610 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



inadequate. Blanco described 1127 species and varieties, 289 of which 

 are to-day either unknown, or at least very imperfectly known only 

 from his descriptions. Of 1628 species described by him as new, 297 

 have been referred to previously described species, and it is hoped that 

 future work in the Philippines will enable us to identify a large 

 percentage of those still unknown. His material came chiefly from the 

 island of Luzon, and by far the greater part of this from provinces near 

 .Manila. Very few plants were from the higher altitudes. 



Botany of the Southern Islands of New Zealand.* — L. Cockayne,, 

 under the title of "A Botanical Excursion during Midwinter to the 

 Southern Islands of New Zealand," gives a somewnat full account of 

 the geology, climate, and plant formations of the Auckland Islands, 

 Campbell Island, the Antipodes Islands, and the Bounty Islands, and 

 discusses the history of the flora of the Southern Islands generally. The 

 flora includes 138 seed-plants, 54 of which (39 p.c.) are endemic, 26 

 (18 '8 p.c.) Fuegian, 7 (5 p.c.) Fuegian which do not extend to New 

 Zealand, and 58 (43 • 1 p.c.) New Zealand, excluding the New Zealand 

 Fuegian element (19 species). The author favours the idea of a former 

 land connection to account for the large South American element in the 

 New Zealand flora. He also discusses the effect of animals, indigenous 

 and introduced, upon the vegetation of these islands. 



Fossil Grasses and Sedges, f — E. W. Berry recapitulates the 

 evidence as to the existence of fossil Grlumaceae. There is no evidence 

 of their existence in the Palaeozoic floras, and very little definite evidence 

 for the older Mesozoic. The Cretaceous seems to have been very poorly 

 provided with sedges, judging from fossil remains, but grasses are quite 

 numerous (Arundo, Culmites, Poacites, etc.). With the Tertiary both 

 became more common, more than two score species of each type having 

 been described from the Eocene ; while from the Miocene numerous 

 species founded on culms, glumes, inflorescences, leaves, and rhizomes, 

 have been described. The author describes as Car ex ClarJcii, a new 

 species which he finds to be abundant in the Atlantic coastal plain at a 

 time when the transition beds between the typical Raritan and the 

 typical Matawan were being laid down. The remains consist of 

 fragments of leaves. 



Japanese Mesozoic Plants.^ — M. Yokoyama gives an account of 

 some fossil plants from Yamanoi and Bitchu. From the former he 

 determines two species of Cladophlebis (one new), three of Dictyophyllum 

 { two new), Podozamites lanceolatus, Nilssonia Inovyei sp. n., and Baiera 

 paucipartita, and points out the indubitable Rhsetic nature of the florula. 

 From Bitchu he determines some fragmentary specimens of Cladophlebis, 

 Sayenopteris, Arthrophyopsis (?), and Nilssonia, and also Podozamites 

 lanceolatus. The specimens come from a plant-bed at Nariwa, im- 



* Trans. New Zealand Inst., xxxvi.(1904) pp. 225-333 (14 pis.). 



t Amer. Nat., xxxix. (1905) pp. 345-8 (fig. in text). 



X Journ. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokio, xx., Art. 5 (1905) pp. 1-13 (3 ph.). 



