1893. THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF MADAGASCAR. 195 



gascar will be found in the journal of the Linnean Society for 

 1890. In this volume Mr. Baron gives a general sketch of the flora, 

 dividing the island into regions, and treating of the geographical dis- 

 tribution. The affinities of the plants with those of America, 

 the fruits, cereals, and vegetables, garden trees and shrubs, are all 

 treated of by Mr. Baron, who also gives an appendix of introduced 

 plants. Mr. J. G. Baker contributes to the same volume descriptions 

 of 160 new species collected by Mr. Baron, of which four belong to 

 new genera. A fourth part of Grandidier's great work, dealing with 

 the plants, was issued in 1892, but the foolish practice of issuing 

 plates without text makes this publication of little value at present. 



The Mosses and Hepatics are treated of by Stephani, who 

 publishes technical descriptions, with figures of new species. 



Geology. — The geology of Madagascar is best known from the 

 researches of Cortese and of Baron. Cortese supplies a map of the 

 whole island, while Baron deals only with the northern half. Roughly 

 speaking, a line drawn from north to south, and dividing the island 

 longitudinally, shows a granitic and a volcanic area on the right side, 

 and a Secondary, Tertiary, and Recent area on the left side. The crys- 

 talline area consists of granite, gneiss, syenite, diorites, amphibolites, 

 and basalts ; the sedimentary series, by their included fossils, repre- 

 senting the Jurassic, Upper and Middle Cretaceous, Nummulitic 

 series, and Recent deposits. Much blown sand occurs round the 

 coast, and numerous old lake basins are found, one of which, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Baron's map, must have been nearly 300 miles along. It is 

 to these old lake basins that we mainly look for evidences of the 

 ancient fauna of Madagascar. The petrological characters of the 

 rocks have been described by Cortese, while Hatch has dealt with 

 those specimens brought to England by Baron. For general informa- 

 tion on the fossil fauna, see Newton's two papers, quoted below, with 

 the references therein contained ; and a paper of Stanislas Meunier in 

 La Natuyaiiste, for Aug. i, 1893. ^^ this last paper figures are given 

 of several Cretaceous oysters from Mahamayo, recently received from 

 M. Gautier, and some general notes on Malagasy geology are appended. 



Geographical and Zoological Relationships. — The observa- 

 tions of Mr. H. O. Forbes, which include Madagascar, and of which 

 the essence was given in this Journal for July, may be compared 

 with those of Riitimeyer " Ueber die Herkunft unserer Thierwelt " 

 (4to, Basel und Genf, 1867), and with those of Emile Blanchard, " Les 

 preuves de I'effondrement d'un continentAustral pendant I'age moderne 

 de la terre " [Comptes Rendus, vol. xciv., 1882, pp. 386 and 395) ; 

 while much general and particular information will be found in Dr. 

 Blanford's address to the Geological Society, and in his review of 

 Boulenger's " Catalogue of Snakes," in Nature, Aug. 3, 1893. 



Hans Gadow, in the last number of Bronn's " Klassen und Ord- 

 nungen des Thierreichs " (vol. vi., pt. 4, 1893), ^^^s some observations 

 on the geographical distribution of the Ratite and rail-like birds. 



