96 Miscellaneous. 



the sides of the upper surface slightly less convex transversely, and 

 the beak of the articular face a little less pointed. Its length, mea- 

 sured along the axis, is very nearly one inch ; the shorter diameter of 

 the articular face is five lines, and the longer, or transverse, ten lines. 

 The coronary or middle phalanx, is proportionally more elongated 

 than in the living species, and its proximal end rather more trian- 

 gular. Its length along the axis in front is nine lines, the width of 

 the articular face of the proximal end ten lines, and that of the 

 distal end nine lines. The dimensions of all, or nearly all, of the 

 remaining bones render it very probable that they belonged to the 

 same individual, or at least to one of similar size, and specifically 

 identical. They indicate an equine animal scarcely more than two 

 feet, or possibly two and a half feet in height, although full- 

 grown, as the ossification of the bones clearly proves. Additional 

 parts of the skeleton, especially the teeth, would perhaps show 

 generic characters different from those of the living horse ; but in 

 the absence of these, as the remains are evidently distinct from any 

 hitherto described, the species may be named Equus parvulus. This 

 makes seventeen species of fossil horses now known to have lived in 

 North America, although until quite recently it was very generally 

 believed that there was none indigenous to the continent. 



The bones above described occur in a stratum of grey arenaceous 

 clay, lying nearly horizontally, and apparently of later Tertiary age. 

 The large number of vertebrate remains found together in the space 

 of a few feet indicates a remarkable locality, which, unfortunately, 

 cannot again be reached except by deep excavation ; and hence it 

 is greatly to be regretted that so many of the specimens should have 

 been lost to science by being carried away as human relics. Among 

 those secured by the writer, in addition to the equine fossils, were 

 the remains of several species of ruminants, a phalanx of a carnivo- 

 rous animal about the size of a lynx, and fragments of a land-turtle 

 resembling somewhat the Testudo neobrarensis, Leidy, all of which 

 will be more fully described in this Journal at an early day. — Silli- 

 man's American Journal, November 1868. 



Siliceous Spicules in Alcyonoid Corals. 



It has been very generally stated that siliceous spicules are only 

 secreted and developed by the Protozoa. 



Prof. Mobius, in his description of four new Gorgoniadae in the 

 Hamburg Museum, published in vol. xxix. of the ' Verhandlungen 

 der Kaiserlichen Leop.-Carol. Akad. der Naturforscher ' for 1861, de- 

 scribes Solanderia verrucosa as having a " calcareo-cellulose or cork- 

 like axis, and the epiderm with siliceous spicules," and at fig. 6. pi. 1 

 he figures the hyaline " Kieselnadeln " or smooth siliceous spi- 

 cules, having, as all and only such spicules have, a central canal. 

 Prof. Mobius does not seem to be aware that there was any novelty 

 in this structure. I doubt if Solanderia verrucosa is a typical 

 Solanderia : it appears to be the same Coral that I described as Homo- 

 phyton Gatti/ice in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 27, f. 2.— J. E. Gray. 



