574 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 9, 1884 



remained after the Glacial period had passed away ; but this 

 flora is insignificant compared with that of Europe. A few species 

 are found on the cool shores of Lake Superior, the shores of 

 Labrador, and certain summits of the Appalachian Mountains. 

 One of the most interesting features of North American botany 

 is an outlying region of a true tropical flora which extends 

 northwards up the Atlantic coast as far as the "pine-barrens' 

 of New Jersey. Proceeding westwards, whether in the States 

 or in Canada, a gradual striking change is observed : not only 

 do the European importations disappear, but European genera 

 give place to those specially characteristic of the western con- 

 tinent. Here above all is to be observed the extraordinary 

 wealth of Composure, which make up about one-eighth of the 

 total phanerogamous flora of North America ; great numbers 

 of species of Aster, Solidago, Eupatorium, Silphium, and other 

 genera. Between the wooded region of the Atlantic and the 

 wooded region of the Pacific coast, there is an immense trai I of 

 woodle s prairie land, the home of the " buffalo " and of many 

 grasses; and in the spring the number of bright coloured 

 herbaceous .plants is also very large. These plains are destitute 

 of water, and probably never grew trees, and are capable of 

 growing nothing but herbaceous plants, which completely dis- 

 appear in the hot dry summer. Then comes the great chain of 

 the Rocky Mountains, which are well wooded on their sick' .. and 

 have on their summits a flora of about 200 Arctic species. When 

 the traveller reaches the Sierra Nevada, he enters perhaps the 

 noblest coniferous forest in the world. But while the 1' cific 

 coast is extraordinarily rich in Conifera;, it has a smaller number 

 of trees belonging to other orders than the Atlantic coast ; the 

 ■entire absence of oaks, ashes, and maples, is especially re- 

 markable. 



Observations on the Trapping of Young Fish by "Utricu- 

 laria vulgaris" by Prof. Moseley. — Small perch just out of the 

 ovum were found in the bladders of Ulricularia vulgar:,. 

 of them caught by the head, some by the tail ; but very close 

 observation failed to detect the actual act of capture. No pro- 

 il digestion has been discovered, and the object of the 

 capture requires further investigation. 



On the Jessop Collection, to Illustrate the Forestry ■ 

 United States in the Nt ■ York Natural History Museum, by 

 Albert S. Bickmore. — The great importance of the forest 

 industries and lumber trade of the United States led Gen. 

 Walker, the Superintendent of the Tenth Census, to provide 

 for a corps o I competent experts, under the direction of Prof. 

 Charles S. Sargent, who have made new explorations of our 

 forest lands, and gathered original data regarding their present 

 extent. The results of these elaborate researches have been 

 partially published from time to time in the form of bulletins, 

 and the completed work will -.nun appear in two large quarto 

 volumes of the census series. To place this great fund of valu- 

 able information before the artisan and labouring classes in an 

 accessible form, a great collection of our forestry and its pro- 

 ducts was needed, and this Mr. Morris K. Jessop offered to 

 provide at his own expense. After the field work planned by 

 the census had been finished, Prof. Sargent directed his assistants 

 to return to the forests, and to carefully select the individually 

 largest and soundest ti pecies. Prof. Sargent is pie- 



paring a manual which will be a guide to the collection, and 

 which contains all the most important information in the large 

 census volume that will be useful to the visitors and to tbe 

 artisan classes. The museum is most fortunate in its location 

 in Central Park, where more native and domesticated species 

 are flourishing than can be seen together at any other place on 

 the continent. This is the first effort yet made in this country 

 to gather the native woods together into one collection on a 

 scale commensurate with the extent of the new continent and 

 the importance of its forests. 



On the Origin of Fresh-wate> Faunas, by W. J. Sollas. — The 

 author commented on the lack of interest which had been pre- 

 viously taken in the subject, and then referred to the experi- 

 ments made by Bourdon in changing salt water into fresh. The 

 old idea that salt water had been the mother of life was now 

 generally acknowledged. In the River Jumna, one thousand 

 miles from its mouth, were found marine forms of mollusks. We 

 had to look further than change of temperature and the compo- 

 sition ol the water for the manner in which marine specimens 

 obtained their distribution. '1 lie currents of rivers always flowed 

 -eaward, and if free-swimming larvce got a short distance up a 

 river they were certain to be washed down again. The case was 

 different with swift swimming fish, the Salmonidpe, for instance, 



which were able to swim up stream and lay their eggs in lagoons. 

 According to a table which he had prepared, nearly all the 

 groups of fishes were both fresh-water and marine. He referred 

 to the evidence afforded by geology to show that fresh-water 

 forms were but modifications of those found in salt water. He 

 believed the sea-water fauna had become fresh-water fauna in 

 the times when tracts of salt water had become fresh-water lakes. 

 He dwelt on the subject of secluded development, and concluded 

 that the higher the organism the less possible was it to diverge 

 from the parent stem. The tree of life at the present time 

 rather put out new leaves than fresh branches. 



Prof. Murat of Harvard briefly criticised the paper. The 

 subject was one, he said, rather for suggestion than dogma. 



On the Concordance of the Mollusca inhabiting both sides of 

 the North Atlantic, by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys. — It was recommended 

 that this papier should be printed entire in the Proceedings. 



On the Identification of Animals and Plants of India which 

 are mentioned by early Greek Authors, by Prof. Valentine Ball, 

 F.R.S. — He said that upon examination it had been found that 

 many of the animals mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo, and 

 other Greek historians, which had usually been regarded as 

 myths by commentators, were easily identified as animals which 

 were found to-day in the forests of India. For instance, the 

 marticora mentioned by old classical writers, and usually regarded 

 a- a combination of tiger and scorpion, was really a tiger. It 

 was said by the Greek writers that the marticora had poisonous 

 whiskers and a sting at the end of the tail. In India to-day the 

 inhabitants still regarded the whiskers of the tiger as poisonous, 

 and when one was killed they always took care to burn the 

 whiskers. With regard to plants, Herodotus mentioned the 

 " Indian reed " or Calamus indicus, which was generally re- 

 garded by scholars as the bamboo. This was, however, impos- 

 sible, as the bamboo did not grow large enough to furnish 

 material for canoes, as Herodotus expressly stated that the 

 Calamus indicus did. The speaker thought it was the Palmyra 

 palm which grew in the valley of the Indus, and which was 

 known in the Sanskrit language as the " Father of Reeds." 

 There were many others of these animals and plants which 

 could be identified, and when the writer's investigations were 

 published he hoped it would be found that he had exonerated 

 the old travellers from the imputations which had been cast on 

 their veracity. 



On the Rudimentary Hind Limb of the Humpbacked Whale, 

 Megaptera longitr.ana, by Prof. J. Struthers. — He said the 

 humpbacked whale was extremely rare on the British coast. 

 One had been seen often spouting for some weeks in December 

 in the Firth of Tay ; it was mortally wounded, and finally 

 towed ashore dead near Aberdeen. It was a male, forty feet 

 in length. After it had been exhibited for a couple of weeks at 

 Dundee he had partially dissected it. Having been preserved, 

 it was further exhibited, and he had only completed his dissec- 

 tion immediately previous to coming out. The presence of a 

 rudimentary thigh-bone had been discovered in this species 

 many years ago by the late Prof. Reinhardt of Copenhagen. 

 The thigh-bone was composed entirely of a cartilage of conical 

 -hape, in length five and a half inches on the right side, four 

 inches on the left ; it was incased in fibrous tissue, and rested loosely 

 on the pelvic bone without articular surface. Looking at the 

 anatomical facts and comparing them with those ol the other 

 species he had referred to, the conclusion which must be arrived 

 at was that the thigh-bone in the humpbacked whale was a 

 rudimentary structure, a vestige of a more complete limb 

 possessed by ancestors, from which it was descended. The 

 skeleton of this whale would be placed in the Dundee Museum, 

 he hoped, before the Association met in Aberdeen next year. 



On the Value of Nerve-supply in the Determination 0/ Muscular 

 Anomalies, by Prof. D. J. Cunningham. — He spoke of the 

 muscula sternalis as a new muscle in man, which had no counter- 

 part among animals. It w-as, according to his experience, found 

 more frequently among females than males, while Prof. Sheppard, 

 of McGill College, had, he learned, had three cases, all among 

 males. 



Prof. Moseley said that this subject of the anomalies of 

 the muscles had a very important bearing in solving many ol 

 the riddles of the evolutionary theory. 



Prof. Struthers said that while it was not at all impossible that 

 new muscles were starting up within us, it was also possible that 

 the muscles might have existed before, and not been discovered, 

 as our predecessors did not examine things as closely as did the 

 modern investigators in muscular anomalies. 



