relics at Lucerne, Switzerland. 

APPALACHIAN Mountatn. CLuB.—November 13. Prof. E. T. 
. Quimby read a paper on Sun telegraphing, and Prof. E. C. Picker- 
-~ ing remarked on a proposed aen of mountain signalling. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS! 

Tue GerocrapuicaL Macazins.— November. The Afghan 
~ passes (with a map of the Kaibar, Karkatcha and Kurram passes), 
by Trelawny Saunder>. The Kuldja Question. Explorations in 

Greenland, by R. Brown. M. Ujfalvy’s Travels in Central Asia. 
THE GEOLOGICAL MaGazine—November. The parm history 
e Cephalopoda, recent and fossil, by Miss A. C 
articles mnnarenttet under a eg are usually selected. 


INDEX. 


Aborigines, Social Life of, 
Aegon of water by Ken, 183. 
Acanthogl i am 


i dota te albino, 475. 
acim | in birds, 474 
sari C., on frog, 473. 


59 
oo E ES 353- 
imazon, 634, 833. 
i mbl: stoma opacum, 615, 
\merica, South, 6o. 
\mceba proteus, 2 235 
= pelis garrulus = 
caphicotins. 56, 
inp hice fragilissimus 
M. 


D> bd >>> di >>> 
ao 


3- 
on i oaea in plants, 160. 
Angular aperture 
Anima) intelligence, his: 
oeaan nics, 157. 
ro 
Aat » 40: 
feat og 557 
Anthrenns sertiobictariae. 530. 
Aphelops fossiger, 483. 
mala: rock us, 488. 
Apple, E 
ARA, 16, 
rabidh desert of E; ypt, 702. 

Archeology of Pacific coast, 54. 
Archzopteryx, 65. 
Arctic geology, ee 

ions, 189, 834 
Argonaut, 396, 560. 
Argonauta, 5 
Arrow heads 
Asia, , geography € of oe 566. 


Astacus, 516. 

Asterias ochracea, 351. 
Astragalus, 17 

Aurelia, a de system of, 64. 
Bacilli, 692. 
Bacterium, 81 
sted wW. v on weeds, 740. 
Balanus balanoides E qal 

Ballou, W, e labellin 

Barber, » o —_ ancient we 526, 606, 


the Pacific 


u 
on a ame tana, 630. 
on Indian mr gee Aishes, 403. 
hg ui food, 4 
on "birds, A. 


peed worship, 228. 
Bark-louse, 655- i 


Barnacle n 
Barton, *y on | x, 628, 
Bassaris astuta ia 
ye ae repr of, 264. 
_ Beal, W. J.,0 ertilization of plants, 552. 
of acorns, 182. 
oe weg Ka git , 271 
on hepatica, 330 
on thistles, 643. 
Bee, carpenter, 627. 
Beetone Prag 
536. 
Bein, in, geology of, wand 
botanical notes by, ~~ 748. 
ona feat Caps 2o 250 
o a ey 
: olvo 
Big Horn Cafi kon pes 


Big horn sheep, 556. 


563. 
spate seh isinenée of plants, 


Birds, eiin in, 474. 


of aae parallel, 469. 
of retaoonan paa 470- 
7 

Blackbird. COW, 477. 
Bladderwort, 552. 
Blechnum anf Es 
Blister beetle, 6 a 
Bohemia, natural ae rol, 118. 
Bohemian chat 
emery of New Mexico, , 172, 208. 
Bete pehiasin simplex, 1 
Box, new ae for’ slides, 133. 
Brain of insects, 616, 


Bre x nests of house martin, 
on variations in nests of bin 
h Columbia, 487. 
Brittany Golok of, 832. 
Bro A. E., on serpent and ape, 225. 
on Sirenia, 


on the chimpanzee, 554. 
Bryozoa, 617. 
Buccinum i m, np 
icrogaster, 752. 


Buckhout, W. A 

Bulloch’s microscopes, 192. 

Boes a EDEA S, 472. 
urial, Sindi 628. 


as Sevan oe 
Buzzard, turkey, 821. 


Cabinet for slides, 62. 
California, murs of, 5 
f of, discolored waters of, 85. 
Gait w Taian, 481. 
a 


336. 
235+ 


n Uni nio, 472. 
Ç AES spretus, 516. 
Camarasaurus, 56, 74. 
Cambaru ak 820. 
Camel, quaternary, 760. 
npm anula rnar 817. 
Cuties Ponchoipsle, 189. 
Carp, 200, 


rpe 
Cave animals, 7 
insects oh 
Cephalula, 385 
asiar ge uE. 181, 467. 
Cetonia inda 
Characez, a8. 
oe pern 319. 


ena mbea, 638. 
tt intelligence i in, 554. 
China 


Chiton, 

Cy ypr di 97: tabil , 816 

Cirsium altissimum, 643. 

Clarke, S. F n Cordylophora, 23 
Senu, rs. 

ee — 2 eg 

Clei mous flowers, 388. 

Clep ine, » 642. 

Clepsydrops, 57. 

ies ig as "i — 661 

Cocculus i 

Colorado, dinosauria of, 188. 


ns of, 71, 406. 
eological map of, 546. 
Compass 
ee river, 59, 238. ; 

pe, E. D., oar on pac pa man, 125. 

mphiceelias, 56. 


on Coryphodon, 324. g 
on dinosaurs, 


on 'Ranella clathrata, 124. 


“N 


406. 
on French tertiary mammals, ee 


852 
Cope, E. D., = A et: = — 


on a T 57 
on Rachitomus, 

on saurians of Colorado. 71. 
palæon srg sale notes by, 56. 

relat motion to evolu- 


Corixa, 820. 
Crab, 
Cragin, F. Aah on habits of snakes, 820. 
Crania, 40 
ci nerary urns, 753. 
Crawfish, „molting of, 476. 


3: 
RODEA sparro 
on Ra 
duck, 12 
Cox, J. D., on Pteratomus inoaii. 445. 
Cynomys ludovicianus, 203. 


W, 4 


eathers o ` ruddy | 


Dakota beds, fossils of, 71. 
s ee , 406, 


fossil fish af 57: 
Dall, W. on India 
Danthonia, 248, 388. 
Darien, Isthmus of, 40 
Daven . E., on M Aspiium spinulosum, 707. 
tablet, 400. 
Deer, 180. 
: new, 189. 
Dendreeca Somes. 37- 
Dercum, F., on sensory organs, 579. 
ee wlan, 565. 


Diatoms, 62 

Dicotyledons, natural succession of, 734. 
Diemyctylus, 399 

epea in i plants, 69. 

Dinosauria, 

Dinosaurians of Ta 188. 
Dinosaur, a us, 406. 

= 


aigron : 
Dark raddy, pe ar feathers of, 123. 
Ducks killed by Saeed els, 695. 
pee e, harpy, x 
8o. 


on = ebigt lg aa antelope, =, 
Epanterias opitan» 
Eae — 


Erismatara peculiar fea thers of, 123. 
A ankeaa americanum, 453- 
mdse a B ro.” 186. 
pT 


es, 179. k 
> erns, 249, 62 748. 
ee Fenleatin n m pine 67. 


i ot Kaa dui, yei 
Flora al ‘Alpine, of A of Mt. Shasta, 51 


2 l 


Index. 


Forests in Iowa, 69. 
Formica, 431. 
France, tertiary fau of, 7 
rey, S. ti; neg lugar pal eg 777- 


Fre 
| Frog, Te 
| oe 
| defensive igi px of, 473- 
| ges » 751- 
| Fun 
| Fu nie gee 250. 
| Gabb, W. M., obituary, 494. 
| Gaertner, R. Fritz, on microscope in study of 
| rocks, 13. 
| on per eacnd aed examination 
| of rocks, 
Gage, S. si r Pe of Paris _ injecting 
l mass, 
Gatschet, 1 Indian mounds, 562. 


| | Geographical etna: 512 
| pers of Anes se % 565. 
of, at Paris, 844. 


Gillman, A., yo crania as cin apie urns, 753- 
n Florida fer 
ne Florida glazed Hans pottery, 821. 
odiu 


ssa lyc 
= tee integrifolia, 818. 


! DEAR I phenomena, 487, 832 
| Glaciers, 337, 


recent, in Wyoming, 830. 

Goodale, G. L., s Nabanion noia, 181, 624. 

| Goode, G, B., popular of the menhaden, 
735- ild 
oose, wild, 54. 

Gorilla, 750. 

Grasses of Mexico, 691. 
` Grasshopper, histology o 


339. 
ing of, 4 
Gree i A pie ot N Mexico, 172, 208. 
S, evening, 473 


' Haldeman, S. S., on sparrows and peewees, 124. 
| Halievte, : 292. 
| Halitherium 
| Beery rufus, to. 
» 149 


| Hawks, 1 
| Hayden, F y. — recent glaciers adp Sst 830. 
| n Wasatch group, 831 
Hayden’s easy. 767. 
ofthe er work of, 130. 
erritories, 96. 


_ Hay, O. P., on prairies, 2 


| Hearing, organ of, 580. 
Helix chilhoweénsis, 390. 
Henry, 4 

! preg 

| Heron, night, 27. 

j Hesperiphons vespertina 

L RUL E J, 


n do Ubie-flowered Cypripedium, 816 
mpanula sotundi- 
foli a, 818. 
see 1 vag on fhei muskra 
gy, comparative, 339. 
aie locust, 339 
Hoffmann, W. J., es bino b irds, 474. 
n discoidal stones, 4 
ostitution among ndians, 


t, 398. 


f 
{1 
| 
| ; 
| 

on thee English sparrow, 251- 
| iapa pe 


Hum » 699. 
| Hydrachna AE t45. 
| Hydrozoa, nerves of, 463. 
| ideas scam discurus, 188. 


tus, 38 


, 


= heath or 
Images i in the eyes after sudden death, 


Indians, 
Indian Customs, 308. 
burial, 823 


. 


Mohawk, peli, 777> 
ran h ' 
e ney ll Sister 


Indians = California, 
regon, ce mounds, 562 


mber of, in the rigs a» ‘States, 137- 


In whicien 0 pit pecan r of Pari 
Insect, phosphorescent, cs, 
Insects, brain of, 616, 


ru: 
sic repti es, 760. 


Kansas chalk, fishes of, 128. 
fossils of, 137. 
Kelly, H. A. „Oon Diemyctylus, 399- 


King, O. V. „on ani ghee -eni insects, 354. 
n fireflies , 662. 


Kingsley, J. s. on 


Kite, W., on turkey aed. 821. 


Lælaps 73. 
„akes, origin of, 326. 


Dà 
8 
yi 
5. 
a 
UJ 
nr 
ped 
OE" 


y. J., on Ameeba, 2 vi 
-pidceron longissfanim, 257. 
Lepidurus, 

Leptodiscus medus oides, 253. 


560, 
rise e teeta, 27. 
Locust, histology of, 339- 
Locust mite 
molting of, 4 
ocky r autain, 512. 


Lum, sk Show’ tl, 10. 


Lycopodium cernuum, 749» 
PEA us een 395. 
Lyle, D. A., a 
ge 628. 

robasis, 
pose s American, sb. 


on actin “n Nevada, 18. 


Manatus, 291. 

Man, pote daca 827. 
pliocene, 125. 
races of, 


Ma 
Marshall, J. i on re ee 


Martindale, C., on cle prena fiowers of 


Danthonia, 388. 


Mason, O. T.. apee gatra notes by, 54, 127, 
187, 255, 322, 400, 483, 562, 630, 754, 824. 


yk ga on rae i 839. 
exico, , grasses of, 691. 


Microscope, ‘oe oe , 192. 
ying rocks, 13. 
d, Ee 


Mier, SscOni ne yi 


F » 332, 702, 764, 856. 


UNE, 839. 


] 478. 
] Leaves, ashes of ‘microscopical study of, 704. 


Lintner, TA I beetle, 536. 


Microscopic ruling, 8 
| Microscopic slides it Ge 
Microscopical meron k 

Macias, 63, 194, 260, 410, 

pias 793. 
study of rocks, 219. 

Minot, C. n on comparative histology, 339. 
Mite, pre 
Mohave fsh. ook 
Moll 


Mosses, 693. 
Mounting, sa foi ms of, 839. 
method of fluid, 333. 
hi ge 9 of opaque, 258. 
Mus a 398. 
Musse 1, 695. 
Misch’ distribution of, 472. 
Mya arena: 
Mylodioctes piles! a 397: 


| Nautilus, supape, a 


| New Mexico, plant sh 172, 208, 


New 

Noct ‘due 

Nomenclature, biological, 517. 
Nos oe, 


Nut E H., on Canada fly-catcher, 397. 


Nyasi, lake, s 


Oċtopus, 398. 
punctatus, 509. 


Ophioglossum ps naa 749. 
Orchestia, 353. 

miocene Terraa is 8 33 3. 
Oregon, pliocene ils o 
ake ar 


Oreo 
Orioles sg 
PL on harpy eagle, 146. 


Packard, A. S., Jr., on barnacle, 54. 
on Phyllopoda, 7 : 
on silk-worm 2 379 5 : 

on the rs ra a it. Shasta, 


wild e€, 54. 
208 OY, 512. 


| Pales 
| Aata Na on Indian onetan, 308, on 


a Indian food, 4 i 
n Mohave fish-hooks, 403. : 
Be plants used by Indians, 393, 
646. 


Panocthus, 158. 
Passer domesticus, albino, 475. 


eewee fly-catcher, 12 
Peterman, A. H. ,bitdary of, > 764. 
Pe "i 


us, 55 
Dhcspeerescas insects, 3545 662. 
Photinus, 662. 
a ie 411 

siography 
Puyophis, sh Paar 264. 


* emetic ial influence of, 793. 
cisdthention of, 53. 


854 


Plants, fertilization of, 552. 
fossil, 129. 
fossil —. 


"3503 724. 


moisture on, 318. 
new classification of, 747. 
sre ete = ee animals, etc., 388. 
trans 
— 7 Indians, e 646. 
latysa 382, 
obena a. 
Pliocene man, a k 
verteb 


Riot en, 124- 
par, Ea of, 91, 299. 
Pringle, C. G., on nee — 248, 
Prostitution amon ng the India 
321. 


Pro 549. 
Arna putnamii, 445. 
Pueblos ecu 


606. 
SE PA ae road a ae s54 


tlesnake, 203. 
_ Reptiles, 413. 
jurassic, 760. 
theromorphous, 829. 
Rhinoceros, of Loup Fork epoch, 488. 

Rhus, 59 597, 599 
_ Rhytina realis, 2 298. 

~ Riley, C V. oñ blister ar my 282, 

Robin, 5. Saai 


- Rocks, determined by microscope, 491. 
study of by microscope, 13. 
Rumex 17S. 
- Ryder, J.A., satja - the stapes in Dipodomys, 125. 
onstrous frog, 752. 
mechanics, 
» 557- 


599 
MOAS 


from their 


_ moths, extrication of, 
aes ‘cocoons, 
ien liaa, E 
Sirenia, 291, 
E samopiai 133 

Smith, E. A. e Eene 655, 808. 

, garter, 

Es se 47, nore 


a 
chia 

_ Whale, right, eth 
w, C 


Index. 


Sparrow, Aasen h 
Eur opean,, 104, 499» 
Spiders, Arctic, 393- 
Spirillum, Ee 
raean socialis, 399. 
of Nevada, 18. 
Stock ell, G. ae 
tockwe on chipping sparrow, 
St — discoidai, 478. attest ied 
Stree eae a ghee waters of gulf of 
Califo 
ae oer Pog 254- 
Sturnella magna, aa 
ino, 475. 
abe ink = » 475- 
tee yrophus, 74- 
aki phus marnockii, 253. 
wae carnivorous, 628. 
sep te coloring i in, 695. 
Taste, organ of, 
Telea ‘polyphemus, aes 454. 


Texas, Jand nd sll of, 184. 


Tic eam, 
y, W: E, on P E birds, 472. 


Todd, J. E. = distribution ee oF ae gr. 
n tree with two stumps, 6 

Amayaa ien aber, 397 

Tree with two stumps. 628. 

Trichodesmium erythræum, 89. 

Triungulinus, 21 

| Trombidium giganteum Tya 

| ustarum, 139. 

rum, 144. 


sericea 141. 

Tundra, 

Turdus aos 

Turn-table, Bulloch’s Saltcentering, 333: 
Turner, H., on carpenter bee, 628. 
Turner _H. Ww. on role n, 53 


Unio, 472. 
e i vulgaris, 552. 


eeder ape a on St. Lawrence river, 489. 
a 
Tetes. peripheral nerves of, 810. 
oology of, 809. 
Vibrio, 819. 
Volvox globator, 815. 


i idast g fossil, 633. 


Ward, L. F , genealogy of plants, 359, 72 
Ward ae H., notes on microscopy, 62, A, 192, 
as » 572, 702, 836. 


Was ee 
Waxwing, Y phere 


Wetherby, A. Ga a Marggritana dehiscens, 254. 
xan Strepto matide, 254- 
on lend shells of ‘Texas, 184. 
n Helix chilhoweensis, 399- 
Weeds, 


749. 
Welwits 


Whi A., on garter snake, 53. 
Whitman, C. O., on n cipem ag 
Sau, ’S. W., on prairié 
Wilkinson, Jr., È., on Taelyphonus, firey 
Wisconsin, geology of, 1 

rship, solar poi 
Woe recent aden in, 830, 


Xylocopa, 627. 


| Yarrow, 


Yarnall, E. H., geographical notes, 566, 634. 6995 
ama H.C. on two-headed snakes, 47°- 


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a mt of an Aquatic Submerged „Plant. — 
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—Absorbtion of Water by Roots 
Zoology.—Homologies of the Sarbodcs of Mammals, 
etc eek igang bee caer of Texas —A — Blight 
of Hawks.—A Texan Cliff Frog.—Occu 
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Anthropology. 
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E PRAIRIE O OWL AND EPA the Western Faihath. Part II. The Tertiary Flora. 
EE UN E erik ec e suas aos ag Lodge by —Recent Books and Pamphlets. o 
MBLES OF A Botan In New Mexico. Il. uae soit Not 248 
d Lee Gre 208 tany. ~Cheistcgamous Flowers in EAA T aie tes 
Se menga ah. Cae oF TH wees ot North America.—A Fossil Fungus.—-Botanical 
 BLISTER-BEETLES, (With Plate.) Chas. V. Zoology.—Notes on the Nesting Habits of the Eng- 
í re 21 lish Samar ON —The largest of gye pat ne Polyzoa, 
eee eens ee ee ee) 3 —T'wo New Genera o North Am Phong a 
OF ROCKS AND FossIts kishes.—A New Genus of Cysti thider {ro 
lenas EXAMINATI ION H. a ni ae eptodineus meduscies, 
ritz- Gi 219 Seema nex pi luca. —Margaritana dehisc 
5 5 $ —On Texan Streptopomaiide. 
F Een AND THE APE. Arthur E. Anth tian —Anihropslnial News.—Foreign. 
Brown... 225 Geol wh Palaont: —A gy sina fom. 
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228 — =o th 1 D’ Arno.—Surface bvare British 2 
olumbla, By trae) 
EW "yaso lami gSa = eae HE Dier ecaa- ethod of Opaque Mounti sie a 
UE E Rede oi ER css sabe E E ee 232 Images wi e eyes after sudden Siskeraory work at He 
= tions in Microscopica 
Foseph Leidy.. 235 the seaside.—Soirees.— Exchanges 
serken <2 eens NEWS. ... ; oa N 
la and the River Congo.—Barrois’ PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCI k 268 
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s needed to "Fertilize Utricularia ad ; 
nd Hall's List of the Mosses, 

s of Illinoi a 
Fein EN F "i Chimpanzees. —Is the Rocky. 


Bot. —Insects 
Pysidanthera. —Wolf a 
Liv rts and Lichen 


pipe ORY = ze 
Mountain on ia st re with Fake —Disco Æ 
a Remar! Min e Myriapods in Fair- 
t Park, Philadephia Mode of Construction of 
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Anthropology- Ön n che Punishment of Prostitution 
mong the Abori —The Diminutive Mounds of | 


egon Indians.—Attention called to Papers and sepas © 
rate Publication rag ja = E ar 
an ala@ontology.— pecies. 

phiccelias. — The — of yee and M E 

yang —A new, Diadectes. —Geology of the British 

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Geography and Travels. — Colonel Prejevalsk 
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280, 41 
105,658 70 
3 71 


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$2,191,769 49 
1,768,131 51 
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$2,713,059 32 
$954,466 go 
466,859 06 
182,590 83 
De fo 79 


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O GENERALIZATION. Francis Der- any. ee in pcr pr hare a Ours.—A Tree 
PEE A e ERER AEI enna 79 se gaa i —Bota 
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E Srares, Edward Palm 503 The Skunk Eaten by the Lynx.—Carnivorous Tad- 
2 ; Pee ee EAJ poles, 
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ALLEY OF THE R1o SAN JUAN. ( Part 71.) renege a Cal. gay ig Baril cs aoa 
dunn A. Barber... o.oo deees oes + teins 6o06 OSes 
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_ How THISTLES SPIN. W. F- Beal........-+ 


_ PLANTS USED BY THE INDIANS OF THE UNITED 


= STATES. [Concluded.] Edward Palmer.... 646 
THe  MAPLE-TREE BARK-LOUSE. ip A. 

Smith kara GSS 
_ THE FIRE-FLIES AND THEIR PHOSPHORESCENT 

_ PHENOMENA. Mrs. V. O. King.....essese 662 
_ PHYSIOGRAPHY. C. Lloyd Morgan . 665 
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GENERAL NOTES. oescc ccs tee sci veetsens cers 
Bot: —The Grasses of Mexico.—The C nnection 

of Bacilli vith Splenic F ever. — Ascent of Sap i in Trees. 

ete = 


ology. an wo- headed Snakes. Big eo Coloring in 

Ta reseed —Fresh-water Mussels v : 

a Ce EEN ose aad a 
Sig od and Travels.—British Association. ‘Sic as 


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A AGE 
. i ci SPINULOSUM (SWARTZ) AND ITS VA- GENERAL NOTES...-..-s+: 
RIETIES. Geo. E. Davenport. cccccceesces: o Botany. iee Cla sification of the Nat pee k 
i 797 dom,—Rare_ Ferns in Cen a pein Lycopodium: 


PE l 
a, OF an AS AN eee Mass. Zoology.—The Right Whale of the Southern Ruro- 
HF: TEER B RE 3X 6 pean Seas.—. of Gorilla.—The Herpetol- 
: ogy of Ne uinea.— onstrous Fr —The C 
ia dr a sig te T OF THE DICOTY- coons of Mitrogaster onia inda injuring Corn. 
i ar = Anthr opolegy — gangs nia utilized as Cinerary Urns 
o's SA ee DA 724 rial Mound in Florida.—Anthropological News. 
A Toe reign. 
sw TUDY OF THE POPULAR oy OF THE Gee na Ar and Paleontology.—The ee a of 
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; 7 7, Tenisty of France. à : 
“Anour WEEDS. W. W. Batley. ..sseee-+s z 740 Geography and Travels = saki Nyassa. s e 
RECENT LITERATURE a; - 743 lor niais — National Microscopios Conga 
Wallace’s Tropical Nature. ETRS “of N h N Aa 
f American Beate oll ontology.—Proc Bh Bam ga of SCIENTIFIC NEW a 
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toe ere eee 93 pean Formation. —The emg oe is- 
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