138 cook: ivory palms in panama 



arises as to the validity of some formulas that have been assigned 

 to minerals which have been separated by heavy solutions. 



The calcium carnotite will be described in detail by Mr. Mer- 

 win and the author in a later paper. 



MINERALOGY. — Two varieties of calciovolborthite (?) from 

 eastern Utah. W. F. Hillebrand, Bureau of Standards, 

 and H. E. Merwin, Geophysical Laboratory. To appear 

 in the American Journal of Science and the Zeitschr. Kryst. 

 Mineral. 



Descriptions in some detail will appear in the above named 

 journals of two hydrous minerals, one essentially a vanadate of 

 copper, the other an arsenovanadate of copper and calcium. The 

 minerals were briefly mentioned by J. M. Boutwell in Bulletin 

 260 of the U. S. Geological Survey a number of years ago, but 

 analyses were not pubhshed. Better material not being forth- 

 coming the analyses are now put on record, together with results 

 of recent optical study. For the present both minerals are referred 

 referred to calciovolborthite, since the molecular ratios show closer 

 relationship to that imperfectly described species than to any 

 other. One variety is yellow green, with little arsenic, the other, 

 highly arsenical, is greenish yellow. The latter is pseudomorphic 

 after the former. The locaUty of occurrence is Richardson, in 

 the canyon of the Grand River, Utah. 



BOTANY. — Ivory palms in Panama. 0. F. Cook, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry. 



New materials for the study of the ivory palms (Phytelephan- 

 taceae) have become available in the collections of economic 

 plants secured in Panama in 1911-12 by Prof. H. Pittier of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The series is more 

 extensive than any obtained by previous explorers and throws 

 light on the geographical distribution, morphology and classifica- 

 tion of this long-neglected family. It may be that special stu- 

 dents and collectors of palms have felt at liberty to neglect the 

 ivory plants because some botanists have denied that Phytele- 



