MISCELLANY 



125 



Fossil ilftrses. In the American Nat- 

 uralist for May, Prof. 0. C. Marsh has an 

 article on " Fossil Horses in America," in 

 which he says that the remains of equine 

 mammals hitherto found in the Tertiary and 

 Quaternary deposits of this country repre- 

 sent more than double the number of genera 

 and species occurring in the strata of the 

 Eastern Hemisphere. It is in ancient lake- 

 basins of Wyoming and Utah that the old- 

 est equine remains have been found. These 

 belong to the genus Orohippus, and are of di- 

 minutive size, hardly larger than a fox. The 

 skeleton of these animals resembled that 

 of the horse in many respects, but, instead 

 of a single toe on each foot, the various 

 species of Orohippus had four toes before 

 and three behind, all of them reaching the 

 ground. Of Orohippus Prof. Marsh has 

 found four distinct species. The genus 

 Miohippus makes its first appearance in the 

 Oregon basin. It is distinguished from the 

 Orohippus chiefly in that it has only three 

 toes in the fore-foot, as well as behind. 

 In this genus all the toes reached the ground. 

 In the same deposits the genus Anchitheri- 

 um occurs, being represented by a single 

 species. The animals of these two genera 

 are all larger than Orohippus, some of them 

 exceeding a sheep in size. Of the Pliocene 

 genera more than twenty species have been 

 described, all apparently larger than their 

 Miocene relatives just mentioned, but all 

 smaller than the present horse. In the 

 Upper Pliocene, or more probably in the 

 transition beds above, there first appears a 

 true JEquus, anu \ m tne Quaternary, remains 

 of this genus are not uncommon. Thus 

 there is a continuous development in the 

 direction of the modern horse, and it seems 

 very strange that none of the species should 

 have survived. 



Tidal lnflnenee on Vegetable and Ani- 

 mal Life. The following dispatch was sent 

 by A. N. Duffre, United States consul at 

 Cadiz, Spain, and communicated to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture by the Secretary 

 of State : 



A Madrid paper, entitled La Epoca, has 

 published an article signed by Don Luis 

 Alvarez Alvistur, on the influence of the 

 tides on vegetation, in which the writer 

 announces a new theory, based on the re- 



sults obtained during fourteen years de- 

 voted to experimental research, by an en- 

 lightened landed proprietor of Lorca, in 

 the province of Murcia. 



The theory adopted was the direct in- 

 fluence of the tide on the circulation of the 

 sap, and its experimental application, after 

 determining the meiidian of the estate, and 

 tabulating the corresponding hours of ebb 

 and flow, has been the felling and lopping 

 of forest-trees solely during the hours per- 

 taining to the ebbing tide. The results are 

 stated to have been conclusive, the decay 

 annually observable formerly in some por- 

 tion of the timber having ceased complete- 

 ly in the many years that have elapsed 

 during the application of the new principle. 

 The system was then applied to an olive- 

 grove, the yield of which had ceased to 

 cover the annual costs of culture, by re- 

 moviug every dried portion of the trees ex- 

 clusively during ebb-tide. The result is 

 stated to have been the complete trans- 

 formation of the grove, a great develop- 

 ment of foliage, and abundant crops. 



Equally admirable results ensued from 

 the similar treatment of orange, lime, and 

 other fruit-trees, which were thenceforth 

 unaffected by larvae or other plagues which 

 smote adjoining orchards ; and, finally, the 

 vineyard of the Lorca landlord, though 

 surrounded by those of other proprietors 

 which were devastated by the oidium, a 

 microscopic fungus which appeared in the 

 district at the period when the new sys- 

 tem was first essayed, has never exhibited 

 the faintest trace of the presence of the 

 malady. 



It is likewise asserted that experiments, 

 made with equal sets of silk-worms, respec- 

 tively fed on leaves of trees treated by the 

 ordinary and by the new system, the leaves 

 under the new plan being gathered exclu- 

 sively at the hours corresponding to the 

 ebb-tide, resulted most decidedly in favor 

 of the latter. 



How tbe Fnegians keep warm. In 



" A Memoir of Richard Williams," an Eng- 

 lish missionary to Patagonia, occurs the 

 following passage : 



" When clothing is scanty, by the same 

 providential management which coats the 

 whale in frozen seas with oil, the Fuegian 



