384 NATURAL SCIENCE. Dec. 1895. 



genus hitherto known only from the north 'of the continent has its 

 range extended into the heart of tropical Africa. The new species 

 closely resembles our native Epipactis latifolia in its stem and leaves, 

 but has larger flowers. 



North American Deltoid Moths. 



Dr. J. B. Smith has just issued {U . S. Nat. Museum Bulletin, 48) 

 another of his valuable memoirs on the moth-fauna of Boreal North 

 America, containing the group of noctuids generally known as 

 Deltoidea — the snout-moths and their allies. The work comprises a 

 discussion of the limits of the section, with special reference to struc- 

 tural characters, followed by tables, and descriptions of the genera 

 and species, including a full synonymy. There are nine photographic 

 plates to illustrate the species described ; in the majority of figures 

 the characters are clearly brought out by the process employed. We 

 also notice with pleasure the five plates which show the structural 

 characters of the various genera. Among the deltoid moths, the 

 males are often provided with complex and mysterious sense-organs 

 on the feelers and legs. That attention is drawn to such structures, 

 as is done by Dr. Smith's figures, is a welcome contrast to the neglect 

 of everything but the wing-patterns, which too often characterises the 

 work of systematic writers on the Lepidoptera. 



Dispersal of Marine Animals by Seaweeds. 

 Mr. Rupert Vallentin [Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 Nov., 1893), gives the results of many interesting observations he has 

 made upon the dispersal of marine animals. His attention was 

 attracted to the subject by finding, three miles south of Falmouth 

 Harbour, a mass of Fucus serratus floating in the ebbing tide. To its 

 base was attached a large stone, and numerous hydroids and bryozoans 

 were carried as passengers. Many of the common seaweeds float for 

 considerable periods, Fucus nodosus, for instance, for eleven and a half 

 weeks, and, therefore, with favourable winds and surface currents, 

 seaweeds and the animals upon them could travel enormous distances. 

 He has found Cavdium edule and the common mussel attached to 

 floating weeds, as well as masses of the ova of Aplysia, while many 

 annelids and hydroids are (juite common. It is clear, then, that, in 

 addition to dispersal by free-swimming larvae, a number of littoral 

 and bottom-forms may spread by this passive agency ; as the large 

 weeds of the Laminarian zone are frequently uprooted during storms. 

 We have always thought that the delicate, short-lived pelagic stages 

 of many annelids and molluscs were given too great an importance 

 from the point of view of dispersal, and Mr. Vallentin's observations 

 help to explain many difficult cases. 



