576 - NATURAL SCIENCE. 



OCT.. 



In an earlier number [supra, p. loi) reference was made to the 

 peculiar group of large horned or hornless Ruminants more or less 

 closely allied to the Giraffe, such as the Helladothere of Greece, the 

 Samothere of Samos and Persia, and the Sivathere and Hydaspithere 

 of India. Hitherto this group has been known only from the countries 

 above-named, but we have now to record that a member of the 

 assemblage has been obtained from the Pliocene strata of Oran, in 

 Algeria. For this new creature Mr. Powel proposes the name of the 

 Libythere [Lihythcrium). This new discovery is of the more interest, 

 since it shows that the ancient Pliocene Giraffes of Europe and Asia 

 were accompanied in their migration into Africa by a member of the 

 Helladothere group, although whether the latter ever reached the true 

 Ethiopian region must await further investigation. 



Professor Karl Mobius has recently been studying the hair of 

 the existing elephants, and communicated the result to the Royal 

 Prussian Academy of Sciences. He finds that, in addition to the 

 sparse long hairs, there are most distinct traces of a fine under-fur ; 

 and this fact is of great interest in connection with the remarkable 

 development of the wool in the extinct mammoth of .Siberia. 



An account of " Charles Moore, F.G.S., and his work," has been 

 contributed to the Proceedings of the Bath Natural History and Anti- 

 quarian Field Club, by the Rev. H. H. Winwood. Moore's life was 

 largely devoted to palaeontological studies among the Rhaetic, Liassic, 

 and Oolitic rocks, more especially of Somersetshire and Glamorgan- 

 shire. To him, mainly, we owe the recognition of the Rhaetic beds 

 in this country. His chief work was, however, among the fossils, and 

 the large collection he gathered together has brought fame to Bath, 

 in whose museum they were placed. Unfortunately, nearly all the 

 specimens have lately been removed from the room in which they 

 were arranged by Moore, into an upper room, the Saurians affixed to 

 the walls remaining below. The memoir is appropriately accom- 

 panied by a list of the fossil types and described specimens in the 

 Bath Museum by Mr. Edward Wilson ; and we are informed that 

 Mr. A. Smith Woodward has in preparation a monograph of the 

 Fossil Fishes of the Upper Lias, an exceedingly fine series having 

 been obtained by Moore from Ilminster. 



At the recent meeting of the British Association, Dr. Schmitz of 

 Greifswald, made an important communication on the tubercles formed 

 in the fronds of certain red seaweeds of the family Florideae. These 

 he attributed to the action and growth within the tissues of Bacteria — 

 a remarkable discovery in many ways, since the sea must now reckon 

 its Bacteria, and the plant-world this time furnishes another instance 

 of disease caused l)y this agency. Mr. George Murray criticised Dr. 



