5° 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



junction of formations for incorporation in the present 

 map. The general appearance of the sheet, largely 

 aided by the vast areas covered by many formations, 

 is most pleasing to the eye. Its execution leaves 

 nothing to be desired, for the colouring is refined and 

 clear, a reference letter renders consultation easy and 

 error impossible, and it is altogether creditable to the 

 energy and talents of Mr. W. J. McGee, its compiler, 

 and the topographical staff of the Government 

 Geological Survey, which has its headquarters at 

 Washington, D.C., with Major J. W. Powell, the 

 ethnologist and earliest explorer of the cafions of the 

 great Colorado river as director-in-chief. The nomen- 

 clature adopted for the respective groups of the 

 Cainozoic, Mesozoic, Palaeozoic, Azoic and Volcanic 

 systems necessarily differs somewhat from that in use 

 in Europe. — i, Quaternary ; 2, Neocene (which 

 includes the Pliocene and Miocene) ; 3, Eocene (and 

 the Oligocene) ; 4, Cretaceous ; 5, Jurasso-Triassic ; 

 6, Carboniferous ; 7, Devonian ; 8, Silurian ; 9, Cam- 

 brian ; 10, Archaean; 11, Volcanic. A glance over 

 the map shows that the peninsula of Florida is not 

 such a recent product of gulf sand as Agassiz once 

 reasoned, for it is largely composed of a well-marked 

 ridge of Eocene rocks. The immense extent of the 

 central carboniferous tract is reassuring, and the great 

 stretch of cretaceous affords plenty of ground for the 

 hope that the former shore-lines of those extensive 

 chalk oceans may yet be discovered with the buried 

 land fauna of that epoch, and that somewhere or 

 other, sooner or later, Professor Marsh may yet 

 disinter the remains of the first ungulate ancestors of 

 the Eocene dinocerata mammals, whose forms he has 

 so fully restored to us. 



1 1 Wellington Road, Brighton, Sussex. 



NOTES ON FASCIATION. 



IN last April's number of Science-Gossip, several 

 instances are given showing that fasciation is 

 often perpetuated by seed, and amongst the plants 

 mentioned is that of the ox-eye daisy (C. Leucan- 

 themum). The seedlings from the plant mentioned 

 have flowered during the past season, and out of fifty- 

 five plants, about twenty developed fasciated and 

 abnormal flowers, some very mis-shapen, others only 

 slightly fasciated- This result has to be taken with 

 the fact that the seedlings have been growing in a 

 much richer soil than the older plant was found in, 

 and I have no doubt that the change of soil influenced 

 to some extent the development of abnormal flowers ; 

 still the proportion of plants having abnormal flowers 

 to those having no trace of fasciation shows that 

 fasciation is perpetuated by seed. The extent to 

 which soil influences abnormal growth is shown 

 by the following cases. This summer a vine having 

 its roots in a border outside, and its stem inside 

 a glass house, developed a number of curious, 



flattened stems, or rather shoots, from the common 

 stem ; these shoots have proved very abortive, a con- 

 dition due to their fasciated state. An examina- 

 tion of the border has shown it to be in a very wet 

 condition due to the stopping up of a drain, the roots 

 therefore have been feeding too rapidly on the rich 

 wet soil, with the result that very sappy wood has 

 been developed, a condition which is highly conducive 

 to abnormal developments. In previous years, when 

 the soil was in a normal state, no such development 

 was noticed. On p. 86 of the volume for 1885, 

 there is a case given of an herbaceous plant [Sedunt 

 glaucum), taken from a dry, rocky position to that of 

 a damp loam, with the result that fasciation quickly 

 affected the stem. I have been able to note again a 

 similar effect with a totally different plant : tubers of 

 Tropczolum tuberosum (a native of Peru) were planted 

 out last April in a strong clay loam, with just enough 

 light soil to give them a fair start ; the result was very 

 curious. At first the ordinary terete stems were 

 developed, but as the season advanced the stems 

 began to assume a ribbon-like shape, and in some 

 instances, curvatures, and shapeless masses of stem ; 

 flower buds have been developed on the flattened 

 stem, but have not yet opened. 



A few bulbs of the same plant were inserted in a 

 light sandy, dry soil, in another part of the garden, 

 with the result that they have developed the ordinary 

 terete stems, and have flowered freely, one stem only 

 showing slight traces of fasciation ; this stem with 

 examples of the two previous stems are sent with 

 these notes. 



If the condition of fasciation was common with the 

 ancestors of these plants, then its influence must have 

 been transmitted through, first the seed and afterwards 

 the tubers, the plants having been perpetuated for 

 several years by the latter, as a means of reproduc- 

 tion, and in any case the condition of the soil has 

 been an active agent in the development of these 

 peculiarities. 



John W. Odell. 



Barroto Point, Pinner. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 

 (MUFFET'S THEATRUM INSECTORUM.) 



[Continued from />. 11.] 



WITH the revival of learning, however, towards 

 the end of the middle ages, a few persons re- 

 sumed the pursuit of Natural Science. Among these 

 the foremost was Conrad Gesner, a man born of poor 

 parents at Zurich, A.D. 1516, but who seems to have 

 been the most apt and indefatigable of men ; His 

 various biographers are full of admiration for his 

 personal qualities, and his learning in all branches 

 seems to have been, as Hallam says, "simply 

 prodigious." The same author speaks of him as 



