1870.] BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 3-i3 



and educatioa, and now Professor in Cornell University, gives 

 some interesting notes on his present explorations in Brazil. The 

 letter is dated from near Mont Alegre, Rio des Amazonas : — 



" I have been making some discoveries down here that I think 

 will interest you. On the Hio Tapajos I found a large area 

 occupied by Carboniferous (lower) strata, affording fossils in pro- 

 fusion. The rocks are sandstone, limestone and shale, — the two 

 former full of fossils. The strata are horizontal. The fossils 

 bear a very close resemblance, many of them, to Nova Scotiau 

 species. There is a Productus cora and a P. semireticulatus 

 wonderfally like the forms found at Windsor. I have between 

 one and two hundred species of these fossils, and most of 

 them will admit of determination. 3Iany of the brachiopods, &c., 

 are perfectly free from the rock, and shew interiors, loops, &c. I 

 have one species of Trilobite, probably PhUUpsia. Of fishes I have 

 teeth, scales, and spines. I am in doubt whether the deposits are 

 Sub Carboniferous or Lower Coal Measures ; I think the latter 

 the most probable. I am going to give up my little steamer, 

 which, through the kindness of the President of the Province I 

 have had for two months, and divide up my party. I shall then 

 return to the Tapajos to study out carefully these carboniferous 

 deposits and Agassiz's drift. By the bye in this last there are, at 

 Mont Alegre and Aveiros, trap beds." 



BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 



The Geographical Handbook of Ferns; by Katharine 

 M. Lyell, London, 1870. — Mrs. Lyell has done good service 

 to botanical students by compiling and publishing this excellent 

 and most laboriously prepared handbook. The labor incident to 

 such work can be appreciated only by those who have made similar 

 attempts at compilation and geographical distribution. The globe 

 is divided into eighteen sections or botanical areas, and the 

 catalogues of all the species known to occur in each of these sec- 

 tions occupies the bulk of the volume; an indication of the distri- 

 bution of species throughout the section is given in addition to 

 the name, — thus NiyhrocUum fragrans occurs in three of 

 these catalogues, first in one of the sections of Asia.. '-Northern, 



