ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 54^ 



Fossil Tertiary plants found in Seymour Island about latitude 

 64° 15' S., as fragmentary and badly preserved leaf -impressions in a 

 marine volcanic tufa contain different species of ferns, the determination 

 of which is difficult, a conifer with distichous leaves, and a single leaf 

 suggesting an Araucaria near A. brasilknsis. The leaves of the di- 

 cotyledons are generally small and have the same facies as those of 

 certain Tertiary floras of Southern Europe ; leaves of Fagus indicate 

 the existence of the genus in South America or the neighbouring Ant- 

 arctic regions since the beginning of the Tertiary iperiod. Owing to 

 their existence in a marine deposit, it is possible that these plants may 

 have been brought some distance, for M. Agassiz has shown that fruits- 

 and leaves may be found at the bottom of the sea more than 1000 kilo- 

 metres from the nearest land. 



Presence of Abronia in the Tertiary Flora of Europe.* — 

 L. Laurent refers to this American genus the specimens of fossil fruit 

 from Cantal, which were originally referred to Ulmus by Unger, and were 

 considered by Saporta and others to belong to Zygoffhyllum. Abronia 

 cycloptera A. Gray var. micrantha Torr., from the mountains of 

 Wyoming, has fruits identical with the fossil specimens. Abronia is a 

 herbaceous plant belonging to the order Nyctagineae, and is at the 

 present day confined to Western North America. It will rank with the 

 Californian element represented by Taxoclium and Sequoia, which is so 

 abundant in the Tertiary forests of Europe. 



De Wildemah— Sur les Acarophytes. (On myrmecophilous plants.) 



[The author suggests that the considerable variations found in the form of the 

 acarodomatia on the leaves of species of Coffea in tropical Africa are due to 

 hybridisation.] Comples Bendus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 1437-40. 



Habshbeeger, J. W. — A photogeographic sketch of extreme south-eastern Penn- 

 sylvania. 



[An account of the various plant formations, and suggestions as to the origin 

 of the flora.] Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxi. (1904> 



pp. 125-59 (4 figs, in text). 



Malme, G. O. — Beitrage zur Kenntnis der sudamerikanischen Aristoloohiaceen. 

 (South American Aristolochiaceae.) 



[A systematic account, with notes on morphology and distribution.] 



Arkiv for Botanik (K. Svensk. Akad.) i. pp. 521-52 



(3 pis. and 4 figs, in text). 



Sherman, P. L., Jun. — The gutta-percha and rubber of the Philippine Islands. 



[An account of the subject from historical, botanical and economic points of 

 view.] Department of the Interior, Bureau of Government Laboratories, 



Manila, 1903, 43 pp., 2 maps, 41 pis. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



Pteridophyta. 



Anatomical Structure of Hymenophyllaceae.f — E. Ott has made a 

 careful study of this order, and finds that fresh light is thrown on the 

 systematic classification by taking into account the anatomical structure 

 of the rhizome. Other authors have treated of the general anatomical 

 structure of Hymenophyllaceaa, but rather in order to compare it with 



* Comptes Eendus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 996-9. 



t SB. Akad. wiss. Wien, cxi. (1902) pp. 879-925 (3 pis. and 9 figs.). 



