H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 353 



yet detected in the tertiary are Asimina or papaw, the JEs- 

 culus or horse-chestnut, the witch-hazel, etc. The absence of 

 some genera may, however, be accounted for by the readiness 

 with which their leaves become decomposed before a suitable 

 cast can be made of them in the muds into which they fall. 



The general similarity of the modern flora of North Amer- 

 ica to that of its tertiary and even cretaceous deposits, ac- 

 cording to M. Lesquereux, indicates a very ancient origin of 

 the former. The chain of connection, however, from the up- 

 per cretaceous to the modern dates is not entirely complete, 

 there being several important links wanting, particularly that 

 of the pliocene period. The only locality of strata of the later 

 age known to Mr. Lesquereux is at Columbus, Kentucky, on 

 what is called the Chalk Banks of the Mississippi, where he 

 obtained sundry specimens not to be distinguished from liv- 

 ing species ; among them the live oak, chincapin, wahoo elm, 

 the winter berry, calamus root, the pecan nut, etc. Haydeii's 

 Report. 



DEATH OF A. J. SPRING, OF BELGIUM. 



An eminent Belgian botanist, Mr. Antoine Joseph Spring, 

 died at Liege on the 17th of January, at the age of fifty-seven. 

 This gentleman long occupied a conspicuous position among 

 the men of science of his country, having been elected pro- 

 fessor at the University of Liege in 1839. He had previous- 

 ly spent several years at the botanic garden in Munich, under 

 the direction of Von Martins, and devoted himself especially 

 to the study of the Lycopodiacem, assisting Von Martius in 

 the elaboration of the species of this and some other families 

 for the " Flora Braziliensis." He subsequently devoted con- 

 siderable time to the investigation of the mushrooms, and 

 published several papers upon them. He did not, however, 

 confine himself to botanical investigations, but prosecuted re- 

 searches in physiology, and upon the movements of the heart, 

 with special reference to the mechanism of the auriculo-ven- 

 tricular valves. He also took a prominent part in the dis- 

 cussion of questions connected with prehistoric man, and en- 

 deavored to establish a chronology in the so-called Stone Age. 

 The first stage, which he called the preglacial, had reference 

 to the tertiary man, the contemporary of the Elephas merid- 

 ioncdls ; the second, or postglacial, embraced the celebrated 



