160 REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



10. — Rhizobotbya, a New Genus of Plants in the Gebman Floba. — Among 

 a great number of Draba stellata gathered by Siebold in the Austrian Alps (na 

 more precise indication is given), M. Tausch found a plant which he took to be 

 a new species of Cochlearia. On examining the plant more attentively, he was 

 agreeably surprised by discovering a new genus, allied to Kernera, Med. The 

 lateral radicule prevents it from ranging in the genus Eudena, Humb. and Bonpl., 

 where the radicule is dorsal. He promises to publish a figure of this plant, and 

 gives the name Rkizobotrya to the new genus. 



M. Tausch adds a complete description of this new plant, and re-arranges the 

 genus Kernera, the better to characterize his Rkizobotrya.— Annates des Sciences 

 Naturelles. 



GEOLOGY. 



11. — On the Basilosaubus, a New Genus of Saubian Fossil, biscovebeD' 

 in Amebica. — The discovery of this species is due to Judge Bbee, of Arkansas, 

 who found, in 1 834<, the first vertebra on the marshy borders of the river Washita. 

 Towards the close of the same year, other vertebrae, fragments of the lower jaw, 

 &c, were discovered at Alabama, thirty miles from Chairbome. Several enorm- 

 ous vertebrae, teeth, ribs, fragments of the shoulder, humerus, tibia, &c, have 

 since been collected, and recently (May, 1835) another skeleton, promising rich 

 fossil remains, has been found. There were near it one of the caudal vertebras 

 of the Mosaurus, or Crocodile of Maastricht. 



All the bones that have been secured, though differing from each other in 

 relative proportions, belong to the same species ; the structure of the lower jaw, 

 which is hollow, indicates that it belongs to an extinct genus- of Saurians. The 

 comparatively small size of the bones of the extremities prove that the tail was 

 the principal organ of motion ; the anterior members ought to have been fins. 

 The series of vertebrae, extending in one specimen to the length of more than 100 

 English feet, and estimated at upwards of 150 in that of Arkansas, shows that 

 this gigantic animal must have equalled or even surpassed these dimensions, and 

 renders it worthy of the name it has received, Basilosaurus, or King of the 

 Saurians. — Bibliotheque Universellede Geneve. 



REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



A Nomenclature of British Birds ; being a systematic catalogue of all the 

 species hitherto discovered in Britain and Ireland, intended for labelling collections 



