l6 NATURAL SCIENCE. January. 1897. 



of the western end of the Hampshire Basin. The London Clay thins 

 to less than 100 feet in Dorset and becomes more sandy and pebbly, 

 though still apparently of marine origin. The Woolwich and Reading 

 series becomes more fluviatile than at Newhaven and Portslade, as it 

 contains lenticular patches of subangular gravel to the west of 

 Wareham. The Lower Bagshots also become coarser and more 

 purely fluviatile westward, the change near Dorchester being 

 singularly rapid. Mr. Reid's study of the composition of the Eocene 

 gravels in this area shows him that the rivers which deposited them 

 must have flowed from the west or south-west. The paper, of course, 

 gives the details of which this note is the mere conclusion. 



Botanical Scraps from America. 



We have just received some portions of vol. x. of the Proceedings 

 of the Washington Biological Society, containing small contributions to 

 the botany of the mountain regions in the Western United States. 

 C. Hart Merriam describes a new fir (Abies arizonica) from the San 

 Francisco and Kendrick Mountains, Arizona, where it grows at an 

 altitude of between g,ooo ft. and io,ooo ft. It is a tree about 40 feet 

 high with fine-grained elastic bark, the creamy-white colour of which 

 makes it a conspicuous object in the mountains. Its nearest ally is 

 Abies lasiocavpa, a tree ranging from Southern Alaska and British 

 Columbia southward, over the Rocky Mountains into Utah and 

 Colorado, and over the Cascade Range to Southern Oregon. The 

 smaller cones and broader cone-scales are distinguishing features of the 

 Arizona fir. 



F. V. Coville describes a new rush (Juncus confnsus) from the 

 Rocky Mountain region, and gives a synopsis of the group of (chiefly) 

 American species to which it belongs. He also gives an account of a 

 new currant (Ribes erythrocavpum) found growing near Crater Lake, 

 Oregon. Crater Lake is described as "a remarkable body of the 

 purest water, nearly circular in form, about six miles in diameter and 

 2,000 ft. in depth, without a visible outlet, occupying the bowl of an 

 extinct volcano in the southern part of the Cascade Mountains of 

 Oregon." The surface of the water has an altitude of 6,239 ft., and 

 the surrounding cliffs rise 1,000 ft. to 1,500 ft. higher. The mountain 

 slopes are densely forested, and as no botanist seems to have heretofore 

 explored this part of the Cascades, the plants collected by Mr. 

 Coville and his friend may prove of unusual interest. 



