184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



vary from three to four, five, and six. I may add that five-lobed corollas are 

 common, and these are usually accompanied by five anthers. 



The number of male plants is about equal to the female ; occasionally 

 plants of the separate sexes intermix. I, and probably others, have often 

 noticed in the fall some patches bearing abundantly, other patches without 

 a berrj'. The facts I now offer afford the solution. 



In reference to Miichella, it may not be out of place to correct an error in 

 Lindley's " Vegetable Kingdom." The letirned author includes in his natural 

 order Cinchonaceffi Mitcke/la, Cephalantfius, Diodia, Oldenlnndia and Spermacoce, 

 — all high northern plants; and yet, when speaking of the geography of the 

 order, writes that " the most northern species in America is Pinckneya ptcbens, 

 inhabiting the Southeru States of North America." 



Second contribution to the History of the Vertebrata of the Miocene period 

 of the United States. 



BY E. D. COPE. 



A visit to the Miocene region of the western shore of Jlaryland, has ex- 

 plained to the writer more clearly the stratigraphical position of the verte- 

 brate fossils described in this and preceding essays on the subject. 



The miocene deposit which contains the fossils, consists of a dark sandy 

 clay, varying from a leaden to a blackish color, through which water does not 

 penetrate. Its upper horizon may be traced along the high shores and cliffs 

 of the Chesapeake by the line of trickling springs which follow its upper sur- 

 face. The bottom I have not seen, and cannot give its depth, but a great bed 

 of shells occurs at from fourteen to twenty-two feet below its upper horizon. 

 This consists of, first, two separate shallow strata of shells, and about four 

 feet below the upper, a heavy bed at the depth mentioned. The lesser beds 

 vary in amount, being sometimes wanting. 



The streams of the country either flow on or cut the shell beds, and display 

 their washings, as teeth of sharks, cetaceans, etc. The bones generally occur 

 at or near the level of the upper line of shells. The remains of the large 

 whale, the Eschrichtius cephalus mihi, lay across the bed of a small run 

 and penetrate the bank, where I saw the remainder of its vomer, of which I 

 have the half; with numerous other parts of the cranium added since the de- 

 scription of the species, it was dug out by my energetic friend Jas T. Thomas, 

 whose evidence as to the pertinence of the various pieces described to the 

 same animal is conclusive. It is, if need be, confirmed by the white color and 

 porous texture of them all, a character not noticeable in other large whale 

 remains procured by him. Apparently pertaining to a genus known as fossil 

 only from the European drift, it becomes important to be sure of its Miocene 

 origin. This must be admitted ; it lay together as originally deposited, just 

 below the upper shell line, and did not extend so far down as the great bed, 

 from 10 to 18 feet below the top of the blue loam. The upper line of the latter 

 has been varied, inland, by the various operations of erosion, etc. In some 

 places it forms the bottom of vallies, which are excavated almost to the shell 

 line. In such a. situation, about 3} feet above the great shell bed, and a few 

 inches below the surface on the side of a creek, the bones of Galeraand Dico- 

 tyles occurred. 



BASIL OS A URID.iJ. 



CETOPHIS Cope. 



This genus rests upon the evidence furnished by caudal vertebra; in the col- 

 lection. They present an approximation to Basilosaurus in the great thick- 

 ness of their* epiphyses. In the more elongate vertebra each epiphysis will 

 measure the third the length of the centrum deprived of them ; in the less 

 elongate, they measure one-half the same ; in the shortest, more than half the 



[July, 



