I50 NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



The great danger that all scientific institutions of this kind in 

 America have to fight against, is the meddling of politicians. A real 

 advance was made not long ago, when all those employed in the 

 scientific bureaus were put in the classified service, corresponding to 

 the Civil Service of Britain, and were thus no longer changed with 

 the change of governments. Still there is always room for the enter- 

 prising Congressman, and there may be some to think that the 

 National Museum is better off when responsible to an enHghtened 

 body like the Smithsonian Institution, than it would be when under 

 the thumb of unsympathetic politicians. A great scientific department, 

 too, would bring with it the inevitable red-tape ; and it is doubtful 

 whether the production of scientific work would be facilitated by a 

 subdivision of the department according to means rather than ends, 

 which is what Dr. Dabney seems to suggest. No one but a cheese- 

 paring politician or a Treasury clerk would wish to see more offices 

 like those of the Government Printers, the Stationery Office, or the 

 Office of Works. 



Geographical Distribution in America. 



The boundaries of the life-areas of southern North America are 

 discussed by Mr. C. H. Tyler Townsend in a paper " On the Bio- 

 Geography of Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona," lately 

 contributed to the Texas Academy of Science. Mr. Townsend 

 endeavours to lay down more precisely the limits of the regions and 

 sub-regions marked out by Dr. Merriam. For this purpose he uses 

 the distribution of plants as well as of animals. The Transition and 

 even the Boreal Zone can be traced southwards in the higher mountain- 

 ranges into Texas and Mexico, and at a lower level Upper Sonoran 

 elements in the fauna and flora were noticed. The Neotropical belt is 

 believed by Mr. Townsend to stretch considerably farther to the north 

 along the west coast of Mexico than along the east ; and he attributes 

 this to the cold northerly winds which prevail at certain seasons on 

 the Gulf coast, but never on the Pacific shore. 



At the end of his paper Mr. Townsend gives a " Synopsis of the 

 Life Divisions of America." He recognises five Regions, which he 

 terms Boreal, Neotemperate, Neotropical, Austrotemperate, and South 

 Boreal, the " Austrotemperate " including Chih and the Pampas, 

 while the " South Boreal" is a circumpolar region to which Patagonia 

 is transferred. What countries of the Eastern Hemisphere are included 

 in it we are not told. This attempt to raise Patagonia, even with New 

 Zealand perhaps thrown in, to the rank of a zoological region compar- 

 able to the Neotropical will hardly commend itself to students of the 

 distribution, especially when the new region is saddled with so peculiar 

 a name as " South (!) Boreal." And those naturalists who are 

 inclined to follow Dr. Merriam in considering southern North America 

 as worthy of regional rank will prefer the established name Sonoran to 

 such a barbarous hybrid as " Neotemperate." We regret that Dr. 



