36 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



Dame range. But the gold of southeastern Quebec is not confined 

 to the oldest rocks. Though occurring in these, it is also found 

 in quartz veins which traverse Cambrian slates. Indeed, the 

 largest quantities of alluvial gold have been obtained in districts 

 occupied by these slates, where they are cut by diorite dykes, a 

 fact brought out by Ells. On the supposition that the original 

 source of the precious metal is in the pre-Cambrian schists, how- 

 ever, these, in their disintegration and waste, may have yielded 

 gold to the sediments which, doubtless, entered into the composi- 

 tion of the Palaeozoic rocks. This gold would be in a fine state of 

 division, but would be concentrated in the quartz veins at a later 

 date. 



The total gold production of southeastern Quebec, as been 

 valued at two millions to two and a quarter million dollars. Of this 

 amount probably from one million and a quarter to a million and 

 a half dollars worth have been taken from the Gilbert river beds 

 alone. Ditton is said to have yielded from seventy-five to one 

 hundred thousand dollars. The remainder has been obtained 

 from the gravels of Du Loup, Famine, Des Plantes and 

 Mill rivers, tributaries of the Chaudiere, and from Dudswell, 

 Magog, etc., on the St. Francis. 



A New Horse Gentian. — In the March number of Torreya, 

 Dr. Bicknell describes a new species of Triosteum which he names 

 T. aurantiacum. An examination of the specimens in the herb- 

 arium ot the Geological Surve}- shows that while those from 

 Western Ontario are T. perfoliatum those collected at Casselman, 

 near Ottawa, are T. aura?itiacu?n. Though there are many strik- 

 ing differences between the two species, the most obvious one is 

 to be seen in the main leaves "which broadly perfoliate in true 

 perfoliahini are in the new species conspicuously narrowed into a 

 merely sessile base." As the two species have much the same 

 range T. perfoliattini should be looked tor in this vicinity. ^ 



C 



