10 The Evolution of the Catfishes. [ ZOE 
thoroughly established and stationary habit of the plant, for it is 
certainly not increasing, at least in later years, and the unlikelihood 
of any extraneous origin, it appears more satisfactory to regard it 
as a native of this region, as well as of the coasts of Southern 
Europe. 
Here may be mentioned a few other Umbelliferze which had not 
been observed when the Botany of California was completed. 
Pastinaca sativa, the wild form! of the cultivated parsnip, I first 
collected in 1882 in Edgar cafion, near the San Gorgonio Pass, 
where it was well established at a stream bank for some distance 
below a farm house. About five years ago it began to appear by 
the roadside near San Bernardino, and is yearly becoming more 
abundant. 
Anethum graveolens occasionally appears in the same neighbor- 
hood, but so far as I have observed only as a transient escape by 
roadsides and yards. Dr. H. E. Hasse, however, reports it as 
“apparently established at Los Angeles.” 
The same gentleman has observed Fwniculum vulgare as an 
escape at the same place, and Mr. W. E. Lyon has collected Corian- 
drum sativum, the common coriander, in San Diego county.* 
*Coult. & Rose, Rey. Umbell., 35. 
*,* The writer would be greatly obliged by the communication of notes on the 
naturalized plants of the region embraced in this paper, in order that the account 
may be as complete as possible. 
oa 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE CATFISHES. 
BY CARL H. EIGENMANN. 
The Nematognathi, the Eventognathi and the Gymnonoti have 
been united by some comparative anatomists, chiefly on account of the 
presence of a Weberian apparatus, under the supra-ordinal name Os- 
tariophysiz. The Weherian apparatus consists of a chain of ossicula 
auditus lying beneath the lateral processes of the anterior codssified 
vertebrz. The structure and functions of this apparatus being highly 
complicated and specialized it is not probable that it was independ- 
ently developed in the above named orders, and the common de- 
scent of the Nematognathi, Eventognathi and Gymnonoti from prim- 
itive Ostarioyhysize may be granted. This view was first proposed 
