September 7, 1893] 



NA TURE 



437 



Most of the rain fell in thunderstorms, but their area was very 

 limited ; the amount in that of June 15 within 5 miles of this 

 place is an example : — 



Caldicot Hall ... 



Dennelllill 



Wirewoods Green 

 Shirenewton Hall 



0'04 

 o'i7 

 o"56 

 I 01 



Itton Court i'50 



Piercefield Park 1-79 



The Mount, Chepstow i 96 



The rainfall in 



Jlay 

 June 

 July 



Aug. (to 17th) 



was 2'6 ; of this 2'4 fell from 15th to 20th. 

 ,, i'8 ,, 10 (ell on 15th. 

 ,, 2'9 ,, i"i fell from loth to 15th, and 

 10 on i8th and 19th. 

 ,, i"8 ,, fofellon ist to 3rd, and o'6 

 on loth. 



Thus, of the total rainfall (97), 7 'i inches fell on 17J days out 

 of the l7oday,s. On August 9 there was no rain, but more 

 lightning than I had seen since the memorable storm of 

 August 9, 1843. It commenced at 9 p.m. and lasted five 

 hours. From very frequent counting there could not be less 

 than 10,000 flashes (the estimate was 11,540). For three hours 

 the most number of flashes in a niiimte was 121, and the least 

 39. Before the storm of June 15 the j^tound was dry to the 

 depth of 15 inches, and this 1 inch of rain only penetrated 

 2 inches. The long intervals of drought have parched the 

 ground, so that we are still suffering from want of rain. 



The Drought and Heat of 1893. 



The results of an unusual occurrence like the present season 

 show as clearly as instrumental observations the exceptional 

 character. We have a very near copy of the drought of l858- 



1870; ».^. Monmouthshire is repeating what in 1868-70 occurred 

 in Nottinghamshire. Flowers and fruit have been a month 

 earlier than usual, their period has been of short duration, and 



NO. 1245, VOL. 4S] 



insect pests have been very great. There has been an extra- 

 ordinary abundance of apples, peats, plums, cherries, goose- 

 berries, currants, field mushrooms, butterflies, moths, flies, 

 caterpillars, cuckoo-spit aphis, slugs, and wasps. The tree- 

 wasp, which is rare, has had many nests, and, as the structure is 

 not generally known, my son has taken the enclosed photograph, 

 which clearly shows it. The tree-wasp's nest is built much 

 earlier than that of the ordinary wasp, and equally large, a low 

 bush being the situation usually selected. Nightingales 

 and cuckoos have been very numerous. Grass is now being 

 mown for hay, and four to five acres will only yield a ton, 

 whilst the straw of corn is shoiter ihan ever before known. 

 Trees are also very bare of leaves. Water is scarce, as many 

 springs have been dry for some weeks. In June the trees and 

 shrubs were as if varnished from extensive honeydew, which 

 the thunderstorm cleared away. Strawberries are blooming a 

 second time, and there are many plants seeding that do not 

 usually seed here. 



E. J. Lowe. 



Some Recent Restorations of Dinosaurs. 



Under the above title, an illustrated article, by Mr. R. 

 I.ydekker, appears in Natuke, July 27, 1893, p. 302. This 

 purports to give a summary of what has recently been done in 

 restoring certain remarkable forms of extinct reptiles. Most 

 of the statements made are correct, but with them are a 

 number of serious errors that may mislead readers not familiar 

 with the subject. As the restorations given are, with ( ne 

 exception, my own, and represent indirectly several years' work 

 in the field and museuui, I trust you will allow me to call 

 attention to some mistakes in this article, which were perhaps 

 made by Mr. Lydekker through inadvertence, or from his not 

 having seen the specimens described. 



In the introduction, the date 1878 is given for the first of my 

 memoirs on Jurassic Dinosaurs ; whereas in ihe previous year 

 I described (i) the earliest of the huge Sauropoda found in 

 America, proposing the family name Atlantosauridas for the 

 genera Atlantosaurus and Apato'^aurus ; {2) various carnivorous 

 Dinosaurs of the present order Theropoda, including the genera 

 AUosaurus and Dryptosaurus ; (3) the Stegosauria, reprei^ented 

 by Stegosaurus, the first American genus of the group ; and (4) 

 several small forms of true Ornithopoda, including Nanosaurus. 

 The family AtlantosauridiE, the sub-order Stegosauria, and the 

 genera here mentioned, were thus established by me in 1877 

 in the American journal of Science, vol. xiv. ; a small matter 

 in itself, but the beginning of a long investigation. 



The first restoration given by Mr. Lydekker, Fig. I, is that 

 of my Brontosaurus excelsus, reduced from an outline sketch 

 published, as slated, in August, 1883 ; hut no reason is as^signed 

 for not using, especially in a nummary of recent work, my more 

 complete restoration of 1891, which includes the results of much 

 additional study. This figure represents a typical member of 

 the order I have called Sauropoda, but in the text the name 

 used is Sauropsida, a much more comprehensive term. 



The second restoration. Fig. 2, called " A Carnivorous Dino- 

 saur," is said to have been reproduced from my figures. This 

 must be a mistake. It is evidently printed from one of my 

 cliches, and is certainly used without authority. Moreover, the 

 name I gave to the animal represented {Ceratosaurus nasicornis) 

 is not even mentioned, but it is incidentally stated that my 

 genus Ceratosaurus, based on this unique specimen, is insepar- 

 able from the European Megalosaurus. '1 his statement could 

 not be fairly made by anyone familiar with the type specimens 

 of the two genera, or even with the literature. Only a few 

 authentic remains of Megalosaurus aie known, and I have 

 studied all ihe important specimens v\ith care. There is no 

 evidence that the skulls are identical in the two forms, and 

 much against it. The plano-concave cervical vertebrae of Cera- 

 tosaurus, unknown in any other Dinosaur, are radically different 

 from the convexo-concave vertebrae of Megalosaurus. The 

 complete co-ossification of all the pelvic elements of Ctrato- 

 saurus is another distinctive character, and the union of the 

 metatarsals also is important. An elementary knowledge of the 

 structure of Dinosaurs is quite sufficient to show any anatomist 

 Ihat the two belong to genera widely different, and to indicate 

 for them distinct families. Additional remains, obtained since 

 Ceratosaurus was described, have in great part removed the 

 objection that the co-ossification mentioned may have been 



