December 6, 191 7] 



NATURE 



273 



netic Department of the Carnegie Institution, a deter- 

 mination of the longitude of Papeete, in Tahiti, was 

 made by wireless signals from the observatory^. Local 

 time was determined by means of a theodolite, with a 

 probable error of half a second of time. The longjtude 

 of Point Venus was found' to be 149° 30' i" west, this 

 being about three seconds of time greater -than that 

 usually quoted. The adopted position of the transit 

 instrument at the Hector Observatory is longitude 

 iih. 39m. 4-27S. east of Greenwich, latitude 41° 17' 

 3-8" south, and height 418 ft. above 1909 mean sea- 

 level. Improved equipment for an observatory so far 

 south is greatly to be desired. 



Orbits of Three Spectroscopic Binaries. — Three 

 spectroscopic binaries of considerable interest have 

 been further investigated at Ottawa by Dr. W. E. 

 Harper (Journ. R.A.S., Canada, vol. xi., p. 341). The 

 star 20 ff Cassiopeiae, of type A5 and photographic 

 magnitude 52, has two luminous components, and the 

 orbits of both have been determined. The period is 

 1-96408 days, and the range of velocity of each com- 

 ponent 235 km. per sec. The orbit is nearly circular. 



The star 29 Majoris is the typical star of the Harvard 

 class Oe, showing the dark lines of hydrogen, helium, 

 and the ^ Puppis series, in addition to faint emission 

 bands at 4633 and 4688; its visual magnitude is 477. 

 The range of velocity is 437 km., and is the largest for 

 any spectroscopic binary yet discovered. The period is 

 43934 days. The emission band 4688 shares in the 

 periodic shif tings due to the orbital motion. The eccen- 

 tricity of the orbit is 0156. 



In" the case of the star Boss 35 n, of type F and 

 photographic magnitude 53, the range of velocity is 

 20-5 km., and the period 1-61275 days. The eccen- 

 tricity of the orbit is 0-067. 



PAL/EONTO LOGICAL PAPERS. 



FOSSIL floras figure largely in the recent publica- 

 tions of the United States Geological Survey. 

 In Professional Paper 98-H, F. H. Knowlton describes 

 thirteen species of plants from the Fox Hills Sand- 

 stone of S. Dakota, only four of which were pre- 

 viously known. Remains are scanty, since the beds 

 are marine; but their interest lies in their position 

 between series, the Montana and Laramie formations, 

 that contain abundant plants. The affinities are dis- 

 tinctly with the Upper Cretaceous, and the flora seems 

 to have been well supplied with moisture along a 

 shore-line. E. Wilber Berry (Prof. Paper 91) furnishes 

 a detailed report, accompanied by 117 plates, en "The 

 Lower Eocene floras of South-Eastern North America." 

 The material is derived from the widely spread Wilcox 

 series, which is typically developed in Wilcox County, 

 Alabama, and is known through Mississippi, Arkansas, 

 Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Except for a small 

 fauna (a "faunule") recently discovered in Mississippi, 

 the almost entire absence of animal remains in this 

 vast area is remarkable. Insects, which must have 

 been abundant, are represented merely by the traces 

 of their activities among the plant-remains. The 

 flora is of Ypresian age (p. 152), and contains thirty- 

 nine genera in common with that of Alum Bay in 

 the Isle of Wight. Identical climatic conditions on 

 both sides of the .Atlantic are implied. 



In Publication No. 254 of the Geological Survey of 

 Queensland, J. H. Reid clears up an important point 

 in connection with the upward range of Glossopteris. 

 Newell Arber had previously, and with good reason, 

 doubted the occurrence of this genus in the Lower 

 Cretaceous Desert Sandstone of Bett's Creek, and it 

 is now sh'own that there is an unconformity at this 

 locality, and that the remains of Glossopteris belong 

 to the underlying Permo-Carboniferous system. 



The problematic Parka decipiens of the British Old 

 NO. 2510, VOL. 100] 



Red Sandstone has been reinvestigated by the late 

 Lieut. A. W. R. Don and George Hickling (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. London, vol. Ixxi., p. 648, 1917 for' 

 1915). The vegetable nature urged in 1890 by Reid 

 and Graham is confirmed ; but considerable doubt is. 

 thrown on the alleged microspores and prothalli, and 

 the general form and vegetative structure are .found 

 to be " closely reproduced by some specimens of the 

 recent alga, Melobesia lichenoides'' (p. 659). A tenta- 

 tive suggestion is made that Parka was a thallophyte 

 with algal affinities. 



C. D. Walcott deals with "The Albertella Fauna in 

 British Columbia and Montana'' (Smithsonian Mis- 

 cell. Coil., vol. Ixvii., No. 2, 191', ), and shows, after 

 field-investigations in a picturesque and mountainous 

 district (plates i and 2), that the Mount Whyte Beds 

 containing Olenellus are truly Lower Cambrian and 

 not in the Middle Series, and that the fauna char- 

 acterised by the trilobite Albertella is found above 

 them, and is of Middle Cambrian age. The author 

 is thus able to accept L. D. Burling's conclusion 

 with regard to the latter fauna, while correcting him 

 in reference to an alleged survival of Olenellus. 

 Numerous species of trilobites are figured. 



L. W. Stephenson adds to our knowledge of the 

 exclusively Cretaceous genus of corals, Micrabacia 

 (U.S. Geol. Survey, Prof. Paper 98-J, 1916), and adSs 

 six new species and two varieties from Upper Creta- 

 ceous horizons in the United States. Bruce Wade 

 {Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xliii., p. 293, 1917) describes 

 Busycon cretaceum as the oldest known of the Ful- 

 gurid gastropods. He points out that the family 

 should strictly be called Busyconidae. It has special, 

 interest in being restricted to the eastern region of 

 the United States, from this Upper Cretaceous 

 example to the present day, a fact that is explained 

 by the absence of a free-swimming larval stage. 



Several new species of trilobites are described by 

 A. Ware Slocum from the Upper Ordovician Maquo- 

 keta Beds of Fayette County, Icwa (Ann. Rep. Iowa 

 Geol. Survey for 1914, published 1916). The new 

 genus Cybeloides is established (p. 212) as distinct 

 from Cybele in the characters of its cephalon. The 

 remarkable genus Sphaerocoryphe, with its globular 

 apex to the glabella, is abundant in the upper beds. 



The genus Eurypterus is so rare in Upper Carbon- 

 iferous strata that we welcome the description of a 

 new species from the Coal Measures of Belgium by 

 Xavier Stainier of Ghent (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 London, vol. Ixxi., p. 639, 1917). A review is given 

 of the eleven Carboniferous species previously recorded. 



The largest amphibian knowh from the Trias of. 

 North America is represented by part of the left half 

 of a labyrinthodont jaw from the Newark Beds of 

 Pennsylvania {Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xliii., p. 319, 

 1917). The describer, W. J. Sinclair, names the genus 

 Calamops, since impressions of " horse-tail rushes " 

 occur upon the layer encrusting the bone. Surely this 

 is making too much of an accident to an individual. 

 The name " Reed Face " among American Indians 

 would not be extended to others of the tribe. 



Joseph Barren {Soientific Monthly, vol. iv., p. 16,. 

 1917) suggests that a climatic change, mvolving desic- 

 cation, reduced the forests that were the habitat of 

 arboreal anthropoids, and thus led to the development 

 of primitive man. "The apes which were trapped in 

 this way in Central Asia were forced to win most of 

 their living on the ground" (p. 23). Pithecanthropus 

 of forest-clad Java must have arisen farther north, 

 and the ancestors of true man must be looked for in 

 Miocene strata in regions which were then passing into 

 steppes. Incidentally Prof. Barrell seems to accept 

 too readily (p. 21) G. S. Miller's view that the jaw 

 found at Piltdown is that of an ape and not of Homcf 

 dawsoni. G. A. J. C. 



