378 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



DAWSON ON CANADIAN FOSSIL PLANTS. 



Principal Dawson, of Montreal, has added to the list of im- 

 portant scientific memoirs from his pen a report on the fossil 

 plants of the lower Carboniferous and Devonian of Canada, 

 constituting one of the more recent publications of the geo- 

 logical survey of Canada. This gentleman occupies a high 

 position as a fossil botanist, sharing the honor of pre-eminence 

 with Dr. J. S. Newberry and Professor Leo Lesquereux. The 

 paper is amply illustrated, and will doubtless become a stand- 

 ard work. 



In a recent notice of the geological survey of Ohio, we men- 

 tioned inadvertently that the report on the fossil plants was 

 prepared by Professor Lesquereux. This was an error, as 

 no one is more competent for this work than the head of the 

 survey. Professor ISTewberry ; and a memoir on the subject, 

 soon to appear from his pen, will form one of the most im- 

 portant features of the report of the survey. 



ARCTIC PLANTS FR0:M POLARIS BAT. 



Some specimens of plants collected by Dr. Bessels, in Pola- 

 ris Bay, and presented by him to Caj^tain Markham, were re- 

 cently submitted to Dr. J. D. Hooker for determination, as 

 being the most northern point where any phanerogamous 

 plants were ever secured. The species proved to be Draha 

 alpina^ L. ; Cerasiium alpinxmi^ L. ; Taraxacum densleonis, 

 Desf var. ; and Foa flexuosa,V^ii\\\. \2 A^Oct. 9, 1873,487. 



VIRTUES OF EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS. 



The Australian tree Eucalyptus globulus (and perhaps 

 other species of this genus) is attracting much attention at 

 the present time from its properties as a sanitary agent, cer- 

 tain French writers insisting that where it is planted it ef- 

 fectually dissipates all tendency to intermittent fever in its 

 vicinity. The tree grows with incredible rapidity, and is 

 said to take up from the soil ten times its own weight of 

 water in twenty-four hours, at the same time emitting anti- 

 septic camphoreted vapors. By the first of these properties 

 it dries up marshy lands, and by i1?s emanations tends to 

 counteract the noxious elements which would otherwise 

 poison the atmosphere. 



