Jan. 9, 1890] 



NATURE 



221 



instance it would surely have been well for the author to 

 have departed from his rule and introduced the latter 

 term as a synonym. A still more glaring instance of the 

 inadvisability of dropping all mention of synonyms 

 occurs in treating of the lesser shrew (p. 13), for which 

 the name Sorex minietus, Linn., is adopted, in place of 

 the later 6". py^^mceiis, Pall. Now, the author refers to 

 Bell's " British Quadrupeds " for the distinctive characters 

 of this species, which is there mentioned only as S. 

 pygmceus ; thus laying himself open to the criticism of 

 those who are not specialists that he has confused the 

 terms pygmietis and minutus. This species has, more- 

 over, never been recognized in the district, so that its 

 mention seems rather unnecessary. In discarding the 

 name Lepiis timidiis in favour of L. europceiis for the 

 common hare, our author follows those who regard the 

 letter of the law as more than the spirit ; and although 

 there is but little, if any, doubt that at least some of the 

 hares to which Linnaeus applied the name of L. timidus 

 were really of that species to which we commonly apply 

 the name L. variabilis, yet we cannot help thinking that 

 the former name might be advantageously retained in its 

 common acceptation. 



Among the Ungulata, the author retains the fossil 

 Bos longifrons {frontosus) as a distinct species, although 

 it has been shown over and over again that it can only 

 be regarded as a race of B. taurus. Similarly, all recent 

 observations tend to show that Bos prinii genius is nothing 

 more than a larger variety of the same species ; while 

 there appear to be no valid grounds for specifically dis- 

 tinguishing the Pleistocene Bison priscus from the living 

 Lithuanian aurochs. The author would confer a great 

 benefit upon palaeontologists if he could show how the 

 skull he refers to the so-called Sus palustris can be 

 specifically distinguished from one of S. scrofa. 



In commenting upon the absence of remains of fossil 

 Carnivora from the Leicestershire Pleistocene, Mr. Browne 

 does not appear to be aware how extremely rare these 

 remains are in the equivalent deposits of other counties. 

 Thus, at Barrington, in Cambridgeshire, where bones 

 and teeth of Ungulates are found by the hundred or 

 thousand, those of Carnivores may be reckoned by units 

 or tens ; and the introduction of special hypotheses to 

 account for their absence in Leicestershire is, therefore, 

 quite superfluous. 



The total number of mammals mentioned is forty-eight 

 (including man), but of this list only twenty-five are now 

 found in a wild state in the area described. The num- 

 ber of species of birds is very large, as we might expect 

 in an area of the size of that forming the subject of the 

 work. Several species, such as the gannet, cormorant, 

 &c., are, however, but occasional stragglers from the 

 coast ; while in other cases, as we have already remarked, 

 the evidence of occurrence within the two counties is of 

 the slightest, A good lithographic plate of Pallas's 

 sand-grouse, and a coloured one of the cream-coloured 

 courser, are given ; and we also have an elaborate table 

 of the dates of arrival of summer immigrants. In the 

 reptiles, the five existing species are almost lost among a 

 number of fossil forms, to which they have but a very 

 remote kinship. This swamping of recent forms by their 

 fossil allies is, however, not so marked among the fishes, 

 owing to the circumstance that all the fossil forms belong 



to extinct families, which follow the recent ones. Mr. 

 Browne follows Prof. Cope in abolishing the orders 

 Teleostei and Ganoidei, and arranging the representatives 

 of the former and the typical groups of the latter in a 

 sub-class Teleostomi, which is ranked as equivalent to 

 the Elasmobranchii. The Salmonidce are thus imme- 

 diately followed by a family which the author, in defiance 

 of all grammatical rules, terms Leptolepidcs, and which 

 forms a transition from the Ganoids to the Teleostei. It 

 seems strange that, while employing the correctly-formed 

 term Rhizodotitidcs (instead of Rhizodidcs), the author 

 should retain names like Leptolepidce and Osteolepidce 

 in place of Leptolepidida; and Osteolepididce ; but here, 

 perhaps, he merely follows those who ought to know 

 better. The number of fossil fishes from the Lias quar- 

 ries of Barrow-on-Soar is very considerable ; and we 

 believe that the Leicester Museum is rich in this respect, 

 as well as in the remains of Saurians from the same 

 locality. 



The author seems to have spared no labour in looking 

 up references and making his work in all respects as 

 nearly complete as possible ; and, since the volume is 

 handsomely got up and well printed, with a remarkable 

 freedom from misprints, it should take a place in the first 

 rank of local faunas. R. L. 



THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF ASA GRA Y. 



Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Selected by Charles 

 Sprague Sargent. Two Vols. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., 1889.) 



NO more fitting monument could have been raised to 

 the memory of the late Dr. Asa Gray — who was 

 almost as well known to botanists on this side of the 

 Atlantic as on the other — than a reprint of a selection of 

 his numerous writings. During a period of upwards of 

 fifty years he was actively engaged in the investigation 

 and publication of the botany of North America, and 

 studies of a wider range. As Prof. Sargent says, in his 

 preface to the present collection, " The number of his 

 contributions to science and their variety is remarkable, 

 and astonishes his associates even, familiar as they were 

 with his intellectual activity, his various attainments, and 

 that surprising industry which neither assured position, the 

 weariness of advancing years, nor the hopelessness of the 

 task he had imposed upon himself, ever diminished." 



The hopeless task, it may be explained, was a complete 

 " Synoptical Flora of North America." Botanists need 

 not be told how he laboured to complete this gigantic 

 undertaking, even at an age when most men are past 

 work. Taking up the work where the unfinished " Flora 

 of North America," by Torrey and Gray, ceased thirty- 

 five years previously. Gray published the remainder of 

 the Gamopetalae in 1878. This was followed in 1884 

 by a re-elaboration of the Compositse and neighbouring 

 natural orders ; and the whole was re-issued in the form 

 of one volume in 1886. This volume comprises about 

 1000 closely printed pages of descriptive matter — descrip- 

 tive matter perhaps unsurpassed in botanical literature, 

 and dealing with 567 genera and 3521 species. What- 

 ever may be done by Gray's successors towards com- 

 pleting the " Synoptical Flora," his own contribution is a 



